North KRN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATED. 1S8S: Smith & De Land. HI RMINOHA-M. A.LA. / COPYRIGHTED BY T. A. DeLAND AND A. DAVIS SMITH. ■»4 • ^^^i^^s^^'" \ 6 1 Copy % 9^ CHICAGO; DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. iSSS. NORTHERN ALABAMA. of limestone wMter, tliougli there are among them many sulphur and chal3-beate sj)rings and a few of other salts. This valley is boiiiided on the north bv a broken country, that in the western part of the State is hilly, and is known as the harrenn, and is but a part of the highlands of Tennessee, and that in the eastern part of the Slate is mountain- ous, and is but apart of the elevated tablelands of 'I'eunessee. On the" south it is bounded by a pre- cipitous escarpment of the elevated plateau of tlie Warrior coal field, that is commonly called Sand Mountain. This precipitous escarptnent rises from GOO to TOO feet above the valley. It has in the eastern part of the State, abont half way up it, a terrace or bench, which, as you go to the west, gradually widens and separates from the main mountain until it forms a distinct mountain, that is known as fiitlle Mountain, and that has between it and the main mountain, or Sand Mountain, a fertile valley that gets to be ten to twelve miles in width, which is called Little or Russelville Valley. Little or Russelville Valley is, in most respects, similar to its parent stem, the Tennessee Valley. (2) The Coosa Vaij.i;v. This valley and its outliers are the southwest end of the series of long, narrow anticlinal valleys that extend from New York to Central Alabama. They are usually, in a general way, trough-shaped depressions, that are low and flat along the center and have smaller ridges and valleys oif each side. Some of the out- liers of this valley, as Long Valley or the valley in which Birmingham is situated, including its different parts, that are known as Roup's, Jones' and Murphree's Valley arc over a hundred miles in length. These valleys are all -very similar to each other in their lithological, tojiographical and agricultural features, and they all show plainly the close relationshi[) that exists between the geo- logical formations or structure and the soils, topo- graphy and growth of a country. This is espe- cially noticeable in the case of the soils, and is well exem{)lificd in the barren ridges of chert, or almost pure hornstone, running along parallel to and with the fertile limestone valleys at their base. The Coosa Valley proper is a continuation of the X'alley of Tennessee, which has been described by Professor Safford, as a com|)lex trough fluted with scores of smaller valleys and ridges. This description will apply, equally as well, to all the out-liers, as they are, in all respects, similar to the main valley, or to the Coosa Valley proper. They are all anticlinal valleys, or eroded anticli- nal ridges. They, including the smaller ridges of each, comprise in Alabama some 4000 square miles. 'I'licy Aie very striking topograj^hical fea- tures, and, from their being environed by ribs of coal and iron, and from their being, for the most part, made up of beds of inexhaustible limestones and dolomites of the very best quality for iluxing purposes, burning lime, etc., and from the fertil- ity and durability of their soils and the suj)era- bundanco of their hold hlfj Kpr'nif/s and limpid streams of perpetual (low, and from their being, by far, the most important natural highways be- tween the great and busy marts of the Northeast and those of the Southwest, they are of the great- est interest to the geologist, the engineer, the manufacturer and the agriculturist. They are due entirely to erosion, though they present many features that have been highly influenced by the outcroppings of special geological strata. Their edges, as a general thing, are well defined by ridges or bluffy escarpments of millstone grit on the heavy bedded sandstones and conglomerates at the base of the coal measures. Their floors are often higher than the mountainous country on each side, beyond their raised edges, as shown by the fact that, though they are bounded on both sides by high, perpendicular blulTs of millstone grit, etc., their streams do not flow along them for any considerable distance before they break through the rocky barriers, on one side or the other, into the mountainous country beyond. I They therefore in these instances present the anomalies of valleys that are water divides in a mountainous country. They rarely exceed two to three miles in width, though occasionally thev are much wider. They include outcrops of repre- sentatives of all the geological formations from the Carboniferous to the Lower Silurian, inclu- sive. Their simplest form is a simple regular anti- clinal valley, with the older rocks along the cen- ters of the valleys and the others occurring in regular succession on each side. They seldom however, have this simple form, and one or the other of their sides is nearly always more or less complicated, from the presence of faults and from the overlapping of strata. They are rarely compli- cated on both sides at one and the same time and place. The most important, by far, of their geological formations are the Upper and Lower Silurian, from their Ijeing the great repositories of thf iron ores of Alabama. 10 NORTHERN ALABAMA. These anticlinal valleys are also remarkable for their hicj sjyrings. They are destined to be the seats of the greatest industries of the State and to be the ricliest and most densely-populated portions of Alabama. ROLLING AND PRAIRIE LANDS. These lands lie to the southwest of the moiaitain region with its valleys, as above described, or to the south and west of the broken line that connects the first cascades, or rocky obstructions to naviga- tion in the different rivers, or along and to the south and west of the old shore line of the Gulf of Mexico, as has been defined by the State Geolo- gist. They form a belt of country that runs, in a general way, diagonally across the State. This belt is some thirty miles wide next to the Missis- sippi line, but narrows towards the east, until it finally comes to a point near the Georgia line. It embraces some 5,915 square miles. These lands do not present any very striking topographical feat- ures, as they are comj) )sed of strata of compara- tive uniformity in hardness, and of strata that are almost level, having only a slight dip to the south- west. These lands are, however, hilly and broken along their upper edge, or the old shore line, where they are cut up by some deep gullies and ravines, and hence have some considerable irregularities of surface. They form the jirairie region that is known as the Black Belt, or Cnnebrake, and are, for the most part, of this region. This prairie region has a gently undulating surface, and a remarkable uniformity in its topography. It is in places covered by a fine forest growth of oak, ash, gum, hickory, etc., though, as a general thing, it is bare of such, and is in cultivation. It is noted for the great fertility and durability of its soils. It produced before the war more of agricultural value than any area of like extent in the United States. It may, some of these days, become world- wide famous for its phosphatic deposits. WATER SUPPLY AND DRAINAGE SYSTEM. Northern Alabama is well supplied witli an abundance of pure water for all j)urposes. Bold springs that never go dry, and lasting wells and streams of perjjetual flow, are to be met with in all parts of the country. The annual rainfall is about fifty-three inches. The springs occur wlierever the country is the least broken. They gush out from the banks of the streams and from the sides of the ravines and from under the hills and cliffs, and often boil up in low, fiat places. They are of all kinds, from the biggest to the smallest, and from the purest to the most saline. The hig springs are confined principally to the valleys, and to limestone formations, though their waters are never too hard for domestic purposes. They are nothing more than the coming to light of large underground streams, and often carry off from 800 to 1,200 cubic feet of water per minute. Many of the saline, or medicinal springs, have been in time places of resort for the afflicted and»j3leasure seek- ers, and some of them have gained for their cura- tive properties more than a State-wide reputation. The mean temperature of the waters of seventeen of these sjjrings during the months of June and July, was, according to Professor Tuoray, 59"^ F., while that of the air was 74° F. Wells of lasting and cool waters, that are good for drinking and domestic purposes, are to be had for the digging in nearly all parts of this country, and streams that can be made navigable the year round, and are the great drainage channels, together with their feeders, form a network over Northern Alabama. These streams give now to Northern Alabama almost a complete system of drainage, and will give to it, some of these days, a cheap and ready transjwrtation for its every element of wealth. Northern Alabama has a most delightful temper- ature, uniform and salubrious climate. It seldom experiences the extremes of heat and cold, and is entirely free from the feverish heat and scorching sun of a more southern summer, and the rigors and blizzards of a more northern winter. Sunstrokes are almost unknown, and the streams of running water are never frozen over. The climate is truly as equable and as delightful as in any portion of the South. The springs are early and wonderfully balmy, the summers are long and even in tempera- ture, the autumns are late and dry and the winters are so slow of approach and so mild that the crops are frequently left out in the fields until after Christmas. The mean temperatures for tlie sea- sons are about as follows: Spring, 03. 9''F; sum- mer, 79.5°F; autumn, 64.5°F;and winter, 504 *.F. FORESTS. In many sections of Northern Alabama there are large forests of soft and hard woods as yet untouched by the woodman's ax; and one-half of Northern Alabama may be said to be still covered NORTHERN ALABAMA. 11 with its native growth. This native arborescent growth comprises over 125 species, wliich include almost every kiiul of tree of any economical value, though the prevailing forest growth is pine. In many localities, however, the oak, hickory, gum, beecii and cedar abound, with, in some j)laces, a considerable sprinkling of ash, poplar, cypress and walnut. The i)revailing growth of any locality is olosely dependent on the soil or the underlying geological strata. In other words, if the under- lying strata ' are of sandstones, the prevailing growth is i)ine: and if the underlying strata are of limestones, the prevailing growth is of the iiard woods, that vary in kind with the different geo- logical formations or the })urity of the underlying limestones. So true is the above that the different timber belts of the State conform closely to the ■outcroppings of certain geological formations. So the outcroppings of each formation may be said to have its own peculiar growth, and so distinct are these peculiarities in many cases, that the under- lying geological formations can be recognized by them. At the present rate of cut, it is believed, there is enough standing timber, not allowing any •for natural growth, to last at least for 150 years. SOILS. The soils of Northern Alabama are of the follow- ing typical varieties with all the intermediate grades, namely: (1) The silicious soils of the mountains, or elevated lands, (2) the loams of the valleys, and (3) the calcareous soils of the prairies. (1) The SiLK.'iots Soils of the MofXTAixsou Elev.-vted Lands. These soils cover the hinh-lands ■or barrens, and the table-lands. They are usually of a light gray color and often are not much more tlian sand or pure silicious matter. Up to a few years ago they were regarded as almost wortliless for all iigricultural ])urposes, but of late years, by kind treatment and the use, in small quantities, on them of suitable composts, they have been found to be line for cotton, corn, tobacco, small grains, grasses and root and fruit crops. The greatest objection to them is that they do not hold, or retain well, organic matter or fertilizers, and hence in many localities they look as if they had been leached, so completely have all traces of organic matter been washed out of them. (2) The Loams OF THE Valleys. These soils vary in color from a deep red to almost a deep black. They arc commonly of a clayey nature and form £ome of the best farming lands in the State. They are noted for their fertility and durability, and are susceptible of the greatest improvement. They contain within themselves all the ingredients that are necessary for plant food, and hence, if properly cared for, can be made to last or be kept rich, for an indefinite length of time, without the addition of a single handful of extraneous ma- nure of any kind. They, however, as a general thing, have been badly abused, some of them for as long as seventy-five years, and still, though they have never received any outside help, are comparatively fertile wherever they lie so as not to be easily washed away. Unlike the sili- cious soils of the hicjldanils and table-lands, they are very retentive of all organic matter, and manures ])laced on them show their effects for years. They are well suited for a great variety of crops, though they have ever been cultivated in cotton and corn. (3) The Calcareous Soils of the Prairies. These soils include all grades from a gray to a very black soil. They are based on the rotten limestone and are famous for their great and last- ing fertility. 'i'hey, in many instances, have been constantly abused for the last forty to fifty years, by uninterrupted planting in the same crops, cotton and corn, by the exhaustive method of ever taking off and never putting back, by working and tramping over at all seasons of the year and under all conditions, etc., still they yield good crops for the labor bestowed. They have to the north and south of them, and in them, rich phosphatic deposits, that can be easily and cheaply spread over them, and hence they will always be regarded as forming the most valu- able farming lands of Xorthern Alabama. GEOLOGY. Xorthern Alabama, in its geological structure, or in the variety, location, materials and develop- ment of its geological formations, and in the pres- ent positions of the outcrops of these formations, and the manner in which these outcrops have been thrown together and exposed, and in the economic wealth of some of these formations, presents a field that is of the greatest interest, esjiecially to geolo- gists. It has in its outcrops representatives of not only every geological formation of the Ap]»ala- chian region of North America, but also of two newer formations. The following is a general and approximate sec- 12 NOR THERN ALABAMA. tion, in a descending order, of the geological form- ations of Northern Alabama : B. NEWER OR SOFTER ROCKS. DRIFT. (13) Stratified Drift 200 feet CRET.\CEOUS. (l:;) Upper Cretaceous.. . ■[ Jj) ui^ten Limestone'.: '. '. . ! ! . 1 1 ,«» felt (11) Lower Cretaceous... -] J^',' Tus'caloosa. ■.'.'.'.■. ■'■.:::::: il.OOO feet A. OLDER OR HARDER ROCKS. C,\RBONlKEROUS. ( Warrior Coal Field \ (10) Coal Measures - ("ahaba " " -:!,o001eet. ( Coosa " " ) SUB-C.^BONIFKnOUS. (9) Calcareous or Mountain Limestone SOO feet. ,„. „.,. . 1 (rt) Upper Silicious or St, Louis Limestone, 400 ft. (») biHcious..| ^.| Lower Silicious or Keokuk 300 ft. DEVONIAN. (7) Black Shale 100 feet. UPPER SrLURI.\N. (8) Clinton or Red Mountain «H>feet. LOWER SILURIAN. (5) Trenton and Chazy 400 feet. »\ n„„v,<,« Mi) KnoxDoloraite 3,.5'Ofeet. ,4) Quebec -|,„, KnoxShale l,800feet. (3) Knox Sandstone 80O f eet (3) Potsdam Sandstone 4,000 feet. MET.\M0RPIIIC. (1) Crystalline Rocks .'i.OOO feet. These rocks, as shown by the above general sec- tion, are of later origin than the Carboniferous formation. They, from their comparatively soft and uniform nature, do not make any striking topographical features, or are not at all moun- tainous. They form the soutliern jjart of the State, the part to tlie south and west of the old Gulf shore line, or to the south and west of the mountain recfion, though the stratified drift occurs also to the north and east of this line, covering, in patches, some of the higher points of all the older rocks. The above section also shows that the only representatives in Northern Alabama of the newer rocks are of the drift and cretaceous formations. DRIFT. (13) Stratified Drift. Thisisa wide-.spread formation. There are suj^erficial deposits of it in nearly all parts of Northern Alabama. As a rule, it is irregularly stratified. The areas covered by it have irregularities of surface from the fact that some few of its strata are of varying degrees of hard- ness, and the underlying strata or formations were irregularly eroded previous to its deposition. The superficial coating of drift, therefore, determines most of the minor details, but not the general con- tour and most prominent physical features of the country covered by it. It most commonly occurs in detached patches or beds, but sometimes covers completely areas of considerable extent. As a gen- eral thing, it occupies, topographically speaking, high positions and is covered with a growth of prin- cipally pines, with a mixture of oak, hickory, etc. In Northern Alabama it appears, in a general way, to thicken to the south and west, and in places is at least 200 feet thick. It is made w^i of rounded pebbles, sands and different colored loams. These different materials occur in irregular streaks or seams. The pebbles are of flint and fossiliferous chert. The flint pebbles are the more rounded of the two, showing that they have been transported tlie greater distance. These pebbles are well suited to the macadamizing of roads and walks ; much better than the cracked-u]} limestones, etc., that are generally used, as tliey are round, and hence are much less injurious to the feet of horses and pedestrians, and to the wear and tear of vehicles, and as they are not so easily worn away, and as they do not give off any disagreeable and injurious impalpable dust. Among these jiebbles are to be found beautiful specimens of quartz, agate, jasper, chalcedony, cornelian, silicified wood, etc. The sands are coarse-grained and rounded. They are well suited for movtars, etc., and are frequently of the very purest quality. The clays are of various grades and shades of color, and many of them make the best of ordinary bricks, and some of them doubtless would make fine fire bricks and pottery ware. Cretaceous. Tlie rocks or strata of this forma- tion lie approximately horizontal, having only a slight dip to the south and southwest. They form a rolling and a prairie region, and are comprised within a belt that runs diagonally across the State. This belt is some thirty miles wide next to th& Mississippi line but gradually narrows toward the east until it comes to a point near the Georgia line. It embraces some 5,915 square miles. This formation is divided, in the general section given, into {T2) JJppvr Cretaceous and {11) Lower Creta- ceous. (12) Upper Cretaceous. This division is made up of the {h) Ripley and {g) Rotten Limestone groups. (/<) Ripley. Tliis group is composed princi- pally of a hard crystalline and often sandy lime- stone, and a bluish, micacious and frequently a highly fossiliferous marl. It holds near its bottom important strata of phosphatic material. It is estimated at about 250 feet in thickness. ((/) Rotten Limestone. This is an impure argil- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 13 hiceous limestone of great iniifoi-mity of composi- tion. It forms a strip of country from fifteen to twcjity miles wide that extends clear across the State and is known as the Canehrctke or Bhirk Belt. Tliis limestone, before it is exposed, is of a bluish color, though after weathering, it is of a whitish or chalky clay appearance. It gives rise to a topo- graphy and soil that are of remarkable uniform- ity. The to]TOgraphy is not at all striking, the surface being gently undulating. Its growth con- sists of oak. ash, gum, hickory, walnut, poplar, etc. Its soil is noted for its great fertility and durability. It is not easily washed off from the prairie likeness of the area covered by it, though there are slight elevations from which it has been removed and hence these places arc now bald or barren. These rocks have in them, and especially just under and over them, some very important strata that carry phosphatic green sands and very rich phosphatic nodules. They are believed to be about 1,000 feet in thickness. (11) LoiL'er Cretaceous. This division is sub- divided into the (/') Eutaw and {()) Tiisailoosn groups. (/) Eiitaw. This group is composed pritici- pally of gray laminated clays and irregularly bedded sands. It also contains beds of lignite and lignitized trunks of trees. It is computed at WO feet in thickness. ((/) TuscalGOsa. This group is named from its characteristic appearance in and around the city of Tuscaloosa. It is made up of a great series of beds of sands and clays, and bears a very strong resemblance to the stratified drift, for which it was taken until within the last few years. It borders upon the otlied into half a dozen. One of these seams sometimes reaches a thickness by itself of about thirty-five feet of ore. This ore is most highly developed in the neigii- borhood of Hirmingham, on the southeast side of 18 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the valley. It, however, has been tested in hun- dreds of other places, and is now being mined and used on a very extensive scale. The deep red soil derived from its disintegration is very fertile, though it is usually shallow and on steejj hill sides. Lower Silukian. This is a most highly de- veloped formation in Northern Alabama. It must be at least 10,000 feet thick. Its rocks are all more or less calcareous with the exception of those of its basic group. They occupy the central por- tions of the anticlinal valleys, or all of the anticlinal valleys between the bordering red ore ridges, or Ked Mountains. Its strata are always highly inclined and are frequently nearly perpendicular. In its calcareous groups there are belts of very silicious strata, either cherty or sandy strata, and belts of very argillaceous strata. The silicious belts, in their outcrops, form a very broken or rocky country of a succession of rocky ridges and hills, while the argillaceous belts give rise to a low and flat country of imperfect drainage that is known as ffaf -woods. This formation in Northern Alabama is divisible into the following four separate and distinct groups: — (5) Trenton and Chazy (4) Quebec, (3) Knox Sandstone and (2) Potsdam Sandstone. (5.) Trenton and Chazy. As a general thing, the upper strata of this group are calcareous shales and the lower strata ai'e impure argillaceous lime- stones and pure bine and gray limestones. The limestone strata jsredominate. As a whole, these rocks are valley-making rocks. They, however, commonly form the greater part of the inner steep and rocky sides of the red ore ridges, or Red Moun- tains, and frequently they make low rounded hills and glades that have on their sides the strata of the harder limestones cropping out in step-like edges. The limestones, though usually shaly and argillaceous, contain some strata that are very massive and pure, and that are now being used very extensively for lime-burning and fluxing pur- poses. The argillaceous limestones are frequently variegated, in certain strata, with red streaks, and are then sometimes called calico rocks. Some of the shaly limestones have, in certain localities, irregular, thin seams and nodules of chert which sometimes carry their streaks of galena. Tliis galena, however, has never been seen thicker than a knife blade. This group has a maximum thick- ness in Northern Alabama of some 400 feet. Quebec. This group has the greatest thickness and distribution of calcareous rocks of any forma- tion of Northern Alabama. It forms the major part of the anticlinal valleys of the State, and must be at least 6,000 feet in thickness. Its upper beds are mainly gray dolomites, that are silicious or cherty, and sometimes sandy, while its lower beds, as a rule, are mostly of variegated shales that alternate with layers of thin sheets of lime- stone. It is therefore divisible into the following two sub-groups : {b) Knox Dolomite and («) Knox Shale. {b) Knoj- Dolomite. This sub-groujj con- sists of beds of blue limestone that are succeeded by thick beds of gray dolomites. The above blue limestones are frequently very impure, and it is very likely that some of them would make very good lithographic stones. The gray dolomites are massive and crystalline. They are sometimes sandy and in their upper part, are usually associated with strata that are very cherty. Tlie cherty portions of these cherty strata, on the weathering away of the calcareous or dolomitic jjortions, are left as nodules and masses of considerable size, that form rocky, rounded ridges which are characteristic of thisgioup. The chert, therefore, of these ridges is of concretionary nature and is not bedded. The cherty, angular fragments and masses of these ridges sometimes assume the forms of sand- stones and conglomerates, and then they more fre- quently occur as huge boulders and make high hills. These cherty ridges are usually two in num- ber, with a valley between them down into the un- derlying calcareous rocks, but sometimes there is only one of these ridges, there being no intermed- iate valley, or the cherty strata not having been cut through in the washing out of the anticlinal valley, and then this single ridge forms a broken, rocky country, frequently a mile or so in width, occupying the central portion of the anticlinal valley. Near the edges of these ridges, or the broken country formed by them, there are numer- ous outcroppings of silicious and cherty dolomites, and in these cherty ridges, or in this broken coun- try, there are often seen lime-sinks. These silicious, or cherty rocks, on disintegration, form a gray soil that is sometimes of a very fair quality, espe- cially for cotton. These cherty ridges are tim- bered usually with short-leaf pine, post, black jack and Spanish oaks, and some long-leaf pine, hick- ory, chestnut, dogwood, etc. The lower, or more calcareous rock^of this sub- group.insome of the anticlinal valleys.do not come to the surface at all, and in none of them do they NORTHERN ALABAMA. 19- form so prominent a part as tlie overlying cherty .si rata. Tliey, however, in tlie larger valleys, as tiie Coosa Valley proper, give rise to some of the best farming lands of the State. Their lands are timbered with red, Spanish, po.st and black jack oaks, hickory, short-leaf pine and dogwood, and in the low grounds, with alsosweet gum and sourgum. This sub-group is, how-ever, of special interest on account of its vast deposits of limonite, by the side of which the limonites of all other formations in Northern Alabama are very insignificant. («) Knox Shah'. The upper strata of this sub- group are made up of thin sheets of limestone, alternating, on the outcrop, with seams of clay and thin beds of sandy and aluminous shale; and the lower strata, principally of calcareous varie- gated shales, alternated with layers of thin sheets of shaly limestones and dolomites. When the shales, or clayey portions of the upper strata, pre- dominate, and the drainage is defective, level tracts, frequently of very large aresis, are formed, that are known us Ji a I woods. These llatwoods are usually uncleared, though the timber, principally post oak and short-leaf pine, indicates a good soil. The lower beds of principally variegated shales of brownish, reddish, greenish and grayish colors, give rise to valleys with ridges. Tliese shale ridges, frequently, are almost bare of soil, or have a soil that is thin and drouthy. The lands formed by these shales are timbered with principally chestnut, red and white oaks, dogwood and hickory. The only useful materials of this sub-group are some small beds of limonite. (3) A'no.r Sands/one. This sandstone is of no very great tiiickness, and, as the strata are highly tilled, iis superficial area is small. It is confined to sharp crested steep ridges of no great width. It is sometimes thin-bedded'and some- times thick-bedded and is commonly calcareous. It often has alternating with it, layers of dolomite and sometimes layers of shale of variegated colors. It forms usually a calcareous, sandy soil. (2) Potsdam Sandstone. This is a moun- tain-making sandstone. It is usually coarse- grained, though sometimes a tine-grained conglom- erate or a sandy shale. It forms a broken chain of mountains that contains some of the highest and most picturesque peaks of the State. It is a dura- ble building stone. The soil derived from it is thin and timbered with a stunted growth of oak, chest- nut and short leaf pine. Metamokphic. (1) Crystalline Hocks. These rocks are confined to the central eastern part of the State and cover about 4,425 square miles. They exhibit the greatest diversity as to their chemical comjjositions and physical charac- ters, and in their topography. They include granite, the different kinds of gneisses, schists and slates, steatite, quartzite, jasper, limestone, and dolomite, or, as has been well said, all grada- tions of rocks between the almost indestructible- quartzose rocks and the easily eroded marble. They form a country of varied scenery, that is- made up of high and almost mountainous regions alternating with rolling and sometimes rugged lowlands and vallevs. NATIRAL RESOURCES. The natural resources of Northern Alabama, though they appear to be very great to the most casual observers, are greatest to those who know them best. Their character and quality are such that no fears need be entertained from a compari- son of them with the natural resources of any other country. They are now attracting the attention and capital of the civilized world, and their development within the last few years has placed Alabama at the head of all progressive States in the growth of its manufacturing and industrial enterprises, or has changed it from, strictly speaking, a cotton- and corn-producing State to one of diversified industries. This devel- opment of these natural resources has built cities, as if by magic, that present all the evidences of wealth and refinement and have a good commerce; it has made some few enormously rich, and has given to thousands comfortable homes, and to all reduced ta.\es with plenty of work at good pay. It has increased the property valuation of the whole State from ¥l73,808,0!:»7 in 1886, to *21-t,- 925,809 in 1887, and within the last two years it has decreased the State and county taxes 8125,000, and within the last two months it has increased the- capital stock of incorporated enterprises in the State over $4,000,000. The natural resources of Northern Alabama, in the order of their importance, are about as fol- lows: I. Mineral Wealth. II. Agricultural Wealth. III. Titnl»;- ll>„///- ;,,m1 IV. X„f,n;>l Advaiitaffes. MINER.VL WE.VI.TII. The mineral wealiii of Xorthern .\labama is so- 20 NORTHERN ALABAMA. great and so evident that the wonder is not that Alabama has become within the last few years the most progressive of all progressive States in the development of its mineral wealth, or in the growth of its manufacturing and industrial enterprises, but that she did not take the lead in this respect years ago, or that she was ever regarded as exclu- sively an agricultural State. This untold mineral wealth of Northern Alabama, and the rapidity with which it is being developed, should be a source of very great pride to all Alabainians and not alone to those of the favored sections, for the prosperity of any one portion of the State will not detract from, but will eventually add to, that of the rest of the State. The development of this mineral wealth, though in its infancy, has already assumed magnifii-ent proportions, and gives evi- dence of a grand future for Alabama. Fifteen years ago the mineral output of Northern Ala- bama amounted, it may be said, to nothing; in 1889, it will be worth at the least $30,000,000, and in 1891, it is believed that it will be valued at as much as the cotton crop of the whole State, or some 130,000,000. This mineral wealth is greatly -enhanced by the natural advantages which encom- pass it, as the manner in which all the raw mate- rials have been thrown together in close juxtapo- sition and surrounded by exhaustless provision- producing areas. It consists, liowever, principally in coal, iron ore and limestones, the three great powers of wealth, though Northern Alabama has other minerals that have yielded, and doubtless will yield again, large fortunes, and other miner- als still that have never been worked, though their deposits give fair ])roniises of fair returns, as in tlie case of the marls and phosphates. These marl and phosphatic deposits, as lias been said by the State Geologist, may be worth some of these days more to the State of Alabama than its at present three great powers of wealth, or its combined coal, iron and limestone. Should this supposed proba- bility ever become halfway true, then there will be no comparison between the mineral wealth of Northern Alabama and any other section of the Union. The importance and value of any min- eral deposit is strictly dependent on its quality, quantity, accessibility and vicinity to fuel and flux. According to this test, the minerals and mineral substances of Northern Alabama, in the order of their present importance, are as follows : 1, Goal; 2, Iron Ores: 3, Fluxing I?o-ks and Lime- Burning Rocks, or Limestones and Dolo- mites; 4, Building and Paving Stones and Brick Olays; 5, Poi-celain and Fire Glays; 6, Marls and Phosphates; 7, Ochres and Mineral Paints; 8, Millstones, Grindstones and Whetstones; 9, Glass, Mortars and Molding Sands; 10, Macadamizing and Ballasting Materials; 11, Ornamental, Curious and Precious Stones; 12, Manganese Ores; 13, Copper Ores; 14, Gold; 15, Tin Ores; 10, Lead Ores; 17, Silver Ores; IS, Zinc Ores; 19, Graph- ite: 20, Hydraulic Cement Eocks and Litho- graphic Stones; 21, Natural Gas and Petroleum; and 22, Soapstone. Shites, Emery, Heavy Spar, Mica and Asbestos. COAL, COKE, LIGNITE. 1. Coal. Coal, when of sufficient purity and quantity, is, from an economic standjioint, the most important of all mineral substances. It is, as it were, a magnet that draws to it all kinds of manufacturing and commercial enterprises, and, as no country without it can excel now in these enterprises, and as the most prosperous countries are the greatest coal-producing countries, it is evident that coal is the basis of all great commer- cial and manufacturing prosperity, and that it might safely be termed the key to the great indus- trial progress of to-day, especially of that of North- ern Alabama. Fortunate indeed is the country that possesses a good quality of coal in very large quantities. It is, therefore, a matter of the greatest consequence that Northern Alabama pos- sesses this mineral in such quantities as to be con- sidered almost inexhaustible, and of such quality as to be well fitted for all the uses of soft or bitu- minous coal, and so accessible as to be easily reached from all directions by railroads and rivers that can be made navigable all the year round for steam tugs and coal barges. There is no doubt but that the present unprecedented degree of pros- IJerity of Northern Alabama is due more to its coal mines than xo its every other element of prosperity combined. This is evident from the fact that its true and lasting prosperity has been in an exact ratio to its relative coal output and consumption. This, doubtless, will continue to be the case, and hence the coal of Northern Alabama is worth more to Alabama than is the gold of California to California. These coals, as have been stated, are in the southwest end of the great coal basin of the Ohio, or of the Appalachian coal field, that extenas unbroken from Pennsylvania and Ohio to Central Alabama, and is the most important of all NOK TIIEKX ALABAMA. •n the coal fields of the United States in its extent, and in the number of its workable coal beds and in the quality and variety of its coals. It is pro- ductive of the best of workable soft coal, especially near its southwest visible limits, or in Central Alabama, where it is believed to have over fifty seams of coal that vary in thickness from about two inches to over fourteen feet, and have a com- bined thickness of some 125 feet of coal. About one-half of these coal seams are eighteen inches and over, each, in thickness, and about one-fourth of them are two feet six inches and over, each, in thickness. The thicker of these seams, however, contain interstratified partings of slate, shale, etc., tliat render it utterly impossible to cleanly mine the coals of some of them. The coals, tiierefoi'e, of these thick, dirty .seams, to be made most use- ful and valuable, will have to be crushed and washed. The coals of the lower seams usually become thinner and more slaty as the edges of the original great coal basin are approached. The coal seams occur in groups that are separated by a great thickness of comjiarutively barren strata. These coals are, as has been stated, all bituminous coals, though of almost every variety of bituminous coals. Some of them are bright and hard, and hence are well adapted to handling and stocking, while others are of a duller color and are softer or of a more ri'ial)le and crumbly nature; some of them, by ex- periments and uses on a large scale appear to be esjiecially fitted for coking and blacksmithing, and others for steaming and heating, and others still for gas-making. Tlie greater number of these coals, however, have never had applied to them the only sure test of their quality — or actual use- on a large scale and in various operations. Some of these coals have a vertical, flaggy structure, or a regular face-and-hutt structure, while others are divided up by joints into cubical and rhomboidal blocks, and others still are solid and compact throughout. Those of the flaggy and jointy struc- ture can be mined much more easily and In larger lumjis than tiie solid and compact coals, but then they, as a general thiiig, crumble much more easily. Some of these coals are very pure, or con- tain but a very small amount of ash and clinker, while others are bony and slaty. They all, how- ever, as a class, show on chemical analysis, compo- sitions equivalent to the bituminous coals of any other State. Many of them contain thin sheets of mineral charcoal, and they all, as a rule, are free- burning coals. Most of these coals, however, have been judged of simply by their exposed outcrops, and most of the analyses that have been made of them have been of average samples of the full vertical sections of these outcrops, hence, in many cases, these coals doubtless have been underesti- mated, for it is a well-known fact that all bitumin- ous coals on weathering lose more or less in the proportional parts of their valuable constituents, volatile matter and fixed carbon, and gain in the percentages of their hurtful ingredients, moisture and ash. -Much of this coal, however, stands weathering finely, for it hasfrequently been known to remain lumpy after thirty to forty years' ex- posure to the weather. These coals occur in seams that are in long, flat waves, and, even in the same seams, sometimes vary in quality and thickness, though not more so than the well-known coals of other States. They, for many years, in ante- railroad times in Alabama, and from many places, were paised in considerable ((uantities from the beds of the rivers, and the mouths of the creeks along the rivers, during low stages of the water and floated down the river in flatboats, during freshets. This business, however, was so perilous to both life and property that no considerable capital was ever in- vested in it and no regular miners ever engaged in it, and so it was abandoned on the building of the central railroads through Alabama. It was not, however, until the year 1872, or until the comple- tion of S. & X. Ala. Uailroad, that any coal seams were scientifically opened and worked in Alabama. The coal output of the State for 1872 was about 11,000 tons; for 1S85, about 2,225,000 tons; for 1887, near 3,000,000 tons, and will be for 1888 at the least 3,500,000 tons. This increase in the coal output, though most gratifying, is not sufficiently great to meet the additional demands of the many new furnaces and other manufacturing enterprises that have been built lately and are now being built in Northern Alabama. The crying need, and the greatest drawback to the more rapiil prosperity of Xortliern Alabama to-day, is, therefore, the want of more coal mines, and to this want is due the talk and fears of a coal famine in this, one of the richest coal countries. Of the above output of coal for 1887, nearly 2,500,000 tons are con- sumed in the State, about 1,400,000 tons for coking, and the rest for miscellaneous purjioses. These coals, as a class, have hard solid roofs and soft underbeds, and most of them have either a jointy or a face-and-hutt structure. They are therefore well adapted to cheap mining ; the •22 NORTHERN ALABAMA. greatest obstacles that any of them have to cheap mining is that some of them are highly inclined and others, especially the thicker seams, haveinter- bedded in the coal, partings of slate and shale that . sometimes can be separated from the coal only by crushing and washing. The miners of these coals are of many national- ities ; among them are Americans (principally natives), Germans, Irish, Welsh, English, Swedes French, Scotch, Austrians, Swiss, Bavarians, and Africans (principally natives). These coals are of : special value from their nearness to iron ores and limestones of the best quality, and in almost ■ exhaustlessquantities. As has been stated and ex- plained, the coal measures or the original coal field of Northern Alabama have been divided by anti- clinal valleys into three more or less distinct parts, that are now known as the Warrior, Cahaba and Coosa coal fields. The combined area of these three fields is something like 8,(i00 square miles. ' This .area places Alabama only eighth in the list of coal- producing States of the Union in the acreage of coal measures; still Alabama takes a front rank in the quantity and quality of its coal. There is believed to be over 100,000,000,000 tons of coal in Alabama in the workable seams, or in the sefams that are two feet six inches and over in thickness. This coal, with an annual output of even 5,000,000 tons, would last for 30,000 years, and at the mouths of the mines would be worth now nearly =$120,000,000,000. Tliis coal in the Warrior, Cahaba and Coosa fields, from the different positions which the areas of these fields had in the original coal basin and from the different degrees of disturbance of the strata of these fields, differ very much in the num- ber and dip of its seams, and perhaps some little in thickness and quality in indentical seams which have not as yet been connected in the difl'erent ■fields. Co^^l of the Wurrior Field The coal of this ■field is believed to be in fifty-three different ■seams, that vary in thickness from about two inches to fourteen feet, and have a combined thickness of some 125 feet of pure coal. Of these fifty-three coal seams, twenty-five of them contain eighteen inches and over, each, in thickness of coal; -and of these twenty-five scams, fourteen seams have two feet six inches and over, each, in thickness of coal; and of these fourteen seams, nine seams have over fourfeet of coal, each;and of these nineseams, Tthree seams have over six feet, each, in thickness of coal. The coal of the Warrior field, under the supposition that its seams retain throughout their whole extent a thickness equivalent to that of their most accurate and reliable measurements, is esti- mated at over 113,000,000,000 tons. Of this vast amount of coal, it is estimated that over 108,000,- 000,000 tons are of the seams that are eighteen inches and over in thickness. The coal of this field can be mined just as easily and cheaply as that of any field, from the fact that the physical features of the field and the small angle of dip and the structure of the coal ai'e all favorable to cheap mining. These physical feat- ures are such as will enable good workable seams of coal to be found in nearly all parts of the pro- ductive measures at moderate depths below the surface, and, in nearly all cases, will permit of the coal seams being reached by drifts and slopes. The dip, as a rule, is only a few degrees, and hence it is much better adapted to cheap mining than if the coals were perfectly level, as it frequently gives a natural drainage, and in all cases will permit of the mines being kept dry at comparatively small cost. The output of coal from this field for 1887 was about 2,500,000 tons, or about five-sixths of the output for the whole State. This coal is mined at the following localities: At and near Warrior, Jefferson Mines and Newcastle, on the L. & N. Eail- road; at Pratt Mines; at Woodward Mines; at and near Coalburg, Day's Gap and Corona, on the Ga. & P. Railroad; at and near Clement's Station and Tuscaloosa, on the A. G. S. Railroad ; and at Blue Creek mines, on the Mineral Railroad. It is also mined to some little extent near Huntsville and Guntersville, and at several other places in the plateau region, and soon will be mined on an ex- tensive scale at several points on the K. C. M. & B. Railroad, S. & B. Railroad and T. N. Railroad. The transportation facilities of this field are good. It has now seven different railroads running through and into it, and a river length within its basin of nearly 100 miles, that can be made nav- igable for steam tugs and coal barges all the year round. Coal of the Cahaba Field. The coal of this field forms forty or more different seams. Eleven of these seams are over two feet six inches each in thickness, and have a combined thickness of about forty feet of marketable coal. These coals, from their steeper dip, crop out in much more limited areas, and are much less above drainage level than are those of the Warrior field. The seams that are XOA' THRRX ALABAMA. 23 over two feet Rix inclies each in thickness coinj)rise, it is helieved. some 4.000.000,000 tons of cojil. These coals as a chiss. appear to be cleaner and harder tli;iri those of the Warrior field, though more faulty. 'J'hey are usually of a bright and shiny lustre, and are of a very fine rpiality, con- taining but a small amount of asii and a large per- <'entage of fixed carbon. They are considered especially valuable from the fact that they are the most Southern true coals in the Ignited States. They have one great drawback to cheap mining in their steep dip. They are being mined exten- sively at or near the following places: Ilenryellen Mines on the Ga, P. K. R.; Helena on the S. & N. Ala. I{. 11.; Montevallo and Brierfield, on the E. T. Va. & Ga. R. R., and Ulockton on the A. G. S. R. R. The coals of all these mines are of fine osition are frequently used for this pur- l)ose. Its chief use, in the pure state, is for the nuinufacture of sulphuric acid, which is largely used in the arts and in the preparation of com- mercial fertilizers. Its deposits in Northern Ala- bama have never been used for even this purpose, from doubtless the fact tiiat the greater of these deposits are far removed from any transporting facilities. (3) Fluxing Rocks and Lime Blrning Hocks, ok Limestones and Dolomites. These rocks of the very best quality and in inex- haustible quantities, occur in several of the geolog- ical formations of Northern .Mabama. 'i'iiey are, however, purest and most highly developed in the sub-carboniferous and lower Silurian formations. They make up tiie greater part of all the valleys of the State. Those of the sub-carboniferous form- ation in the Tennessee Valley have a thickness of some 1.500 feet, while those of the lower Silurian formation in the Coosa Valley must have a much greater thickness. These rocks are now being quarried extensively in Northern Ala- bama for botii fluxing aud lime-burning purposes, the supply coming j)rincij)ally from the groups, mountain limestone of the sub-carboniferous form- ation, and Trenton of the lower silurian forma- tion. The silicious group of the sub-carbonif- erous rocks and the Knox dolomite of the lower silurian formation, however, furnish no small sup- ])]}■ for both of these purjioses. These limestones are oftej\ very constant in their composition, and frequently carry as much as 98 per cent, of carbonate of lime. Thej- are, therefore, well adapted to fluxing and lime-burning purposes. They readily burn into quick-lime, that is of the very best quality as to color, cohesive power and ability to stand the extremes of heat and cold. These rocks, as a general thing, are most favorably located for cheap quarrying and cheai) transporta- tion. Their outcrops usually occupy, topograph- ically speaking, high positions in the valleys or sides of the mountains, ridges and hills, and hence they can be easily and cheaply quarried, without any trouble from water, and easily and cheaply handled or loaded into cars, that can be easily and cheaply run along the base of their out- crops. These abound with these pure lime- stones, especially in the sub-group Knox dolomite of the lower silurian formation, dolomitic lime- stones of tlie very best or purest quality, that are also well suited for fluxing purposes and for mak- ing the whitest of quick-lime and the hardest and best of mortars. (i) Building and Paving Stones and Brick Clays. — Building and paving stones of beauty and durability occur in unlimited quanti- ties in many of the formations and in many parts of Northern Alabama. They consist principally of almost every variety of limestone and sand- stone, though they embrace also some granites, soapstones, gneisses and roofing-slates, that are invaluable to the architect and builder for many purposes. The limestones are of all grades, from very good hydraulic cement rocks and litho- graphic stones to pure marbles that will take a fine polish. The sandstones are massive and fiaggy. 30 NORTHERN ALABAMA. and, though they sometimes split into thin, tough sheets, they most often work with equal ease in any direction. Both these limestones and sand- stones are comparatively soft on being first quar- ried, but they harden on exposure. The paving stones are abundant and are of the very best quality. They are durable; being compact and impervious to water, they do not crack and scale off in freezing weather. They are of uniform thickness — from, say, two to eighteen inches — and are perfectly smooth and beautifully rippled marked, and require only to be squared to be ready for their many uses. They are most abundant, as well as best and most beautiful, in the coal measures and Lower Silurian formations. Besides the above building and paving stones, there are excellent clays, for making ordinary bricks, in nearly all of the formations and in nearly all parts of Northern Alabama. Those of the drift and cretaceous formations, however, are of the best quality. (5) PoRCELAiif AND FiRE Clays. Light and gray colored plastic and silicious clays, that are well suited for making pottery ware and common fire bricks, abound in several of the geological form- ations and in many parts of Xorthern Alabama. They are, however, mos^t abundant and j)urest in the coal measures and in the Tuscaloosa and lower silicious sub-groups, though they occur in con- siderable beds in the drift and lower silurian form- ations. Those of the coal measures usually are of a gray color, and form the underbeds to the coal seams. They have been worked in only a few lo- calities and to a limited extent, only for making potteryware, to which purpose they are well suited. They doubtless, in many instances, would make good fire bricks. They occur in seams from a few inches to ten and twelve feet in thickness. Those of the Tuscaloosa group, in some of their beds, are very pure, and have a greasy, lialloysite feeling. They have been worked also only to a limited ex- tent, and in only a few places, and so they have never been given a fair test. Some of them, it is believed, would make nice porcelain ware, while others are well suited for fire bricks. They are the same clays, in geological position, etc., as the famous fire clays of New Jersey, and may prove, some of these days, in some instances, to be of just as good quality as the New Jersey clays. Those of the lower silicious group occur along the tops of the red ore ridges and mountains, just over the outcroppings of the black shale. They are derived from the disintegration of the cherty or hornstone strata at the base of this sub-group, and are fre- quently, in the outcrops, of a chalky whiteness. Their beds are sometimes from thirty to forty feet in thickness, and are of various strata, that differ in ajipearance and composition. Some of these strata are of a chalky whiteness, while others are of a dai-k gray color, and others still are stained more or less reddish .-nd yellowish. Some of the strata are very silicious or gritty to the feeling, so much so as to be frequently very friable, and hardly, properly speaking, clays, while others are greasy to the feeling and are very plastic on being thoroughly wetted. In these different light colored strata there are numerous very hard nodules of very pure halloysite of a beautiful ci'ystal appearance. These ciays are being mined extensively in DeKalb county, the different varieties separately, and shipped to Chattanooga to be made up into fine potteryware and fire bricks. The purer varieties were shipped once to the large porcelain works of Trenton, Ohio, where they brought about SIO per ton, but the distance wasfound to be too great, or the freight too much to make this traffic pay. In Chattanooga, the gritty or friable strata are made into fire bricks and the plastic strata into porcelain ware. A full set of fine table ware, made at Tren- ton, Ohio, from this clay, was on exhibition at the New Orleans Exposition, and its beauty and excel- lence, in every resjiect, attracted special attention and drew forth unqualified remarks of praise from all. It is to be hoped these and all similar clays of Northern Alabama will soon be consumed at home or made to supply home manufactoiies. (G) Marls and Phosphates. The marls and phosphates of Northern Alabama are in consider- able quantities and are of the greatest interest and value. They occur in only the cretaceous and tertiary formations, and hence those of the creta- ceous formation alone come within the scope of this treatise. Those of the cretaceous formation are of the same formation as those of England, while those of the tertiary formation are of the same formation as the deposits of South Carolina. Those of the cretaceous formation in Alabama are to be found principally in two well-defined belts that are made up of the transition beds at the bot- tom and top of the rotten limestone, though shell marls and phosphatic casts of fossils and phos- phatic nodules occur in or over the rotten lime- stone, and hence it is probable that this rock may contain marly and jihosphatic strata at intervals NORTHERN ALABAMA. 31 all the way through it. These marls and phos- phates, in the majority of cases, are valued almost solely by their ]ieroentagcs of phosplioric acid. The marls include not only the marls proper, but also the green sands and other materials which may be valuable as fertilizers. They are nearly always phosphatic. The phosphates occur in irregular nodules of almost jiure pliosphate of lime, in green sands and in silicious limestones. In the nodules, the average contents of phosphoric acid is al)out twenty-five per cent. If these nodules, therefore, could be found in sufficient quantity and could be easily or cheaply collected together, they would be of great commercial value. Tlie phosphatic green sand is insufficient quantity and contains phosplioric acid enough to make it a most valuable fertilizer. It carries on an avarage about ten per cent of phosphoric acid, which is equivalent to nearly twenty-two per cent of bone phosphate, and is therefore in fertilizing effect about equal to tlie Xew Jersey green sand, which has wrouglit such a revolution in tlie agriculture of that State. The pliospliatic silicious limestones disintegrates in jilaces into a phospliatic marl and doubtless holds j)hosplioric acid enough to justify the burning of the rock for agricultural purposes. Marls and i)hospliates, eitherrawor treated with sulphuric acid, constitute the chief bulk and cost of nearly all manipulated fertilizers, and Alabama, instead of making or at least attemjiting to make, her fertilizers out of her own raw materials, pays out annually to other States nearly $2,000,000 for fertilizers. It is true that tlie commercial value of these raw materials in Alabama have not as yet been fully determined: still, enough is known of them to cause a belief that they will make good fertilizers and that they will eventually add very much to the manufacturing and agricultural wealth and prosi)erity of the whole State. (7) Ochres Axn Mineral Paixts. Red and yellow ochres of very good quality occur in several of tlie geological formations of Northern Alabama. They are, however, most common in the metamorphic and lower cretaceous form- ations. Jlineral jjaints that are excellent for outdoor work are made by grinding up not only these red and yellow ochres, but also the .w/V redore. (8) Mll.I.STONES, (iRIXDSTOXES AXD WhET- STOXEs. Millstones of very good quality, with and without pebbles, are made, principally for home uses, from the conglomerates and coarse- graia sand stones of the drift, coal measures and lower Silurian formations. In all of these form- ations, tlie above materials are abundant and the millstones made from them are said to be espe- cially suited for grist mills or for grinding corn. Grindstones and whetstones, particularly of coarse grit that is very sharp and good for ordinary edge tools, can be easily and cheaply made from many of the llagstones of the coal measure and upper Silurian formation. These articles are transported now for hundreds of miles to this State, when just as good, and perhaps often a much better quality for many purposes, could be made more cheaply right here at home from home materials. (9) GLAS^, MoKTAltS AND Moi.DIXfi SaXD.S. Pure sands that are good for all the purposes for which sands are used are to be found in nearly all of the formations of Xorthern Alabama. These sands, in the drift and cretaceous formations, occurred originally as regular loose strata ; in the other formations they occurred originally as regu- lar stratified sandstones, of greater or less hard- ness and compactness. The outcroi)pings of these loose strata and of the sandstones have given rise to, on weathering, loose beds or heaps of sand that, in many cases, are removed miles from the outcroppings of the loose strata or sand- stones from which they were derived. The purest and best of these sands perhaps have been derived from, or form the La Grange sandstone of the sub-carboniferous formation. These sandstones, as have been stated, form the Little Mountain of the Tennessee Valley and the rocky i-mcs of the anticlinal valleys. They furnish most of the sand that is now used in the State for mortars and for molds, :ind will supply sand for the differ- ent glass works when completed. (10) Macadamizixi; AXi) Ballasting Mate- rials. The rounded Hint and cherty pebbles of the drift are the very best of materials for mac- adamizing walks and drives and for ballasting rail- road tracks. They are to be found in the greatest quantities along several of the railroad lines of Northern Alabama, and, as they occur in loose strata or beds, they can be easily and cheaply shoveled up and loaded on the cars. They are much better adapted to the above purposes than the angular cracked up limestones, etc., that are usually used, as tiiey are much easier on the feet of both man and beast, and on the wear and tear of vehicles, and do not give off any disagreeable and injurious impalpable dust, and can be packed mucii better, or will make a much firmer road. 32 NORTHERN ALABAMA. (11) Ornamental, Curious and Precious Stones. Among the most important of these stones in Northern Alabama are to be mentioned white and variegated marbles, beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, clear and translucent quartz, crystals and pebbles, curiously shaped concretion- ary masses, well preserved and distinctly marked fossil coal jjhnits of great beauty and wonderful size, and beautiful specimens of silicified wood, agate, chalcedony, etc. The marbles occnr in sev- eral of the geological formations, but the most beautiful varieties are of themetamorphic or crys- talline rocks, through the white and variegated marbles of the sub-carboniferous and Silurian formations are very good quality. Tliese marbles have been quarried to some extent and used for monumental and architectural purposes. (12) Manganese Ores. Manganese, as pyro- lusite or black oxide of manganese, is widely dif- fused, in seemingly small quantities, throughout Northern Alabama. Fine cabinet specimens of it can be jDicked np in most of the formations, but perhaps it is in the greatest quantities and of the greatest purity in the sub-carboniferous, lower Silurian and metamorphic rocks. It is of con- cretionary origin, and occurs in patches or pockets, like the hroirn ore with which it is intimately asso- ciated. It has been mined to some little extent for making ferro-mangancse and spicgel eisen. Little, however, is known as to its quantity, though it is not believed to be great enough to be of any great commercial value. (13) Copper Ores. The copper ores occur in only the crystalline or metamorphic rocks. They consist in Northern or Eastern Alabama of chaJ- copyrile or coppur pyrites or yelloio copper ore, of melaconite or Mack oxide of cuppier or llach copper and of covellite or indigo copper. These ores have been worked verj- successfully in East Alabama, and likely will be worked again. (14) Gold. Gold occurs in regular quartz veins and in surface gravels and sands in and over the metamorphic rocks of East Alabama, and as fine washed or placer gold, disseminated through the sands and flint pebbles of the drift of Northwest Alabama. The metamorphic rocks of East Ala- bama are the most southern true gold formation of the Atlantic States. The gold-bearing quartz veins are now being developed in several localities, and they give evidence that they can be worked with profit, especially by the use of the improved appliances of the present day for mining and crushing ores. The loose gravel and sand beds over the metamorphic rocks were worked in a rough and wasteful way, on an extensive scale, some forty to fifty years ago, and yielded consider- able fortunes. They doubtless will be worked again. The loose gravel and sand beds of the drift of Northwest Alabama were also worked some little years ago for their placer gold, but they likely did not make any one very rich. (15) Tin Ores. Tin ore or tinstone, as cassit- erite, occurs in the metamoriihic rocks of East Alabama, in several localities. It is not known, however, to be in sufficient quantity to be of any commercial value. (IG) Lead Ores. Lead ore, as galena, occurs ill situ in several localities in the Silurian rocks of Northern Alabama, and in the metamorphic rocks of East Alabama. It is also found scattered over all parts and over all the formations of Northern Alabama, as loose lumps from the size of small bullets to fifteen and twenty pounds in weight. These loose lumps are particularly numerous around the Indian mounds, and, jierhaps, were brought to this country by the motind huilders. The lead ore in sitii is not known to be in any place in Northern Alabama in sufficient quantity to be of any commercial value, notwithstanding the thousand and one Indian tales of its great purity and abundance in hundreds of localities. (17) Silver Ores. Most of the galena of Northern Alabama carries some silver, and, when this silver gets to be as much as several per cent, the ore is called a silver ore. (18) Zinc Ore. Zinc ore, as sphalerite or zinc blende, is found associated with the co]iper ores of East Alabama. (19) Graphite. Graphite, or jdumbago, or black lead, occurs in many localities in East Alabama, in small quantities, associated with the schists of the metamorphic rocks. (20) Hydraulic Cement Eocks and Litho- graphic Stones. Impure limestones and fine- grained, compact limestones, that would doubtless make very good hydraulic cement and lithographic stones, abound in the sub-carboniferous and Silu- rian formations of Northern Alabama. The quality of these limestones for these purposes, however, have not as yet been fully determined. (21) Natural Gas and Petroleum. Natural gas is now and has been known for several years to be constantly escaping from between the out- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 33 crops of strata in several parts of Xortliern Ala- bama. There is not believed to be, however, from the geological structure of the country and from the piiysical nature of the strata, any great reposi- tories of it in any of the formations of Northern Alabama. Petroleum, or m.ineral oil, impregnates rocks in many parts and, in several of the geoiogi- cal formations of Northern Alabama, and, as a soft asphaUum or pitch, it fills cavities in some of these rocks and exudes from cracks in others as a semi-liquid bitumen or mineral tar, forming what are known as Uir .^pritujs. It is to be hoped that an almost inexhaustible reservoir of this valuable mineral product will be struck some of these days, in Northern Alabama, but, as yet, as with the natural gas, little is known, outside of mere con- jecture, as to its true supply. (22) SoAPSTOXE, steatite or talce; Slates, or roofing slates; Emeky, or corundum: Heavy Si'AK, barytes or barita; iliCA, or muscovite and Asbestos, all occur ia the metamorphic or crysta- line rocks of East Alabama, in many localities. AGIUC TLTl HAL WEA LT-1 1 . Northern Alabama, as a whole, i.s a great agricultural as well as a great mineral country, notwithstanding that it is still, in many sections, covered by an unbroken forest, and that, only a few years ago, when it was, strictly speaking, an agri- cultural country, a large proportional part of its lands were looked upon as almost worthless for agricultural purposes. The increase in the variety and valuation of its agricultural products, or the products of its fields, gardens and orchards, for the last ten years, has been most gratifying, indeed, even when compared witii that of the richest and most prosperous of. strictly speaking, agricultural countries. Its agricultural wealth consists, pri- marily and mainly, in the great cajtabilities of its soils and in its erpiable and uniform climate and rainfall. Its soils, though in certain sections they show a remarkable degree of uniformity in the relative proportions of their constituents, are pro- lific in every aijricultural product that gives sus- tenance and wealth to its cultivators, or are so various as to be able to furnish an especially suit- able soil for each one of the many great agricul- tural products to wliich the climate is adai>ted, and to grow, without cultivation, over one hun- dred and fifty species of grasses. Some of these soils are so fertile that at one time their lands produced more of agricultural value than any acres of like extent in the United States. The same lands can be made to produce again as much of agricultural value as any areas of like extent in the United States; for their soils, as well as those of other sections of Northern Alabama, are so duraljle that, after fifty and more years' abuse and cultivation in cotton and corn alone, without ever having received a single drop of manure or fertilizer of any kind, still yield remunerative returns in these crops for the labor bestowed in cultivation. These crops, cotton and corn, up to a few years ago, may be said to have constituted the only productions of Northern Alabama; but now, however, the indications of progress in diver- sified farming in Northern Alabama is most flat- tering, indeed. Its cotton crop is on the wane, while the food crops and live stock raising are proportionally on the increase. This decrease in the cotton crop and increase in food crops are indicated by the following figures of total produc- tions in Alabama of cotton, corn and oats for the years 1880 and 1885: Cotton Crop (bales). Corn Crop (hush) Out Ciop (busb) 740,oro 2 ,000,000 3,000.000 6.TO.0OO ;ti,(««i,(X,o 5,000.000 The cotton crop, though thus annually falling off in quantity, is bringing and keej)ing in the State more money, year after year, from the in- crease in the home cotton factories and oil mills. The increase in the other food crops, or those crops which are grown principally for home con- sumption, as hay, vegetables, fruits, etc., and in the raising of live stock, isequally as gratifying as in the case of the corn and oats. The increase in live stock raising, though most gratifying, i?, how- ever, not what it ought to be, considering the many natural advantages of Northern Alabama for this most profitable business. The most ))erceptible and greatest of these advantages is that Northern Alabama grows spontaneously over fifty different kinds of plants, of more or less nutritive value, that are relished by stock and that are suitable for forage and hay crops. In connection with the above jileasing fact that the food crops and stock raising arc rapidly on the increase in Northern Alabama, it is al.«o pleasant to note that the home markets for these home-made food products are also rajiidly on tJie increase. This is due princi- pally to the daily increa.sc in the home consump- 34 NORTHERN ALABAMA. tion of the home-made food products, which goes to show that the people are fast learning the great art of living well or living at home on fresh and wholesome food. The farmers, as a cla.ss, are also becoming much better educated in their vocation. They are abandoning the primitive methods and imple- ments of culture of their forefathers and are rapidly improving their breeds of stock by im- portation. They are also taking a much greater and growing interest in their calling, and hence, are well organized into State, county and beat clubs. They have a State Agricultural Depart- ment and two experimental farms, that are sup- ported by a tax of 50 cents on every ton of com- mercial fertilizer sold within the State. This ta.x gave to them the last fiscal year nearly $25,000. TDIBEH WEALTH. More than one-half of Northern Alabama may still be classed as timber lands. In many sections of it there are unbroken forests of heavy timber of many square miles in extent that are as yet un- touched by the woodman's ax. These forests com- prise, as has been stated, over 125 species of arbor- escent growth, and include in their heavy timber almost every kind of tree of any economical value. The prevailing timber, however, of most of these iorests is yellow pine, though some of them are of the hardwoods, or of oak, hickory, gum, beech and cedar, with, in some localities, a considerable sprinkling of ash, poplar, cypress and walnut. The prevailing timber, however, of any one local- ity is closely dependent on the nature of the soil or the geological strata from which the soil is derived. So true is this, that the timber belts of the State closely correspond to the outcroppings of certain geological formations, and hence the different geological formations can frequently be recognized and mapped off, approximately, by their peculiar growth. In a general way, the pre- vailing timber is of hard woods over a calcareous or limey soil, and of the soft woods over a silicious or sandy soil. The prevailing timber, therefore, over the sandy plateaus is yellow pine, and in tlie limestone valleys, oak, hickory, etc. There is believed to be enough timber standing now in Northern Alabama to last over 150 years, not allowing any for natural growth, at the pres- ent rate of cut, which is valued at nearly S!3,500,- 000 per annum. Lumbering will, therefore, be for many years to come, as it has been in the past, one of the most important industries of Northern Alabama. The lumber mills, and hence the lum- ber outputs, are rapidly increasing, though there are now in the State 420 saw-mills, with an out- put that is worth $.3,246,000 per year. NATURAL ADVANTAGES. The natural advantages of Northern Alabama are, in many ■ respects, wonderful, and they are so numerous that it would be a difficult task to men- tion them all. They are self-evident alike to the capitalist and to the day-laborer, and to the manu- facturer, miner and farmer. They offer to all a temperate and equable climate, a dry and invigo- rating atmosphere, pure and health-giving waters, a cheap rate of taxation that is being constantly diminished, and clieap homes, with peaceable and contented neighbors and with good church and school facilities. Particularizing, they offer to the capitalist investments that cannot be excelled by those of any other country; and to the day laborer, be he skilled or unskilled, plenty of work at good pay ; and to the manufacturer cheap power and cheap raw materials, in close jjroximity to each other and to good transporting facilities; to the miner plenty of steady work in the many newly opened mines and quarries; and to the farmer cheap and rich lands, with varied soils and early springs, long summers and late falls for the plant- ing, maturing and gathering of his crops. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. The future possibilities of N^orthern Alabama are believed to be greater than the conceptions of even the most sanguine. The great waves of industrial jirogress may be said to have just fairly struck Northern Alabama, and their resultants, the huge billows of prosjjerity, that have just commenced to roll over it, will doubtless continue to roll over it until they have made of it one of the most prosperous and wealthiest of countries. The time or day will have come when the com- bined outputs of all of its old furnaces and of all of its new furnaces that are now being built are used up in home industries, or are converted into the most profitable of home manufactured goods, or when every cent of profit that can be gotten out of the development and productions of its natural resources is retained at home. Judging from the unprecedented increase within the last few years, in the development of its natural resources and in the quantity and kind of its NORTHERN ALABAMA. 35 manufactured <:foods. and from the fact that all of its industrial enterprises are now running on full time with a good profit, and from the great prob- ability that these industries will increase, both in number and kind, during the next twelve months, at a much greater ratio than they have ever increased in the past, it would seem that the above gala day, or day of greatest prosperity forNorthern Alabama is not very far. in the future. PART II. Summary of the State's History from Its Earliest Settlement TO THE Present Day. 'L'lie climate, of Alabama is one of its chief at- tractions. It is womlerfnlly equable. The ex- tremes of heat or cold are rarely ever exjjerienced. Snow is rarely seen except in tlie most northern parts. The streams of the State are never frozen over. The spring is early and wonderfully balmy, and as a result vegetation is rajjid and luxuriant ill its growth. The summers are even and regu- lar in temperature and there is never a great or sudden change. The extreme of heat rarely ever reaches the height which is often marked in the cities of the North, in the low country or the flat regions of the States lying north of the Ohio river, or on the plains of the great Northwest. The au- tumn is late, and the crops have a greater length of time to mature than in any portion of the dis- tinctively farming section of the North or West, and the winter is of so slow ajjproach, that the crops need not be removed from the fields until late in November. To the manufacturer Alabama offers induce- ments unrivaled by any section of this country. If he desires to operate by steam, the fuel to gen- erate the power lies in the greatest abundance un- der the hills of the State. It abounds in quanti- ties practically inexhaustible and is suscejitible of being mined at the minimum cost. The coal beds of the State are greater in extent and in capability of output, than probably the like deposits of any other State in the Union, with possibly the excep- tion of Pennsylvania. If a manufacturer desires to operate by water power, he would find in any section of the State thousands — yes, hundreds of thousands — of horse power,rusliing madly to waste, idle, because the hand of man has not been laid upon it, to turn its course to practical usefulness. The streams of Alabama, ever running, have power sufficient to operate the mills of New England over and over again. A single stream would for miles and miles along its banks, furnish sites and power enough for millions of sjiindles or looms. In fact, an unlimited number of industries sus- ceptible of being operated by water jtower might find sites along the streams of Alabama where the conditions for their ojieration would be most highly favorable and where the expenses of the operation would be reduced to the lowest possible cost. The miner, the man engaged in taking from the earth its riches, would find work, and steady work, in Alabama. Its coal mines just being de- veloped — barely yet producing enough for home consumption, are being enlarged — new mines are being constantly oj^ened, and in a thousand fields there is room for experienced men. The ore mines employ already thousands, and the opening of new ore beds will call for thousands more. Marble, granite and slate quarries are being worked and others are soon to be worked, and men will be wanted to work them. The field is here, and the future promises much for the right men. The day laborer will find in this State thousands of enterprises on which labor is in demand, with fair wages and with surrounding circumstances such that he can work every day in the year if he chooses. lie will lose no time in Alabama be- cause it is too cold to work, nor need he lose a day because it is too hot. , The farmer of the North or West will find in Alabama a series of soils, which for richness can- not be surpassed in the world. lie will find sec- tions adapted to the cultivation of everthing which he raised in his Northern home, while at the same time it is adapted to many others which would not grow with him. He will find lands which will, year in and year out, i)roduce a yield of wheat or corn equal to the average production of any wheat or corn State of the North or AVest. He will find this land excellently well adapted to the cultiva- tion of the other small grain grown in those States. He will find lands which will produce tobacco, in quantity and in quality, equal to that produced in Connecticut, Pennsylvania or Wis- consin. He will find land which will yield hay crops as abundantly as the crop of any State in the 36 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Union. He will not find a country devoted ex- clusively to cotton; or rather, lie will not lind a country in which cotton alone can be raised. lie will lind that he can raise wheat, rye, barley, and in fact, anything that he i)roduccs at home, and in addition he will be able to raise cotton, potatoes and vegetables, and the two latter he will be able to ship home something like a month or two before the same articles are ready for market there. He can stek the southern portion of the State, and there he will be able to raise early vegetables, as well as many of the fruits of the warmer zones. To the agriculturist, the State of Alabama pre- sents a greater variety of features than any other State of the Union. It presents opportunities which, if seen, would be appreciated, and being appreciated, would be eagerly accepted. To the capitalist seeking a safe investment, Alabama presents as many opportunities, if not more, than any State in the Union. Its mineral fields abound in chances for safe and profitable investments. Farming lands in all parts of the State may now be purchased at a very low figure, and in the course of a few years they will be greatly enhanced in value. Transactions in city projierty, in the many growing cities of the State, have enriched hundreds, and only the outside has been touched. There are scores of cities in all quarters of Alabama which have not yet been the subject of marked increase of value or great en- hancements, which offer inducements and have resources, that will most certainly cause them to come rapidly to the front when the spirit of de- velopment becomes, as it surely will, more widely spread . As a home, Alabama offers a congenial climate, and healthfulness which will compare favorably witii any section of the country; immunity from the terrible scourges of the colder portions of the country and a death rate record below the general average of the country at large. The State of Alabama is situated south of Ten- nessee, west of Georgia and a portion of Florida, north of a part of Florida and the Gulf of of Me.xico, and west of Mississippi. It has an area of .50,72"2 square miles. lu 1880 its popula- tion numbered l,'i()2,50.5, but the increase since that time has been such that it is safe to say its population now numbers over one and a half millions. Alabama was first seen by white men, when the Spanish cavalier, De Soto, with his followers reached its territory, on liieir march westward in search of the vast treasures which they had been told were to be found in the land of the setting sun. De Soto found the State peoj)led by a hardy and warlike race of Indians, who lived witii com- parative comfort in villages throughout its borders. These people were brave, but they mistrusted the mission of the gallant cavalier and his mail-clad followers, and De Soto found that savages though they were, they knew the arts of war and they fought with such a daring and such a desperation against his well-armed and well-protected troops, that although he defeated them, the victory was well nigii a defeat, and the blood of many a proud Spanish nobleman stained Alabama's soil, and the bones of many a Spanish soldier were left to bleach with the bones of the slain savage, and De Soto's party leaving Alabama was not near so large as when he entered it. By virtue of De Soto's discovery, Spain claimed the southern half of the present States of Ala- bama and Mississippi as portions of the Florida possessions. France also laid claim to the same territory, under a settlement of a portion of it by a French expedition under Bienville. France sus- tained its claim to the territory in question as a portion of its Louisiana possessions. 'I'he title of both of thesecountiies to this particular territory was denied by Great Britain, and that country finally obtained and held possession of it until the matter was formally settled by France ceding to England all of its Louisiana jiossessions east of the -Mississippi river, and about the same time Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain; thus that govern- ment consolidated all contlicting titles and became the owner of this entire country south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi rivers. England divided its possessions thus acquired into three parts — Florida, West Florida and Illinois. From a line drawn across the present States of Alabama and Mississippi just north of Montgom- ery, from the Chattahoochee to the Mississippi, to another drawn along the northern boundary of the present State of Floriirit of reprisal in the savages, gathered in this fort, prepared to defend themselves against any number of Indians that chanced to attack it. The people in the fort, according to the most accurate of the State's his- torians, numbered ^45 men capable of liearing arms, who were under the command of Maj. Oaniel Beasley, and 308 women, children aTid friendly Indians. For many days during the latter part of August, 1813, rumors reached tlie fort of the api>roach of an army of Indians, but as often, investigation by scouts sent out for the purpose, proved that the rej)ort was without foundation. This occurred several times, and as might naturally be supposed, it was soon regarded as the fabled cry of the wolf, and the occui)ant8 of the fort rested esisily, conscious 40 NORTHERN ALABAMA. of the possession of an apparently secure place of safety. The Indians were enraged by the attack on them at Burnt Corn. The warlike spirit in the tribes living in the Coosa and Tallapoosa valleys had been roused during the preceding winter by the fiery sf)eeches of the great Shawnee chief, Te- cumsefi, whom, it is said, the British sent from his home on the banks of the Ohio, among the Indians of the Mississij)pi Territory for the pur- pose of rousing them to war. The council fires burned- throughout the country along those rivers, and the eloquent chief poured hot words of wrong, of robbery, of dealh and of devastation into the ears of the Indians assembled about him, and he stirred up in their bosoms a fire which could only be quenched by the blood of the whites; his words awakened a hatred which clamored loudly for revenge. The peaceably disposed chieftains of the tribes endeavored to stay the tide which had set in. They endeavored to arrest the current which would madly tear onto rapine and murder, and which they foresaw would result in the destruction of the tribes by the whites, whose superiority in warfare would render them in the end invincible. In this they failed, and the hills were enlivened by the war dance, while the defiant war-whoop uttered by a thousand throats, sounded over the hills, through the valleys and awoke echoes from the mountain dells. The savage boiled. The Burnt Corn attack was the event which unchained the tiger of revenge. After its occurrence, the restraining influence of the peaceable chieftains, which had at least caused delay, was brushed aside, and the men who cried out vengeance! vengeance! gathered thousands of the dusky warriors about them. A party was organized under the leadership of Weatherford, Peter McQueen and I'rophet Fran- cis, for a descent upon the white settlements along the bottoms of the lower Alabama and Tom- bigbee. The army numbered a thousand strong and its march to the scene of its greatest carnage was as stealthy as the creeping of a cat to a posi- tion of vantage from which to spring on its prey. This band of warriors surrounded Fort Mims by daylight, and at high noon they had crawled up to its very gates. The inmates of the fort had been deceived often about the enemy's approach, and they had grown careless. When the savages arrived, they were at their ease; the approaches were unguarded; the stockade gates stood open; there was not a sentinel in place. With one wild cry of expectant victory, the maddened savages poured in like demons hungering for carnage. They swarmed in on the unpreimred and unsus- pecting inmates of the fort, and there ensued the most horrible massacre which has ever stained with its blood a page of the country's history. The tomahawk and the scalping knife were greedy for gore, and though the inmates of the fort, roused to a sense of their danger, fought with desperation the battle of self-preservation, the slaughter was complete, and the declining sun sent his setting rays over the smouldering ruins of Fort Mims, around which lay the dead bodies of about 500 of its inmates, and the dead bodies of over 2(>0 of its assailants. Of the 55;i souls in the fort at the time of the attack, all historians writing on the sub- ject, agree that less than fifty escaped alive, ^[en, women, and children, all alike, fell vic- tims to the revenge of the savages. The news of this terrible slaughter spread like wild-fire, and Gen. Andrew Jackson was sent from Tennessee, within forty days after the Fort Mims disaster, with .3,000 volunteers raised in that State to wreak vengeance on the bloodthirsty savages. In November a portion of this body attacked the Indian town of Tallasseehatchee, located within the limits of what is now Calhoun county, and after a brief but bloody struggle, all the warriors, 186 in number, were killed, and General Jackson, in making his report of the engagement to Governor Blount, tersely wrote: "We retaliated for Fort Mims." Later in the same month, he attacked the Indian towri of Talladega, and there inflicted a crushing defeat, the Indians leaving 299 warriors dead on the field. The remnant retired across the mountains to the town of Ililla- bee, and proceeded to open up negotiations with Jackson for i)eace. A few days later. General White, in command of another body of Tennes- see volunteers, surprised the town and killed sixty of the warriors. Georgia sent out volunteers to the aid- of the settlers of Mississipi^i Territory, and the battles were frequent and fierce throughout the Territory, and were fought with varying success. The Mus- cogees were a brave tribe, and' though attacked from every point of the compass, they fought desperately aiul fought well, and it was not until their overwhelming defeat by Jackson's re-inforced NORTHERN ALABAMA. 41 army, at Horse Shoe Bend, were they a defeated, broken and scattered race. This engagement was j)ractically tlie deatli-blow to the tribe, as its loss footed u]) probably more than 000 warriors slain. General Jackson built Fort Jackson on the Ruins of Bienville's old Fort Toulouse, in what is now Elmore county, and here he concluded treaties of peace with tiie various tribes, whereby they sur- rendered more or loss of their lands, and after the lapse of a few years they exchanged the pitiful remnant left to them, for a home beyond the " Father of Waters." After spending some time at Fort Jackson (ieneral Jackson moved his headquarters to Mobile, and on the arrival of volunteers from Tennessee, he captured Pensacola from the Spanish, after wiiich he left the army in charge of Maj. Uriah Blue, and proceeded to Xew Orleans to take command there. Major Blue was kept busy liunting up and crushing out jiredatory bands of Indians, and after a short time the mighty Mus- cogee was a race of the j)ast. Driven to the woods and swamps, with nothing on which to subsist, the weather compelled the scattered members of the tribe to come with outstretched hands begging food, peace and protection at the iiands of those who had in battle proven the conqueror. The lands of the C'hickasaws and Choctaws were obtained from those tribes by treaties, on the [)aynient by the Government of a stipulated sum of money. Thus was the red man pushed out of the choicest portions of the territory. By force of arms, and at the price of blood, and when these failed, or the Government concluded that the war would be too obstinate, American gold bribetl the red man to surrender a domain rich enough in its resources to purchase kingdoms for a hundred kings. These treaties were concluded in 1814, and the Indians having been crushed out, or bought off, the country began to rapidly fill up with immigrants, and as the richness of its soils became known, the dissatisfied in the older States packed up their farming implements and in wagon trains traveled, orer the rough roads, seek- ing a home on Alabama's virgin soil. TIIE DIVISION OF TIIE TpIlRITOUV AND THE ORGAXIZ.VTIOX OF THE TERRITORY OF ALABAMA. By an act of Congress, dated March 1, 1817, the Territory of Mississippi was divided, and by another act of Congress, adopted two days later, the western portion of the divided Territory was organized into a new Territory, to be called Ala- bama; defining its boundaries and providing for its government. The act fi.xed the seat of govern- ment of the new Territory at St. Stephens, in Washington county, and directed the president to ai)point a governor for the new Territory, who should have authority to call a session tliere of such members of the Territorial council (the same as the senate of to-day) and house of representa- tives of the Territory of .Mississippi as resided within the boundary of the new Territorv- Presi- dent Monroe appointed as governor of Alabama William Wyatt Bibb, of Georgia, who accepted the position and entered on the discharge of his duties shortly after his appointment. Governor Bibb called the first session of the Territorial Leg- islature together in January, 1SI8. The session commenced on January 19, when it was discov- ered that ten members of the house of representa- tives resided within the boundaries of Alabama, while Mr. Titus, of Madison, was the sole mem- ber of the legislative council entitled to a seat, and throughout the entire session he occupied a chamber and adopted or defeated the legislation arising in the other house as he saw fit; enacted such legislation as he thought necessary, and with due formality forwarded it to the lower house for ratification or rejection. The ten members of tiie house elected Mr. Ga- briel Moore of Madison, chairmau, and the follow- ing counties were represented: Baldwin, Clarke, Madison, Jlobile, Monroe, Montgomery and Wash- ington. There was some excitement about this time occasioned by a petition of the constitutional convention of Mississippi Territory, praving con- gress to extend the limits of that Territory to the Tombigbee river and Mobile bay, so as to include the city and county of ilobile as a portion of that territory. Counter petitions were sent up from all parts of Alabama, and feeling ran high on the question. The second, and what proved to be the last, ses- sion of the Territorial Legislature, assembled at St. Stephens in November, 1S18. The most import- ant act of this body was to change tlie location of the seat of government from St. Stephens to Ca- haba, on the Alabama river at the point where it is entered by the Cahaba river. This body also pro- vided for the erection of public buildings at Ca- haba, and for the temporary location of the seat 42 NORTHERN ALABAMA. of government at Huntsville nntil the completion of the public buildings at Cahaba. On March 2, 1819, just two years after the organization of the Territory, Congress authorized the inhabitants to form a state constitution and provided that when that constitution was framed the State should be admitted into the union on the same footing as the original States. The act authorizing this donated to the prospective State the sixteenth section of every township of the j^iiblic lands for the maintenance of schools; all salt springs in the State and the land adjoining necessary to work them to the extent of thirty-five acres; five per cent, of the net proceeds of the sale of public lands within the State to be apjjlied to works of internal improvements; three-fifths under the direction of the State Legislature, and the remaining two-fifths under the direction of Congress; seventy-two sections of public lands for the use of a seminary of learning, and 1,020 acres to be reserved for a seat of government. The act authorized an election to be held on the first Monday and Tuesday of May, 1819, for delegates to a convention, to assemble in Huntsville on the first Monday in July following, which was on the 5th day of that month. The convention f)rovided for in this act met in Huntsville on the 5th day of July, 1819, with the following delegates re2oresenting the counties named present: Autauga — James Jackson. Baldwin — Harry Toulmin. Blount — Isaac Brown, John Brown and Gabriel Hanby. Cahaba (now Bibb) — Littlepage Sims. Clarke — Reuben SafEold and James McGofHu. Conecuh — Samuel Cook. Cataco (now Morgan) — Melkijah Vaughn and Thomas D. Crabb. Dallas — William R. King. Franklin — Richard Ellis and William Metcalf. Lauderdale — Hugh ilcN'ay. Lawrence — Arthur F. Hopkins and Daniel D. Wright. Limestone — Thomas Bibb, Beverly Hughes and Nicholas Davis. Madison — Clement C. Clay, John Leigh Towns, Henry Chambers, Samuel Mead, Henry Minor, Ga- briel Moore, Jno. W. Walker and John M. Taylor. Marengo — Washington Thomjison. Marion — John D. Terrell. Mobile— S. H. Garrow. Monroe — John MurjDhy, John Watkins, James Pickens and Thomas Wiggins. Montgomerj' — John D. Bibb and James W. Armstrong. St. Clair — David Connor. Shelby — George Phillips and Thos. A. Rodgers. Tuscaloosa — Marmaduke Williams and John L. Tindall. Washington — Israel Pickens and Henry Hitch- cock. The convention elected John W. Walker, of •Madison, chairman, and John Campbell secre- tary. The constitution adopted by this body was mod- eled after the spirit of the age. It guaranteed to the citizen the fullest liberty; the declaration of rights set out so mucli of the ilagna Charta as was consistent in the constitution of a Republican State government ; slavery, then existing, was recognized; suffrage was accorded to all white males of the age of twenty-one and upwards; the governor, legislature and county officers were made elective by the popular poll; judicial offi- cers, it was provided, should be chosen by the general assembly. The term of office of the gov- ernor was limited to two years, and one successive re-election to that office was allowed; terms of judicial officers were fixed at six years, senators three years and representatives one year. The judges of circuit courts collectively were consti- tuted a supreme court of appeals, with equity jurisdiction, but the constitution provided for separate sujireme and chancery courts. The work of the convention was concluded on the 2d of August, and a copy of the constitution was pre- jjared to be forwarded to Congress for its ratifica- tion by that body. An election ordered by the new constitution for governor and members of the legislature was held shortly after the adjournment of the convention, and resulted in the choice of William Wyatt Bibb, first and only Territorial Governor of Alabama, as Governor of the new State. Governor Bibb was op- posed in the race for this position by Marmaduke Williams, of Tuscaloosa, who was one of the delegates to the constitutional convention from that county. The election for members of the legislature resulted in the choice of twenty-two senators and forty-five representatives. The first session of the State Legislature of Alabama met in Huntsville, Oct. 25, 1819, and NORTHERN ALABAMA. 43 remained in session until Dec. 10, of tliat year. Oovernor Bibb was inaugurated as first (iovcrnor of the State of Alabama, in lluntsville, on the IHli of November, 1810. THE CONSTITITION of the State of Alabama was ajiproved by Con- gress and a joint resolution admitting the State into the Union was adopted, and receiving tiie -approval of President 51 on roe on the 14th of December, 1819, became law. Immigration began to flow into the State, and according to the census of 1820, its population, ex- clusive of Indians, numbered 127,001, of which ■85,451 were whites and 42,450 were negroes. With tlie growth of the population a disposition to im- prove the country was fostered, and, as a result, roads were cut, steamboat companies and over- land transportation companies were organized, but the facilities were so limited that the greater por- tion of the supplies for the interior of the State were brought from the coast by the rivers in flat- boats, and a trip from Mobile to either Montgom- ery or Demopolis was a matter of from two to four months. This means of transportation was used on the river for some years after 1820. The first newspaper published in Alabama was established in lluntsville bva Mr. Barhaiii in 1812. Thomas Eaton, who became the first public printer of Alabama Territory, established a paper at St. Stephens in 1814. Mobile's first newspaper was printed by a Mr. Cotton in 1816, and Thomas Davenport printed a paper in Tuscaloosa in 1818. In 1820, besides the places mentioned, newspapers were jirinted in other parts of the State as follows : One in Florence, two in Cahaba, one in Montgomery and one in Claiborne. The constitution, to facilitate trade and imjirove the financial condition of the people, provided for the establishment of a State bank. For the greater convenience of all, it provided that a main or principal bank should be established at the seat of government, and that branch banks could be located throughout the State at points where their location would prove the most advan- tageous. Under this system the State guaranteed the issue of the bank, retaining two-fifths of its stock as security. The parent bank of this system v.as established at Cahaba in 1820. The .seat of government was removed in 1820 to ■Cahaba, and here the second session of the general assembly was convened. Governor Bibb, tiie first Governor of the State, died in July of this year, and iiis brother, Thomas Bibb, of Lime- stone, who was president of tiie senate, succeeded to the position and filled out the unexpired term. The act to establish the State university was passed by the legislature on December 18, 1820. This legislature also elected the three electors to rejjresent Alabama in the electoral college, and who were instructed to cast the vote of the State for James Monroe, of Virginia, for President, and Daniel D. 'J'ompkins, of New York, for Vice- President. The electors selected were John Scott, of Montgomery; Henry ilinor, of Madison, and George Phillips, of Dallas. In 1824, Alabama was visited by General La Fayette, who was entertained as the State's guest at the ca])ital, then Cahaba, by Governor Pickens, (ieneral LaFayette remained several days at Cahaba, after which he jjroceeded on his trip to New Orleans by way of Claiborne and Mobile. In 1856, by a vote of the General Assembly the seat of government of the State was removed from Cahaba to Tuscaloosa, where it remained about twenty years. The government of the State for the first ten years of its existence had been highly satisfactory, and as a result, the population was more than doubled. The people were prosperous, and as a natural result they were hapj)y and con- tented. The census of 1830 fixed the population of the Stateat 300,527, divided asfollows: AVhites, 100,406; negro slaves, 117,540; and 1,562 free negroes. Educational and religious development kept pace with the increase in the number of peo- ple, while on every hand there was to be seen an increased spirit of internal improvement. The vast bodies of fine»lands yet in the possession of the Indians were acquired and opened to settle- ment by purchase and by treaty; one by one the tribal remnants of the once great nations which owned this State were gathered together and sent to a new home in the far West. During the term of Governor Moore, which was begun in 1820, the construction of a canal around Mussel Shoals in the Tennessee river was com- menced, and about the same time the building of a railroad between Tusoumbia and Decatur was begun, which was the first railroad constructed in Alabama, and was completed in 1832. The road ran between those points by Courtland, and was forty-four miles in length. The State University at Tuscaloosa was opened 44 NORTHERN ALABAMA. April 18, 1831, about eleven years after the passage of the act establishing it. A spirit of manu- facturing began to develop itself in the State about this time, and in 1832 the General Assem- bly passed a bill incorporating Bell's Cotton Fac- tory, which was located in Madison county and was the first cotton factory erected in the State. In 1835 a treaty was concluded with the Chero- kees, the last remaining of the four great tribes of Indians whom the whites found in possession of the territory of this State. This tribe, for and in consideration of $5,000,000 and 7,000,000 acres of land in the West, ceded to the Government their lands lying in Alabama and Georgia, and shortly after were removed by the general Government to their new homes in Indian Territory. A financial panic was threatened in 1837, being occasioned by an accumulation of bank issues — a flooding of the country with money, which tended to create a feeling of false prosperity, and induced the people of all classes to plunge into debt. Property of all kinds appreciated far beyond actual value, and the anticipations of prosperity not being realized, debts fell due, and there was every- where an inability to meet them. Business became stagnant ; runs were made on the banks, until in the early summer of this year, all of them sus- pended specie payment. Values depreciated and in consequence many of the State's citizens were reduced to poverty. The exigency demanded action, and a special session of the Legislature was called, which devised measures whereby the gen- eral condition was ameliorated and the pending disaster checked. The Legislature of 1839 established separate courts of equity and chancery; adopted a peniten- tiary system and provided for the erection of the necessary buildings at Wetumpka. The boundary question, which had long been in dispute between Georgia and this State, was settled in this year, by a Joint commission of the two States. The Alabama members of that commission were : W. B. Benton, of Benton ; Alexander Bowie, of Tal- ladega, and John M. Moore, of Barbour. The year 1840 found the State of Alabama wonderfully prosperous. It owed no debts and had levied no taxes since the year 1836, the ex- penses of the government being defrayed by the State bank and its four branches, but that institu- tion, which had received the most of the Legisla- ture's attention, had from bad management, incurred the ill-will of the peojile and the end of its existence was fast approaching. The State in 1840 was composed of forty-nine counties with a total population of 590,756, divided as follows : white, 335,185; negro slaves, 253,532, and 2,039 free negroes. The General Assembly, in 1842, passed an act placing the branches of the State bank, located in Mobile, Montgomery, Huntsville and Decatur, in liquidation, and provided for winding up the affairs of those banks. This act was followed the succeeding year by one making the same disposi- tion of the mother bank at Tuscaloosa, and the method by which the State had supplied its citizens with currency for over twenty years was discon- tinued, and there was hardly a voice raised against this action. Owning stock in the bank, the State felt bound for the payment of obligations issued by it, and in consequence the legislature passed a bill, ordering an issue of State bonds to provide the means of making this payment. The debts of the bank, owing to mismanagement and the indiscrimi- nate endorsement of the worthless paper of individ- uals, largely exceeded its assets, and the State ap- pointed a commission, consisting of F. S. Lyons, of Marengo, C. C. Clay, Sr., of Madison, and Will- iam Cooper, of Franklin, for the purpose of ad- justing the affairs of the banks and making a settlement with the creditors. The issue of bonds for the purpose of settling the indebtedness of the State bank was the foundation for the present bonded debt of the State. The question of removing the capital was one which was continually coming up, and, to settle it definitely, it was submitted to a pojiular vote of the State in 1845. The leading points striving for selection as the seat of government were Tus- caloosa, Wetumpka and Montgomery, and the re- sult of the election was the selection of Mont- gomery as the future capital of the State. The people of that city immediately built a capitol building on an eminence reserved for that pur- pose, at the head of what was then known as Main or Market Street. The State archives and public offices were transferred from Tuscaloosa to the new capitol at Montgomery in 1846 and 1847. In 1849 the people voted on and adopted an amendment to the constitution, changing the title of county judges to that of probate judges, and transferring their election and the election of circuit judge from the General Assembly to the people. On the 14th of December, 1849, while the Legislature was in session in the new NORTHERN ALABAMA. 45 Capitol at Montgomery, the building was dis- covered to be on fire, and, notwithstanding the efforts made to save it, the structure was destroyed, but the progress of tlie fire was so slow that all the important records and doc- uments contained in the offices were saved. The governor secured apartments in the Exchange hotel, at Montgomery, and the session of the Legislature was continued in that building. It provided means for the erection of another State- house, to replace that destroyed by fire, which was ready for occupancy by the time of the reiis- sembling of the next session. The growth of Alabama continued steadily, and everywhere it was noticeable that the State had made great progress in all things pertaining to civiliza- tion. In 1850, the population numbered 771,623, divided as follows: whites, 420,514; negro slaves, 334,844, and 2,265 free negroes. The year 1850 and the live years following are memorable as times when the subject of internal improvement was uppermost in the minds of the people of the State, and among the great enter- prises then under consideration was the con- struction of the following lines of railway : Mo- bile & Ohio, Memphis & Charleston, Selma & Rome, Alabama & Mississippi Elvers railroad (westward from Selma), Montgomery & Pensa- cola. Mobile tS: Girard, Alabama & Chattanooga, and the Columbus branch of the Western rail- road. The discussion of the great advantage these roads would be to the State at large, in opening all quarters of it up to immigration, led also to discussing the question of the advisability of lend- ing to the companies controlling these and other roads the credit of the State to aid them in pro- curing the means to carry out their enterprises. This discussion caused several companies having money invested in such schemes to go to the Legis- lature and seek relief, or the aid which would come should the State lend them its credit, by becoming resjjonsible for tiie obligations in the financial cen- ters, or by the endorsement of their bonds, or by the issue of bonds in their favor. The Legislature was composed of members who came from localities w^hich would l>e largely benefited by the extension and completion of these enterprises, and as the local interests would be subserved, there was some- thing like a demand sent up to the General Assem- bly from such localities, that action affording the relief, or aid prayed, be taken. John A. Winston, of Sumter, then Governor of the State, was a statesman who regarded such action inconsistent with the true object of govern- ment, vetoed all measures passed by the General Assembly subsidizing such enterprises. In his message of Jan. It, 1856, vetoing the act making a loan to the Memphis & Charleston road, he says: "Experience teaches us that any departure from the legitimate and simple purposes of gov- ernment brings, as inevitably as a departure from physical and moral law, a speedy punishment, and admonishes those who have fixed ideas of public policy of the danger of any abandonment of principle, in legislation and matters of gov- ernment. The experience of Alabama is fruitful of the bitter consequences of making expediency paramount to principle." The insane asylum at Tuscaloosa was built in 1856, but was not opened until some years later. The asylum for the deaf, dumb and blind, at Tal- ladega, was completed and put in operation in 1860. In 1860 the census showed Alabama with a pop- ulation of 964,201, of which the whites numbered 526,271; negro slaves, 435,080, and free negroes 2,690. The State had grown in people, in wealth, in enlightenment, and in all things which tended to the happiness of its citizens, and every one saw an outlook of great brightness and rich promise just ahead. Notwithstanding the bright outlook of the State at this time, there must have been some who regarded the situation with concern if not alarm. Slavery was an institution in the State, as it was an institution in adjoining States. Slaves were property recognized by the constitution, and special acts commanded for them humane treatment, care- ful attention in time of sickness, proper apparel and sufficient and wholesome food at all times. The question of slavery was being discussed at the North. Enthusiasts preached abolition, and the doctrine began to gain converts until its adherents numbered thousands. A new party grew up with the theory of abolition of slavery as its founda- tion. The question of slavery was the rock on which the North and the .South in the old parties threatened to split. The leaders on both sides of the sectional line differed widely in their views, and one would not recede from an opinion, for fear it would be regarded as the surrender of a princi- ple. Thus the South stood at the opening of the 46 NORTHERN ALABAMA. year 1860 — on the eve of what proved to be the most critical epoch of the country's history. The growth and seeming strength of the new party — the Republican, or rather '' black Republican " party — filled some of the Southern leaders with apprehension that that party would be success- ful in the election for the presidency which would occur in the winter of 1860. With this fear in view, a resolution was passed by both houses of the General Assembly, in Febru- ary, I860, requiring the governor, in the event of the election of the candidate of the Black Repub- lican party, to the presidency of the United States, to order elections to be held throughout the State for delegates to a constitutional convention of the State. The contingency feared occurred, and after the count by the electoral college, Governor Moore caused writs of election, for the purpose specified, to be issued in the several counties of the State. After the election and pending the meeting of this convention, news was received of the secession of South Carolina, and following the reception of this news. Forts Morgan and Gaines, the defenses of Mobile Bay, and Mount Vernon arsenal on the Mobile river were seized by the State troops, to prevent the general government from strengthening and holding them in the event the complications led to a war between the slave hold- ing States and the Government of the United States. The State of Alabama also appointed commis- sioners to visit the other slave-holding States to confer with them "as to what was best to be done to protect their interest and honor in the impend- ing crisis." The constitutional convention, provided for by the joint resolutions of Feb. 24, 1860, met in the city of Montgomery on the Tth day of January, 1861, and on the 11th of that month the body adopted, by a vote of sixty-one to thirty-nine, an instrument entitled, " An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Alabama and other States united under the compact styled 'The Con- stitution of the United States of America.'" The ordinance was signed by William M. Brooks, president of the convention, and the following members: A. J. Curtis, W. H. Davis, John W. L. Daniel, E. S. Dargin, H. G. Humphries, 0. R. Blue, Franklin K. Beck, Samuel J. Boiling, A. P. Love, B. H. Baker, of Russell; Thomas Hill Watts, A. A. Coleman, Thomas H. Herndon, David P. Lewis, Lyman Gibbons, William H. Barnes, George Rives, Sr., Archibald Rhea Bar- clay, Daniel F. Ryan, Samuel Henderson, of Macon; John R. Coffey, Albert Grumpier, George- Taylor, James S. Williamson, John Tyler Morgan,. Gappa T. Yelverton, Thomas T. Smith, Nicholas Davis, W. E. Clarke, of Marengo; George For- rester, John W. Inzer, M. G. Slaughter, Julius C. B. Mitchell, David B. Creech, John Green, Sr., Richard J. Wood, William A. Hood, Arthur Camp- bell Beard, R. Jemison, Jr., Jeiferson Buford,^ DeWitt Clinton Davis, William S. Earnest, James F. Bailey, N. D. Johnson. H. E. Owens, Henry M. Gay, Ralph 0. Howard, John P. Ralls, James McKinnie, J. P. Timberlake, of Jackson; James G. Hawkins, J. M. McClannahan, John B. Len- nard, Jere Clemens, Eli W. Starke, 0. S. Jewett, John M. Crook, G. C. Whatley, James G. Gil- christ, William S. Phillips, James W. Crawford,. James S. Clarke, S. E. Catterlin, J. D. Webb, W. L. Yancey, George D. Shortridge, J. A. Hender- son, John McPherson, James F. Dowdell, James- L. Sheffield, George A. Ketcham, John Bragg, Lewis M. Stone, John Cochran and Alpheus Baker. Twenty-four members of the convention did not sign the ordinance, as follows: John S. Brashear and W. H. Edwards, of Blount; Henry C. Sanford,. W. L. Whitlock and John Potter, of Cherokee; W. 0. Winston and J. H. Franklin, of DeKalb^ B. W. Wilson and E. P. Jones, of Fayette; John A. Steele and R. S. Watkins, of Franklin; S. C, Posey and H. C. Jones, of Lauderdale; J. P. Cowan and T. J. McClellan, of Limestone; I-ang" C. Allen and Winston Steadham, of ilarion; .Jona- than Ford, of Morgan; A. Kimball, M. .J. Bulger and T. J. Russell, of Tallapoosa; William R. Smith, of Tuscaloosa; Robert Guttery, of Walker, and C. C. Sheats, of Winston. The ordinance directed that copies of it should be prepared and forwarded to the various slave- holding States, with the invitation that each of them send delegates to a convention to meet in Montgomery on the -ith of February, 1861, for the- purpose of forming " a provisional and permanent government, ujjon the principles of the Constitu- tion of the L^nited States — and for the purpose of consulting with each other as to the most effectual mode of securing concerted and harmonious action in whatever measures may be deemed most desir- able for our common peace and security." Delegates were chosen by this convention to- represent Alabama in this provisional congress of NORTHERN ALABAAfA. 47 the slave-holding States. After this the conven- tion took !i recess to await the action of the con- gress of the seceding States. The Alabama mem- bers of the national congress withdrew from their respective houses on the day following the adoption of the ordinance of secession. Delegates representing seven Southern States assembled at the capitol in Jlontgoniery on the 4th day of February, 18(51, and proceeded to organ- ize the government of the Confederate States of America. This body adopted a constitution embracing all the salient points contained in the Federal constitution, which it submitted to the various Southern States for adoption. It elected Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as president, and Alexander II. Stephens of Georgia, as vice-presi- dent of the Confederate States of America, and located, temporarily, the scat of government of the Confederate States at Montgomery. The constitutional convention of the State of Alabama, which had recessed after the adoption of the ordinance of secession, met again after the organization of the Confederate States, and changed the sessions of the Legislature from biennial to annual, ratified the constitution of the Confederate States which had been submitted to it, and after making some other changes in the State constitution, adjourned suie die on March 21, 1861. An extra session of the State Legislature was called in March, 1861, on account of the changed condition of affairs, and after its adjournment another session was called in October of the same year. War was formally declared by President Lin- coln in a proclamation issued April 15, 1861, and at once Alabama regiments began to take up their march to the front, until it was estimated that by October of that year, this State had fur- nished fully 27,000 soldiers, and by the same time of the following year fully 60,000 citizens of Ala- bama were bearing arms in the service of the Con- federate government. The State was by no means a unit on the ques- tion of secession, as was evidenced by the vote of the convention on the measure, and further, by the failure or refusal of a jiortion of the delegates to atlix their signatures to the ordinance, and the fact is worthy of note that almost every one of those who failed or refused to sigti that instrument resided in counties lying in the northern portion of the State, the most southerly county whose delegates did not sign being Tallapoosa. The result of this was that between the adoption of the ordinance and the declaration of war by President Lincoln, the matter of organizing the northern portion of Alabama into a loyal State was freely and openly discussed in that section of the State. The name of the proposed new State had been decided on, and had not the proclamation of war followed so speedily on the adjournment of the constitutional convention, it is probable that the State of "Nickajack" would have been brought into existence. Within a year after the declaration of war the northern portion of Alabama was occupied by the Federal troops, and the Tennessee valley was the scene of war almost continuously from that time until the cessation of hostilities. The battles were fought with varying success, first one side being in control of the ground and then the other. The con- tests there were fierce, and the advances and retreats left a blood-stained trail through the valleys and over the hills of North Alabama. Some of the Federal commands occupying this section of the State were guilty of the greatest excesses and a savage brutality in their treatment of the defense- less people whom they found there. Robbery and wanton destruction of property was a common occurrence, and Federal occupation blighted many a growing village in the Tennessee Valley. In May, 1863, Forrest captured Col. A. D. Streight, with 1,700 men, in the eastern part of Cherokee county. The remainder of the State was not the scene of actual hostilities until later in the war, though occasional raids were made from Georgia during the year 1863, and in July, 1864, General Rosseau, with a party of about 1,500 cavalry, entered the State from the mountains and penetrated as far Loachapoka, en route to Colum- bus, Ga. He destroyed a great deal of property on this march. In August, 1864, the federals, being in possession of both Pcnsacolaand New Orleans, turned their attention to the capture of Mobile, the approach to which was strongly guarded by Forts Gaines and Morgan at the entrance of Mobile Bay. To accomplish this, on the 3d of August, 1864, 1,500 Federal infantry were landed on Dauphin Island and moved on Fort (iaines, which was situated on the eastern point of that island. Two day? later eighteen war steamers, having 2,700 men on board and carrying 202 guns, under the command of 48 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Admiral Farragut, made an attempt to ran the gauntlet between the forts and enter Mobile Bay. The guns from both forts opened on them and one of the vessels, an iron-clad, the " Tecumseh," was sunk by a torpedo, going down with her crew of 120 men. The remaining vessels succeeded in passing into the bay, where they engaged the Con- federate fleet stationed there, which consisted of a ram and three gunboats, carrying twenty-two guns and about 500 men. The engagement which ensued is said to have been one of the fiercest naval combats on record, and it ended in the capture of the ram and one of the gunboats and the retreat of another, while the third took refuge under the walls of Fort Morgan. The assault on Fort Gaines by land and water was such that on the 8th of August it capitu- lated. The combined forces at Farragut's control were then disposed to capture Fort Morgan. Thirty-five hundred men were landed on the main- land in rear of the fort, and the siege was com- menced. The terrific bombardment by the fleet finally resulted in the surrender of the fort. The operations about this section were kept up until the Federals had forced the evacuation of Spanish Fort and its protecting outposts, and had captured the garrison at Blakey, after which the Confed- erate forces withdrew from the city of Mobile, which was occupied by the Federals on the 12tli of April, 18C5. During the operations about Mobile, Forrest was active in North Alabama, and in September, 1864, he captured nearly 2,000 Federal infantry near Athens, in Limestone county. While the Federals were assaulting the forces about Mobile, General Wilson advanced from the northern part of Frank- lin county with an army of 15,000 troops. His route lay by Eussellville, Jasper and Elyton. After passing the latter place he was met by Forrest, and after some severe skirmishing with him, the great number and superiority of Wilson's command forced Forrest to fall back towards Selma. Here Forrest, with a command of about 3,000 men, many of whom were raw, made a stand, and for a time resisted the desperate onslaught of the Federal cav- alry, but without avail, and Wilson captured Selma with 2,500 of its defenders. At Elyton General Croxton was detached with a force of men and moved in the direction of Tuscaloosa, which place he captured after a severe skirmish on the 3d of April. This command burned down the State University building. General Wilson, after the capture of Selma, moved on towards Montgomery, which city he entered without resistance on the 12th of April, 1865. The surrender of Gen. Richard Taylor, the commander of the military department, of which Alabama was a part, to General Canbv, on the 4th of May, 1 865, was the occasion of a cessa- tion of hostilities throughout the State. The flag of an Alabama regiment floated on every battle field from Pennsylvania to Missouri, and the bravery of Alabamians won for the State a renown which is a proud heritage to transmit to coming generations. It is estimated that fully 122,000 of this State's sons took up arms in the cause of the Confederacy, and of this number one- fourth gave up life at the front; their blood flowed on every battle field of the war, and their bones lie bleaching on the hill-tops and in the valleys of every State in which the contending forces met. The clouds of war lifted — the smoke of battle disappeared, leaving blackened ruins in Alabama, and vacant chairs at many firesides. The echoes of the groans of the wounded and dying wrung the hearts of many Alabamians for years. Cruel war had filled the homes of the State with black- robed mourners, who in sorrow awaited the sum- mons which would call them to meet their loved ones on the other shore. The slaves who had toiled to produce that which supported their own- ers and themselves were, by the result of the war, free. The land owners still owned their lands, but lacked the means of cultivating their prop- erty. The soldiers who returned from the front, arrived at their homes sore in body, in spirit, and impoverished in purse. They had followed the banner of their State through all the varying fortunes of war, and when the final disaster over- whelmed that banner and the cause for which they struggled, they appreciated their condition, and though the out-look was gloomy, they deter- mined to bend their energies to the recuperation of their resources and the itp-building of their homes. Buoyed up by this spirit, those who returned to Alabama immediately after the cessation of hos- tilities, found affairs in a most confused con- dition. Civil government was deposed. A military master ruled in place of a ruler selected by the people from among themselves. Military courts dispensed a justice peculiarly their own, NORTHERN ALABAMA. 49 after their own fashion, and these courts felt tlieni- selves paramount to all law. The civil govern- nient whicii the Federals found in charge of the State when the capital was captured on the 12th of April, 1S()5, Avas at once abolished, and from that time until June 21 of the same year, there was no civil authority in the State. On the latter date President Johnston appointed Lewis E. Parsons j)rovisional Governor of Alabama, and by procla- mation authorized him to call a convention of loyal citizens to make such alterations in the or- ganic law of the State as would make it conform with the United States, under the new order of things brought about by the war. The test of loy- alty which should determine a right to participate in this convention would be subscribing to an oath of allegiance to the United States Government. In pursuance of this proclamation. Jlr. Parsons took charge of the State's affairs, and by appoint- ment tilled the various otlices throughout the State. The convention provided for in the President's proclamation met in Montgomery on the 12th of September, 18(55. The body was a representative gathering, and at the session, which lasted until the 20th of September, ordinances formally abol- ishing slavery, annulling the ordinance of seces- sion, and annulling all ordinances of the conven- tion of 1861 in conflict with the Constitution, were adopted. This convention, before its adjourn- ment, provided for the election of State and county otticers throughout the State in November follow- ing, and the outlook led all to believe that the bright promises of peace would soon be attained. At the election held in November, 18(55, Robert M. Patton, of Lauderdale, was cho.sen governor over William \\. Smith, of Tuscaloosa, and Michael J. Bulger, of Tallapoosa. A Legislature was chosen at this election as well as the representatives to Congress. The latter were not permitted to take their seats. The Legi-slature met at the ajipointed time and Governor Patton was duly inaugurated into ottice as Governor of the State. Congress had passed what is known as the fourteenth amend- ment to the Constitution, which conferred the priveleges of citizenship on the freedmen of the JSouthern States: repudiated their debts incurred in support of the war ; disfranchised all .Southern men wiio held State or Federal oftices and after- wards espoused the cause of the Confederate States, and abridged the representation of the Southern States in Congress, in proportion, .as their citizens were deprived of their voting privilege. This amendment was submitted to the legislatures of the various Southern States for ratification, and on the 7th day of September, 180(5, the Legis- lature refused to ratify the amendment. The consequence of this refusal to ratify the proposed fourteenth amendment, by the Alabama Legisla- ture, Congress, on March 2, 18(57, passed a law over President Johnston's veto, placing Alabama, with other Southern States, under military rule, the law providing that the military department, of which this State was made a part, should be under the command of a regular army ofticer, not of lower rank than brigadier general, who was, by the law, vested with all power. lie was to take charge of the department, and if he saw fit, had the authority to remove all civil officers, and appoint in their places such oHicials as he chose. Courts were abolished and their jilaces taken by military tribunals, presided over by officers holding appointment from the department commander, and these courts had jurisdiction in all matters, civil and criminal, and could inflict any punish- ment they chose, e.xcept that of death. The law provided that this regime should terminate when the State held a constitutional convention which should draft a constitution embodying the points covered by the fourteenth amendment, and which constitution should, after adoption, be submitted to the people for ratification, which should be by ])opular rote and would require the votes of a majority of the registered electors for ratification. The convention was chosen and met in the fall of 1867. The body, after several days' session, adopted a constitution, which was submitted to the people for ratification in February, 1868, at which election the party favoring the views of Congress, voted for the adoption of the constitu- tion, and for candidates for State and county offices. This party was in the minority, and as the party which opposed the views of Congress refused to vote on the question, the constitution failed to receive a majority of the registered voters, and consequently failed of ratification. The result of the election was reported to Congress and although the constitution had not been ratified, as provided in the law authorizing the convention and its submission to the people. Congress, by act, declared it the constitution of the State of Alabama, and ordered that the candidates voted for at the election held in February, be installed in the offices for which they ran. H. M. Patton, who was elected to the office of 50 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Governor in November 1865, was practically deprived of office by the act of Congress of March, 1867, placing the State under military authority, but he nominally filled the office until July, 1868, when Wm. H. Smith, of Randolph, who was voted for for that position in February, 1868, was inaugu- rated, which was on the 13th of July of that year. The Legislature, which was convened at once, was composed of men, many of whom were not citizens of the State, and many of its members were igno- rant negroes who had no idea of statesmanship, beyond the collection of their per diem. The body contained very few representative citizens of Ala- bama. Tricksters, lobbyists and monopolists and jobbers swarmed down on the capitol building during the session, and bribery and corruption were the order of the day. Another session of this assembly was held in October, 1868. An immense indebtedness was saddled on the State by this body, through its indiscriminate grants of subsidies to railroads, and for many years the State's honor and credit were sorely involved and its resources drained to meet the obligations which had been fastened on it by men who plundered and pillaged for the sake of the individual profit in the exercise of the duties of misrepresentation. Notwithstanding the war and the terribly un- settled state of affairs following its termination, the census of 1870 showed that Alabama's popula- tion was still increasing. That census fixed the population of the State at 096,992, of which 531,384 were whites and 475,510 were negroes. An election for State officers was held in Novem- ber, 1870, which resulted in the election of Robert B. Lindsay, of Colbert, as governor, over W. H. Smith, who had served in that capacity since July, 1868. Governor Smith refused to surrender his office to his successor, and procured an injunc- tion restraining the president of the senate from counting the returns of the election for the office of governor, alleging that the returns were illegal. The members of the senate held over from the previous election, and that body was presided over by R. N. Barr, who, by virtue of his position, proceeded to count in a joint session of both houses, the election returns, except for the posi- tions of governor and State treasurer. A majority of the house of representatives were composed of good men, men who were representative citizens of the State, and this action of the president of the senate was objected to by them, and on the con- clusion of the first count these representatives. with two members of the senate, procured the election returns from the office of the secretary of State, to which they had been returned by the president of the senate. The members of the house and those of the senate present installed Hon. Edward H. Moren, of Bibb, lieutenant- governor-elect, in his office, after which, he, in his- official capacity, proceeded to count the returns, and declared Robert B. Lindsay elected as governor, and James F. Grant, of Calhoun, State treasurer. Governor Lindsay was immedi- ately inaugurated as chief executive of the State, and at once assumed the functions of the posi- tion. Governor Smith refused to vacate the capi- tol and obtained from the Federal garrison at Montgomery a detail of United States soldiers for the double purpose of sustaining him in his claims to the office of governor, and awing his contestant into relinquishing his right to dis- charge the duties devolving on him by virtue of his election by the people. This period is what is known as the " Bayonet Legislature," and con- tinued some two or three weeks, the senate recog- nizing ex- Governor Smith, while the house recog- nized Governor Lindsay as the chief executive. Legal steps to oust Governor Smith were taken, and, in obedience to a writ issued by the circuit court of Montgomery county, he vacated the office on the 8th of November, 1870. Governor Lindsay found the affairs of the State in a deplorable condition on entering office, and set about the work of straightening them up. He was a man of excellent education, a polished gentleman, a most desirable companion, and highly entertaining, but he did not possess the ability to grapple practically, and successfully handle the grave questions which were involved in the administration of the State's government at the time that duty was in his hands. His friends clung to him, and rendered him all the aid possi- ble, but his critics were observant, powerful and merciless, and the good qualities he possessed were not sufficiently strong to condone the faults of, or the failures which marked his administration, and at its close his party nominated Thomas H. Hern- don to succeed him. Mr. Herndon was opposed by David P. Lewis, of Madison, the nominee of the Republican party, who, with the entire State ticket of that party, was elected in 1872. The administration of Governor Lewis is classed with that of the other Republican administrations which followed the close of the war as a recon- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 51' struction administration. The majoritj' of the ofiicers of the State were men who had drifted to tlie South at the war's dose for the purjiose of picking a competency out of the troubles of the people, and were known as carpet-baggers, while their State-born-and-reared associates, who aided and abetted them in obtaining and keeping con- trol of the government against the evident inter- ests of the State, were termed by the opposi- tion, scallawags. This administration of Governor Lewis was marked by an indisposition to do any- thing to rescue the State from the fate to which it was fast hurrying. Its debt was large and being increased. Its credit was at the lowest ebb. Its obligjations were hawked about and offered for a song. Its revenues, if at all, barely paid the ex- penses of extravagant and reckless government, and the interest on the State debt was met by bor- rowing the amount which the treasury would be short. Taxes were becoming onerous, and the people looked to the future with dread. Other Southern States similarly situated were discussing the disgraceful resort of repudiation to relieve them of indebtedness for which they received no benefit. This matter was discussed to some extent in this State, but the popular voice was against it, and the leaders set themselves the task of redeem- ing the State from the thralldom which had in- volved it so deeply, and a continuance of which threatened it with absolute bankru]itcy. In 18T4 a vigorous campaign was opened in all quarters of the State. The watchword of the Democratic party was retrenchment and reform, and the convention of that jiarty which assembled in the summer of that year, selecteictures(|ue scenery, educational advantages, cul- tured and refined society, and noted healthfulness, give it such substantial charms as make it one of the most desirable sections for residence in the South. Madison is the banner county of the cereal belt. It leads all others in wealth and the produc- tion of cotton. The soils of the county vary, but generally are of the red clay subsoil. Its shape is almost sijuare. The county is remarkably well watered, there being twelve creeks and rivers running through it from the north to south. These are Barren Fork. Indian, Prices' Fork, Beaver Dam, Frier's Fork, Mountain Fork, Hur- ricane, Aldridge, Limestone and Huntsville Spring creeks, and Flint and Paint Rock rivers. In the mountainous portion of the county, eastward, and on the Whitesburg pike to the Tennessee river south of Huntsville, are found farms which are devoted to raising-clover, small grain and stock with great success. This county occupies medium ground between the tropical and temperate pro- ducing regions, with many characteristics peculiar to both. Its soil yields cotton, but is most natur- ally adapted to the raising of grasses, grain, corn and stock. The average annual yield of cotton is 20,000 bales, but there is a growing disposition on the part of the farmers to forsake cotton, and to adopt stock raising and the production of cereals exclu- sively. The lands being of red clay subsoil, are susceptible of the highest state of fertility, and being generally level, are easily cultivated. Mad- ison is one of the largest corn-producing counties in the State. The raising of wheat is annually increasing, and twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre is not considered an unusual crop on good 60 NORTHERN ALABAMA. land. The soils of the county are especially adapted to corn, cotton, wheat, tobacco, oats, rye, barley, peas, jDotatoes and millet. Orchard grass, Herds grass, Timothy and all the clovers grow- here to jierfection, producing as much as three tons per acre. The cotton crop is estimated at $1,000,000 ; corn cro]^ about the same ; jieas and beans, $50,000 ; potatoes, $100,000, and horses, cattle and sheep, nearly 81,000,000. Being well watered, with clear running streams the entire year, the county is admirably adapted to the rais- ing of horses, mules, cattle, sheeji and hogs ; all these thrive, and this has jiroven a most profitable business. Importations of stock of all kinds have been attended witli great success, this climate proving remarkably healthy for them. There is in this county now, at least 100 registered Jersey cattle (a recent business), and several head are direct from the island of Jersey. They are as healthy and jirolific a herd as anywhere in the United States. There are also two or three herds of Holsteins. in which are represented some of the finest milk strains in the world. Tliey have fine health, and thrive remarkably well. Madison has, perhajDS. the finest horses and jacks in the entire country, and stock-raising is becoming a chief and very profitable business. Perliaps in no county in the State is more attention devoted to the matter of education than in Madison. Schools of excellent grade are to be found throughout the county. Men of thi'if t, energy and enterprise, whether with or without capital, will be cordially welcomed in this county. Adjacent to the mountains, the soils are admirably adapted to the cultivation of vine- yard and orchard products. Great and rapid strides have already been made in the direction of horticulture. In this county is the largest nursery in the United States, and its business has proven eminently successful. Its name is " Huntsville Wholesale Nurseries," and as that name implies, the trees grown are intended for the wholesale trade. The tract of land devoted to the business is over a thousand acres. Orders received are mostly from distant nurserymen. The production is confined to pears, plums, cherries and peaches. The plants that will be ready for setting ne.xt spring will be over 3,000,000,000, which with the large crops of trees already growing, yield sup- plies for an extensive business. Ship)ments of trees are made to all parts of the United States and Canada. Varieties of fruit trees suited to the most North- ern or Southern limits are propagated here. The products of these nurseries have given satisfaction wherever sent, and the demand for them is con- stantly increasing. The immense water power of this county, its abounding timber, and its splendid climate are attracting repeated accessions of population. Its various advantages are unequaled. No causes for local disease exist, and the elements of wealth are in close proximity. The timber is chiefly iiost, black, white, Spanish oaks, and beech, poplar and sugar maple. A world of the finest cedar is in the adjoining county of Jackson, through which the Memphis & Charleston Railroad runs. Labor is abundant and cheap. Lands are cheaper tlian anywhei'e in the South, considering their intrinsic value, though they are gradually increasing in value, There are fine pikes in the county and the public roads are excellent most of the year. Madi- son county is out of debt, and does not owe a dollar. Taxes are low. There is every substan- tial indication that this valley of remarkable beauty, iTuequaled health, and wonderful fertility, will, at an early day, reach the highest state of develop- ment, and an era of the greatest prosperity will reign. So high an authority as Commodore Maury states, in his celebrated work on geography, that this valley, all things considered, is the garden spot of the United States. And such is the verdict of all who see it. Coal has been discovered in the Northern portion of Madison, and iron is also believed to exist in valuable and paying quantities. Gas is believed, by exjierts, to exist in the vicinity of Huntsville, and that if the test was made by boring, it would be discovered in abundance, and of a fine quality. The partial boring of a well near the city developed eYidences of oil and gas such as to warrant the above opinion. Newspapers published at County Seat^Z'pww- vrat (democrat). Gazette (colored republican), In- dependott (democrat), Mercury (democrat). New South (republican). Normal Index (educational). Postoffices in the County — Bell Factory, Berk- ley, Bloomfield, Brownsborough, Carmichael, Cluttsville, Dan, Fisk, Green Grove, Curly, Haden, Hayes' Store, Hazel Green, HnntsviUe, Lowe, Madison Cross Eoads, Madison Station, Maysville, Meridianville, Monrovia, New Ifarket, Owen's Cross Roads, Plevana, Popular Ridge, Rep, Triana, Whitesburgh, Wiley. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 61 Madison is an incorporiited town of about 500 iiiluibittiiits, in .Madison county, ten miles west from Hiintsville on the Menn)liis & Cliarleston Jiaiiroad. Its prosperity dejwnds mostly upon tlie fertility of the soil in tlie surrounding country, and the cotton, of which about 2,(iOO bales are shipped from its station annually. It has eight or nine general stores: a post, tele- graph and e.vpress office; Methodist, Haptist, C'hristian. and tiiree colored churches, and a good academy ; a very healthful place ; has fine freestone water, and its society is liighlv moral. .«« C. W. MARTIN was born near :\Iadison in 1820, and has spent his entire life in Madison county. In business he has been a farmer and mei chant, in the last of which be has been very successful. At the close of the late war he, like almost everybody else at the South, was tinancially a wreck, but by close and persistent iij)plica- tion to business, he has retrieved his loss. He was a son of Richard and Lydia (Fitts) ilartin, who came from Virginia to Alabama about 1810. Uichard .Martin was a farmer, and served in the War of 1812. They had eleven children, of whom but four are living. Two of their sons were in Ward's Battery (Confederate States army), and both serveredations. A body of citizens who desired to be rid of them met in convention in a cave in this county and passed resolutions which partook of the nature of laws : that conven- tion has been called "the first legislature.'' They cliose Joe Burleson for their president, and Jona- than Burleson for secretary. "They quickly cleaned out the horse thieves."' .lonathiin Burleson's first marriage was to Eliz- abeth Byrd, daughter of William Byrd. a Baptist preacher. She bore him thirteen children. The second was to Ann Humphreys, widow of Dr. Humphreys, of Somerviile. Her maiden name wiis lioby, and she bore him one child. The eld- est of this family, Aaron A. Burleson, was the first white child born in Morgan county ; he was a physician in Decatur for nuiny years, and is now in Arkansas, liufus C. Burleson is the most prom- inent member of the family. He is a Baptist preacher, a famous educator, and is now president of the Waco University, Waco, Tex. He entered the ministry when but eighteen years of age. and has led a life of ceaseless activity in Texas for a third of a century. It is recorded in history that Rufus C. Burleson has done more for the cause of education-- than any other man in Texas, and he has been called the "Xestor of Texas preachers and teach- ers. " He was a pioneer of that country in his profession, and he has educated thousands who have gone forth to success in all the learned professions. He is proficient in ancient Ian-- guages and lore : is eloquent in the pulpit ; kind and industrious in the class, and much beloved at- home. WILLIAM H. SIMPSON, attorney-at-law, Ilart- selle, Ala., was born at Danville, this State, July 15, 1857, and attended school there until he went to college at Tu.scaloosa, where he was graduated in the law department of the State University in 187'.i. Prior to his entering college he read law four months at Tuscumbia under Governor Lind- sey, was admitted to the bar in October, 187», and licensed to practice in the Supreme Court of the State in February, 1880. He was elect- ed to the Legislature on the Democratic ticket in 1886. Mr. Simpson seems to have things very much his own way in Ilartselle, being the only lawyer there, and his practice, which is mostly in common law and equity, gives him about as much work as he can do. He was married March 2(i. 1882, to Miss JIary Daniel Johnson, a daughter of Daniel Johnson, who was killed in the battle of Shiloh when Mary was an infant, and she was given his full name in honor of his memory. Stephen and Malinda (Stovall) Simpson, our subject's })arents, were residents of Danville, where Stephen .Simpson was a merchant for more than thirty years. He was postmaster at various times, ' before, during and since the war. He accumulated. 66 NORTHERN ALABAMA. a fortune, but lost heavily by the war and by the credit system. He was a Baptist and a Mason. He died at Danville in June, 1884. Malinda Stovall (William's mother) was a daughter of Drew Stovall, one of tlie pioneers who helped expel the Indians from the country. He accumulated a large fortune in land and slaves, and died just be- fore the late war. Moses Simpson (William's grandfather) and his sons, James and Tliomas, came down the Tennessee river on a flat boat, from the Sequatchie Valley, Tenn., in 1823, and made a corn crop where Decatur is now located. In the fall of tliat year, he brought his family there, and afterwards entered land near Danville and there located per- manently. He raised a family of eight sons and four daughters: James, Thomas, Abington, William, George, Reuben, Stephen, Moses, ^latilda, Polly, Betsy, and Emily. Stephen reared four sons and one daughter. They are Walter T., now of Texas; Wm. H., our subject; Claud, wlio died in 1883, and Edgar, now near Selma. Orrie, the daughter, married W. V. Echols, a merchant of Hartselle. William H. Simpson is a jiopular and jirosperous young man, and received the largest vote for the Legislature that was ever cast in his county for one man. IV. LAWRENCE COUNTY. Population: White, 12,(:!50; colored, 8,400. Area, 790 square miles. Woodland, all. Red Valley lands, 260 square miles. Calcareous slopes, 220 square miles. Mountain lands, 150. Coal measures, 160. Acres — In cotton, approximately, 42,800; in corn, 54,600; in oats, 5,700: in wheat, 6,000; in rye, 125: in tobacco, 100; in sweet potatoes, 400. Approximate number of bales of cotton in round numbers, 14,000. County Seat — Moulton: Population, 800: located fifteen miles south of Memphis & Charleston Rail- road. Newspaper publislied at County Seat — Adver- tiser (Democrat). Postoffices in the County — Avoca, Brick, Camp Springs, Concord, Courtland, Gum Pond, Hatton, Hillsborough, Jesseton, Kinlock, Moulton, Mount Hope, Oakville, Ora, Pitt, Pool, Progress, Spang- ler. Town Creek, Wheeler Station. Lawrence was established by the first Territorial Legislature, Feb. 4, 1818. It was formed out of the Cherokee and Chickasaw, cessions of lol6, and still retains its original dimensions. 'It lies in the nortliwest quarter of the State, contiguous to Lauderdale and Limestone on the north, Morgan on the east, Winston on the south, Franklin and Colbert on the west. It was named for Capt. James Lawrence, of the United States Xavy. His last order was : "Fight her till she sinks." The county is penetrated from east to west by two extensive valleys, known as Courtland and Moulton Valleys, the former of these being in the northern and the latter being in the southern j)ortion of tlie county, while the center is occupied by a detached mountain known as Little J\Iountain. The Little Mountain region, which occupies the central portion of the count}-, has a light sandy soil, which in point of fertility falls far behind those of the two valleys. But no portion of the county is more inviting than this as a place of res- idence. Elevated three or four hundred feet above the valleys, supplied with a profusion of freestone and chalybeate springs, with a soft, healthful atmos- phere, with extensive reaches of grazing lands for herds, this section is most inviting to many who come to Lawrence County in search of homes. A small colony of Quakers has recently located in this NORTHERN ALABAMA. G7 rejiioii, midway between the towns of Courtland and Moultoii. The county is traversed by iiun)i-rous streams, large and small, wliich alTord abundant supplies of water to every portion. Tiie northern boundary of the county is formed by the Tennessee Kiver. and more than half this boundary is occupied by the (ireat Jlussel Shoals, which are not navigable. The upper boundary, however, is on the open por- tion of the 'J'enncssee River, which will soon be oj)ened to the largest packets. In other portions of the county are Town and Xance Creeks, a fork of Flint Itivur and Sipsey Fork. Springs of great coolness and of unceasing flow issue from the hilly portions of the county. 'JMmber is not in sufficient quantities for com- mercial purjioses. In the past the Little Jloun- tain region furnished great (puintities to the two valleys between which it is situated; but the for- ests have been sufficiently depleted to create care and protection against future depredations. For home consumption Ihere is still a sufficiency of ])ine, white oak and poj)lar. The islands in the Tennessee are densely wooded with poplar, white oak, ash, red gum and black oak; but this timber is inaccessible to a great degree, and will remain so until the canal shall have been opened around the Mussel Shoals. The mineral resources of the county, as far as discovered, are limited. A few thin seams of coal are found on the high escarpments of the moun- tains, but it is not in sufficient quantities forprac- tical purposes. Almost every kind of fruit seems to do well in Lawrence County. The productions have been the most satisfactory. Grape culture has received more attention than any other. The facilities for transjiortation will be restricted to the ^femphis & Charleston Railroad, which runs through the Courtland Valley, east and west, until the Tennessee River shall liave been opened by the completion of the JIussel Shoals Canal. The chief towns of the county are Moulton, the county-seat, Courtland and Leighton. Good cotnmon schools exist in every section of the county, and a female acailemy of high grade in the town of Moultou. In almost every region of the county are the ev- idences of thrift and jirogress. Along the high, healthful ridges are found many handsome homes, adorned with flower gardens and surrounded with spacious orchards. In some regions of the county, where coves are formed, there are oftentimes found scenes of great wildness and beauty. The prices of land vary in the county, and are controlled by the fertility of the soil and the lo- cation of the land. Lands vary in prices from $5 to $.50. Thrifty, wide-awake, progressive immigrants will be greeted by the good people of Lawrence County. Farmers, fruit-growers, and stock-raisers could not find a more inviting section. The county embodies 07,200 acres of land belonging to the gover!iment, some of which is subject to entry. JOSEPH WHEELER of Lawrence County, pres- ent member of Congress from the E'gbth Alabama district, and distinguished in the history of the country as the greatest cavalry commander of the Southern Confederacy, was born at Augusta, Ga., Sept. 10, 1636, and graduated from West Point as brevet second lieutenant of dragoons, class of 1859. His first assignment to duty was at the Cavalry School for Practice at Carlisle, Pa. From here he was transferred to Xew Jle.xico, where he was commissioned second lieutenant. About this time he began to study in earnest the science of war. Ilis greatest ambi- tion was to become a gallant cavalry commander, and his success in the prosecution and accomplish- ment of this desire must be read in the authenti- cated annals of the bloodiest war of which history gives an account. For four long years his brilliant achievements crowded upon the heels of each other like the revolving views of a panorama, and while many a chieftain whose heroic valor canonized him in the hearts of a glorious people, drank oft of the bitter cup of defeat, when the penant of Wheeler was lowered and the hilt of his sabre was turned, it was when resistance was no longer war; it was when the notes of the bugle summoned the cava- lier no more to the charge, but in tones, saddened indeed, though sounding a pa>an to peace, signaled him from the field of carnage and of strife; it wjis when the curtain had fallen upon the last act of the terrible trngcdy: it was when the Civil War was ended I As has been seen, Wheeler was in New Mexico at the outbreak of the war between the States, and the following letter written by him to his brother, Capt. William II. Wheeler, of (ieorgia, early in 68 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 1861, gives something of an insight of the sjjirit that actuated many a brave man, and contradicts the oft- repeated charges of disloyalty and treason at heart, to the Union: "Much as I love the Union, much as I am attached to my profession, all will be given up when my State, by its action, shows that such a course is necessary and proper. If Georgia withdraws and becomes a separate State, I can not, with propriety, and justice to my people, hesitate in resigning my commission." Lieutenant Wheeler's resignation was dated at Fort Fillmore, February 21, 1801, and he reached Augusta in person early in the following March. He was at once commissioned first lieutenant of artillery in the regular army and stationed at Pen- sacola, Fla., where he busied liimself erecting batteries and fortifications, drilling regiments, instructing companies in artillery practice and various other duties. While there he attracted the attention of the Hon. James L. Pugh and other gentlemen, who, without his knowledge, indited the following to Mr. Davis: "We feel it our duty to call your attention to a young officer at this place. Lieutenant Wheeler of tlie regular army. Our observation of him convinces us that he would be of great value as the commander of volunteer soldiers. His qualifications are unquestioned. " Similar recommendations were forwarded by Gen. Bragg and others, and early in the summer of 1861, Wheeler was promoted to the rank of colonel and assigned to the command of the Nineteenth Alabama Infantry. At the head of this regiment he won his first distinction at Shiloh. Division Commander Withers, in his report of that engage- ment, says: " * * * Colonel Wheeler, through- out the fight, proved himself worthy of all trust and confidence — a gallant commander and an accomplished soldier. " Col. Wheeler was imme- diately promoted to brigadier-general, and from that hour, his star, which had never waned, was, to the close of the conflict, particularly in the ascendency. How he fought the enemy at Farmington and checked his advance upon Corinth; covered the retreat of Beauregard from the latter place, and deceived federal General Pope; took charge of the idle, neglected and almost decimated cavalry of the Army of the Mississippi ; organized it, thrust it inside of the well-established lines of the enemy, destroyed his communications, whipped his cavalry, captured his trains, burned his cotton, and sped back to cover of safety without the loss of a man, are all given in detail by the historians of the war, and commented upon as opening the eyes of army commanders to the hitherto uu- thought of possibilities in cavalry service. There is no doubt but what Wheeler's tactics, as practiced by himself, revolutionized cavalry warfare and developed it into the important branch of service it soon became and will forever remain. On the march of the Southern army into Ken- tucky, Wheeler's cavalry struck many a well- aimed blow at the flanks of the retreating enemy; at Mumfordsville he won the admiration and com- pliments of the Xorthern army "for gallantry and brilliancy in action," and at Perry ville he was the cynosure of both armies, as he held the enemy in check, or charged him again and again at the head of his brigade, finally jJutting him to rout. Upon retiring from Kentucky, General Bragg appointed Wheeler chief of cavalry, and as such he covered that retreat into Tennessee. We next see him harrassing the enemy about Nash- ville, making life a burden to Rosecrans' foragers, and fighting, in quick succession, twenty-eight dis- tinct battles and as many skirmishes — historic events that flashed with the rapidity and changes of the kaleidoscope before the eyes of the world. Pages upon pages have been written and might be repeated by us to tell only a partial history of Wheeler's command. In our mind's eye we follow his phantom-like movements about Stone River> where for five days he slept not to e.xceed so man}' hours: where, at the head of his gallant followers, he dashed into the enemy's rear, his right, his left, his center— here, there, everywhere, borne with the speed of the wind from point to point during the memorable conflict, encircling Rosencrans" entire army, charging him in detachments, jilung- ing into his battle lines, stampeding his wagon trains, destroying his stores, terrifying his guards, capturing bis jirisoners, firing depots — round and round he glides with the charm of a wizard, till summoned again to cover the I'ctreat of the army. And of such was the life of Wheeler, from the beginning of the war to its close: never idle, always on the alert, he was by far the most distinguished cavalry commander develoi^ed by the American conflict. In the spring of 1865 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general of cavalry, and as such retired from the jjrofession of war to that of peace. Less than twenty-nine years of age, he had, by acknowledged merit, risen from the rank of a sub- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 69 ordinate to that of eminent command. Though small in stature, it was with giant strides he rose to exalted position. Under him. from time to time, fought many men whose distinguished acliievemeiits added bright luster to the renown of American soldiery. Nor did he ever forget them. Their names, many now recorded upon marble and ashlar that mark the sodded mound 'neath which tliey fiiuilly rest, are engraven upon the eiitabUi- ture of his heart, and, as in retrospect, he calls up in long review the heroes of Shiloli, Corinth, Terryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Knox- ville, Iiinggold, Rocky Face, Dalton, Uesaca, Cassville, New Mope, Kcnesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Decatur, Atlanta. Savannah. Ayers- l)oro, Bentonville, and literally the thousand and one other contlicts of arms through which they followed him, it is with the emotion of a gener- ous acknowledgment of deeds performed that I'edounded so much to his own glory. With his sad farewell to his soldiers, we close this brief sketch of fieneral Wheeler's military career, leaving to others the jdeasant duty of adorning the literature of war bygiving it in full: •' ilK.VDQl AKTEKS Ca V.V LRY CoRPS, . Cavalry Corps, ) • April -.29, 1805. ) "Gallant Co.\iuai)ES: — You have fought your tight; your task is done. During a four years' struggle for liberty, you have exhibited courage, fortitude, and devotion; you are the sole victors i>f more tiian two hundred severely contested lields; you have participated in more than a thou- sand conflicts of arms; you arc heroes, veterans, patriots; the bones of your comrades mark battle- fields upon the soil of Kentucky, Tennessee, Vir- ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, (ieorgia, Alabama and Mississippi; you have done all tliat human exertion could accomplish. In bidding you adieu, I desire to tender my thanks for your gallantry in battle, your fortitude under suffering, and your devotion at all times to the holy cause you have ciit three years in New Orleans in the commission business, and ill l^C'.l located iiiion his i)lantation at what is now known as Wheeler's Station, and turned his attention to agriculture and the practice of law. In isSd, he was elected to Congress from the Kighth District, was re-elected in 1884, and again in 18SC. His election in 1880 was contested by Mr. Lowe, and Wheeler was unseated in June, 1882. In Congress, as in the army he has exhibited ihe same active, energetic, intrepid and fearless char- acter, and it is safe to say that no member of that body has performed more labor and with better results than he. (ieneral Wheeler was married at AVheeler's Sta- tion, February 8, IS'iiJ, to Miss Ella .Jones, the accomplished daughter of the late Richard Jones, one of the pioneers of Lawrence County, a native \'irginian and an extensive planter, and has had born to him two sons and four daughters. JAMES E. SAUNDERS, a^ distinguished citi- zen of Lawrence County, was born in Brunswick County, \'a.. May 7, 18(i(i, and was two years of age when his jjarents migrated to Williamson County, Tenn. He was educated under private instructors and at the University of Georgia. Immediately after graduating, he began the study of law, in the office of Foster & Fogg, Nasliville, Tenn., and entered the practice during the twenty- first year of his age. In 1826 he located at Moultoii, this county, where his superior (|ualifications as a lawyer were at once recognized. Three years later, he re- moved to Courtland, and entered into partnersliip with John J. Ormand. This arrangement con- tinued until the elevation of Judge Ormand to the supreme bench of the State. In 184(1, Mr. Saunders was elected to the I-egis- lature, and was assigned to the chairmanshij) of the judiciary committee. From Mr. Garrett's " Public .Men of .Mabama "' we (|Uote the following as (iprojms : •'In the first di,scu.ssion which arose, relative to tiie election of United States Senator, the rank assigned him (Saunders), l)y general consent, was that of leader on the Democratic side. He wjis calm as a May morning, never permitting the exciting scenes around him to ruffle the perfect equanimity of his temjier. His thoughts ajipcarcd so well arraiige,0(i() : colored. '.),;U0. Area, 590 square miles. Wooillaiicl, all. Keil Valley lands, 175 square miles. Barrens, 415 square miles. Acres — In cotton, a])pro.\iinately, 45.000: in corn, 47,000: in oats, 4, -400: in wheat, 7,900; in rye, 250; in tobacco, 125; in sweet potatoes, 450. Ap- proximate number of bales of cotton, 17,000. County Seat — Athens: Population, 1,300; lo- cated on Nashville & Decatur branch of Louis- ville & Nashville Railroad, 107 miles south of Nashville, and 195 north of Montgomery. Newspapers published at County seat — Alabania Courier and Dviiwcnit, both Democratic. Postottices in the County — Athens. Belle Jlina, Carriger, Center Hill, Elkmont, Elk Kiver Mills, Estaville, Ciilbertsborough, Good Springs, Green- brier, Ilyde Park, Mooresville, Mount Roszcll, O'Neal, Peltey, Pettusville, Quid Nunc, Kowland, Sand Springs, Swancott, Veto, Westmoreland, AVooley Springs. Limestone was created out of the lands pur- chased from the Chickasaws and Cherokees, by an act of the Territorial Legislature, passed Feb- ruary (i, 1818. This county lies directly north of the Tennessee River. It is one of the first counties formed in the State. Limestone has all the varieties of soil which be- long to the Tennessee Valley. The southern portion of tiie county e.\ceeds in fertility that of the northern. The southern has a more uniform surface and is capitally adapted to the growth of all the cereals. The lands in this section are almost entirely cleared and are in a fine state of cultivation. The bottom lands which skirt the numerous streams are exceedingly fertile. Notwitlistanding Limestone has long been recog- nized as one of the chief cereal counties of the State, and still is, the farmers are turning their attention more every year to the growth of grasses and breeding of thoroughbred horses and blooded cattle, hogs and slice}). This change has proven to be the best thing our farmers have ever under- taken. The grasses usually grown for stock are produced here in the greatest perfection, and the most san- guine expectations of stock-raisers have been real- ized. The finest pasture lands can be had here, the value of which is greatly enhanced by the multitude of streams which penetrate every part of the county. Great encouragement has been given stock-raisers, year by year, to imjjrove the character of their breeds. Except upon the lowlands and near the rivers, the county is wonderfully healthy, and along the ridges adjoining these basins excellent places of residence can be had. Formerly these ridges were dwelling places of the wealthiest farmers in the county, while they cultivated the land in the bot- toms. Along these knolls, as almost in every part of the county, fine water is found, together with a salubrious climate. In many parts of the county are forests of tim- ber in which are found hickory, poplar, chestnut, red and white oak, beech, maple, red and white gum, ash, walnut and cherry. Along the southern border of the county runs the Tennessee river, several of the large tributa- ries of which penetrate the territory of Limestone. Elk river Hows through the northwest, and at cer- tain seasons is navigable for light crafts. This stream will be of vast local advantage when the obstructions are removed from the Tennessee. Big Poplar, Round Island, Swan, Piney, Lime- stone, and Beaver Dam creeks streak the county in every section with waters of perpetual How. These are reinforced by many large springs in the mountain and hill regions. Mineral springs also exist and are said to be equal to any in the State. The streams abound in remarkably fine fish, vast quantities of which are caught every year. No great public industries have as yet been es- tablished, but a number are in contemplation at 71 '72 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Athens, on the Louisville & Nashville railroad. Energy, skill and capital are needed to make Lime- . stone what it is by nature fitted to become — a great manufacturing as well as an agricultural region. As yet but little attention has been given the mineral products of Limestone. Valuable speci- mens of lead have been discovered in the Elk River hills. In some portions of the county there have been discovered out-croppings of iron ore, as well as fine specimens of coal. Slate has been found to exist in vast quantities, though it has failed thus far to attract public attention. Silver ore has also been discovered, but it is not known to what extent it exists. The county is highly favored in its facilities for transportation. It is divided in twain from north to south by the great Louisville & JSIashville Railroad, which brings it into easy and rapid com- munication with New Orleans on the south and the great cities of the West on the north. Fruits grown along these valleys find a ready market in the cities of the Northwest, into com- mercial relations with which this section is brought by means of its excellent railroad facilities. Along the southern portion of the county runs the ;Memphis«!fc Charleston Railroad, which affords a competing line to the producers of the county. The social advantages of Limestone are those which belong to the best regulated society of the South. The people are hospitable and are prompted by a most generous disposition. Schools of varying grades exist in different jiarts of the county. In Athens, the county seat, which has a population of about 1,500, there are -several schools of high grade. Churches usually of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist denomina- tions prevail. The other chief towns are Mooresville and Elk- mont. The last named point is a town with promising importance. Lands may be purchased in some sections for $5 per acre ; in others they will cost much more, being dependent upon the fertility and location. Athens. — Athens, tlie seat of justice of Lime- stone county, was first incorporated November 19, 1818, and the courthouse was located here at once. A seminary of learning, for females, was early established. The corner stone of the Masonic Hall was laid in March, 182G, it being the second brick building in the town. There are four brick churches, the Baptist being the first one built and was used by all denomina- tions. The Methodist was the next one, which was built in 1836. The Cumberland Presbyter- ian Church was built early in 1850; owing to its proximity to the railroad, the congregation has sold it and purchased a lot for a new one. The Ei^iscopal Church has been recently built, and is a very handsome one. There are two colleges, male and female, the latter an imposing brick structure, with ample and beautiful grounds. Under the supervision of Prof. M. G. Williams it has very rapidly increased in the number of pupils and is now one of the finest schools in the State. The male college is a large and roomy frame building, situated in a beautiful grove at a sufficient distance from the public square to make it quiet. Splendid brick pavements lead to both colleges from any jiortiou of the town. The earliest records of the town we have been able to find, is April 37, 1824, at which time Sam- uel Tanner was mayor. Among the members of the bar the mo.'^t prom- inent were Daniel Coleman, Egbert J. Jones, William Richardson, Thomas Hobbe, George S. Houston, LukePryor, Elbert English, "William 11. Walker. In the medical profession were such distinguished men as T. S. Malone, J. F. Sewell, Joshua P. Comau, Frank ^lalone, P. Capshaw. GEORGE SMITH HOUSTON was the grandson of John Houston and Mary Ross, who, in 1760 migrated from County Tyrone in the north of Ireland and settled in Newbury District in North Carolina. David, their fourth son, and the father of George Smith Houston, married Hannah (PLigh) Reagan, whose mother was of Welch extraction, being of the family of Pughs, who were noted for their love for, and ijromotionof education. He removed to Virginia, and afterward settled near Franklin in Williamson County. Tenn., where on the 17th of January, 1S08, the subject of this sketch was born in 1824 or 1825, the family settled twelve miles west of Florence, in Lauderdale County, Ala., and engaged in agriculture. His father considered manual labor essential to mental and physical perfection, and reared his sons to work. In his boyhood, educational facilities were NORTHERN ALABAMA. not as good as now. Though not possessed of the advantages necessary to the thorough and finished scholar, he received an elementary education in an academy in Lauderdale County. Ambitious and fond of books, he daily added to this foundation, by the close study of standard works. As a boy he was happy-hearted, bright, liigh- toncd, industrious, self-reliant and noted for iiis devotion to his mother. He read law under Judge Coalter, in Florence, anil completed his studies in the law school at Ifarrodsburgh, Ky. In 1831 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1S3-2. was sent to the Legislature. He was there twice elected Circuit Solicitor, in which position he made a decided reputation, being considered one of the ablest prosecutors in the State. He removed to Athens, Limestone County, Ala., and, in 1835, married Mary L Beaty, the daughter of Hobert Beaty. They had eight children, all of whom died before 1860, except David, (ieorge S., .lohn P. and Mary E. Houston. David entered the service as captain of a company of the Ninth Alabama regiment. He was afterward a member of (Jeneral Roddy's command. He died, unmar- ried, September 7, 1880. George S. entered the service as a private in .lohnson's regiment of General Koddy's command, and was afterward lieutenant of General Roddy's escort. He married Maggie Irvine of Florence, Ala., and now resides on a farm near Mooresville, in Limestone County. .John P. is engaged in the practice of law in Memphis, Tenn. ^lary E. resides in Athens, Ala. In April, 1861, he married Ellen Irvine, of Florence, Ala., a daughter of James Irvine, one of the leading lawyers of the State. They had two children, Emma and Maggie Lou. Emma is now living with her mother at Athens. Maggie Lou died November 24, 18T7. In 1841 George S. Houston was elected to Con- gress on the general ticket. With the exception of one term, when he declined to make the race, he served in Congress until .lanuary 21, 1861. He was recognized as one of the leaders of the House. He took an active part in the debates on important measures. He was a strict constructionist, or a State's rights Democrat, believing all legislation should be left to the States "over subjects where they could as amply and beneficially legislate as Congress." He was opposed to the tariff system, and held the public land to be a trust for the people, and not for speculative greed. He was so economical and watchful of the public funds, that he was known in Congress as the " Watch-dog of the Treasury." His reputation and influence were by no means local. He was particularly influential with Pres- idents Pierce and Polk. It is stated on good authority that it was the intention of Mr. Tilden to olfer him a Cabinet position, had he been de- clared President in 1876. Perhaps no member was ever more complimented with committee appointments than he; not only was he placed on the most important committees, but was chairman of Military Affairs, Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, an honor rarely, if ever, accorded to any other member. He was several times chairman of Way.* and Means, which is per- hap.'^ the most important committee in the House. While a party man, he was not such for selfish motives. He did not study to ride into power on a popular wave. He was fearless in his convic- tions, and, while keeping party lines, he directed rather than followed it. He was earnestly opposed to secession, and pr^'bilbly niadff thf lnBt Dnnglm speech ^er made in Alnhiiniii. While in Congress and when secession seemed almost a certainty, he boldly advocated and became a member of the famous committee of thirty-three to devise means to save the Union; but when Alabama seceded, he drafted and presented to the speaker the formal withdrawal of the Alabama delegation from the Federal Congress. He retired to his home, and, though not in the active service, he repeate— J^^-^— — WILLIAM H. WALKER, son of John F. and Kliza Walker, was Ijorn near Mooresville, Lime- 80 NORTHERN ALABAMA. stone County, Ala., March 2, 1822, and died March 4, 1870. Mr. Walker, one of the leading lawyers of his day, was left an oi'jjhan at the age of four years. He was educated at La Grange, began the practice of law when a young man, and with the exception of a part of a term, served by appointment, as Probate Judge, devoted his life thereto. He was married July 7, 1859, to Miss Sally E. Ryan, of Baltimore, and had born to him eight children, seven of whom are living at this writing (1888): Mary Eloise (Mrs. R H. Richardson), William Ryan, Ada, John Fortraan, Maria Rich- ardson, and Robert Henry. Mr. Walker was an able lawyer, a highly re- spected citizen, and a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. South. WILLIAM R. WALKER, Attorney-at-law, Athens, son of William H. Walker, a prominent jurist, who died at this place in 1870. Mr. Walker was educated primarily at Athens' schools and Auburn, Ala., and graduated in the law department of Yanderbilt University in 1882. He began the practice at once at Athens, and in September, 1885, moved to Guutersville, and there, associated with B. Coman, edited the Guntersville Democrat, in connection with the practice of law, w^ to January, 1887. Since that date he has been practicing law at Athens. He was born, in this town, November 10, 1861. — ^i- JAMES E. HORTON, Judge of Probate, Lime- stone County, Ala., was born near Huntsville, this State, May 20, 1833. His parents, Rodah and Lucy (Otey) Horton, iratives of Virginia and England, were married in Madison County, this State, where their three sons and three daughters were born. Of the six children. Judge Horton and a brother only are now living. The others all moved South, where it seems their lives were materially shortened. The senior Mr. Horton died in 18-16, at the age of fifty-four years. He was an extensive planter, and represented Madison County once or twice in the State Legislature. The subject of this sketch was educated at the University of Alabama, and the University of Virginia. He came into Limestone County in 18.57, settled on the Elk River, and engaged in farming. At Bardstown, Ky., in the fall of 1862, as aid-de-camp to Gen. Daniel S. Donelson, he entered the Confederate service. He was with General Donelson until the death of that gentle- man, which occurred .at Knoxville, Tenn., in the latter part of 1863. From that time to the close of the war. Major Horton was Acting General Qttartermaster, and was on the Florida coast when the war closed. Returning to Limestone County at the close of the war, he resumed his planting operations, which he followed up to August, 1886, when he was elected Judge of Probate. Sometime before this he had served one term as county commis- sioner, which appears to be the sum of his office, holding. He was married in Tennessee, near the "Hermitage," October 18, 1860, to Miss Emily Donelson, the accomjilished daughter of Daniel S. Donelson, a nephew of Mrs. Gen. Andrew Jackson. To this union four daughters and a son have been born, the eldest of the former is now the wife of John B. Tanner, of Athens. Judge Horton's family are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is of the Masonic fraternity. JAMES BENAGH, Attorney-at-Law, Notary Public and Register in Chancery, Athens, was born at Lynchburg, Va., February 23, 1828, and his parents were James and Elizabeth (Rich- ardson) Benagh, the first a native of Ireland and the latter of Virginia. They lived and died at Lynchburg, the old gentleman in 1861 at the age of 74, and his widow in 1868 at the age of 68. The senior Mr. Benagh was a lawyer by pro- fession, and was for many years Clerk of the Court at Lynchburg and Master in Chancery. He came with his i^arents to America in 1792. .Tames Benagh was educated at Lynchburg, there studied law and was admitted to the bar, but did not actively enter the practice. At the outbreak of the late war, he was speculating and taking the world easy. He went into the army as Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General on General Kirby Smith's staff. He was in the war from the beginning to the close, and is probably the last man that ever received an order fi'om the Confederate Government. AtJiVashington, Wilkes County, Ga., and on the day that President Davis NORTHERN ALABAMA. 81 and his Cabinet left that town, orders came tli rough yuarterniastcr-Ueneral Lawton, to Captain Ben- a1 Dr. Westmoreland went into the army as Surgeon of the Fifty-third Ten- nessee Infantry, and afterwards was made Chief Surgeon of (Jeneral Quarles" brigade, in which ])osition he remained to the close of tiie war. He was captured at Fort Donelson, and when the Federals were removing the sick, he and two other j)hysicians got permiasion to take a trip up the river, and, not being under any [Kirole, made their escape. The Doctor was in the Western Army and on duty at the battle of Port Hudson, Dalton, and many other jilaces during the war, and finally at the last conflict of arms, Bentonville, X. C. Aside from his profession and drug business he is largely interested in agriculture. He takes no interest in politics particularly, is no office-seeker, though a reliable Democrat, and has served the town one term as Mayor. lie was married in 1802 at Gilbertsborough,. this county, to a daughter of Louis Nelson, an old citizen, merchant and {)lanter of that place. Mrs. Westmoreland died in 1877, leaving two daughters and a son. One of the daughters, an accomplished young lady of seventeen years, died in 1884. The other is Mrs. Vandegrift of Athens. The Doctor's second marriage occurred at Athens, where he wedded Miss May F. Lane, daughter of Judge (ieorge W. Lane, of Huntsville, July 29, 1879. [George W. Lane was some years Judge of the Circuit Court, and was appointed by Buchanan United States District Judge, and held the office over, under -Mr. Lincoln.— F.u.] By his last marriage Dr. Westmoreland has two children, Frank Grant and Pat tie Lane. The Doctor stands high in his profession, is a member of the various medical societies, and is one of Athens' most popular citizens. MARCUS G. WILLIAMS. President of the Atlicn.s Female College, was born at Boonville, JIo., October 25, 1831, and is a son of the IJev. Justinian Williams, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, late of the Tennessee Conference. The l{ev. Mr. Williams was placed in charge of Huntsville Station, in 1837, and spent most of the remainder of his life in Alabama, preaching, and died ■ in 1859, at the age of seventy-two years. Professor Williams was educated at La (Jrange College, Alabama ; studied medicine awhile, but feeling that it was his duty to preach, turned his attention to theology, and was licensed to preach in the Methodist l]])iscopaI Church, South, in March, 1854. During the following fall, he en- tered the Tennessee Conference, on trial, and 8i KORTHERX ALABAMA. remained there ixntil the outbreak of the war, when he was made Chajilain of the Third Ten- nessee Infantry. At the end of the first year, his commission as Chaphiin having exjjired, he raised a company of cavalry for the Xinth Ala- bama, and, as Captain, commanded it about a year and a half. He left the service on account of an injury received at Murfreesboro, and re- turned to Lawrence County and taught school for a short time. In 1867 he was transferred to the Arkansas Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, going thence, at the end of two years, to the Southwest Missouri Conference. He remained in Missouri eleven years, devoting his time to the ministry, and to the advancement of education. He resigned his Professorship in the Central Female College, Lexington, Mo., to come to the Korth Alabama Conference, ^lethodist Episcopal Church, South (1880). Since coming here he has had charge of Xew Market Circuit and Xew Market High School, Madison County ; Tuscumbia Station and Tuscumbia Male Acad- emj^, and Leighton Circuit, and came to his pres- ent position by election, January, 1884. He preaches at Elkmont and State Line gratuitously, and fills the pulpit at Athens in the absence of the regular pastor. Professor Williams was married in Lauderdale County, Ala., October 23, 1850, to a Miss Coffey, and has reared two daughters, one of whom is adopted, but is as near to him and as dear to him, seemingly, as his own child. Both his daughters are teachers in the college over which he pre- sides. RICHARD W. VASSER was born in Amelia County, ^'a., in September, ISOO. His father, Peter Yasser, moved to Halifa.x County, Va., during the infancy of his son, and being a man of extravagant and somewhat dissipated habits, wasted a handsome estate. This induced his son Richard, in 1816, to join his cousin Ed Dand- ridge.Jonesinamoveto Middle Tennessee, and they ■afterward settled in (Jiles County. Young Yasser came to Xorthern Alabama the next year, and de- cided to make his home henceforth in Limestone. By persevering energy and the exercise of an in- domitable will which possessed the magic of moulding circumstances to his purposes, he in a few years accumulated sufficient means to bring his parents and sisters to his new home. The death of his father, a year or two after their ar- rival, left the mother and sisters entirely depend- ent on his personal efforts for their support, and never did son or brother more faithfully discharge this sacred duty. His fine intellect, wonderful business capacit}-, and well-known integrity, made him a leading spirit in those early daj's of our young Commonwealth. He was president of the board of directors of the first Huntsville bank, and used to take a monthly trip to the then infant town, on horseback, astride his saddle-bags filled with papers, currency and coin. Throughout his life his memory was marvelous, and his friends in Philadelphia, Pa. (to which city he made a yearly trijJ, even when it took six weeks to get there), have told the writer of some of his feats of memory, especially in dates and figures, not un- worthy of Parr or Bradford. In 1833 he married his second cousin, Elizabeth Dandrige Jones (she being the great-granddaughter of the Peter Jones who, about 1720, assisted Colonel AVilliam Byrd, then commissioner of the English C'rown in this country, to lay off the cities of Richmond and Petersburg, Ya., and the latter city was named for this Peter Jones, (and not for Petersburg in Russia, as many erroneously suppose.) She bore him thirteen children, nine sons, of whom William Ed. Yasser was the youngest, and is the sole survivor. Mr. Yasser died in Athens, Ga,, in 18G4, and in 1880 his remains (with those of his son. Lieutenant Harry Yasser, who was killed in Johnston's retreat from Atlanta, just one month after his father's decease), were brought to Athens, They lie side by side in the old town ceme- tery, on ground taken from the garden of the old home, where the surviving members of the family still keeji their resting-place fragrant with roses and lilies, planted by hands long since returned to mother earth. WILLIAM EDWARD VASSER. son of Richard W, and Elizabeth B. (Jones) Yasser, natives of Yirginia and Xorth Carolina, respectively, was born March 19. 1855. He was educated at the ^Military Institute, Lexington, Ya., and at the University of Yirginia, graduating from the first in 1875, and from the latter in 1876. In 1878, he made a tour of Europe, for the j'urpose NORTHERN ALABAMA. 85 of observation. and study; returned to Athens, and fur the succeeding three years, turned his attention to farming. During the years of 1882-3, Mr. ^■as^le of Alabama are indebted for the improvement and increase of the Normal School privileges, if not indeed its present existence. It was his committee that intro- duced the law, compelling county superintendents to cover public money coming into their hands, into the State Treasury, instead of disbursing it as they had hitherto done. As under the old system, defalcations had been for many years more or less frequent, a change in the law is at once recog- nized as salutary. It was his committee that separated the Deaf and Dumb from the Blind Institution, established different schools for them, and procured separate appropriations for each institution. He also advocated successfully an appropriation for the Auburn Polytechnic School. Mr. Yasser is a cultured, educated gentleman, with a decidedly literary cast of mind. His eulogy in verse on the distinguished Houston, was ((uoted by Congressman Williams in his eulogy upon the dead Senator before the United States House of IJepresentatives, and his volume of poems entitled "Flower Myths and other Poems" (1884) has attracted much favorable comment from liter- ary critics in almost every State in the Union, and many of his poems have been published and repub- lished by the leading papers of the country. -. ... > ..;^^. . < .. ■ THOMAS HUBBARD HOBBS, Athens, was born in Limestone County, Ala., April 19, 182G, and died in Lynchburg, Va., July 24, 18G2. His parents were Ira E. and Rebecca E. (Maclin) Hobbs, natives of Brunswick county, Ya., and of Scotch-Irish extraction. His mother was a daugh- ter of Thomas Maclin, a captain in the War of 1812, and his uncle, Hubbard Hobbs, was a lieu- tenant in the United States Navy, and an officer on the Yincennes, the first vessel sent by the United States (Government to circumnavigate the globe. Lieutenant Hobbs sjient most of his life at sea, though he occasionally visited Alabama, and probably erected the first cotton-mill in this State. It was at Fulton, and in the year 1827. The subject of this sketch received his academic education at La Grange College; graduated from the L'niversity of Yirginia as ]?achelor of Arts in 1853, and subsequently from the law department of the University of Pennsylvania. He practiced law but a short time at Athens, this State, when, finding his plantation requiring most of his attention, he abandoned the profession almost entirely. He was one of the prime movers of the North i<: South Railroad, and was associated with the Hon. Luke Pryor in the establishment and final success of that enterprise. He was elected to the Legislature in 1856, as favoring the railroad approj)riation, and was sent by that body to represent his Congressional district at the Cincinnati Convention of that year. He was in the Legislature continuously from 1856 to 1861, and was a Breckenridge elector in 1860. Though quite a young man, he was prominently spoken of in connection with the gubernatorial chair. In speaking of him after hisdeath, the Jlemphis Appeal says: ■•Among Alabama's brightest and purest sons was JIajor Thomas II. llobbs, of Lime- stone County. He was of the cavalier stock of th» Old Dominion. His education was thorough, vai'ied and polished. He wielded a facile pen, and in writings showed his refined and tacit taste. He was gifted with a clear, cogent and convincing eloquence. Calm, dignified, self-poised, he dis- cussed the most difficult questions with eminent ability. As a member of the Legislature, he de- voted his time and talents to the development of the resources of his own State. He was foremost in all noble enterprises. In her system of pojiular enterprises, Alabama owed more to Thomas Hobbs than to any other one man. A politician of the old Democratic school, he was the courteous and gentlemanly opponent, never condescending to «6 NORTHERN ALABAMA. low and unmanly tricks to gain his point. Pure, and as gentle as a woman, he was tlie embodiment of masculine energy and heroic valor. With a courage cool, calm and daring, he was among the first to enter the army." An original Secessionist, he was opposed by some of the leading men of his country. He entered the army in 1861 as the Cajitain of Com- pany F, Ninth Alabama Infantry, and proceeded at once to Richmond. While the battle of Manassas was being fought he was at Piedmont, and reached the battle-ground the next day, where, as he said, "I saw for the first time the awful result of war." After going through all the battles in which his regiment liad participated, in the first day of what is known as the Seven Days' Fight around Richmond, he was wounded by a gun-shot in the knee. This wound, though slight, resulted in his death. 'While in the army Captain Ilobbs was asked to become a member of the Confederate Congress, but declined the honor. He was first married at Richmond, Ya., August 4. 185"2, to Indiana E. Booth. She died 'at Athens in 185-1. His second marriage was at Lynchburg. Va., February 17, 1858, to Anne Benagh, a daugh- ter of James Benagh, of that city. She died at Athens in 1872, leaving two sons: Thomas JIaclin and James Benagh. The latter died in 1883 at t lie age of 21 years. Thomas Jlaclin Hobbs was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and the Alabama State University. He lives now upon the plantation once owned by his grandfather. Thomas jMaclin, and is the sole successor and heir to the estates of that family. JOHN R. MASON, the second son of William and Rebecca ilasun. was born in tireenville Coun- ty, Va., 1803, and died at luka, Miss., in April, 1862. He was educated in his native State, came with his parents to Limestone County; and at Athens was many years engaged in the mer- cantile business, in addition to which he was an extensive farmer and stock grower. He took a prominent part here in the agitation of the ques- tion of aid, by taxation, in the construction of the North and South Railroad, bitterly opposing the proposition to subsidize. However, after the road was put under way, we find that he was equally as earnest in having it pushed forward to comple- tion, and that he was for years a member of its Board of Directors. He was first married in Limestone County in 1833, to a daughter of Gabriel Smith, who died in 1844, leaving one son, William Mason, who died in Waco, Texas, in 1878. John R. Mason was again married at Athens, ilarch 27, 1845, to Miss (ilorvinia Beaty, a daughter of Robert Beaty, one of the early settlers of this place. Robert Beaty came from Ireland when he was but a child, grew to manhood in the State of Virginia, and there married Sallie Parrott. He was one of the jiioneers of Limestone County, and took an active part in having the county site established at Atliens. as against the claims of the then preten- tious village of Cambridge. He was an influential and jiublic-spirited citizen. He donated to the town the famous '"Athens Springs," with several acres of land, with the understanding that it •^ should be devoted to the public usfr forever. Mr. Beaty was familiarly known as Captain Beaty. He died in Missouri, where he had gone on a busi- ness trip. John R. Mason, by his second marriage, had two sons, Robert Beaty and John Ormond; the latter died at Athens in 1884, at the age of thirty- six years. Robert B. Mason, the elder son, was born June 27, 1846; educated at Athens, Ala., and Pittsburgh, Pa.: entered the Confederate Army as a member of (Jen. P. D. Roddy's escort, served to the close of the Civil War, and surren- dered at Pond Springs. After the war lie devoted some time to the mercantile business, but after- ward turned his attention entirely to farming and stock raising. He married at Fayette, Tenn., in 1870, Miss Mollie P. (larrett, who died in 1882, leaving four children, Clyde Ormond, Robert Beaty, John j Greer and Mary Elice. I John R. Mason was a self-made man. starting : out in life with little of this world's goods, but by dint of persistent effort, close application to busi- ness, and the exercise of sound discretion, he accumulated and left to his family a handsome competency. He was universally popular and was beloved. by all classes. Everybody knew, and en- joyed the society of " Ca])tain Jack Mason." It was while visiting his son William (in Missis- sippi, after the battle of Shiloh), who was a Con- federate soldier under (jeneral Bragg, that he was taken sick, and died at luka, without again reach- ing, his home, which was occujiied just at this NORTHERN ALABAMA. 87 time by the Federal forces. The Federal officers made his residence their head quarters, and pro- liibitcd the Mason family from leaving town, even for thf i)ur])ose of bringing him home before he died. lie was a strong Douglas Democrat and a I'nion man until his State seceded, then he went with his i)eoiile. DANIEL COLEMAN was Ix.rn in Caroline County. \'a.. August t, ISOl, and died at Athens Xovember 4, 1S57. When sixteen years old he left his home to make his way in the world, the death of his fatlier having reduced the family from affluence to poverty. He taught school at the Kanawha Salt Works a year, and used the money thus obtained to graduate at the Transylvania University. He then obtained employment as a scribe at a court in Frankfort, Ky.. and read law while so engaged under the eye of Judge Bledsoe. In 1819 he came to this State and located at Mooresville, this county. The fol- lowing year he was cliosen by the Legislature (through the influence of Hon. Nich. Davis) Judge of the county court. He was only nineteen years old, but the gravity of his deportment led no one to question his majority, and he held the office several years. In 1829 he represented Limestone in the Legislature. In 18:J5 he was elected by the Legislature a judge of the circuit court. Tiiis dig- nitied and responsilile position he filled for twelve years. How satisfactorily he performed his duties may be inferred from the compliment paid hitu in June. 1851, when (iovernor Collier selected him to fill a vacancy on the supreme bench. He served till the following winter, when he declined a candi- dacy before the Legislature, feeling tiiat his enfeel)led health would not permit him to undergo the labors of the post. Judge Coleman left a character fpr spotless integrity, piety, decorum and sobriety. As a judge he was dignified. laborious and impartial. In a[ipeai'anee he Wiis slen --;^t^-' < '- — CHARLES W. RAISLER, native of Pennsyl- vania, son is a of Frederick William and Elizabeth (Himeberger) Raisler, of Wiirtemberg, Germany. In early life he learned the cabinet maker's trade, in New York City, and from there went to New Orleans, from which place he joined Company F, Second Regiment, Louisiana Volunteers, and served through the Mexican War, under General Taylor. At the close of the Mexican War he returned to New Orleans, and from there worked his way North, stopping, ad libitum, at various cities between the Gulf and the Ohio River, and finally landing at Triana, Ala., where he en- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 89 gaged in the manufacture of furniture. In 1856, after having liis furniture factory at Triana burned, he came into Athens, and here was en- gaged in the cabinet-making business, at the out- break of the late war. In May, 18(31, he raised a company of volunteers for the Fortieth Ten- nessee, and was with it until the capture of Island No. 10. As an officer he was taken to Johnson's Island, held thirteen or fourteen months, and exchanged. His command was re-organized into the Fifty-Fourth Alabama Infantry, with Uaisler as Captain of Company B. He was with this regiment at Baker's Creek, and was again captured, near Jackson, and returned to John- son's Island, where he was kept until within one month of the fall of Kichmond. He returned home, June 15, 1865, and out of the 127 men that went with him to the front, only eighteen -survived. Captain Kaisler was the first representative to the Ijegislature, from Limestone County, after the cessation of hostilities, and he served in that body, sessions of 1865, '66, 'G7, '70, '71, "82, and '83. He served one term as mayor of Athens, in 18 i 8, and is the present incumbent of that office. He is a member of the Masonic order, Knights of Honor. Golden Rule, Knights and Ladies of Honor, and a communicant of the Episcopal Church. He has always been an active political worker, and was for many years chairman of the demo- cratic executive committee, though recently it has been charged, and probably rightly, that his independence has taken him somewhat out of the line of stalwart democracy, though probably not into the enemy's camp. While in the Legislature, he introduced several bills, that became laws, of more than ordinary im- portance. Captain Raisler was a gallant soldier during the war, and afterward, undoubtedly, rendered the people of Alabama much valuable service. He is now engaged in the drug business. C. A. ARNETT. Real Estate Broker, born at Triana, Madison County, Ala., March 12, 18.38, and his parents were Thomas and Mathilda (Cole) Arnett, of Virginia, and descended from the French. The senior Arnett married before leaving Vir- ginia, and died in Alabama, when the subject of this sketch was an infant. Mr. Arnett was educated in Madison County and lived there until 1869. When a young man he be- gan the study of medicine, but gave it up, and, in 1854, engaged in mercantile business at Triana, where he was at the outbreak of the war. He came to Athens in 1875 and engaged in business ; was elected Mayor of the city in 1887 ; has been secretary of the Limestone Agricultural Associa- tion since 1884, and has served tiie town many years as its clerk and treasurer. He was appointed by Gov, Houston, July, 1877, assistant commis- sioner of emigration, and proved himself of great efficiency in that deptirtment. .-^« ROBERT M. RAWLS, Editor and Proprietor of the Alabiimii (jiiiricr,\\. Weekly Democratic paper, published every Wednesday at Athens, was born in Lincoln County, Tenn. Jan. 6, 1861. He was a son of Luke H. Rawls, who was a merchant dur- ing his life, and who died in 1873 at the age of sixty-six years. Robert M, Rawls was the youngest of twelve chil- dren. He received his schooling at Jackson, Tenn. and at the age of sixteen years, entered a news- paper office in that town and learned the printer's trade. From the office of the Fayetteville Obser- ver, where he had worked about eighteen months, he took charge of the Lynchburg, (Tenn.) Seiifi- nel, going thence, within a few months, to a posi- tion upon the Nashville World, then a new paper, and upon which he set the first line of type ever placed in a " stick" for its columns. He remained upon the World until January, 1883, when he came to Athens and in partnership with J. J. Turren- tine, purchased the Courier. Mr. Tnrrentine withdrew from the paper in 1884, since which l^me Mr. Rawls has been sole proprietor. Mr. Rawls is now and has been since May, 1886, treasurer of the Alabama Press Association. He was married in Athens, May 8, 1883, to Miss Fannie Black, daughter of the late John W. Black, and has had born to him two children, a son and a daughter. Mr. Rawls is a wide awake, public spirited, progressive young man, and gives the peo- ple of his county one of the best papers they have ever had. VI. LAUDFRDALE COUNTY. Population: White, 15,000; colored, 0,000. Area, 700 square miles. Woodland, all; barrens, 400 square miles; Red Valley land and gravelly hills, 300 square miles. Acres in cotton, ajDprox- imately, 26,600; in corn, 4.3,000; in oats, 4,600; in wheat, 8,500; in rye, 350; in tobacco, 100; in sweet potatoes, 450. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 9,500. County Seat — Florence; population, 3,000; lo- cated on the North bank of the Tennessee river; noted for its manufactures, elegant schools and superior class of society. (See History of Florence, this vol.) Newspapers published at Florence, Banner, Gazette, Wave — all Democratic. Postoffices in the County ^ — Anderson Creek, Arthur, Baily Springs, Centre Star, Comer, Cov- ington, Florence, Gravelly Springs, Green Hill, Lexington, Oakland, Pruitton, Rawhide, Rogers- ville. Saint Florain, Smithsonia, Sugar, AV'aterloo. Lauderdale is one of the most fertile counties in the State. It is situated in the northwestern corner of Alabama, and is joined on two sides by the States of Mississippi and Tennessee. It was one of the first sections of Alabama settled by the whites, and was organized as a county before the State was constituted. It was established in 1818, and named for the famous Indian fighter. Col. Lauderdale, of Tennessee, who fell in the battle of Talladga, December 33, 1814. It has a diversity of soil, as is abundantly indi- cated in the variety of crops grown. In the northern portion of the county the surface is somewhat more uneven than is that in the south- ern end. The prevailing soil in the northern por- tion is of a grayish hue, but yields quite readily. In the south the lands are reddish in character. This is due to the presence of iron. These lands are quite fertile, and though some of them have been in cultivation seventy-five years, they are still productive without the aid of fertilizers. West of Florence, in a great bend of the Tennes- see river, is a large body of valley lands known as the Colbert Reservation. It is overspread in different directions by some of the finest farms found in this section of Alabama. These valley lands, when fresh, will jiroduce as much as one thousand pounds of seed cotton to the acre. The most of the cotton grown in the county is raised ujion the red valley lands, and the product per acre is considerably above the average. The chief crops of the county are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, sorghum and sweet potatoes. Apples and peaches are grown in vast quantities in the orchards. These are the chief fruits, though other fruits are grown with success when they receive proper attention. This is especially true of the grape. Wild fruits, such as hickorynuts and berries grow in large quantities. The chief pursuits of the people are farming, stock-raising and manufacturing, to all of which the county is admirably adapted. For many years the single pursuit was that of planting; but the superb water power of the county and the abundant fuel suggested the establishment of manufactories long before the beginning of the war. Cotton and wool factories were accordingly established, as well as manufactories of leather. At this period Lauderdale was, perhaps, in ad- vance of any other portion of the State in its manufactories. It is believed to be the jjioneer county in establishing manufacturing interests. These industries perished amid the ravages of the war, but are now rebuilt to some extent, and in the town of Florence, joarticularly, manufactur- ing is assuming important proportions. The country is abundantly sujjplied with per- petual streams of water. Shoal, Cypress, Blue Water, Bluff and Second creeks flow through the county from the north. Striking the southwestern boundary of the county is the Elk river. Besides these there are many bold mountain springs, containing both limestone and freestone water. There are springs in several parts of the county that have medicinal properties, the most noted of these being Bailey's 90 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 91 Springs, but a short distance from the town of Florence: though Taylor's Springs have a local reputation. In every part of the county are to be found local industries, such as gins, and grist, and saw mills. There are forests of valuable timber in every part of Lauderdale County. The.se comprise sev- eral varieties of oak, poplar, chestnut, beech, liickory, walnut^ cherry, and short leaf pine. The forests, in many places, are heavily wooded with these valuable timbers. Facilities for transporta- tion of products to market are already good, but are destined to be greatly increased at no remote ])eriod. The Memphis & Charleston Railway runs a branch road into Florence from Tuscumbia; the Louisville & Nashville taps the same town with a road known as the Nashville & Florence, from Columbia, Teun., and other roads are proposed and in process of construction. The educational advantages of the county are superior. Throughout the entire county there are good local schools, affording all the educational facilities necessary for common school instruction. These schools are supported by all the moral influ- ence that comes of long established and well-reg- ulated society. The people are law-abiding and thrifty, and the tone of society is elevating. In the northern portion of the county, adjoin- ing the State of Tennessee, are to be found excel- lent dejjosits of iron ore. The extent of tiie preva- lence of this ore is not known, as it has been oulv partially developed. In the southeastern part of Lauderdale, on Elk River, is a valuable cave of saltpetre. Theciiief towns of the county are Florence (the county seat), Lexington, Rodgersville and Waterloo, With water power from the hills and mountains, with a climate, the brace of which cannot be excelled, even in midsummer, with superior society and schools, Lauderdale offers rare advantages to those seeking homes. Land may be purchased at prices ranging from fi") to $15 per acre. The population of the county has increased seventy per cent, in the past decade, and is still more rai)idly advancing. The coneal artificial mound at Florence, is one of the largest and best preserved of the many left iiy that mysterious and unknown pre-historic race in so many [larts of our country. In 1819, voting places were established at the houses of Wm. S. Barton and Thomas Barnett, and in 1821, at the houses of Joel Burrows, And- rew McMicken and William Howe. Haywood's IHstory of Tennessee says that the portion of Alabama, north of the Tennessee, was organized into a county by the (ieorgia Legisla- ture in 1785 and called Iloustoun, in honor of John Iloustoun, governor of that state in 1778 and 1784. A party of eighty men came down the Tennessee shortly after, and effected a settle- ment at a point on the Muscle Shoals within the present limits of this county. They opened a land office, elected one of their number to the Georgia legislature, and performed other right of citizen- ship. But within a fortnight the settlement was abandoned in dread of tlie warlike Chicasas. The region now embraced within this country was the scene of several bloody skirmishes between the Tennessecans and Chicasas about the years 1787-90. During the war between the States a cavalry fight occurred two miles east of Florence, in which the cavalry regiment of Col. Wm. A. Johnson, of Colbert, scattered a federal command with some loss to it. Near the same spot the army of Gen. Ilood lay encamped for several weeks just before entering on the disastrous campaign which cul- minated at Franklin and Nashville. Lauderdale, then in common with the other counties of the Tenessee valley, suffered fearfully inconsequence of its exposed position. Probably no single county in the State can boast a higher order of citizenship than Lauderdale, while her past history is replete with the names of men whose brilliant achievements illumine the annals of a nation. The brave old soldier. Gen. John Coffee, Jackson's most trusted lieutenant, lived and died here; Robt. Miller Patton, one of Alabama's greatest governors, made this his home, while the distinguished soldier, statesman and citizen, Edward Asbury O'Neal yet resides at Florence. Caroline Lee Ilentz, whose memory is so dear to every lover of a pure literature, spent nine years of her life here. Judge John Edmund Moore, Wade Keys. Hugh McVay, Sidney C. Posey, James Jackson, James Irvine, and many others who.se names are identified with the liistory of xVlabama, were citizens of this county. vri. JACKSON COUNTY. Population : White. 21,074: colored, 4,040. Area, 990 square miles, woodland all. Valley lands, (of which 190 square miles are in the Val- ley of the Tennesse), 500 square miles. Coves and slopes, 310 square miles. Mountain lands, 490 square miles. Acres in cotton, approximately, 19,685; in corn, 60,2»5; in oats, 8,241; in wheat, 10,051; in rye, 347; in tobacco, 99; in sweet pota- toes, 592. Approximate number of bales of cot- ton, 6,984. County Seat — Scotsborough ; pojiulation, 1,500. Located on Memphis & Charleston Kailroad, forty- two miles from Huntsville, and fifty-five miles from Chattanooga. Newspapers published at coun- ty seat : Citizen, Progressive Age and Alabama -ffer«/fZ, all Democratic; at Stephenson, The Chron- icle, democratic. PostofBces in the county — Atto, Bass Station, Bellefonte, Berry's Store, Big Coon, Bridgeport, Coffey's Store, Dodsonville, Dorans Cove, Dry Cove, Emmert, Estill's Fork, Fabius, Fackler, Fern Cliff, Francisco, Garth, Gray's Chapel, Greerton, Hannah, Iligdon, Holly Tree, Kirby's Creek, Kosh. Langston, Larkin's Fork, Larkins- ville. Lime Kock, Long Island, Maynard's Cove, Paint Rock, Park's Store, Pisgah, Press, Prince- ton, Samples, Santa, Scottsborough, Stevenson, Trenton, Tupelo, Wallston. Wamsville, Widows, Woodville. This county takes its name from the hero of New Orleans. It was organized in 1819, the same year of the admission of Alabama into the Union. Jackson County is the extreme north- eastern county in the State. It is bounded on the north by the State of Tennessee ; on the east by the State of Georgia and De Kalb County, Ala. ; on the south by De Kalb and Marshall Counties, on the west by Marshall and iladison Counties. It is about sixty-five miles long, by thirty miles wide. Scottsboro is the county seat of Jackson, and is a pleasajit Itttle town, situated on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, about the center of the county, and four miles from the Tennessee River. It is a new town, built up since the county seat was located at that point, which was done in the year 1868. It has a population of about 1,000 ; has a new courthouse and jail, which cost S37,000, and are of good architectural design. The town is regu- larly laid out, and has many commodious business houses, built around the court house square, and on other streets, with many new and attractive residences, besides five comfortable churches, and two commodious hotels, a college building, which is quite sufficient to accommodate from 300 to 400 pupils, with college ground of six acres, on which the building is situated, which for beauty of loca- tion and grounds, cannot be surpassed in the South. Scottsboro is also noted for the health- fulness of its location, being situated at the high- est point of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, between the eastern boundary line of the State of Alabama and the city of 31emphis, Tenn., and at a distance of 285 miles from Memphis, Tenn.; indeed, the entire county of Jackson has an ele- vation above any other county west of it toward Memphis, its valley lands being at the highest point 602 feet, and at the lowest point, at Paint Rock, 595 feet above Mobile Bay. The altitude diminishes gradually toward the west, until you reach ^lemphis, Tenn., where it is only 245 feet ; add to the elevation in Jackson, from 600 to 1,000 feet, and you have the elevation of our mountain lands above the sea-level ; for this reason people living west of us often speak of our county as High Jackson. The destructive malarial fevers and epidemic diseases, such as yellow fever, chol- era, etc., which are so common in the warmer temperatures and low lands south and southwest of us, have never been known in this county, and in all human probability, never will be. The general appearance of this county is much more broken, and its scenery greatly diversified. It is made up of high mountain tracts of level lands. 92 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 93 extending for many miles. These mountains are cut back into by many beautiful coves and valleys of level and fertile lands, some of which are three or four miles wide, shut in by steep mountain slopes, covered with forest growth of valuable timber; indeed, the whole of the valley lands are said by geologists to have been cut out of what was at one time, a level mountain surface, by the flow of the Tennessee River and its numerous tributaries. This mountain surface at that time was all the Cumberland Mountain, but is now cut in two by the river, at the point known as the Jioiling Pot, this side of Chattanooga, and has cut out the Tennessee River Valley in which this county is situated : leaving that part of the moun- tain north of the river known as the Cumberland Mountain, and that j)art of the mountain south of the river, known as the Raccoon Mountain, or Sand Mountain, as it is called by the natives. Both these mountains e.\tend through north Ala- bama, and have an average width of about twenty miles ; hence the main valley lands lie along the Tennessee River, and are as fine farming lands for all kinds of farming purposes, as can be found in the South. (,'otton, corn, oats, wlieat, rye, to- bacco, sweet potatoes, wool, sorghum, honey, and butter are chief among its manifold productions. Pears, apples, peaches, grapes, and berries grow almost to perfection. Along the slojies of the hills of Jackson county are found splendid orchards of peaches. There is a steady growth of interest in stock-raising. Along the high table lands of the county are numerous small farms which are surrounded with all the evidences of plenty anIiss Sidney M. Skelton, of Scottsboro, a daughter of .lames T. ami Charlotte C. (Scott) Skelton, both natives of Jackson county. Mr. Skelton was a merchant. He died in December, 188Si, at the age of 57 years. Charlotte C. Scott is a daughter of Kobert T. Scott, who represented Alabama in a negotiation with the United States Government, and settled certain claims growing out of the depredations of the Indians. This branch of the Scott family came to America in the person of William Scott (as a stowaway) away back in the last century. He subsequently became a lieutenant in the Colonial navy, and served througli the Revolutionary War under Paul Jones on the flag-ship Bonhomniie. He was afterwards L'nited States agent in the settlement of some sort of French claims. Judge Tally has two sons, Walter II. and John B. Tally, and ho and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The Judge is a public-spirited man, and fully in sympathy with every legitimate enterprise tending to advance and build up Northern Alabama. He is probably the youngest man ever placed on the Bench of the Circuit in the States. DANIEL W. SFEAKE, County Solicitor of .lackson county, son of James B. Speake, was born July 8, 18.56, in Lawrence county, Ala. .James B. Speake was the son of a German fam- ily. He was born in 1803, and is now living in Lawrence county. He came from Washington county, Ky., to Alabama soon after completing his education, and taught school for a time in Lawrence county. He soon secured a small farm, and kept adding unto it until he had a large plantation and a number of slaves. He was for many years super- intendent of education in Lawrence county; was once a candidate for the State Senate, and in 1805 was a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion. In 1870-2 he was a representative to the General Assembly from his county, and was returned there in 1876-7. He had three sons in the army. Since he was last in the Legislature he has lived on his farm. He was married June' 4, 1833, to Miss Sarah Brooks Lindscy, who was born A,ugust 1. 1818, and was the first white girl child born in Law- rence County. James B. Speake and wife had eight children, of whom six were sons and two daughters. Four of the sons only are now living. H. C. Speake, born June 17, 1834, now Circuit .Judge of the Eighth Circuit, resides in Hunts- ville ; John Marshal Speake, Dennis Basil Speake (who was a soldier in I'^orrest's Cavalry, and died in prison at Chicago), James Tucker Speake and Charles W. Speake. Daniel W. Speake worked on a farm in his early days, and attended the common schools of the county until seventeen years of age, when he began teaching, by which means he paid his own way at the University of Alabama, which institu- tion he entered in 1877, and from which he gradu- ated in tlie classical course in July, 1878. During the succeeding year he took his degree of LL.B. at the same institution. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1879. in Franklin County, this State. lie practiced law for two years at Moul- 96 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ton, formed a copartnei-ship with Gen. Joseph Wheeler, and practiced three years at Courtland. He came to Scottsboro January 1, 1885, and is now county solicitor. Mr. Speake was married December 1-4, 1881, to Miss Caro McCalla, of Tuscaloosa, a daughter of Maj. E. C. McCalla, a prominent railroad man, chief engineer of construction of the E. T., Va. & G. Kailway system, also chief engineer of the Alabama & Chattanooga Kailroad Co., now better known as the A. G. S. Jlailroad. D. W. Speake has two living children and one dead— Richard McCalla, born October 30, 1882, died July 34, 1884, Bessie and Charles Louis. ROBERT C. ROSS, son of Robert and Ellen (Nugent) Ross, was born in Clark County, Wis., September 21, 1853. Robert Ross was born on the Inland of Mauri- tius, formerly called the Isle of France (East Indies), in ISlfl. He located with his parents in Quebec, about 183G. He married in Canada; located in Clark County, Wis., in lc48, and did an extensive lumber business for many years. Our subject's grandfather, Robert Ross, was born in Scotland; became a lieutenant in the British army, and served last in Canada. He lived to be about ninety years of age, and was the father of twelve children. Our subject's mother was also born in Canada. Robert C. Ross received a common-school edu- cation, and began his business life as a lumber dealer. He married Miss Ida W. Ross in June, 18.6. She was a daughter of James Ross, of Eufaula, Ala. They have but two children: Alice and Graham. Mr. Ross came to Scottsboro in March, 1887, and organized the Jackson County Bank, the first institution of that kind ever operated in the county. Mr. Ross and wife are members of the Episcopal Church, and he is a JIason and a Knight of Honor. -*•- JAMES ALFRED KYLE, Register in Chancery, Scottsboro, is a son of Xelson Kyle, was born February 28, 1862, in Bellefonte, this State. Nelson Kyle was a son of John Kyle, and a native of Alabama. He was a farmer and subse- quently a merchant at Bellefonte, and has been Sheriff, Clerk of the Probate Court, County Trea- surer, Probate Judge from 1874: to 1880, and was Register in Chancery at the time of his death, Sep- tember 19, 1886. He was married, first, to the widow of Henry Walker, of Bellefonte, daughter of Nelson Robinson, and one of a family of five. They were the parents of three sons and one daughter, viz. : William; .James A., the subject of our sketch; Sallie B., wife of W. B. Hunt; and Chas. E. James A. Kyle was educated at the Agricul- tural and Mechanical School at Auburn. He assisted in the Probate Judge's office in Jackson County for some time previous to 1880, clerked in stores until 1883, became a partner with his father, and was a merchant for two years. After his marriage, he went to Texas and remained there about a year. He returned to Jackson Coun- ty in 1886, and has been Register in Chancery ever since. He was married to Jliss Vula Sanders on March 2-4, 1885. She is a daughter of C. B. Sanders, a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. They have two interesting children: Mary Du and Vula Sidney. Mr. Kyle is a member of the Knights of Honor. JOHN H. NORWOOD, Probate Judge of Jack- son County, was born in Bellefonte November 23, 1828. He was a son of Henry and Aletha (Caperton) Norwood, natives of South Carolina and Virginia, respectively. The senior Mr. Norwood was in the War of 1812, and held the rank of lieutenant. He came to Jackson County in 1820, and here was an extensive planter and slave owner. He took a prominent part in the Indian wars of his time, holding the rank of captain in the Creek War and colonel in the Seminole War. He subse- quently served several terms in both branches of the State Legislature, where he acquitted himself with the highest honor, and to the entire satisfac- tion of his constituency. He died in 1840, hold- ing the rank of major-general of the militia. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, received such education as could be ob- tained in the schools of the country, and spent three years in Irving College. He read law in the village of his nativity, and was admitted to NORTHERN ALABAMA. 97 the bar in 1852. After liaviiigr practiced three years he was appointed Probate Judge, and served under that appointment twelve niontiis. He was then elected to the oftice and held it until March, 18G1, when he resigned and entered the Confed- erate Army as first lieutenant in Captain Brad- ford's company. Second Alabama Kegitnent. During that summer he resigned this position, returned to his home and raised five com]>anie.s, and with them joined the Forty-third Tennessee Regiment, of which he was elected lieutenant- colonel, lie was captured at Fort Donelson, im- prisoned at Fort Warren, and, in .July of the .same year, exchanged at Kichmond, Va. After this he went to Vicksburg in General Loring's Division, i)articipated in the fight at Port (Jibson and the bombardment of N'icksburg. After the fall of that city he went to East Tennessee and was sub3e(|uently engaged at Ringgold, Resaca, and all the fights of the Atlanta Campaign. In 18(1-1, under the direction of the War Department, he recruited a brigade in Alabama, and com- manded it to the close of the war. At White's Lancling he surrendered, leaving the service with the rank of brigadier-general. IJeturning to his native village, he resumed the practice of law, and in 1865 was elected to the State Senate, where he took an active part in the legislation of that important session. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 18T5, and took a jirominent part in the proceed- ings of that a.<.sembly. In 18SG he was elected Probate Judge. His term will expire in 1892. When not in the discharge of the duties of the various offices to which his peoi)le have called him, the Judge's extensive law practice has been diversified by the attention given his farming interests. .Judge Norwood was married December 2."), 1850, to Miss Margaret, daughter of John Neth- erland, who came to Alabama in 1820. The fam- ily are cotninunicants of the Presbyterian Church, and the Judge belongs to the Masonic order. JESSE EDWARD BROWN, son of Jeremiah and Mary Ann (Williams) Brown, of Scottsbro, was born May I, 1845. in Jackson County. Jeremiah Brown is one of a family of North Carolinians who gave its name to Brownsboro. He was a planter in .lackson County and died here. He was a man of firm convictions and great sta- bility of character. He was married three times. His first wife was a Miss Moore, and by her he had two sons and one daughter: Bridges, who was a soldier and died at the battle of Corinth;. John A., and Nancy, who married a Mr. Yates, of Birmingham. Mrs. Yates, a fluent speaker and writer, has edited various papers, at different times, both in this State and Mississippi. Jeremiah Brown was married t he second time to- Miss Mary Ann Williams, a daughter of a Samuel Williams, one of the pioneers of this county, who- accumulated a goodly estate in land and slaves. She was one of a family of six chbldren, and her- self was the mother of four, viz.: Mary wife of Col. .John Snodgrass, of this place: Jesse Edward, of whom we now write: Margaret, wife of Will- iam H. Payne, druggist: Charles A\'., a lawyer, graduated at the University of Alabama, and now in the office of the superintendent of education. Jesse E. Brown was educated at Georgetown,. Ky., and Lebanon, Tenn., where he studied law. lie was admitted to the bar in August, 18G9,. at Huntsville, and began his practice in Scotts- boro, where he has remained uji to the present writing. He represented his county in the State Legislature in 1872-3, and was one of the framers of the present Constitution of Alabama. Mr. Brown became a member of the Confeder- ate Army, in Frank Gurley's company, Fourth Al- abama Cavalry, and served throughout the entire- war. He was in battle near Farniington, wounded and captured at the second battle of Fort Donel- son, and a piisoiier at Louisville and Baltimore for about two months. He fought at Murfrees- boro, Chickamauga, and Kenesaw Mountain,, where he lost a leg, and was confined to the hos- pital for a long time thereafter. Having returned home, he studied law, as before mentioned. Mr. Brown was married November 5, 1873, to Miss Virginia E. Wood, at Winchester, Tenn. She was a daughter of Dr. Ira G. Wood, and they have three children, viz.: Zaida, Lawrence Ed- ward; Clifford, who was born in 1878 and died in 18811; and Jes.se E. .Mr. Brown is a member of the Episcoi>al Church and of the fraternity of ( >dd Fellows. His position as one of the most prominent members of the bar in Northeastern Alabama is well known throughout that portion of the State, and his- practice is extensive and lucrative. NORTH£RN ALABAMA. JOHN R. C F F E Y, of Fackler, Jackson County, son of Kice and Sallie (Bradford) Coffey, was born at Wartrace, Bedford County, Teun., March 27, 1814. Rice Coffey was born in Pennsylvania in 1766. When a young man he removed to Xorth Carolina and became a gunsmith. He married and again removed to Tennessee about 1801, and settled on a farm of a thousand acres of land which lie bought of General Jackson, and on which his son, John R. Coffey, was born. He died in 1853, and his wife in 1840. He was a son of James Coffey, of early times, who raised a large family, all of the older sons of wliom served as soldiers in the Revolution- ary War. The Coffey family are Baptists. John R. Coffey spent his early days on a farm attending the common old-field schools. When he was thirteen years of age he went to a high school at Shelby ville, Tenn., and remained there twelve months. After this, became to Bellefonte, without an acquaintance in tl:e county or a ■dollar in his pocket, and became a clerk in a store. At the age of twenty-two, he established a mercan- tile business of his own in that village, and contin- ued it until 1846. In 1840, he was elected Sheriff ■of Jackson County. At the breaking out of the Mexican AVar, he enlisted in the army in a com- pany commanded by Capt. Richard W. Jones. He afterwards acted as lieutenant, lieutenant-col- onel, and major-general in the militia ; went to Mobile and organized the First Alabama Regiment and was elected its colonel, and as such, partici- pated in the siege of Vera Cruz. After the war with Mexico, he became a general of the militia. He had now returned to his farm and devoted his attention to its cultivation until 1853, when he moved to Stevenson a#d engaged in the mercan- tile business, which he prosecuted with consider- able success until the begining of the late war, when he again closed his store and returned to his farm of 4,000 acres, on the banks of the Tennessee River. Iq 1861 he was elected a delegate to the con- vention which passed the ordinance of secession. He was bitterly opposed to that ordinance, but, being overpowered, he submitted with the best j^os- sible grace, and thereafter gave moral and substan- tial support to the Confederacy.* General Coffey was married January 21, 1849, to Miss Mary Ann Cross, daughter of Col. Chas. and ♦General Coffey's granrtraother was a sister to Col. Ben, Cleve- land, who commanded a regiment at the battle of King's Moun- tain. Eliza (Clark) Cross, of Jackson County. They were natives of North Carolina and came to Ala- bama about 1826. He was a soldier in the Indian wars, and was drowned in the Tennessee River about 1848.t General Coffey is the father of six children, of whom four grew to maturity, namely: Eliza, wife of Wm. J. Tally ; Sallie B., wife of C. W. Brown, chief clerk in the office of the State Super- intendent of Education ; John B. and Clark Mac'.in. General Coffey's wife died September 6, 1887. He is a member of the MetLodist I^pisco- pal Church and the Masonic order. General Cof- sey is a man of commanding presence, being over six feet in height and having apparently the vim and energy of a youth. He is one of the best known men of the State and one of the most influ- ential men in Northeastern Alabama. — «^;^^- < '- • JAMES HARRISON COWAN, of Princeton, Jackson County, son of Samuel M. Cowan, was born near Stevenson, this county, March 17, 1837. His father, Samuel M. Cowan, was born in Kentucky in 1798; came to Jackson County in 1824, and settled at Bolivar, two miles north of Stevenson. He served as captain in the Florida War, in 1837. In 1819, he was married in Frank- lin County, Tenn., to Elizabeth Caperton, from Virginia. He was one of a family of eight chil- dren, four boys and four girls, and was father of twelve children. Of these, Eleanor married T. Boyd Foster, a prominent man, who has been County Surveyor of Jackson for forty years, and was in the Florida War; Jane married Dr. Wm. Mason, who was a major in the Florida W^ar and afterwards a member of the Legislature — he was a cousin of Gen. Winfield Scott; Hugh C. was a lawyer, a member of the Legislature in 1852, a delegate to the National Convention which nomi- nated Jas. Buchanan, and an elector of the college which elected him — he died in 1860; John F. was a lawyer, well educated and brilliant, but died of consumption in his early manhood; Samuel C. was one of the first merchants in Stevenson — he died in 1858; Geo. E. went into the Confederate Army in 1861 as lieutenant, and became a major in the Thirty-third Alabama Regiment. tHis wife'.'* great-giandfather, Col.Wm. Maclin, and her grand- father, Robert Clark, were in the Rc\olutiouar.v War ; the latter' was wounded in battle at Eutaw Springs, from which he died. Her grandfather, Maclin Cross, was in the battle at Nick-a-Jack, Indian Nation. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 99 Mr. Cowan's grandfather was an Irisliman; served in the War of 3812. and in most of the Ind'an wars; was a major under General Jackson, and died in Franklin County. Tenn. James II. Cowan attended Biirritt College in Van Buren County. Tenn., and was a merchant before the war. lie entered tlio army in 1801 and served one year as commissary with the rank of • ■iqitiiin. 1 Ic was captured at the battle of Fort DoncLson in 181)2, and confined in prison at Camp Chase and Johnson's Island for several months. After his exchange, lie served a.s captain of infantry in the Fifty-sixth Alabama Regiment until the close of the war. lie was in battle at Baker's Creek. Port Hudson, Jackson, Miss., and all of the Georgia campaign from Rcsaca to Peach Tree Creek, lie was wounded three times at the latter battle, and incapacitated for further service thereby. In 1870, J. H. Cowan was electeii to the Legis- lature, re-elected in 1872, and served until 187:); since that time he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits. His wife was Miss Sophia E. Taliaferro, daughter of Richard II. Taliaferro, a minister of some note in the Missionary Baptist Church, at Princeton. Mr. Cowan has six children: Geo. W., Elizabeth, Sophronia, Angle, Sophie T., and Samuel C. Mr. and Mrs. Cowan are members of the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church, and he is a Free- mason. R. C. HUNT. Attorney at Law, was born Feb- ruary 5. 1860. in Franklin County, Tenn. His father, William Hunt, was born in the same place in 1812. He was a substantial farmer, and served as a captain in the Florida War. He died in 1862. He married Miss Annis Clayton, a native of Jack- son County, Ala., and daughter of R. B. Clayton, of North Carolina, who came to Alabama about 1820. R. B. Clayton was the first C'lerk of the Circuit Court of .Jackson County. He died in Baldwin, Miss., in 1872, at the age of 82 years. R. C'. Hunt received his early education in the common schools of Tennessee. In 1870 he began the study of law, and in 1871 was admitted to the bar at Winchester, Tenn. He commenced the practice of his profession in Texas, but located in Scottsboro. in 1875, where he has since establish- ed a very successful practice. Mr. Hunt was married in April, 1877, to Miss Annie Scruggs, a daughter of Frederick and .Mar- garet (Kimbrough) Scruggs, of East Tennessee. • 'V* •{QiJ2P5' 'v ' ■ ALEXANDER SNODGRASS, Postmaster, Scottsboro. sou of James 1). Snodgrass, was born in Washington t^ounty, Va.. October 1, 1820. James 0. Snodgrass was born in the same jilaoe about 17!iO. He was a weaver by trade, as was his father before him, and he was also a farmer, lie married .\bigail Dunlap, of Scotch descent and they had nine children. Alexander Snodgrass was born in the ancestral home; educated at the common schools and Duffield Academy, Elizabeth, Tenn., and at Ab- ingdon, Va. He came to Alabama in lS43;ha8been tax assessor, and was rtceivcr of public money at the land offices at Lebanon and Centre for six years. He represented Cherokee County in the State Leg- islature two years, and was State agent for ship- ping salt for a year or two during the war. After the war, he established the Alabama Herald at Scottsboro. In 1872 he was elected to represent Jack- son, Marshall and DeKalb counties in the State Senate, and served there four years. He continued the publication of the Jleruld until January 16, 1887, when, on account of his ap- pointment as postmaster by President Cleveland, the paper was discontinued. In 1843, Mr. Snodgrass was married to Miss Lucetta Byrd, of this vicinity, by whom he had one daughter, Mary A., married to C. W. Daugh- drill, and now living in Gadsden. In 18-53 the first Mrs. Snodgrass died, and in December, 1854. Mr. Snodgrass was married to Miss Susan Jane Hill, a lady related to a family of that name well known in Georgia and Tennessee. The children of this marriage are John Nathaniel, who died in infancy; Fannie V., now widow of F. R. King of New Orleans and for some time known as junior edi- tress of the Herald. She has become quite famous throughout the State as a writer under the iiom de jdnme of "Hex" in the Birmingham Af/e; Su- san Cornelia, wife of I). K. Caldwell, of this county, and living in Scottsboro; Jesse Alexander, wife of Dr. Beech, a dentist of Scottsboro; Irene and Minnie, yet at home. Mr. Snodgrass is a member of the P^piscopal Church and the Masonic fraternitv. 100 NORTHERN ALABAMA. JAMES K. P. ROREX, M. D., Physician and Surgeon, son of David and Sarali A. (Wilkinson) Eorex, was born the 3d of March, 1845, in Fay- ettesville, Lincoln Oonnty, Tenn. His father, David Eorex, vpas born in East Ten- nessee October 16, 180G. He was a merchant; moved to Alabama in January, 1858, and died in Scottsboro March, 1880. His wife, Sarah Ann Wilkinson, died in March, 1863. They had six children, two boys and four girls. Dr. Eorex received a common-school edu- cation at Stevenson in the ante-bellum days. He entered the Confederate Army at the age of fifteen, in the Sixth Alabama Infantry. He was in the Seven Days' Fight before Richmond in 18G2: at the battle of Chancellorsville, where he was wounded; at Gettysburg, and the second battle of the Wil- derness, where he received a wound which crippled him for five or six years. After the war he attended school at Stevenson for one year. Then he went to the University of Virginia, after which he came home and taught school for three years, studying medicine in the meantime. He attended two courses of lectures in Nashville; took his degree of M. D. at Mobile, in March, 1875; attended Louisiana State Medical College in New Orleans in 1884; and has practiced medicine in Scottsboro since 1875. He is a member of the State Medical Association and a counsellor therein since 1881; was County Health Officer five years, and is President now of the Jackson County Med- ical Society. He is a member of the Christian Church and of the Odd Fellows fraternity. Dr. Rorex was married November 6, i876, to Miss Ella Lou Whitworth, a daughter of Wm. Whitworth, of Tennessee. The Doctor has three children: Louis Wyetb, Fannie Polk and William David. JOHN RICHARD HARRIS, son of Richard B. and A. H. Clopton Harris, of A'irginia, was born near Huntsville, May 5, 1841. Richard B. Harris was born in 1806, educated in the country schools, in early life was a merchant, and after- ward a farmer. He was a captain of militia at Huntsville for many years and served also as a justice of the peace. He reared two sons and five daughters. John R. Harris was reared on a farm, and when eight years old removed with his parents to Larkinsville, Ala., and received his education at Irvin College. In March, 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate Army, in Capt. Hal. Bradford's company; went to Fort Morgan, where he and his company were merged into the Second Alabama Regiment; remained there for ten months, was transferred to Fort Pillow, and after a short time discharged. While Mr. Harris and his comrades were on their way home he joined an Alabama regiment for the occasion and participated in the memorable battle of Corinth. Having reached his home, he remained there but a few days, and went out as an independent with Colonel Stearns, of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, and there was or- ganized into Company K., Commanded by Capt. Francisco Rice, of Madison County, Ala., For- rest's old brigade. While here he declined an office which was tendered him. After this he partici- pated in all the engagements in which his brigade fought; was never excused from duty at any time; was in Bragg's campaign in Kentucky; fought with Kirby Smith's command, and himself com- manded the extreme advance guard of Smith's division till he reached Barbersville and Cumber- land Ford. When his squad had only crossed the Kentucky line a short distance, they were fired on by bushwhackers, when they dashed into the hills and captured some of them; then met a Federal lieutenant with twenty scouts, and killed and captured together, fourteen of the same. Here Mr. Harris was slightly wounded on top of his head. He was engaged at Eichmond, Perry- ville, second battle of Fort Donelson, Parker's Cross Roads, Huntington, Lexington and Dres- den, where his brigade captured General Fry's command. He was afterward in the battles of Thompson Station, Tenn., Knoxville, Chicka- mauga, Resaca and the campaign of Atlanta, Ga. ; was slightly wounded several times; was with Gen. Joe Wheeler in the East Tennessee campaign, in the winter of 1863-4. After Hood's raid he was on detached duty as a secret scout, in which duly he again had command of a small squad of men, and had numerous fights with an independ- ent Alabama company, and Federals in Middle Tennessee and North Alabama, often successfully fighting five and ten to one; and thinks he, with five others, made the last fight of the war near Larkinsville, Ala., killing seven out of sixteen of the enemy. This engagement was on horseback, the enemy getting in first fire. A short time be- fore this Mr. Harris, with Lieutenant Haveren and eight men, boarded a Federal steamboat some NORTHERN ALABAMA. 101 miles below Chattanooga, on the Tennessee Kiver, and captured the urew and destroyed the vessel, with several cannon. After the war lie cnjjaged in farming, wliich he has continued till the jiresent time. In 1871, he was elected Sheriff, and served one term. It is said by his countrymen that he made a most excellent sheriff. In 18K0. he removed to Scotts- boro, where he owns considerable property. In 1800, lie was married to Miss MoUie F. Win- bourn, of West Tennessee. He had one daughter by this marriage — .Mollie F. His wife dieri in 1870; was married again in 1874 to Miss ilaria W. Kinkle, daughter of LaFayette and Agnes (Jones) Kinkle. of lluntsville. They have several cliildren — Robert K.. John R., Fannie T., Emma 1'., Jennie I'., .Maria W., Lulu (J. and George W. Mr. Harris and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a .Mason and Knight of Honor. — -^-f^t^-^*— ^ JOHN P. TIMBERLAKE, Contractor, Steven- son, son of Joel and Martha (Perkins) Tim- berlake, was born in Louisa County, Va., August 13, 1817. His parents were both natives of Louisa County, where his father was born, in 177*;. He was a farmer, and died in 1831, leaving five children. Ili.< widow died a few years later. Philip Timberlake, grandfather of John P. 'J'imberlake, was also a native of ^'Jrginia, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The 'I'imberlakes came from England. John P. Timberlake was reared mi a farm, and received a common school education. When twenty years of age, he took a contract on the James River & Kanawlni Canal. After this was completed, he came to Georgia (in 1838), and took contracts in the construction of the Western & Atlantic Railway. He followed the business of contracting, in Georgia and Alabama, until 1857, and was successful in accumulating a considerable fortune. In 1852, he located at Stevenson, where he he hivs since resided, and has been a merchant and farmer, besides continuing his business as a con- tractor, in pursuance of which, he was interested in erecting all the principal buildings of Steven- son, including the William and Emma Austin College, which was finished in 1873. In 1801, he was a delegate to the Secession Con- vention, and gave his entire influence against the ordinance of secession. Mr. Timberlake was married, in 1858, to Sarah T. Roach, of Jackson County, Ala., a daughter of Rev. Charles L. and Sarah (Bradford) Roach, of Virginia and Tennessee, respectively. Charles L. Roach was a minister of the Missionary Baptist Church. Mrs. Timberlake died in 1807. Mr. Timberlake is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church and the Masonic fraternity. JAMES P. HARRIS. Proprietor of the Harris House, Scottsboro, son of Richard B. Harris, and grandson of a soldier in the Revolutionary war, was born April 4, 1847, near lluntsville. Mr. Harris was a weakly youth until he had served awhile in the army. His father had plenty of slaves, and he did nothing in his boyhood davs but go to school. He joined the Confederate Army in 1861, being then but sixteen years of age, and was mustered into Company K, Fourth Alabama Infantry, under Col. Egbert J. Jones. He was in the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, but was discharged from the infantry service on account of his extreme youth. He returned to his home and remained there about a month, when he joined Forrest's Cav- alry in the Fourth Tennessee Regiment; was in the battle at Jamestown, the seven days' fight before Richmond, and in all Forrest's West Tennessee campaigns, including eight or ten heavy battles and many skirmishes; was at the second battle of Fort Donelson, the battle of Thompson's Station and the capture of Streight, whom Forrest pur- sued from near Tuscumbia until within a few miles from Rome, Georgia, riding and fighting day and night for three or four days. Our subject was engaged in the battle of Tulla- homa, a most severe fight, in which Colonel Starnes of his regiment was killed. He was also in the battle of Chickamauga, and after that went to East Tennessee and participated in the siege of Knoxville, and was continuously fighting most of the winter. In the spring his regiment came through the Carolinas and joined Johnson's army at Dalton, Georgia. This regiment was placed in the rear guard on their retreat from Dalton to Atlanta, and participated in the battles of Resaca, Calhoun, Kenesaw Mountain, and Peach Tree Creek. Before the battle of Peach 103 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Tree Creek they captured Stoneman and his com- mand south of Atlanta, and made a. raid through Middle Tennessee. After the battle at Atlanta tiiey fought a most severe one at Franklin, Ten- nessee, and then retreated to North Carolina, where Johnson surrendered. He was married October 31, 1866, to Miss Jen- nie Robertson, of Jackson County, and four chil- dren have been born to this union: "William 8., Anna B., Mary S. and James P. Mr. Harris and lady are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and he is an Odd Fellow. Vlll. FRANKLIN COUNTY. Population: White, 10,456; colored, 1,699. Area, 610 square miles. Woodland, all. Red Val- ley and other calcareous lands, 220 square miles. Sandy soil and gravelly hills, 240 square miles. Coal measures, 150 square miles. Acres — In cotton, approximately, 10,368; in corn, 21,038; in oats, 320; in wheat, l,6ci0; in tobacco, 17; in sugar cane, 96; in sweet potatoes, 137. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 3,000. County Seat — Bel Green : Population, 500 ; located 23 miles from Tuscumbia. Newspapers published at County Seat — Frank- lin News, Democratic. Postofficesin the County — Alauthus, Bel Green, Burleson, Ezzell, Fordton, Frankfort, Isbell, Mountain Springs, Nelsonville, Newburgh, Pleas- ant Site, Eussellville, Spruce Pine, Waco. Franklin is one of the northwestern counties of the State, and adjoins the State of Mississippi. Its history as a county antedates the history of the State, it having been organized in 1818, by the first Territorial Legislature. The county perpetuates the memory of Benjamin Franklin, the great American jihilosopher. It is one of the oldest counties in the State, and has long been noted for its richness in minerals as well as the fertility of its soils. At Russellville, which was once the county-seat, there was estab- lished the first iron furnace erected in the State ; but, owing to superior facilities of transportation in other quarters, its operation has long since been discontinued, and now its existence is only a memory of the past. The principal mineral resources of the county consist of coal and iron ore, both of which are found in apparently inexhaustible quantities. The presence of these minerals bids fair to bring Franklin County into prominence and materially increase the value of its lands. The want of fa- cilities of transportation, in the past, has been the cause which retarded the develojiment of the resources of this county ; but this condition is somewhat changed now, as the county is pene- trated by the Sheffield & Birmingham Railroad, which will soon be completed through to the latter city. In addition to this road, others highly important to the interests of Franklin are projected, and no doubt the work of con- structing some of them will be commenced at an early date. This is what Franklin has long awaited, and when the time arrives the county will enjoy an era of prosperity greater than is now dreamed of. The surface of the county is marked by a series of ridges, and taken as a whole is more or less broken, but has frequent valleys notable for their fertility, which furnish excellent lands sufficient to support a large population of small farmers. The soil on the ridges is thin and cultivation of it yields poor return; but in the valleys the results will compare favorably with sections which are strictly classed as good agricultural regions. The princijial products of the county are corn, cotton, wheat, oats, rye, tobacco, sorghum, potatoes and the usual field crops. Probably the leading crop of the county is corn, although it produces nearly NORTHERN ALABAMA. 103 4,000 bales of cotton per year. This crop was placed at 2,07*^ bales by tlic Census of 1S70, while the Census of 1880 shows a yield of .'!,r.03 bales. The conditions of the county especially adajit it to the cultivation of grain, in which it will compare favorably with leading counties of the cereal belt. The matter of stock raising i.s receiving much attention, and Franklin County's wool product bids fair to be a most imjiortant feature at an early day. The county is fairly well wooded, the i)rincipal of its timbers being red, white, post and black- jack oaks, dogwood, chestnut and hickory. Co!i- siderable (piantities of the more valuable timbers — black locust, cedar, walnut and cherry — are found in many portions. Bear River, Little Hear, and other smaller and uniTuportant streams give the county an ample supjily of water. Until changed at the last ses- sion of the Legislature, Bear Kiver was known as Big Bear Creek. The County Seat is Bel Green, a pleasant little town, located about the center of the county. The other principal towns are llusselville, Frank- fort, Nelsonville and Center Line. The educa- tional and religious facilities of the county are up to the standard. Fine private schools are kept up in almost every town, while every township has its public school. Meeting-houses are found in all l)ortions of the county. IX. COLBERT COUNTY. Population: White. 9.203; colored, C, 0.50. Area, 570 sfpiare miles. Woodland, all. (iravelly hills and sandy soil, -l^O square miles; red valley and other calcareous lands, 150 square miles. Acres — In cotton, approxiniately,25,0U0; in corn, 31,575; in oats, 3.840; in wheat, 1,704; in rye, 6'.i; in toViacco, 34; in sugar-cane, 15; in sweet potatoes, 28(). Approximate number of bales of cotton, 10,000. County Seat — Tuscumbia: population. 2,000; located near tlic Tennessee Kiver, on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Di^jxitch and yorlh A hi/mm inn, both Democratic. At Shef- feld — Enterprise, Independent. Postotlices in the Count}- — Allsborougli, Bar- ton, Beeson, Bishop, Cheatham, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Dickson, Dug, Ingleton, Leighton, Littleville, Margerum, Maud, Mountain Mills, I'ride's .Station, Rock Creek, Saint's Store, Shef- field, South Florence, Spring Valley, Tharp, Tus- cumbia. Colbert Countv. named for a famous chief of the Chickasaws, who once lived within its limits, was created from territory cut off from the northern part of Franklin County in 1807. ■'Though one of the youngest counties in the State," says a recent writer, "it is rapidly coming to the froTit as one of the most progressive." It is one of the most highly-favored counties in Alabama, taking into consideration its climate, soil, farm products, water-powers, timbers, mine- rals, and transportation by river and rail. The county lies east and west, in the sliape of an irregular parallelogram (twenty by thirty miles), much compressed in the middle by a southward flexure of the Tennessee River, which washes its whole northern border. It contains 570 square miles. Population in IS'.O, 12,537; in 1880, 10,153 ; in 1887 (estimated), 22,000, of whom fifty-nine per cent, are white, and forty-one i)er cent, are colored. The i>rincipal farm i)roducts are cotton, corn (in the production of which, per acre, the county ranks first in the State), oats, wheat, clover, the 104 NORTHERN ALABAMA. grasses, sorghum, sweet and Irish potatoes, hay, rye, and tobacco in limited quantities. Peaches grow to perfection in the mountains, and all other kind of fruit and vegetables thrive in the valleys. A range of hills called the " Little Mountain " runs east and west through the county, north of which lies the Valley of the Tennessee, and south Kussel's Valley, in Franklin County. Toward Kussel's Valley, the hills slope gradually, and are covered with pebble beds of considerable thickness, while toward the Tennessee Valley, the mountain sinks down abruptly, leaving escarp- ments of rock from 75 to 175 feet in height. But two geological formations, the sub-carbon- iferous and the stratified drift, are represented in the county. These, though lying in contact, are divided chronologically by the mighty gap which separates paliszoic from quarterman time. The sub-carboniferous is composed of limestone and sandstone; the drift of angular fragments of clod sands, clay, and rounded pebbles. The lat- ter is found chiefly in the soutJiern and western part of the county. The drainage of the county is northward all the streams flowing into the Tennessee River, and all, except Bear River, in the west, having their sources in the Little Mountain. The streams flowing north are Spring Creek, Little Bear Ci-eek, Cane Creek, Buzzard Roost Creek and Bear River. The first four have cut deep gorges or canons into the sandstone, which forms the upper stratum of the Little Mountain. These canons abound in mineral springs and are wildly picturesque and beautiful. After leaving the mountains streams flow through a comparatively level valley to the river. The St. Louis or coral limestone underlies this valley. The most striking topographical features of the county are the bluffs of coral limestone, .50 to 100 feet high, along the south bank of the Tennessee River, the level and beautiful valley, thirty miles in length by ten miles in breadth, lying parallel, and the bold escarpment of the Little Mountain visible from every part of the valley, forming a mighty wall of stone to the southward. The lands of the county may be classified agri- culturally as follows: Fifty-seven square miles of alluvial lands — these are -'made lands" along Tennessee and Bear Rivers, subject to overflow, but astonishingly fertile, producing maximum crops of 100 bushels of corn and \\ bales of cotton to the acre : l.")3 square miles of red lands of the ■valley lying between the coral limestone bluffs of the river and the limestone escarpments of the Little Mountain — these lands are not subject to overflow, have a red to dark brown soil, a deep red sub-soil, are easily renovated when worn, and are exceedingly rich and productive ; the bad class of land — 380 square miles of "mountain" lands — about one-half of which has a light sand soil, not very productive, but covered with the fine forests of pine and oaJc, and the other half of caves and rich, rounded hills covered with growth of walnut and poplar, and producing fine crops of corn, cotton and small grain. Lands vary from 15 to $50 per acre in price, according to character, location and surroundings. The spontaneous and exuberant growth of grasses in Colbert County marks it specially for a stock country. The efforts heretofore made at raising horses, mules, cattle, hogs, etc., and im- proving breeds of live stock, have been eminently successful. Few counties in the State could make an exhibition of live stock that would rival that of this county. Colbert is rich in valuable timljers. Forests of short leaf pine, cutting from 400,000 to 500,000 feet, board measure, to the square mile, abound. All varieties of oak are found. Thousands of cords of tan bark are annually shipped by river to northwestern cities. Red gums of great height and beauty grow in all parts of the county. Chest- nut grows everywhere upon the mountains, and cypress is abundant along the streams. The mineral wealth of the county is very great. Beds of silica, hydraulic limestone, ochre, fire- clay and kaolin are found in various parts, par- ticularly in the west. Good beds of iron ore (limonite) are found near Tharptown in the south- east and near Chickasaw in the northwest portion of the county. Gray marble, approximating stat- uary marble in the polish it takes, is quarried at Ingleton near the Mississippi line. Samples of this stone may be seen in the Confederate monu- ment at Montgomery, and the soldiers' monument at Mobile. Sandstone of superior quality abounds. Keller's quarry, near the center of the county, and Ilolsapple's quarry, near Cherokee, are among the best. The cleavage of this stone is perfect, any size and thickness being obtained. Among the industrial and manufacturing enter- prises of the county are the stone quarries above mentioned, the lime works of Dr. Pride, near Pride Station, and of Mr. John A. Denny, near Margerum, the cotton factory of Messrs. Cheney NORTHERN ALABAMA. 105 & Brandon, near Barton, and quite a number of steam saw and grist mills in various parts of the county. At Slieffield, ])reparations for making and work- ing iron on tlie most extensive scale are being made, and shipments of ore have begun. Five blast furnaces of a combined capacity of COO tons of iron daily, are completed, or in process of con- struction. The limits of this article forbids any enumeration of the various manufacturing enter- prises at Sheftield and Tuscumbia, which include plow factories, ice factories, planing mills, brick yards, sash and blind factories, etc. The first railroad in the South, a horse-car rail- way, was built from Tuscumbia, in this county, to Decatur, in Morgan County. These points are now connected by the Jremphis& Charleston Ixailroad, which runs through Colbert County from east to west. A branch of the the same road connects Tuscumbia with Florence. The Sheffield & Bir- mingham liailroad runs through Colbert County from north to south, connecting Sheffield with the iron and coal deposits in Franklin, A\Mnston, Walker and Jefferson Counties. Besides these roads the following railroads, all to i)ass through this county, are projected and in process of con- struction: The Louisville & Nashville exten- sion, from Columbia, Tenn., to Sheffield, Ala.: the Illinois Central extension, from Aberdeen, Miss., to Sheffield, Ala.; the Florence & Tus- caloosa Railroad from Tuscaloosa to Florence, via Sheffield; and the Padueah, Chickasaw & Birmingham Railroad from Chickasaw to Birm- ingham. r.eighton, lying partly in Lawrence County, Brides, Bartoii, Cherokee, Dickson and Margerum are stations and thriving towns surrounded by a fine country and have good churches and schools. Chickasaw, tlie head of summer navigation on the Tennes.see River, is below Colbert Shoals. It is the most northwesterly town in Alabama, and during low water stage goods may be billed to it cheaper than any other town in the State. Alls- boro is a prosperous village on the Bear River twenty miles below its mouth. Ninety jier cent, of the population of Saint's, Camp Smith, Wheeler's and Seygley beats, which constitute tiio mountain ])recincts are white. Tiie farmers of this section are the most independent and self-sustaining in the county. The Tennessee River secures to dwellers on its banks water connection with all the river cities of the north, west and south. The navigation from Padueah, Ky., to Chickasaw, Ala., is equaled in this country only by that of the lower Missis- sippi and the Hudson. The distance is about three hundred miles. An additional three hun- dred miles will be added to the navigation of this river as soon as the Mussel Shoals Canal is com- pleted and obstructions removed from Colbert Shoals, for which work there has been an appro- priation of |!50,000. FRANK R. KING, born at Leighton, Ala.. October 30, IS.JT, is a son of Ilartwell P. and Mary Henderson (Smith) King. The senior Mr. King was born near Raleigh, N. C, in LS20. He entered the army as a mem- ber of Captain Rand's Company, with which he served until the close of the war. He had born to him eight children, viz.: Henry, Hartwell, Richard, Duncan, Paul, William, Frank R. and Susie. The three first named died when quite young. The grandfather of our subject, Hartwell Kinsr, was a native of North Carolina. He reared a large family and died before the war. His widow died in 1871, at the extreme old age of 88 years. The subject of this sketch engaged in mercan- tile business with his brother Paul, which business they are still conducting. This firm is one of the oldest in Leighton, and has the largest trade of any of its kind in that section of the country. Mr. King was married in June, 1876, to Imo- gene White, daughter of James AVhite, of ilem- phis, Tenn. The union has been blessed with one child, Walter. Mr. King and wife are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches, respectively. — ««: B. R. KING, M. D., born near Leighton, Ala., in 1830, is a son of Oswald and Martha (DeLone) King. 'J'he senior Mr. King was born in North Caro- lina in the year 1785; came to Alabama with his parents at the age of seventeen years, and died in 1870. He was a well educated man, a thorough instructor, and one of the leading citizens of the county. He taught school when quite young, and also was a successful planter, in which avoca- 106 NORTHERN ALABAMA. tion he accumulated a large fortune. He reared a family of eleven children, of whom we make the following mention: Edward H., deceased; Robert, a planter; B. R., our subject; Burchert, planter ; Margaret F., wife of F. Hubbard ; the rest of the family died at an early age. The King family came originally from England. The mother of our subject was also born in North Carolina, and was a daughter of C'apt. E. B- DeLone, a native of Virginia, and of French Huguenot ancestry. Cajit. DeLone came to Alabama in its early history, located at Hunts- ville, where he became an extensive trader, and thence removed to Arkansas, where he died be- fore the war. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, and received his education at La Grange College, from which institution he was graduated. He also attended a military school at ilarietta, Ga., ten months. About 1857 he began the study, of medicine with Dr. Kumpie, and was graduated from the University of Peunsylvania in 1861. Immediately after his graduation he located in the practice of his profession at Leighton. In 1863, he entered into a contract with the Confed- erate Government as Surgeon of the Thirty-fifth Alabama Regiment, with which command he served about two years. He then acted as Surgeon of Warren's Battalion for a short time. After the war, Dr. King settled at Leighton, where he has been engaged, more or less, in the practice of his profession ever since. He also conducts a large farm. He stands high in the estimation of the community, and is regarded by the profession as one of the most skillful physi- cians in Northern Alabama. DR. GEORGE E. KUMPIE was born near Castle, Germany, September 7, 1819. He re- ceived his education in his native country, and in early life was connected with the Lutheran Church. When quite young, he and his brother, John, came to the United States, locating at Tusciimbia, Ala. The Doctor took his first course in medicine at Louisville, in 1847, and graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. After his graduation, he located at La Grange, Ala., where he found a good field for his profession, and in which he labored, with much success, until 1876. He then moved to Little Rock, Ark., where he lived a few years, coming thence to Leighton, where he lived until his death, which occurred August 29, 1887. Being a man of much popularity, a skillful physician, an active worker in the church, and a public-spirited citizen, his death was regretted by a large circle of friends. He was a prominent Mason, and stood at the head of his profession. He served as president and vice-pre.sident of the State Medical Association, and was deeply inter- ested in all matters pertaining to the advance- ment and edification of the medical profession. He left an interesting family, of six sons and one daughter, who comprise some of Northern Ala- bama's best citizens. PARKER N. G. RAND was born at La Grange, Colbert County, Ala., in October, 1829, and is a son of John and Martha (Curtis) Rand, natives of Wake County, N. C. Mr. Rand's parents moved to La Grange in 1826; purchased two farms, one in Lawrence and the other in Franklin County, and were success- ful in accumulating a large amount of land. They reared four sons and five daughters, namely: Louise, wife of William Mullens of Alabama; Pemantha, widow of Robert A. Lampkin; Martha^ wife of Reece Cook, of Vicksburg, Miss. ; Jackson. C, deceased; John W., physician; William H.,. farmer; Molsey A., wife of F. C. Vinson; Parker N. G., our subject; Mary A., wife of Dr. William Stephenson — she died in Texas. The elder Mr. Rand died in 1863, at the age of seventy-six years. His wife died in 1845, aged fifty-six years. He was a very active and industrious man while in North Carolina. Beginning in life apparently a poor man he succeeded in accumulating a fortune of at least 850,000. The Rand family were origin- ally of Irish and Scotch ancestry. The mother of our subject was a daughter of John Curtis, a native of Wake county, N. C. He was a lineal descendant of Irish parentage. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm; received a common-school education, and in 1845 entered La Grange College, from which institution he was graduated as A. B. in 1849. After his grad- uation he was engaged with his father farming until February, 1855, when he was married to Martha A. Smith, daughter of John Smith, of Lawrence NORTHERN ALABAMA. lor County, .Ala. They reared a family of six chiklren, namely: Pattie; Parker, book-keeper for F. I{. King & Co.; Leighton, Hall, John and Mary. After marriage Mr. Pand located in the neigh- borhood of his birth where he was engaged at farming. He was elected magistrate, which office he has held for thirty years *or more. In the sjiring of 1803, he raised a company of soldiers; was elected captain, and entered a battalion under .Major Williams of the Confederate Army. This company remained a part of the battalion until its major was killed, after which it was merged into Company H, Eleventh Alabama, commanded by Col. James Burtwell, a graduate of West Point. Mr. Hand remained with this regiment until the close of the war. He was mostly engaged as a scout and participated at the battle of Tishomingo Creek and at the fall of Selma. He surrendered at Pond Springs, after which he returned home and resumed farming. Having lost considerable of his fortune, he went to work with energy and has succeeded in replenishing his coffers. Mr. Rand and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been steward for many years. He is also worshipful master of the Masonic lodge, and has taken an active interest in all that pertains to the advancement and progress of his section of the country. MINERAL BELT. BLOUNT COUNTY. Population: White, 14,210; colored, 1,159. Area, 700 square miles. Woodland, all. Coal measures, 460 square miles; valley lauds, 240 square miles: Brown's and Murphree's Valley, 240 square miles. Acres iu cotton, approximately, 12,500; in corn, 29,161; in oats, 4,551; in wheat, 10,087; in tobac- co, 48; in sweet potatoes, 371. Approximate num- ber of bales of cotton, 5,000. County Seat — Blountsville;poi5ulation, 300; loca- ted fifty miles south of Huntsville and forty-eight miles north of Birmingham. Newsjiapers published at County Seat — Blount Coiinty News, democratir. Postoffices in the County — Anderton, Arkadel- phia. Balm, Bangor, Blount Springs, BlountsviUe, Brooksville, Chejjultepec, Craige, Dineston, Gar- den City, Garrison Point, Gum Springs, Hanbys Mills, Ilanceville, Hendrick, Huldah, Liberty, Little Warrior, Lowery, McLarty, Murijhree's Val- ley, Xectar, Ogee, Remlap, Snead, Strawberry, Summit, Village Springs, Viola, Wynnville. This county was formed in 1818, and named in honor of Governor William G. Blount, of Ten- nessee. It is noted for the abundance of its minei'als, the diversity of its soils, the variety of productions, and mineral waters. In its progress. it is keeping pace with the surrounding counties, and is ranked among the best in the State. The face of the country in Blount is rather peculiar. It is penetrated through the center by a plateau which occupies a belt from eight to ten miles in width. On one side of this mountain plateau, running parallel with it, is Murphree's Valley, while on the opposite side is Brown's Val- ley. Along this belt of plateau are found excel- tent farming lands, which have been wonderfully assisted during the last few years by the moderate use of fertilizers. Cotton grows most readily upon this broad upland, especially if a little assisted with fertilizers. Excellent school and church facilities exist in almost every portion of the county. Blountsville, the seat of justice, Bangor, Summit, Hanceville, and Garden City are places of importance. The industries of the county are varied. Extensive limeworks are seen at Blount Springs. Limestone, dug from the quarries here, is daily shipped iu large quantities to Birmingham, where the manu- facturers hold it in repute above any other avail- able limestone. It prevails in inexhaustible stores, in hills about Blount Springs. Coal and iron are abundant in the county. Petroleum is also found. Enjoying, as it does, facilities for transportation to 108 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 109 the markets of the South, Nortli, and all points in the far Northwest, nothing prevents Blount from taking rank with the foremost counties of the State. Here, as in the adjoining counties which lie along the railroad, the value of the lands dim- inishes as they recede from tiie lineof communica- tion. Land can be purchased in the county at prices ranging from k'l to ^3.5 per acre. There are ;U,3'.iO acres of government land in Rlount County. II. BIBB COUNTY. Poimlation: White. G.OOO; colored, ;!,000. Area, 610 square miles. Woodland, all. Hilly lands, with long-leaf pine, 310 square miles. C'a- haba coal fields, Vlh square miles. Eoup's Valley, 100 square miles. Valley lands south of Cahaba coal fields. To square miles. Gravelly hills, with long-leaf pines, 110 square miles. Acres in cotton, approximately, 15,737; in corn, 18,816 ; in oats, 3,935 ; in wheat, 3,125 ; in rye, 151: in tobacco, 36; in sugar-cane, 36; in sweet potatoes, 308. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 5,931. County Seat — Centerville ; population 300: lo- cated on Cahaba River. Postoftices in the Count}' — Abercrombie, Affo- nee, Ashby, Bibbville, Blocton, Brierfield, Cen- tervUh, Furnace, Green Pond. Ilarrisburgh, Xcw Marrs, Pondville, Randolph, River Bend, Scotts- ville, Si.\ Mile, Slick, Tionus, Woodstock. Formerly, Bibb County was one of the largest counties in the State ; but a great deal of its area has been cut off to make up the surrounding counties established later on in the history of the State. In the first days of its settlement, and for a long time, agriculture was tlie only pursuit of its citizens ; but along in the d.ays of the Confed- eracy the industries began to be diversified, and some attention was given to her minerals. But her inhabitants soon settled again into the tilling of the soil, and not until a few years ago have her great resources of mineral and timber wealth been discovered ; and while she stands to-day among the richest and most wonderful of the counties of the great Commonwealth, she has not lost much of her agricultural value. Very little corn is bought by the farmers, and they could easily i-aise it all. Besides this, the soil produces with ease and in abundance oats, rye, potatoes, peas, rice, sugar-cane, and in fact almost everything except wheat. The forests and fields afford excellent pasturage for cattle and hogs, though as yet not much attention is paid to either, as a rule. A most important crop is grass, which can be raised at a considerable profit ; and in many parts of the county the farmers are turn- ing their attention to stock-raising. The fertility of the lands can not be too highly spoken of. The entire country in the eastern portion of the county is full of iron of the finest quality. With- in a short distance lie beds of limestone, and coal is near by. Iron can be made at a small cost. JIany varieties of marble are found which could be easily utilized. The finest fire-clay exists in many places, and is being worked at two points. Fine brick are made. Yellow ochre is found and some gold-bearing quality. There are also man- ganese, asbestos, saltpetre, and some other inferior minerals. Great forests of pine timber offer a rich harvest to mill men, and some of them are being worked. The county is shaded by the finest of timbers, embracing hickory, oak, gum, maple, beech, pop- lar, walnut, chestnut, elm, persimmon, cotton- wood, and the finest of cedar; all of this timber could be put to use, and the county abounds in good openings for wooden manufactories. Anywhere on the banks of the beautiful streams 110 NORTHERN ALABAMA. may be found fine water-powers, where small manufactories could be run. The most important of those streams are the Cahaba and Little Cahaba Rivers, and Haysoy, Shultz, Shades, Ockmul- gee, Sandy, Six Mile, and Mahean Creeks. On most all of them are found mills and gins, and many sites for others. The established industries of Bibb are limited for a county of so much material wealth, but they are important. A great many saw-mills are run- ning, which shiji quantities of lumber to other mar- kets. Notable among these are Harrison's, at Ran- dolph, Carter's, at Brierfield, ilartin Strickland's, at Blaston, besides the many smaller ones. The Brierfield Coal & Iron Company own the most extensive manufacturing plant. They mine coal, make coke, make pig iron, run it through rolling mills, cast it at the foundry, make nails, and jiut up some machinery. The Cahaba Coal Mining Comjiany, at Blaston, are mining immense quantities of coal, which they make into coke and ship to Anniston. The Edwards Iron Company, at Woodstock, will be running very soon. At Ashley and Bibbville there are large fire and machine made brick works, which ship large quantities. At Scottsville, there is a flouring mill and wool-carding mill. The places of importance are — -Centerville, the the county seat, Randolph, Brierfield, Six Mile, Blaston, Woodstock, Green Pond and Scottsville. The county is skirted by two railroads, the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia on the east, and the Alabama Great Southern on the west. Two others are projected through the center. The Mobile & Birmingham has been located, and will strike Ashley Furnace, Blaston and Wood- stock, and will run directly through the coal and iron fields. The Selma & Cahaba Valley is a pro- posed line through the timber, marble and coal regions. Boats have run as high up the Cahaba River as Centerville, and that stream can easily be made navigable, thus giving an outlet by water. The water and climate is fine, and health good. Good schools are accessible at all points. The morals of the people are above the average, there being little business in the courts — churches are well supported. Trade is good and many merchants have made fortunes. The peojile only lack enterprise to some extent, though they are awakening to a due sense of the value of their county. Lands can be bought cheap, and there is a great deal of public land subject to entry. A minute description would require a large volume, and the above are only a few points touching the true status of the county. There is an inviting field for those who desire to invest, and in this age of advancement and progress we soon expect to see our county put down among the first of the State. The county is entirely out of debt, and only imposes a tax of forty-five cents on the ^100. III. CALHOUN COUNTY. Population: Wliite : U,8T2: colored, 4,9-v'l. Area. C,io square miles. Wootlland. all. Coosa A'allev and Coosa coal fields, 040 square miles. Acres in cotton, approximately, 2(),,43o: in corn, 33,714: in oats, 8,8.52; in wheat, 10,745; in rye, 287; in tobacco, 29; in sweet potatoes, 283. Ap- proximate number of bales of cotton, 11,927. County Seat — Jacksonville; population 5,000; on Kast Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Rejnth- Uciin, democratic; at Anniston, Hot Blast, Watch- man, and Southeni Industni, all democratic; at Cross Plains, Post, democratic; at Oxford, .£"(7*0, local. Postotliees in the County — Adelia, Alexandria, Allsup. .Viiniston, Beasley, Bera, Bruner, By- num, Cane Creek, Choccolocco, Cross Plains, Davisville, l)e Armanville, Duke, Eulaton, Fran- cis, Germania, Grayton, Hebron, Jacksonville, Jenkins, Ladiga, Mack. Marthadell, Martin's Cross-roads, Merrellton, Morrisville, Nance, Ohat- ohee, Ottery, Oxanna, Oxford, Peaceburgh, Peek's Hill, Rabbit Town, Randall, Weaver's Station, Wliite Plains. Calhoun County, in the northeastern i)art of the State, is bounded on the north by l-^towah and Cherokee Counties, on the east by Cleburne, on the south by Cleburne and Talladega, and on the west by St. Clair. It was organized December IS, 1833, out of territory ceded the Marcli before by the Creek Indians. Exclusive of town lots, railroad rights of way, and public lands, 324,210 acres of land are assessed for taxation at a valuation of ?!l,4Gl,722, town lots and improvements are valued at *il,409,071, and personal property at ^2,000,078; in all ^4,907,- 471. Since these values were fixed on the first of January last, there has been something like a •'boom" in Anniston and other parts, and they would now be not less than fifty per cent, greater. The county tax for all purposes is forty cents on the «ln(), one-third loss than last year and pre- vious years. Except about ■^14,(»o(i for the new court-house, the county is out of debt. There are 1 10 miles of railway in the county, as follows: The East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, 37.73 miles; the East & West Railroad, 30.58 miles; the Georgia Pacific Railroad, 30.50 miles; and the Anniston & Atlantic Railroad, 11.42 miles. These are valued at $855,078. In addi- tion, the .Jacksonville, Gadsden «& Atalla Rail- road is partly graded; and the Anniston & Cin- cinnati Railroad, from Anniston to Atalla, will be open for traffic by the first of February next. These will increase the railroad mileage of the county nearly forty miles. The Georgia Central Railroad extension, projected from Carrollton,Ga., to Decatur, Ala., has been surveyed through the county. There are about 100,000 acres of imi)roved lands in the county, which, in 1880, were divided into l.'.iOO farms, the annual products of which were worth more than *l,000,ooo then, and are worth much more now. Except the western slopes of the hills forming its eastern boundary, the county lies wholly in what is known as the Coosa Valley, which is a continuation of the valleys of Virginia and East Tennessee, and has the same physical and geo- logical characteristics. It is a trough between tlie metamorphic area and the coal fields, broken by considerable sandstone elevations, with wide, beautiful, and fertile valleys, abundantly wooded and watered. These valleys, gently roll- ing, not swampy or subject to overflow, are fineh' adapted to cotton, corn, small grains, red clover, and all the grasses, and the whole county is specially suited for stock-growing. The county is rich in minerals — perhaps the richest in the State. Almost everywhere brown hematite iron ore abounds, and around the bases and on the sides of the sandstone hills it is in amazing (piantities and of the greatest ricliness. From Oxford to Cross Plains, in the Choccolocco and Alexandria vallevs. and in the Colvin Moun- 111 112 NORTHERN ALABAMA. tains, there are the greatest masses of it every- where exposed on the surface, and everywhere seemingly inexhaustible. There is not probably one single section of land in the county without ore. In the Colvin Mountains, in close proximity to the brown ores, there are veins of red hematite scarcely inferior in extent, and not inferior in quality, to those of the famous Eed Mountain in Jefferson County. JEanganese, in greater or less quantity, is found in many of the brown hematite beds, and inde- pendently in large dejiosits. Limestone, and marble of excellent quality, are abundant, as, also, kaolin, sandstone, barite, and fire-brick clay, with some copper, lead, and lithograjihic stone. The Choccolocco, TerrajDiu, Tallasahatchie, Ohatchee, and Cane Creeks, and the Coosa River, furnish never-failing and almost limitless water-power. For all domestic and agricultural jnirposes, water abounds in every part of the county. Attention has only recently been turned to the vast mineral wealth and unequaled manufacturing advantages of this county, and industrial develop- ment has only fairly begun. In 1873 the first furnace was erected in Anniston, which was fol- lowed six years later by a second, both owned by the Woodstock Iron Company, and two others are being erected there by the same company. Annis- ton has now in operation, in addition to the fur- naces, car works with $.30,000 capital ; car- wheel works and rolling-mill, $200,000 ; compress and warehouse, $100,000 ; pipe works (in construc- tion), $300,000 ; cotton mills, $250,000 ; steel bloomery, $.50,000 ; fire-brick works, $25,000 ; boiler shops, machine shops, planing mills, etc., $250,000; three banks; land company, $3,000,000; and claims a population of over 9,000, with water- works, electric lights, costly churches, first-class schools, well-graded streets, a large general mer- chandise business, and the finest hotel in the State. The capital of the Woodstock Iron Com- pany is $3,000,000. Jacksonville, twelve miles north of Anniston, with mineral resources, mann- facturing facilities, and location unsurpassed, has just organized a land and improvement company, with large capital, which has entered into nego- tiations for the early inauguration of several large industrial enterprises that will be under way by the close of the year. Oxford, four miles below Anniston, with 1,200 inhabitants, and Cross Plains, twelve miles north of Jacksonville, with 800 peo- ple, have situations in all respects as good as those of Anniston and Jacksonville, and are built up in the midst of the richest mineral deposits of this section. Alexandria, in the loveliest valley in the county, is on the line of the Anniston & Cincin- nati Railroad, and has a bright future. There are other thriving villages, as White Plains, Ger- mania, Oxanna, Morrisville, Cane Creek, Chocco- locco, etc. There is a State Normal Scliool at Jacksonville, excellently conducted high schools at Anniston, Oxford, Cross Plains, and Alexandria, and good public schools and churches in every neighbor- hood. There are thirty-eight postoffices in the county, about half of which have daily mails. Xo person in the county lives more than five or six miles from a railroad. There is a good deal of government land subject to homestead entry. Improved lands can be bought at from $5 to $50 an acre, the cheaper lands being more or less broken, but well wooded and watered and fertile. -■*« OXFORD. THOMAS CARTER HILL, prominent Physi- cian and Surgeon, son of Thomas H. and Miranda (Gregory) Hill, natives, respectively, of the States of Virginia and Xorth Carolina, was born in Green (now Hale) County, this State, November 14, 1830. After acquiring a thorough preliminary education at some of the leading colleges of the State, he, at the age of nineteen, began the study of medicine, and pursued it successively through medical institutions of learning in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, graduating from Jef- ferson Medical College, in the latter city, in 1800. Early in 18G1, young Hill enlisted as a private soldier in the Fifth Alabama Regiment, and was NORTHERN ALABAMA. 113 in a short time promoted to Assistant-Surgeon. Ill 18)14, after liaving followed the fortunes of his regiment through its various campaigns, he was transferred to the Valley District of \'irginia, as •Medical Director, with the rank of a full Surgeon, and remained in tliat department to the close of the war. Heturniug to Alabama, at the close of hostili- ties. Dr. Hill first located at Dayton, Marengo County, in the practice of medicine, and re- mained there until 1884, at which time he moved into Oxford. Since coming here, he has devoted his time to real estate and other business enter- prises, to the exclusion of the profession. As a ]iliysician. Dr. Hill stood very higii. He was, jirobably, as well taught in the science of materia medica as any man in Alabama. Not satisfied with the most thorough training possible at the finest institutions of learning in America, he, in 18]0, studied arduously under the greatest in- structors in Europe; and it is to the loss of the profession, that he has withdrawn from the practice. Dr. Hill was married in Marengo County, May, 1870, to Miss Margaret Lee, daughter of Columbus W. and Elizabeth (Parker) Lee, and has had born to him five children: Columbus L., Thomas C, Margaret, Myra C. and Plarry. The Hon. Columbus W. Lee, native of Georgia, was many years a member of the Alabama Legis- lature, and was one of the most prominent men of his day. He was a Pierce and King presiden- tial elector in 1852 and a Douglas elector in 18C0. He opposed secession and canvassed tlie State for Douglas, although he went with his State in her subse(iuent efforts in behalf of the Southern Con- federacy. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1805, and made the race for Con- gress that same year against Joseph W. Taylor, and was beaten. He was an original speaker and the master of thought and sarcasm. He died in 1808. Thomas H. Hill, father to the subject of this sketch, migrated in early manhood to North Car- olina, there married, and in 1812 settled in Green t'ounty, Ala., wliere he became an extensive planter. He reared a family of two sons and three daughters. He died in 1800, at the age of seventy-eight. His father, Joseph Hill, was a native of England, and came to America prior to the Revolution and settled in Culpeper County, Va. JOHN L. DODSON. President of Oxford Male and Female College, Oxford, is a native of Georgia, and was born April 10, 1837. His early life was spent on his father's plantation, in his native State. His education was acquired at some board- ing school, the County Academy, and at Davidson College, North Carolina. He came to Alabama in 1800, and at Jacksonville taught school one year. From Jacksonville, as professional educa- tor, he taught successfully at various places in this State and in Georgia, during the period of the war. After the declaration of peace, he returned to Calhoun County, and at Brock's school-house taught two years. In 1808, he located at Oxford and, associated with Mr. W. J. Borden, founded Oxford College. One year later he became sole owner and proprietor of this popular institution of learning, and to it has since given his time and talents. Professor Dodson, as will be seen by this brief recital, has given almost his entire life to the cause of education, and of him it may be truth- fully said, that that great cause has appreciated as much from his efforts as from that of any one man. The success of Oxford College attests at once his superior ability as an organizer, disciplin- arian, and educator, and the people of this vicinity are justly proud of him and his institution. July, 1883, Professor Dodson, at Oxford, led to the altar Miss Fannie S. (Uadden. the accom- plished daughter of James A. and ^Martha (Kelley) Gladden, of this place. The Professor and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is identified with the Independent Order of ( )dd Fellows and the Masonic fraternity. Samuel and Rebecca (Gardner) Dodson, the parents of the subject of this sketch, were natives, respectively, of (ireen and Morgan Counties, Ga. The senior Mr. Dodson, a farmer by occu- pation, was born in 1788, and participated in the war of 1812. He was partially reared in South Carolina, and spent a portion of his early man- hood in Mississippi. His father, Joshua Dodson, was a native of Virginia, and his grandfather came from England. He reared a family of six sons and four daughters. One of his sons, James W,, now a farmer in Texas, took part in the Flor- ida War and the Confederate War; another son, Joshua M., was in the Confederate service during the late war as quartermaster in the Trans-^Iiss- issippi Department. He died in Texas. Christo- pher C., another son, was in the Mexican War 114 NORTHERN ALABAMA. from Texas, as a lieutenant, and during the late war commanded a troop of Indians from Arizona. He died in Tucson, Ariz. The fourth son, Samuel P. died in Texas; Elijah M. was major of the First Confederate Georgia Regiment, and is an attorney-at-law at Chattanooga, Tenn., and George W. was in the Fifty-first Alabama Iiegiment, and is a farmer in Georgia. The Gardner family, in tiie person of the grand- father of the subject of this sketch, Christopher Gardner, on account of political troubles, came from Ireland away back in the eigliteenth century, settled in Virginia, and was a soldier in the Eevolutionary War, and was severely wounded at Brandywine. He died in Georgia, after having reared a large family of daughters and two sous. WILLIAM W. WHITESIDE, prominent Attor- ney- at-law, Oxford, is a native of what is now Calhoun County, this State, where he was born February 13, 18.58. His early life was spent on his father's plantation and in attendance at the old-field school, completing his education, however, at Oxford College, from which institution he was graduated in 1879. Prior to his graduation he taught school and, in the meantime, read law. He comjjleted his law studies at Cumberland Uni- versity, Tenn. .in 1881, and located immediately in the practice at Oxford, wliere he has since remained. In the practice of his profession he has met with much success, and, though a young man, he is at this time regarded as one of the brightest lights at the Calhoun Bar. In 1881 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, and in that body took a conspicuous part, acquit- ing himself with much credit and to the entire satisfaction of his constituency. Mr. Whiteside was married at Alexandria, De- cember, 1884, to Miss Alice CoojJer, the accom- plished daughter of W. P. Cooper, Esq., and has had born to him two children: William Cooper and Kenneth Whittington. Mr. Whiteside and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is identified with the order of the Knights of Honor and the Masonic fraternity. Josiah W. Whiteside, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a native of North Carolina, and came with his parents in 1837 to Alabama: his wife was Elizabeth J. Small, a native of McMinn County, Tenn. She died in 1873, leaving four children, viz.: Lizzie, James ^L, Joseph, and William W. His second wife, Amanda Little, of Calhoun County, to whom he was married in the fall of 1875, is the mother of one child: Worth. The Whiteside family are probably of English origin, and came into North Carolina at a very early date in the history of our country. John Whiteside, the grandfather to the subject of this sketch, was a native of North Carolina, and his wife was a Miss Hemphill; they reared a family of six sons and two daughters: J. W. Leander, Adol- phus, Thomas, William .J., James M., Mary, and Ellen. Mary married Dr. S. C. Williams; she and her husband are both dead. William W. Whiteside's grandfather, Matthew Small, was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. He married a Miss Buchanan, at McMinn, Tenn., and settled m Alabama about 1835. In 1845 he moved into De Kalb County, and in 1875 located at Sulphur Springs. He died in 1883. He reared a family of four sons and two daughters. His sons were all soldiers in the Confederate Army. The Small family came originally from Scotland. ROBERT P.THOMASON, Merchant and Banker, Oxford, was born in Harris County, Ga., De- cember 21, 18.51, and is the son of John Thom- ason, a planter, who came to Alabama in 1853, lived in Tallapoosa County till 1808, and removed thence to Elmore County, where he now resides. The subject of this sketch spent the first seven- teen years of his life on his father's plantation in Tallapoosa County, and by dint of perseverance and application to study, without the aid of pro- fessional instruction, acquired something like an elementary education. He began life for himself as a salesman, at the age of seventeen years, and at the age of twenty-one embarked in business. From 1879 to 1883, he "drummed" for a New York grocery house, and in the latter year estab- lished the wholesale grocery business over which he now presides at Oxford. This was the first jobbing concern opened up in this part of the State, and from a limited affair, with a capital of $10,000, it has grown until its trade roaches throughout Northeastern Alabama and into Georgia, and now employs a capital of $100,000. The style of the company at present is C. J. Cooper & Co. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 115 In addition to his mercantile business, Mr. Tiiom- ason is largeU' interested in real estate at Oxford and Anniston, and in tlie bankiTig iioiise recently establisiied in connection with liis grocery con- cern. llemeinljering the fact that young 'I'honiason came to Oxford penniless, tlie preceding details need no comment at our iiands to elaborate his success a.-i a business man. 5Ir. 'I'homason.iii July ls7-">, at 'rallodaga, mar- ried Miss Mary 8cott, the accomplished daughter of AVm. Scott, Esq. The senior Mr. Thomason was a gallant Confed- erate soldier during the late war : his father served tlirough the war with Mexico, and his grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. His great-grand- father, Cooper Tiiomason, came from Scotland prior to the War for Independence, and settled in \'irginia, where he lived to the remarkable age of 104 years. Old Cooper Thomason liad eight or nine sons in the Colonial Army during the ]{evolu- tiou. It might be remarked that the war record of the Thomasons is also a matter that needs no elabo- ration at tlie hands of tiie writer. They all appear to have been well-to-do jdan- ters. - \^. THOMAS H. BARRY, Merchant and Manu- fatturui-. (txlord, .son of Keese and Ann S. (Man.son) Barry, natives, respectively, of Virginia and Maryland, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 4, 18;3i!, and in that city received his education. Accompanying his mother, in 18.55, he moved to San Antonio, Tex., and was there engaged in mer- cantile business until the outbreak of the late war. Karly in the spring of IStil, he enlisted as a pri- vate soldier in Company G, Eighth Texas ("Ter- ry's Rangers"), and remained in the service until the close of the war, })articipating in the battles of Woodsonville, Ky., Shiloh, Murfreesboro, and all the engagements from Chickamauga to New Hope Court-Housc. At the latter engagement he was wounded, and fell into tlie hands of the enemy, but escaped while '■« nnde to Rock Island, rejoined his command, and took part in the bat- tles around Atlanta. At Waynesboro, November ^'^i. 1SH4, he was severely wounded, and from that date to tlie close of the war remained in hospital Returning to Texas in IHiio, he engaged at his former business, and was there until is;-.', when he came to Oxford. Here he has since been, in the mercantile business, and was one of the organ- izers of the Barry & Draper Manufacturing Co. This company was organized in ls-^4, and ilr. Barry has been its president from the beginning. He is also president of the Oxford Building «& Loan Association, and is otherwise identified with various other industries. Mr. Barry was married March •>, l.sti5, to Jliss Emily F. (Jray, of (ieorgia. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Knights of Honor, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Masonic fraternity. The senior ^Ir. Barry moved to Cincinnati when he was a young man, and was engaged at steamboating the rest of his life. He died iu 1S40, leaving three children, to-wit : William D., Thomas II., and Caroline E. His father, Daniel Barry, was a farmer in Virginia, where he lived and died. The family came originally from Ire- land, and the Mansons appear to be of French origin. • ■'>';^^'-^ — DANIEL P. GUNNELS was born in Franklin, Ga., near Bold Spring, October 0. is-^:i, and his parents vmvfi Nathan and Nancy (Hunt) Gunnels, natives of Wilkes and Franklin Counties, Ga., respectively. The senior Mr. G. moved to Franklin County at an early day, and there subsequently made his home. He was a planter by occupation, and died in 18T0 at Atlanta, at the age of seventy years. He was an officer in the AVar of 1 8:5(1, and was a niembei' of the Georgia Constitutional Conven- tion. He was quite a politician in his day, of the Clay and Webster faith, and a man of no little influence in the vicinity where he lived. His children were — Daniel P., Sarah F. (Mrs. J. M. Alexander). Joel I).. Nathan C, Mary E. (Mrs. Shephard), Elmira (deceased), and John H. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, receiving an academic education, and in 184o located at Boiling Springs, in Calhoun County. Ala., where he was several years clerk in a mei'cantile establishment. He subsequently purchased an interest with his employer, and later on became sole owner of the concern. lie came to Oxford in 18.")4, where he continued in the mercantile business until 18T'-i. It is proper to explain, however, that from 180".2 to the close of the war he found it expedient to i^uspeiid the 116 NORTHERN ALABAMA. mercantile business and was, during that period, in the employ of the Oxford Iron Co. Though the war swept away his fortune in common with the fortunes of other men, he has since succeeded in amply replenishing his exchequer. Since 187'2 he has given most of his time to planting. March, IS.Vi', Mr. Gunnels was married to Miss Susan E. Cunningham, daughter of William N. and Nancy E. (Pratt) Cunningham, natives of South Carolina, and his children are: Nancy E. (Mrs. Warnock), John X. and James N. (twins), Esther L., Elmira P., Henry C. and Willie Francis. The family are all identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Mr. Gunnels is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellow fratern- ities. CLARKE SNOW, Merchant, Oxford, was born at this place July 5, 184(j, and is a son of Dudley and Priscilla (Munger) Snow. He was reared on the farm, and at Howard College and the schools of Talladega acquired a fair English education. At the age of twenty-one years, at Selma, he accejjted a situation in a mercantile establishment, remained there one year, returned to Oxford, and with C. Snow & Co. embarked in the grocery business. In 1870 he formed a part- nership with C. J. Cooper in mercantile business, and from 1871 to 1874 devoted his time to farm- ing. In the latter year, associated with James Stew- art, under the style and firm name of James Stew- art & Co., he engaged in the leather and carriage business. This firm was dissolved in December, 188"-3, since wliich time Mr. Snow has conducted the business alone, and has been thereat quite successful. In addition to his mercantile business he is largely interested in various other enter- prises. In the fall of 1803, Mr. Snow entered the Fifty-first Alabama Cavalry, and, though not an enlisted soldier, he jiarticipated with that com- mand in the battles of I\Iaryville, Rockford, and Knoxville. In ilay, 1804, he regularly enlisted, and thereafter took part in the battles of New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Rome, and the battles around Atlanta. At Decatur, Ala., he was wounded, and at Salt Creek participated in his last engagement. He was married, November "-iO, 1808, to Miss Roxy C. Elston, of Davisville, and the children born to this union are : Corinne, Ada, Ruth, Maxie, Norman, and Mary. Dudley Snow was born in Graceland County, Va., December 25, 1803, and his parents, John and Elizabeth (Hale) Snow, migrated to North Carolina in 1812. From there they moved to Tennessee in 1832, and from Tennessee Dudley Snow moved to Oxford, where he died in 1803. The Snow family came originally from England, and the Plungers from Germany. Henry Snow, a brother of Clarke, entered the Confederate Army from Texas, as a private in the First Texas Infantry. At the re-organization of this regiment, in 1802, he was made first lieu- tenant, and he participated in all the battles of Northern Virginia, and at the Seven Days' Fight around Richmond was seriously wounded. ABNER WILLIAMS, Merchant, Oxford, was born in Jefferson County, this State, Novem- ber 21, 1824, and his parents were Jordan and Edna (Atkins) Williams. He was reared on his father's farm, attended the old-field schools, and in 1844 began life as a school teacher. The year following he accepted a clerkship in a store at Tal- ladega, for which service he received, at the begin- ning, five dollars per month. He remained with that concern three years, another firm three years, another one year, and for his last year's labor re- ceived $375. In 1853, at Curry's Station, he be- gan business for himself, and in 1855 removed to Selma, where he was engaged in cotton business until 1802. At the close of the war he returned to Selma from Talladega County, resumed his old business, and was there until 1884. In August of that year he came to Oxford and engaged in the millinery business. December 23, 1852, Mr. Williams was married to Agatha A. Ileacock, daughter of Dr. Joseph D. and Rachel M. (Garner) Heacock, of Talladega County; and of the six children born to them we have the following data: Curry E., Emma R. (widow of II. A. Singleton), Mollie E. (wife of Dr. B. D. Williams, of Utah Territory), Joseph, Albert. Abner J. P., and Lillie B. Jordan Williams was born in South Carolina, August 31, 1794; served through the war of 1812 as a member of the Eighth United States Infantry; married Edna Atkins in Abbeville district, South Carolina, May 5, 1810; settled near Elyton, Jef- NORTHERN ALABAMA. \Vi ferson County, Ala., in 181S; from there moved to ii farm near Trussville, and subsequently, or aliout irarcli 1, 1S33, settled in Talladega County, lie was stricken with paralysis while preaelnng to the Confederate conscript soldiers at Talladega, Sejjtember, 1S6"2, and died near Tallasahatchie Bajjtist Church, fifteen miles south of Talladega, November ■l\, 18(5",'. He was a farmer, and a min- ister of the Baptist Church. LUCIUS L. ALLEN, son of Ilud.son 11. and Xaiiiy (Corneilsoii) Allen, was born in Gwinnett County, (Ja., June "..'3. l!s;il, and was educated at Emory College, that State. In 18ii'^* he enlisted in Company D, Fifty-first Alabama Cavalry, and with that command participated in the battles of Jlur- freosboro, .Missionary Kidge, Kno.wille, Chicka- niauga, and the Atlanta and Dalton campaigns. His father came into Alabama in 18:!."), purchased a large tract of government land, and other lands from the Indians, and became one of the most extensive planters and slavelmlders in his neigh- borhood . Mr. Allen was reared on a farm, and to agricul- ture has devoted his time and his talents. He was married, in November, 18.5-i, to Miss Kmma Pyles, daughter of Lewis and Catherine (Perrin) T'yles, and his children are: Susan C. (Mrs. Hudson), Lelia J. (Mrs. Snow), Nancy Lulu. Lilly A. and Alice C. The faniilv are all members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Jlr. Allen is a Mason. The senior Mr. Allen died at his home, near O.x- ford, .January 8, 188."), at the age of 83 years: his wife died in 18(j'J. They reared a family of three sons: ^\'illiam II., Asa F., and the subject of this sketch. Asa F. is a Baptist minister, and resides on the old homestead. Asa Allen was the name of the grandfather of Lucius L. He married a Miss Jones in Georgia, whither he had migrated from Virginia at an early day. He reared a family of four sons and four daughters, and in ls:J4 or 18:!.") moved to Lime- stone County, Ala., where ho died in ls4ii at the age of tiO years. ■ ■ • SAMUEL K. BORDERS was born in Jackson County, Ga., January VI, 18>'-,', and died at Ox- ford Ala., December 20, 1881. His parents were John and Cynthia Borders. The senior Mr. Bor- ders in early manhood migrated from Virginia to Tennessee, and from there to (ieorgia, where he was married. From Georgia he moved to Missis- sij)pi, where he was engaged at planting, and from Jlississippi in 18:!:! or 18:!4 he came to Calhoun County. Here he located near O.xford, and be- came one of the most extensive planters of his neighborhood. He reared a family of two sons and six daughters, namely: Samuel K., Abner, -Mary (.Mrs. Brooks), ^'irginia (Mrs. Cunningham), Adaline (.Mrs. Bush), Ann (ilrs. Jenkins), Eliza (Mrs. Pondor), Evaline (Mrs. Bush), and buried one daughter, Georgia, in early girlhood. The subject of this sketch was educated at Athens, Ga., and after graduating began the study of medicine. At the request of his father he gave uj) the idea of professional life, and thereafter turned his attention to farming. He served through the Mexican War as a member of Com- pany I, First Uegiment Alabama Volunteers, and through the war between the States as a member of the Fifty-first Alabama Cavalry. March, 18.51, Jlr. Borders was married to Miss Sallie Williams, daughter of Dr. John AVilliams, and had born to him seven children: Georgia (Mrs. Christian), JIary (Mrs. Waters), Ilattie (.Mrs. AVilson), Annie, Sallie, Lillie and John. ___.^„!cgj^— .4» i— AURELIUS F. BULLARD. M. D.. prominent Physician and Surgeon, Oxford, was born at Bennington, Vt., September l.j, 1848, and is the son of William H. and Koxanna K. (Moon) Bullard, natives of Massachusetts and Vermont, and of Irish and Scotch extraction, respectively. Doctor Bullard received his primary education in the common schools of Vermont, and at the Wesleyan Institute of Willbraham, Mass., and at the age of fifteen years went to sea as a sailor before the mast. In 18ii!», as second mate of a ship, he came South. The crew, while at Mobile, were taken with yellow fever, from the fatal effects of which, it appears, that he and his cap- tain were the only ones to escajie. lie made his way to Wilmington, Avhere another crew was or- ganized, and as first mate he sailed to Boston, where he abandoned seafaring life. Returning to Alabama, he attended school at ^lontgomery, and graduated in 18T1. In the meantime he took 118 NORTHERN ALABAMA. lectures at Jefferson rdlege, Philadelphia. Since engaging regularly in the practice of his jjrofes- sion, he has been recognized as one of the most careful, studious, and reliable physicians of Oxford, and he is at this writing in the enjoyment of an excellent practice. He is a member ot the various medical associations, and is held in high esteem by the members of the profession throughout the State. He was married August "28, 18T0, to iliss Julia B. Goodhue, daughter of Prof. Amos B. Good- hue. The Goodhues are also of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and came South about thirty years ago. Professor Goodhue is now retired. The senior Mr. Bullard came South in 18G8, and to Oxford in 1872. He reared three sons: the subject of this sketch, William E. and Oliver H. Doctor Bullard is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of the ^lasonic fraternity, and of the Baptist Church. His children are: William G., Alice A., and Elerslie W. JOHN F. SMITH is a native of Cleburne County, where he was born December 1.3, 1839, and is a son of John and Sarah Ann (Lambert) Smith. The senior Mr. Smith immigrated to Ala- bama from Georgia in 18;33, and moved from Cle- burne County to a point on the Tallapoosa Eiver, south of Edwardsville in 18.51, and there died in 18.33, at the age of forty-two years. He reared two sons: the subject of this sketch and Samuel H. John F. Smith was reared on a farm ; was edu- cated at the common schools, and at the age of eighteen accepted a clerkship in a store. In 18.58 he went to Wetumpka, and from there the year fol- lowing to Talladega, where he engaged in business in partnership with J. B. Gay. This partnership lasted but a short time, when he sold out and re- sumed employment as a clerk. In 1801 Mr. Smith enlisted as a private in Com- pany II, Tenth Alabama, and remained in the ser- vice until the close of the war. Soon after the battle of Dranesville he was promoted to third lieutenant, and when he left the service he held the rank of first lieutenant, and had been for some time in command of his company. From first to last he participated in many of the hardest-fought battles of the war, and was wounded three times. Returning from the war, he located at Selma, and from there, in 1866, came to Oxford, where he has since made his home. In 1869 he moved upon his farm, at Boiling Springs, and from that date has given most of his time to agriculture. He was mai-ried in 1869, to Miss Augusta G. Caver, daugh- ter of Thomas J. and Eliza (Davis) Caver, and has had born to him four children : Kate E., Xan- nie Gay, Carrie Lee and Thomas F. WILLIAM F. HIGGINS, is a native of Butts County, (ia., a son of Joseph and Judith W. (Key) Iliggins, and was born June 11, 1838. The senior Mr. Iliggins came from Edgefield Dis- trict, S. C, into Georgia, when a boy, there married, and in 1844 settled in Chambers County, Ala. He located at Oxford in 18T5, and died in 188(1, at the age of sixty-six years. He was a jew- eler by trade, but the latter part of his life was devoted to farming. His father, AVilliam Iliggins was a native of South Carolina, there married a Miss Ashley, and subsequently became one of the early settlers of Georgia. William F. Higgins was reared and educated at Lafayette, in Chambers County, and while a young man learned the jeweler's trade. He entered the army in 1863, and remained until the close of the war. After the war he resumed the jewelry business; moved into Oxford in 1868, and in 1874, turned his attention entirely to farming. He be- gan life at the close of the war without money, but has succeeded in accumulating a handsome competency. He was married May 29, 1869, to Miss Virginia Dennis, daughter of Sumeral and Mary (Ilanchett) Dennis, natives of South Caro- lina. Mr. Dennis came into Alabama in 1832; re- ' moved thence to Tallapoosa County, and died at Dadeville. He was a captain in the irexican War, and also in the late Confederate Army. Mr. Higgins and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Mr. H. is of the Masonic fraternitv. WILLIAM J. ALEXANDER was born in Cal- houn County, Ala., in May, l!S42, and is a son of Arthur T. and Rebecca (Borden) Alexander. The senior Mr. Alexander was born in Xorth Carolina, and when a child taken by his parents A. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 119 to Habersham County, and thence to Carroll County, Ga. He came to Calhoun County, this State, in is;)-,', and settled eight miles east of Cross Plains (now in Cleburne County), where his father entered lands and improved them. He died in 1S.")1, and a few months later his wife fol- lowed lii|n. They left two sons and four daugh- ters, all of whom lived to maturity. The Alex- anders and Hordens are of English ancestry. The subject of this sketcli was reared on a farm, received a common-school education, and at the age of seventeen years began life as a farmer, which he has continued ever since. \\\ July, liSiil, he enlisted in Comiiany I, Twenty-fifth Alabama Infantry, and was in the first battle of Farmersvilie, Tenn., south of Shi- loli. He participated in the Kentucky invasion, was taken prisoner at Glasgow, Ky,, and was ex- changed about two months later. He joined his regiment again at Shelbyvillc, Tenn., and wiis in the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, in all the fights from ( 'liattanooga to Atlanta and Xew Hope Church to Atlanta. When Hood made his raid into Tennessee, our subject joined Wheeler's cavalry, with which command he remained until the surrender. At the close of the war he resumed farming. In ISTl he was appointed sherilT of Cleburne County, and in ISTi was elected to that office. He served in this capacity about six years. In 1878 he was elected to the Lower House of the Legislature, reelected in 188-J, and in 1884 was elected to the Senate from his district, which ofHce he holds at the present writing (1888). Mr. Alexander was married in August, 18G(!, to Sarah Cornelia, daughter of Henry A. Smith, of Floyd County, Ga. This union has been blessed with two chil- dren. William H. and Bessie E. Mr. Alexander and wife are members of the Christian Church. --^—i^jS'j— ^- CROSS PLAINS. WILLIAM A. WILSON, Postmaster at Cross Plains, was born in Campbell County, Ga., October ■•i4, Xt^.Vl, and is a son of Craven and Lucinda (Ijangston) Wilson. Tiie senior Mr. Wilson was a native of Virginia, from which State he removed into North Carolina, thence to Hall County, Ga. In December, 183"2, he migrated to Alabama and located about four miles east of Cross Plains. He was a farmer, and at his death, which occurred in IS75, he was the j)Ossessor of about l,",'(iO acres of land. He reared five sons and two daughters, to-wit: William A. (the subject of our sketch), John J,, Daniel S. (deceased), Jerry C, Benjamin C. (who died in his youth), Xancy Y.. (deceased), and Mary Ann Croft (deceased). All of the sons served in the war between the States. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were communicants of the Episcopal Church. The Langston family were of Gernnin descent. The subject of this s"ketch was reared on a farm, received a common school education, and at the age of twenty-one years began life on his own ac- count. In ISGl he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a member of Comjiany E, First Alabama C^avalry, and particii)ated in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and all the principal fights from Chattanooga to Beutonville, N. C. Company F was detached from the First Alabama after the Kentucky cam- paign and iissigned to General Wheeler's com- mand. Mr. Wilson was captured at Beutonville, N. C, and imprisoned at Point Lookout until July 'I, 1S05, when he was released. He imme- diately returned home and resumed farming. He was appointed postmaster at Cross Plains in No- vember, 1SS3, which position he is now filling. Mr. Wilson was married in December, ].S57, to Martha il. Harris, daughter of Warren and .Mary (Statum) Harris, of this county. She is noted as being the first white female child born in this county. Mr. Wilson and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a Mason. ■ ■ • > ■ ''^^' < ' ■ • JACOB F. DAILEY was born in Lincoln County, N. C, December 3, 1817, and is ason of Aaron and Mary (Albernathy) Dailey, natives 120 NORTHERN ALABAMA. of Ireland and of Xorth Carolina, respectively. The senior Mr. Dailey came to America with his parents (about 1705), and settled in Lincoln County, N. C. He was a farmer and also super- intendent of an iron furnace. He reared a family of four sons and three daughters, and died in 1858 at the age of forty years. His widow survived him many years, and died at the extreme old age of ninety-six years. She was a strong and hearty woman up to the time of her death. Jacob K. Dailey, our subject, was reared in Xorth Corolina by his uncle. Miles W. Abernathy; received a common-school education, and at the age of sixteen years began life as a sailor, which avocation he followed six years, and at the age of twenty-one entered into business on his own ac- count at Lincolnton Court House, X. C. In 1847, he came to Cross Plains, entered into a general merchandise business, and continued it with suc- cess ever since. His was the lirst store erected in this village. In 1849 he purchased several hun- dred acres of land, and in connection with his merchandise business, has been farming ever since. He now owns several large farms near Cross Plains. In 1802 he was apjiointed member of the Advisory Board with headquarters at Jacksonville, this State. Mr. Dailey was married August 10, 1841, to Jane M. Kibler, daughter of Michael and Catherine (Lawrence) Kibler, of North Carolina, and has had born to him two children: Mary Catherine, wife of Alexander Mct!ollister, and Jacob Kibler. The family are communicants of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Dailey is a j^rominent Mason; is a wide-awake, public-spirited citizen, and is always alive to the development of enterprise in his section of the couutrv. MARTIN T. MOODY, was born at Belmont, Sumter County, Ala., 2v.'ovember 4, 1845, and is a son of Theopliilus and ilary L. (Little) Moody, natives respectively of South Carolina and Georgia. The senior Mr. Moody moved with his parents from South Carolina to .Mississippi. In is;il he came to Alabama and joined the Alabama Con- fei-ence in 1832 at Tuscaloosa, of which he was one of the original organizers. He lived in Ala- bama until his death, which occurred at Gadsden, March 1.3, 1870. His wife died at Gainesville, Ala., in 1854. He reared two sons and two daughters. viz.: AVilliam R., Martin T. (our subject); Fan- nie A., wife of Milton Jenkins, Camden, Ala.; and Sarah E., wife of George W. Caldwell, also of Camden. Mr. iloody was one of the pioneer preachers of this State, and was a very popular and well-known man. The mother of our subject was a daughter of William Little, a leading attorney of Carnesville, Ga. He was a prominent and wealthy citizen, and died about the close of the war. The subject of this sketch was reared in Alabama and educated princijially at Summerfield, Dallas County. In the spring of 18, and settled near Jacksonville. He reared eight sons and two daughters: James E., Robert A., Samuel L., John (\., William C, (ieorge B., Andrew B., Marcus M., Elizabeth A. and Mary J. Of the sons the following served in the war: James E., Samuel L. (lieutenant and chaplain), John G. (orderly sergeant, was killed at Chickamaugu), and William C. (was killed at Shiloh). The senior Mr. Russell died September 30. 18T0, at the age of seventy-five years : his wife died at the close of the war at the age of sixty-two years. Tlie Russell family were of Scotch-Irish parentage, and the Gamble family came originally from Ireland . George Bryant Russell was reared on a farm; attended the common schools of the neighborhood, and was graduated at (ialesville, Ala., in 1873. He subsequently spent two years at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., and in 1874 began teaching. In a 877 he migrated to Cross Plains, where he was occupied teaching and farming until 1881, when he moved to Jacksonville and taught one year as Assistant Principal of Calhoun Col- lege. On his return to Cross Plains he took charge of the Cross Plains Educational Institute, which was soon afterwards chartered. .Mr. Russell having received his license to preach September 10, 1870, and being ordained Septem- ber 22, 1873, is now a preacher in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He has represented his Presbytery in the General Assembly several times; has served Calhoun County as Suj)erintendent of Education twelve years, and is at present second Vice-President of the Alabama Educational Asso- ciation. Mr. Russell was married September 23, 1873, to Sarah A. Hampton, daughter of John Hamp- ton, of Cherokee County, Ala. They have had born to them three children, namely: Samuel Hampton, deceased, John Floyd and James Gor- don. Mr. Russell is a member of the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Honor. He has ever been a temperance worker ; was elected by the County Temperance Convention in 1880 to the State Convention, and was of Committee on Ifesolutions in that convention. He was elected President of the County Temperance Convention at .\nni.4,503; in oats, 4,894; in wheat, 9,785; in tobacco, 85; in sugar cane. 10; in sweet potatoes, •i:i7. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 5,:i00. County Seat — Ashland; population, 450; located 25 miles from Talladega. Newspaper published at County Seat — (.'lai/ County Watchman (Democratic). Postoffices in the County — Ashtuml, Black Store, Bluff Spring, Buckeye, Coleta, Copper Mines, Dean, Delta, Elias, Enitachopco, Flat Kock, (ribsonville, (ireshamton, Ilarlan, Hatcli- ett Creek, Ilillabee, Idaho, Lineville, Mad In- dian, Mellow \'alley, Moseley, Mountain Meadow, Pinckneyville, Rocky Mount, Shinbone, Wheeler- ville. This county was created in 1800, and took its name from the great Kentucky statesman, Henry Clay. Like other interior counties in Alabama, the mineral and agricultural properties are not as yet fully recognized and appreciated. It is remote from lines of transportation and is not as acces- sible as other portions of the State which have won distinction among capitalists, and yet are not a whit in advance of Clay. When the pro- ductive soils, the varied minerals, and the vast water-power of the county shall attract public no- tice, gateways of commerce will be opened, and its hills anil valleys will teem with population. Clay County is varied both with respect to the face of the country ami the character of the soil. The eastern portion has a varied surface with a soil of sandy loam. A mountainous ridge penetrates the county from the southwest to the northeast. Most of tiie lands lying adjacent to this ridge are very productive. In the northern end of Clay and west of this range, is a valley of exceedingly rich farming land. The bottom lands which lie along the streams which water the county are generally j)roductive. A belt of "flatwoods" four or five miles wide is found east of the ridge lands. This belt is covered with a mixed growth of oaks and pine and has generally a gray and somewhat sandy soil. Throughout the county the gray lands are regarded the best for farming purposes. The bulk of the cotton crop of Clay is raised in the southern and eastern parts of the county, because of the superiority o'f the soils. The chief jiroductlons are cotton, corn, wheat, oats and sweet potatoes. Orchard and garden fruits also do well. The timbers of the county include both short- and long-leaf pine, with blackjack and other oaks, hickory, sweet gum, walnut, poplar, crab apple, persimmon, ash, maple, dogwood and alder. The mountains and hillsides are covered with the heavi- est timbers. The timber and lumber trade is one of the future industries of Clay County. (Jold, silver, barytes, tin, manganese, pyrites, soapstone, iron, copper, copperas, mica, graphite and slate are found in different parts of Clay. The Confederate authorities, during the last two years of the war, secured much sulphur from this coun- ty for the manufacture of powder. The water-power of the county is immense. The inclination of many of the streams is great, imparting a mighty momentum to the descending waters. Big Kitchabadarga, Talladega, Hatchet, Ilillabee, Ilatchee, Enitachopka, Condutchkee, Crooked and Mad Indian Creeks are the main streams. The county is abundantly supplied, too, with perennial springs of freestone water. .Vshland, Lineville and Delta are the jirincipal points of interest. Excellent schools of a high grade are found at all these i)oints. At present Clay County is entirely without railroads, which, more than any other cause, accounts for its want of development. The county lies between the Coosa and Tallajioosa Kivers, and the mountainous range which pene- trates it, divides the water flowing to those streams. The healtii of Clay County is exceptional, while its soil is varied and fairly productive. The 127 128 NORTHERN ALABAMA. people are thrifty and contented, raising at home almost everything needed for domestic comfort. Some of the railroads projected througli this section of the State will penetrate this county, and, upon completion of one or more of these roads, the resources of Clay will divide the atten- tion which is now concentrated on more favored localities, and the growth and development of the county will be commensurate with the past experience of the mineral region of Alabama. AVithin the limits of this county there is a large body of public lands subject to homestead entry or purchase, which within a few years will become the homes of a thriving population. At present the prices of land range from 81 to $15 per acre, depending upon situation and condition of im- provement. Vll. CHFROKEE COUNTY. Population: White, 10,800; colored. 2,000. Area, ceo square miles. Woodland, all. Coal measures of Lookout Mountain, 150 square miles. Coosa Valley, etc., 510 square miles. Acres — If cotton (approximately), 24,390; in corn, 33,3;5; in oats, 7,475; in wheat, 10,085; in rye, IGO; in tobacco, 80; in sweet potatoes, 335. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 11,000. County Seat — Centre; population (150: on Coosa river, 140 miles north by east of Montgomery, 20 miles north of Jacksonville. Newspapers published at County Seat — Chcro- hee Advertiser, Coosa River News, and the Tele- phone (all Democratic). Postoffices in the County — Alexis, Ball Flat, Blaine, Broomtowu, Cedar Bluff, Cedar Spring, Centre, Chance, Colma, Davis' Cross-roads, Farill, Firestone, Forney, FuUerton, Gaylesville, Gnat- ville, Grantville, Hancock, Howel's Cross-roads, Hurley, Key, Kirk's Grove, Lay, Leesburgh, Maple Grove, Moshat, New Goshen, New Moon, Piano, Eieks, Einggold, Eock Eun, Eock Eun Station, Bound Mountain, Sand Eock, Slackland, Spring Garden. Sterling, Stock's Mills, TafE, Tecumseh. Cherokee County derives its name from the Indian tribe which formerly inhabited it. The county was constituted in 183C. It is a border county, lying alongside Georgia upon the east. Its natural advantages are very great, especially those relating to its mineral richness. Its agri- cultural capabilities are also good. Considerable enterprise has existed in the county for many years, and great progress has been made in the development of its resources, as its numerous mining interests will attest. In 1880 the population was almost doubled. There has been a steady influx of population into the county, which has increased with the years. More and more its numerous advantages in soil, cli- mate, mineral wealth and location are being ap- preciated. The face of the county is generally uneven, and sometimes mountainous, and, like all the counties of this region, the upper lands are thin, with very fertile valleys lying between. The cultivated soils of Cherokee are composed of red and brown loams, which belong to the coves and valleys, and skirt the principal streams. Upon these lands most of the cotton of the county is produced. Then along the ridges and hills are found the thinner soils, which have a grayish cast and are mixed with a flinty gravel. The charac- ter of both these classes of land varies very greatly with the different localities. Then there are what are called " the flatwoods," which form a consider- able belt in the county. Though this soil, when analyzed, shows that it has fine productive capa- bilities, it is but rarely cultivated, because care has not been taken to drain it. No doubt it can be brought into profitable cultivation. Perhaps in no county in the State can there be found a greater diversity of soil than in Cherokee. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 129 The valley lamls are almost entirely devoted to the production of corn, cotton, wlicat and oats. l'l)on the higher or table lands are produced ex- cellent fruits, chief among which are apples, pears, peaches and plums. Fruit tree.s are seldom dis- turbed by frost. With proper care and cultivation orchards growing upon these elevated lands become very profitable. The vine is cultivated with won- derful success along the mountains. Stock-raising in Cherokee is on the increase because of the revenue derived from the experi- ments already made. Herbage grows with such readiness and in such profusion as to encourage the greater production of stock. 'J'he growths of the forests comprise oaks (of the several varieties), hickory, chestnut, short- and long-leaf pines. There is quite an extensive prev- alence of pine forests in the county, wliich have given rise to many mills and log yards, which are established at convenient bluffs along the Coosa River, giving employment to many laborers. In several portions of Cherokee there are exten- sive and valuable deposits of iron ore, much of wliich is worked up in furnaces along the East Tennesse. A'irginia tS: Georgia liailroad. The following iron works are in successful operation in the county: The Stonewall IronComjiany, Tecum- seh Iron Company, Kock Run Furnace, Ala- bama Iron Company, Cornwall Iron Works and Round Mountain Furnace. There is a fine cotton factory at Spring (Jarden. Rich coal deposits also exist in the count v. Cherokee has an abundant water supply, being traversed by the Coosa, Chattanooga, Yellow and I.ittle Rivoi's, and (^owairs. Hall Play, Wolf. Spring, Terrapin, Vellow and .Mill Creeks. All tiiese are valuable streams, which are fed by numerous tril)- utaries. This is the only county the heart of which is penetrated by the beautiful Coosa River. With the exception of Etowah, near whose eastern boundary the river runs, it forms the border line of all the other counties which it waters. But Chero- kee it divides in twain, imparting fertilitv and beauty from limit to limit of the county. The waterways already named have, almost without exception, immense capabilities of water-power adapted to the planting of vast enterjjrises. The line between Cherokee and DeKalb Counties runs along the summit of Lookout Mountain. The Broomtown Valley, in the northwest corner of Cherokee, is worthy of special mention by rea- son of its fertility and romantic beauty. The grandeur of this section is enchanced by its bold and clear streams which ramify it throughout. Transportation is afforded the county by the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, and the Coosa River. Centre, the county seat, and Cedar BhilT are the leading towns. Together with other centers of population, these possess good educational and religious advantages. At Gaylesville there is a high school of note. Lands range in price from *!2.5n to *3.5 per acre. The Government owns 2(»,720 acres of land in Cherokee County. -■»-; CENTRB. SAMUEL KING McSPADDEN. Chancellor of the Northeast division of .Vlabama, resident of Centre, son of the Rev. Samuel and Rebecca (I)onalson) McSpadden, natives, respectively, of the States of Virginia and South Carolina, was born in Warren County, Tenn., November 12, 1.S'.'3. The senior McSpadden, a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, died at the old homestead, in Wilsoii County, Tenn., in 18C0, at the age of eighty-three years. He was one of the original agitators of the questions that led to the division of the old Presbyterian Church and the organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination. His home was on the Cumberland Hiver and in the bounds of the Cumberland Pres- bytery, and it was from that fact that the denom- ination mentioned took its name. Thesul)ject of this sketch may be said to be a self-educated man. He learned the saddler's trade at Winciiester, Tenn., and worked at it until 184:8. 130 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He came to Alabama in-1843 and lived seven years at Talladega. While at that place he began ilie stndyof law, pursuing the study finally under the distinguished Samuel F. Rice, and was admitted to practice before George W. Stone, the present Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. This was in 1848 or '49, and Mr. McSpadden be- gan the practice in 1850 in Cherokee County, where he has since made his home. He entered the army as a private in the Nineteenth Alabama Infantry in 1801, and upoji the final organization of that regiment was appointed its major. In 1863, upon the return of the army from Kentucky, Major McSpadden was promoted to lieutenant col- onel. The regiment was then at Knoxville. He had commanded the regiment from the time it left Kentucky, and at Tullahoma he was promoted to colonel. At Resaca he fell into the hands of the enemy. May, 1804, and was taken to John- son's Island, where he was detained until March, 1865. He never again joined his command, though he met them in Salisbury, N. C. It should have been mentioned that Mr. McSpadden was elected to the State Senate in 1857, and that he was a member of that body at the time he entered the army. Chancellor ileSpadden was first elected by the Legislature, session of 1865-0, and in 1868 tiie United States Congress declared him further in- competent. This retired him to his practice, to which he devoted himself until again made Chan- cellor, in 1885. He was elected to the Senate in 1882, and resigned as a member of that body to accept the Chancellorship. In Xovember, 1880, the unexpired term for which he had been aj)- pointed having expired, he was regularly elected for the ensuing term of six years. At Centre, Ala., June 14, 1854. Samuel King McSpadden was married to ^liss Charlcie Ann Garrett, daughter of Gen. John H. Garrett. To this union was born one child, Lulu, now the wife of Hon. H. W. Cardon, of Centre. The Chancellor and Mrs, McSpadden are mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church, and he of the Masonic fraternity. ROBERT R. SAVAGE, Judge of the Pro- bate Court of Cherokee County, was born in Union District, S. C, September 23, 1831, and at the common schools of his native place acquired a fair education. He was married February 24, 1852, to Miss Louisa J. Geer, daughter of Willis and Cynthia E. (Hall) Geer, of Cherokee County, and from that date until 1869 was here engaged in farming. In the latter named year he was elected Tax Collector, held that office two terms, and in 1880 was elected Probate Judge, a position he has continued to hold, having been re-elected in 1880. February, 1863, Judge Savage enlisted in Com- pany E, Forty-seventh Alabama Regiment, and was elected first lieutenant. He resigned at the end of nine months, returned home, and soon afterward joined General Wheeler's escort, and remained in the service until the close of the war. Judge Savage is one of the substantial citizens of Cherokee County. He has reared a family of six children. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. James P. Savage, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in South Carolina, and in 1848 settled at the town of Goshen, Cherokee County, Ala.; from there in 18T3 he moved to Cross Plains, Calhoun County, where he died in 1874. He reared a family of nine sons anl three daughters. His father, .James Savage, was a native of Pennsylvania, and his grandfather came from Europe. JAMES AVERY REEVES, Attorney and Coun- selor at Law, Centre, native of Jasper County, Ga., son of James Madison and Susan Rice (Watt) Reeves, was born November 22, 1842. Until twelve years of age his home was at Cedar IJlutf. At that time, his father having been dead some years, his mother married the Rev. 0. D. McNeely, and moved upon a farm. This limited our subject's early education for a sliort time. In 1858 he entered college at Murfrees- boro, Tenn., where we find him at the outbreak of the late war. In August, 1861, he enlisted in the Nineteenth Alabama, and from that time to the close of the war was identified with the Confederate service. At Shiloh he was severely wounded. This led to his discharge, and in the fall of 1803 he entered tlie Quartermaster's Department, in which he was assigned to post duty at Centre and Gadsden. Early in 1864 he was ap- pointed by the Governor as Special Aid, with the rank of colonel, and assigned to the duty of rais- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 131 iiig and organizing State troops. In September, ]S(i5, he began tiio study of law, and in the fall of isi;;, was admitted to the bar at Centre. Here heat once entered upon a successful practice, wiiicli he has maintained fully to the present time. lie was elected County Treasurer in 18()5 and held that office one term. He was Journal Clerk of the House of Representatives, session of 18(>'i-7. lie had been appointed Kegister in Chancery, probably in 18, and he hold this ofKce in addition to his other duties until iScO. He was elected to the [legislature in February 18G8, and took a con- spicuous ])ait in the succeeding important session. He was appointed State Examiner of Public Accounts by Governor Seay, in the spring of 1887, and how well he has acquitted himself in the discharge of this important duty is a matter of public record. Mr. IJeeves was married December "JO, 18 ■ •t^^'-»—- ELLIS HALE. Clerk of the Cherokee County Court, was born in Carroll County, Va., March 'I'u 184",', and is a son of Fielden L. and Evaline (Anderson) Hale, natives of Georgia. He was a soldier in the late war, and partici- pated in all the battles in which liis regiment, the Twenty-fourth Virginia, took part. He entered the service .is first sergeant, and left it with the rank of first lieutenant. He was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg; spent six months in the hospital at Staunton, Va., and was disabled thereafter for service. At the close of the war he returned to Virginia, and was elected Clerk of the Carroll County Court. At the end of si.x months he gave up that oftiee and came to Alabama. He was in the mercantile business some years at Leesburg, and from there came to Centre. He was elected County Treasurer of Cherokee County in 18T7, and holds that office at this time, in addition to the clerkship to which he was apjiointed in 1880. He was married while a young man to Miss Xannie I'ullen. of Centre. She died in 1877, leaving one child. Bernard. In October, 1878, .Mr. Hale led to the altar Miss .Tosie ^f. Davidson, of Rutledge, Tenn., and the four children born to this union are named respectively: .Marslial E., Benjamin F., Elbert and Anna Bell. Mr. and Mrs. Hale are members of the Methodist Episcopal C'hurch, .South, and he is of .the JIasonic fra- ternity. The senior Mr. Hale was a merchant and miner in Carroll County, \'a., from about 1840 to 18(j5. J He was also many years Clerk of that county, and Superintendent of Education. He was a member ' of the Secession Convention of Virginia, and held tiie rank of captain during the war. He settled in Cherokee County in l.S(;."(, and from there re- turned to Virginia three years later. In 1884 he left Virginia and settled in \'olutia County, Fla., I where he yet resides, and is engaged in mercantile business. His wife died in 18.")."). A. M. PRATT, M. D. The suljjert uf this sketch was born in York District, S. C, Novem- ber, 1837, and is the son of John J. and Dorcas I-]. (Moore) Pratt. He was reared in Unionviile, S. C, where he received his primary and literary education, and at the age of eighteen began the study of medicine. Having graduated from the colleges of Charleston, the Jefferson of Philadel- phia, and Stuyvesant University of New York City, as M. D., he at once entered into the prac- tice of his profession in his native State, where he remained for two years. After leaving there he located in Carnesvilie, Ga., in 1853; there he mai'ried the daughter of Dr. Henry Freeman, who was a distinguished physician and who figured prominently in the Legislative Halls of Georgia as a Representative and Senator. Dr. Pratt having practiced his profession for several years in a successful and lucrative way, and having established himself as a skilled physi- cian and successful practitioner, concluded to move West; having done so, he located in Cherokee County, Ala., in the year 18-57, and in ISGO at Centre, where in 18ii3, he was appointed Post Surgeon, a position he filled to the close of the war. Dr. Pratt is one of the most successful and pop- ular physicians of Northeastern Alabama. Al- though the war dissipated his am])le means, he has long since recovered, and is at this writing, again possessed of a moderate competency. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic fraternity and several 133 NORTHERN ALABAMA. other orders, and is a believer in evolution and all other subjects which promote and foster liberty of thought and freedom of oi^inions. The Doctor has three sisters who possess rare literary attain- ments; one a playwright of considerable ability, and who has translated many foreign period- cal magazines, novels, and other literature into the English language; another who has written several novels and private histories of the United States. The third lister is an extensive traveler (at this time she is sojourning in Europe), having crossed ths Atlantic Ocean no less than a half dozen times, and visited all the provinces and principal cities of Europe, and personally met several of the potentates. John J. Pratt, a younger brother of the Doctor, is an inventor of considerable note, being the inventor of one of the first type writers: also the inventor of the type writer which was awarded the highest gold medal at the New Orleans Expo- sition. He, John J. Pratt, Jr., is the supei-intend- ent of the Hammond Type Writing Company of New York City. The Doctor's father, .John J. Pratt, Sr., was a native of Newberry, S. C, and was twenty-one years Probate Judge of Union District, that State; he was also a prominent merchant and shoe and leather manufacturer. He came to Cherokee County, Ala., in 1851, and was here an extensive planter and slave-holder. The Doctor's grandfather, John J. Pratt, was a native of Salem, Mass. He moved from there to Fauquier County, Ya., in 1780, and on to Newberry, S. C, in 1790. His forefather came over in the noted " Mayflower" in the year 1020. WILLIAM MADISON ELLIOT, Secretary of the Eound Mountain Iron Company, Centre, Ala., was born in Home, Ga., August 2(i, 1860, and is the son of James Madison and P^mily .Jane (Hoss) Elliott. He graduated from Emory and Henry Col- lege, Ya., as A. B., class of 187'.t, and immediate- ly thereafter engaged at steamboating on the Coosa Kiver. Here he was for some time master and pilot of the steamboat Magnolia, In 1885 he abandoned the river, and accepted a situation as book-keeper for the Gadsden Iron Company. He remained with that company three years, and has since that time been connected with the Round Mountain Iron Company. Mr. Elliott was married March 15, 1887, to Miss Sallie E. Bogan, the accomplished daughter of Henry S. and Amanda (Hoss) Bogan. JOHN BUTLER WALDEN, Attorney-at law, was born in Jasper County, Ga., September 1, 181G, and is a son of Charles and Sarah (Walker) Walden, natives of South Carolina. He was reared on a farm, and at the age of twenty years, at Wetumpka, Ala., began the study of the law, and at Talladega was admitted to the bar. He located first in the practice at Lebanon, De Kalb County, and was within a short time appointed Register in Chancery, and afterward appointed -Tudge of the County Court of De Kalb C'ounty, He held these offices but a few months, when he resigned for the purpose of devoting his entire time to the jiractice of the law, and soon gained rank in the profession. He was appointed Solicitor of the Huntsville Circuit in 18(i2, and was shortly afterwards elected by the Legislature to that office, and held it the close of the war. In 1864 he came to Centre, and has here since that time given his whole attention to his pro- fession. Mr. Walden was married in December, 1812, to Catharine 0. Chambliss, daughter of John and Sarah (Pierce) Chambliss, who came from Dar- lington District, S. C, to Talladega County in 1841. Of the children reared by Mr. Walden we have the following data: John is a farmer and trader in Texas; Charles is a trader at McMinn- ville, Tenn. ; Joseph A. studied law of his own volition; was admitted to the bar on the day after he was twenty-one; was elected Solicitor for Chero- kee County by the jjopular vote, and served one term only. He holds a high standing in his pro- fession as an untiring, zealous advocate. Emily married Captain Marable, of Georgia, and Minnie is unmarried, and remains with her parents. The senior 3Ir. Walden, in about 1800, moved to Green County, Ga., and from thence to Jasper. He was a lieutenant under General Floyd in the War of 1812, He came into Alabama in 1819, and located in Autauga County, near old Fort Jackson. He died in 1832. Of his seven sons John B. is the only one now living. His wife was one of those excellent pioneer. Christian women. She was a member of the Baptist Church over fifty years, and many of her ancestors and kinsmen were noted divines. She NORTHERN ALABAMA. 133 died in 1854, at the age of seventy years. Her fatlier, Jeremiah Walker, a Virginian by birth, and a gaHant old Revolutionary soldier, was a fanner in South C'aroliini. His paternal ancestors came from Kiigland. -^^ !-♦- JOHN W. TATUNS, (deceased) was born in t'alhouu County. Ala., in 183.">: came into Chero- kee County in ISti.s, and in January of that year married the widow of M. J. Alexander, a daugh- ter of Dr. William and Rebecca W. (Parker) ^Sfc- Klrath. Mr. McElrath was born in Spartanburg District and his wife in Tennessee. 'J"he Doctor graduated in medicine from the Cincinnati Med- ical College, and in 183<> located in Coosa County, Ala. In 1S3'.I he came into Cherokee County, and settled within three miles of Centre, where he practiced medicine until 1837. In that year, his wife's health having become imjjaired, he gave up his practice and turned his attention to farming. The Doctor was a public-spirited man, noted for his cliarity, and for his interest in the general good of his neighborhood, lie died in 188.") at the age of eighty-seven years, leaving a large estate. His wife had died the year before. His father was a native of Ireland. John W. Tatuns at his death, in 1884, left three children: Samuel C, Leonora I., and Wcstly S. He was a consistent member of the ilethodist Episcojial Church and a highly respected citizen. Vlll. CULLMAN COUNTY. Population: White, 6,312: colored, 143. Area, 590 square miles. Woodland, all. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 1,409 ; in corn, 10,343 ; in oats, 1,179; in wheat, 2,569 ; in rye, 480 ; in sugar-cane, 66 ; in tobacco, 41 ; in sweet potatoes, 215. Approximate number of bales of cotton in round numbers, 400. County Seat — Cullman ; population, 1,600 ; located on South & North Alabama Railroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Alabama Tribune and Trumpet. Postoffices in the County — Baileyton, Bosen- berg, Bremen, Crane Hill, Crooked Creek, Chill- man, Dreher, Etha, Jones Chapel, Logan, Mar- riott, May Apple, Nesmith, Ruby, Sinicoe, Trim- ble. This is one of the last counties formed in the State, and was organized in 1877, and has an in- teresting history, which begins in 1873, when John 0. Cullman became the agent for the sale of the vast tracts of land belonging to the South iS: North Alabama and Louisville & Nashville Rail- roads. [See History of Cullman, this volume.] ^, ^ tJr^ ^lf^ IX. CLEBURNE COUNTY. Populatiou : AVliite, 10,308 ; colored, 068. Area, S-tO square miles. Woodland, all. Meta- morpliic, 400 square .miles. Coosa Valley, 140 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), it, 150; in corn, ^1,552; in oats, 567; in wheat, 7,."i04; in tobacco, 85; in sweet potatoes, 2'il. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 4,000. County Seat — Edwardsville; population, 600; on Georgia Pacific liailroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Cleburne County Netvs (Democratic), Stundard (Demo- cratic). Post-offices in the County — Abernathy, Ai, Ar- bacoochee. Beecham, Bell's Mills, Belltown, Bor- den Springs, Chulafinnee, Cicero, Cold Water, Edwardsville, Grantly, Heflin, Hightower, Hoop- er's Mills, Kemp's Creelr, Lecta, Micaville, Mus- cadine, Oakfuskee, Oak Level, Oak Lone. Pales- tine, Kosewood, Slioal Creek, Solomon, Stone Hill. This county was formed in 1867 from portions of Calhoun, Talladega and liandolph Counties, and named for the lamented General Cleburne, who fell in the forefront of the famous battle at Franklin, Tenn., in 1864. Though abounding in natural resources, the county is not as fully devel- oped as some others in the same region. Since the construction of two railroads through the county, giving its productions a ready outlet, it is winning to itself a thrifty population, and in many ways the merits of Cleburne are coming more and more to be recognized and appreciated. Great inducements exist in the county for cap- italists and immigrants, as its mines are stored with rich ores, and its lands abound in fertility. Cleburne has a varied surface. In the nortli- ern end of the county there are rugged interven- ing valleys, of fertility. These valley lands are of a reddish hue, as is true of the most of the lands of this character in this and the northern portion of Alabama. The lands which lie along the ridges are of a light or grayish color. But few of the mountain lands have ever been cultivated, as the residents of the county have never felt the necessity of leaving the level for the higher districts. Along the slopes, however, there are good farming lands with yellow sub-soil. The remainder of the county is covered with either red or gray lands, excejit in the creek and river bot- toms, where the soil partakes largely of sand. In the western jiortion of the county there is a sparser population than in any other section, be- cause the lands are regarded as less fertile. Cle- burne has many fertile valleys, which are mostly devoted to the production of corn, though some cotton is planted. Along these valley stretches are some of the best farms in the county. The lower portion of the county abounds in red fertile lands. The productions are corn, cotton, wheat, and oats, with minor crops of great importance. Near the line of the East & West Alabama Kailroad in this county, a very extensive bed of manganese has been opened, the property of State Senator Hon. W. J. Alexander and a Jacksonville la)id company, and has been pronounced by scien- tific assayists to be of most excellent quality. The soils are admirably suited to the produc- tion of apples and peaches. The clover and grasses are found to thrive with great readiness, and home stock raising is gradually receiving more attention. The county has many forests of excellent tim- ber, the chief growth of which is white, red, Span- ish and post oak, sh(>rt and long-leafed pine, wal- nut, hickory and gum. For many years a gold mine has been success- fully worked at Arbacoochee. The same ores are also found in other places in the southern portions of the cotinty. In different parts of the county copper, mica, slate, graphite, pyrites, zinc and kaolin are found prevailing. Iron exists in great abundance, and silver has also been discovered . These await capi- tal to be developed. 134 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 135 The supplies of water in every portion of Cle- burne are unfailing, as it is penetrated by such streams as the Talla])Oosa river, whieh runs diag- onally through the county from northeast to south- west, and such streams as Terrapin, Muscoaline, Cane, Shoal, Chulafinnee, Cohulga, Dying and Snake and Lost Creeks. All these are sustained by numerous tributaries which eontril)ute further to the supply of water. The places of the greatest importance are Ed- wardsville, the county seat, Hetlin. Oak licvel, ChulaHnne and Arbacoocliee. At Edwardsville and Heflin tlieic arc high schools of local note. Otlier good schools are found in different parts of the county. The channels of transportation are the Ceorgia Pacific Railroad, and Edwardsville is about midway between Atlanta and J5irmingham. The East & West railroad, running from Centerville, Ga., to Birmingham, runs through the north end of the county, and runs near an inexhaustible dejtosit of excellent roofing slate. Another important rail- way line is being constructed through the county from Carrollton, Ga., to Decatur, Ala., by way of Oak Level, in this county. A large area of (iovcrnineiit lands is yet on the market, which can l)e had under the homestead law. ;ci^::v- DE KALB COUNTY. Population: White. I'-i, 125: colored, -IIG. Area, 740 square miles; coal measures, on Lookout and Sand Mountains, 4'.I0 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately),?, 409: in corn, 23,!)"^fl: in oats, 5.115; in wheat, (i.84C: in rye, 383; in tobacco, 19; in sweet potatoes, 218. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 3,100, County Seat — Fort Payne: pojiulation, 350; on Alabama Great Southern Kailroad. Newspaper published at County Seat — louriiid (Democratic). Post-offices in the County — .\ndrews Institute, Hlack Oak, Brandon, Chavies, Chumley, Collins- ville, Cordell, Cotnam, Crossville, Crumly, Deer Head, Denton, Floy, Fort Payne, Geraldine, (ilad- ney. Grove Oak, Ilenagar, Ider, Laurel, Lebanon, Lookout, Loveless, Luna, Lutterell, Lydia, Ma- lum, Jhisgrove, Nicholson's Gap, Pea Hidgc, Por- tersville, Kodentown, Sand Mountain. Sandy Mills, Skiruin, Snake Creek. South Hill, Stella, Sulphur Springs, Ten Brocck, Thirty-Nine. X'allcv Head, Whiton, Wills. Ho Kalb County took its mime from the famous Baron De Kalh. It was constituteil in 183G. De Kalb lies in the extreme northeastern corner of the State, and is bounded by Georgia on the east, its extreme northern point touching the line of the State of Tennessee. It shares largely in the fertile lands and mineral deposits, both of which abound in this section of Alabama. Its climate, liealthfulness, favorableness of location, and natural sources of wealth make it one of the most desirable counties in the State. De Kalb has been almost doubled within the last ten years, which serves to indicate quite fully the estimate which is placed upon the county by immigrants and investors. This is due to the peculiar advantages offered in climate, -diversity of productions, mineral deposits, and cheapness of lands, all of which are chief factors in tlie pros- perity of the county. De Kalb County is occu- pied in great part by the two plateaus of Sand and Lookout Mountains. The former of these constitutes a high plane, whose surface rocks are those of the Coal Measures, These two plateaus, of which that of Sand Mountain is the greater, are separated by Wills A'alley. which cuts entirely across tiie county from northeast to southwest. This valley embraces the most productive lands of 136 NORTHERN ALABAMA. De Kalb. It is here that almost all the cotton in the county is produced. The land along the valleys was very highly prized by the first settlers of the County, and but little regard was had for that which lay along the plateaus. Later, however, the uplands were brought into use, and the result of their tillage has been peculiarly gratifying. They are not only cultivated with far less effort, but are found to be almost equal in production to the lower soils, when assisted some with fertilizers. The lands of the county may thus be divided in a general way between the dark, stiff soils of the valley and the lighter soils of the plateaus. The staple productions are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, rye and sweet potatoes. Grasses and clover flourish also, and the attention which is being given their production is tending to the improve- ment of stock. As is true throughout this entire section of the State, the lands upon the plateaus are those devoted to fruit culture. Apples, pears and peaches, and. indeed, all fruits grown in this latitude attain perfection. Fruit trees thrive here for many years, and the crop is rarely killed or in- jured by frosts. Perhajis no section of America can display finer specimens of plums than grow in this region. The principal timbers of the county are oaks, hickory, cherry and short leaf pines. These exist in sufficient quantities for all domestic purposes. DeKalb County has the amplest water supplies for all purposes. Streams of rapid and deep cur- rents offer inducements for the erection of ma- chinery, while cool and everlasting springs issue from the hills in every section of the county. Lookout Mountain plateau is drained by Little lliver and its tributaries, while Sand Mountain is drained by Tom Creek and the numerous streams which empty into it. Prominent among the streams are Long Island, Scarham, Black and South Santa Creeks. Near Valley Head, in Lookout Mountain plateau, is where the beautiful falls of Little River occur. They are nearly 100 feet in height, with a deep, rocky gorge below them. L-on and coal largely prevail in the county. Li Willis' Valley there is found a superb quality of fire clay, which has become famous. It exists also in other parts of DeKalb. The kaolin of the county is very fine. Speci- mens displayed at the Xew Orleans Exposition took the first premium in 188.5, and beautiful crockery manufactured from these porcelain clays was exhibited there. Railroad transportation is enjoyed by the peo- ple of the county, as the Alabama threat Southern Railroad penetrates it from northeast to south- west. Fort Payne, the county seat, Collinsville, Lebanon and Portersville are the principal towns of the county. Public school system is good, and church facil- ities abound. Lands can be secured upon the most reasonable terms possible. There are many Government lands yet unsettled, being 32,600 acres, and vast quantities of railroad lands, which can be had at a marvelously low rate. In other sections, where land is purchasable, it can be had for from ^v* to %'lh per acre. XI. ETOWAH COUNTY Population: Wliite, 19.808; colore'1, 3.000. Are:i. 5'iO s00. County Seat — Gadsden: population, 4,000. Newspaper published at County Seat — Times and yorx. Postoffices in the county: Atalla, Aurora, Ball Play. Huford, Clear Spring, Coats Hend, Coxville, Duck Springs. Etowahton, Gndsilen, Greenwood, Hill. Hokes Hluff. Howelton, Keysburgh, Mark- ton. Nix. <»ak Hill, Heaves, Red Bud, Seaborn, Shahan. Stanfield, Turkeytown, Walnut (Jrove. Three-fourths of the county is made up of mountain jdateaus or table lands. The agricultural resources of the county are tine, and when you take into consideration the diversity of crops which flourish in it, it is equaled by few counties in the State. The county contains lands of nearly every va- riety, and these lands are adapted to raising profit- ably many of the cereals and fruits. Some of the richest valley lands to be found in the State are in I this county, and these valley lands produce the finest staple of cotton, as well as abundant crops of corn, oats and wheat. Some of these valleys are remarkable for their beauty, as well as their fertility, and we mention the Little Wills Valley, up which runs the (Jreat Southern Railroad. We have these beautiful valleys running through the county, in addition to the Coosa River bot- toms, as they are called. This Coosa bottom land is remarkable for pro- ducing a very fine grade of cotton, from which the celebrated Coates thread is made. It also yields large crops of corn and oats, and other small grains. 10 13 The county is penetrated from the northeast to the southwest by two mountain plateaus and their valleys. As before nientioned. nearly three-fourths of the county is mountainous, the other fourth takes in the three valleys. These valleys are known as the Coosa Valley, which averages from three to four miles on either side of the river, making its width about six or seven miles. The other two valleys are known as Big and Little Wills Valleys, and are remarkable for their beauty and fertility, especially the latter, which is the smaller of the two valleys. While Etowah County is rich in minerals of nearly every description, her mineral treasure is not her only wealth. Her agriculturol resources are very fine, and her chief products are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, millet, sorghum, sweet and Irish potatoes, besides the clovers and grasses. The amount of tilled lands is nearly <;.i,000 acres. Of this amount, nearly 17,000 acres are planted in cotton, yielding annually about 7,500 bales. About 2,50(t acres are planted in corn: 6,0"^.5 acres in oats; 7,0.5.3 acres in wheat: ■,': in sweet potatoes, !)"^5. Approximate number of bales of cotton, l-t,lS'.i. County Seat — Opelika; population 4,000; located on the Western Alabama IJailroad, at the junction of the Columbus. Western & East Alabama Kail- road . Newspapers published at County Seat — Demo- crat and Rejmhlican. At Lively — Saturdaii Even- iiKj Xe%v» (Democratic). I'ostofbces in the County — Auburn. Beulah, Gold Hill. Halawaka, Lively, Loacliapoka, Jfe- chanicsville, -Mott's Mill, Opelika. Koxana. Salem, Smith Station, Wacoocliec, Waverly and Yonges- borough. This county, organized in accordance with an act approved December 15, 1880, was formed from portions of Chambers, Kussell, Macon and Talla- poosa Counties, and named in honor of Gen. liobert E. liCe. It is located in a high and hcalthfnl section of country in the east-central l)ortion of the State, and is entirely free from malaria. The elevation above sea level ranges from TOO to 850 feet, and the water from wells and springs is exceptionally fine. The surface is undulating, and the entire county is well watered bv creeks and smaller streams which never fail. The Chattahoochee Kiver forms the eastern boundary of the county, and is one contin- uous chain of falls along the entire line, affording rare facilities for manufacturing enterprises. In addition to this fine water, the'-e is not a commu- nity in this county that does not already enjoy the advantages of water-power grist and flouring mills. The county is well timbered, principally with long- and short-leafed pine, though oak, hickory, j)oplar, ash, maple, walnut, dogwood, the gums and cherry abound. There are fine deposits of soapstone, granite and lime rock in the county, and attention is now being given to the quarrying of building stone in the western part of the county, while the lime works near Yongesboro are making large quantities of lime for shipments to the markets of this and adjoining States. Considerable excite- ment has been caused recently by the discovery of of large beds of superior soapstone and iron ores in the vicinity of fiold Hill, an extensively prosper- ous community in the county, ten miles northwest of Opelika on the Columbus it Western Kailroad. Few counties in the State enjoy superior advan- tages in transportation facilities. Two trunk lines cross the county, while the East Alabama llailroad pours into Opelika almost the entire produce of Chambers and a large amount of that of Randolph County. The model railroad of the south, the Western Railroad of Alabama, crosses the county from west to east, and the Columbus & Western from southeast to northeast, giving the county about seventy-five miles of railway. [See Opelika, this volume.] -S^^"^- AUBTJRN. AiMU'KX, one of the most moral and cultured | road seven miles from Oje'.ika, and sixty miles communities to be found anywhere, is a town of from .Montgomery. The State Polytechnic Insti- 1,5011 inhabitants situated on the Western Rail- tute and the Agricultural and Mechanical College 14:5 144 NORTHERN ALABAMA. is located here. Brownsville, Loachapoka, Salem and Yongesboroiigh are pleasant towns in the county that enjoy fine railroad and school advan- tages. The various neighborhoods in the county have good schools and churches, and new settlers are accorded hearty welcome. Land can be had from $2 to $20 per acre. The valuation of taxable property in Lee County for the year 1887 is *3,017,!i3S, as shown by the abstract of assessment filed with the Auditor. ■ ALAB.^MA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. In 1862 an act was passed by Congress donating public lands to the several States and Territories for the purpose of establishing colleges "for the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes." Owing to the demoralization incident to the civil war, and the subsequent period of re- construction, this grant, for ten years, was unutil- ized by the State of Alabama. Finally, in Feb- ruary, 1872, during the administration of Gov. R. B. Lindsay, an act Avas passed by the State Legislature accepting the national grant, and in- corporating a college pursuant to the Federal act. The Board of Trustees was immediately appointed, and by the latter part of Jlarch the college was organized and in operation. The proceeds of the sale of the land scrip furnish the only permanent endowment for strictly col- legiate purposes. The amount of public land that fell to the share of Alabama was 240,000 acres, which realized on sale $2.53,500. The sum is in- vested in State bonds bearing eight per cent. — which rate is guaranteed as perpetual — making the permanent annual income $20,280. About ninety per cent, of this income is used in the pay- ment of salaries. In 1884, the State Legislature appropriated to the college $30,000, and in 1887 $12,500 more for technical education. According to an act of 1885, one-third of the net proceeds arising from the ta.xation of the commercial fertilizers sold in the State goes to defray tlie expenses of the experi- mental station. This fund has averaged about $8,000 per annum. By a recent act Congress has made an annual appropriation of $15,000 to aid the experiment station. An annual income of about $1,500 is derived from the incidental fees. The Congressional Act forbidding the use of any of the endowment fund for building purposes, and the State treasury being dejileted in 1872, the Legislature was forced to offer the location of the college to the community making the most liberal bid in buildings or money. In the village of Au- burn, in 1858, through the zealous efforts of Rev. L. B. Glenn, president of their Board of Trustees, the Methodists of Alabama had erected a hand- some structure for a college, known as the East Alabama Male College. The structure was a handsome brick building four stories in height, of the Italian school of architecture. It was one hundred and sixty by seventy-five feet, containing thirty-eight rooms. Its erection cost $75,000. Through the generosity of the Methodist denomination, this commodious building was proferred the State for the accommo- dation of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and easily won the location over many competitors. This building, with nearly all its valuable contents, furniture, laboratories aiul museums, was burned, June 24, 1887. The new building, now in process of construc- tion, will be upon the same basement as the old building, and will conform, in the main, to the same proportions, with such changes and modern improvements as are desirable. It will be an ele- gant and impressive structure, finished off with pressed brick, and stone trimmings. The new chemical laboratory at the north end of the cam- pus has been recently completed. It is a stately building sixty by one hundred feet, two stories high, with a tower, and is of the same finish as the main building. Langdon Hall is two-stories high, and is ninety by fifty feet. The first story is appropriated to the use of the wood and machine shop of mechanic arts; the second story is usea as the College Audience Hall. To the rear of Langdon Hall stands the boiler house, and a single story brick building, seventy- two by thirty-two feet, divided into two rooms for the forge and foundry departments. The Chambers residence adjoining the campus has re- cently been purchased, and furnishes offices and lecture rooms for some of the officers of the Col- lege. Ultimately, it will be used as a dormitory. The college also owns two residences, and several out buildings on the experiment station farm. Objects — Faculty — According to the act of Congress, the leading object of this institution is, " excluding other classical and scientific studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such a manner as the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 145 Legislature of the State may prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and jiro- fessions of life." United States Commissioner Eaton says in his report of 1883: "These colleges seek to educate for leading industries. They aim also to prepare by a general education for a share of the govern- ment of the people." Since its organization in 18T>', the college has kept steadily in view these main objects. About nineteen-twentieths of the salaries, and more than this ratio of the e.xpendi- tures for apparatus, has been in behalf of the department ever since. Seven of the eight original claims pertained to a strictly technical college, and one to the '"classical studies" referred to in the Act of Congress, The first faculty consisted of the president, who was also (1) i)rofessor of Politi- cal Economy and Rhetoric, and professors of (2) Pure Mathematics. (3) Analytical and Agricul- tural Chemistry, (4) Natural History and Civil Engineering, (5) Practical Agriculture and Hor- ticulture, (<)) Moral Philosophy, and English Literature, (7) Ancient and Modern Languages, (S) Military Service and Engineering. With the e.xcejition of the chair of Ancient Languages, all of these chairs, bearing some slight modifica- tion, remain intact. In 1883 Greek was elimin- ated from the chair of Ancient Languages and Latin was associated with History. In 188'i, Latin was combined with English into a chair. In 1884 the Department of Mechanic Arts was established under an instructor. Tiiere are now also an adjunct professor of Modern Languages, and two instructors for the fourth class. The faculty and officers at present are as follows: William LeKoy i$roun. M. A., LL. I)., Presi- dent, and Professor of Physics and Astronomy ; (•tis D. Smith, .\. M., Professor of Mathematics; P. H. Mell, .Ir.. M. E.. Ph. I)., Professor of Natural History and Geology ; James H. Lane, C. E., A. M., Professor of Civil Engineering and Drawing: J. S.Newman, Professor of Agriculture and Director of the Experiment Station : Charles C.Thach, B. E., Professor of English and Latin ; N. T. Lupton, A. M., M. D., LL. D., Professor of (ieneral and Agricultural Chemistry and State Chemist ; Lieut. M. C. Richards, 'US. Artillery, L'. S. A. [W'est Point], Commandant and Professor of Military .Science ; (icorge H. Hryatit, M. E. [Mass. Institute Technology], Instructor in .Mechanic Arts: George Petrie, M. A. [University of \'ir- ginia]. Adjunct Professor of Modern Languages and History : L. W. Wilkinson, B. Sc, B. S. Bur- ton, H. Sc, Assistants in the Chemical Laboratory; C. 11. Ross, B. Sc, V. L. Allen, B. Sc, Assistants in Mathematics and English; J. II. Drake, M. D., Surgeon; C. C. Thach, Recording Secretary; E. T. Glenn, Treasurer. Previous to this organization the offices and chairs were filled as follows: The presidency by Rev. I. T. Tichenor, D. D. (18:2-8-^) : W. L. Broun, LL. D., (1882-83): Col. D. F. Bojd, (1883-84); the Chair of Agriculture by Prof. W. H. Jemison(18T2); President Tichenor (18:3-78); Col. W. H. Chambers (1878-83); Prof. W. C. Stubbs (1881-83); Engineering by Prof. J. B. Read (1872); Col. R. A. llardaway (1873-81); Chemistry by Prof. W. C. Stubbs (1872-85); Eng- lish by Prof. B. B. Russ (1872-78); Prof. G. W. Maxson (1878-84); Mathematics by Prof. Alex- ander Hogg (1872-74); Ancient Languages by Prof. J. T. Dunklin (1872-8G); Natural History was united with Chemistry until 1S77, when Prof. E. Q. Thornton was elected (1877) ; Military Science and Tactics and office of Commandant by Gen. G. P. Harrison (1872-73). For several years this chair was filled by the Professor of Engineering; a United States officer is now detailed to discharge its duties. Four professors have died while connected with the institution. Prof. B. B. Ross in 1878; Prof. E. Q. Thornton in 1878; Col. W. H. Chambers in 18,s3; Prof. J. T. Dunk- lin, 1886. Courses — Studies — Degrees— li the above enu- meration of departments indicate that the Board has always addressed itself in good faith to meet the letter and spirit of the law that requires the college to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, equally has the faculty shown itself in accord with the predominance of the scientific element by the arrangement of the courses of instruction. Instruction was at first offered in four regular courses: (1) Agriculture, (2) Science, (3) Civil Engineering, (4) Literature. Three of these, it is seen, were purely scientific; the fourth one was also well filled with science. The three first courses have undergone little or no change. Modern languages were eliminated from them in l.ss3,and agricultureand science were consolidated, leaving two courses strictly teclinical. Greek was eliminated from the literary course, and French and German were substituted . These three courses 14C NORTHER aX ALABAMA. are now known as— (1) Chemistry and Agriculture (2) Mechanics and Engineering, (3) General Courses. Course I. includes theoretical and practical in- struction in those branches that relate to chemis- try and agriculture, and is especially adaptetl to those who propose to devote themselves to agricul- ture or chemical pursuits. Course II. includes Ihe principles and applica- tions of the sciences that directly relate to civil and mechanical engineering, and is adapted to those who expect to enter the profession of en- gineering. Course III. has been arranged to give a general and less technical education in subjects of science and language to meet the wants of those students who have selected no definite vocation in life, as well as of those who propose ultimately to engage in teaching, or in some commercial or manufac- turing business. The three courses require four years for gradua- tion. Tlie first two years' work is substantially the same for all. Freshman Year (introductory to ull courses) — English grammar and the principles of English composition, history of United States, algebra after quadratic equations, geometry (six books), physics, linear drawing and grapliic studies, physiology, agriculture, mechanic arts (covering a course of carpentry, turning and pattern-making). In the general course, Latin (Virgil, Cicero and com- position) is substituted for physics and physiology. Sophomore Year (common to all courset) — Khet- oric, critical study of American poetry, plane and spherical trigonometry, solid geometry, surveying and mensuration, general chemistry, theoretical and practical agriculture, or modern languages for students who have decided to follow the course in engineering, drawing in projection, shades and shadows and jjerspective, mechanic arts (embracing a course in moulding and casting iron), forge work in iron and steel, and lectures on the working of metals. In the general course, Latin (Cicero, grammar and com]iosition) is substituted for English. At the end of the second year the courses di- verge, and the work in the junior and senior classes become more special in the several lines followed. The studies pursued in common by all mem- bers of junior and senior classes are: In junior year — English, history of literature, critical study of English poetry and prose, elements of criticism, political economy, physics, rational mechanics, treated graphically, molecular mechanics, prop- erties of matter, military science. In senior year: English criticism continued, pliysics, prac- tical application of electricity, astronomy and me- teorology, geology, mineralogy, military science. I. The special studies pursued in chemistry and agriculture are: In Junior year — (1) Recita- tions and lectures in industrial and theoretical chemistry,qualitative analysis and laboratory prac- tice; {'I) Theoretical and practical agriculture, stock-raising and feeding, etc.; (3) Zoology, with practical laboratory work in the study of insects; (4) Lectures and analytical laboratory work in bot- any. In Senior year: (1) Lectures on agricultural chemistry, including "a thorough discussion of the origin, composition and classification of soils, the composition and growth of plants, the sources of plant food and how obtained, the imj)rovement of soils, the manufacture and use of fertilizers, the chemical principles involved in the rotation of crops, in the feeding of live stock, and m the va- rious operations carried on by the intelligent and successful agriculturist" ; (■^) Agriculture, the ob- jects and results of experiments, proj^agation, planting, pruning, and cultivation of plants, farm management and improvement; (3) Zoology con- tinued. II. The course in Mechanics and Engineering embraces the following special studies: In Junior year — (1) Analytical geometry, descriptive geom- etry; ("-i) Engineering and laying out curves, lev- eling, grading, construction of railroads and com- mon roads, Henck"s Field Book ; (3) Technical drawing in perspective, shades and shadows, ma- chines and buildings. In the Senior Y^ear — (1) Differential and integral calculus, with their prac- tical application: (".3) Engineering, building ma- terial, resistance of materials, roofs and bridges, graphic and mathematical problems in strains, location and construction of roads, Wheeler's en- gineering; (3) Technical di'awing in topography and machines. III. The general course offers special instruction in Junior year in: (1) Latin, Tacitus, Horace, composition; (2) Analytical geometry: (3) French and German. In Senior year: A full course in French and German is offered in addition to the scientific and other studies pursued in common with the other courses. In fine, according to President Broun's announce- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 147 mcnt: "The college endeavors to subject each student under itsintluenoeto the exact and accurate training of science-discipline, giving prominence in its instruction to the sciences and their api)lica- tionssofarasthe facilities at itsdisixisal will permit. '• The essential discipline obtained by an accn- arteand critical studyof languages is not neglected. All students are refpiircd to study the English language in each course of study for a degree, thus giving it special prominence. The Latin, French and German languages are taught, and opportu- nity for their study is offered to students in any course. In the general course they are re(|uired for a degree." I'ntil 18S3, four (different) degrees were con- ferred; subsequently only one, Haclielor of Science, has been conferred. There is a post-graduate course in Alining Engineering, leading to the de- gree of M. E. Master of Science and t'ivil Engi- neer are conferred upon graduates on examination after at least one year's residence at the college. Xo honorary degrees are conferred. Atlinidance — Graduates — The success of the college on the new line, if not brilliant, was stable. To be sure, some practical, narrow-minded people pooh-poohed at book-farming, and lifteen years ago there was a dearth of technical pursuits in the South to induce students to pursue technical courses as a means of securing a sure and ready in- come. Farming had not then advanced to the j)oint of science and protit that it now occupies, and that enables it to offer such flattering rewanls to young men who, though without capital, may be possessed of scientific training. Indeed, none of those material walks had then been developed that have since made Alabama the cynosure of the world, and that have created a demand for skill in all branches of mechanics. Still, the college grew. The attendance the first session was 103; in IKSO it was 2T0. For various causes a jieriodof de])ression intervened, but for several years past the attendance has been steadily increasing. The numbers of students in attendance the last session lSKO-87 was 18.5. Of these, ten were resident graduates, 1.'5 seniors. 24 juniors, 5'! sophomores, 'Si freshmen. The College has given tuition, altogether, to about 1,G()() students, of whom l.">t) — nearly ten per cent., the usual rate in. Southern institutions — have graduated. In the distribution of this jiatronage, the one classical chair did not. as has been charged in some quarters, overshadow tiie other five chairs of science; the sheaves of the three scientific courses did not make obeisance to the solitary course, called literary. During the first decade, according to the records, ninety-four students graduated as follows : In engineering, 3i!; science, and agriculture, ■^U; literature, 3'^. Sixty-jiine of these, about seventy per cent., engaged in those ]iursuits, "which," according to Commissioner Eaton, "the aid given to their Alma Mater was intended to promote."' Of this number, 'ii were teachers, \i farmers, 4 manu- facturers, T civil engineers. T scientists, IT mer- chants. Several of these young men have taken leading positions in their j)rofession8. Lai-ge numbei'S of these graduates began their careers as teachers, and it is to the credit of the institution that they have given eminent satisfaction. No data are available to show the occupation of those who have graduated during the last five years. It is to be presumed that the per cent, fol- lowing technical courses is even higher than the above exhibit. Nine-tenths of the 1500 under-graduates are en- gaged in other than the learned professions, and iiave carried into their life work all the benefits of the valuable instruction in science given in the lower classes. Pravtiral Work — Eqiiipinent — The Board has, from the first, done all in its power to develop the practical work of the college. Its desires and de- signs have been long thwarted, or at least tram- meled, by lack of means. It must beborne in mind that an equipment for technical instruction is ex- pensive. Some subjects can be successfully taught in a bare room — some advantage possibly accruing from a bench and a blackboard. Not so scientific, technological courses. Plants for jiractical agricul- ture, for engineering, mechanic arts, physics, natural histor\' — are all expensive. Not a cent of the endowment could be touched: for twelve long years not a dollar did the State appropriate. Only incidental fees and. at first, tuition were available for this end. Witii their funds a farm was purchased, and, at an expense of §2,000, was stockerechanic Ai't Laboratory is used as an auxiliary in indus- trial education, to instruct in the arts that consti- tute the foundation of various industrial pursuits, thus aiding in giving mentally and manually, in theory and practice, that sound education that will, in a measure, fpialify a young man to enter upon some one of the associated industries; that education wliich comes of training the eye and the hand as well as the mind, and tends to associate .skilled manual and mental labor." III. Civil Eiigiurcring ami DniiciiK/ — This de- partment, having recently had valuable additions made to its equijiment, is now well supplied with instruments, with which all important field work is taught. All the students in the two lower college classes are required to take drawing. Well- lighted drawing rooms are provided with suitable tables. IV. Chemisfry — The entire chemical depart- ment of the college, the professors' lecture-room, student laboratory. State laboratory, and offices are situated in the new chemical laboratory building. This building affords accommodation to sixty analytical students; and all of its rooms are furnished with the best of modern appliances for analyzing, assayiiig — in short, for all fields of ex- perimental and original work. The student labora- tory is provided with gas and water, filtering pumps, analytical balances, and working tables for each student; indeed, ''it is provided with every- thing necessary for instruction in chemical manip- ulation, in the rpialitative and quantitative analy- sis of soils, fertilizers, minerals, mineral waters, technical products. It is perfectly equipped for the special study of practical chemistry." Acourse of systematic lal)oratory work is carried on in con- nection with each course of lectures. The labora- tory is open from !• \. M. to .i v. m., five days in the week, liy law, the Professor of Chemistry is also State Chemist. In the State laboratory work is done for the State Uepartment of Agriculture, and the Experiment Station. Several hundred quantitative analyses are annually made of fertil- izers, soils, and mitierals. V. Pliysirs — X'aluable additions are constantly being made to this department. Practical work is given in the applications of electricity, manipula- tion of batteries, dynamos, circuit-laving, etc. A physical laboratory will be equip])ed when tlie new l)uilding is completed. VI. Natural History — In the junior class, con- siderable time is devoted to systematic and struc- tural botany, and to advanced laboratory work with the microscope, in the preparation of speci- mens showing plant structure, sufficient not only to familiarize the students with the methods of j)lant building and cellular organizations, but also to practice them in detecting the various forms of fungi that are injurious to fruits and vegetables. A biological laboratory has been fitted up for stu- dents, provided with excellent microscopes of the most improved patterns, well-constructed tables, and all the necessary chemicals for preparing and mounting vegetable tissues. A dark room is at- tached to this laboratory for micro-photographic work. Adiiiissioji — Expense — Ap})licants for admission must be of good moral character. To enter the fourth class the applicant must be not less than fifteen years of age, and be qualified to pass a sat- isfactory examination in the following subjects: I. Geography and history of the United States. II. English. — (a) An examination upon sen- tences containing incorrect English, (i) A com- position giving evidence of satisfactory proficiency in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and division into paragra]ihs, III. Mathematics. — (a) Arithmetic, including fundamental operations: common and decimal fractions; denominate numbers: the metric sys- tem: j>ercentage, including interest and discount; proportion; extraction of square and cube roots; (/;) Algebra to quadratic etjuations. For admission to the fourth class in the general course a satisfactory examination is also required in Latin grammar and ('a?sar, four books. Incidental fee, per half session, is ij:7 50 Library fee, per lialf session 1 00 Siirg(ion's fee, per lialf .session 2 ."lO Hoard, pernioutli, wilh fuel and liglits $12 to 14 00 These fees are payable, >!ll on matriculation and >«11 on February 1st. By order of the Hoard, no fees can be remitted. Tuition is free. The Colleire has no barracks or dornutories. and 150 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the students board with the families of the town of Aubvirn, and thus' enjoy all the protecting and beneficial influences of the family circle. By messing, the cost of board has been reduced by a few students to IsS.SO per month. For stu- dents entering after January 1st, the fees for half session only are required. Any economical student can bring his annual expenses, including clothing, books, washing, board and lodging within the limits of %-i.^O. Experiment Station — On February "24, 1888, the Board of Trustees organized the Experiment Station as a department of the College, with the following corps of officers: President of the College in charge; Agriculturist and Director, Chemist and Vice-Director, Physi- ologist, Botanist, Entomologist and Meteorologist, First and Second Assistant Chemists, First and Second Assistant Agriculturist, Assistant Meteor- ologist. — — ^-f^J^-^ WM. LeROY BROUN, M. A., LL.D., President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, was born in Loudoun County, Va., in 1827. His parents were Edwin Conway and Elizabeth Broun, natives of the same State. His father was of Scotch ancestry and lived in Virginia up to the time of his death, in 1840. The subject of this sketch received his collegiate education at the University of Virginia, and grad- uated with the degree of Master of Arts from that institution in 1850. In 1852 he was elected to a professorship in a college in Mississippi, and filled the chair to which he was called, two years. He was then chosen to the chair of Mathematics in the University of Georgia, at Athens, and discharg- ed the functions of that position for two years. In the year 1857, he organized Bloomfield Academy, situated near the University of Virginia, and con- ducted that school until ISGl. Professor Broun, at this juncture, entered the Confederate service as a lieutenant of artillery; was shortly afterward promoted to the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel in the Ordnance Department, C. S. A., and was assigned to duty as commandant of the Richmond Arsenal, over which he exercised supervision until the war closed. After the war the University of Georgia, situ- ated at Athens, elected him Professor of Natui'al Philosophy; and also, subsequently, President of the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Professor Broun's connection with this Seat of learning continued from 186(; until 1875, when he was elected to fill the chair of Mathe- matics in Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., where he remained seven years. In 1882, Dr. Broun was called to the presidency of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Auburn, which he held one year, .and was then elected Professor of ^Mathematics in the University of Texas, at Austin, where he was elected Chair- man of the Faculty. He resigned in 1884, to accept, for the second time, the presidency of the Agricultural and ^lechanical College, in Alabama. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by St. John's College, Maryland, in 1874. Dr. Broun, as a gentleman, citizen, soldier, scholar, and as a man in the broadest sense of the term, ranks among the foremost of his country and time. At any eijoch in oir history, he would have been an ornament to his kind. Especially to the youth and people of the South is lie endeared by numberless ties which it were needless and imj^ossible to enumerate. His example can well be adopted, by the young men of the country he has loved so well, as a model. To him do many of the best young men of the South owe the value of timely advice and assistance. With his admir- able qualifications to fill the various positions to which he has been called, it is in no sense sur- prising that he is honored among her best and brightest men. Dr. Broun was married, in 185'.i, to Miss Sallie, daughter of George and Mary (Coleman) Flem- ming, of Hanover County, Va. They have had seven children born to them, viz.: LeRoy, Mary, Maud, Bessie, Sallie, George and Katie. Our subject has been a member of the Episcopal Church for more than thirty years. NATHANIEL THOMAS LUPTON, A.M.,M.D., LL.D., Chair of Chemistry, Agricultural and Mechanical College, and State Chemist of Alabama, was born near Winchester, Va., December 19, 1830. His parents were Xathaniel and Elizabeth (Hodgson) Lupton, natives of Mrginia and of English descent. Dr. Lupton graduated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., in the year 1849. Chemistry has always been a favorite pursuit with him, and con- sequently, after graduation, he sought to gratify NORTHERN ALABAMA. 151 his wishes by stiulyiiig tlie subject under the great Bnnsen, at Heidelberg, (iermany. He spent two winters there in the ])roseciition of liis scientific studies, and upon liis return to this country was well (|uali(ied to deal with scientific subjects in the departments of chemistry and geology. He filled the chair of these sciences at the famous Kandolph-Macon College, Vii-ginia, from ISoli to 18.j8, and in the following year, up to and including 1871, a period of twelve years, discharged the functions of a similar position in the Southern University at Greensboro, Ala. He then accepted the presidency and professorship of chemistry at the State University of Alabama from 1871 to 1874, when he was called to the chair of chemistry at Vanderbilt U)iiversity, Nashville, Tenn., where he renuiined from 18 4 to 1885. In that year he was selected to fill the chair of Chemistry at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, where he has since remained. I'rofessor fAijiton has received ample and gratifying recognition from his contemporuries in the world of science, and has sustained many honorable relations towards different scientific bodies. He is at present State Chemist of Ala- bama ; has twice been Vice-President of the American Scientific Association, and presided over the section- of chemistry at the meetings held in the city of Nashville during his residence there, and at the meeting in Ann Arbor, ^Hch., in 1885 ; has been \'ice-I'resident of the American Chemical Society, and has taken an active and leading part in the deliberations of many other scientific bodies. During the war he was Chemist in the Ordnance Department of the Confederate (iovernmcnt, with headquarters at Selma. Thus do we see Professor Lupton, from the time he returned to America, ins]ured w-ith the instruc- tions received at the liands of the great Bunsen. taking an eminent stand in the scientific world, and in all these years, his career has been but a succession of triumphs and a recognition of his great ability. He has sustained the most honor- able relations to his fellow-num, and, wherever his lot had been cast, has always moved in the highest social spheres. While in the lecture room he has bestowed unlimited benefit upon the many young men who have been so fortunate as to receive his instruction.-;, his life has been spent in eminent usefulness, and to him are many of the young men of the South indebted for their practical knowl- edge of the sciences. Professor Lupton was married in 1854, to Miss Ella v., daughter of the l{ev. John and Hannah (Paine) Alleniong, of Frederick County, \'a. To them three children have been born, viz. : Kate, who is a regular graduate of the Vanderbilt Uni- versity, from which she received the degree of M. A. She afterwards went to Europe, where she pursued her studies for some time. The other children are Ella and Frank. Professor Lupton has been a member of the .Methodist Flpiscopal Church, South, for many years. He is now a prominent member of the church at .\uburn, superintendent of the Sab- bath-school, and on three different occasions, has been a lay delegate to the General Conference of the Southern Methodist Church. -*" PATRICK H. MELL, Jr., M.E.. Ph.D., Chair of Natural History and (ieology. Agricultural and Mechanical College, was born at Penfield, Ga., -May '24, 1850. His parents were Patrick II. and Lurene (Howard) Mell, natives of that State. The senior Mr. Mell, was connected with the University of (ieorgia, at Athens, from 1857 to 1888, and he died in the latter year. He was Chancellor of that institution from 1878 until the time of his death. He was well known through- out the country, and was distinguished as an educator. Patrick H. .Mell was educated at the University of Georgia, graduating in ]S71 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 187'-i, he graduated in min- ing and civil engineering, and subsequently received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He was State Chemist of Georgia from 1873 to 1877, and afterward actively engaged in mining engi- neering. In the latter calling he was employed until 1878, when he was elected to the chair of Natural History and (Jeology at the Alabama Agri- cultural and Mechanical College, which position he now fills. He is a member of the American In- stitute of Mining Engineers, with which he has been identified as a member since 187'.i, and is also Director of the Signal Service for tJie State of Alabama. Professor Mell was married in June. 1875, to Miss .\nnie. daugliter of William N. and Hebecca (Benedict) \\'hite. Mr. White was a noted hor- ticulturist and agriculturist, and was editor and 152 NORTHERN ALABAMA. proprietor of the Southern CuUivator up to the time of his death, in 1807. Prof. Mell is a member of the Baptist Churcli. JAMES S. NEWMAN, Professor of Agriculture of tlie Agricultural and Mechanical College, Auburn, was born in Orange County, Ya., in 18o<;. His parents were James and Mary (Scott) Newman, natives of the same county and State. The senior Mr. Newman was a farmer up to the time of his death, in 1886. James S. Newman attended the University of Virginia, where he completed the jDrescribed course in 1859. He taught school two years, and in 1801 enlisted as a private in the Confederate army. He was in active service until 1864, when, owing to failure of his health, he was discharged. He farmed for the first two years after leaving the a.imy; then, at Hancock, Ga., taught a jjrivate school and filanted until 1875. From here he accepted a position with the Department of Agri- culture of Georgia, and remained there until 1883, when he was elected Professor of Agricul- ture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege. He is also director of the Canebrake Agricul- tural Experiment Station of Alabama, at Union- town; Vice-President of the American Pomologi- cal Society, and State Statistical Agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, and was for three years President of the State Agri- cultural Society. Professor Newman enjoys great distinction on account of his great ijroficiency as an agriculturist. His reputation as a writer is co-extensive with the country on horticultural and agricultural sub- jects, and his articles are everywhere character- ized by ability. Whatever subject in his chosen field of thought he may select for discussion or elucidation, bears the impress of deep and careful thought, and his opinion on all matters pertaining to his profession is accepted as authority. Prof essor Newman was married, in 1863, to Miss Elberta, daughter of Elbert and Eliza Lewis, of Macon County, Ga. To this union five children have been born: CliSord L., Assistant Professor of Agriculture and Natural History in the Univer- sity of Tennessee, at Knoxville; Wilson H., As- sistant Agriculturist of the Experiment Station at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, this State; Mary S., Alba and Charles C. The Professor and family are communicants of the Episcopal Church. CHARLES C. TRACK, B.E., Chair of Eng- lisli and Latin, Agricultural and Mechanical College, Auburn, Ala., was born at Athens, this State, in 1860. His parents were Robert H. and Eliza (Coleman) Thach, natives of Alabama. The senior Mr. Thach was a practicing lawyer for many years at Athens, and died there in 1866. Charles C. Thach received his education at the State Agricultural, and Mechanical College, Au- burn, and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. Mr. Thach began teaching at Hopkinsville, Ky., in the High School, in 1877, where he re- mained one year, and in ls78 was elected to the position of assistant professor in the preparatory department of the Agricultural and Jlechanical College at Auburn. He was elected principal of that department in 1879. In the session of 1880-81 he attended lectures at the Johns Hop- kins University, Baltimore. The following year, 1881, he was chosen to fill the chair of Modern Languages in a college conducted under the aus- pices of the Presbyterian Church at Austin, Tex. In 188"2 he was elected Adjunct Professor of Lan- guages in the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege at Auburn; in 1884 he filled the chair of English and Modern Languages, and in 1886 was chosen to his present position. Professor Thach is one among the youngest of the Faculty of Auburn, and among the youngest educators in the State, and yet the mantle of learning has never fallen on more worthy shoulders. There are few men who possess the varied attain- ments of our subject, due not less to his natural capacity, the innate power of mind, than to earnest, jiersevering and well-directed industry in the acquisition of that priceless treasure, know- ledge. He justly ranks among the brilliant men of the State. Professor Thach was married in November, 1886, to Miss Nellie S.. daughter of Professor Otis D. Smith, of the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege, at Auburn. Their union has been blessed with one child, Elizabeth. The family are members of the ilethodist Epis- copal Church, South. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 153 [Professor Tluich is the author of tlie chapter on the Agricultural ami Mechanical College, tiiis volume, the only complete history of that insti- tution ever pnlilished. A perusal of it will repay the reader. — Kn.] JAMES H. LANE, was born in 18:i:J, in Mat- thews t'cumty, Va., anil his parents were Walter (i .and Mary A. II. (Barkwell) Lane, of that State. The elder Mr. Lane was a merchant at Matthews Court House, where he died in 18GS. .Tames H. Lane was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, and at the University of Vir- ginia. He graduated with honors at the former in 18.">4, and in the scientific course at the latter in 1857. His first appointment was on the hydro- graphic survey of York River. He was then ap- pointed assistant professor in the Virginia Mili- tary Institute, where he remained one year. From there, he went to Floriila as professor of Mathe- matics ami Instructor of Tactics in the State Sem- inary at Tallahasse, and after one year's connec- tion with that institution, was elected Professor of Natural Philosophy and Instructor of Tactics ill the North Carolina Military Institute, at Clhar- lotte. Professor Lane remained at tlie Xoith Carolina Military Institute until 1861, when he entered the Confederate service as Adjutant of the first Camp of Instruction at llaleigh. From major, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the First North Carolina Volunteers, and later, colonel of the Twenty-eighth North Carolina Tioojis. In 18(;2 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier- general. (ieiieral Lane saw service at the fiont in the Army of Northern Virginia through the entire war, and won that distinction which is only accorded to the Ijrave. chivalrous, intrepid, sagacious and heroic. He was, in the best acceptation of the word, a mar- tial spirit, and all over the South there are many who will bear testimony to his faithful record as a soldier and oHicer. He was not one who ordered his men where he himself was not willing to go ; and those that served under him, jjlace him among the •'truest of the true," and the " bravest of the brave," He, therefore, is one of the soldiers who retired to the peaceful walks of life with a military record upon which there is no stigma and whose escutcheon is untarnished. In peace he has proved himself as worthy as he did in war. After the surrender (ieneral Lane taught pri- vate schools in North Carolina and Richmond, Va., a short time, and for eight years thereafter acted in the dual capacity of Professor of Natural Philosophy and Commandant of Cadets at the Ag- ricultural and JMechanieal College at Blacksburg, Va. In 1880 taught a private school in Wilming- ton, N. C. ; in the following year was called to the chair of Mathematics in the School of Mines and Metallurgy of the State University of Missouri; in the succeeding year was called to Richmond, Va., to take charge of the Virginia Mining and Manufacturing Company, where, their property being destroyed by fire before their works were put in operation, he had no opportunity of showing his fitness for that department of active industrial life. He was too well known, how- ever, to be left long without offers, and it was reserved for the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege of this State to exhibit its knowledge of the fitness of men by selecting him to fill the chair of Eiigineeriug and Drawing, and to discharge the duties of Commandant of the Corps of Cadets of that institution. He still fills the position of pro- fessor of Civil Engineering and Drawing and the board of trustees have had no occasion to regret their choice. He has cast in his lot with the peo])le of Alabama, and has shown his determin- ation to identify himself with this State by pur- chasing property in the town of Auburn. General Lane was married in 18G9 to Miss Charlotte, daughter of Benjamin L. and Jane E. Meade, of \'irginia, and to them four daughters have been born, viz.: Lidie II., Mary B., KateM., and Lottie E. The family are communicants of the Episcopal Church. XVI. MARION COUNTY. Po^julation: White, 8,841; colored, 5'i3. Area, 810 square miles. Woodland, all. Coal measures, 660 square miles. Gravelly aud pine hills, 150 square miles. Acres.— In cotton (apiDroximately), 7,260; in corn, 21,835; in -oats, 2,321; in wheat, 3,925: iu tobacco, 44; iu sugar-cane, 15; in sweet potatoes, 47r. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 3,240. County Seat — Hamilton; population, 225; on Buttahatchee Kiver, 45 miles from Aberdeen, Miss. Newspaper published at County Seat — Mario)i Herald. Postoffices in the Count}' — Allen's Factory, Allhill, Barnesville, Bexar, Bull Mountain, Can- dle, Chalk Bluff, Gold Mine, Hackleburgh, Haleys, Hall's ilills, HamiUon, Hodges, Ireland Hill, Pearce's Mills, Pikeville, Shottsville, Texas, Thorn Hill, Ur, Young. • Marion County was created in 1818, and was named for Gen. Francis Marion, the celebrated South Carolina soldier, whose brave deeds and the sore privations he endured during the Revo- lutionary War endeared his memory to every American heart. This county forms a portion of the Warrior coal field, and as such it is rapidly coming into prominence. [See part I. this vol- ume.] XVII. RANDOLPH COUNTY. Population: White, 13,155; colored, 3,420 Area, 610 square miles ; Woodland all. All meta- morphic. Acres — In cotton (approximately). 23, ITT ; in corn, 29,595 ; in oats, 4,850 ; in wheat, 10,156 ; in tobacco, 44 ; in sweet potatoes, 433. Approximate number of bales of cotton, T,500. County Seat — Wedowee ; population 300. lias fine water jiower and mineral deposits. Newspaper published at County Seat — Observer (Republican). Postoffices in the County — Almond, Blake's Ferry, Christiana, Corn House, Dingier, Gaj', Graham, Handley, Haywood, High Shoals, La- mar, Level Road, Louina, Miluer, Omaha. Roan- oke, Rock Dale, Rock Mills, Sewell, Wedowee, Wehadkee, Wild wood. The county of Randolph was created in 1832, and named for the famous John Randolph, of Vir- ginia. Its natural advantages are, in a great many respects, superior. Its climate salubrious, lands good, tone of society elevated, and health unsurpassed. During the census of 1880 the census official reudered in his report at Washington only to have it returned to him for correction, the Washington official declaring the death rate to be too small to be true. But the original rsport was returned to Washington unchanged, as no error had been com- mitted. 154 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 155 The soils of Kaiidolph are of average fertility, and on account of deep clay subsoil and abundant rainfall, are quite reliable for agricultural pur- jioses. Xot more tlian one-fourth of the mag- nificent forests of Randolph have been cleared, and the fine pine timber here will one day be a feature in itself. The lands are easily worked and j)roduee remarkably well. All the crops that are congenial to the southern climate grow their best here. Fruit-gnnving is gradually expanding, and bids fair ere long to rival all other industries. There has been only one failure of the peach crop in thirty-five years, and the apple crop never fails. The farmers produce nearly everything they use at home, and are, as a general tiling, well- to-do. Like other counties, the absence of railroad transportation has prevented much attention be- ing given to the minerals of Randolph, but this want is now being supplied. The Kast Alabama Railway has been extended to Roanoke, in the southern portion of the county, and will soon be completed to Anniston, running right through the centre of the county, and will open up some of the finest timber and mineral lands in the State. In gold, copper, mica, tin, graphite, kaolin and iron, Randolph is doubtless one of the richest counties in the State. All these abound in the northern portion of the county. The kaolin is of .5,450; in oats, 4,603; in wheat, 9,840; in tobacco, 50; in sweet potatoes, 230. Api3roximate number of bales of cotton, (i,500. County Seat — Ashville; population '^50; on the Alabama & Great Southern Railroad, forty miles northeast of Birmingham, Ala. Newspaper published in the county — Soulhern JEgis (Democratic). Postottices in the County — Alluxla, Ashville, Beaver Valley, Branchville, Broken Arrow, Cald- well, Cook's Springs, Cornelia, Cropwell, Eason- ville, Eden, Fairview, Greensport, Kelley's Creek, Lochthree, Moody, Odenville, Poe, Riverside, Round Pond, Seddon, Slate, Springville, Steel's Depot, Trout Creek, Whitney, Wolf Creek. St. Clair County was founded in 1818. Quite a number of aborigines i-oamed over its soil, or still occupied its territory then, and among the old records are found deeds of land from the Indians to the white settlers. While the county's resources are just coming into notice, its histori- cal character, coincident with that of the State of whose territory it forms a part, has been known ever since its creation. It is the only county in the State, mentioned by name in Chambers' Uni- versal Knowledge — it is, the OTily one that has furnished more than one Governor for its own and other States. Its soil is memorable as a part of the Jack- son campaign in the War of 1813 against the Muscogees, which aboriginal commune were the natives of this county at that time. There are still trace of the encampments and defenses of the mili- tary, as well as many evidences of Indian settle- ments in various parts of the county. Besides the Indian town Litafutchee, once situated not far from where the county seat is now located, is a relic of the ancient empire of the Red Man's dominion here, preserved on the pages of our State History. The northwestern boundary of the county i3 Blount Mountain, a spur of the great Sand Ridge. In the same corner is Chandler's Mountain. The table lands of those elevations are noted for fruit culture, and no better conditions exist for sheep raising. Besides the level plateaus are submissive to agricultural life, and in this jiarticular, owing to the fertility of the soil, are very productive, and can be made very profitable. For health and en- joyment no more desirable locations can be found in the South. The mineral character of those mountains is well known — coal, lime and iron are found in jDlaces, with excellent rock, while timber is abundant. But the principal coal beds of the county lie south in the neighborhood of Broken Arrow, and along the East & West Railroad. Here, owing to the peculiar formation of hills and small valleys, between the ridges the soil is even more diversified than in the northern jiart of the county — the country around is broken, undulating, and the ridges narrower and less steep than further north. The surface features are just such as one would naturally expect in a section of mineral character- istics varied by agricultural pursuits. While the recent industrial progress has not concentrated at one point or centre in the county, so to speak, the effect of general material devel- opment all over its territory has been very marked in the improved condition of society, and is visi- ble in the numerous thriving and enterprising^ communities sjjringing up in all directions. New, Broken Arrow, Fairview, Ragland, River Side, Sed- den. Pell City etc., are familiar names in the news- pajjers. The lumber business along the railroads, rivers and large creeks has increased to immense proportions, within a few months. Six years ago only one railroad passed through the county near its western boundary. Now, be- sides the Alabama Great Southern — a link of the great trunk line of the Cincinnati Southern — thft 156 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 157 Georgia Pacific traverses oiif territory south, and the East & West pierces the very heart of the coal and iron region,, giving life and vigor to hun- dreds of before latent industrial operations. Other railroads are projected into the county and still others are in view. St. Clair lies directly on the line of the great railroad belt through the mineral and timber regions of the south to the (iulf. aiul on the East «& AVest line from the Atlantic coast to the pojjulous Mississippi regions of teeming wealth and progress. It is probable that both Anniston and Birmingham will be compelled to draw from the natural resources of tliis county. Unfortunately for the latter city, neither of the great lines of railroad mentioned pass through the sections of our territory that would give it the greatest advantages by opening roads to the great wealth stored away in our hills and forests. Hut it will be seen that the advantages to travel and shipping afforded by transportation lines in this county are almost equal, if not entirely so, to the best in the State, and they are sure in a short time to be unsurpassed in the South. (Juitc recently several mining and improvenient companies have been incorporated to ojierate in in this county. These have invested largely in mineral lands, and sooner or later a greater indus- trial era will begin here. Active operations, in this respect, are secured by the amount of capital already scattered among the land owners of the county. The agricultural ijrospects of the county are in a flattering condition, and the farmers have not been so generally in a better financial condition, since the war. The products of the soil are cotton, Irish and sweet potatoes, with all the cereals of a temperate climate. Potatoes of both kinds grow abundantly. The sorghum crop seldom fails, and the syrup manufactured from this cane is much superior usually to the grades of syrups shipped to our local markets. This county will produce a finer te.xture of cotton and more to the acre on an average, with care and attention to cultivation, than can be produced elsewhere in the State. Corn can be raised in greater abundance than in the corn growing States with proi)er cultivation — the soil seems, adapted naturally to this cereal growth, if planted early, but the crop is too generally left to take care of itself when it needs most attention. Lands are remarkably cheap, but this will not be long the case. Grasses and clover grow lu.\ur- iantlv. though little or no cu+tivation is given to such crops, the soil naturally producing grasses enough for home purjjoses without culture. The dew, black and huckle-berries grow abundantly, while the raspberries and strawberries can be cul- tivated to great advantage. The local educational advantages can hardly be e.xcelled anywhere, as the people are paying great attention at this time to literary and business cul- ture. Every community has its local school, and new school buildings are going up where they are needed. The same progress is making in religious and moral culture. In this respect St. Clair's his- tory of late has been remarkable, from the new places where public works have been going on. The county is almost free from criminals or law violators. Even the new-comers, if wild and reck- less wheu they come here, soon adapt themselves to the quiet, peaceful habits of the old element of our society. The valuation of taxable property in St. Clair county for the year 1887 is S:^, 403, 230, as shown by the abstract of assessment filed with the audi- tor. JAMES T. GREENE. Probate Judge of St. Clair County, was born in 1841). The father of the subject of our sketch came to this country from Ireland at an early period, and was one of the first settlers in St. Clair County. His mother, Elizabeth Thoniasoii, was a native of Alabama. Her brother, John I. Thomason, was Probate Judge of St. Clair County from 184i; to 185U. He was a public-spirited man, and took part in the incorporation of the Alabama Great Southern Kailroad Company. The early educational advantages of our subject were very meager, and his literary attainments are entirely the results of his own efforts. He at- tended the country schools at his home, and, after leaving them, commenced reading law in 1871, at Ashville. He was admitted to the bar in 187"2, and during the same year was appointed Register in Chancery, in which position he remained until 1880. In 1S7(), when Judge L. F. Box, now Circuit Judge, wa.s State Superintendent of Education, James T. Greene was chief clerk in his office at Montgomery throughout two terms, and while ho'ding such position he, of course, became widely known in this State. .lames T. (ireene was elected in 18s4 to rejire- 158 NORTHERN ALABAMA. sent St. Clair County in the Legislature, and while | in that body was Chairman of the Committee on Education. Prior to this time Judge Greene had been identified with his party in some of its most important councils, and from IST-i to 1870 was Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of St. Clair County. In 1887 he was appointed Probate Judge, and is still holding that jiosition. Among other interesting facts before us, in the life of our subject may be mentioned his intense love of country at a time in life when we are not expected to show much appreciation of such things. He enlisted in the Confederate Army at the youth- ful age of thirteen years, and while the spirit was willing, the strength was not proportioned to its demands, and on account of ill health he was com- pelled to leave the service. Judge Greene is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, and was for some time W. M. of the lodge at Ashville. In 1873, our subject was married to Miss Mag- gie Ashley, of Ashville. To this union have been born five children, one of whom was recently taken from them by a dreadful accident. The following touching notices of the sad occurrence is copied from recent publications: "IX MEMORIAM." OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOII OF HEAVEN. Postelle Greene, born August 27th, 188"^, died in the afternoon of March 14, 1888, from the effects of burns received while popping corn with her little sisters few hours before. Her sufferings, at first intense, were soon greatly relieved, and her last hours were calm and peaceful. The untold anguish of the fond parents was shared by the community, and all that tender, loving hands could do was done. The deceased was an unusually attractive child. From infancy the jjet of the household, the darling of all, her bright, winsome beauty and artless loving manner, found their way like a sunbeam, to every heart. She retained entire consciousness until the sad end came, speak- ing brightly and pleasantly to her many grief- stricken friends who crowded around her bedside, calling them by name, aud manifesting a courage and bravery wonderful to see. Her bright little spirit passed away from this to a heavenly home, where, safe in " the Lord Christ's bosom," she awaits the coming of papa, mamma, brother and sisters at the '•beautiful gates ajar" — not alone, but hand in hand with a cherub brother gone be- fore. Just before her death she exclaimed, "Everything looks golden." Perchance a gleam from the golden splendor "beyond" lit up her passage across the dark stream. ■' I am trying, but can not see you, papa," were the last words she uttered. Then sweetly she fell asleep; as sweetly and calmly as the flower at evening closes its petals at the kiss of the dew- drop. " She is not dead, but sleepelb."' Our associations with our little friend, now a '• little white angel in Heaven," will ever be a bright spot in memory's waste. Lovingly wo will cherish them, and indulge the fond hojie that we may "Meet beyond the river, Where the surges cease to roll." In the hour of deep affliction consolations are not of this world — the balm for the wound must come from a higher source. May "a glimmer of light in the darkness " penetrate the deep anguish of the distressed household." It is with most profound sorrow we learned this morning of the death of little Postelle, daughter Judge and Jlrs. Jas. T. Greene, of Ashville, St. Clair County, Ala., Little Postelle, the idolized and beloved child, was six years old, and as beauti- ful as the fairest dream, and endowed with so lovely a disposition that, though in the very per- fection of health, the impress of heaven seemed placed upon her angelic face. While playing around the fire with her sisters, her mother left the room for a few moments and returned to find her child mangled by the flames. She died in a short time and has " Gone to the land of life and love, She whom we loved, Risen to mansions fair and bright, Dwelling ia God's eternal sight, She whom we held so dear — so dear." Judge and Mrs. Greene have a large circle of friends in Montgomery and over the State, who sympathize with them in their hour of sorrow, and rejoice in the one comforting thought that their darling is safe in the hands of Jesus " wait- ing and watching at the beautiful gate" her loved ones to meet." JOHN W. INZER, Attorney-at-law, Ashville, was born in Gwinnett County, Ga., in 1834, and lived there until he had nearly attained his NORTHERN ALABAMA. 159 majority. lie attended the commoTi schools of his iieigliborhood, and "Gwinnett Labor School," near Lawrenceville, Ga., where he received tlie greater part of his education. lie read hiw with .Morgan & Walker, of Talhi- doga, was admitted to the bar in that city in -May, 1S5."), and at Ashville began the practice of his profession. He was appointed Probate Judge of St. Chiir County in 18.")9, and held the office eleven months. ,Iudge Inzer was the youngest member of the Secession Convention of 18(!1, and voted against the ordinance; but after it was passed he signed and supported it to the best of his ability. After the war. Governor Parsons appoiiited him Probate Judge of his county. He held the office only for a short time, when he resigned. In I8Ij6 he was elected to that office and held it until removed by the reconstruction. In 1874 he was elected to the State Senate, and remained in that body two years. In August, 187.5, he was elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention, in the labors of which he took an active part. Since that time he has been engaged at the law — his practice extend- ing throughout the State. He has never been an office-seeker nor-jilace hunter, and has not been a candidate since 18;. 5. When the war broke out Judge Inzer was in feeble health: nevertheless he entered the army in 18111 as a member of the Xinth Alabama Hattal- lion of Infantry. In 18i;"2 he was transferred to the Eighteenth Infantry, and in February, 18G3, the Xinth IJattallion being reorganized, he again became a member of that command, held the rank of captain one week, and was promoted to the office of major of the battalion, Itush Jones being its colonel. In July the X^inth Bat- tallion became tiie Fifty-eighth Alabama Regi- ment, and Inzer was made lieutemmt-colonel. During the war he was engaged in many battles, among which were Sliiloh, Corinth, Chickamauga, Lookout .Mountain, Missionary Kidge and others. He was eajnured on Xovember 2.5, 1863, at Mis- sionary Kidge and carried to Johnson's Island, where he was kept in confinement until the close of the war. Until he was captured, his regiment never went into battle without him. The Judge's grandfather, John Inzer, was an Englishman, and a soldier in the Colonial Army during the Revolutionary War. (He afterward settled in .Maryland, and later on emigrated to North Carolina). His maternal grandfather, John Reid, was an Irishman ; he too was a Revolutionary soldier. Our subject's father, Rev. Henry White Inzer, a minister of the Baptist Church, was a native of Xorth Carolina; removed thence to Georgia when a young man, and was there married to Miss Phebe II. Reid. He served as a captain in the Florida War, and in 18.54 immi- grated to Alabama, settling in St. Clair County, where he died April 25, 1881. His mother was born and raised in Xorth Carolina. She is now living with Judge Inzer, her only son. Judge Inzer was married in ISii'i, to Miss Sallie E. Pope, of Columbiana, a daughter of Capt. Wiley H. Pope, late of the Twenty-fifth Alabama Regiment, and afterward Clerk of the Circuit Court of Shelby County. Judge and Mrs. Inzer have three children, two daughters and one son. The family are members of the Baptist Church, and the Judge is a Royal Arch ^lason and Past Master of the Lodge. -♦- -^- JOHN B. BASS, M. D., was born in Jefferson County, Ala., January T, 184.5, and was educated partly at Ruliama (now East Lake). His first medical course was at the L'niversity of Virginia, in 1809 where he graduated in medicil jurispru- dence, and afterward took a ditiloma as JI. D. at AVashington University, Baltimore, February 'li, 1870. He came to Ashville in 1870, began the practice of his profession, and has remained here until the present time. Di-. Bass' grand father, Burrell Bass, was of Eng- lish descent. He served in the Revolutionary War, migrated from X'orth Carolina to Alabama about 1813, and settled near where now stands the city of Birmingham when Alabama was yet a Territory. The Doctor's maternal grandparents were of Irish lineage, and came from South Carolina to Tennessee, and thence to Alabama the same year. Dr. Bass' great-grandfather Bass was in the Revolutionary War. The Doctor's father, Andrew Bass, lived on a farm near Birmingham until the time of his death, in 1854. He served in the Confederate Army as a member of Company B, Second Engineer Corps, and operated with Gen. Leonidas Polk, anil later in the Army of the Tennessee. 160 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Dr. Bass was married in February, 1875, to Miss Annie E. Gunn, of Georgia. Tliey have but one child, Hershel W. Bass. The Doctor lias eschewed politics, devotes his time exclusively to his profession, and has held every official position in the Saint Clair County Medical Society. He stands at the head of the profession in his county. XIX. SHELBY COUNTY. Population : White, l-.^SOO ; colored, 4,500. Area, 780 square miles. Woodland, all. Valley lands and coal fields, 780 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 17,900; in corn, 26,170; in oats, 4,765; in wheat, (;,2!i5; in tobacco, 10; in sweet potatoes, 350. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 0,750. County Seat — Columbiana; population, 600; lo- cated 73 miles northeast of Selma, Ala., on East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. Newspaper published at County Seat — Shelby Chronicle (Democrat). At Calera Shelbtj Sentinel, Democrat, and AUiniice-Netrs. Postoffices in the County — Aldrich, Bridgeton, Calera, Cobb, Cohanbiana, Ilarpersville, Helena, Highland, Hot Spur, Knight, Lewis, Longview, Montevallo, Pelham, Shelby Iron Works, Siluria, Spradley, Sterrett, Weldon, Wilsonville. The county of Shelby was constituted in the year 1819. It received its name from Governor Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky. It is highly favored in location, wealth and mineral wealth. It is justly ranked one of the best counties of the State. Of late, rapid strides have been made in Shelby County in the development of her mineral wealth. Large interests of many kinds have been established and are in a thriving condition. The general surface of the county is hilly and rough — features inseparable from a mineral district. Still, there are many valuable lands for agricultural purposes to be found. The north- western portion of the county is formed by the coal measures of the famous Cahaba coal field; the central portion by those of the Coosa coal field. Lying between these two natural divisions is the Valley of the Coosa. Alo7ig these coal measures is to be found the usual rugged surface, and the soil is of a sandy character, and not very fertile. The Coosa Valley, which extends the distance of thirty miles through the county, is based upon mountain limestone. It varies in width from two to eight miles. The lower valley lands, formed of lime, clay, and vegetable matter, are' quite fertile; the higher lands, of gravel and clay, are of inferior character. The lands in the valleys are deemed altogether as good as those found in the famous Valley of the Tennessee. Corn and cotton grow luxuriantly here, and the yield, under favorable circumstances, is immense. In addition to these Shelby produces oats, wheat, rye, barley, and indeed all crops grown in this latitude. Some portions of the valley are peculiarly adapted to stock raising. This is especially true of the region lying west of the valley alread_y described. On the western boundary of the county is the Cahaba Valley, the width of which varies as does that of the Coosa on the east. The characteristics of the soil are the same as in the valley first men- tioned — fertile in the bottoms, and thin and gravelly upon the high lands. The conditions in many j)ortions of Shelby are quite favorable to the production of fruit, and orchard culture is receiving, by degrees, more atten- tion. The prevailing timbers are hickory, oak, chest- nut, mulberry and pine. Along the numerous valleys that intersect each other throughout the county is to be found the short-leaf pine; while the knolls and the uj^lands are crowned with the long-leaf pine. During the greater part of the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 161 year water prevails in great abundanfc in every section of the county. The Coosa river forms tlic eastern bonntlary, an ■ •^^^>-»— ^- HENRY WILSON, Attorney-at-law, was born at Afontevallo, Shelby County, this State, Febru- ary 21, 1850. He was reared and educated at Montevallo. He studied law there for a time with B. B. Lewis (late president of the University of Alabama), and afterward read law at Columbiana with R. W. Cobb (afterward Governor of the State), and was admitted to the bar in April, 1871. He was apjDointed Solicitor of Chilton County in that year, and remained such until 1873, when he removed to Montevallo. He has practiced law throughout Shelby and adjoining counties from 1873 until the j^resent time, 1888. Judge A. A. Sterrett and Gov. R. W. Cobb were his partners until the death of Judge Sterrett, after which time the firm name became Cobb & Wilson, including Mr. Benjamin F. Wilson, brother of NORTHERN ALABAMA. 163 Henry. They had office sat Montevallo ajid Coliinibiana. This firm was dissolved in 1884, and a new jiartnership etfocted with K. P. Lyman, of Montevallo. In 1887. anotlier change included J. L. Peters, of Pibb County, and the firm name became Peters, Wilson & Lyman. In 1880 and 1881 .Mr. Wilson represented Shelby County in the Legislature and was on some important com- mittees, inchtding the Committee on Judiciary and the Committee on Commerce and Common Carriers. Mr. Wilson is a son of Dr. Joiin B. Wilson, of .ATontevallo, and his grandfather, Benjamin Wil- son, was one of the pioneers of that village, long known as Wilson's Hill. The Wilsons came from Tennessee and Mrginia. Dr. John B. Wilson was a iiroininent physician of ilontevallo, where he practiced medicine for forty or fifty years. He died in 1881, about sev- enty years old. He was married twice, first to a Mrs. Watrous, who died. He was next married to Miss Amanda Bandy, a sister of Mrs. Judge Leepei'. By the second marriage there were five children who grew to maturity: three sons and two daughters, viz. : Henry Wilson, Ben- jamin F.. John B., Ella (who married J. L. Peters), and Leta (who married .Foe Slaton). The subject of this sketch was married in 18?:! to Miss Augusta Allen, of Montevallo. He is a Mason. Knight of Honor and member of the I. II. < >. V. ^Ir. Wilson stands in Shelby County as a man of liigh character. He is well known in the State as a fine lawyer, a man of influence, and an ad- herent of Democratic principles. WILLIAM BRADFORD BROWNE, Attorney- at-law, was Ijoi'ii in Piiiladclpliia in 1853. Heob lained his education at .Sjiring Hill College, near -Mobile, and at the University of the South, Sewa- nee. Tenn. He began the study of law in 1871 at Montevallo, with Paul H. Lewis, and was admitted to the bar in 1873, at Columbiana, where he has been practicing law ever since. His father, William P. Browne, was born in \'ermont, in 1804, raised there, and ]>racticed law for about seven years. He took a contract, at an early day, to 'construct a canal at New Orleans, and, after several years, completed it and received a fair profit for his work. He then went to Mobile, whence he was sent to the Legislature in 1840. While at Tuscaloosa, he met Miss Margaret Stevens, whom he afterward married. In 1848, he moved to Shelby County, opened the Monte- vallo Coal Mines, and operated them until his death in 1809. He was a man of great energy and indomitable will. Of his seven children four are still living. One of them, Cecil ^Browne, of 'I'alladega, represents Talladega and Clay Counties in the State Senate. A daughter, Mrs. Jfargaret Collins, is an actress, and is well known to theatre going jieople as Flor- ence Elmore. She has attained enviable distinc- tion as a star. William B. Browne was married, in 1885, to Miss Lizzie, daughter of Samuel B. Roper, of Columbiana. Mr. Browne and wife are members of the Pres- byterian Church. -<4»- WILDES S. DU BOSE, M. D., was born in Soiitii Carolina in IS'!;, and spent his youth at Columbia. He attended ilount Zion College, at Winnsboro, that State, three years, and spent the same length of time at the State LTniversity located at Columbia. He graduated in the class- ical course from the University of Louisiana, in New Orleans, and after studying elsewhere, graduated finally at the Atlanta Medical Col- lege, in 18.")8. He practiced medicine at Decatur, Ga., until IS'il, when he entered the Confed- erate Army as captain of the Anthony ( ireys. This company was captured at Koanoke Island, Feb- ruary (i, 180"2. Dr. Dn Bose afterward served as surgeon of the Eleventh Confederate Cavalry, and othei' commands. After the war he practiced medicine in South Carolina until 1872, when he came to Columbiana. He has been Chairman of the Board of Censors of Shelby County almost continuously since its organization, and is now Senior Counselor of the State -Medical Association. Kev. Julius J. Du Bose, our subject's father, was a minister of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, and a man of great ability. He died in 1843. His wife, Margaret, was a daugh- ter of (.'ol. Wm. Thomjison, of .Savannah, who was a contractor, and built the railroad from Charleston to Augusta, said to be the first rail- road begun in the United States. In this venture 164 NORTHERN ALABAMA. lie performed a large part of the work with the labor of his own slaves. Dr. Du Bose was married in 1859 to Miss Anna, daughter of James M. Calhoun, of Atlanta. Mr. Calhoun was a lawyer of distinction in Georgia, and a man of great personal pojiularity. He was elected Mayor of Atlanta eleven consecutive times, and held that office when the city was surrendered to Sherman. He was a member of the Georgia Senate for many years, and wielded a great influ- ence in regulating the banking Interests of that State. He was a cousin of John C. Calhoun, of national fame. Dr. Du Bose has seven children living. One of them, Clarence C, is editor and proprietor of the Slielby Chronicle; another, Gordon, is an attorney- at-law in Columbiana. The Doctor is a Freema.son, and he and his fam- ily are members of the Presbyterian Church. AMOS MERRILL ELLIOTT, merchant, was born about ten miles south of Columbiana, March 2-.', J 829; attended such sciiools as the vicinity afforded, and was early initiated into the mysteries of merchandising. In 1855, he began selling goods on his own account at Harpersviile, this county; in 1857, i-emoved his business to Colum- biana, and, in 1858, purchased another store in Elliottsville. He continued this business until 1801, when he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court. In ]8r2, he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature; in 1874, again he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, which position he filled, in the aggregate, twenty-five years, and finally declined a re-election. After this he re- established his mercantile business in Columbiana, and has continued it to the present time. His father, Amos M. Elliott, a Tennesseean by birth, came to Alabama when quite young; his grandfather, of same name, came from Virginia to Tennessee in eai'ly times, and to Alabama about 1810. He settled first in the Cahaba Valley, and afterward about ten miles south of Columbiana. A. M. Elliott's mother was Sarah (Hale) Elliott, from Tennessee. Chas. B. Eilfott, the elder brother, was sheriff of the county soon after the war. and is now County Treasurer. He also w;as a merchant for many years. Lindsey F. Elliott, the other brother, has served the county as a deputy sheriff. Both these brothers were in the army. The sister, Rachel M., is now the widow of Dr. Thomas P. Lawrence, who was a member of the Legislature in 185'2-.3. He was an eminent physi- cian and an eloquent orator. He was elected on the Whig ticket. Amos M. Elliott was married in 1847 to Miss Mary Bragg, a daughter of Captain Chas. Bragg, - of South Carolina. She died in September, 1800. They had six children, of whom three lived to be grown, and two, James and Charles, are still living. Both are farmers. Amos M. Elliott was married again in Sejitem- ber, 1801, to Mrs. Sophronia Holdman, daughter of James Hampton, of St. Clair County, Ala. They had two children, Emma, now wife of R. L. Cater, of Columbiana, and Amos M., who is in his father's store. Mr. Elliott is a Methodist, a Royal .\rch Mason, and has been Master of Shelby Lodge N"o. 140 for a number of years. He is also Past Chancellor of Knights of Pythias of Shelby Lodge, No. 50. Mr. Ellioit has been Justice of the Peace many vears. and has been Countv Administrator. HKLBNA. Helexa is a mining and manufacturing town in Shelby County, situated on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company's main line from Louisville to New Orleans, and within five miles of the half-way point between the above two cities, also about a half-mile from the half-way point between Birmingham and Calera. Tiie town is mostly in the valley that skirts the Cahaba coal fields along the full length of its eastern boundary, and is near the middle of town- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 165 ship 20, S. range 3 west of the Iluntsville Meri- dian. The population within a radius of one and one half miles from the railroad depot is about 1,7(10. Hiifk Creek, a rocky, swift-flowing stream passes almost in a direct line across the valley and through tlietown to theCahalia Uiver, joining the river about a mile northwest of the town. The town contains three churches built by the white people of the place, and the two churclies (Meth- odist and Baptist) built by tlie colored inhabi- tants. The oldest church in tiie place is Harmony C'huVch (Presbyterian), the Rev. J. C. JIale being l)ast()r ; by a special law of the State, all liquors are forbid being sold within five miles of this church. The Baptist denomination have a good substan- tial church on Main street, of which the Rev. H. C. Taul is pastor. The Methodists liave a handsome new cluirch about a block Avest of the Baptist Church, with the Rev. 1'. B. McKane as pastor. The above three churches have a fair attendance, are out of debt, and increasing in strength, The town has a good, large well-lighted frame school-house, owned by the towns-people, in which the rising generation are ably taught by Professor Moses Crittenden, assisted by Miss Fanny Hale; the at- etndance is large, some of the pupils coming three or four miles to this school. The people of Helena are mostly engaged in coal mining and iron manufacturing. The Eureka Comjiany, of Oxmoor, employ about 1")0 men in mining and coking coal for their furnaces at O.xmoor and outside markets. .Said company are now enlarging their woiks here, building new coke ovens, and opening up new mines, contemplating a large output of coal and coke in the future. Mr. R. Fell, Sr., his son-in-law. the Hon. R. W. Cobb, and three sons, Charles, Richard and Albert Fell, forming the Central Iron Works Company, have a well-fiitted up rolling-mill here for the manufacture of merchant bar iron and cut nails. The oldest member of the firm, Mr. R. Fell, Sr., has had over fifty years' experience in the manufacture of wrought iron. The Fell Brothers have an excellent water-power grist-mill and cotton-gin within a few yards of the railroad depot here. The Cahaba Comi)any are contemjilating the opening up of the ('ahal>a Mines. 'J"he company have almost entire control of the basin of the Cahaba seam, which can be worked from three different slopes. The altitude of Helena is 400 feet above sea level, and is located in what is generally known as Possum \'alley, a valley remarkable for health- iness along its whole length of forty or fifty miles. Said valley is nearly solely drained by the heads of small tributaries of the Cahaba River, having no large streams in it except Buck Creek, at Helena, and the east prong of Cahaba River cross- ing it at right angles. The valley, consequently, is entirely free from malaria. Doctor Tucker, a practicing physician at Hel- ena for the sixteen years just past, states that he has never known a single case of disease from malarious causes that originated at Helena. The gap in Conglomerate Ridge on the west side, and the gap in New Hope Mountain on the east side of the town, keep the air currents con- stantly moving from one gap to the other across the town. This is the secret of Helena's health- fulness. Helena is mostly located on the geological for- mation usually classified as " Quebec" or Knox shales and Knox sandstones and dolomites, but pai-tly on the Cahaba coal measures, the two being divided by an immense ujithrow or "fault" of the measures of over a mile in vertical displace- ment at the railroad culvert, :ii)n yards west of the railroad depot. The measures are all thrown up, to an angle of from twenty-eight degrees to vertical, thus giving a greater variety of si)ring waters than any other place along the lines of railroads, at least for a distance of twenty miles from Birmingham. There are seven springs, each affording entirely different water from the rest, within a radius of .■)0n yards from the railroad depot. One of them the "Alum Spring" has already become famous for its benefits in certain chronic diseases; quanti- ties of it have been shijiped to parties continu- ing its use after returning home. A railroad from Heleiui to Blocton is exi)ected to be built shortly, and said road will be the best coal road in the State, giving Helena with its abun- dance of water, first-class manufacturing advant- ages. The scenery around Helena is reniarkabh' picturesque; that on the west side, where the creek and railroad go through the gap in con- glomerate ri tember 2, 1823, at Ashville, where he has always lived, and is now the oldest inhabitant. John W. Cobb was by occupation a merchant and farmer, and served as a member of the State Legislature, several terms. He was a colonel in the Florida War, and died in 1845. Bishop Cobb, of the Epis- copal Church, is related to Governor Cobb, and it is believed that all the Cobbsin the country des- cended from the one stock, which originated in Wales Governor Cobb was married in 1850 to iliss ^largaret, daughter of W. S. McClurg, of Knox- ville, Tenn. By this marriage Governor Cobb has two living children — John W. Cobb, a farmer near Blount Springs, and Dora, now the wife of Richard Pell, Jr., of the Central Iron Works and Helena Mills, ilrs. Margaret Cobb died in 1865. On the last day of December, 1866, Governor Cobb was niiirried to Miss Frances Pell, daughter of Richard Pell, Sr., a practical and successful iron master, and by this marriage has two child- ren — Edith and Richard. Governor Cobb and family are Baptists: the Gov- ernor is a Knight Templar and has taken the 32d degree in the Scottish Rite. He has been Master of Blue Lodge at every place in which he has lived, and was Grand Master of the State for two terms. He is the only man who was ever Grand Master and Governor at the same time. The Governor is an eloquent speaker : a man of great deliber- ation and forethought i social in his disposition ; liberal in his means, and attracts hosts of friends. XX. TALLADEGA COUNTY. Population: White, 12,319; colored, UMl. Area — 7()(i square miles. Woodland, all. All Coosa \'alley and woodland. Acres — In cotton, approximately, l>"i,S5(»; in corn, 4(i,:57(i; in oats, 9,280; in wheat, i:{,2:50: in rye, 140; in tobacco, 30; in sweet potatoes, .335. Approximate number bales of cotton — 12,000. County Seat — Talladega: poj>ulation, 3.000. on East Tennessee, Virginia it Georgia, AiinistoTi & Atlantic, Talladega & Coosa Valley Railroads. Newspapers published at County Seat — Our Mountain Home, Re/xnii'i- and Wotcli Tower, both Democratic. Postoffices ill llic County — Alpine, Bledsoe, Chandler Springs. Childersburgh, Cyprian, Esta lioga. Eureka, Fayetteville, Ironaton, Jenifer, Kentuck, Kyniulga, Lincoln. McElderry, McFall, Munford, Pcckerwood, Reiidalia, IJenfroe, Silver liun, Smelley, Sycamore, TaUadeya. Turner, Wal- do. White Cloud. Talladega County was established December 18, 1832, the territory being a ))artof the last Muscogee cession. The original limits were retained until Clay County was formed in 1860. Its name is said to be derived from the Muscogee words. Teka, meaning border, and Talla, meaning town. This county has long numbered among its res- idents some of the most distinguished men of Ala- bama, prominent among whom may be mentioned as follows: .Judge Shortridge. Judge John White, Mr. Joab Lawler, Mr. Lewis \\ . Ijiiwler, Mr. Alexander IJowie, Mr. Felix (J. McConiiell, the gifted Mr. Frank \\'. Howdon, Mr. .Jacob T. Bran- ford, Mr. John J. Woodward, ilr. Jabez L. M. Curry, Ex-CJov. Lewis E. Parsons, Mr. Marcus II. Cruikshank. Gen. James B. Martin, Mr. .John T. Iletlin, Mr. John Henderson, Mr. X. D. Johns, Mr. A. R. Biircliiy. Mr. M. C. Slaughter, Mr. Joseph D. McCaiiii. Mr. Andrew Cunningham, Mr. Alexander White. MoUie E. Jloore, a native of this county, but now of Texas, has acquired a just colclnity as a poet. Some of her verses are among the rarest gems of Southern literature. Talladega County, situated along the southern tier of the northeastern counties of the State, and having within its borders the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is favored in cli- mate, location, soil, accessibility and varied re- sources. The mean tempei'ature is Sn degrees. The aver- age annual rainfall is 50 inches. The soil and climate are peculiarly adapted to all kinds of fruits and vegetables, besides growing, fairly well, corn, wiieat, oats, rye, cotton, clover and the grasses. While many varieties of soil exist, the prevailing color is red clay; and as there is an abundance of lime in the soil, they respond readily to manuring. The county offers prominent inducements to stock- men, fruit growers, truckers, saw-mill men, and iron workers. Lanils are to be had from five to thirty five dollars per acre, owing to location and fertility; but there are within the county thousands of acres of timbered lands which can be had for the value of the timber, and which will inevitably bring wealth when used for vineyards, orchards and truck. The location of the county favors such a system of farming, as it is environed by growing cities which must needs be fed: and it has, within its borders, great quantities of timber, of limestone and marble, of gold and of iron, besides being contiguous to limitless beds of coal. These var- ious resources are beginning to be developed, and on every hand are being evidenced thrift, vitality and wealth. Iron furnaces are located at .Jenifer and Ironaton. and others are contemplated at Talladega. Sylacauga and Childersburg. Large saw-mills are in operation at Berneys. Cymulgee, Childersburg. Nottingham. Lincoln and l{enfroe. The county isaccessible. having on the west the Coosa River, and being traversed by the East Tennessee. Virginia & Georgia, the Georgia Pa- cific, the Anniston & Atlantic, the Coosa Valley 1C7 168 NORTHERN ALABAMA. and the Columbus Western Railroads. The county has three summer resorts, viz. : Talladega, Chand- ler and Shocco Springs, which, from their health- ful waters and favorable locality, add much to the inducements of the county. The people are intelligent, hospitable and largely church-going. The county is well supplied with churches and schools, and the roads are fast being put in good condition. There is no debt on the county. The taxable values are §4,.50O,U0O, and rate of taxation one per cent. The valuation of taxable ^jroperty in Talladega County for the year 1887 is $4,722,308, as shown by the abstract assessment filed in the office of the State Auditor. [See Talladega, this volume.] XXI. TUSCALOOSA COUNTY. Population: White, 15,216; colored, 9,711. Area, square miles, 1,390. Woodland, all. (h-av- elly hills and long-leaf pines, 675. Coal measures 965 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 33,773; in corn, 38,638; in oats, 6,974; in wheat, 2,689; in rye, 130; in sugar-cane, 35; in tobacco, 20; in sweet potatoes, 919. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 12,000. County Seat — Tuscaloosa; population, 2,500; located on Black Warrior River at the head of steamboat navigation, and on Alabama Great Southern Railroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Gazette, Timesa.ni\ Alabama University — the former Dem- ocratic and the latter educational. Postoffices in the County — Binion's Creek, Clement's Depot, Coaling, Cottondale, Dudley, Fosters, Hagler, Hayes, Hybernia, Hickman's, Hull, Humphrey, .Jena, Leled Lane, McConnell's, Marcumville, Moore's Bridge, New Lexington, Northport, Odenheim, Olmsted Station, Ore- gonia, Reuben, Romulus, Samantha, Sijisey Turn- pike, Skelton, Sylvan, Tannehill, Tuscaloosa, Tyner, Waldo, White Cloud. Tuscaloosa County was established February 7, 1818. Its original northern boundary was that of the jjresent counties of Marion and Winston. It was named for the river Tuscaloosa, wliieii Hows through it. Tiie name is from tiie Choctaw words, tusca, warrior, loosa, black, hence Black- warrior. The northern and northeastern por- tions of the county contains the finest long-leaf, yellow pine forests in the State. Poplar, ash, white oak, hickory and beech, and others of the forest trees, some of which are marvelous in size. Coal, iron ore and fire clays abound throughout the entire county. In addition to the Queen and Crescent, several railroads have been projected and surveyed, and a large force is now constructing one, the Tusca- loosa Northern, which crosses tlie Warrior nine miles above the city, and will pass the great coal and timber belt north and northeast of the city, and cpnnect with the Georgia Pacific at Ada, and thence with the great St. Louis & Memphis sys- tems, giving access to the great West. The Gulf & Chicago has been surveyed from Florence to Mobile, developing a remarkably low grade con- sidering the rough country through which the northern division passes. The Mobile & Tusca- loosa has also been surveyed, which will be ex- tended to Natchez via Jackson. In addition is another important railroad, the Great Northwes- tern, which is to be built from Montgomery through the Cahaba and Warrior coal-fields, cia Tuscaloosa to Sheffield. The Tuscaloosa Cotton Mills, with about 200 looms, started six years ago with 140,000 capital, and has paid out over §(250,000 to employes. The varn mills of L. P. Gander run about 3,000 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 169 spindles, and have doubled tlieir output within the last year. These are located on the river front, and are models of success. The Cottondule Mills have been equally successful. In addition to these, four or five extensive brickyards are in successful operation. XXll. TALLAPOOSA COUNTY. J'opulation : White, KJ, 108 : colored, 7,283. Area, 810 square miles. Woodland, all. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 41,200 ; in corn, -11,450 ; in oats, 9,100 ; in wheat, 14, .572 ; in tobacco, 21 ; in sugar-cane, 41 ; in sweet pota- toes, 408. Approximate number of bales of cot- ton, 14,921. County Seat — Dadeville ; pojuilatiou, 1,200; on the Columbus & Western Railroad, thirty miles from Opelika, and forty-five miles northeast of -Montgomery. Xeuspaper published at County Scat — Talla- pmixa yew Era, Democratic. Postollices in the County — Alexander City, Bul- ger's Mills, Huttston, Camp Hill, Cowpens. Dade- ville, Daviston, Dudleyville, Emuckfaw, Fish Pond, Foslieeton, Goldville, llackneyville. Island Home, Jackson's Gap, Mary, Matilda. Melton's Mill, Xew Site, Sturdevant, Susanna, Thaddeus. Tallapoosa County lies in the east center of the State, and was created in 1832 out of a portion of the last cession of the Creek Indians. The word Tallapoosa, means ''cat town,"' and was first ap- plied to the Tallapoosa KiveV, from wliidi the county derived the name. The soils of this county may be divided into two prominent or predominating classes, the red and the gray, both of which are based on a subsoil, of a reddish or yellowish color, but in addition to these soils, which are found mostly on uplands, there are a large number of bottoms along the banks of the Tallapoosa River, and the many creeks tributary to that stream. These bottom lands are the most productive lands of the county, and com- prise a considerable proportion of the county's area. The yield of this class of lands will compare favorably with the yield of the best laiuls in the State, and, take it year in and year out, crops plant- ed on them yield with regularity and certainty. The reddish lands of the uplands are specially adapted to the ])roduction of small grain, and fair crops of wheat and oats are produced on them. All the soils of the county are used in the pro- duction of cotton, though that article is culti- vated more extensively on the loamy lands of the southern portion. The yield of corn and wheat on the red lands will compare favorably with tlie best results obtained elsewhere in the State, while in the production of the latter, Tallapoosa ranks with the leading counties of Alabama. The forests are heavily timbered with white, red and Spani.7;f;-, Kansas, Leith, Loss Creek, Luckey, Manasco, Marietta, jMiddleton, Xaiivoo. Patton, South Lowell, Wil- mington, York, Walker was cieated December 'J", 18'2-1. ami the territory taken from Tuscaloosa and Marion. Tiie northern portion was set apart to form Win- ston in IS.iO. It lies soutii of Winston, west of Blount, northwest of Jefferson, north of Tusca- 172 NORTHERN ALABAMA. loosa, east of Marion and north and east of Faj- ette. It was nanaed for the Hon. John W. Walker, of Madison. It is attracting remarkable attention at this time by reason of its immense resources of coal. From present indications. Walker is the richest of all the counties of the State in its mineral deposits. It seems to be almost an unbroken coal-field from limit to limit. The coal is of a hard bituminous character, with but a small percentage of ash. Various geological reports point to the existence of five or six valuable seams, which lie in successive layers, one above the other. There are various outcroppings, indicating, from the surface, seams of superior coal which vary in thickness from two to eight feet. Remoteness of transportation has forbidden the establishment of mines in the past, but the construction of the Georgia Pacific is awakening new life, and the early comjjletion of the Sheffield & Birmingham and the Memphis & Birmingliam Railroads, running from Kansas City to the Atlantic, will greatly enhance the value of Walker County lauds. The surface of the county is broken, the hills in some places being steep and high. Like the adjoining county of Winston, the soils of Walker are not remarkable for their fertility, it being in nowise an agricultural county, but adapted almost solely to manufactures. Still, it is not without fertile lands. Snug farms are found in many portions of it, and many of its inhabi- tants have subsisted upon the productions of their farms since, and even before, the formation of their county. About one-third of the area of AValker is cov- ered with a sandy soil. This land is admirably suited to the production of fruit, which grows here in great abundance, especially such as the hardy fruits, jjears, apples, peaches, plums, etc. Fruit trees have been standing in many orchards for many years, and have rarely failed of an annual yield. In other sections of Walker, especially in those lying adjacent to main streams, there are many thrifty farms, upon which grow, with great readiness, corn, cotton and wheat. This is also true of what are locally termed " the bench lands'' — the plateau regions of the county. Here are many first-class farms, which are easily . tilled, and whose cultivation is most remunera- tive. Stock-raising is receiving some attention in the county, and the experiments have been most gratifying. The county is highly favored with streams, whose rapid and perjietual flow mark them for future usefulness in the manufactures. Chief among these are Mulberry Fork, which flows through the southeast and joins Locust Fork in the south; the Black Water, SijDsey Fork and Lost Creeks. These are supplied by numerous tributaries, which drain the county from every quarter. As fine timber forests skirt these sti'eams as are found in the northern portions of the State. These embrace the different varieties of oak, post, red and Sjjan- ish, together with beech, poplar, the gums, and short-leaf pine. In the neighborhood of South Lowell, about six miles from Jasper, the county seat, there is a section of long-leaf pine forest, covering an area of about ten miles broad and twenty-five miles long. This superb tract of tim- ber is penetrated by the Black Water River, the banks of which are lined by thriving manufac- tories, such as corn, wheat and lumljer mills and cotton gins. The passage of the Georgia Pacific through the county has awakened much interest, and when that shall have been intersected by the j\IobiIe & Birmingham Railroad, which will run the entire length of the State, from Mobile to Florence, the advantages of the county will be immense. Through these great channels of trade her rich minerals of coal and iron will seek outlets to the world beyond. These minerals are considered j^ractically inexhaustible. In the interior of the basin in Walker County is the Jagger's coal bed, which is said to be one of exceeding thickness. The coal development of Walker County is only in its infancy. The following collieries have been opened and are now in operation on the main line of the Georgia Pacific Railroad : The Tennessee & ilobile Coal Co. ; Virginia & Alabama Mining and Manufacturing Co. ; Wolf Creek Coal Co.; O'Brien Coal Co.; Black Diamond Coal Co.; Ed. Donaldson Co. and the Norvil Coal Co. The capacity of these mines at present is 1,500 tons daily, and if a supply of cars could be bad they would increase their output to 2,500 tons of coal daily. The quality of this coal can not be excelled for domestic and steam purposes. The seam of coal averages three feet and eight inches, covering a territory of 20,000 acres of this seam of coal, to say nothing of three other seams of coal on the same property, adapted for coking and steam purposes. The Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham NORTHERN ALABAMA. 173 Koad is now comi)leted from Memphis to Uir- iniiigliam, passing through Waliaid up capital of ^••200,000, and two hotels. Its population is now about l,.")(Ki, and is daily increasing. It is an active and bust- tling plare, full of hope and enterju'ise. The value of town property has advanced ten-fold in the last eighteen months. The city of Jasper was iiteorporated December 22, 1887, and George H. Guttery was its first may- or; W. S. Foster its first secretary and tax assessor; B. M. Bradford, marshal and collector: and J. B. Shields, W. C. Rosamond, I). L. Stovall, and W. G. Gravlee its first Board of Councilmen. The streets are all laid off, and some grading done, a corporation building, including a court- room and council chamber and prison, has been erected, and the entire town has been platted, ex- tending over one square mile. The Sheffield & Birmingham Coal, Iron & Railway Company are now building at this place 250 coke ovens and the largest coal bins in the State. The trestle over which the railroad track runs will be about fifty feet high, and the coal will be placed in the bins, taken thence and placed in the ovens without be- ing handled from the time it leaves the mine. The intention of the comjiany is to increase the num- ber of ovens to 1,000, and when completed will have a capacity of 1,000 tons of coke per diem. The city of Jasper is not yet old enough to have made much history, but for the unparalleled ad- vantages offered by it and Walker County, the reader is referred to the history of the county, and the •' Toi)ography, Geology and Natural Re- sources '' of Xortherii Alabama, so elegantly and elaborately set forth in this volume. Among the prominent members of the legal profession of Jasper nniy be named: A\'. B. Appling. E. W. 174 NORTHERA' ALABAMA. Coleman, C. J. L. Cunniugham, S. M. Gunter, S. Lacy and John McQueen, while the other pro- fessions are well represented. Among the oldest families iu JasjDer is the Miisgrove family, in fact they were the first set- lers of the town. Dr. E. G. Musgrove moved to that section of Alabama befoi'e the State was ad- mitted into the Union, and, immediately after the formation of the county of Meeker, he laid out the town of Jasper and gave the entire town to the county, conditioned upon locating the county seat there, which was accepted, and a court-house and jail was immediately built. This family has been continuous residents of Jasper. First after the death of Dr. Musgrove came his oldest son, Capt. P. A. Musgrove, who was born and reared in the place and was amongst the first citizens of the town and county, having filled various jiosi- tions of trust and honor in the county and served one term in the State Legislature. At the begin- ing of the war he went into service as captain of OomiDany L, Twenty-eighth Alabama Regiment. He was wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro, and after his recovery went into service as major of a cavalry conijiany which he raised at home during his illness. Following in the direct line of the decendants comes L. B. and J. C. Musgrove, his only sons, who are still living at the old home- stead, and are both closely identified with the building of the city, and also in the development of the coal and iron interests of the count}-. The Jasi^er Land Company was organized on December 19, 1S87, by the election of the follow- ing Board of Directors: G-orge H. Nettleler, President of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad; James P. Johnston, President of the Alabama Xational Bank; J. G. Chamberlain, (General Manager of the Sheffield & Birmingham Coal, Iron, and Rail- road Company; A. G. Francis, of the Corona Coal & Coke Company; J. C. Musgrove, W. L. Wallis, R. H. Elliot, Chief Engineer of Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad; P. A. Gamble and S. B. Musgrove. The following were elected the active officials of the Company: Joseph P. Johnston, President; L. B. Mus- grove, Vice-President and General Manager; J. M. Burrell, Secretary, and William S. Foster, Treasurer. This company owns about 4,000 acres of land in and ai-ound the city of Jasper, and is closely identified with both the citizens and railroads running into that place. It is quite liberal in its efforts to build up a flourishing city in shape of donations, and also in loaning money to insti- tutions to locate here. The greater portions of the most valuable property of the city is in the possession of the Land Company, and it is sjiaring neither means nor money to develop this fast-grow- ing city. The Company has succeeded in locating several of the largest and best industries in the State at Jasper, and with their efforts bent on this line, as it is at the present time, will in a very few years, put Jasper among the flourishing cities in North Alabama. WALKER COUNTY BANK was organized in Xovenibei', 1887, with llinton F,. Carr, president, John B. Hughes, cashier, and a cajjital stock of $20,000, all paid in. The business has been satis- factory from the first, and has doubled itself the last two months. The deposits are larger than the managers had any reason to exjiect, and the business is conducted on a strictly legitimate plan. The managers will change it into a national bank November 1, 1888. HiNTON EvEKETT Cark, president of the bank, was born May 23, 1856, in Coffeeville, Miss. His father, Louis F. Carr, moved from Coffeeville to Memphis, Tenn., in the same year, and the sub- ject of our sketch resided there until fourteen years ago. In 1870 he went to Arkansas with his father, studied law there and was admitted to the bar at Helena. He practiced law in Helena and edited The Patriot, a daily and weekly paper. He came to Jasper April 1, 1877, and soon after associated himself in the practice of law with Hon. A. E. Stratton, which partnership continues. Mr. Carr was married in Helena in 1880 to Miss Emma, daughter of Joseph Delaney. They have two daughters. Mr. Carr's father, Louis P. Carr, was a native of North Carolina, and a graduate of the Univer- sity of that State. His wife, Lucy, was a daugh- ter of Alfred Turner, one of the most extensive slave owners of Mississippi. He died about the close of the war. H. E. Carr has fought his own way in the world and has been entirely the architect of his own fortune, since the fortune he would have inher- ited was lost on account of the war. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 175 John Bell Hl'uhes, son of Daniel and Char- lotte (Bell) Hughes, was born in Tuscaloosa County, Ala., February t|, 1S.'38. He was roared on a farm, attended the country schools and the academy at Tiiylorville, spent some years in a tannery, and at the breaking out of the war, became a member of Company (J, Eleventh Alabama Kegiment. In the fall of 18G1 he was elected lieutenant, and in 18G-2 was promoted to a captaincy. lie was in the first battle of Manassas, all the important battles of the army of Xorthern Virginia, and was at Appomattox at the surrender. He was once captured and imprisoned two montlis at Washing- ton and Fort Delaware; was wounded at the bat- tles of Sharpesburg and Gettysburg. Mr. Hughes was appointed clerk of the circuit court at Jasper in 1881. At the organization of the Walker County Bank, he was made its cashier, and still holds that office. His father, Daniel Hughes, was a native of Tennessee, and his mother was born in Georgia. The Hughes family was originally from near Charleston. S. C. JOHN B. SHIELDS. Probate Judge of Walker County, .son of i>r. Milton and Priscilla J, (Brad- son) Shields, was born at Marshall's Ferry, in Granger County, Tenn., xVugust "^5, 1840. He attended an old field school in that neighborhood until about fifteen years of age, when he went to Greensville College, East Tennessee, and pursued his studies there for two years. He next studied medicine for two or three years, and upon the breaking out of the war became first lieutenant of Company I, Fifty-ninth Regiment Tennessee Confederate Infantry. This regiment was cap- tured at the siege of Vicksburg, but was paroled at once, and thereafter mounted as cavalry under Gen. J. C. Vaughan (since the war a Congress- man). His brigade made a camjiaign into Mary- land in 1864, under (ien. Early. After the raid into -Maryland they went into East Tennessee and Western Virginia. He then commanded the com- pany as captain. He was engaged at the battle of Grand (iulf, siege of Vicksburg, Baker's Creek, Piedmont, Morristown, Bull's Gap, Monocacy .Junction, ild., Winchester and many others. After Lee'.s surrender he went into North Caro- lina and joined Joseph F]. Johnson's army, but surreiulered at Athens, Ga. After the war he went into mercantile business at Newnan, Ga., and remained there eighteen months. During tiiis time he married and returned to his native place in East Tennessee in 18er-mill.) In 1873 he moved to Walker County, re-fitted Long's Mill, on Black AVater Creek, and became a mer- chant and miller there. After three years he sold out that interest to B. M. Long, moved to South Lowell, and ran a steam saw and planing-mill, which he conducted individually for two years. He still owns an interest there as a member of the firm of Shields & Cartter. His old homestead in Tennessee ha.s been in the possession of his family for si.xty years, and it has been very recently discovered that the place con-- tains a ledge of solid marble of many different colors, beautifully variegated, and more than 300 feet thick. The Judge's residence is properly at South Lowell, which was once a flourishing village (six miles from Jasper), but is now neglected and dead. Judge Shields was elected to the Legislature in 1878 on the Greenback ticket, by a majority of twenty-eight votes, but was counted out. In 1884 he was again elected to the Legislature on an Inde- pendent ticket, and served in 1884 and 1885. In the year 188G he was elected Probate Judge of Walker County, and is still the incumbent of that office. Judge Shields was married September IK, 18IJG, in Carrollton, Carroll County, (ia., to iliss Carrie E., youngest daughter of Judge John Long, who was a native of Tennessee, and served as judge, legislator, and in other offices, for more than twenty-five years. He settled in Carroll County in 182G, when the county was full of Indians, and reared a family of four sons and tiiree daughters. One of these sons, B. M. Long, of Cordova, is one of the most prominent and infiuential men in Walker County, and pays more taxes than any other man in the county. Five children have been born in Judge Shield's 176 NORTHERN ALABAMA. family, all of whom are girls. Their names are : Kaniiie P., Lily Lou (now dead), Carrie May, J. Maud, and Johnnie B. The Judge is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Presbyterian Church. His wife is a Methodist. Milton Shields, the Judge's father, was a son of James Shields, and of Irish descent. He was born in Greene County, Tenn., in 1804, and died in Sevier County, Tenn., December 20, 1866. He owned pajjer-mills at Marshall's Ferry and at Middlebrook, near Knoxville, and was interested in an iron furnace. He made the writing and printing paper that was used throughout this country fifty or sixty years ago, and shipped it here down the Tennessee Eiver. This paper was at first made by hand, and one sheet moulded at a time. FRANKLIN ASBURY GAMBLE, Director of the Jasjjer Land Company, is a son of John E. and Jane (Mills) Gamble, and was born September 23, 1830, in Shelby County, this State, near where Calera now stands. His father moved to Walker with his family and goods in a wagon, in 1837. His early advantages were poor, and his education was principally obtained by hard study at home. He left the farm in 1855, and clerked for two years. He was elected Judge of the Probate Court in May, 1859, and March, 1862, was captain of Company F, Twenty-eighth Alabama Kegiment Infantry, and served with that regiment in Bragg "s camjjaign through Kentucky. The hardshijjs of the army proved too severe for him. His health failed, and he was sent home in the latter part of that year, and saw no more service in the army. From 1865 until 1868 he served as County Ad- ministrator, and directed the management of a farm. In 1869, he embarked in mercantile busi- ness, and followed that for four years. In 1874 he took charge of the Mountain Eagle, a weekly paj)er at Jasper, and edited it until July, 1877, when the Eagle office and other buildings, includ- ing the Walker County Court-House were burned. Soon after this. Judge Gamble was apjiointed Judge of the Probate Court by Gov. George S. Houston, an old and warm personal friend of his, and he retained that office by election until No- vember, 1886. During his term of office, he dealt to some extent in real estate, and has con- tinued that business. He was one of the origina- tors of, and a stock-holder and director in, the Jasper Land Company, and has had much to do with its management from its inception. He also owns and controls large and extensive mining in- terest in Walker County. Judge Gamble was first married in Kovember, 1857, to Jliss Jerusha A., daughter of Rev. James H. Freeman, who was a minister of the Methodist Ej)iscoi3al Church, South, for about sixty-two years, and was extensively known in Walker, Fay- ette and Tuscaloosa Counties. By this marriage, the Judge had five children born to him, of whom but one (Lelia J.), is now living. Mrs. Gamble died in April, 1874, and the Judge was again mar- ried in April, 1877, to Miss Mary A., daughter of Judge Thomas Owen, one of the jDioneers of Tus- caloosa. By the second marriage the Judge had a family of five, of whom two sons only are living: Frank A. and Foster K. The .Judge's father was a minister of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South, for many years, and held some county offices. He was a soldier under General Jackson in the War of 1812, and died in 186;). Judge Gamble's two grandfathers, Robert Gamble and James Mills, were both soldiers in the Revolutionary War, and Robert Gamble was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. He came from Ii-e- land at an early date. James Mills was one of the few survivors of the Continental Army at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was bayoneted in that conflict by a British soldier, knocked into a deep ditch by the blow of the bayonet against the buckle of his sword belt, and left there for dead, as he feigned to be, but his life was saved by the buckle, and when opportunity ofEered he made his escape. About thirty years after this he met Joseph Crawford, a comrade, messmate and most intimate friend before the battle of Bunker Hill; each one of them having long been confident that the other had been killed in that battle. WILLIAM CAPERS ROSAMOND, Druggist, Jasper, Ala., son of Nathaniel J. and Amy (Pow- ell) Rosamond, was born in Lawrence District, S. C, in 1833, worked on a farm until he was eighteen, when he began the study of medicine at Northport, Ala., and was licensed to practice at Tuscaloosa, this State. He came to Walker County in 1856, and soon attained an extensive practice here. In 1862 he joined the Confederate Army, serving as a private; was appointed Assist- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 177 ant-Surgeon in General Fiirgeson's brigade, and saw service in Tennessee, Louisiana. Mississippi and Alabama. He was at Shiloh and Vicksburg, and served under Bragg and Johnston in Ten- nessee. In l!S(J() Dr. Rosamond returned to .Tasper. and l)racticed medicine until 187.S. when he retired from practice on account of his health. He was soon afterward elected to the State Senate from Walker, Jefferson and Shelby Counties. Since that time he has been engaged in nierchaiidising, and is now a druggist. Dr. JJosamond was first married, in 18.")6, to Miss Medorah F., daughter of Kev. Jas. H. Free- man, a poi)ular Methodist preacher then living at Tuscaloosa. There were six children born to this union, viz.: Edward P.. Willie L., Ethbert C, Franklin K., Hester May and Amy Lee. Mrs. Rosamond died November 1.5, 1882, and the Doc- tor contracted his second marriage December li, 18S.'3, with Miss Henrietta, daughter of David F. Dinsmore, of Laudersville. Mr. Dinsniore was a prominent citizen, and held several county offices in Lawrence County. N'athaniel J. Rosamond, Dr. Rosamond's father, was of French Huguenot origin. His ancestors came to Virginia about the time of the Edict of Nantes (1.598). The Doctor's mother. Amy Pow- ell, was born in Kentucky, and came to South Carolina with her parents, and was married there. Dr. Rosamond is a member of the .Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the Masonic fraternitv. • - O '-S^^--^ GEORGE HOUSTON GUTTERY, Mayor of the City of Jasper, son of Robert and Sarah (Will- iams) Guttery, v.'as born in Walker County, Ala., in 1818. He was reared on a farm: educated at Jasper and llollygrove, and farmed until the breaking out of the war, when he went into the army as a member of Company A, Fifty-si.xth Alabama Regiment, with Capt. A. J. Guttery, his brother, commanding the company. He served in Forrest's command in Mississippi, and with John- son's army from Dalton to Atlanta, and in all the battles in which it participated until, and imlud- mg, Peach Tree Creek. In 18(i'i, Mr. Guttery came from llollygrove to Jasper, commenced business as a merchant, and conducted that business until 1874, when he was elected sherifT of Walker County, and served as such until 1877. In the following year he com- menced merchandising again, and continued it until April 20, 1SS8. The city of Jasper was in- corporated December 22, 1887, and Jlr. Guttery was elected its first major, a position he still holds. He was married in 187li, to Miss Alice C, daughter of W. L. Stanley, one of the pioneers of Jasper and treasurer of AValker County before and during the war, and has three children. Claude, Pearl and John McQueen. Mr. Guttery's father, Robert (iuttery, was a pioneer preacher of the Primitive Baptist Church, and among the first settlers of Walker County. He came here from Tennessee with his father, William Guttery, at an early day. -^^ JOHN B. LOLLAR, son of John A. and Susan (Gillin) Lollar, was born November 30, 1835, near Jasper, Ala., and was reared on a farm at Lost Creek. He went into the Confederate Army as third lieutenant in Company G, Thirteenth Ala- bama Regiment, Cavalry (Colonel Hewlitt.) This regiment was consolidated with the First Ala- bama, which was commanded by Colonel Boyle, of .Mobile, and for about a year did garrison duty at Columbus, j\Iiss. It afterward served at other places in that State. After the war Mr. Lollar made corn and cotton for some years on Lost Creek. In 1877 he was elected sheriff of Walker County, and ta.\ collector in 1880. In 1885 he was appointed postmaster at Jasper, and in 1880 was elected Clerk of the Cir- cuit Court, which position he has held until the present time. Mr. Lollar was married in 1857 to Miss Eliza- beth, daughter of Isaac Taylor, a prominent citi- zen of Poplar Cove, N. Ala., and who died in Texas. Jlr. Lollar has eight living children, viz : William R., Fannie E., Meta J., Queen Victoria, JIargaret E., Isaac II., Andrew J. and Joe. John A. Lollar (John B.'s father) came to Walker County at its first settlement, and his father. Hugh Lollar, named the town of Jasper. Hugh Lollar, Jr., John B.'s oldest brother, was sheriff of Walker County before the war, and is said to have been one of the best oflicers the county ever had. He was killed at the battle of Murfreesboro. XXV. CHAMBERS COUNTY. Population: White, 11,36-1; colored, 12,076. Area, 610 square miles. Woodland, all. All metamorphie. Acres — ^-In cotton (approximately), TO.iiS-l; in corn, 49, .300; in oats, 9,258; in wheat. 11,520; in tobacco, 39; in sugar-cane, 211; in sweet potatoes, 1,038. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 20,100. County Seat — La Fayette; population, 2,000; located on East Alabama Railroad, eighteen miles from Opelika, and eighty-four miles from Mont- gomery. Newspapers published at County Seat — Cham- ber.s County Democrat and Sun, both Democratic. Postoffices in the County — Bloomingdale, Bos- worth, Buffalo, Chapel Hill, Cusseta, Fredonia, Happy Land, Hickory Flat, La Faijette, Lystra, Milltown, Oakbowery, Osanippa, Sandy Creek, Sharon, Stroud, Tuckersburgh. Chambers County lies in tlie eastern portion of the State, and joins the State of Georgia, from which a portion of it is separated by the Coosa River. The county was created in 1832 from a por- tion of the lands ceded by the Muscogees at the treaty of Cusseta. It was named in honor of Hon. Henry Chambers, of Madison County, who represented Alabama in the Senate of the United States at the time of his death in 1826. The area of the county is about 610 square miles. The surface is rolling and hilly, with light soils, having a good sub-soil, though in the county there is a considerable area of bottom lands ren- dered very fertile by alluvial deposits. The land generally is red, mulatto or gray, the first of of which is specially adapted to the culture of grain. The gray lands are best adapted to the production of cotton, while the mulatto lands produce all crops abundantly. This county is well wooded, and it contains fine forests of red, white, post and Spanish oaks, which grow luxuriantly on the red hill lands. Long- leaf pine is found in limited quantities, but not sufficiently to be enumerated as one of the factors of material wealth. Chambers County is well watered, being touched on the southeastern quarter by the Chattahoochee River, while the Tallapoosa cuts off its northwest- ern corner. Through the center of the county there runs from the northeast to the southeast a ridge, which is the watershed that divides the waters that flow into the Chattahoochee and those that flow into the Tallapoosa. The body of the county is watered by several creeks, tributary to one or the other of these rivers, the principal of which are: Weehadkee, Oclickee, Osanippa, He- olethloochee, Cohelsaneia and several other minor streams. The climate of the county is excellent and es- pecially adaptable for fruit culture, which prom- ises to become an important industry. At j^resent it ranks as one of the first counties of the State in the i>roduction of peaches. The mineral resources of the county have never been developed, but there is very little doubt that it contains many articles highly valuable. It adjoins the counties of Talla- poosa and Randolph, in both of which gold is known to exist, and by many it is thought that this precious metal will one day be discovered in Chambers. Granite has been found here, as well as a superior article of graphite, both of which might be developed with great jirofit. This county is possessed of ample water-power, which is being utilized for running grist- and saw- mills and gins. There are two cotton factories on the Chattahoochee, partly in Chambers and partly in Georgia. The Western Railroad of Alabama passes through the southern corner of the county, and the East Alabama & Cincinnati Railroad extends to the central portion from Opelika, terminating at Buffalo Wallow. La Fayette is a jjleasant little city. It is located in the central portion of the county, and enjoys an excellent trade. It possesess all the advantages of rail communication, and is the seat of several edu- 178 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 179 cational institutions of ii high order. The inhab- itants are noted for their refinement and liospital- ity, and no city of its size iu the State can present more attractions as a home. Churches of the leading Christian denomina- tions are found here; The other towns, worthy of mention, are Fre- donia, Miljtown and Cussetta. At the hitter place the celebrated treaty was concluded with theMus- cogees in 18;3'^, whereby that tribe surrendered a large body of land, the last of its possessions in Alabama, to the General Government. COTTON BELT. AUTAUGA COUNTY. Population: AVhite, 4,760; colored, 8,105. Area, 660 square miles. Woodland, 060 square miles. Gravelly hills, .560 square miles. Calcareous lands, 100 squai'e miles. Acres — In cotton 30,130; in corn, 20,750; in oats, 2,010; in wheat, 940; in rye, 110; in rice, 37; in sugar-cane, 62; in sweet potatoes, 500. Approximate number of Ijales of cotton, 7,700. County Seat — Prattville: population, 1,625; lo- cated fifteen miles northwest of Montgomery. Newspapers published at County Seat — Progress and Southern Signal (both Democratic). Postoffiees in the County — Autaugaville, Bill- ingsley, Bozeman, Independence, Jones Switch, Kingston, Milton, :\rulberry, Prattville, States- ville, Vine Hill, Wads-.voil!' " Prior to 1818 this was a part of the territory of the county of Montgomery. In the fall of that year the Legislature at St. Stephens, assembled, by statutory enactment, created the new county of Autauga. It was named for Autauga Creek, a stream rising among the northern hills of the county, and meandering in a southerly direction, empties into the Alabama river. The exact significance of the word "Autauga " is not now known. By some it is claimed to have meant "dumpling," an article of food, indicating a land of plenty. By others it is thought to mean " Clear Water. " The latter is pro1)ably more nearly correct. The county is bounded on the east, west and north by Elmore, Dallas and Chilton Counties, respectively, and on the south by the Alabama Eiver. Skirting the entire southern line of the county, the Alabama River affords ample trans- portation for its products to Montgomery, Selma and Mobile. The Louisville & Nashville Eailroad crosses the northeast corner of the county, and the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia traverses nearly the whole of its western boundary. There are also several other railways contemplated and surveyed, whose routes will penetrate the interior section of the county, and give outlet to the in- exhaustible minerals of Bibb, Tuscaloosa, and Walker Counties, and to the magnificent lumber of Autauga and Chilton. The soils of Autauga County are of every vari- ety. They are the isinglass lands and rich allu- vial river bottoms, occasional jiatches of prairie, sandj' surfaces with clay subsoil, rich hummock, and elevated red or brown table-lands. The sur- face of the county isgenerally broken and undulat- ing, and yet in that portion bordering on the river, and even in the northern section where the hills predominate, there are extensive level plateaus well adapted to the purpose of agriculture. In- deed some of the most attractive farms to be found in Central Alabama maybe seen in this county. In the ujjper or northern section the soil is compara- tively thin, and yet in many of the valleys and creek bottoms there is considerable productiveness, and the jieople often make good crops of the cereals, besides cotton, and are happy and content. It is in northern Autauga that the tall yellow pine, which is of so much commercial value, tow- ers to j)erfection; and acres of this valued growth remains to-day in virgin ignorance of the sound of the woodman'.-* axe or saw. In the lower or southern section there are endless kinds of trees, the black, red and white post oaks, hickory. 180 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 181 including shell bark, chestnut, walnut, persimmon, ash, sassafras, dogwood, poplar, gum, oodar, and cypress, with pines interspersed. The jirocuring of cypress and other valuable timbers for ship- ment is becoming an industry. The woods and forests at seasonable periods abound in fruits and (lowers. Tiiere the wild grape and muscadine nourish in the greatest profusion, and when spring comes and touches nature with her verdure tlie most fragrant and lovely Howcrs, from the expan- sive magnolia to the modest violet, regale the senses and laden the air with the sweetest perfume. The soils of Autauga, under judicious cultiva- tion respond in abundant crops of cotton, corn, peas, potatoes, rye, oats, barley, wheat, chufas, rice, millet, milo-maize, sorghum, and sugar-cane. Perhaps in no section does tiie seuppernoiig grape grow in greater profusion in proportion to its cul- tivation. Pecans are also succestffully produced. The gardens and orchards, uiuler proper manage- ment, return all vegetables and fruits known to the climate, embracing, in the line of the latter, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, quinces, prunes, dates, plums, pomegranates and figs. Perhaps no land is more favored with bright, run- ning streams than Autauga. From north to south her territory is traversed witli a number of bold and beautiful creeks, wliose waters in many instances skirt rich productive bottom lands. Among these may be mentioned Big and I^ittle Mulberry, Ivy, Swift, White Water, Hear. Autauga, Beaver. Pine, Big and Little Mortar. Upon the courses of these streams may be found many eligible locations for the founding of manufactories and industrial institutions. This was one of the pioneer counties of the State in manufacturing. Located at Autaugaville are two cotton factories; at Prattville, one cotton factory, one sash, door and blind factory, and one cotton-gin factory. The Prattville Cotton-(;in Manufactory is the largest of the kind in the world. It employs upwards of one hundred men, turns out over one thousand gins annually, and the " Pratt (iin " is known throughout the civil- ized world. Xear Prattville, also, is a cotton fac- tory, and scattered throughout the county is tJie usual number of grist-mills, shoe and blacksmith shops, ])ublic ginneries, etc. In the eastern part of the county is an earthenware establishment, manufacturing jugs, churns, urns and other arti- cles of clay. Ochre, fire-clays, paints and pigments abound in the county, while many of her miignificent springs are pregnant with healing and health-giving min- erals. Land is worth from one dollar to fifteen dollars per acre, and fine farming land can be liad for three dollars per acre. Government land in the county, about 12,000 acres. Kate of taxation, forty cents on the *:loO; coun- ty debt, none. The people are law-abiding, iiospitable, indus- trious and jtatriotic. The public-school system is but indifferently developed, though popular enough witli the masses, and growiftg in impor- tance, (leneral health of the county, good. II. CHOCTAW COUNTY. Population: White, 7,390; colored, 8,341. Area, 930 square miles; oak and hickory and long leaf pine uplands, 830 square miles; pine hills, 100 square miles. Acres — In cotton 31,080; in corn, 25,013; in oats, 3,338; in rice, 38: in sugar-cane, 101; in tobacco, 23; in sweet potatoes, 7-18. Approximate number of bales of cotton, lO.oOO. County Seat — Butler: population, 300; forty miles east of Meridian, Miss., near the Tombigbee River. Newspaper published at County Seat — The Choctaw Herald (Democratic). Postoffices in the County — Aquilla, Ararat, Bergamot, Bevill's Store, Bladen Springs, But- ler, De Sotoville, Fail, Isney, Lenora, Lusk, Mel- vin, ]\Iount Sterling, Naheola. Pushmataha, Res- cueville, Silas, Souwilpa. Tompkinsville, Tusca- homa, Womack Hill, Yantley Creek. The county was organized December 29, 1847, from territory originally belonging to Washing- ton and Sumter Counties. It is in the western portion of the State, and bounded, north by Sum- ter, south by Washington, east by Marengo and Clarke, and west by Mississippi. The lands are rolling and flat. The ridges and pine lands are sandy, but the river and creek " bottoms" are all alluvial. The pine forests are extensive, and can be and are being made a source of great wealth. Grazing for cattle is in great abundance and first-class in the outlying lands. The inhabitants are honest, industrious, brave and patriotic, and gladly welcome all good people who may come to make their home with them. There are numerous churches and school- houses scattered throughout the county easy of access. HI. BARBOUR COUNTY. Population: White, 13,091; colored, 20,888. Area, 860 square miles. Woodland, all. Oak, hickory and long-leaf pine, 610 square miles; Blue marsh land, 250 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 100,000; in corn, 61,800; in oats, 10,300; in wheat, 150; in rye, 100; in rice, 50; in tobacco, 25; in sugar-cane, 650; in sweet potatoes, 1,300. Approximate number of bales of cotton, in round numbers, 26, 100. County Seat— Clayton; population, 1,200; lo- cated seventy-five miles southeast of Montgomery, and at the terminus of the Eufaula & Clayton Rail- road. Newspa25ers published at County Seat — Courier, Democrat; at Eufaula, Mail, Times, Xeivs — all Democratic. PostofRces in the County — Batesville. Belcher, Bush, Clayton, Clio, Coleridge, Cotton Hill, Cow- ikee. Cox's Mill, Elamville, Eufaula, Harris, Haw- kinsville, Howe, Lodi, Louisville, Mcluness, ]Mount Andrew, New Topia, Oateston, Pea River, 183 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 183 Ueccler's>[ill. Star Hill. Tuli. \S\\\W Oak Springs, White I'oiul. 'I'lic county was organized in 183'^, and luinied ill lionor of Gov. James Barbour, of X'irginia. It lies ill the eastern portion of tlie State, and issep- aralcd from Georgia by the C'liattahooclice River, Hliich forms its entire eastern boundary. Harbour ranks as one of the leading counties in tlie State. .\ line drawn east and west through Harbour County, near the center, will divide it into two parts wiiich are quite dissimilar. The soils on the iicirth of this line are more or less calcareous, those (111 the south, sandy. The northern half has a sub- stratum of marl and limestone of the upper cre- taceous formation, which, acting upon the soil, gives rise to some of the best and safest cotton lauds in the State. This portion of the county is il rained by the tiiree forks of Cowikee Creek, and is known thoiighout the county a.s the Cowikee lands. Tlie soil is moderately stiff, calcareous clay, with patches of what is known as hog-wal- low, which are seldom more than an acre or two in extent. In the immediate vicinity of the streams the soil is much more sandy, but highly productive. The general appearance of these lands is that of a gently undulating, occasionally hilly region, somewhat resembling the prairies of the Rotten Limestone country, hut with reddish or light-colored soils. This region, though fertile, is malarious, and is inhabited by comparatively few white families. The negroes, however, appear to endure it very well. There is a peculiar mix- ture of trees characterizing these lands,viz. : hick- ory, white and Spanish oaks, sweet and sour gums, and long-leaf pine. The latter appears to be out of place with sucli surroundings. 'I'he Chattahoochee Kiver forms the eastern boundary of the county, and the bottom lands of this stream are from one to three miles wide, and very productive, Xext to these are the second linltoiiis or liuinniock.s, or pine Hats, always safe and easy to cultivate. Bordering upon these are the foot-hills of the pine uplands. Although the larger part of the surface of this county is orcupicd by lirowii lnaiiis, with a growth of oak, hickory, and pine, yet the charac- teristic agricultural features of Barbour depend upon the blue marls of the Cowikee and other drainage areas of tiie northern half of the county. A large proportion (more than half) of the cotton crop is produced in the northeastern part of the county, where these maris give character to the soils. There is, jierhaps, no part of the State which ranks higher in the jiroduction of cotton than the blue marl lands of adjacent parts of Russell, Barbour and Bullock Counties, whose prevailing soils are light, sandy loams, easily worked, possessing a comparatively high percent- age of lime, by which they are rendered extraor- dinarily thrifty. From the hills in tiie southwest have been gath- ered specimens of iron ore. Lime rock iirevails in abundance in different portions of Barbour, while specimens of kaolin have been secured. In the town of Louisville is a bed of green marl about twelve or eighteen feet below the surface, and in vast quantities. Repeated experiments by gardeners prove its value. In the southern portion of the county, four miles above the line of Dale, is a great natural curiosity in the form of a niagniticent spring, the dimensions of which are 4itx80 feet. Its waters are of a bluish cast and so transparent that the light glows through them. The eye of a fish is distinctly seen in their shining depths. This was once a point of popular resort, but since the de- struction of the spacious hotel it has been aban- doned as such. The waters of this spring are sup- posed to possess wonderful curative powers. There issues directly from it a large, bold stream. Clayton is the county seat, and is a pleasant little village. It is the seat of several excellent institutions of learning. Eufaula, on the Chattaliooclieo. is the most im- portant place in Eastern Alabama. It is a cily of between six and seven thousaml people, and has a promise of an extensive growth in tlie near fu- ture. Eiifaula's commercial importance will be greatly increased by the completion of several railroads which are projected. Batesville and Louisville are the other towns of the coiinly. IV. BULLOCK COUNTY. Population: White, 0,800; colored, 21,4S(;. Area, 000 square miles. Woodland all, excejit a few square miles of prairie. Prairie region, 300 square miles (300 of black prairie etc.. and 10'.) hill prairie, or Chunnenugga Kidge). Oak and hickory iiplands, with long-leaf pine, oGO square miles. Acres in cotton (approximately), SO, 470 ; in corn, 47,441; in oats, 0,177; in wheat. 111; in rye, 88; in sugar-cane, 429; in rice, 10; in sweet pota- toes, 77.'S. Approximate number of bales of cotton, in round numbers, 22,000. County Seat — Union Springs; jjopulatiou, 2,200; situated near the center of the county. Newspapers published at County Seat — Bullock dounty Reporter and Herald (both Democratic). Postoffices in the County — Aberfoil, Arbor Vitfe, Bughall, Enon, Fitzpatrick's, Flora, Guer- rytown, Hector, Indian Creek, Inverness, James, Midway, Mitchell's Station, Mount Hilliard, Perote, Pine Grove, Postoak, Shopton, Straw- berry, Suspension, Thompson. Three Notch, Uninn Springs. Bullock County, situated in what is known as the Black Belt of Alabama, was formed in 1880 out of j)arts of the adjacent counties of Maconj Eussell, Barbour, Pike and Montgomery. It took its name from the late Edward C. Bul- lock, of Barbour County. The tax valuation of its jiroperty in 1887 was about $3,500,000, with rate for the county of four mills, which is sufficient for current expenses, the county being out of debt. The county is divided into two nearly equal parts by Chunnenugga Ridge, which extends quite through it from the northeast to the southwest. That portion north and west of the Eidge is known as the prairie district. It is from 100 to 150 feet lower than the ridge, and is for the most part level but sufficiently undulating for thorough drainage. These lands are chiefly what are known as black and post oak prairie, being of calcareous formation, interspersed in many places with jihosphatic nodules, and are very rich. They are best adapted to cotton and corn, which con- stitute the chief crop, though small grain, jiotatoes. sugar-cane, and all varieties of vegetables and nnmy fruits grow quite as well. From a third to half a bale of cotton and twelve to fifteen bushels of corn to the acre, are regarded as about the average yield. Fully one-half of the tillable lands are devoted to cotton. 'J'hese lands raTige in price from five to ten dollars per acre, depending upon the amount and character of the improvements. That portion of the county south of the Kidge is of drift formation, and constitutes what are called the uplands. It is generally elevated, hav- ing very nearly the altitude of the Eidge, sloping gently, however, toward the south. This region is composed mostly of what is known as oak and hickory lands, sandy with clay subsoil. They are abundantly watered, and in the main thoroughly well drained, naturally. The head waters of Pea and Conecuh Elvers are in this county; besides there are important tributaries of the Chatta- hoochee in the eastern, and Tallapoosa Eiver in the western and northern jjarts of the county. The lands in the southern part of the county, though less rich than the prairie region, yield, with moderate fertilization, abundant crops of corn and cotton, and in their capacity for vegeta- bles and all kinds of fruits are probably unexcelled in the South. Stock-raising is but recently begin- ning to receive attention, and promises from the favorable soil and climate for the production of grasses, to equal any of the more favored portions of the State. Besides several varieties of valuable native grasses, the Japan clover [Lesindgezn) and Ber- muda grass, imported i^robably through accident, 184 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 185 grow and spread abundantly on all uncultivated lands. Many cultivated grasses as Texas blue grass, Lucerne and .Mellilotus grow well. JIucli of the original forestry still exists, abound- ing in all varieties of oak, hickory, ash, elm, beach, poplar, and other varieties of valualile woods. .Manufacturing has hitherto received no very special attention, the county iieiug preeminently an agricultural one, though it is believed that, situated centrally in the cotton belt as it is, the manufacture of this staple might be made very profitable. The altitude at Union Springs is 51'.f feet above sea-level, being perliai)s the highest l>oint on tiiis parallel of latitude anywhere be- tween the Atlantic Ocean and Hocky ^[ountains. This extraordinary altitude is thought to protect it in some degree from excessive rain-fall, the average from a correctly kept record of seventeen years being only forty-eight inchesannually, which was distributed tolerably nearly equally through the four seasons of the year. The southwest winds are most frequently the ones that attend the rains, tiiough seasons of somewhat continuous rains are chiefly brought by the southeast winds. Gentle breezes from the south Gulf region are very common during the summer months of June and July, setting in late in the afternoon and con- tinuing until midnight, generally roulering the nigiits sutticiently comfortable for refreshing sleep. The summer heat, which occurs cliiefly in June and July, rarely a.-'57, and was gradu- ated in the latti-r year. He began the practice in .Macon, now Bullock County, in 1857, and has here been actively engaged in professional work ever since. During the war, he was detailed to remain at home to extend his professional services to his community. Dr. Bledsoe has had a large practice for many years, and may be rankeil among the successful physicians of the State. lie has always been remarkably kind to the poor and needy, going night and day to visit them in their sickness and distress, generally ex- tending to them the blessings of his medical skill and the benefactions of his benevolent hand. Xo doulit he has done more, (jratnitously, to bless his fellow men around him than any other man of his means in his ccmnt}". Dr. Bledsoe has farmed extensively for a num- ber of years. He takes an especial interest in educational matters, and iias undoubtedly paid out more money for the education of poor and orphan chililren than any man in the county. Having no children of his own. he has taken this noble method of extending aid where it was most needed. Among the particularly praiseworthy deeds in this connection, may be mentioned his adojition of an in- fant child when she was but seven days old, to whom he gave the name of Nellie Lorena. She is now grown to woman's estate, and is an accomplished lady, unusually gifted in music and art. Dr. Bledsoe has ])aid the tuition of some child for the last thirty years, and has selected such as least expected assistance. In connection with his i>rofessioual labors. Dr. Bledsoe has carried on the drug business. He belongs to the Bullock County ifedical Society, an0 to §40 per acre, and excellent farming land maybe purchased from *10 to $15 per acre. Government land. none. Titles wee perfect, and from the records kept at Selma, a perfect abstract title may be easily obtained. The educational advantages of Dallas County are among its many attractive features. There are over one hundred public schools in the rural district, wliite or colored; the latter, while not en- joying educational privileges in common with the former, being, nevertheless well provided for in this direction, and the schools often taught by persons of their own race. Every neighborhood has its school-house and is provided with efficient teach- ers. Churches are also scattered jilentifully throughout the county, and all the princii)al de- nominations are represented. Thus it will be seen that the new comer finds all the advantages of civilization, a well-ordered and regulated com- munity, and as intelligent and law abiding a citi- zenship as that of his Northern and Western home. In the far West all these things must be acquired after many long years of frontier jiioneering, full of danger, hardships and privation. It may be true that sectional feelings and strong prejudices against "Yankees" exist in the South, but if such is the case, the writer, who has spent ten years in traveling through every portion of that much- maligned division of this great republic, has failed to discover it. There are "cranks" and fools and ignorant persons in every part of the world, but no greater 2iercentage of this class is found in the South than in the North, or elsewhere in the world, for that matter. No one need be deterred from going to Dallas County for fear of ostracism or nnkindness on account of political predilections; because politics are less thought of now tlian money making, and every dollar of Northern cap- ital invested in the South (and millions are invest- ed annually) is an unanswerable argument in favor of the desirability, the advantages, resources and glorious future of that grand section, and a lie direct, given to malignant falsifiers of facts, who for political purposes would make it appear that neither Northern men nor northern capital are safe in the South. Certain it is that great advantages will be found in Dallas County in the shape of fertility of soils, cheapness of lands, abundance of timber, ease of transportation, and the law-abiding disjjosition of the jieople. More productive lands cannot be found in the State than in this county, which is the very heart of the South's great cotton belt. The class of immigrants wanted for the agri- cultural districts of the State (Alabama) is small farmers who understand our language and cus- toms, men with money enough to pay their fares, purchase their farms and live independ- ent of charity or assistance from the community in which they locate. And to this class every good citizen says. Come and be welcome sharers in the great favors which a bountiful nature has lavished upon our fair State. Compare ad- vantages and resources with those of your North- ern or Western homes. We offer you the most fertile lands at prices that will enable you to pay for and imjorove them; we offer you a climate the most delightful that the mind can conceive of, and water as jiure as the earth produces. We have ample and ever-increasing transporta- tion facilities to carry your products to every market in the world, and we offer you good so- ciety, religious and educational advantages, a good, wise and economical State, county and municipal government; in short, all the advant- ages of civilization, and extend the right hand of fellowshiji, and welcome you most heartily, provided your object is to live among us, and aid in the grand work of developing our resources. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 191 DEMOPOLIS. GEORGE WASHINGTON TAYLOR. Altorney- at-la«' ami Solicitor of the First Judicial Circuit, was born January Ifi, 1849, at Moiitgomery. and is a son of Edward F. and Anne S. (Trezevant) Taylor, both natives of Columbia, S. C. After his father came to Alabama he was engaged in planting: iuid at the time of his death he was a Confederate soldier, and died at .Montgomery, November 4, 18112. Our subject was educated at the University of South Carolina, situated at Columbia, which has been a seat of culture and refinement for many years. He was graduated from this institution in June. ISfir. Going back somewhat, we find that in November, 18(!4, he entered the army as a private in Company D, of the First Regiment of South Carolina Cavalry, and served in the capacity of courier till April, 18(;5, when the war closed. Immediately after his graduation, as already noted, we find our subject engaged in teaching in Jlobile, Ala., which he continued four years, and, having read law in the meantime, he was admitted to the bar in 18.1, In the following year he located in Choctaw County, for the practice of his profession, lie was a member of the Alabama Legislature from Choctaw during the session of 18T8-T9, and served on a special committee and was a member of the Judiciary Committee of the House. In November, ls8(i, he was elected Solicitor of the First Judicial Circuit, and having come to Demojjolis in January, 1883, to live, he was re- elected from there to the same position in 188, he was appointed by Gov. George S. Houston, Commissioner of Immigration, and, in connection with it. took an active and aggressive part in the canvass of the southern portion of the State on the subject, which was then absorbing a considerable part of the ])ublic attention. Mr. Lyon's grandmother was a Gaines, sister of the late George Strother Gaines, and General E. P. Gaines, who were among the first settlers of Alabama, at St. Stej)hen's. Since the above sketch was written, Mr. Lyon's son, Francis Strother Lyon, died of Bright's disease, January 111, 1888, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. lie graduated at the University of Alabama, in 188G, and, at the time of his death, was study- ing law in his father's office, with fine prospects before him. VI. ELMORE COUNTY. Population: White, 8,74T; colored, 8,755. Area, 630 square miles. Woodland, all. Grav- elly hills, with long-leaf pine, "^30 square miles; metamorphic 400 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 31,045; in corn, 20,000; in oats, 5,153; iu wheat, 3,883; in rye, 37; in rice, 5: in tobacco, 12: in sugar-cane, 16; in sweet potatoes, 642. Approximate number of bales of cotton — 10,000. County Seat — Wetumpka; population 1,20(): on the Wetumpka branch South & North IJuil- road. Newspapers published at County Seat — Elmore Express, Times (both Democratic). Postoffices iu the County — Bingham, Bnyck, Central Institute, Channahatchee, Colley, Coosada Station, Cotton's Store, Deetsville, Eclectic, Edge- wood, Elmore, Good Hope, Irnia, Kowaliga, Kob- inson Springs, Sand Tuck, Sykes' Mills, Tallas- see, Ware, Weoka, Wetumpha. Elmore County was created out of portions of Coosa, Autauga, Montgomery and Tallapoosa Coun- ties, by an act of the Legislature approved Febru- ary 15, 1866. The county was named for Gen. John A. Elmore, who was one of the first settlers of Autauga County, and resided in that portion which was embraced in this county. The county is d ivided into two parts by the Coosa River, and the Talla- poosa, which forms a portion of its eastern bound- ary, takes a bend and washes its entire southern border. The surface of the county is generally rolling. The lands vary in appearance, and in thcraerit of their soils. The gray lands have the predomi- nancy in the county, and vary with the localities. On the Coosa River above Wetumpka, there are found narrow basins of good land, but out from these bottoms there are formed level plains wliich are generally covered with a sandy soil. On the side of the Coosa River, opposite the town of Wetumpka, there is an extended plain which stretches away to the boundary of Autauga County. The character of the land belonging to this level stretch of country is a sandy surface ^vith a stiff clay subsoil. This gives to the wagon ways a per- jsetual firmness, and renders hauling easy. Follow- ing along the Tallapoosa one finds a girt of superior lands which are excellent for the pro- duction of cotton and corn. Perhaps the best lands are found in the fork of the Coosa and Talla- poosa Rivers. These alluvial bottoms have been steadily planted for many years, and have yielded unceasingly heavy crops of corn and cotton. The planters prize these river lands because of their capacity to produce the snowy staple as well as the stafE of life, to-wit, corn, more than any others in the county. The lands that lie just above those alluded to, and which are above the annual overflow of the rivers, are also superb cotton lands, and are re- garded the safest for the production of that staple. Of course, it must not be understood that the production of cotton is confined to these lands. In different parts; of the county are brown loam and slaty soils, which yield splendid crops. Elmore has many magnificent pine forests, and on many of its streams fine saw-mills are erected, which turn out large quantities of fine pine lum- ber for local use, as well as for shipment to south- ern and western markets. The health of the county is unsurpassed, and all portions of it possess drinking water as jiure and wholesome as any found in any portion of the world. The climate is equable, and the hills make most desirable residences for those to whom a healthy locality and an abundance of pure water for all purposes is an inducement in selecting a home. Among the fruits which experience has proven will thrive in Elmore County may be mentioned: pears, apples, figs, j^eaches and grapes, while strawberries, raspberries and other small fruits yield abundantly. The timber of the county consists of oak, jjine, hickory, beech, walnut, magnolia, dogwood, gum and persimmon. 194 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 195 Yellow uchre has heen discovered at several points in tlie county, sind is reported to be of an excellent grade. The county can produce a buhr stone, for millstones, which in service is equal to any ever used, and in crushing corn into meal is superior to many so-called finer varieties. In addition there are deposits of stone which is very durable and useful as a building stone. Gold exists in localities in the county, and has been worked with great profit and satisfaction to those engaged. Large deposits of clay have been found in the county, which is thought valuable for the manufacture of a tine grade of porcelain ware, while some sands of tiie county have been pronounced to be excellent for making glass. At Tallassee, on the Tallapoosa Kiver, is the Tallassee Cotton Factory, which was, for many years, the largest mill of that character in the South. The falls in the river at that point far- nish immense water-po«'er, which is only slightly utilized. This is but one of the numerous sites favorable to the location of manufactories in the county. Splendid streams of water ramify the county in all directions. Among these are the Coosa and Tallapoosa Kivcrs, Shoal. Wewoka, Mill, Safkahatchee, Hatchee, Chubbee. Corn, and Wallahatchee Creeks. Tiiese lesser streams find outlet.s through either the Coosa or Tallapoosa Hi vers. The points of interest in the county arc \Ve- tumpka, the county seat, with a jiopulation of 1,500; Tallassee, with about 1,200; and Kobinson Springs. Wetumpka has long been noted as the location of the State Penitentiary. Tallassee is famous as a manufacturing center, and Robinson Springs, in former years, was a noted local resort for the vlitc of Montgomery. The educational advantages of the county are good, as are also facilities for the enjoyment of religious worship. The means of transportation are convenient. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad runs through the county, a branch of wliich terminates at Wetumpka, while in the eastern end the Western Railroad is sutticientiy near to be quite accessible. The Coosa River fur- nishes another cheap means of transportation to Montgomei'y and Selma upon the Alabama River, and the cities upon the Southern coast. Lands may be had from %\.h^ to ^15 per acre in the county. The Government owns 7,320 acres of land subject to entry. VII. GREENE COUNTY. Population: White, 3,76.''); colored, 18,106. Area, 520 square miles. Woodland all, except about twenty-five square miles of prairie. Acres — In cotton (approximately), i>3,G43: in corn, 31,820; in oats, 2,103; in wheat, 214; in rye, 25; in sugar-cane, 25; in tobacco, 41; in sweet potatoes, 705. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 1."),8(M). County seat — Eutaw; population 1.100; situated on the Alabama <)t Great Western Railroad, thirty- five miles from Tuscaloosa, and sixty miles west of Selma. Newspapers published at t'ounty Seat — Mirror, Whig and Observer (all Democratic). Postoffices in the County — Boligee, Rurton's Hill, Clinton, Dobbs, Eutair, Forkland. Knox- ville, Mantua, Mount Hebron, Pleasant Ridge, Tishabee, Union, West Greene. The county bounded is on the north by the Sip- sey River, on the east and southeast by the War- rior River, and on the west and southwest by the Tombigbee River; is situated in the western part of Alabama, and, agriculturally considered, is one of the best counties in the State. Its county 196 NORTHERN ALABAMA. seat, Eutaw, is situated on the Alabama (ireat Southern Ilailroad, and three miles west of a steamboat landing on the Warrior River. Its other towns are Forkland, 300 inhabitants, in the southern part of the county, near the junc- tion of the Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers; Bol- igee, on the Alabama Great .Southern Railroad, 300 inhabitants: Mount Hebron, West Greene and Pleasant Ridge, in the western part of the county, near the Tombigbee River, each contain- ing about 150 inhabitants: Knoxville, 200 inhab- itants, and Union and Mantua, two small villages in the northern j^art of the county. The Alabama Great Southern Railroad crosses the county from east to west. The lands lying south of this rail- road, with a few exceptions, are what are known as "canebrake lands,'' and much resemble the jorairies of the North and Xorthwest. They are very productive, an average crop being one-half bale of cotton or thirty bushels of corn per acre. These lands are worth from six to fifteen dollars per acre, according to locality and fertility. North of the river is a small belt of black or canebrake lands, but the main body of the lands lying north of this railroad are either dark red or gray sandy lands. These sandy lands are good for all kinds of farming, and respond generously to judicious fertilizing. Thev are worth from two to twelve dollars per acre, according to locality and quality. The principal products of the county are corn, cotton, peas, potatoes, molasses, and vegetables. Large bodies of cane are to be found upon the un- cleared lands of this county, which form a splen- did winter jjasture for stock, and owing to the sjilendid climate, fertility of soil and abundance of water, and its adaptability to the growth of clover, this county would be a sjilendid locality for stock raisers. Greene County contains large bodies of virgin timber, consisting of oak, red and white, ash, poplar, cypress, hickory and pine, and the Sipsey, Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers would be splendid places for the lumber mills. Greene County lies seventy miles south of Birming- ham, and '• truck farming" there would yield good and immediate profits. Among the great men given to the State by this county are to be mentioned the brilliant ad- vocate, William M. Murphy: the eminent jurist, John Erwin: the well-known Chancellor Clark. These men are now dead. Among the living are to be mentioned Thomas Seay, the present Governor of Alabama, who was born in Greene County, and Thomas W. Coleman, the present efficient Chan- cellor of the Southwestern Chancery Division of this State. Educational and religions facilities of the countv are good. EUTAW. THOMAS WILKES COLEMAN, Chancellor, is a son of James C. and ^[artha (Anderson) Coleman, natives of North and South Carolina, respectivel}'. Judge Coleman's grandfather, John Coleman, a planter, came from North Carolina to Alabama in 1S18, and settled near Eutaw in 1821. James C. Coleman, his son, was also a planter, and, like his father, farmed successfully and on an exten- sive scale. Thomas Wilkes Coleman was born at Eutaw in 1833, educated partly at Green Springs, Ala. and graduated in classical course at Princeton, N. J., in 1853. He read law at Eutaw under Stephen F. Hale (for whom Hale County was named), and was admitted to the bar in 1855. Mr. Coleman volunteered in the Confederate Army in 18C1, raised a company, and became its cajitain. He was captured at the siege of Vicks- biirg, and, at the battle of Missionary Ridge, was wounded by a minie ball which passed entirely through his body, destroying his left lung, and in- cai)acitating him for further military duty. He recovered from his wound, however (a fact which seems marvelous to those who know its character and extent), and resumed the practice of law. Captain Coleman was a member of the Consti- tutional Convention of 1805, and in 1866 he was elected Solicitor for the Fifth Circuit, but was NORTHERN ALABAMA. 197 ousted by the reconstruction performance of IKfiS. In 1878 he was iippoitited to the same ofKce forthe Seventh Circuit by Gov. K. W. Cobb, and, in 1880, was elected to that office by the Legislature, for a six-years term. In 1886, Captain Coleman was again elected .Solicitor for another six-years term, and in ilarch, 1887, he was appointed Chan- cellor of the Southwestern Chancery Division of Alabama, by (rov. Thomas Seay. Judge Coleman's life has been a busy one. In politics, he has always been a staunch Democrat. He lost a fortune by the war, but has made for himself a name and a place among his people, which might well be envied by the most fortun- ate of the land. He was heartily opi)osed to the idea of secession and war from its earliest in- ception, but when the issue was made, he threw his entire influence with the cause of his people. The Judge was married in 18(30, to Miss Frances J., daughter of Samuel J. Wilson, and of a family very prominent in their locality and in the Presbyterian Church, and has ten living children, six sons and four daughters. One of the sons, P]. W. Coleman, is practicing law in Texas; another, T. W. Coleman, Jr., graduated at the University of Alabama, in 1885, taught school two years, and is now taking a law course at the University of Virginia. Judge Coleman is a Presbyterian of the old school, and an elder in tiiat church. He is also a IJoyal-Arch Mason. WILLIAM C. OLIVER, Judge of the Pro- bate Court of (ireene County, was born December 12, 181i>, in Xottoway County, \'a. His father, Isaac Oliver, and his mother, Mary A. (i. Oliver, were both of English lineage. His maternal grandfather. Col. Parks Bacon, was a native of Lunenburg County, Va. Asa Oliver, a paternal uncle, was a member for many years of tiie \'ir- ginia F^egislature: Charles Oliver, another uncle, resided in Botetourt County, Va., and owned many negroes and a large estate there. Onr subject was reared and educated in Virginia. He clerked in a retail store in Petersburg, until he was twenty years old, and then came to Alabama, settling at Erie, then the county seat of (ireene. He there clerked and kept books. From 1840 to 1844, he clerked on the steamboat " Vic- toria," which ran the Warrior River between Mobile and Tuscaloosa. During a portion of this time he was tax collector and assessor for Greene County. In 1844, he was deputy-sheriff. He then en- gaged as a drygoods salesman in Mobile for three years, and was elected sheriff of Greene County in 18.i0, which office he held three years. He was elected probate judge in 18.50, and served until 1808, when he was removed from office under the reconstruction acts. In 1880, he was again elected probate judge, and has held that office ever since. Judge Oliver was first married in 1842, to Miss Elizabtth Phillips, daughter of W. II. Phillips, of Ilillsboro, X. C. She died in 1850, leav- ing three children, of whom two died in child- hood, and Martha Epes grew to maturity and married John P. Gilmer, In 1800, our subject was married, to Miss Lizzie S. Whitehead, of Carroll County, Miss., by whoni he had two children, Jeannette, who married W. D. Duncan (a merchant of Eutaw), and William W. Oliver, a teacher at Tuscaloosa. Judge Oliver is a Free & Accepted Mason. WILEY COLEMAN. Attorney-at-law, was born near GohLsboro. X. C, in 181!', and is a son of John and Rhoda (Cobb) Coleman, natives of tiie same State. The Coleman family, of whom there is a great number, came originally from England. John Coleman came from Xorth Carolina with his family, and first settled in Bibb County, Ala., in 1810 From there he removed to Greene County, in 1821, and here lived until his death. He was engaged here, as formerly, in planting; was a good farmer, a good neighbor, and a member of the Baptist Church; owned many slaves and was in many respects a successful man. He ranked among the best pcopleof his part of the State, and left a posterity that has always borne an excellent name for all tiie better traits of human nature. Wiley Coleman was educated at Tuscaloosa and La Grange, this State. He graduated in law at the University of Virginia, in the year 1842, and has devoted most of his life to its practice in Eutaw. So far his life has flowed along smoothly and harmoniously, with no more than the ordinary number of exceptions. He was never married. He was in the Mexican War for a short time; has held few political oHicee, heing one of those 198 NORTHERN ALABAMA. philosophical natures that preferred the quiet sat- isfaction of a tranquil life to the broils and heai't- bnruings that invariably fall to the lot of aspir- ants for public favor. Mr. Coleman was made Judge of Greene County for one term, in 18-iG, and represented the county in the Legislature two terms during the war. He was a member of the State Constitu tional Convention which formed a new Constitu- tion for the State, in ISTS. Being now at the age when men cease, gener- ally sj^eaking, to be troubled with the cares and excitement of life, he is, to use his own expres- sion, taking his ease in the quiet retireinent of private life. JOSEPH P. MC QUEEN, Attorney-at-law, was born in Eutaw, June z'l, lS.5-i. His father, John McQueen, Avas born in Robeson County, N. C. When quite a young man he removed into Benuettsville, Marlborough Dis- trict, S. C, and there practiced law until he was sent to Congress, where he represented his district for thirteen consecutive years jn-ior to the war. As the name indicates, John McQueen was of Scotch extraction, and was born February !•, 1804. He was in Washington City at a time mem- orable in American history. This was when the country was on the eve of the great civil strife. As was natural. Judging from the part of the coun- try that he came from, he took an active interest in the secession movement, and went out of the Union with his State when the final separation came. He was identified with the first delegation that seceded and became a member of the Con- federate States Congress, remaining in tliat mem- orable body four years. John McQueen was a man of abundant means, and, after the war, devoted himself to his extensive agricultural interests. He was married in 1852, to Miss Sarah Pickens, of Eutaw, a daughter of Joseph Pickens, and a granddaughter of Gen. Andrew Pickeiis, of Revolutionary fame. Andrew Pickens, a son of General Pickens, was Governor of South Carolina, and his son Francis W. Pickens, was Governor of that State at the breaking out of the war, and made the famous de- mand of Major Anderson for the surrender of F'-rt Sumter to the Confederate Government. The Pickens family are related to that of the great John C. Calhoun. The subject of this sketch was in South Caro- lina until sixteen years old, and, upon the death of his father in 1S6T, came with his mother to Eutaw. After the completion of his scholastic training, he read law with Chancellor Clark and Judge AViley Coleman, and was admitted to the bar April 15, 18T5. He has been practicing law ever since, and with such success as to place him among the best lawyers in his section of the State. He has eschewed political life, and with the exception of representing his county in the Legislature, during the session of 1884-1885. has always remained in private life. Mr. McQueen was married in December, 1875, to Miss Roberta Kirksey, daughter of Robert B. W. Kirksey, of Marengo County. Three children have been born to this union: Anna, John and Sarah. JUDGE & DeGRAFFENRIED, Attorneys-at- law. This firm consists of Ililliard M. Judge and Edward De GrafEenried. An old adage says: " Young men for war and old men for council," but this seems to be a change, wherein the young men are popular as counsel. Jlr. Judge is a young man in his " thir- ties," and Mr. De GrafEenried is still younger. Tliis firm has attained a prominence second to none in their vicinage, ilr. Judge is a son of James L. Judge, a pioneer and planter of the olden times. H. M. Judge was Judge of the County Court of Greene, in 1885 and 1886. He has been practic- ing law about ten years. Mr. De Graffenried is a scion of an old family and a nephew of Governor Seay. He has been practicing law about seven years. HARRY T. HERNDON, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Greene County, is a son of H. T. Hern- don and Sarah (Inge) Herndon, both rf wliom are native Alabamians. The senior H. T. Herndon was born at Erie in 18"2(5; received his earlier educational training at or near his home, and finished it by graduation at the L^niversity of Alaljama in 844. He was mar- ried, in 1840, to Miss Sarah J., daughter of Dr. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 199 Ixichard Inge, of Tisliabee, Ala. Tliere were born to this union, two sons and two daugiiters. Mr. Ilerndon diod August 11, 1S5.">. Our subject was born at Forkland, Ala. in 1S51, and wa.s reared at Eutaw. Having complet- ed ills education, lie read l.'iw in .Mol)ile with tiie lirni of Smith & llerndoii, but never engaged in the practice of his profession, as we find him shortly afterward merchandising in Eutaw, which he followed from isr:i to 188?. In the last named year, he was elected Circuit Clerk (also alderman of the town of Eutaw), by an overwhelm- ing majority. The former position he has held ever since. Jlr. Heriidon wa.s married October "28, I8T:i, to Miss Mary A. Watkins, daughter of Dr. II. E. Wiitkiiis aiul Anna (Oliver) AVatkins, boih of Kutaw. The latter is a sister of .ludge William Oliver. By this union he had two children, only one of whom is living, Anna Mary Ilerndon. Mrs. Ilerndon died September '11, 18.S(). Mr. Ilerndon is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. South, and of the .Masonic fraternity. Althoufjli it may be regarded as a digression, still it is higlily appropriate to speak of another member of the Ilerndon family here, who indeed is worthy of the liigliest esteem among bright and honor- able Southern names. AVe refer to the Hon. Tliomas Ilerndon, for many years a resident in -Mobile, and one of the most conspicuous charac- ters identified with the history of the State. He was born at Erie, July 21, 1828, on the banks of the historic Black Warrior. Thomas II. Ilerndon was educated jiartly by (Jen. Samuel Houston, partly at La(irange, and the I'niversity of Alabama, where he graduated in 1M47. He took the degree of Bachelor of Laws at Harvard I'niversity, in liS18. Co-incident with the year of his graduation he was married to Miss Mary Alexander, daughter of Dr. A. F. Alexander, of North Carolina. The youthful couple were aged respectively twenty and si.xteen years. In 18.51, he was defeated as the Democratic can- didate for the Legislature; in 1853 he moved to -Mobile, and in 1.^57, was sent to the Legislature. When the Secession Convention met at Montgom- ery in 18C0. he was :i member of it; nor was he of that class who ]irefcrred remaining at home away from danger and duty. He entered the Confederate Army as major, and rapidly rose to the rank of colonel. Though twice severely wounded, he faltered not in the perform- ance of duty, nor was he ever known to shirk re- sponsibility. The future recorder of the brave deeds of Alabama sons will rank his name ainor.g the very foremost. In 1872, when the hydra-lieaded monster of re- construction was rampant in the South, he was nominated by the Democi'atic party for governor, but as the time had not come for the State to be rid of her worst foes, the miserable horde of polit- ical tramps who weighed upon her as a blighting curse, he was defeated. Future and greater hon- ors awaited iiim, and he was a member of the 4<)th, 47th and 48th Congresses, successively, whither he was sent to represent the Mobile District. His devotion to Alabama was always ardent. He suffered for her and the whole South alike. The wounds which he received finally cost him his life. While, of course, we say he recovered, it must be remembered that the words are only used in an a))proximate sense. He came out of the struggle deprived of fortune and healtli. The one. he retrieved by courageous and persistent effort: to the other he succumbed as to the inevit- able. Among other debts, than which there is no greater, that Alabama owes this her most worthy and noble son, is that for the important part he took in ridding her of the worst form of carpet- bag rule, wresting her from adventurers, political thieves, knaves and ignorant negroes, and restor- ing her once proud name to the intelligent and good people of the Commonwealth. Colonel Herndon's death occurred in Washing- ton City -March 2!-:, 188;i. Sj)ccial proceedings of both the lower and upper houses of Congress were had in his honor on the 12th and ISth of April, 1S84. Among the fitting tributer; paid liis memory none are more worthy of a place in this volume than the words of Mr. Culberson of Texas : " His name in camp and field was the synonym of all that is heroic in courage, noble in ])atriotic devotion to duty, magnanimous in vic- tory, or hopeful in defeat. He loved liis home, his native State, with more than filial devotion, and served her cause in peace and war with the energy of his tireles.s nature. When the noble deeds of the sons of Alabama in that great struggle shall be gathered up by the historian, there will Ite no brighter, ]>urer or lovelier chapter than that which shall record the sacrifices, the un- selfish love of home and country, the indomitable courage and fortitude of her trifted son whose 200 NORTHERN ALABAMA. virtues we commemorate, aud whose deatli we now deplore." WILLIAM 0. MONROE, was boru at Athens, Ga., in 18;!5, and came to Alabama iu 1843 with his parents, who settled at Ilinton's Grove, Greene County. His father was John Monroe, of South Carolina, and his mother Emily, a daughter of John Paschal, of Georgia. William in all spent about five years at school. He has had an unbroken connection with the press since 1840, barring sh(n-t intervals which he sjient at school. It was in 1846 that he entered the office of Tlie Eutaw Whig, where he served an apprentice- ship of five years. This journal was founded by Houston aud Davis in 1840, but was owned by the former at the time young Monroe's connection with it commenced. In 18.59, when he had attained his twenty-fourth year, young Monroe purchased a half interest in the ]\hig. He purchased the Observer in 1861, and during the same year it was consolidated with the Wiig. under the -name of the Eutaio WM(j and Observer. The new paper was conducted by Anderson and Monroe, it seems, until after the war. Mr. Monroe was in the war a short time as lieutenant of cavalry in Clanton's brigade, one of the most noted organizations of its kind that took part in the great civil strife. Owing to ill health he was compelled to give up his command, which he did by resigning. He continued in copartnership with Anderson in management and conduct of The Whig und Ob- server during the war, and after that he became sole proprietor, a relation he has ever since maintained. This journal is a weekly. Dem- ocratic in politics, and has a circulation of 800 subscribers. It is one of the most influential papers of its class in the State, and has always enjoyed a liberal degree of prosperity. Its utter- ances have, throughout its course, been dictated by .honest convictions; its intentions characterized by honesty itself, and its career has been a con- stant labor to build up the material and highest interests of the county with which it has been identified for so long a time. W. 0. Monroe was married to Jane, a daughter of the Rev. John DuBois, of Greensboro, Ala., in 1866. llev. DuBois was for half a century a minister of the gospel. He was the inventor of the famous Du Bois cotton-gin, one of the finest ma- chines of its kind ever made in this country. Tliere are but two of the children, born to this union, living: Jane and Louise. Mr. Monroe and family are all members of the church, and he himself is a Roval-Arch Mason. WILLIAM T. CALLAHAN, Editor aud Pro- prietor of the Ei(t(iw Mirror, is a son of Elias and Sallie (Stockman) Callahan, and was born in Bibb County, this State, August 24, 1852. He spent his early life on the farm, and gave his father very material assistance in all the work incident to that kind of life. At an early age, however, we find him leaving the parental roof, and, to his credit be it said, he educated himself. He first worked with his brother, J. W. Callahan, in the office of the Elyton Enterprise, in 1866, where he remained several years. He worked with other journals, at different times, in various parts of the State. William T. Callahan came to Eutaw in June, 1876, and worked in the office of the Whig and Observer for nearly three years, and then estab- lished the Eutaw Mirror, April 22, 1879. Some remarks in reference to this pajier will af- ford an insight into the success achieved by its proprietor. It is an independent Democratic journal, a firm friend of progress and all material advancement, and makes use of every means which will secure these desirable results. Believ- ing that a protective tariff is th^best jiolicy, it supports that idea, notwithstanding the fact it is at variance with the views of a majority of those among whom it circulates. All the greater credit, however, is due its proprietor for having the courage to announce his views in such a locality; and that he has achieved success, would seem to indicate that he has, in a great measure, made a new idea popular to his constituents. The Mirror has a circulation of one thousand subscribers, or thereabouts, whicli, taken from a practical stand- point, is very flattering for a country journal and places it far above the average. In addition to journalistic work, ^Ir. Callahan does a lage job-printing business. Some years back Mr. Callahan was married to Miss Nannie A. Speed, of Greene County. Their NORTHERN ALABAMA. 20i union has been blessed *ith one eliild, a daughter. Mr. Callahan bcloii7 to 1859. In all his political acts and af!iliations he was a Whig, and in them all proved himself a man of great force. He was Attornev-(ieneral of the State in 18(51, under the Confederate Government. After- ward he joined the Army of Virginia, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was killed in one of the battles around Richmond, in 1862, while gallantly leading his command in action. In 18G6 the Legislature formed a new county out of a part of Greene and portions of other counties, and named it Hale, in honor of the man who had proved himself a lawyer of ability, a worthy citi- zen, an intelligent lawmaker and a brave soldier. REV. STEPHEN U. SMITH, Eutaw, is a son of Stephen and .Sally A. ( Kluxles) Smith, of North Carolina. On his mother's side he is related to William li. King, for several terms United States Senator from Alabama, and also Vice-President of the United States during the administration of Franklin Pierce. His maternal grandfather, James Rhodes, was for a great while member of the North Carolina Legislature, and a member of State Senate at the time of his death. His ma- ternal great-grandfather, Andrew Bass, was a prominent man in Dobbs County, N. C, in the IJevolutionary War, and was a member of the con- vention which framed the first constitution for the State. Our subject was born January 2, 1817, in Wayne County, N. C. His first educational training was obtained at his home, and after fur- ther prepiiration elsewhere, he entered the Law department of Transylvania L^niversity, at Lex- ington, Ky., from which he graduated in February, 1841. Some time afterward he came to Alabama and was made a deacon of the Episcopal Church, by Bishop Cobb, at Montgomery, February 16, 1853. Prior to this time, he had practiced law. He was ordained to the priesthood of his church in May, 1854. Since that time, he has devoted his life to its service in West Alabama. At one period in his early ministerial career he did mission- ary work. He occupied the parish at Livingston, Ala., at several different times, and has been in charge of the parish at Eutaw, for thirty years. Rev. Mr. Smith is a Roval Arch .Mason. GREENE P. MOBLEY is a son of Wiley Mob- ley, of Winnsboro, S. C, and Nancy (Coleman) Mobley. 202 NORTHERN ALABAMA. The Mobleys were originally from Wales, and came to this country with Lord Baltimore, and settled in Maryland. G. P. Mobley was born in Greene County, Ala., in 1849, and educated at Greene Springs. He went into the army when but thirteen years old, and took part in many battles, among which may be instanced Spanish Fort and the Seven Days' Fight around Richmond, in both of which en- gagements he was severely wounded. After the war he taught school to defray the expenses incident to finishing up his own educa- tion. Immediately afterward he applied himself industriously to the study of the law, was admitted to the bar in 1870, and has practiced his profession ever since, at Eutaw. He has the proud consciousness of knowing that he laid the foundation by his own personal efforts for the suc- cess which h,e has achieved in life. Mr. Mobley has, by industry, attention to the wants of his clients, acquaintance with the de- mands of his profession, and an accurate knowl- edge of the law. built up a good and lucrative practice. He is a member of the fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons. VIII. LOWNDES COUNTY. PoiJulation : White, 5,G45; colored, y5..")31. Area, 740 square miles. AVoodland, all, except a few square miles of prairie. Acres — In cotton (a^iproximately), OS. 200; in corn, 41,169; iu oats, 3,030; in sugar-cane, 201; in sweet potatoes, 1,000. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 30,000. County Seat — Hayneville; population, 500; lo- cated 23 miles southwest of Montgomery. Newspapers published at County Seat — Exam- iner (Democratic); True Citizen (Independent Democrat). Postoffices in the County — Benton, Burkville, Braggs, Calhoun, Collirene, Farmersville, Fort De230sit, Gordonsville, Hayneville, Letohatchee, Lowndesborough, itorganville, Mount Willing, Saint Clair, Sandy Eidge, White Hall. Established in 1830, this county was named in honor of Hon. William Lowndes, of South Caro- lina. It has long been known for the productive- ness of its lands, and is regarded one of the best agricultural districts in the South. Prior to the war the planters of Lowndes made immense for- tunes from farming upon its fertile cotton fields. Though in use many years, the lands remain unimpaired in their productiveness. The county needs onlv the hands of svstem and diligence to direct and urge the industries suited to the capa- bilities of its soil, to place it alongside the most advanced sections of our planting interests. Like all other localities of the famous cotton belt, Lowndes County has shared in the shrinkage of the valuation of lands. This is mainly due to the destruction of an organized labor system conse- quent upon the emancii^ation of the slaves. Its lauds are well adapted to the employment of im- proved imjilements of labor. The surface of Lowndes is rolling. The whole of the county lies within the prairie belt, still there is a fair proportion of upland soils. Along the table-lands are found sandy loam soils; in the extensive bottoms which prevail along the river and numerous streams are found dark loam soils, while iijion the prairies proper, and the flanks of the lime-hills, exist the soils which have a great admixture of lime. While the prevailing surface of Lowndes is rolling, there are many precipitous hills in the southern portion. The presence of lime in the clay makes the roads miry during the wet seasons. This feature, connected with that extreme southwestern portion, has won it the local name of "Little Texas." But this consti- tutes but a fractional part of this magnificent agricultural region. A feature belonging largely NORTHERN ALABAMA. 203 to the first bottom soils is tliat they are sandy, but they derive vast Ijeiiefits from the mulerlying for- mations of lime. Here, as elsewhere in the prairie region, there are occasional interventions of sandy knollf!, which furnish locations for liouses and set- tlements, and also an abundance of good water. The main crops grown in Low'iules are cotton, corn, oats, sweet and Irish potatoes, millet and sugar-cane. The black lands are usually devoted to the j)roduction of corn, while the sandy lands are employed for raising cotton; but the red lands produce equally well. Many of tliese lands are well adapted for jiasturage purposes. Numerous grasses tiourish, some of which are indigenous and others imported. These, together with the vari- eties of clover and the dense brakes of cane which prevail along the streams and in marshy lowlands, makes this one of the most desirable sections for stock-raising. This consideration is enhanced by the fact that the winters in this latitude are brief and mild, and stock does not have to be cared for so tenderly as in sections farther north. Pint- lala. Big Swamp, Manack, Cedar and Dry Creeks, with numerous tributaries, flow across the county. It is along these streams that much of the richest land in the county is found. Scattered throughout Lowndes are broad belts of valuable timber, comprising several varieties of oak, hickory, long- and sliort-leaf pine, elm, ash, poplar, walnut, sycamore, gum, beech, cedar, mul- berry and chestnut. Points of interest are Ilayne- ville, the county seat, with a population of several hundred, Lowndesboro, Benton, Fort Deposit and Letohatchee. Good schools are found in almost all the centers of population, while a common- school system provides educational advantages for all classes. Transportation is afforded by the Louisville & Xashviilc Railroad, the Montgomery & Selnia, and the Alabama River. Lands may be inirchased from *3 to *v'0 per acre. There are no (ioveriiment lands in the county. IX. HALE COUNTY. Population : White, 5,000 ; colored, 20,000. Area, 1170 square miles. Woodland, all, except some prairie region and gravelly hills. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 70,000 ; in corn, 43,250 ; in oats, 3,GT5: in wheat, 1,430; in rye, 60; in rice, 1(J ; in tobacco, IC ; in sweet potatoes, 1,21.5. Appro.ximate number of bales of cotton, in round numbers, '20,000. County Seat— Greensborough; population, 2,100; located on Cincinnati, Selma & Mobile Railroad. Xews])apers i>ubli8hed at County Suat — Ahi- hima beacoti, Walchman (Democratic); Sotilheru University Monthly (Educational). Postoftices in the County — Akron Junction, Carthage, Cedarvillc. Dominick, Evans, Five Mile, Gallion, Grefiixbnroiigli, Havana, Laneville, Xewbern, Phipps, Powers, Sa\v_verville, Stewart's Station, Whitsitt. The above named county was founded in 1867, and was named for Col. Stephen F. Hale. It em- braces one of the finest agricultural districts in the South. Productive in soil, healthful in cli- mate, abundantly supplied with superior schools, and with an intelligent, thrifty, and progressive people, the county of Hale, deservedly ranks among the best in the State. The industry of the people is agriculture, with few exceptions. In the northeast the county is hilly. There is almost every variety of soil to be found in Hale. The southern portion, being a little less than one- half of its territory, is composed almost entirely of black cane-brake land, which has a marvelous fertility. The western and northwestern parts of 204 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the county furnish a variety of lands, some of which are sandy and others red, wliich gradually shade oS into the dark lands composing what is called the second Warrior bottom. Most of this land is of excellent quality, being strong, and some, especially that referred to as second bottom, of superior richness. The bottoms along the War- rior River, which constitutes the western boundary line, with few exceptions, are subject to overflow, and are not regarded as valuable as those higher up and beyond the reach of the water- mark. Along these lower bottoms there is a terrace of land called second bottoms, which are not exposed to overflow. As has been said, the northeastern part of the country is more or less hilly. It is not cultivated except in isolated tracts; but the thin- ness of the soil is atoned for by the abundance of yellow or long-leaf jjine, which jjossesses rare value because of its location and its relation to the ad- joining domains of rich prairie lands. In the eastern portion there is a commingling of sand and red loam, which makes the lands exceedingly valuable for agricultural purposes. The staple protluctions grown in the South are raised in Hale, viz. : cotton, corn, peas and pota- toes. Many other elements are produced, as the statistics at the head of this article will show, and every year increases more and more the variety of crops. Rice, sugar and tobacco are gradually receiving more attention. Farms for the produc- tion of hay are coming annually more into note. and there is a corresponding improvement in stock. The principal timbers which stock the forests of Hale are oak, maple, hickory, gum, long- and short-leaf pine, poplar and ash. The county abounds in excellent streams, which not only will furnish supplies of water for house and farm purposes, but for manufactories as well. Chief among the streams may be mentioned War- rior River, Big Prairie, Little Prairie, German, Big, Brush, Five Mile, Gabriels, and Elliott's Creeks. Together with the abounding springs, these streams afford amjile sujiplies of water. Late geological surveys have established the fact that there are large deposits of phosj^hate in Hale County. Means of transf)ortation are furnished by the Warrior River, the Cincinnati, Selma & Mobile, the Alabama, Great Southern & East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroads, and Chicago & Gulf Railroad. The county is throughout sui^plied with educa- tional advantages. Agricultural lands may be had for from 82 to $30 per acre. Pine lands will cost from $1.3.5 to $5 per acre. These lands are everywhere supplied with streams of water. Artesian wells abound, especially in the southern portion. A desire pre- vails to have the county populated with thrifty immigrants. There are about 1,000 acres of Government land in Hale County. [See Greensborough, this volume.] X. MACON COUNTY. Population: White, 4,587; colored, 1"^,786. Area, G30 square miles. Woodland, all. Gravel- ly hills, with long-leaf jiiiie, 330 square miles; prairie and metamorphic regions, 300 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 56,763; in corn, ■,'3,833; in oats, 6,195: in wheat, 1,016; in rye, 45; in sugar-cane, 140; in sweet potatoes, 9"^S. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 15,000. County Seat — Tuskegee; population, •■i,500; 40 miles from Montgomery. Newspaper jmblished at County Seat — News (Democratic). Postoftices in the County — dough's Store, Cotton Valley, Cowles Station, Creek Stand, Dick's Creek, Gabbett, La Place, Xotasulga, Shorter's Depot, Society Hill, Swamp, Tuskegee, Warrior Stand. Macon County was formed in 1832, and named for Nathaniel Macon, Esq., of North Carolina. The county has long been noted for the intelli- gence and thrift of its inhabitants. Prior to the war its centers of interest were abodes of wealth, intelligence and refinement. The county has been gradually rallying from the prostrating influ- ences of the war, and is now assuming its wonted place among the best counties of the State. Its social and nniterial advantages are vast, and, when combined, they furnish the county elements of advancement inferior to none of the agricultural counties of the great Cotton Belt. The general surface of the county is undulat- ing, except in the northwest, which is inclined to hills; but there are no elevations of note within the territory of Macon. The lands, as a rule, lie quite well for drainage and cultivation. In the northern, northeastern and northwestern portions of the county the soil is of a light, sandy charac- ter. Skirting the watercourses it is much more fertile and productive. In the southern, south- eastern and southwestern parts of the county the soils are very fine, being a rich loam, with clay, lime, or sand predominating, according to the lo- cality. Usually sjjcaking the bottoms of tiie county are very fertile. While Chewacla Creek, for the most part, winds its way through regions iif pine, there are to be found bordering it lands of a bluish hue which are very productive. Per- haps the richest lands lie along Big Swamp Creek. Thus it will be seen that a diversity of soils pre- vails throughout the entire county, and this gives rise to a diversity of crops. Chief among the products of the farm are cotton, corn, potatoes, peas, wheat, oats, rye, millet, rice, sugar-cane and peanuts. Domestic grasses have as yet received but lit- tle attention. Swamp cane grows in rank profu- sion along the watercourses, and sometimes serves to sustain stock during an entire winter. Fruits are easily grown in the soils of Macon — apples, pears, peaches, grapes, cherries, walnuts, plums, figs, quinces, pomegranates, raspberries, straw- berries and melons yield readily in proportion to the attention bestowed upon them, ilany wild fruits are found in the old fields, and along the edge of swamps and through the forests. These include blackberries, strawberries, dewberries, mus- cadines, chestnuts, etc. Through the swamps the towering oaks yield a vast abundance of mast, which serves to fatten the hogs during the fall and winter, without the owners being subjected to the slightest expense. The county is watered by the Ufoupee, Chewacla, Calebee, Big Swamj), Cupiahatchee and Oakfus- kee Creeks. The Tallapoosa Kiver sweeps through the northwestern corner. JIany smaller streams exist, furnishing an abundant water sujiply to all parts of the county. The water from the springs and wells is pure and delightful. The timbers are oak, hickory, pine, jioplar, beech, red elm, gum, magnolia, and maple. The forests are frequently drawn upon for the manu- factories. There are two railroads which furnish transport- ation for the products of the county, viz.: the Western Bailroadand the Tuskegee Narrow Guage. These serve to place the county into easy connec- .'05 206 NORTHERN ALABAMA. tion with the great lines which converge both at Montgomery and Atlanta. The towns of impor- tance are Tuskegee, the county seat, Xotasulga, and La Place. Tuskegee has long been famous as an education- al seat. Here is located the Alabama Conference Female College, which is an institution of great merit: and the Alabama High School for boys and young men. At the other places named, are good schools, and indeed in every part of the county are good common schools. Churches exist in towns and country alike, affording facilities for re- ligious worship. The moral tone of the society in Macon County ia excellent. XI. MONTGOMERY COUNTY. Population: White, 15,000; colored, 30,000. Area, TiO square miles. Woodland, all. Level and hilly prairies, of which 75 square miles have a coating of drift, 640 square miles sandy and peb- bly hills, with 100 square miles pine. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 11"^, 100; in corn, 62,300: in oats, 4,800; in wheat, 58; in sugar-cane, l'i'4; in sweet potatoes, 1,720. Api^roximate number of bales of cotton, 32,000. County Seat — Montgomery: population, 25,000; on Alabama Kiver, 197 miles northeast of Mobile, at the centering point of six railroads. Newspapers published at the County Seat — Ad- vertiser (Democratic), Dispatch (Democratic), AS'^r;/-, Alabama Uaptisf (Denominational), Herald (Re- publican), Odd Fellows' Journal. PostofSces in the County — Ada, Arcadia, Ba- rachias, Catoma, Chambers, Devenport, Hope Hull, Legrand, Mathews, Meadville, Montgomery, Mount Carmel, Mount Meigs, Myrtle, Panther, Patterson, Pike Eoad, Pine J.evel, Pugli, Raif Branch, Earner, Snowdoun, Stoddard, Strata, Tharin, Woodley. Montgomery was one of the first counties in the State, being erected by an act of the Legislature of the Territory of Mississippi, bearing date De- cember 6, 1816. Originally this county was formed from Monroe County, and comprised al- most the whole of Central Alabama, south of the mountains of Blount County, to the Cahaba Eiver, from the watershed between Tombigbee and War- rior Eivers on the west, to the lands of the Creek Indians on the east. From the original territory of Montgomery the following counties have been wholly taken: Autauga, Bibb, Dallas and Shelby. St. Clair was formed entirely of the latter county. The following counties were formed in portion from the area of Montgomery directly: Bullock, Elmore, Lowndes and Perry, while other counties have been formed from counties which were con- stituted out of the territory taken from Montgom- ery County. The princii^al products of the county are cot- ton and corn. Of late years considerable atten- tion is being paid to the jiroduction of oats and grasses, while stock-raising is noted as growing, and the profits in this branch tends to the belief that it will become more general within the next few years. Fruits and early vegetables do well in this county, and largely increasing quantities of the latter are shijiped north every year. The forests are timbered with oak, hickory, short-leaf pine, poplar, gum, magnolia, beech, hawthorn, wild plum and ash. The principal streams which water the county are the Alabama and Tallapoosa Rivers, Lime, Ea- rner, Catoma, Pintlala and other smaller and un- important creeks. The county is intersected by the Louisville & Xasliville, the Western, the ilontgomery & Eu- faula, the Selma & Montgomery, the ^lobile & Montgomery, and the Montgomer}- & Florida Eail- roads. The latter is a narrow-gauge road, which is now being built to the Florida line, through a NOJiTHER.V ALABAMA. 207 very rich portion of Southeast Alabama. The following railroads are projected: the Alabama Midland, the Montgomery, Hayneville and Cam- den, and tlie(ireat Northwestern of Alabama, and the .Montgomery & Chattanooga. The subject of building a railroad to connect with the Anniston U'oad at Svlacauga is being discussed. The county is well provided with facilities for religious worship, there being in it churches of all denominations. The schools are the equal of any in the South, and in Montgomery the public schools will compare favorably with any similar institutions in the country. [See Montgomery City, this volume.] Xll. MARENGO COUNTY. Population: White, 1,'i',Q: colored, 23,G17. Area. 050 square miles. Woodland, all. Prairie oak and hickory uplands, with long-leaf pine and post-oak flat wood. Acres in cotton SO, 790: in corn, 43,870; in oats, G,.5T4; in sugar-cane, 43; in tobacco, 43; in rice, 2G; in sweet potatoes, 1,138. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 24,000. County Seat — Linden; population, 300; 52 miles southwest of Selma. Newspajier published at County Seat — Reporter (Democratic.) Postoffices in the County — Clay Hill, Dayton, Demopolis, Dixon's Mills, Faunsdale, Gay's Land- ing, Hampden. Hoboken, Jefferson, Linden, Luther's Store, .McKinley, Magnolia, J[oss. Myrtlewood, Xanafalia, \icholsville, Nixonville, Octago, Old Spring Hill, Putman, IJembert, Shiloh, Sweet Water, Tombigbee, Van Dorn, Williamsburgh. This historic county was settled by French immigrants after the fall of Xapoleon L, and was organized as a county in the year 1818. It is one of the largest counties of Alabama, containing 960 square miles, or about 015,000 acres. Its soil, for the most part, is fertile, and the uplands offer as great advantages to the agriculturist as can be found in the world, combining, as they do, healthfulness witli great productiveness. It has a population of about 3o,O00, three-fourths of whom are blacks. The white population is made up largely of immigrants from the older States, and their descendants, chiefly from the States of Virginia and South Carolina. Throughout its length and breadth the county possesses intelli- gent, substantial citizens, far above the average of agricultural communities. Prior to the war be- tween the States the people of the upper portion of the county were noted for their wealth, culture and hospitality, and, although impoverished by the Avar, they yet retain the characteristics of ante-bellum days. The northern portion of Marengo County is level, or slightly undulating. The soils vary, being partly stifE prairie and partly light, sandy loams. There is prevailing in some parts of this section a post-oak soil, which is heavy, sandy clay, of reddish and yellowish colors. The county is diversified throughout with hills, plains and fertile valleys. The great stretches of prairie arc broken here and there by a line of hills, which overlook vast regions of country or gaze down upon rich valleys. The several soils are black prairie, which belong to the plains; the mulatto soils, which belong to the higher table- lands, and the gray hnmmock. As is true through- out the counties of the Black Pelt, the most valuable of these soils is the black prairie, but all are valuable under different circumstances. Over these limelands grows the mellilotus, or honey- weed, an excellent forage herb, of which stock of all kinds are exceedingly fond. Oftentimes it grows to the height of six feet, and overspreads 208 NORTHERN A LAB A AT A. the bare lime rock. Eaisers of stock prize it quite highl}' for its nutritious qualities. The cane-brake lands of Marengo are found in the northern end of the county, and extend south- ward about ten or fifteen miles. These lands have long been proverbial for their marvelous productive qualities. From about the center southwards the lands become thinner with a sandy surface. About the county occur the "flat woods," which extend with varying width across the country from east to west. The average width is five or six miles. This region of flat woods is slightly undulating, and, because of the waxiness of the soil, is sought by the planter. Upon analysis, the soils of this peculiar section are found to be deficient in lime, though in some jiortions of it cotton grows remarkably well. Early in the spring the wild clover (lespedaza), begins to show itself in this flat woods country, and attains to the height of two or three feet. A finer grazing region was never seen than this flat woods section, which sweeps without interruption from the Tombigbee to the Alabama Eiver. This wild clover is eag- erly sought by all kinds of stock, and lasts from March or April until the coldest jjeriods of winter. Where streams flow across the flat woods they arethickly bordered with luxuriant swamp cane. Lower down still are the famous Eembert hills, the favorite resort of the planters of the past as a region in which to establish their homes. These high hills overlook the rich valleys which lie along Beaver Creek. Along the last named stream are outcropjiings of marl beds, which lend additional richness to the soils. All these lands — the black prairie and the brown loam on the uplands, as well as the light gray — are valuable and product- ive. The crops usually produced are corn, cot- ton, peas, sweet potatoes, millet, oats, and sugar- cane. Corn and cotton thrive about equally well upon the different lands. Xlll. PERRY COUNTY. Population : White, 7.500 ; colored, ^2,591. Area, 700 square miles. Woodland, all. Gravelly hills, with long-leaf j^ine, 4G0 square miles. Prairie region, 3"^5 square miles. Acres — In cotton, 75,303; in corn, 48,132; in oats, 6,003; in wheat, 440; in rye, 70; in rice, 27; in tobacco, 24; in sugar-cane, 20: in sweet pota- toes, 1,107. Approximate- number of bales of cotton, 22,000. County Seat — Marion; population, 2,500; located 30 miles northwest of Selma, on Cincinnati, Selma, & Mobile branch of the Western Eailroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Stan- dard, Normal Fepo?ier, Hoivard Collegian and Judson Echoes. Postoffices in County — Augustin, Bush Creek, Chadwick, Cruess, Felix, Hamburgh, Ironville, Jericho, Le Vert, Marion, Morgan Springs, Muse- ville, Oakmulgee, Perryville, Pine Tucky, Scott's Station, Sprott, Talmage, Theo, Uniontown, Vi- lula. Perry was created in 1819, and named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, of the United States Navy. The county lies between parallels 32 and 33 north latitude, and embraces most of the elevated lands between the Tombigbee and Alabama Eivers. Its maximum elevation is 470 feet, and its mini- mum 190 feet above sea level. The face of the country is somewhat broken, though there are no great elevations. The ex- treme western jiortion of the country is drained by small streams emptying into the Tombigbee, while the country generally slopes off gently to the east, and its waters shed off into the Cahaba and its tributaries. The highest land is somewhat sandy; NORTHERN ALABAMA. 209 the chief growth is the long-leaf pine. Next comes the prairie, "a gently umhilating trough-like plain lying between the ilrift liills on the north and similar ones on the south." The northern half of the county has an abun- dance of freestone water supplied by surface springs and wells: the prairie sections are supplied by pools and artesian wells. The climate is as mild and salulirious as can be found in the South. Our proximity to the Gulf gives us the benefit of its refreshing breezes. The summers are long, and the days are nnfrequently very hot, but our nights are cool and pleasant. Sunstroke is very rare. Mean temperature for fourteen years: spring, fi5. 3: summer, SO. \ mills, the county on 4 mills. There is a con- stitutional prohibition against any county levying a tax of more than ,"> mills. County school funds for the year ending Sep- tember :S0. 1886, were *11,03-^. Number of schools: wiiite, 3."); colored, o3; total, 88. Average number of teachers: white, 33; colored. .*>(); total. 83. Average number of pupils to teacher, 42. Average monthly pay of teachers, |i30.90. School age, seven to twenty-one years. Average length of schools, eighty days. Marion and Uniontown enjoy very superior public schools. No section enjoy.s greater advantages than this county in the number and character of its higher educational institutions. Located at Marion are two institutions of learn- ing that are second to none in the South; Jud- son Female Institute, founded in is:i'.t, denom- inational, Haptist: Marion Female Seminary, founded in 1830. non-sectarian. The prairie comprises about one-third of the county area, or about 170,000 acres. Sandy lands comprise the balance of the county area. There are no special features that are pecu- liar to these lands. Bottom lanils lie along the branches, creeks and Cahaba River, and are a superior kind of soil. The prairie lands can be bought at from 110 to ^1.") per acre; the clay lands from *8 to %Vl per acre; the sandy lands from %-l to %h, and the bottom lands from ^S to %\'l per acre. T.AIifLAK STATEMKXT KOU PKUUY COUNTY. Corn, average number of lbs. per acre 840 Cotton, ■• ' " 414 Hye, 3.50 Wheat. 400 Oats, " 4.'50 Barley, " " " " " " 600 Potatoes, " " " 4,ij00 Hay, 4.000 Average number of pounds per acre, 1,444. Total value of Perry County's products per acre about ^"^5. Corn, rye. barley and oats do well in this county, and with the proper attention as much can be pro- duced as anywhere else on the globe. Wheat usually suffers with rust. Forty years ago these lands produced, on an average, twenty bushels of wheat per acre. All grasses do well, but especially red clover, nieliotns, Johnson grass. Japanese clover and Bermuda. Sorghum cane can be raised here in the greatest abundance, and if it will pay anywhere to raise it, it will pay nowhere better than here. Sugar-cane pays well on our mulatto lands. All kinds of vegetables grow here, and of most of them two crops can be made. Two crops of Irith potatoes, or Irish potatoes first and sweet potatoes next, on the same ground. The county is doing something in stock raising, and the success that has attended the little that has been done, promises to revolutionize the present surroundings. There are two railroads through the county; the Alabama Central and the Selma & Memphis: the Alabama Grand Trunk, leading from Mobile to Birmingham, is now under construction, and will be completed in about six months. This road will bisect the county from south to north, giving us direct communication with Mobile on the south, and Birmingham, Bessemer, Annis- ton, Decatur, Sheffield, etc., on the nortli. In addition to the above, the following roads have been chartered, and will run through the county: Chicago & Gulf Air Line: Baltimore, Birmingham & Gulf; Bessemer & Selma; Selma & Cahaba Val- 210 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ley, and a through trunk line to Pensacola. The Kansas City & Birmingham Railway will also be built through this county to the Gulf. Cahaba River, for all practical purposes, is past navigating. We have the very best society in this country, and this does not mean aristocracy in any sense. No section in the Union offers so many induce- ments to those who are seeking homes in the genial South than Perry County, Ala. With a cli- mate mild and healthy, with tJie best of soil, and in great variety, with good prices for products and low prices for land and labor; with unsurpassed educational surroundings: with plenty of markets near at hand and good facilities to reach them; with great timber resources; with the best of society; with the greatest iron, limestone and coal beds in the world in the counties joining us on the north; with pure water, purer atmosphere, high and dry, we extend to the northern farmers a most cordial welcome to come and live amongst us, and reap the great harvest that is ready and waiting for the intelligent and progressive farmer. We say, and it is beyond the possibility of contradic- tion, that every acre of land in this county will yield enough in crop products to pay for itself in one year. If you have the means to buy our land and sustain yourself for one year, you need have no misgivings on this score. The land will pay for itself in one year, acre for acre, that is culti- vated. It will do it now, and if more could be asked of any land it is an unreasonable demand. Besides many smaller streams, there are the Cahaba River, and the Washington, Legreon, Blue Cat, Brush, Belcher's, Five Mile, Big and Bogue Chitta Creeks in Perry. A bounteous supply of water is furnished from the copious wells which are found in every portion of the county. The valuation of taxable property in Perry County, for the year 1887,U $2, 977,890, as shown by the abstract of assesssment filed with the Auditor. UNIONTOW^N. JOHN C. WELCH, Mayor of Uniontown, was born September 6, 1845, in Itawamba Coixnty, Miss. He is a son of Henry H. and Emily (Patterson) Welch, natives respectively of North Carolina and Georgia. His father throughout his life was a merchant, and died at his home in iliss- issipi^i, in 188.5. Our subject attended the common schools at his home, until fifteen years old, and then enlisted in the Confederate service, in that organization known as the Confederate Guards' Artillery, under command of Captain Bradford. He remained in active service throughout the course of the war, and during the time was in a number of severe bat- tles. Returning from the war, he located at Col- umbus, Miss., in 1865, where he began the jewelry business, and remained there six months. In the early part of 1866, he came to Uniontown, and began the same business, which he has enlarged by adding books and stationery. Mr. Welch has also been closely identified with the city government of Uniontown for a number of vears. He was for more than eleven years a member of the city coun- cil, was city treasurer for several years, and served as tax assessor. In March, 1887, he was elected mayor of Uniontown, and has held the office ever since. He possesses many of the traits which would give one standing in any locality, for to the better instincts of the polished Christian gentle- man, he adds the tact and adaptiveness of the business man of the world, a combination at once calculated to inspire confidence and esteem. It is needless to say that he has won such a stand- ing among those with whom he has resided for so long a time. John C. Welch was married in December, 1874, to Miss Carrie, a daughter of Warren DuBose and H. H. Stewart, of Hale County, Ala. Their family consists of four children — John C Jr., Stewart H., Annie S. and Evelyn. Our subject is a member of the Masonic Order, a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and secretary of the Sunday-school of Uniontown. XORTHERN ALABAMA. 211 JOHN MILTON SADLER. M.D., Physician and I)ni2; in sugar-cane, 42; in tobacco, 1:5: in sweet potatoes, 1,050. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 25,00(1. County Seat — Livingston; population, 1,200; on Alabama & Great Southern Kailroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Jouinud, Democratic. Postoffices in the County — Alaniuchee, Belmont, Coatopa, Cuba Station, Curl's Station, Dove, Epes' Station, Gainesville, Gaston, Kinterbish, LiviiKjs- /on, McDowell, Kamsey, Kosser, Shernum, Sum- terville, Warsaw, York Station. Sumter County was organized in l.s:i2. and was named for Gen. Thomas Sumter, of South Caro- lina. A line running northwest and southeast through Livingston would mark approximately the limit iif the prairies which form the upper part of Sum- ter County down to that line. I'his part of the countv has an average elevation of 150 feet above tide, and is underlaid throughout with the rot- ten limestone of the cretaceous formation. This material is directly concerned in the formation of a considerable proportion of the soils, which are in some cases little more than the disintegrated lime- stone mixed with organic matter. Where this rock forms the surface the country is gently un- dulating, and the differences in level are very slight. Interpersed, however, throughout this whole cane- brake region, are ridges and hills capped with sand and pebbles of the stratified drift formation. These ridges are occasionally elevated l.")0 feet and more above the surrounding country, and 2.">0 feet above the river. Their distribution, structure and other circumstances point to the conclusion that they are the remnants of a once universal cover- ing of drift. Where this formation is at the sur- face, the soils are sandy loams of the usual drift type. These loams, in mingling with the disin- tegrated limestone give rise to a class of soils known as post-oak or prairie soils. Southwest of the line above alluded to, and occupying a belt varying in width from five to eight miles, aie the so-called flatwoods or post-oak 216 NORTHERN ALABAMA. flatwoods. This division shares with the prairies their gently undulating surface and elevation above tide. It rests, however, upon a bluish, tena- cious clay of the lowest tertiary formation. Like the prairies this belt is covei'ed in spots with the sands and other material of the drift, and the var- ieties of soils thus produced by intermixture are quite numerous. Beyond the flatwoods, in the southwestern part of the county, the sandy and clayey strata of the lignitic group of the tertiary are, as a rule,hidden from view by the overlying beds of sand and pebbles and red loam of a later forma- tion. This portion of the county presents the usual characters of the drift regions so often pie- viously described. The high, level table-lands which occupy the main water-sheds have a sandy loam soil and red-loam subsoil resting upon sand and pebbles, and these in turn overlie the lami- nated clays and other beds of the lignitic group. Sometimes the surface is made up of deep beds of sand, as is the case near Gaston. The growth upon these sandy tracts consists mostly of long-leaf pine and blackjack oak. Beds of lignite are exposed in many places thi'oughout this section, and one of these, in a cut along the Alabama Great South- ern Railroad, has been on fire for many years. As yet this lignite has not been profitably used as a fuel. The agricultural relations of Sumter County are similar to the adjoining counties of Mississippi and Alabama, which are situated in the same belt, which is pre-eminently the cotton belt of the State. While the soils of this belt are, perhaps, in the elements of plant-food not much superior to those of other divisions, they are rendered more thrifty by the usually large percentage of lime. Livingston is a pretty city, and is the seat of sev- eral important institutions of learning. Gaines- ville, Ejjps, York and Cuba are the other points of interest. Transportation lines abound throughout Sum- ter. The Alabama Great Southern and the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroads both traverse the county, and cross at York. A rail- road is expected soon to unite Gainesville with Narkeeta, Miss. Both the Tombigbee and Noxu- bee Rivers are navigable. These several lines place the county in readiest communication with the north, west, east and extreme south. The points of interest in the county are Living- ston, the county seat, with a jiopulation of 1,200, Gainesville, Epes, York, Cuba, and Warsaw. In most of these places the tone of society is excel- lent. Edticational facilities are good throughotit the county. At Livingston there is a high school for boys and young men, with an able corps of professors. This school will compare favorably with any insti- tiTtion in the State. There is also a normal col- lege for girls. This is a school of great repute, and conducted by educators of State and National reputation. Lands may be purchased at prices ranging from 83 to $12 per acre. Many of these lands embrace beds of marl. This fertilizer is mined in large quantities near Coatopa, and shipped to ileridian. Miss. Sumter County embraces ;5,<140 acres of Govern- ment land. LIVINGSTON, LiviNuSTON was founded about the year 1833. It is located upon a beautiful sandy plateau, with the black, undulating prairies on the north and east, and the Sucarnatchee River on the south and west. Prior to its settlement by the whites it is said to have been an Indian village and a favorite resort for the pastimes of the Red Men. Its groves of green trees, overspreading leagues of white sand with an occasional patch of grass, were well calculated to lure the wild hunter to rest, the youths in their primitive games of ball, and the dusky lovers of the forest wilds. For many years prior to the civil war, Livingston was a favorite place of residence of the wealthy planters who built handsome houses along its broad, shady streets, while their slaves tilled the prairie planta- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 217 tions in the adjacent regions. Thus the place came to be, even in its earliest days, one of social elegance and refinement. Upon the organization of the county of Sumter, Livingston became the seat of justice, a distinc- tion which it enjoys to-day. It has a population of about 1,200. It is located upon the Alabama (ireat Southern Division of the famous Queon & Crescent Line, which extends from Cincinnati to New Orleans. South of Livingston nine miles, at the village of York, the East Tennessee, \'ir- giiiia & Georgia Hailroad system crosses the Ala- bama Great Southern; and north, at Akron, thirty- tivo miles distant, the Western Railroad of Alabama forms a junction with the line upon which Liv- ingston is located. Of late years the place has become a watering resort and an educational center. While boring for water with which to supply the town, a saline current was reached, which, upon investigation and analysis, was found to contain wonderful curative i3roj)erties. Work was begun upon the well on December 13, 1854, ami it was not completed until April 1, 18.57. It is 1,im;2 feet deep, and yields about five pints every minute. The water caught at the spout in a clear glass discloses slight eirervescent ipialities, as the minute bubbles rise to the surface or cleave to the sides of the vessel. The water is saline in taste and to most persons is slightly unjjleasant when it is first drunk, but becomes quite palatable after drinking it a few times. Its temperature is 08 deg. Fahr., and from this does not vary. The following is an analysis of the water: FIXED INCREDIENTS. Silicic Acid and Silicates (Troy Grs) 1.138 Bi-Carb. of Iron " 0.204 Hi- Unrb. of .Magnesia '• 2..320 I'.i Curb, of Lime " 7.140 I'crc hloride of Iron '• 0.190 Chloride of iMajrnesium ■' 1.^39 Chloride of C'aUium " 2.983 Chloride of Potassium " 0.325 Chloride of Sodium " 29ri.435 Strontiii " Trace Bromide of Sodium " 11.980 312.554 Persons resort to the waters from every section of the f nion. especially sufferers from dyspepsia and chronic affections of the bowels, and find the waters exceedingly beneficial. Large rpiantities of the water are also shijjped. The well is upon a corner of the public square, which is coverul throughout with a carpet of green grass and shaded by broad-branched water oaks. Within easy distance of the well are spacious hotels and livery stables. There are located in the town two schools of re- pute — a boys' high school, and the Alabama Nor- mal Female College. They arc liberally patronized not only by the people of Alabama, luit by those of the adjacent States. The town sustains two banks. In the surrounding sections are some of the most fertile agricultural lands to be found in the famous Black Belt. With its social, religious and educational advantages, Livingston is the peer of any town of the same size in the South. -«-. -^ REV. B. F. RILEY, D. D., the subject of this sketch is a native Ahibamian. He was born near the village of rineville, .Monroe (.'ounty, July 16, 1849. Keared in a country home far in the interior, his early scholastic advantages were meagre. His early years were chiefly spent laboring on his father's farm, with occasional alternations of at- tendance at a country school. At the age of eighteen he asked permission of his father to leave home, in order that he might secure an education. Going to Starlington, Butler County, he taught a primary school, where he made his first money. In his nineteenth year he went to Erskine Col- lege, S. C, and begged that he be taken on trial in the sophomore class. Ilis training had been so defective that he found it difficult to retain his place in the class, but, overcoming all barriers, he pushed through and graduated in 18T1. His original purpose was to prepare for the bar, but this idea he abandoned and chose the ministry instead. After the completion of his course at Erskine, he ei^ered the Southern Baptist Theological Semi- nary, then at Greenville, S. C, but his health had been so impaired by the taxation of his strength in his literary course, that he had to give up the prosecution of his theological studies. Returning to Alabama, he engaged in manual labor, in order to recuperate his strength for the further pursuit of his divinity coilrse. After the lapse of a year or more he entered the Crozer Theological Seminary, near Philadel]ihia, and returned to Alabama in 18T6. He has served as jmstor of the Baptist Churches 218 NORTHERN ALABAMA. at Snow Hill and Opelika, Ala., and Albany, Ga. At present he is pastor at Livingston, Ala. In 1885 he was honored with the title of Doctor of Divinity by the State University. Dr. Riley's tastes are decidedly literary. He has accumulated an excellent library, and is a regular contributor to some of the leading jour- nals of the country. He has written two small works — one a local history, the History of Conecuh County, Ala., and the Immigrants' and Capitalists' Guide-Book to Alabama. The latter work was purchased by the State for gratuitous distribution, and is used in the interest of immigration. Dr. Riley has other works in course of prepara- tion, which will be issued as early as the exactions of his pastoral work will allow. REV. JEREMIAH M. BOLAND, A. M., is a minister of the Metliodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a son of David and Mary (Jones) Boland, natives of South Carolina, and of German and English descent, respectively. Mr. Boland's grandfather came from Germany to South Carolina prior to the Revolutionary War, and participated in that struggle for liberty. His father, David Boland, came to Georgia in 1837, and was a successful farmer in Muscogee County. He reared a family of four daughters and six sons to maturity. Three of his sons became min- isters in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Rev. Elijah Boland was for years a member of the Georgia Conference, and died at Rome, Ga., in 1863, while acting as chaplain of a hospital. Rev. Josiah A. Boland is now a member of the North- west Texas Conference. His brother William was in the Mexican War under General Scott, and James F. belonged to a Georgia Regiment during the late civil war and was killed at Gettysburg, while John Boland, an uncle, was a captain in the famous Seminole War in Florida. Rev. Jeremiah M. Boland was born July 12, 1835, and was brought up at Columbus, Ga. He came to Alabama while in his "teens," and was educated at Summerfield in th« male department of Centenary College. He received the degree of A. M. from Hiwassee College, in Tennesee. In 1859, he joined the Alabama Conference. The first ten years of his itinerant life were spent in South Alabama ; the next decade were spent in Xortli Alabama, during which time he was Pre- siding Elder on the Huntsville District, and station ^jreacher at Talladega and Tuscaloosa He was a delegate to the General Conference in 1874 and 1878, from the North Alabama Conference. During his stay in North Alabama, he made a deeji imj^ression as an able preacher, a strong writer, and a fine organizer. He was in the Bish- op's cabinet which organized the North Alabama Conference in 1870, and stood the peer of any man in it. He was also one of the leading actors in establishing the ''Alabama Christian Advocate," the official organ of the two Alabama Con- ferences. Mr. Boland returned to South Alabama at the close of 1878, and has served as presiding elder of the Pensacola, the Union Springs and the Selma Districts. He now has charge of Livingston and Eutaw Stations — his home being at Livingston. For years Mr. Boland has been a regular cor- respondent of several leading periodicals of his church, and his articles have been copied in other periodicals, and read by a large number of admir- ing readers. Some of his articles have been copied into European periodicals. In addition to several good sized pamphlets, he is the author of a 12 mo. volume of 331 jiages, bearing the title, "Tlie Prob- lem of Methodism," which has just been pub- lished by the " Southern Methodist Publishing House," at Nashville, Tenn., and of which the Book Editor, Rev. W. P. Harrison, D. D., speaks in very complimentary terms. The "Irish Correspondent"' of the Nashville Advocate says: "Mr. Boland is a fine and vigorous writer. He thinks. He is possessed of strong mental grasp and wide intellectual girth. He writes like a Christian philosopher, or rather like an able metaphysician, who is faithful to the Cross. I always read his articles with more than ordinary interest, and shall always be right glad to meet him with pen in hand in any walk of literature in which he may jjlease to travel." Mr. Boland has been married twice. He was married, in 1860, to Miss Sallie E. Pennington, and by her he had four daughters and one son. After her death, in January, 1881, he was married in May, 18»2, to Miss Hattie .John, daughter of Chancellor John, of Selma, Ala. Mr. Boland is a Royal Arch-Maspn. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 219 JEREMIAH H. BROWN, son of an English fatluT !ind Knglisli niotlier, was born in Darling- ton District, S. C, in 1800. ITis father, Samuel Brown, was a minister of the Baptist t'liurch, and a man of great wealth. J. II. Brown graduated at .South Carolina Col- lege in \%i'.\ with the highest honors, and soon after studied law and was admitted to the bar, but never jiracticed the profession because it had no attractions for him, and the management of his interests on his plantations occupied his entire time. At the time of his graduation he found himself ready to start in life with more than sixty field hands aiul a very large tract of land. lie was married in 1834 to Miss Julia, daughter of Hobert 1 lines, and in the following year came to Alabama, brought his slaves with him, and settle-,1 near Sumterville. In his treatment of his slaves, he is said to have been very kind and indulgent. He gave them every Saturday the entire day for their own, and fiirnished them with good churches and white preachers on Sunday, and saw that they had a reasonable amount of instruction and religious training. His business increased until he found himself the master of more tiian a thousand slaves, and a jilantation of more than eight thousand acres of land in the most fertile portion of Alabama. He was a Bap- tist, and more devoted to his Church than people ordinarily are, and his enormous wealth gave him opportunity for doing a great deal of good. For many years he donated $1.5,000 every year to the missionary cause. He furnished the means to educate forty young men in Howard College for the ministry in his Church. In 185.") he endowed the Brown Theological Chair in Howard College with ?i5"),o0{i: and his treatment of the poor of his neighborhood was in a similar degree of benefi- cence. In the Baptist Encyclopa'dia of 1881, he is called "a princely planter, an intelligent and cultivated gentleman of vast intluenee, and liberal with his money." Probably no man in Alabama ever did so much good with money as he. During the war he furnished the means to equip and provide for, ])erhaps, more than a regiment of soldiers, and after the emancipation, so great was the affec- tion of his slaves, that many of them declared that they iiad no desire for freedom, but pre- ferred to remain in his service. Mr. Brown died at the house of his daugliter, Mrs. H. S. Lide, February 10, 1868. He left two sons and one daughter, all of whom are now living. Laura, the elder child, was married in 1853, to Col. H. S. Lide. a successful farnie and aide-de-camp to Governor Shorter during the war, but he resigned that position and took one of more active service in the army. He died in 18T9. His widow was married October .5, 1880, to Dr. James (J. Forster, of Livings- ton, where they now reside. She had five chil- dren by the first marriage, of whom three are sons and two are daughters. Mrs. Forster is a stanch Baptist. Dr. Forster was born in Clarke County. Ala., in 18',;ii. He merchandised in his younger days, studied medicine and graduated at the L'niver- sity of Louisiana at New Orleans in 1856, and has practiced medicine ever since. The Doctor was married in 1S47 to Miss Eliza M. Gilmore, and had five children by that marriage, two sons and three daughters, one of whom is dead. One of the three daughters is married to Samuel Ruffin, Jr. ; one son, W. C. Forster, is practicing med- icine in Birmingham, and James M., the young- est, is with a commercial house in Meridian. Dr Forster is a ^lethodist, and a Mason. •«^?g^' <" ■ WILLIAM R. DeLOACH, Judge of the Pro- bate Court of Sumter County, was born at the town where he now resides, in the year 184"^. His father was the late Dr. A. B. DeLoach, a luitive of Tennessee, and his mother was, before marriage, a Jfiss Roby, of the State of Georgia. William K. DeLoach finished his educational training at Professor Tutwiler's excellent institu- tion at Greene Springs, Ala., and at the out- break of the late war promptly enlisted as a pri- vate soldier in the Southern Army. As a member of the Army of Virginia, he participated in many hotly contested engagements, and upon his person bears several scars in commemoration of Cold Har- bor, Chancellorsville, Antietani, etc. Late in the war he was transferred to the West- ern Army, and became a captain in Gen. Forrest's cavalry. At the close of hostilities, he returned to his native place, and was some time afterward elected to the office of Ta.x Assessor, a position he lield for ten consecutive years. In 1880 he was elected to the Probate Judgeship, and re-elected in 1886. Judge DeLoach is a num of high standing in 220 NORTHERN ALABAMA. tlie community where his life has been spent. He is a modest, unostentatious, wide-awake, progress- ive citizen ; enjoying the confidence and esteem of the good people among whom he resides. Such is the tribute paid him by one of the best-known citizens of Alabama. In 1867, our subject was married to Susan T. Gibbs, a daughter of the late Charles R. Gibbs, a colonel in the War of 1812. REUBEN CHAPMAN, Attorney-at-law, son of the late Hon. Samuel C'hapmau, native of Vir- ginia, was born in Madison County, this State, May 25, 1833. The senior Chapman was born in in 1791; removed from Virginia to Tennessee in his early manhood, there became State's Attorney General; and, in 1818, came to Alabama, settling in Madison County. He was a member of the first Legislature that assembled after the admission of this State into the Union, and, as he lived till 1803, he was many years the sole survivor of that body. He was thirty years a Judge of nisi prius Courts, twelve of the county and eighteen of the circuit- He removed to Livingston in 1834, and called that place home thereafter, though his last days were spent at the residence of his son-in law, Gen. E. W. Pettus, at Cahaba. He died October 11, 1863, at the age of seventy-two years. His younger brother, Reuben Chapman, is known in the history of our country as Governor of Alabama and member of the United States Congress. [See Gov. Reuben Chapman, this volume.] The subject of this sketch received a thorough educational training at some of the best institu- tions in the countr}', and studied law under Colonel Wetmore, at Livingston. He was licensed to practice by the Supreme Court in January, 1856, and the year following hung out his shingle at the thriving little village of Carrollton. He was expounding the intricacies of Blackstone, Chitty, and Coke upon Littleton, at this suburban retreat, when the tocsin of war summoned him to the defense of his State. During 1861 and a part of 1862, he was attached to the Army of Virginia as a cajitain in the Eleventh Alabama Infantry. His health compelling his resignation, lie returned home, where he speedily recujierated sufficiently to re enter the service, which he did as a member of Bradford's Battalion of Scouts. He remained with this command until the close of the war, when he returned to Livingston and resumed the practice of law. I'o his profession he has assiduously devoted his time and his talents. Always inter- ested and active in the political advancement of friends, he has sought no preferment in that line for himself. In March. Is61, at Livingston, Mr. Chapman was married to Miss Rebecca S. Arrington, daugh- ter of Robert Arrington, who came from Xorth Carolina in the early history of the State, and was a member of that numerous and honorable family so well known throughout the South. Mrs. Chapman died March 1, 1866, leaving two children — a daughter, Alta, at present a popular teacher in Livingston Normal College, and Robert A., now a business man at Sheffield. Captain Chapman's second wife was Miss Mary C. Scruggs, also of Livingston. They were mar- ried July 27, 1870, and their children are Lillie Beck, Reuben, Anna and Lulu. h4>> REV. W. T. ALLEN, Rector in charge of the Episcopal Church, was born iu Shenandoah Valley, Clarke County, Va., on December 15, 1855. He remained there, living on his father's farm, and attending the neighborhood schools until he was' nineteen years of age. In 187-t, he taught school in West Mrginia, and in 1876 went to the Theolog- ical Seminary of Virginia, where he remained two years. While there his health was shattered by typhoid fever, which nearly proved fatal. Being called to teach in the Church School in Seguin, Tex., his health being impaired, he accepted and taught till 1879, studying theology meanwhile, under the principal. Rev. Wallace Carnahan. In 1879 he was ordained deacon by the late Bishop Elliott, at San Antonio, Tex., and placed in charge of Boerne, Tex., and points adjacent. Having built a neat church in this place, in 1881, he went to the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., and remained two years. In 1883, he took charge of San Marcos, Tex., and other points. AVhile here he was ordained to the priesthood by the late Bishop Elliott. In December, 1884, being called to Eufaula and Livingston, Ala., he ac- cepted the latter, Avhere he has remained uj:) to date, having Boligee and Gainesville, also, under his charge. He was married in December, 1885, to the widow of the late Dr. Pettey and daughter of the late Jesse Weissinger, of Dallas County, Ala. The great-grandfather of our subject. Col. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 221 Thomas Allen, came from Comity Armagh, Ire- hiiul, aiul settled in Shenandoah Valley, Va., in 1732. He commanded a regiment in the War of the Kevolution, and was presented with a sword by tlie .State for distinguished services. 'J"he grand- fatiier of our subject, D, II. Allen, on of Col. Thomas Allen, was a graduate of Princeton C^ol- lege. studied and practiced law for a time, but retired early to his estates, spending his time in making the family residence, Clifton, one of the handsomest in the State. His eldest sister married (ieneral llussell, of the Kevolution, one of whose daughters married a son of Henry Clay. I). H. Allen married a daughter of Col. (Jriftin Taylor, whose wife was descended from Laird McKinnon and Lady Anne Maitland, of Scotland. The father of our subject, also named W. T. Allen, graduated at Princeton in 183'.). In 1841 he went to the Pacific as Secretary to the Commodore of the PaciQc Squadron. In 18-10 he married iliss E. Bayly, of Fauquier County, \'a., and settled on a farm, relieving the monotony of it by literary and scientific pursuits. One of these was the study of ornithology. He made life-size portraits of 150 species of Virginia birds, which, being submitted to the late Professor liaird, of Smithsonian Insti- tute htad of the science in this country — were pronounced by him to be ''very si)irited drawings and accurate likenesses.'' He then took up botany, and is now engaged on an •' Illustrated Flora of tiie Shenandoah Valley," for which he has collect- ed, classitied and made paintings of 7Hi species. The mother of our subject is descended from General Payne, on the one side, and Thomas Greene, brother of Generals Moses and Duff Greene, of the Ilevolution. Our subject's sister, Emma Allen, married Bushrod Charles Washing- ton, grandson of Charles \\'ashington, brother of George Washington. JAMES W. ABERT WRIGHT, President of the Ala!)ama Xormal College for Girls, and co- principal of Livingston Feni.ale Academy, was born at Columbus, Miss., July 28, 1834. His father, the IJev. David Wriglit, of the Presbyterian Church, (;ame to the South from Massachusetts in 1820, as a missionary to the Choctaw Indians in Jlississijipi. and, in connection with Revs. Kings- bury and IJyington, established headquarters at a place called Mayhew, near Starkville. the pres- ent site of the Agricultural College of that State. He was distinguished as a scholar and educator, and devoted to missionary work. His grammar of the Choctaw language, prepared during that period for u.se in the mission schools, is the recog- nized authority to this day. FraTiklin Academy, Columbus, Miss., one of the first public schools of the South, was organized by him ; and his only surviving daughter, Mrs. Laura E. Eagar, presides over the female department at this writ- ing (March, 18SS). Kev. David Wright was many years pastor of the Presbyterian church at Columbus, and there died in 1S40, leaving behind him a record that will endure so long as Christian people shall live. His mother, nee Eliza Abert, was a native of Virginia, her father, Jolin Abert, born in Mar- seilles, France, having come with the French army, under La Fayette and Count Rochambeau, in 1T81, to aid in our War for Independence. Mrs. Wright was a sister of Col. John J. Abert, of AVashington City, who was for many years at the head of the Topographical Engineers of the United States Army ; also, of Col. Charles II. Abert, of the Confederate Army, a prominent citizen of Col- umbus, iliss. Major .Tames W. A. Wright became associate Principal of Alabama Normal College for Girls, in September, 188G, and in December following was elected to the position he now fills with distin- guished ability in the consolidated institutions. He began teaching as an assistant to Professor Henry Tutwiler, at Greene Springs, in 18.54, and at the end of one year entered Princeton College, New Jersey, and graduated therefrom in 1857, as valedictorian of his class. Returning to Greene Springs, he associated him- self with Professor Tutwiler and devoted his time thereafter, for several years, to teaching in that popular institution. In May, 18fJ2, Professor Wright raised a com- pany of infantry (Company H),and with it joined the Thirty-sixth Alabama Regiment. Through tiie many terrible engagements in which this regi- ment participated, Cajitain Wright led this com- panv, and during the last year of service, frequent- ly commanded his regiment. He left the service at the final surrender with the rank of major. Company H, tiiat mustered 15ii men at the out-set. answered the last roll call at Jleridian, Miss., with si.x names. The rest were mustered into the miirhtv armv of the dead, had been dis- 222 NORTHERN ALABAMA. charged for physical disability, or languished yet in Northern prisons. They had fought at Chicka- mauga. Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Dalton, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta and through all of Hood's campaigns up to April li, 18(i5, at Spanish Fort, in the final defense of Mo- bile. At Missionary Ridge, Captain Wright was severely wounded, and fell into the hands of the enemy. As prisoner of war, he was taken first to Nashville, and from there to Camp Chase, Colum- bus, Ohio. While in transit from Camp Chase, destined to Fort Delaware, he Jumped from the train and made his escape, reaching home finally by way of Philadelphia, Kew York, Canada, the Bermuda Islands, and Wilmington, N. C. For three years after the war, he was Associate Princijial with Professor Tutwiler at Greene Springs. In August, 1S59, Prof. Wright married Miss Margaret, the accomplished daughter and eldest child of Professor Tutwiler, at Greene Springs. Of the seven children born to them, three are living: Ruffin A., teacher at Livingston Academy, while Julius T. and Henry T., are students thereat. Three died in infancy. Their only daughter, Willie, a brilliant and accomplished young lady, graduate of the Normal College, Liv- ingston, died in August, 1883, at Greene Sfirings. Professor Wright belongs to the Masonic fratern- ity, and is prominently identified with the Pres- byterian Church, having been ordained as elder in 1867, in Concord Chuich, Hale County. In 18G8, he removed to California, and there for fifteen years followed farming and insurance business, diversifying his labors in the meantime with journalistic work, and in the advancement of the interest of the State Grange, of which organi- zation he was the first Master, and afterward lec- turer. In 1883, he returned to Alabama, and again be- came co-principal in Greene Spring School with Professor Tutwiler, in which position he remained until the death of the latter. In his life-studies and life-work, Prof. Wright has been especially devoted to the Physical Sci- ences. DEVEREUX HOPKINS, Register in Chancery, is by birth a North Carolinian. In 1S35, at the age of twenty-two, he came into Greene County, and began farming. He was educated at Raleigh, N. C, and there began the battle of life as a clerk. His father, Wm. W. Hopkins, was many years a merchant at Smithfield, that State, and there died when our subject was only five months old. The maiden name of his mother was Sarah Boone, daughter of Joseph Boone, of North Caro- lina, a relative of the famous Daniel Boone, of Kentucky. Ten years after her husband's death, Mrs. Hop- kins married Thomas Cobbs, of Raleigh. Chan- cellor Cobbs, of the Northwest Chancery Division, this State, and James Cobbs, many years Circuit Judge of the Mobile District, are half-brothers of Mr. D. Hopkins. In 1836, D. Hopkins removed from Greene County to Mobile, and there embarked in the commission business with Hiiiton & Horton. In 1838, he married Miss Elizabeth W. Ryan, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Ryan, of the Baptist Church, and the same year returned to Central Alabama, and settled in Sumter County, where he resumed cotton jilanting upon a pretty exten- sive scale. In 1846 he held his first public otlice, that of sheriff; in 1851 he was a member of the lower house of the Legislature, as a Whig; and in 1868 removed to California, residing some years at Stockton, serving the people jiart of the time as justice of the peace and police judge. In 1880 he returned to this State, and was soon after- ward appointed Register in Chancery. Mrs. Hopkins died March 2, 1884. Of the ten children born to them six are now living. The eldest son, AVm. W., was a member of Hampton's brigade during the late war, and is now employed, professionally as an expert accountant. A daugh- ter, Sarah E., was the wife of the brave Capt. Abner L. Gaines, who lost his life at Shiloh. Mrs. Abner L. Gaines subsequently married Captain Lake, also an old soldier, now of Mobile. Another daughter, Miss Kate Hopkins, is now the efficient postmistress at Livingston. Anna married Dr. Wm. M. Br3'ant, of Clarke County; Florence is now Mrs. Addison G. Smith, of Livingston. Ala., and Miss Julia, the youngest, has not left the paternal roof. Mr. Hopkins is now in his seventy-fifth year. It is more than a half century since he first came into Alabama. Here he has lived past the average years of man, and here will his presence be more NORTHERN ALABAMA. 223 missed and mourned than average men when, in the fulness of tlie Maker's own good time, he shall be gathered unto his fathers. THOMAS MORRISON TARTT was born in North Carolina Ai>ril 1, liS^il. He was adopted by an uncle, whose name was the same as his own, and was reared by liim from tlie age of ten. He received his education at Philadelphia and Colum- bus, Ohio. While still quite young, his uncle placed him in charge of a farm, near Gainesville, Ala., but he had no taste for farming, and soon entered a commission house at Jlobile — Tartt, Stewart & Co., — of which his uncle was the head. Here he developed the remarkable traits of his character which afterward made him so succes.s- ful as a merchant. In 1806 he was married to Annie Maria Jones, near Sumterville, and they, in 1867, moved to Livingston, where Mr. Tartt went into business as a merchant, and continued it until his death. Asa business man, Jfr. Tartt's life was particularly worthy of attention. He sailed through the hard times of 18 1 3. The commercial crash carried down hundreds of the leading merchants of that country, but he was one of the few who came out unhurt. lie succeeded in accumulating a fortune, where others could secure but a competency, and was one of the men who could successfully compete with the "Sheeney" system of advancing, now in vogue in that country. Mr. Tartt was a public-spirited, philanthropic citizen, and as such was highly esteemed by the commuity in which he lived, lie died in Living- ston in 188.5. His wife was reared by an uncle, the liev. D. P. Bestor, a Baptist minister of this State, who wa,^ quite prominent in his day. XVII. WILCOX COUNTY. Population: White, 6,911; colored, -25,000. Area, 060 square miles. Woodland, all. Oak and hickory uplands with long-leaf pine, 600: central prairie and flatwood, .160 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 77,000, in corn, 40,0.5:5: in oats, 7.011: in sugar-cane, 'IhX; in rice, 14; in tobacco, 15; in sweet potatoes, 1,597. Appro.ximate number of bales of cotton, 28, "201. County Seat — Camden; population, 1.500: near Alabama Itiver, 40 miles southwest of Selma. Newspapers published at County Seat — Home Ruhr and Wilcox Progress (both Democratic). Postoftices in the County — Allenton, A win, Uethel, Black's Bluff, Boiling Springs, Caledonia, ('(inirloi, Canton Bend, Clifton, Dumas' Store, Fatama, Furman. (Jeesbend, Lower Peach Tree, Pine Apple, Pine Hill, Prairie Bluff, Rehoboth, Bosebud, Kowell, Sedan, Snow Hill, Yellow Bluff. This county derives its name from Lieut. Joseph M. Wilcox. It was created as early as 1819, and has steadily maintained a reputation as one of the leading agricultural counties of the State. It is highly favored both with respect to the character of its lands and the abundant supplies of water. Most of its lands, and especially its most tillable soils, lie well for cultivation. The timbers of the county are long and short- leaf pine, the different varieties of oak, hickory, ash, elm, poplar, cedar, mulberry, beech, magno- lia, sycamore and walnut. Some of the most splendid specimens of timber found in Southern forests can be obtained in AVilcox. Perhaps no county surpasses it in the abundance of its cedar growth. There is also quite a quantity of excellent cypress timber. When this is removed and the land upon which it grows is thoroughly 234 NORTHERN ALABAMA. drained, it has been found to equal any other in its capacity of production. Lands may be purchased in the county at prices ranging from §2 to S25, depending, of course, upon the locality and the fertility. So eager are the people to have thrifty and ener- getic settlers locate in their midst, that they are willing to offer extraordinary inducements in the sale of lands and homes. There are 3,380 acres of Government land in Wilcox County still untaken f C^ /C^<^^e^^t:^i^ii-^£yXC-'€^^2^C00- TIMBER BELT. BUTLER COUNTY. l'o|MilatioM: Whiu'. lii,'.i-.'(i. ciilnrt-il. S.oou. Area. S(MI sr|iiiii'e miles. AVoodlanrl. all. Oak ami liickory uplands. li-'iO square inile.s. Pine ii|)lamls, 4()() square miles. Hill-|iraii-ie ami lime- liilKs, oil square miles. Acres — In ootton (approxima''ely), 35,!t00; in corn, •-24, 048; in oats, 7,4".I4; in sugar-cane, -V-iS: in rice, 17: in sweet potatoes, ()70. .Vpproximate ntiniberof bales of cotton, 12,000. County Seat — (ireenville: population, 3,ikmi; on .Mobile & A[ontgomery Railroad. Xewspai)ers pul)lislied at County Seat — Advocatv (Democratic). Postoffices in the County — Rolling, Butler Springs. Dunham. Forest Home, (farland, Georgi- ana. (iiasgow, (IreeiiviUe, Lamont, Manningham, ifonterey. Oaky Streak, Pigeon Creek, Pontus, liunville, Searcy. Shell. Sim's Afill. Starlington. Tohu-i, Crbanity. The county of Hutler was established in 1810. It derived its name from one of the earliest set- tlers, Captain William Hutler. There is a great diversity of soil and a corres- ponding variety of productions in the county. Its climate, health, location and resources give jii-om- ise that it will become one of the leading counties of this great timber section. In different sections of Hutler County there are s])lendid forests of timber, comprising the several varieties of oak, pine, ash, gum, cedar, poplar, hickory, dogwood, maple, beech, and magnolia. Of the yellow, or long-leaf, pine there are vast districts, and the timber is equal to that of any other section or this belt. In the northern or prairie region of Hutler there are belts of cedar growth as fine as can be obtained in the Union. Those desiring lands may secure them in many localities at nomimil figures. The present market price extends from $1..")0 to §10 per acre. There ! are in the county 13,1 CO acres of public land sub- ject to homestead entry. In addition to this there are i,0OO acres of railroad land, which can be pur- chased at %\.i.-i per acre. Pleasant and cheap homes are here afforded tiiose desiring to settle. The people are industri- ous, thrifty and quiet, and immigrants will be well received. JULIUS C. RICHARDSON, a prominent Law- at Auburn College, Summertield Institute, and yer, .son of the ii'ev. Simon Peter and Mary E. the Southern University, at (ireensboro. Ala. (Arledge) Richardson, was born on the Island of From 1^70 to 1872 he gave his time to teaching. Key West, Fla.. April 18, 1851, and was educated In the latter year he entered the law department 236 NORTHERK ALABAMA. of the Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tenn., and graduated therefrom, as Bachelor of Laws, in 1873, In January, lS?-i, he located at Greenville, where he at once entered upon a successful practice in his chosen profession, and where he, at this writing (1888), is recognized as standing at the head of the Butler County bar. His prac- ti-^e is general, and extends largely throughout Central and Southern Alabama. He was elected to the State Senate in 1886-87, where, as a member of the joint committee of the House and Senate on the revision of the code of Alabama, he rendered much valuable service and proved himself entirely familiar with the needs and purposes of the undertaking, and was identi- fied with the princijDal legislation of the session. Another writer very Justly describes him as a man of '■' quick and acute perception, possessed of a mind thoroughly trained and organized for the law which he loves for its own sake He is a most brilliant conversationalist, an extensive miscellaneous reader, an eloquent speaker and writer, and possessed of much dignity of character. " In an article devoted to the Senator, the JMont- gomery Advertiser says of him : " He is a source of pride and pleasure to his friends throughout the State. As a loublic man he has always been upright, honest and true, and his ability to fill the ■. honorable position to which he has been called by I the people of his district, is unquestioned and un- questionable." I Mr. Richardson diversifies the duties of profes- sional life to some extent by turning his attention occasionally to fruit culture, in which he has i achieved decided success. Within his well-culti- vated fields devoted to the jiurpose, he produces | some remarkable results in horticulture and venti- oulture : his varieties of grapes are probal.ily the finest in the State. A sort of modern ethics that seems to prevail in the treatment of popular living men in publica- tions of this character confines us at times too much to a bare recital of well-known facts, leav- ing no room for the play of imagination or the display of any pyrotechnics in the eulogy of the worthiest of men. Thus, in the jDresent instance, the publishers find themselves reduced to the pres- entation of the outlines of one of Alabama's most promising young men. As a mark of distinction and as a means of testifying to the high esteem in which Julius C. Kichardson is held, thejiublishers take pleasure in prefacing this sketch with a hand- some and life-like steel-plate portrait of that gentleman. Mr, Richardson was married in Xovember, 18?!, at Greenville, to Miss Bettie McCall, the accom- plished daughter of D. T. McCall, Esq.. of that place, and has had born to him two children : Terry ^I. and Mack. • "^"•6S5J2^" 'x*" — • — ZELL GASTON, Attorney-at-law, Greenville, of the firm of Carmichel & Gaston, was born in But- ler County, this State, June 31, 18U.'5, and is a son of Lucius C. and Amanda J. Gaston, natives, respectively, of the States of Georgia and Florida. Mr. Gaston attended the common schools of his neighborhood until about sixteen years of age, at which time time he entered the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Auburn, where he remained four yeai's. From the Agricultural and Mechanical College he entered the Alabama Uni- versity, and from' there graduated as Bachelor of Arts, class of 1884. Returning to Greenville, he accepted the principalship of the public schools, and taught therein for the two succeeding years. He read law in the office of the Hon. J. C. Rich- ardson, of this city, was admitted to the bar in February, 1886, and entered at once into a part- nership with John C. Carmichel, in the practice of law. Mr. Gaston is now, and has been for some time. County Superintendent of Education; lie is a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias, Knights and Ladies of Honor and of the Methodist Episcopal Chui-ch. He was married January 26, 1887, to Miss Lelia Dulin, daughter of Adam B. Dulin, Esq., of this 2ilace. ROBERT E. STEINER, prominent Attorney- at-law, (rreenville. was born in Butler County, this State, May 9, 1862, and is a son of Joseph and Matilda M. (Camja) Steiner, of this place. From the age of five years to twenty-two, the subject of this sketch was almost continuously at school. Hegraduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the State University (Alabama) when sixteen years of age, and, two years later, received from the same institution the degree of Master of Arts. In 1884 he graduated from the Law Depart- ment of Harvard University as a LL. B. ; returned at once to Greenville and, associated with the Hon. John K. Henry, entered at once upon the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 227 practice of law. Judge lleiiiT died in 188(!, and Mr. Stciner formed a partnership, as at present, with the Hon. J. C. l}ichard. ated 9(t miles south of Montgomery. Newspaper published at County Seat — Coving- ton Timex, Democratic. Postoffices in the County — Andalusia, Cameron, Conecuh River, Beda, Dannelly, Fairfield, Green Bay, Ilallton, Ilamptonville, Hilton, Lake View, Loango, Opine, Rat. Red Level, Rome, Rose Hill, Sanford. Shirley, Vera Cruz, Wiggins, Williams' Mill. Established in 1821, this county took its name from Gen. Leonard W. Covington, of JIaryland. 233 234 NORTHERN ALABAMA. It is noted for its streams, grazing lands, and superb regions of timber. Like other sections of Alabama, Covington has failed of appreciation, because of its remoteness from lines of transporta- tion. The timbers of the county are yellow or long-leaf pine, oak, hickory, elm, beech, and poplar. The county is noted for its forests of towering pine. Districts of this magnificent timber extend for many miles in all directions through the county. Beneath these lofty pines, there flourisli tlie greenest grasses and leguminous plants, which afford superior range for herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. Great quantities of lumber are hewn from the forests every season. VIII. DALE COUNTY. Population: White. 7',.55 ; colored, 3,124. Area, 6.50 square miles. Woodland, all. Pine upl.ands, 420 square miles ; undulating, pine lands, -230. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 27,000; in corn, 31,867; in oats, 5,114; in wheat, 59; in rye, 24; in rice, 49; in sugar-cane, 373; in sweet potatoes, 872. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 0,800. County seat — Ozark; population, 700; located near the center of the county. Newspaper ])ublished at County Seat — South- ern Sfur, Democratic. Postoffices in the County — Barnes Cross Roads, Beaver Creek, Clayhatchee, Clopton, Crittenden's . Mills, Daleville, Eclio, Newton, Ozark, Rockyhead, Skipperville, Strickland, Weed, Wicksburgh. This county was organized in 1824, and named in honor of Gen. Samuel Dale. It is one of the counties of the State in which there were manu- factories prior to the war. Its people have long been noted for their sobriety and progressiveness, and, in the centers of interest, for their intelli- gence. Possessing a varied soil, genial climate, healtliful atmosj)here, abounding resources of water, rich pasture lands, and broad forests of pine. Dale County is the peer of any other section in this portion of Alabama. The prices of land extend from 81 to §10 per acre. The county has an industrious agricultural population that would readily greet settlers and investors seeking homes and locations for business. No doubt these lauds will attract great attention within a few years, because of the vast abundance of yellow j)ine timber which they contain. Rare bargains can now be had by those seeking profit- able investments in lands and real estate. Much of the land is public, and may be entered under the homestead act. Of this there are 46,240 acres. IX. ESCAMBIA COUNTY. Population: Wliite, 4,00(1: colored, l.oim. Area. 1,000 sf|iiare niili's. Wooillaiul, all. All rolling pine lands. Aere.s — In cotton (appro.xiniately), 3oo; in corn, 3,fi09; in oats, S(I9; in sugar-cane, 83; in rice, 405; in sweet potatoes. 404. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 100. County Seat — Hrewton; ])opulation, ]..")0o: on Louisville & Nashville Eailroad. Newspapers published at County Seat — Bdiincr aiul Esriimhid liiildiriii lltnes, the former Inde- pendent, the latter Democratic. Postoffices iti the County — Boykin, Brewfoti, Canoe Station, Douglasville, Flomatoii, Kirkland, Mason, Pollard, Koberts. Steadhani, Wallace, Williams Station, Wilson. The county of Escambia was constituted in 1SG8, and named for the beautiful river which flows across it. It is one of the youngest counties of the State, but is regarded as one of the thriftiest in the great Timber Belt. It has peculiar natural advantages in its forest wealth, its smooth topography, and its deej) and wide streams. But the glory of Escambia is her magnificent forests of pine. In this county the e.\paiisive do- mains of yellow or long-leaf pine may be seen in its perfection. These pines give rise to the chief industries of the county, viz.: the timber, lumber, and turpentine business. Some of the finest and best equi[)ped saw-mills and turpentine distilleries known to the South are found in Escambia County. Timbers are hewn from the forests and rafted along the large streams to the mills to be con- verted into lumber, or else to Pensacola, where a ready market awaits them. Tliese lumber and turpentine industries are near the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which traverses tlie county north and south. The county contains 140,949 acres of Govern- ment land. X. GENEVA COUNTY. Population: White, 4,0ii0; colored, oOO. Area, 591 ( square miles. Woodland, all. Undulating pine lands, 56o square miles; red lime lands, 30 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 5,onO; in corn 9,47 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 239 us physician, teacher and citizen, constitutes one of tlie brightest pages iu tlie history of Alabama. Creorge Augustus Ketchuni was born iu Augus- ta, (ia., April (J, \%'lh, and there his youtli was passed uj) to the time of the removal of his fatlier to Mobile, Ala., which took place in \%'-\h. His scholastic training, which was committed in turn to two teachers of distinction, was completed under the tutorship of Mr. A. A. Kimball, who prepared him for the Sophomore class at Prince- ton. At this juncture his father's failure in busi- ness disconcerted his plans, and led him, at the age of sixteen, to accept the jiosition of assistant teacher then offered him by his tutor, Mr. Kim- ball, in his Academy at Livingston, Ala. After such wholesome preliminary training, he, in due time, began his studies in his chosen profession, under the guidance of the late Dr. F. A. Ivoss, and for two years he occupied the position of resi- dent student in the Mobile City Hospital. While thus employed, the yellow fever epidemic of 1843 brought him for the first time into practical con- tact with a disease in whose treatment he was des- tined to win such wide and merited distinction. In the ilctlical College of South Carolina, at Charleston, he attended his first course of lectures at the session of 1S4-1-1845. In the spring of 184."), he went for the completion of his studies to I'hiladeliihia, graduating at the University of Pennsylvania as il.]). in the spriiig of 1840. While a student in Philadelphia, he formed the acquaint- ance of Miss Susan Burton, a daughter of one of the original (Quaker families tliat came over with Penn, and to her he was married in November, 1848. Two years prior to that event he had be- gun the practice of medicine in Mobile, where his professional success was marked and rapid. The yellow fever ei)idemics of 1.S47 and 1848, which took place soon after his admission to practice, gave him the opjjortunity for an experiment which produced rich and permanent results. At this time, he, it was. wlio first ventured to admin- ister large doses of quinine in the earlier stages of the disease, a treatment which was repeated witli sucli success in the epidemics of 1853-58-67-70- 73 and 78 iu ^[obile, that it has now become the general practice in yellow fever cases throughout the South. With sucli a beginning, and with a power to labor which has been seldom equalled, and with a charm of manner never to be surpassed, the young physician soon won his way into as large and lucrative a practice as any physician has ever enjoyed in the city of Mobile. For many years liis labors as a practitioner and consulting physician have been sufficient to exhaust the time and resources of any ordinary man, and to exclude all other pursuits. And yet in sjjite of this mass of work his activities have extended so far beyond the circle of his duties as a mere practitioner of medicine, that his achievements in that s))here con- stitute only a part in the sum total of his life work. Dr. Ketchum's relations to the medical profes- sion and to the cause of public hygiene, can not be measured by any standard that excludes from consideration the services ho has rendered to the cause of medical education and to the preservation of the public health. To every movement which has been orgai.ized in his day, not only in his own State, but in the Union, for the advancement of the medical profession as a corporate body, and for tlie increase of its usefulness as a teacher of sanitary science, he has given his active and earnest support. The central aim of his life has been to teach the true science of medicine in its highest sense to the younger members of his own profession, and at the same time to practically demonstrate how the science of public hygiene can be utilized by the State for the preservation of the public health. In both departments of labor he has been eminently successful, and ia both he has been awarded the very highest stations of usefulness and authority. In 1848, in conjunc- tion with Dr. J. C. Nott and others, he organized the Medical College of Alabama, with which he has ever since been jirominently connected. Since 1859. he has held the position of Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine: and since the resignation of the late Dr. Wm. II. Anderson, he has been the Dean of the Faculty. As a medical lecturer he is especially hai)py. An easy and nat- ural delivery, coupled with a perfect mastery of English prose, render his lectures as attractive as they are instructive. In the sanitary government of ilobile, city and county, he has been the most important factor for nearly twenty years. Presi- dent of the Board of Health since 1871, he has rendered, without compensation, services to the public which but few outside of his own profession either understand or appreciate. In the medical government of the State his influence has been hardly less potent. Xo one was more active than he in bringing about the organization of the Medical Association of Alabama, of which he be- 240 NORTHERN ALABAMA. came president in 1873. For many years he has been a member of the Board of Censors and of the State Board of Health. His activity in the line of medical organization has not been limited, however, to the boundaries of his own State; as a member of the American Public Health Associ- ation, as a member of the American Medical Asso- ciation, and as a member of the Ninth Inter- national Medical Congress, his name and fame as a leader in his profession have assumed a national importance. No review of this many sided man, however brief and incomplete, should exclude from con- sideration the influence which he has exercised as a citizen upon the political affairs of his State and county. With a j)erfect comprehension of the constitutional system under which we live, with a clear insight into all the details of executive administration, with great gifts as an orator and parliamentarian, had his tastes been otherwise, he might have figured as one of the foremost poli- ticians of his time. Whenever duty has called him into service in that department of work, his great aptitude for public iiffairs, his immovable firmness, coupled with great tact in the manage- ment of popular assemblies, have invariably given to him a position in the foi'emost rank. For many years before tlie war he stood at the head of Mobile's municipal legislature as president of the Common Council; and when the stirring events of 1800-61 made every community in the South turn for counsel to its wisest and strongest men, the county of Mobile selected him as one of four to represent her in the convention which severed the relations of Alabama with the Union. As volunteer surgc-on ho went with the State Artillery to Pensacola, where he received his commission as surgeon of the Fifth Alabama. While on his way to Virginia with his regiment, he was solicited by Dr. J. C. Nott to accept a position as surgeon in an organization formed for the defense of Mobile, which was then sadly deficient, owing to the in- crease of population and the absence of jihysicians. in medical aid. In tliis laborious position he continued until the end of the war. After the surrender he was appointed by Governor Parsons, provisional governor under Andrew Johnson, a member of the Common Council; and for a short time he became, ex officio, ]\[ayor of Mobile. In the councils of the Democratic party in his State and county, he has been recognized as a leader for twenty years. And yet, neither in his capacity as physician at the bedside, neither in his capacity as teacher in the college to which he has given the best years of his life, neither in his capacity as a tireless adminis- trator of health laws, nor yet in his cajiacity as political leader, can be found the record of services which will forever interlace the name of George A. Ketchum with that of the city of his adoption. When every other memory connected with his life has been forgotten, the fact will remain that his care for the public health, backed by his patience and indomitable will, has brought a pure stream of living water from distant hill tops to the cot- tage door and to the palace gate of every dweller in the city of Mobile. This great achievement is the legitimate outcome of his scientific instinct. His far-seeing eye perceived years ago that the public health of his city was imperiled by the lack of a bountiful supply of i^ure and wholesome water. With the heart of a humanitarian, with the fore- sight of a scientist, and with the pluck and pa- tience of a man of business, he imposed upon him- self the task of organizing a scheme for the relief of the city, and that scheme he has carried into successful execution. After selecting an available stream in the silence of the forest, he next em- ployed competent hands to overcome the engineer- ing and legal difficulties which forbade its in- gress to the city, and at last induced capitalists to come from abroad and transform his dream into a reality. Through his efEorts, after twenty years of working and waiting. Mobile to-day enjoys one of the most perfect aiid bountiful sujijilies of water that can be found in any city in the Union, not only for sanitary bnt for fire purposes. In the time to come, when his labors have ended, jier- haj^s a grateful people will perpetuate the memory of this great service, by the erection of a public drinking fountain, over which the unselfish physi- cian shall preside in bronze or marble. In the social life of Mobile, Dr. Ketchum's splendid home has been a source of j^leasureand an object of interest for many years. Here his warm- hearted wife and charming daughter (married a few years ago to Robert Gage, Esq., of Boston) dis- pense a hospitality as unaffected as it is attractive. When, from every point of view — professional political and social — it appears that the life-work of a man has ripened into a full harvest of suc- cess, honor and usefulness, the fact is revealed that the author of such results must be a man, not only of well-rounded character, but of systematic NORTHERN ALABAMA. 241 and conscientious habits of work. Of no one could this be more truly said tluiii of Dr. Ketchum. With high natural endowmont.s, hotii of mind and person, he has trusted nothing to chance or genius: with him genius has been made the voke-fellow of labor. V>\ linking together great natural gifts with habits of patient and sys- tematic work, he has attained, not an eccentric eminence, but the highest legitimate distinction as a physician and citizen. When the roundness, the fullness, the completeness of his life-work is considered, the result may be well e.vpressed — "Simphx a/i/i/c ruhiinhis." XIV. PIKE COUNTY. Population: White, ]4,;5(JS; colored, f!,-^;-^. Area. 740 square miles. Woodland, all. Oak and hickory uplands. 5!t0 square miles: ])ine hills, 150 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately). SS.lJdii: in corn, 5(1,648; in oats, 6,508; in wheat, 80; in rye, 127: in sugar-cane, 550; in sweet potatoes, 1,359. Approximate number of bales of cotton, in round numbers. 19,000. County Seat — Troy; population. :i.000: located at terminus of 3[obile & Girard Railroad. Newspapers published at the County Seat — En- quirer and Messenger (Democratic). Postoffiees in the County — Barr's Mill, Krun- didge. Buck Horn, Catalpa, Chesser, China (irove. County Line, Curry. Fleetwood, Flemington, Goshen Hill, Harmony. Henderson. Indian Branch, Josie. Linwood, Little Oak, ^filo, Monticello, Olustee Creek, Orion, Pottersville, Troi/, Wingard. Pike County was established December 17, 1821, from portions of Henry and Montgomery, and was named in honor of General Zebulon M. Pike, who fell at York (now Toronto), April 27, 181:5. The Alabama Midland Railroad will pass through Troy, and diagonally across the county from the northwest to the southeast corner the Mobile & Gir- ard, from Troy to Pollard, the Brunswick & Mem- phis Railroad, ria Greenville, through Troy to Clayton. All the present indications favor and justify the expectation that these roads will be completed within i-easonahle time. Tlie lands are generally level with suflicient un- dulation for proper drainage. Except in a few localities in the northern and central portions of the county, there is no land unsuited for cultiva- tion on account of the abruptness of those undula- tions. The character of the soil varies, embody- ing red clay, black hummock and sandy soils. In the northwestern and southeastern portions of the county are large bodies of fine red lands, which are very ])roductive and lasting. In the northeastern and southwestern portions it is generally sandy, with a sufficient admixture of lime to render them very productive when first brought into cultivation: but within five years their i)roductive capacity exhausts, unless aided by fertilizers. In the central portion of the county every character of soil above enumerated can be found. The close proximity of a clay foundation renders all of these lands susceptible of the highest improvement by fertilization. A chain of hills in the northeastern portion of the county contains iron ore of good quality in abundance. There are also beds of marl sufficient- ly rich in phosphoric .acid to justify utilization in several localities in the county. There are also deposits of ochre, acid iron earth and other val- uable minerals in the county, none of which have been utilized. 243 NORTHERN ALABAMA. There are vast areas of pine timber in the county, which, with better faf>ilitiesfor shipment or being more accessible to a railroad line, would be very valuable. There are also large quantities of hickory, white oak, red oak, and cypress in the swamps near watercourses, which could be utilized to ad- vantage by a furniture or bucket and barrel factory. Several large contracts for staves are now being filled by residents of Linwood, and the staves fur- nished are classed A No. 1. Immigrants of limited means will find all their hearts could crave or wishes prompt in regard to a cheap, pleasant, healthy home in Pike County. The price of land ranges from §2 to *10 per acre. Some highly improved command $20 jier acre, but in such cases the improvements represent over half of the price. Immigrants would be kindly received and considerately treated. Regardless of nativity, they would be accorded that regard and esteem to which their merits and intrinsic worth would entitle them. The i^eople are law-abiding and orderly, very hospitable and kind, and ambitious to elevate and improve their condition and place their posterity on a higher plane of intelligence and usefulness. They study their business closely, and are prompt in adojiting improvements that are j)ractical and advantageous. Their homes are generally well kept, neat and tidy, and possess every comfort and convenience their ability will i^ermitthem to enjoy. By judicious management they have largely increased the jn-oductiveness of their lands within the past ten years. XV. WASHINGTON COUNTY. Population: White, 3,000; colored, 1,500. Area, 1,0.")0 square miles. Woodland, all. Undu- lating pine-lands, 800 square miles; lime hills and shell-prairie lands, 1.50 square miles: pine hills, 100 square miles. Acres — In cotton (approximately), 3,300; in corn, 4,259; in oats, 464; in rice, 07; in sugar- cane, 90; in sweet potatoes, 448. Ai^proximate number otf bales of cotton, 1,400. County Seat — St. Stephens; population, 200. Postoffices in the County-^Atchison, Bigbee, Escatawpa, Gondola, Healing Springs, Koeton, Lumberton, Mcintosh Bluff, Millry, St. Stejihens, Sims Chapel, Washington. Washington is the oldest county in the State, having been created by Governor Sargent in 1800. It was named for the first President of the United States. Considerable historic interests attaches to the county. It has the honor of having within its limits the first capital of Alabama — St. Stephens. It was in this county that Aaron Burr was arrested, in 18' and 35" of north latitude. The elevation of Iluntsville, at the court-house, is 040 feet above the sea; that of Monte Sano, 1,:00 feet. The climate, winter and summer, is unrivaled in America, and the .air is light, and pure and sweet. The soil is similar to that of the region of Lex- ington. Ky. With a red clay sub-soil and lime- stone foundation, it is sniiceptible of the highest degree of fertility. Ever since the discovery of Cat Island and Cuba by Christopher Columbus, in 1492, the territory, embracing Madison County and Himtsville, has been included in various grand land enterprises. With shipping furnished by Henry YII. of Eng- land, and autiiority to occupy and possess in the name of the King, Sebastian Cabot first discovered the continent of North America at Labrador in 1407, and in 1498-9 and loOd he made further dis- coveries as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. Upon this basis of right, Queen P^lizabeth, in 1585, granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, for settlement and development, the territory of America between 45^ and 33' north latitude, which wa^s named by him after the virgin queen, Virginia. But this enterprise soon came to naught, and in IGOil .James I. granted to "the London Company" the terri- tory from the Potomac River to the Cape Fear, to be called '■ South Virginia." Vnder its auspices, 243 244 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the settlement was made at Jamestown, on James River. This company failed in 1624, and surren- dered its franchises back to the crown. In 166.3-5, Charles II. granted to eight of his princii^al ad- herents the territory lying between north latitude 36'^ 30' and 29", from the Atlantic Ocean "west- ward to the seas beyond," to be called "the Pro- vince of Carolina." Under these charters, Edward, Earl of Clarendon; George (Monk), Duke of Albemarle: William, Lord Craven; John, Lord Berkley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir George Car- teret, Sir William Berkley and Sir John Colleton, their heirs and successors, were created "absolute Lords and Proprietors" of this magnificent domain, the King reserving only "faith, allegiance and sovereign dominion." These gentlemen of the "cavalier" i^arty sent settlers, many of them relatives, to their colony, of which Charles Town (Charleston), established in 1672, became the chief seat. But in 1719 the people threw off the Proprietary government and placed the Province directly under the Royal Government of England. AVithin ten or twelve years, the successors of the original proprietors, surrendered for less than $100,000, all title and interest in "Carolina," which included not only North and South Caro- lina, but the region now occupied by Georgia, the greater part of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and "westward to the seas beyond." In 1732, George II. granted to General Oglethorpe and twenty- one trustees, for philanthropic colonization of im- prisoned debtors and persons bound to service, the territory from the Savannah River southward to St. Alary River, for twenty-one years, to be called after the King, "Georgia." The period of this charter expired in 1753, and Georgia reverted to the British Crown. The Revolution of 1776, the independence of the colonies, and the formation of the Federal Government of the United States, changed the status. As a sovereign State, Georgia then claimed, under the Royal charter, the territory north of 318, westward to the Miss- issippi River. In 1783 the British Government ceded all rights to the L'nited States, and in 1802, for the sum of 81,250,000, Georgia ceded to the General Government the whole of her territory be- tween the Chattahoochee and Mississippi Rivers, amounting to 1,000,000 square miles, stipulating that every sixteenth section should be donated for purposes of education. The commissioners who effected this transaction on the part of the General Government, were James Madison, Albert Gallatin and Levi Lincoln. Those who represented Georgia were James Jack- son, Abraham Baldwin and John Milledge. North and South Carolina also ceded all claims to terri- tory from the western boundary of those States to the Mississippi River and the boundary of Miss- issippi Territory was extended northward to the Tennessee State line. But, j)revious to this great transfer, two epi- sodes occurred, touching territory, in which Madi- son County is embraced. In 1875, out of that portion of the then terri- tory north of the Tennessee River, the State of Georgia, by enactment, created the coun- ty of Houston, called after John Hous- ton, Governor of Georgia. Commissioners were appointed to organize it, and, with eighty men, proceeded to Muscle Shoals for that purpose. A land-oilice was opened, and magistrates were made. But apprehension of the Chickasaw Indians arose. The party broke np and departed, and the enterprise fell through. In 17'.»4-5, the government of Georgia author- ized the sale of 21,500,000 acres of land, now in Alabama and Mississippi, for the sum of 8500,000. The pur-'hasers were companies of speculators called "The Yazoo Land Company," "The Georgia Land Company," and "The Tennessee Land Company." The measure was passed by bribery and corruption, and was afterward char- acterized as "The Yazoo Fraud." The Legislature succeeding obtained ample proofs of bribery, ex- punged the bill from the journal, and had the official engrossed act burned at Louisville, at that time the capital of Georgia. But, " The Tennessee Land Company" having received a deed over the seal of Georgia and sign-manual of its Governor, Matthews, to that pai"t of North Alabama "from the Tennessee line, extending South to latitude 35" 10', and, with Bear Creek as its western boundary, thence running east one hundred and twenty miles," claimed a good title to all North Alabama for a distance of sixty miles south, including 1,000,000 acres among the rich- est, in agricultural and mineral resources, in the United States. While the Indians occupied the land, and called it their own, this corporation di- vided it into townships and sections, or lots, of one thousand acres each, and sold what they could on a credit of one, two, three and four years, without interest, about the years lSOO-7. Deeds XOJ^ THERX ALABAMA, 245 thus given antedate other titles, except ii few. ami were recordeil in 1810-11 — tlie first that iii)pe:ir on the county deed books. The oldest deed is to -Martin Beatty, in 1808, for one thousaud acres in a square, including '"the big spring." and nearly all of Iluntsville. The consideration was one tiiousand dollars. Other conveyances were to Freeman Jones, 450 acres, William Campbell, tj4<) acres. G. Harrison, 200 acres, and to Henry L. Sheffey, 10,O0O acres— all at the rate of i^l jier acre. The last of these deeds recorded bears date of record in ISll, to Martin IJeatty and Ben- jamin Estill, 40,000 acres, excepting (;,000 in- cluded and already sold at the rate of %\ per acre. This tract covered land in the region of Iluntsville, and was one of the finest in the South. The Indian tribes had been recognized by the General Government as independent communi- ties, and their riglit to remain in possession of of their lands and to sell them when they pleased, was acknowledged, so that all sales of lands by comjianies or individuals, when the Indian titles were not extinguished, were held null and void and were disallowed by the (ieneral (iovernment. And after lands were ceded by the Indians to the General Government, parties had no claims, excejit occupancy and preemption, the same as other settlers on land, at the time of survey of the public domain for public sale. These just and projier decisions were arrived at in consequence of the claims set up by the corporators of the gigantic land speculations, mentioned. In 1814, Congress appropriated 8600,000 of script, known as ''Mississippi stock." for distribu- tion iH'O rata among the claimants under the Land Company, and receivable in payment of j)ublic lands in the territory claimed by the " Tennessee Land Company." Prior to the land sales of ISOO, Martin Beatty had relinquished his claim to the land about Iluntsville and the spring, and entered other lands. The claims of many others were sim- ilarly settled ^y the (ieneral Government. After 181."), the few purchasers from the "Tennessee Land Company '" who had not adjusted or filed their claims were ejected by troops, and the United States had undisputed title to the lands obtained from Georgia. In 1805, John Hunt first came to the " Big Spring," and, in 180(;, brought his family from East Tennessee to that locality. After him the town was named. He failed to perfect his title to the land he occupied at first. One of his descend- ants was John Hunt Morgan, the distinguished cavalry officer of the Confederate Army, who was betrayed and killed at (ireenville, Tenn. A year or two before 1805, old man Ditto was among the Indians at Ditto's Landing, now called Whites- burg: John McCartney, from Georgia, was living near the Tennessee line; and Joseph and Isaac C'riner built a house near Criner's big spring, on Alountain Fork of Flint Kiver, before the first visit of Hunt. The land embraced in Madison County was the common hunting-ground of the Cherokee and Chickasaw Indian tribes, used by buth and settled by neither. These were the finest of their race in physique, intelligence, and courage: and, though savage and cruel, they sometimes exhibited genu- ine nnignaniinity. The Cherokees in 1712-13 assisted the colonists of Carolina, under Cols. John Barnwell and James Moore, to defeat the Tusca- rora Indians, who had seriously threatened the province, and helped to drive them northward, where they joined the Five Nations under King Philip. The Chickasaws are not known to have ever been defeated in battle. The rugged moun- tain region, eastward of Madison, with their strong- hold at Nickajack, was occupied b}' the Cherokees; and the country, westward to the Mississippi River, north of the Choctaws, who inhabited the prairie' section below them, belonged to the Chickasaws. July 2."5, 1805, the Chickasaws ceded their claim to tlie land east of a line run from the mouth of Duck Kiver on the Tennessee line, to the western ])art of " Chickasaw old fields" on the Tennessee Kiver: and January 7, 1806, the Cherokees ceded their right to land west of- a direct line from near the source of Elk River to Chickasaw Island, now Hobbs. in the Tennessee River. This area con- tained 322,000 acres. About thirty miles north and soutii. it was three miles wide on the river and twenty-five wide on the State line, and when or- ganized was called '• Old Madison." This occurred in 180S. Robert Williams, originally from North Carolina, the Governor of Mississippi Territory, by proclamation created the county of ^fadisou. Here was made the first government survey in the territory, and in 1809, in the land oflSceat Nashvile, the first public sale of land in the teriitory was made of the lands of Madison County. '• The great bend of the Tennessee River," in- cludes the counties of Madison, .lackson, Lauder- dale and Limestone. The river crosses tlie thirty- 246 NORTHERN ALABAMA. fifth parallel of latitude about ten miles uortheast of Bridgeport and turns southwest, reaching its extreme southern point near Guntersville, at a point about forty-two miles due south of the Ten- nessee State line, and then turning northwest, again enters Tennessee at the northwest corner of the State, some ten miles down the river from Eastport. The distance from the Huntsville meridian, along the Tennessee line to Mississippi State line, is about ninety miles and from this meridian westward to the Tennessee River, is about fifty miles, and on from the river to the Georgia State line, at the corner of Jackson and DeKalb counties, ten miles. The great bend measured east and west along the Tennessee line, is one hundred and forty miles from entrance to exit of the river, and its greatest extent north and south is forty-two miles. Madison and Limestone counties occupy the middle portion of this territory, extending from the river to the State line. The early set- tlers of North Alabama were men who had fought the Indians in Western Georgia and Middle Tennes- see, and were inured to the danger, privation, and suffering of pioneer life. But when they came to Alabama, they found a land of jieace and plenty. Though nearly surrounded by savage tribes, there never was any war or disturbance in Madison County. The white settlers, who came in 1805-6, were never molested by the Indians. The Chero- kees and Chickasaws visited it in autumn, and re- turned to their settlements, as winter set in, laden with game. Their camping-grounds can now be identified by the stone arrow-heads and hatchets, scattered over the fields in certain places. The pioneers who first settled the county, from Geor- gia and Tennessee, originally came from North Carolina and Virginia. They were enthusiastic in their praises of the beauty and fertility of the county; and those who were attracted to it by the glowing accounts of its wonders, said, " the half had not been told them." The beauty of the mountains and valleys, the numerous clear and sparkling streams running over pebbly bottoms, and the magnificence of the primeval forests, decked with the splendor of great giants of the woods, led them to think this the finest region ever trodden by the foot of man. They had at last reached the land of promise. In a climate, free from extremes of either cold or heat, with a deep, rich virgin soil, subject to neither floods nor drouths, a region abouiuling in game of every description — deer and turkeys, ducks and wild pigeons by the hundreds, thousands and millions, and watercourses full of trout, bream and salmon, the native game fish, the means of living were abundant. The lands once cleared and fenced, with little labor yielded a generous support to man and beast. Cattle and hogs required little care and multiplied rapidl v. The seasons were regular, and good crops could be depended upon. When the public lands were surveyed and sold, many of these pioneers, since known as "squat- ters,"' were able to jjurchase their homes, and, be- fore the close of 1809, the ancestors of a large numljcr of the best citizens were permantly settled on lands now occupied by their descend- ants. Up to the close of the year 1809, a popula- tion of nearly five thousand was in the old county limits; but. with a few exceptions, the population was of the pioneer type: however, stories of the beauty, fertility and salubrity of the county began to attract a more cultured and wealthy population from the other States, who developed here the re- finement and luxury of their former liomes. The tide of immigration flowed steadily in this direc- tion, slaves were brought in considerable numbers, and lands were opened for cultivation, good houses were erected, and money became plentiful, with abounding prosperity. In the year 1807, the general surveyor for Mis- sissippi Territory was authorized to contract for the survey of public lands in his jurisdiction, to which the Indian title had been extinguished. Madison County was the first land surveyed in North Alabama, with the exception of the lands, in Eange 'I, East, surveyed by T. Roach. The old . county was surveyed by Thomas Freeman, of Nashville, Tenn., and his work was well performed. The first was the survey of Huntsville meridian, from the State line to the Tennesse River. The survey of "old Madison" was reported to the land office in May, and in August, 1809, the lands were offered for sale. The land office was at Nashville, Tenn., Gen. John Brahan being Register. These lands were eagerly sought for and taken up by a class of settlers who were, in intellect, enterprise and energy, the peers of any on the continent, and who, for over a quarter of a century were prominent in the State and Na- tional assemblies. Immigration to the county, previous to 1809, came from the direction of Winchester, crossed into the countv near its northeast corner, and fol- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 247 lowed " the Cherokee line " ilown Flint Hivor to Brownsboro. Tiie fine water-power at Flint liridge attracted many settlers, and Bennett Wood entered t!ie lands from the Three Forks down to the Bell I''actory, with the intention of erecting a niill thereon. .John limit had made his way from tlie New .Market country, through the wilderness, to the lluntsville Spring in ISO.i, and many followed that path. But the larger settlement was by way of New Market to Flint Bridge, and down the old ])e{)osit road to the Brownsboro neighborhood. At the laiul sales in ISOSi, a strong tide of immi- gration commenced down the Meridian road by l)ersons from Williamson, Bedford and .Maury Counties, Tenn., to make purchases in the newly- ojiened territory. A direct route, via Fayetteville, to Nashville was established; and the land office remained in Nashville until 1811, founding close business relations between the capital of Tennes- see and lluntsville. The National road, when Natchez was tiie caj)ital of Mississippi Territory, leading from Tennessee to the lower colonies, was first called " the Natchez trace,"' afterwards " the Military road," because the troops from Tennessee and Alabama travelled it in marching to the de- fense of New Orleans, and is now "the Limestone road." The right of way had been conceded by the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes in ISli.i. In ISii'.t Wallace Kstell entered the quarter section of lam! where Cumming's Mill now stands, and there Imilt the first mill in the county. Charles Cabaiiiss located at I'owers' Spring, entered the old Tate place above Hazel (ireen, and built the first cotton factory in the county, on Barren Fork, in Section S. II. Ford entered the land near the junction of Mountain Fork and Barren Fork, and Iniilt a cotton factory at an early period. Between Flint Bridge and lluntsville, William Moore, Nathan Strong, James Boper, Matthew Weaver and John K. B. Eldridge lived. Down the Meridian road, the land was all taken up in large bodies. Kobert Thompson and Thomas Bibb entered nearly all in sections west of the road from Birch Fork to Meridianville; and James Manning and B. S. Pope the land south to the Strong homestead. On the east of the road were John Lowry and John and William AVatkins. Along the line of the western road from Pope's place. Powell, Richard Harris. Kowland Cornelius and others settled. From Strong's to lluntsville. John Connally, D. Humphrey. P. Cox, John W. Walker, Charles Cabaniss and Hugh ^IcVay entered. Out towards Russell's Hill, George Dil- wortli, Edward Ward and John Allison located lands; and east of lluntsville, in Powers Cave, Chailes Calniniss, Moses Vincent and Allen Chris- tian lived. South and west of lluntsville many |iurcliases were made in ISO!), by ancestors of the present owners. Among these early buyers were Dr. David Moore, A. and J. Sibley, J. and S. Ackleii, W. Langford,.!. Withers, William Lanier, Archie -McDonald, D. Carniichael, James and Andrew Drake, P. McLemore, J. and W. Blevins, William Sim])son, William Robertson, Henry Hay lies and the Turners. Large bodies of land were entered for speculation, and Petersburg, Oa. , is remarkable for having been the former residence of a large number of the heaviest pur- chasers of j)ublie land. James Manning, R. Thompson, Leroy Pope, John W. Walker, Thomas J5ibb. William Bibb and Peyton Cox, were all from that place, and probably purchased nearly one-half of the lands sold in 1800. They were, for a long time, prominent men in the county. Of other large purchasers, C. Kennedy was from Pendleton District, S. C. ; B. Wood from Tennessee; Charles Cabaniss from Lunenburg County, Va.; S. Allen, Jacob Priest and Willam Robertson were living in the county before the land sales. In 181(1 Thomas Brandon and Nich- olas IJeedy entered the Henry Motz farm; and John Baker, the Holding Brick house tract below -McDonalds or Baker's Creek. At that time, J. H. I'osey, C. C. Clay and Gabriel Moore made their first purchases of land in Madison County. G. Moore settled the homestead west of the brick sclioolhouse: Posey, north of Huntsville; and (May, a quarter section of land, south of -Andrew Drakes, in Drake's Cove. December -^3, 180(t, the Territorial Legislature passed an Act, that " William Dickson, Edward Ward, Louis Winston, Alex. Gilbreath and Peter Perkins, of Madison County, be elected coinmi.ssioners, for the purpose of fixing on the most convenient i)!ace for establishing the public buildings in the said county, and they, or a ma- jority of them, shall have power to procure, by juircliase or otherwise, not less than thirty, nor more than one hundred, acres of land, at the most convenient anil suitable place, which shall be laid out in half-acre lots, reserving three acres forjiub- lic buildings, and sold at public auction, on twelve months' credit. The money to be applied bv said commissioners towards dcfravins the ex 248 NORTHERN ALABAMA. penses of erecting the public buildings of the county." For the quarter section of land containing the big spring there was no competition at the land sales of 1809, and Le Koy Pope paid over 823 per acre. At that time there were two or three hun- dred inhabitants, scattered over the ground now occupied by Huntsville. The town was first laid out in 1810, and its plan was probably agreed upon between Pope and the commissioners. There were four half -acre lots in each square, and about sixty acres of ground were embraced in the plan. Pope was a wise and liberal man. The Spring Bluff determined the angle of the streets, which are thirty- four degrees from .the true merid- ian. The first survey of the town was probably the work of John W. Leake. Hunter Peel came Into Huntsville in 1816. The original plan of the town was not recorded and is not extant. The plat thought to be the original plan was drawn by Hunter Peel, by order of the trustees of the Pope donation, in 1821, and .still exists. After the town was first laid out, the commissioners, who all lived in the neighborhood of the big spring, purchased thirty acres from Mr. Pope, paying the nominal price of seventy-five dollars. This deed was not recorded until 1815. They selected the south half of the town, the line running through the court-house square. This portion of the town was sold rapidly in half-acre lots, bringing from two to five hundred dollars each. Ten thousand dollars was realized and applied to public build- ings. Pope afterward obtained more than twice as much for the northern portion of the town, which he had retained. John Hunt, afttr whom the place was called, was not able to purchase at the sales the land on which he located. He did buy one quarter-sec- tion, but failed to make the payments, and it re- verted to the United States. In 1811, the town was incorporated by the Territorial Legislature, as "Huntsville," with a board of trustees. The Legislature of 1843-44, granted a new charter to the town, dividing it into four wards, and pro- viding for the election of a mayor and eight alder- men. The first lot sold in the new town, was sold on the Fourth of July, 1810. The first court-house was commenced soon afterward, and court was held in it in the fall of 1811. The first trading-house or store was that of Alexander (Jilbreath, near the spring, about the corner of Gates and Henry streets. After the town was laid out, Gilbreath and James White formed a coiiartnership, and did a large business in 1811-12. The first houses on the public square were built by John Brown and J. 0. Crump, on the north side, called "Exchange Row." Rose, LeKoy Pope and Hitchman built the first stores on the east side. John Reed, a clerk in the land office at Nashville, in 1809, bought the west half of the South Side, called " Commercial Row," and also tlie corner lot west, across Madison street. On this he built his first house and sold it to Andrew Jami- son, who afterward sold it to Allen Cooper. Lat- terly it has been the j^roperty of F. 0. Schandies. Reed sold lots on Commercial Row to J. Falconer, James Clemens, Stephen Ewing and Taylor and Foote. Stephen Xeal, who was sheriff from 1809 to 1822, purchased the east half of Com- mercial Row, and sold it, by the lot, to Luther and Calvin Morgan, C. C. Clay, William Patton and Andrew Beirne, who were long and favorably known under the firm-name of " Patton & Beirne." Christopher Cheatham erected a tavern on the Huntsville Hotel lot. Thomas and William Bran- don, the builders of the place, came here in 1810, with no property except their trowels and mechan- ical skill; and from a struggling village of wooden shanties, they made a town of brick and stone. The Creek War began with the massacre of Fort Minis, in Washington County, on the Alabama River, on the 30th of August, 1813. General Jackson appealed at once to the militia of his division and soon found a considerable force at his command. Among his troops were four compa- nies from Madison County, led by captains Gray, ]\[osely, Eldridge and Hamilton. Organizing his army at Fayetteville, he established a depot of supplies at Deposit Ferry, on the Tennessee River, and opened "Jackson's Trace," the Deposit road from New Market, through New Hojse, to the ferry. Enthusiasm was great, and high prices were paid by some for the privilege of taking the places of the men enrolled. The ^Madison com- panies were put into a regiment with Tennesseans, commanded by Col. James Carroll, an intinuite friend of General Jackson. Lender him they par- ticipated in the important battles of Talladega and Emuckfaw, where, being on an exposed flank, they suffered severely. They were also at the bat- tle of Tohopeka, which closed the war. The company of Captain Eldridge was raised in Hunts- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 249 ville anil Meriflianville, and that of Captain Tlam- iltoii in the mountain settlements of Flint IJiver. Tiiese cotnpanies bore a jiart in the occupation of >[obile and I'ensacola. On the Sth of January, 1S15, the battle of New Orleans was fought, and on the 18tli of June the battle of Waterloo. . The Treaty of Ghent between Enecu]ation became the rage. 'J'he tobacco lands of X'irginia had become worn and the profits of that staple had materially diminished. The price of cotton was high, '-iit to 2o cents per pound; and in the rich virgin soil of the Tennessee Valley of Alabama, each good hand could make, annually, five or six hundred dollars. Besides, being unlike the sickly land.s of the coast region, high and healthy, the increase of the negro slaves equalled the proceeds of the crops. Lands purchased in 1809, at %-l per acre, sold at *15 and §20. For example: In 1817, Robert Thompson sold 640 acres, entered above Meridianville, to Thomas G. Percy, for *10,800; Jacob Pruitt sold 137 acres, north of Mooresville, for *i2i) p^r acre; James Manning sold the land on which Dr. Hampton now resides, at ^18 per acre. These were consid- ered bargains, and shrewd business men like Charles Cabaniss, Dr. David ^Moore, John Brahan and Samuel Allen, who had purchased large bodies in 1800, considered their lands worth more, and l)referred the profits of cotton planting to specu- lation. The value of town property kept pace with that of farms. For instance: John Heed paid the commissioners $T.5ii for lot No. 42, now Shandies' corner, and in 1815 sold it for ^7,500: Heed and Neal paid *.")00 each for the lots on Com- mercial How; Neal sold his for ¥8,400. LeHoy Pope realized *10,000 for the Holding Square, in- cluding the storehouse of Pope & Hickman. On the 2d day of February, 1818, land sales began at Iluntsviile. then the only town in the valley, liut, with the land-otlice and a bank, and twenty thousand ]icoplo in Madison County eager to invest in lands, the times were lively. Within two years the counties of Morgan, Blount, St. Clair, Jackson, Limestone, Lauderdale, Lawrence and Franklin were occupied and organized. And the towns of Bellefonte, Somerville, iloulton, Athens, Tuscumbia, Florence, Blountsville, Ashe- ville and Husselville were founded, and nearly all of them incorporated. At that jieriod there were no preemption laws for the benefit of the poorer classes of settlers, and men of means, chiefiy from Virginia, North Carolina and (ieorgia, fiocked in to buy and to settle. Lauds covered with jjrimeval forests sold from twenty, as high as one hundred dollars per acre, and all the best lands in the en- tire valley were taken up. Fifty thousand people settled in its limits within a period of two years, and the Tennessee liiver, from its entrance into the State, near the Georgia line, to its exit, near the Mississijjpi line, had a continuous farming settlement on both sides, with a teeming popula- tion. In 1818, old Madison comprised about three- fourths of its present area (872 square miles); and the population was 20,000. Huntsville was the only town in the valley of the Tennessee, in Alabama: and outside of the county limits not a man owned an acre of ground. Madison received considerable accession of new territory, to which many of its citizens transferrrd their energies. But numbers of prominent men located lands far- ther down the valley, and became representatives of the new counties. At the public sales the lands added to Madison sold well. The uplands of the Matthews plantation, west of the Indian line, brought $27 per acre; the Donegon place, $20: the lands in ilullin's Flat. 83(i. Toward Madison station, the Bradford plantation brought iS30; the Clemens place the same; while the Patton and Stevens plantations, near Swancot, sold at $.50 and $54 per acre, all wild woods. West of Madi- son the bottom landsbrought higher figures, some, in the region of Tuscumbia, covered with timber, selling at over $1(hi per acre. During 1S18 the United States Government laid off three sites for cities, " York Bluff," -'Cold Water," and "Marathon," and sold the land in one acre lots. A cor[)oration was also formed under the name of " Indian Creek Navigation Company "; and the bluff at Triana was nuuked off for a city, lots of which, at tlie first sale by the trustees, realized $9(t,(>00. This enterprise was made a failure by fhc progress in transportation 250 NORTHERX ALABAMA. through science, and the changes in the carry- ing trade effected by steam. AYhen the laws of the Territoi-y were extended into Madison County in 1810, LeRoy Pojoe, Edward Ward, Wm. Dickson, Jolin Withers and Thomas Bibb were appointed justices of the quorum. Pope being chief justice. In tlie year 1814, Wm. Dick- son and Edward Ward resigned, and Dr. David Moore and Abner Tatum were appointed. These gentlemen served until 1819. Wm. H. Winston was recorder, and was succeeded by Henry Minor. In May, 1810, by an Act of Congress, a judge of the Superior Court of Law and Equity for Madison County was ajipointed, and Judge Obadiah Jones ojiened court at Iluntsville, attired, as customary in the older States, with black gown and cocked hat, the sheriff preceding him, holding in front a drawn sword. Peter Perkins was clerk of the court, and in April, 1811, Francis E. Harris, who remained in office until Alabama was admitted into the Union. John \V. Walker served as attor- ney-general. On the second Monday in Decem- ber, IBT-i, Eli Norman was tried for murder, and convicted. Motion for a new trial was overruled on Thursday. The criminal was sentenced on Friday and hung on Saturday. There was no lynch law or lynching in those days. This was the issue of the first trial for murder in Alabama. In 1812, the Territorial Legislature incor- porated the old "Green Academy" for boys; in Huntsville, with Wm. Edmanson, John Bra- han, Wm. Leslie, James McCartney, Peter Perkins, C. Burns, W. Derrick, J. Neely, Jno. Grayson, H. Cox, B. Woods, S. Allen, A. K. Davis, W. Evans and Xathan Powers as trustees. Woods and Davis were ministers of the gospel. General Brahan donated the land on which the public school now stands; and until the establish- ment of the State University, in 1821, this was the leading institution in all this region. In 181G the. Territorial Legislature appropriated §500 to the academy; and in 1818 Lemuel Mead, Henry Cham- bers, Henry Minor, Jno. M. Taylor, C. C. Clay and J. W. Walker became trustees. In every part of the county there was an effort to keep up public schools, and very few of the early generation raised in Madison County were unable to read and to write. Many of them have scattered to the prairie region of South Alabama and Mississippi, to the Mississippi bottom, to Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas — and they have generally held their own. Among the first ministers of the gospel men- tioned in the county are: David Thompson, Thomas Moore. Woodson Loyd, Robert Hancock and William Lanier, of the Methodist Ejjiscopal Church, all licensed before 1814; Bennett Woods, John Nicholson, John McCutchen, John Canter- berry and Wm. Bird, of the Baptist Church; and A. K. Davis and J. W. Allen, of the Presbyterian Church. The roll of attorneys who were admitted to prac- tice in the Superior Court at Huntsville, from the year 1810 to 1820, is an exceptionally brilliant one. J. W. Walker became Circuit Judge and United States Senator; il. AVilliams, member of the Legislature and Judge of County Court at Tuscaloosa; G. Colter, Circuit Judge at Flor- ence; John il. Taylor, Circuit Judge and Jus- tice of the Supreme Court; C. C. Clay, Circuit Judge, Member of Congress, Governor, Justice of the Sui^reme Court, United States Senator and Codifier of the Laws of Alabama: Henry Minor, Circuit Judge and Suj^reme Court Reporter: John McKinley, Member of the Legislature and United States Senator; Samuel Chapman, Judge of Madi- son County Court for fourteen years and Circuit Judge of Tuscaloosa Circuit for twelve j-ears; William Kelly, Member of Congress and L'nited States Senator; Henry Chambers, Member of the Legislature and L^nited States Senator; Hugh Mc- Va}', President of the Senate of Alabama and Governor; Wm. I. Adair, Speaker of the House of Alabama and Circuit Judge; James G. Birney, Member of the first Legislature of Alabama, and, on removing to the North, tlie first candidate of the Republican party for the Presidency of the L^nited States; Arthur F. Hopkins, Circuit Judge and Justice of the Supreme Court from Mobile, where he moved; and James W. McClurg, twice Speaker of the lower house of the Legislature. In the medical profession, during the early days, were two men of scholarly attainments and emi- nent skill, both as surgeons and practitioners — Dr. David Moore, elsewhere sjioken of, and Dr. Thomas Fearn. The latter served under General Jackson in the war of 1812, and spent 1818 and 1819 in the medical schools and hospitals of Eu- rope. An article he afterward published on the use of quinine in typhoid fever inaugurated a rev- olution in the treatment of that dread disease. He represented Madison County in tlie Legisla- ture in 1822, and twice soon after. He was a Presidential Elector and Member of the Provis- ional Congress of the Confederate States in 18G1. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 251 He was a handsome man, with a fine mind, great enterprise and public spirit, |)artieipating in many of the improvements about lluntsville and in tlie various projects of the day. I'r. Alexander Ers- kine came later, from Virginia also, and survived his distinguished confreres. He was jiopular and beloved, a man of high character. He practiced his profession after Drs. Moore and Fearn had withdrawn, and long did a lucrative business. After these. Dr. Francis H. Newman came to lluntsville from Maryland. He was a physician of scientific attainments and general information. A man of heart, retiring in his disposition, devoted to his profession, and able in diagnosis and treat- ment, he possessed the confidence of his patients and of the community in which his life was passed. The first newspaper published in Alabama Ter- ritory was printed at lluntsville, in 1812, by a Mr. Parham, and called The Madison Gazclte. The first bank was established under authority conferred by the Legislature upon LeRoy Pope, Jolin P. Hickman, David ^loore, B. Cox, John M. Taylor, Thomas Fearn, J. Searcy, C. C. Clay and John W. AValker to open books of subscription for that purpose, in 1810. Hunter Peel, who came to HuntsviUe in 1816, was a useful citizen. He was an Englishman, and had served in the Hritish Army as an engineer. He surveyed part of the public domain in 1818, and was an excellent draughtsman. His admirable !nap of Madison County was lost or destroyetl dur- ing the sectional war. His map of the old Hunts- villa corporation is extant ; and, in connection with J. Barklay, he constructed the lluntsville Water-Works, which have furnished pure, cold water, by iron pipes, throughout the town, for sixty- five years. Alabama Territory had the pre-re()uisites to constitute a State. A convention of the people was called to frame a constitution and to apply for admission into the Uliion. This body con- vened at lluntsville, July 5, 1810, and wascompos- ed of forty-four delegates from twenty-two coun- ties. Madison County was entitled to eight, Mont- gomery and Tuscaloosa to two each, i»nd 3Iobile and Dallas Counties to one each. John W. Walk- er, of Madison, was made presiding officer. A Territorial Legislature also met at HuntsviUe, October 2.">, 181'.t. On the Utli of December, the same year, Congress, by joint resolution, approved by President Monroe, admitted Ahibanni as a State into the Union. The first Legislature of Alabama assembled at HuntsviUe, on the first Monday in August, 1820. And the first (iovernor of the State was AVm. W. Bibb, of iladison County, who on his death was succeeded by Thomas Bibb, his brother. President of the Senate, also of Madison. In the history of Alabama as a State, nine of its Governors have been identified by residence or by birth with iladison County, to-wit : the two Bibbs, (iabriel Jloore, C. C. Clay, Reuben Chap- man, John A. Winston, before the sectional war; and Robert Patton, D. P. Lewis and E. A. O'Neal, since the wai-. Eight United States Senators, and two Confederate Senators, have hailed from HuntsviUe, namely : John W. Walker, who served from 181(» to 1823 ; William Kelly, from 1822 to 1825 : Henry Cham- bers, from 1825 to 1820 ; John McKinley, from 1820 to 1831 ; (iabriel Moore, from 1831 to 1837 ; C. C. Clay, from 1837 to 1843 : Jere Clemens, from 1840 ta 1853, and C. C. Clay, Jr., from 1853 to 1801 ; in the Confederate States Senate, C. C. Clay, Jr., served first and afterward Richard W. Walker. Gen. L. P. Walker was Secretary of War of the Confederate States, in 1801. in 1842 Dr. David Moore was defeated for the United States Senate by four votes from his own .section of the State, influenced by personal or local motives ; otherwise lluntsville would have had an unbroken succession of Senators in the Congress of the United States. Before the war, in the Conventions of the Dem- ocratic party in Alabama, the basis of representa- tion was the white vote in each county, and Xorth Alabama, being overwhelmingly Democrat- ic, was called "The Avalanche," because, going down solid from this region, it overran the more Whiggish counties below. Colonel Galloway, a native of iladison County, Ala., started an im- -portant newspaper at Memphis, Tenn., and mind- ful of this soubriquet, callpd it -'TJie Arahtiiclie," known and respected to-day. Under the new system of representation in Democratic Conventions, since the redemption of the State, the wliite counties of North Alabama have lost the power tliey for- merly had in the counsels of the party, and, through the material used in State elections. Dem- ocrats of "the black belt" dominate. There is no disposition to jeopardize the peace, safety and conservative influence of that section of the State. But the party is organized on Federal politics, not on State, county, town or ])ersonal issues: and 252 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the election of the Presidential electors is the most unfailing, unmixed and important criterion of party allegiance. In the distribution of j^arty l>ower in the State, its fairness and squarenesss can not be questioned. When the Democracy of Xorth Alabama require rejiresentation on that basis, it will be conceded as right : but not until a firm and decided stand is taken. In the mean time this section is dwarfed of the power justly belonging to it. In 18:23, the great thoroughfares of the country here were opened in various directions for conven- ience and to facilitate communication and the busi- ness interests, superseding tlie old Indian trails. Tlie streets of Huutsville, many of them graded by Hunter Peel, were also macadamized with blue limestone rock from the mountain base. Drains were opened next to the sidewalks and deciduous trees set out for comfort, health and adornment. Between 1820 and 18.30, houses of worship were built in Huntsville by the different denominations of Methodists. Baptists, Presbyterians and Cum- berland Presbyterians. They were occupied by large and liberal congi-egations, as they are now. Later the Episcopalians raised a gothic structure, and for several decades have had a full and pros- perous church. Since the war the Roman Catho- lics have built a stone edifice for their services, on amain street. ''The Christian" sect have re- cently completed a modest building. And the colored peojjle of different jiersuasions have their churches. Among all, the spirit is liberal and har- mony prevails, with absence of bigotry and jealousy. In 1830, the population of Madison County was 27,990. In that year the Pre-emption Law was passed, having been earnestly advocated by C. C. Clay, Representative in Congj-ess. In 1832, great land sales took jilace in this val- ley, with additional influx and settlement by farmers of moderate means. In 1831, the Female Seminary was established by Presbyterians, and has continuously sent forth young ladies of high education. In 1832, "The Bell Factory" wasincorjjorated, as " Patton, Donegan & Company," for the man- ufacturer of cotton clotlis. It ran 100 looms and 3000 spindles, and for many years under direction of Dr. C. H. Patton distributed its excellent pro- ducts at a handsome profit. In 183G, th-e last remnants of the Indians were removed from ^ladison County to the Indian Territorv. In 1838, the present court-house was built by Wilson and Mitchell for §.32,000: and at the same time the structure of the National Bank was erected by George Steel. The streets were ex- tended and graded, drainage was improved: and many private residences were put up. In 184:3, the Female College was inaugurated by Methodists, and has since been an admirable insti- tution, popular throughout the South. In the same year a new charter for Huntsville was obtained from the General Assembly, dividing the town into four wards and providing for a government of a mayor and eight aldermen. In 18.50, the Memphis & Charleston Railroad was projected by men of Huntsville, and soon con- structed. The second president of the enterprise was George P. Beirne, and the third Archibald Mills, of this place. In 1872, "The Huntsville Agricultural and Mechanical Association " was organized, for giving Fairs every fall, with exhibitions of farm produce and fine stock. It has greatly promoted the ob- jects sought, has been well managed, and is un- doubtedly the most prosiserous and substantial Fair association in the Cotton States. In 1886, it had the best exhibit of farm produce at the State Fair in Montgomery, and last fall took the first j)remium of $400 tl}ere. In 1883, the population of Madison County was 37,625 — White, 17,5'.»1: colored, 19,034. Acres in cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, tobacco and sweet potatoes, 213,221. The production of cot- ton, 29,879 bales. The rich, red valley lands con- stitute 300 square miles; the coal measures table- lands, 150 square miles; and sandy lands on the mountains, 50 square miles. The latitude, the elevation, the configuration of the mountain chains, and the direction of the val- leys and of the jirevailing winds combine to create a climate, the finest throughout the year to be found in the United States. The beauty of the t women of Huntsville is as j)roverbial as their cul- ture. And the numerous ruddy children and robust, athletic men give the most substantial proof of beneficent surroundings. • •♦ >" ^^?^- < '- • REUBEN CHAPMAN was born in Caroline County, \"a., in 18(i2. His father. Col. Reuben Chapman, was a soldier in the war of 1776 for the independence of the American colonies. His NORTHERN ALABAMA. 253 mother's maiden name was Reynolds, and she was of Essex County, Va. Well educated in his native State, he came to Huntsville, Ala., in lS'i4, where he studied law in the ofticeofhis brother, Judg;e Samuel Chapman, wiio had pre- ceded him. During that year he was chosen to carry the electoral vote of the State — the second it had cast — to Washington. In 1825 he was ad- mitted to the bar. He practiced a year in Hunts- ville, and then removed to Morgan County. In 1S:!2 he was elected to represent that county in the State Senate and was twice re-elected, when, in 183."), he was sent to Congress over Jlessrs. R. T. Scott, of Jackson, and William II. Glasscock, of Madison, by a large majority. Two years later he was re-elected over ex-Gov. Gabriel Moore by fe<^^l„*«^^».-<^^-txi^ M^ij:z^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 257 Prepared for college chiefly bj' William \\. Ab- bott, of (ieorgetown, D. C, he entered Harvard from Charleston in 1845. At the June exhibition of "47, being one of ''the first eight "of a large class, he was a speaker ; at that of '48 he was again a speaker : and on commencement day, 1849. For rank in scholarship he was chosen a member of "The Phi Beta Kappa Society." Ue was elected president and orator of " The Hasty Pudding Club," and he was an active member of "The Oneida Boat Club," pulling in several eight-oared races on the river Charles among the winning crew. President Everett having advised against a two- years' travel in Europe, ho returned to Charleston, studied law in the office of .James L. Petigru, a jiersonal friend of his father, and was admitted to the bar at Columbia, S. C, in 1851. He also served on the staff of Governor Means. In 1853, sullering from laryngitis, having mar- ried a handsome and popular young lady of Hunts- ville. Ala., and being fond of country life, he became a rice-planter in Colleton district, S. C, working a goodly number of I'.egroes. After two years' close, practical attention to the business, supplemented by the study of " Leibig's .\gricultural Chemistry," " Watson's Practice of .Medicine," " Youatt on the Horse," etc., etc., he dispensed with the services of an overseer and managed his own planting. At the same time he supervised his father's plantations and overseer, W'ith 350 odd slaves. To many of these both father and son were strongly attached, and the feeling was largely reciprocated and practically exhibited during the war. While engrossed in these occupations, his cousin, Wm. R. Taber, editor of the Charleston Mer.vu-rij, was killed in a duel, regularly fought. A challenge had been accepted for publishing an anonymous communication from a personally responsible author, who criticised in stringent terms a candi- liate to succeed Hon. Wm. Aiken in Congress. Regarding the conduct of the affair as pressed too far, especially in the demand for a third fire, which jiroved fatal, and as intended or tending to break down the politics represented by the paper, those of his father. Colonel Rhett bought the interests of Taber in the Mercunj and afterward that of his partner, .Tohn Heart. He quit jjlanting with a handsome profit, and from March, 1857, edited the Merrunj. In less than four years its circula- tion quadrupled, and it was the leading political organ of the Southern States, looked to by the most prominent and influential public men, partic- ularly in the Cotton States. The events of the Charleston convention and the results of the canvass of 1800 were the culmination of the long pending sectional issues. Early in the summer of that year Colonel Rhett lost his first wife, and while at Saratoga for his health, in August, he was elected to the Legisla- ture, from Charleston. Upon the electi'^n of Mr. f.incoln to the presidency of the United States, in November, Colonel Rhett, through the Columbia (luardian newspaper, called a meeting of the members of the Legislature at Kinsler's hall, on Main street, at ten o'clock \. Ji. He had obtained a number of letters from public men, of the different Southern States, who had the confidence and respect of the people of South Carolina. The letters were replies to specific questions, propounded as to the course which South Carolina should pursue in the contingency anticipated. He presented them to the meeting and they were read by the secretary, Gen. AVm. E. Martin, the clerk of the Senate. Letters of similar character were offered by other members and were read, and the meeting adjourned. Colonel Rhett, then in the House of Representatives, offered a joint resolution, by precedent, for the call of a State Convention, and named December 6th for the election of delegates and December 17th for the assembling of the body. This, by consent, was referred to the Judiciary Committee, and the prop- osition was reported back in the form of a bill, prepared by the late Hon. Henry Buist, of Charles- ton, and was unanimously passed by both lIou.ses. The State Convention, thus called, met at Columbia, adjourned to Charleston, and, on the 20th of December, unanimously adopted the ordinance of secession dissolving the Union. On the 24th of December Major Anderson trans- ferred his command from Fort Moultrie over to Fort Sumter. As this was held contrary to the understanding of the South Carolina commis- sioners, with President Buchanan, Colonel Rhett urged its immediate seizure by the State authori- ties, a stroke then easy of accomplishment ; and this course was pressed on two considerations: first, to settle the issue under President Buchanan rather than under President Lincoln: and, second, to compel Virginia and other halting border States, to take sides definitelyj so that the North might know what to e.vpect in the event of war. But these views did not prevail, and the compli- 258 NORTHERN ALABAMA. cation remained until April 12-13, with the results which followed. For the flag of South Carolina, Colonel Rhett, in the House, proposed the old blue field, and white crescent, with a color- less palmetto added, and the proposition was car- ried after opposition. In an editorial of the Mercury, Colonel Rhett first suggested ^Montgomery, Ala., as the place of meeting for the convention of the seceding ing States. The suggestion was made, not merely on account of its central ijosition below the mountains, but because the Montgomery Advertiser was thoroughly in accord with the movement and because it was the home of Wm. L. Yancey. The State convention adopted the proposal, and invited the delegates to assemble at Montgomery on the 4th of February, which they did. In 1861-1862 Colonel Rhett served on the staff of Gen. R. S Kipley, in South Carolina, and, during the war, he was repeatedly under fire in Charleston and on the islands adjacent. He edited the Mercury, and served as a member of the Legislature. His four brothers were in service under Beauregard, Johnston and Lee, from the beginning. One, Lieut. Robert W. Rhett, was killed at Cold Harbor, in 1862 ; Capt. Edmund Rhett and Maj. A. B. Rhett, survived the war, physical wrecks, to linser a few years. Col. Alfred Rhett, of Fort Sumter fame, is still liv- ing in Charleston, S. C. After the evacuation of Charleston, Col. R. B. Rhett received an appoint- ment on the staff of Gen. J. E. .Johnston, but the end came quickly. The course of Colonel Rhett, in editing the Mercury, was throughout the war distinct and positive, in regard to foreign dii^lomacy, financial matters, and military and naval affairs. But in this brief notice it is impossible to convey any idea of the various policies projected, or the reasons offered in their support. Results, how- ever, of the management pursued, under the lights of the present, go far to prove the political sagacity shown in the Mercury and the justice of its criticisms of the Confederate Government. After the war, when suffrage was conferred upon the negroes. Colonel Rhett, at a meeting of prominent citizens, held at the office of " Porter & Conner," in Charleston, for consultation, argued the importance of canvassing among the new voters, utterly ignorant, before the agents of the Freedman's Bureau could array them solidly as Republicans against their white neighbors ; but he was alone, and the f nion League had it their own way for ten years. In November, 1866, the publication of the Mercury was resumed, and in 1808 its editor warm- ly advocated the nomination of General Hancock, for President, by the Xew York Democratic con- vention. When the motley reconstruction con- vention of South Carolina was held in Charleston, Colonel Rhett set forth, in plain terms, the un- savory antecedents of its various members : and during the period of deepest gloom, he contributed to holding up the hearts and hopes of the people of that depressed State, notwithstanding a threat made him of imprisonment at Castle Pinckney b}' General Sickles and menaces of assassination by Republican politicians, whom he had shown up. The flush times following the war subsided, and ' cotton from 40 cents a pound dropped to 9 in 1807-1808, with wide-sp)read disaster at the South. Colonel Rhett sunk considerable money in the Mercury and in cotton planting at this period. Having in 1807 married a second time, a lady of Huntsville, Ala., of rare beauty, he moved to Alabama in 1S70, and since that time has attended to cotton planting in Madison County and in Noxubee County, Miss. In 1872 he opened the State canvass of Alabama, with Colonel Herndon, nominee for Governor, offering resolutions in support of Mr. Greeley, not as a Democrat, but as an alternative to Grant. Soon afterward he accepted an invitation from "The N. 0. Printing and Publishing Company" to edit the Picayune, and through that canvass, and for a year after, during the stormy struggle of the people of Louisiana against Kellogg's fraud and usurpation, he controlled its columns. He vigorously and fearlessly exposed the great wrong and the various men conspicuously engaged in the enterprise, when an effort was made to muzzle the Picayune by two $100,000 suits for libel, brought respectively in behalf of Chief Justice Ludeling and of Hawkins, made Judge of the Superior (or political) Court. Without going into detail, suffice it to state, that, in defending the cause of Louisiana, the Picayune and himself. Colonel Rhett became involved in a personal difficulty with Judge Wm. H. Cooley, counsel for Judge Hawkins. It sprung from a gratuitous and baseless imputation, made against the editor by the lawyer in his speech, and followed by a grossly insulting card in the Xew Orleans Times. A duel was fought between the parties, at Montgomery NORTHERN ALABAMA. 259 Station, Miss., in which Judge Cooley fell at the second fire. Colonel Rhett's course was fully justified by people of the South, who understood the situation and the circumstances of the alTair. By precept and example he inculcated the sjiirit wliicli led to the needed ])olitical change in Louisiana under Wiltz, Nicholls, and Ogden. In 187."), in Noxubee County, he took an active and responsible part in the canvass which freed Mississippi from carpet-bag domination. In 1876, on account of dissatisfaction with the News and Courier, the Charleston Journal of Commerce was started (without the Associate Press dispatches, however), and Colonel Khett was called to edit it. The News and Courier persist- ently advocated the support of Chamberlain, Republican, for Governor, by the Democrats of South Carolina. Colonel Rhett advised a straight struggle under a Democratic leader of sufficient prestige and popularity, to rouse the people to the supreme effort required, Hampton being the man indicated. Hampton was nominated in tlie Jiiurnal of Commerce by Oeu. M. C. Butler. This programme was adopted by the State conven- tion of the party, the News and Courier falling into line. An ellort was then made to separate the S-.ate canvass from the presidential election, and confine the labors to the former, as a purely local affair. Colonel Rhett strenuously insisted that the canvass should be conducted abreast with and as a part of the presidential election, the issue of which was so vital. Tilden and Hendricks were elected, but the country was deprived of Tilden's administration of aflfairs. Hampton, after a long struggle, secured his office : and the (Jovernment of South Carolina got again in the bands of white men and Democrats. Colonel Uhett was elected to the Legislature with General ihitledgc, at the head of the large delegation from (Uiarleston; and he assisted in the rehabilitation of the State, in the settlement of the State debt, and in the reestablishment of her high credit. Having returned to Iluntsville, Ala., in 1878, in 1880 Colonel Rhett advocated the nomina- tion of Hancock and engaged actively with voice and [len, in the election of General Wheeler to Congress from the 8th district. In 1882, at Atiiens, Ala., he opened the canvass for State offices, by the first speech, taking the highest grounds for the Democratic party. He also spoke effectively on this iilane. with (iovernor O'Neal, at Montgomery and at Mobile. In 1884 he attended the Chicago Democratic convention, and on returning home, after the nomination, was made president of the Cleveland Club, at Iluntsville. He canvassed the 8th district for the presidential nominees and for (ieneral Wheeler, who was again elected to Congress. At the Democratic convention of Alabama, in 1880, Colonel Khett was chairman of the committee on platform and resolutions, which first endorsed the administration of Mr. Cleveland. Civil service reform and an equitable revision of the tariff for revenue, were the two jilanks proposed by him ; the committee struck out the tariff plank. He was also elected at the head of the executive com- mittee of the State : and he was appointed by Governor O'Neal as trustee of the University of Alabama. His latest work in politics is an article among the " War Papers '■ of the Centurij magazine on the Confederate Government of Montgomery. In terse and pregnant sentences it throws much light on the events of that historic period. In person. Colonel Rhett is five feet nine inches tall, with straight limbs, and weighs 140 pounds. His eyes are dark gray and clear. His bearing is simple, calm, direct and courteous. The corre- spondent of the New York Herald, from New Orleans, described him as follows : •' Personally Colonel Rhett is represented to be high-toned, gentle and chivalrous — a quiet, low-spoken man, and the last either to court a quarrel or to recede from one. at the expense of his own honor: he has never hesitated to hold himself responsible for all language uttered in his journalistic columns or elsewhere.'" Colonel Rhett is deeply interested in the develop- ment of the beautiful valley of the Tennessee River and presided over the first public meeting in Iluntsville for the building of the Elora Railroad to connect with Nashville, and over the first con- cerning the Cincinnati. Iluntsville & Birming- ham KMilroad. — «-j€i^--«^ — HENRY CLAY SPEAKE was born in Lawrence Countv, Ala., .hinc IT. ls:)4, and is a son of James H. and Sarah H. (Lindsey) Speake. James R. Speake was born in Kentucky in 1803, where he received his education mostly after he was grown. He came to Lawrence County, .\la., in 18:t2, ami located near Oakville. where he 260 NORTHERN ALABAMA. taught school and followed teacliing for a liveli- hood forseveral years. He married in June, 1833, and settled near Oakville on a plantation, and has remained there all his life. He and his wife, who are still living, have reared six children, of whom the subject of our sketch is the eldest. He has served as County Suirerintendent of Law- rence County several terms, and was a member of the Convention ihat framed the Constitution of Alabama in 1865. He was in the Legislature in 1870, 'n, '76 and 1878. He has been very active in the Baptist Chv;rch, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity. His father, Basil Speake, came from Maryland to Kentucky about 1790, and his ancestors came from England with Lord Baltimore, and settled in Maryland. Henry Clay Speake was reared on a farm; re- ceived a common-school education, and, at the age of twenty, taught school to procure money with with which to attend the law-school at Cumber- land University, from which institution he gradu- ated in January, 1857. In February of that year, he located at Decaitur, and with the exception of six months in Texas in 1860, he lived there until the war. He entered the army in August, 186--i, as a private in Compai\y D, Fourth Alabama Cav- alry Regiment, and was soon afterward promoted to sergeant-major, and, later, to adjutant of the regiment. About January, 1864, he was appointed quartermaster of the regiment, and was captured, with a part of Forrest's command, near Columbus, Ga. After the war he settled in Moulton, and in 1874 was elected Chancellor of the Northern Division of Alabama, which position beheld until 1880. In August of that year, he was elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of the State, and re-elected thereto in August, 1886. His present term will expire in 1892. In December, 1876, Judge Speake located at Huntsville, where he has since resided. He was married January 27, 1860, to Carrie 0. Mayhew, daughter of Jonathan Mayhew, remembered as an educator of more than ordinary ability. He. was originally from New England. The three chil- dren born to Judge Speake, now living, are Kate M., Henry C, Jr., and Paul M. He has three dead: Sallie May, James M. and Carrie Belle. The Judge is a Campbellite and his wife a Pres- byterian. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. It is worthy of note that Judge Speake was called to the chancellorship and afterward to the judge- ship by the voice of the people who considered his eminent fitness for the position, and that in neither case was it in response to any solicitation upon his part. His career, both as Chancellor and Judge, have shown the wisdom of the selection. THOMAS J. TAYLOR, Probate Judge of Mad- ison County, Ala., was born at Maysville, this county, July 2, 1829, and his parents were M. and Nancy J. (McCartney) Taylor, natives of Georgia. He received a common-school education, and, at the age of nineteen, began teaching. In 1858, he was elected County Surveyor, and held that office until January, 1862, at which time he entered the army as second lieutenant of Company K, Forty-ninth Alabama Regiment. After the bat- tle of Shiloh, in which he participated, and at the re-organization of the regiment, he was elected cap- tain of iiis company. He was captured at Port Hudson, and sent to Johnson's Island, at which place. Point Lookout and Fort Delaware, he was detained until the close of the war. For three years after returning liome he taught school. At the end of that time he was again elected county surveyor, and held that office until 1871, when he was elected tax assessor for the six succeeding years. In 1880 he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, held that office tix years, and in August, 1886, was elected Probate Judge. In his early manhood Judge Taylor married a Miss Douglas, daughter of John and Catherine (Nowlin) Douglas, who came from Lynchburg, Va., about 1819, and tlie children born to this union are: Kate (wife of S. M. Seward): Nannie J. (wife of William L. Jones); Lillie (wife of W. A. Walls); and Laura L. The judge and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and he is of the orders of I 0. 0. F. and K. of H. The senior Mr. Taylor was born in LexLngton, Ga., in 1801, and his wife in Madison County, Ala., in 1811. He came with his parents to this county in 1809, from Winchester, Tenn., whither the family had migrated in 1805. He was a farmer and merchant by occupation. Of his children we are able to make the follow- ing notices: (1) The subject of this sketch. (2) John M., a newspaper man, went to New Orleans in 1852, thence to Baton Rouge, as editor of tlie Baton Rouge Advocate; was State printer at the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 261 outbreak of the war; served througli tlie war, ris- ing from the ranks to the command of a regiment; after the war lie was a member of the Louisiana [legislature, and died while of that body. (3) (irant, was a membei- of tlie Twelfth Alabama Reg- iment; died in the hotipital soon after the battle of Seven Piues. (4) Charles was a private in the Seventli Alabama Cavalry; now a railroad man in Louisiana. (5) Felix M. was a member of the Fiftieth Alabama Wegiment. and afterward .Major of the Fourth Alaljama Cavalry; served through the war; died in Mem])his in 188(i. (fi) Waverly K. was a member of tiie Seventh Alabama Lifan- try, and afterward of the Second Louisiana Cav- alry: was on (ien. Dick Taylor's staff; now a farmer in Louisiana. (T) (ieorge L., at the ago of fifteen years, entered the Seventh Alabama Regiment; became a courier to General Wlieeler; was killed at Murfreesboro (8) I\[ary, wife of Clinton Hay worth, of FiOuisiana. (D) Jjucy. wife I if Pleas Davison, of l^ouisiana. .Mr. Taylor's father, George Taylor, was born near K'ichmond, Va., in 17G2. He was a lieuten- ant under Henry Lee, and particii)ated in the battles of Monmouth, (iuilford Court House and King's Mountain. After the war- he settled in Georgia, and was many years captain of militia. He moved to Tennessee in 180.5, and to Jfadisou County, Ala., in 1800. The Taylor family came to America with Lorle, irreproachable in his habits and a Christian gentleman in the highest sense of the word. His charities were wide and numerous. Hospitable and public-spirited, he was liberal to the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a member. He was a substantial friend of worthy young men who needed help, and was not only generous during life to kindred, but provided in his will for the education of those of his nephews whom he considered in need of his aid. Although a man full of the cares of business, his devotion to his family was remarkable. His heart ivas ever at home, and his watchful, tender love for his wife and little children was notably rare. The loss of sncli a guardian and guide in their early youth was an irreparable misfortune to his sons and daughters. He gave to his wife and children each an ample fortune, placed in the hands of trustees for safe keeping and ultimate division. He died in 184.5. DR. GEORGE M. HARRIS was born in Madi- son County, this State, .Fuly II, 1820, and his parents were Frank K. and JIahala (Isbell) Harris, natives of the State of Virginia. The senior Har- ris was born in 18ii0 in Appomattox County, Va., and came with his parents to this county in 1809. The family settled at Blue Springs, four miles north of Huntsville. Some time in 1856 or 18.57, Francis E. Harris removed to Jackson County, this State, and there spent the rest of his life, dying in 1877. Dr. Harris' grandfather, Richard Harris, held the rank of captain in the Colonial Army, and served under Washington through the Revolution- ary struggle. Coming to Madison County he purchased a large tract of Government land, and became one of the extensive farmers of that early day. He died near Huntsville at the great age of 94 years. His wife lived to be S(i years of age. The house, in which he lived for many years, was enclosed by a high picket fence, with blockhouses on each corner, and was used by his neighbors as a kind of fortress, into which they retreated nightly for protection against the Indians. George M. Harris, whose name forms the cap- tion of this sketch, was reared on his father's farm, and at the age of 19, when he began the study of medicine, he was probably as well in- formed as most any young man of his dav, and he 268 NORTHERN ALABAMA. entered upon his studies with a fair fiiiul of general information. Dr. Geo. K. Wharton, a distinguislied pliysi- cian, was his uncle, and became his preceptor in the study of physic. Dr. Harris was graduated from the Lonisville School of Medicine, with the degree of M. D., in 1842, and located at once at Belle- fonte, Jackson County, where he pursued the practice of his profession ten years. He was also an extensive farmer, and about 1850, established a tannery, in connection with which he carried on an large dry goods business. He also manu- factured the leather produced by his tannery into such articles of commerce as were then found sala- ble. In 1857 he removed to Meridianville, then an important village some miles north of Hunts- ville, and was there engaged in mercantile business until 1863. By this time the doctor had accumu- lated a pretty large fortune in lands, merchandise and slaves. He owned a large farm in Arkansas, to which he sent stock and negroes from North Alabama, and upon it annually raised many bales of cotton. Though he still owns his farms, it seems that he ceased to give them any personal supervision about 1870, as at that time he removed to the city of Huntsville. Here he is connected with some of the largest and most important en- terprises, and gives them much of his personal at- tention. He is one of the largest stockholders of the cotton factory at this place; in fact, is the president of the company that owns it. and its great success is probably as much due to his judi- cious management and direction, as to any other cause. The Doctor was one of the organizers, and is now a director of the North Alabama Improve- ment Company; also an organizer and director of the Huntsville Electric Light Company; also largely interested in the hardware business; and to all of these, in his own quiet unostentatious way, he gives his personal influence and supervi- sion. Doctor Harris is a broad-gauged, wideawake, enterprising, public-spirited, isresent-day man, and it is to such as he that Northern Alabama must be indebted to the grand future that awaits her, and in fact, is now dawning upon her. JOHN JEFFERSON DEMENT, M.D., was born 13th May, 1830, in Madison County, Ala., and is a son of John and Celia W. (Loue) Dement. John Dement was a native of Sumner County, Tenn. He received a common-school education, became a good, substantial farmer, and served as a justice of the peace. He was married in 1819, and came at once to ifadison County, Ala., which was there- after his home. He died in 1848, and his wife in 1852. They raised eight children, viz.: Alfred T., now dead; Susan, wife of G. B. Smith, of Phillips County, Ark.; John J., our subject ; Elvertou F., Cornelia J., widow of Robert Herel- ford, and now wife of Dr. 11. T. Searcy, of Cull- man; MattieE., wife of L. B. Burnes, of Arkansas; Kate, wifeof B. R. Thompson, of Madison County; and Lowe, a soldier under Breckinridge in the late war, and was killed at Jackson, Miss. John Dement was a son of Charles Dement, a native of North Carolina, and one of the pioneers of Sumner County, Tenn. He raised alarge family, viz.: Cader, Charles, Abner, James, David, John, and two daughters, Mildred and Clara. There is a tradition, that three brothers of this name came from France in the Colonial days, and were soldiers in the Revolution. One settled in Tennessee, one in Maryland, and the third went West. The subject of this sketch, John Jl Dement, received his education in the field. The early death of his father required him to stay on the farm and take charge of the family, which fact precluded the possibility of his receiving as good an education as he otherwise would have had. At twenty he began the study of medicine, at Meridianville, Ala., under Dr. G. A. AVyehe, now of Bossier Parish, La. He took his first medical course at Louisville, in the winter of 1851-52; went to Philadelphia, and was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1853. He tiien located at Meridianville, where he practiced with success until 1862, when he was commissioned suigeon in the Confederate Army, and was as- signed to the Twenty-seventh Alabama Regiment. He served with this regiment until the surrender of Fort Donelson, when he was sent a prisoner to Camp Chase, and, later, to Johnson's Island. He was released in June, 1862. While the Doctor was in prison, his warm, personal friend, Judge Peter M. Dox, of Huntsville, wrote to a former classmate of his own, Judge L. Bates, of Ohio, to befriend Dr. Dement and relieve his wants; but when the hospitality of Judge Bates" home was extended to him, in con- sideration of the circumstances he declined to ac- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 269 cept it and preferred to remain with, and minister to. tlie needs of liis sick and imprisoned comrades, and the Judge supplied him with money for his personal needs. After the war was over the Doc- tor felt in honor bound to repay Judge ]$ates with the first money earned: and did so, with lieart- felt thanlvs for his great kindness and magnani- mous generosity. In August, 18().>, Dr. Dement was assigned to tlie Forty-nintli Georgia Regiment, at (iordons- ville, Va., under General Jackson, and remained with this regiment until it was surrendered at Ap- pomattox, and during this time was surgeon of General Ed. L. Thomas' Brigade. lie was in all the battles in which his brigade participated. After the war he came to Iluntsville, and has practiced there until the present time. He was, for a few years, a member of the American Medi- cal Association, and a member of the American Public Health Association. lie is now a member of the Medical Association of Alabama, and was its President in 1870. He is a member of the State Board of Censors; has been a member of the Madison County iledical Society since 185.3, and is now its "president; is a member of the ilasonic fraternity. Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order United Workmen, and a Knight Templar. He is vice-president of the Home Pro- tection Fire Insurance Company, and has taken a part in every public-spirited enterprise in Ilunts- ville. For many years he has been president and an active member of the Board of Trustees of Ilunts- ville Female College, and has been since its foun- dation a member of the Board of Trustees of Vanderbilt University. He was twelve years a member of the Board of Trustees of Alabama Insane Hospital; was Surgeon-general of Ala- bama Militia for eight years under Governors Houston and Cobb, and declined to act longer. He was appointed by Governor Seay as one of the examiners under the Color Blind Law. Dr. Dement has never sought office, but when it has been tendered him he has considered it his duty to accept. He was married January "^T, 18(19, to Miss Cornelia ('.. daughter of Dr. Henry A. Bin- ford, of Iluntsville. 'J'hey have seven children: Henry B., Koltert S.. Sarali B., John J., William R. and Susie. The hoctorand his wife are Methodists. Henry A. Binford, Mrs. Dement's father, was a leading physician of iluntsville. 11" > f!v-..| an e.xcel- lent education, taking the medical part of it at Philadelpliia. He died in 1875, aged sixty-two years. He reared six children: William H., Peter, Thomas L., Henry, Cornelia C. and Sarah E. Henry, a son of Peter Binford; married Grace Lee, a near relative of Gen. R. E. Lee. Doctor Dement's mother was a daughter of Jesse and Susannah Lowe. They raised the fol- lowing children: George E.,a farmer, who died in Virginia; Thomas, of Mississippi; John .1., who died in Arkansas; Mary, of West Tennessee; Martha, who died in Alabama; and Celia W. -<^« «^- SAMUEL H. LOWRY. M. D., one of the leading young physicians of .Mailison County, is a son of John T. and Virginia H. (Miller) Lowry. John T. Lowry was of Scotch- Irish descent, and a son of Rev. Samuel Lowry, a divine of the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church, whose wife, Elizabeth Tate, belonged to the well-known family of that name. The fatlier of our subject was an old-time mer- chant of Huntsville in ante-bellum days, being a member of the firm of Lowry, Hamilton & Co., and also owning large jilantations. Like all Southern planters, he lost heavily by the late war having a great number of slaves. He was con- nected with the commissary department during the struggle, and subsequently resumed farming, which, with an interest in the lumber firm of Mayhew & Lowry, occupied his attention until his death in I88(;. He was a member of the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church, and left one son, Samuel H. Our subject was born October lii. 1850. and received a superior education, commencing with the schools of Huntsville, and continued at the University of Virginia. His medical studies be- gan at the L'niversity of Virginia, and were sup- j)lemented by lecturesat Bellevue Hospital Medical College, Xew York, from which institution he was graduated in 1873. He began the practical study of his chosen profession the .•^ameyear of his grad- uation in association with Dr. Dement, of Hunts- ville, and has been a successful and active worker since. Dr. Lowry is a member of the Madison C'ounty Medical Society; is secretary of the County Board of Censors: meml)er of the College of Counsellors of th.- •>\:\\i- M.Mlic.lI As '^^?^-^— BENJAMIN POWELL HUNT was born in Franklin County, Tenn., in September, 1849, and is a son of George W. Hunt, a native of Franklin County. His mother's maiden name was Priscilla Powell. Ben. P. Hunt spent his younger days near Salem, Tenn., but when the war broke out his parents moved to Winchester, that State, and there he received his education. When twenty years of age he began the study of law, and in 1870 entered the law department in the University of Virginia, remaining there about six months. He was admitted to the bar in November of the same year, and practiced in Winchester until February, 1882, when he located at lluntsville, and there practiced law one year. After this, he became connected with the lluntsville Mercury as its editor, and began the publication of the daily issue of tiiat paper August '^I, iss.i. When Mr. Hunt first took charge of the editor- ial columns of the Mcrcuri/ it was a weekly paper with a patent outside, and with a circulation not exceeding .")(iO, but whea he severed his connection with it, in August, 1887, the weekly had a sub- scription list of about 1,100, and the daily was fairly upon its feet and making money. Under his administration, the Mercury was the telling champion of lluntsville and her growing industries, and the present prosperity of her var- ious manufactures and the "great boom" of the city is largely due to ilr. Hunt's influence. He was the prime mover in the organization of the lluntsville & Elora Railroad, and he devoted the columns of his pajier, and his individual influence to the consummation of that important enter- prise. Having severed his connection with the J/c/-i:-? ■ •;€!^-»'— -- AUGUSTUS W. McCULLOUGH is a son of .Tames and Sjnali (Ijarvin) .McCullough. His parents are of Irish descent; his father, coming to America at the age of fourteen, settled in Lan- caster County, Pa., where he resided until his death. Our subject was born in Lancaster County, Pa., September, 18:?6, and received a good education, graduating from the Normal School at Millersville, Pa., in 1854. He followed teaching for several years in Pennsylvania, and in 1865, came to Ala- bama as the agent of the Freedman's Aid Society • Sint-e thf above was written, Mr. Hunt has sovcreiJ his con- nwtion with T7i« Iniliiitmlrnt, and Is IdcntifleU with tht- North .\laiiuina ImproNcnienf Comptuiy.— Ei>. 276 NORTHERN ALABAMA. of Philadelphia and occupied that position two years, having the organization and control of the schools at Iluntsville. He was appointed superin- tendent of Public Schools for Madison County by the State authorities in 1868, and in 1872 was elected to the same office. In 1874, he was ap- pointed Clerk of the United States Circuit Court by Judge AVoods, who was afterward elevated to the Sui^reme Bench, and has held this important position since. In 1875, he was appointed Clerk of the United States District Court by Judge John ' Bruce. Mr. McCullough has been a most influential man in the political affairs of Alabama since his residence here. He was a delegate to the Chicago Conven- tion which nominated Garfield, and was one of the " Old Guard" of 306, who voted thirty-six times for Grant; and was also a delegate to the Conven- tion which nominated Blaine in 1884. He has been chairman of the Kepublican Central Committee,of Madison County, for fourteen years; was chairman of the Congressional C'ommittee eight years, and a member of the State Committee several years. Mr. McCullough has been twice married. July 18, 1864, he was united to Jliss Mary A. Zell, of Pennsylvania, who died leaving one child. He was married to Miss Laura B. Jones, of Philadel- phia, in 1885. He is a member of the I. 0. 0. F., Knights of Pythias, A. 0. U. AV., and of the Forresters. WISE & CO., Wholesale and Eetail Grocers, are located on Jefferson street, in the McGee Hotel Block, the present firm consisting of Isaac H. and David Wise, two brothers, who are sons of Bernhardt and Sarah G. (Alcon) Wise. Bernhardt Wise was born in Bavaria in 1811, and came to America in 183'-i, locating in Cincinnati, where he engaged in business. He was a charter member of Bethel Lodge, No. 4, Independent Order B'nai Brith, of that city. He came to Huntsville in 1805, and embarked in business, which he continued for about fifteen years. He served as a member of the city council several times, and was the founder of the Jewish congre- gation of Huntsville, and has been its president since its organization in 1870. Five children are now living: Mrs. Mary Moss, wife of a large wholesale clothing merchant of Cincinnati: David, who was born in Cincinnati in 1847, where he re- ceived a commercial education and followed book- keeping for a number of years. He came to Huntsville in 1800 and began his business career, where he has continued since. In 1877 he became a partner in the present firm by purchasing the interest of his brother, Abe W. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, and Knights and Ladies of Honor, and is a direc- tor of the Huntsville Building and Loan Associa- tion. Meyer B. Wise was born in Cincinnati in 1849, and came to Huntsville in 1805, entering the store of his father as an assistant. In 1873 he established the present firm of Wise & Co., and continued as the senior partner until he withdrew on account of his health in 1881, consigning the business to I. H. & A. W. Wise. He subsequently went to Mobile, and from thence to Texas. He is a member of Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, and Knights and Ladies of Honor, and has served as a member of the city council six terms. He is now connected with the firm as an assistant. Isaac H. was born in 1851, and came with the family to Alabama in 1865. He was em- ployed by his father for a time, and subsequently, in 1878, went to Farmersville, La., and thence to Ouchita City, where he was elected the first mayor. Peturning to Huntsville in 1878, he has since resid- ed there and established a good business reputation. He is a Mason and a member of the Knights of Honor. Mr. Wise was married in January, 1878, to Miss Nettie Shuster, of Louisiana. Abe W. Wise was born in Cincinnati in 1853, and has been engaged in mercantile pursuits all his life. He was for a time piartner in the firm, but is now an assistant; is a member of the Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, Knights and Ladies of Honor, and Ancient Order of United Workmen. It will thus be seen that the firm and assistants are all practical business men, and their success is the legitimate result of a thorough knowledge of their business. They have the largest retail gro- cery trade in Northern Alabama, employing four delivery wagons in the city, and have a fair whole- sale trade. Tht-ir salesrooms are among the finest in the citv. OLIVER B. PATTON is the only living son of Dr. Chas. H. and Susan (Bierne) Pattoii. His mother was a daughter of Andrew Bierne, wlio was a native of the '•' Old Dominion " State. Oliver was reared in Huntsville and educated at NORTHERN ALABAMA. 277 tlie Tniversity of Virginia: and inherited tlie large estate of his fatlier. He has devoted his attention 10 the (iuv and development of his property and iia.< lieen a successful ])lanter, and ranks as a popular and generous citizen. Mr. Patton formed a matrimonial alliance with Miss Hettie White, daughter of the lion. Addison While, of Ilnntsville, and six children have been born to this union, viz.: Susie B., Irvine W., Oliver B., Mattie Lee, Alice G. and Milton II. A sister of Mr. Patton, Mary B., married Wni. Echols, (manufacturer.) a graduate of West Point. Mr. I'attoTi and family belong to the Episcopal Church. • •' > • •^^^-■»— BERNARD F. LUDWIG was born in Prussia April .">, 1S4'.', and rame with hisparents to America in 1848, settling near Memphis, Tenn.. where he was reared. He lived with his parents until he became a resident of Huntsville, in 1856, where he finished his education, and afterward engaged in business until 1876. Mr. Ludwig was initiated in the .Masonic fraternity when twenty-one years of age. and has served for several years as ilaster of llelion Lodge. Nu. 1. lie has taken all of the York Kite degrees, and is now (Jeneralissimo of Huntsville Commandery, No. 1. KnightsTemplar. He was for several years High Priest of Eunoinia Chapter, No. .5, Royal Arch Masons, and in the Royal Masonic Rite he has taken the highest de- grees. When Monte Sano Lodge, No. 1, Knights of Pythias, was organized in 1870, Mr. Ludwig was one of the charter members, and was elected its first Vice-Cliancellor, and later, Chancellor- Comnumder. He was chosen a representa- tive to the Grand Lodge of the State in 1872, and was there elected a Past Grand Chancellor of the State. In 1874 he was elected Supreme Re- presentative of Alabama to the Supreme Lodge, Knights of Pythias of the World: and was the tirst to submit a plan which resulted in the en- dowment feature of the Order, at the Washington Session, in 1875. He has since served as Supreme Representative for two terms of four years, clos- ing said service in 1884. At the recent session of the Grand Tiodge of Knights of Pythias (188S) he was elected as G. K. of R. and .S. of the State. He is also a charter member of Delphic Lodge, No. :K)0, Knights of Honor, having served as • irand Dictator of the State and as Representative to the Supreme Lodge at Baltimore, and Galves- ton, Tex., Sessions. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and is the secretary of these societies. He is also secretary of the •' Huntsville Building and Loan Association," comi)rising over three hundred members, which is prospering greatly and aiding, in a marked degree, the building up of Huntsville. Mr. Ludwig is an active and enterin-ising citi- zen, progressive in his views and charitable in disposition. In 1876 Mr. Ludwig married !Miss Annie Estes, daughter of L. II. Estes, a well-known citizen of Columbia, 'lenn., and more recently of Hunts- ville. Mrs. Ludwig is a sister of Judge L. H. Estes, of Memphis, Tenn. — — *"1 ««►. WILLIAM C. WELLS is a .son of Rev. W. G. Wells, who was a native of Virginia, subsequently removing to Ohio, where he engaged in the min- istry of the United Brethren Church for some twenty-five years, when he retired on account of bad health. The mother of our subject was a native of Pennsylvania. Her nuiiden name was Sarah Shupp. They reside in Dayton, Ohio. William C. was born in Ohio August 16, 1843, and was educated near Dayton. He was early engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1864 he enlist-ed in Company G, of the One Hundred and Thirty-first Infantry (Ohio National Guards), serving one hundred days. In 1870 he came to Huntsville, and engaged at farming and garden- ing. In IS?-^ he removed to Little Rock. Ark., where he was engaged in growing and shipping vegetables. Returning to Huntsville in 1874, he has since resided there, and has occupied high positions of trust with honor and fidelity. In 1875 he was ai)pointed Deputy Clerk of the United States Courts, under A. W. McCullough. In 1879, November 25th, he was ai)pointed United States Commissioner by Judge Woods, of the United States Circuit Court. President Arthur appointed him Register of the United States Land Office at Huntsville, and in December, 1884. he assumed charge of the office. He was removed by President Cleveland, and va- cated tiie ofiice in December, 1886. Mr. Wells is interested in the operation of a coal mine near Birmingham, and also in the de- 278 NORTHERN ALABAMA. velopment of coal lands on the Tennessee Eiver, in JaeksoTi County, Ala. He is now engaged in the real estate business. He was married in Huntsville April 16, 1871, to iliss Emma E. Zell, of Lancaster County, Pa. Two children have been born to them: Alice Frances, deceased, and Koberta A'irginia. JAMES B. WHITE, son of Thomas W. and Susan (Bradley) White, was born in Huntsville, February 22, 1845, where his home has always been. He received the advantages of the schools of his native city, and when sixteen years of age joined Company F, Fourth Alabama Infantry, and was with that regiment two years, participat- ing in the first battle of Manassas, Williamsburg, Yorktown, the entire jieninsular campaign. Seven Pines (where he was slightly wounded), and the Seven Days Fight around Richmond. He was transferred after the second battle of Manassas to Mobile, and promoted to sergeant of artillery, and in 1803, was commissioned lieutenant and as- signed to General Humes' Cavalry Brigade, serving upon his commander's staff until the end of the war. He was in the battles of New Hojie Church, Kesacca (where he was again wounded), Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, the Atlanta cam- paign, Wheeler's raid through Tennessee, and opposing Sherman's March to the Sea. He was taken prisoner near Macon, in 186-1, but escaped after three week's confinement, and Joined his command in South Carolina. In January, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of captain, in the provisional army. His command was in Sher- man's front until the battle of Fayetteville, N. C, where his commander. General Humes, was severely wounded, and our subject cari-ied him from the field to Raleigh and remained with him until General Johnson surrendered. Truly a gal- lant record for the young soldier. After the war, Mr. White became connected with the Memphis & Charleston Railroad and has been associated with that corporation since. He rose from the position of brakeman, to that of a freight and subsequently jiassenger conductor, and since 1876 has been the company's agent in the Law and Stock Department. Mr. White married, in 1866, Miss Susie Withers, of old and reputed ancestors. They are the parents of five children, and members of the Episcopal Church. Mr. White is a member of the Masonic, K. of P. and K. of H. fraternities, and of the Order of Railroad Conductors. NICHOLAS DAVIS, deceased, was a prominent representative of an old and distinguished family, a sou of Col. Nicholas Davis, of Limestone County, Ala., who was a native of the Old Dominion State, and one of the early settlers of Alabama. He at once became prominent in the public affairs of the State and was a representative in the first State Legislature, 1819; subsequently he was chosen a State Senator, serving from 1820 to 1828 inclusive, and for five sessions he was, the presid- ing officer. He occupied the highest rank, in the estimation of all parties, as a private and public citizen, and was remarkable for his eloquence. In 184:4, he was placed at the head of the Whig electoral ticket, and in 1 847 was the Whig candidate for Governor, of the State. His wife, ^lartha Hargrave, be- longed to an old and wealthy Quaker family, and was a beautiful and accomplished lady. Col. Jere- miah Clemens, in dedicating his work entitled ''Mustang Gray" to Nicholas Davis, the son, after speaking of the endearing friendship with which prompted it, uses this language: " But it is not these alone that move me to write your name on the first jjage of this volume. The last words your mother was ever heard to speak, were words of warm regard for me, and to the hour of his death your father honored me with a friend- ship which is among my prwidest recollections. In the whole range of my acquaintance I have never known two jjersons more remarkable for unswerving integrity of thought and action or more distinguished for a lofty scorn of all that was low or vile in humanity.'' A son, Lawrence Rijiley Davis, was a Whig like his father. He was elected to the lower house in 1849, and by his fine talents and address con- tributed no little to the success of his party. He was returned in 1861 and threw his influence into the secession movement. Nicholas Davis, the subject of this biography, was born in Limestone County, and was reared and educated in Alabama. He served as a lieu- tenant in a company commanded by Captain Hig- gins, of Col. Jere Clemens' Regiment through- out the Mexican War, a portion of which period he was a staff officer. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 279 He subsequently chose the legal profession, and \v!vs admitted to the bar, at Ituntsville, in ISo-i; and also became a prominent political factor dur- ing tlie exciting jieriod wliicii followed. lie served two terms in the State Legislature, and when the secession movement was agitated he took a de- cided stand against it. and vigorously advocated his views by stumping Nortiiern Alabama, during which he developed rennirkable power as an orator. He also advocated the election of Stephen A. Douglas, was an elector upon the Douglas ticket. and served as a Union delegate from his county in the Secession convention. Colonel Davis subsequently became lieutenant- colonel of. the Nineteenth Alabama Infantry, but was not in active service; and after tlie close of the war resumed his practice in Huntsvilie, in which he attained prominence, devoting much of his time to criminal law. Colonel Davis died in Huntsvilie in 1874. His wife's maiden mune was Miss Sophia Lowe, and was also a descendant of an old and noted family. Her paternal ancestors came from Eng- land to Maryland with Lord Baltimore. Her father, Gen. Bartley M. Lowe, was a native of South Carolina, but his father, who was a captain in the Revolutionary War, soon after moved to Florida, and accepted service under the Spanish Government, for which he secured a large grant of land. General Lowe subsequently came to Huntsvilie and engaged in mercantile pureuits, and such was his success that he was sometimes called a "merchant prince." He was the first president of the Huntsvilie Hank and ])rominent in many business movements. He W!is in active service during the Indian War of 18;Jii. and in 18."3.S became a resident of New Orleans, wliere he was a leading cotton factor until his death. He left tliree sons: Dr. John T. Lowe, who was chief surgeon of General Loring's Division of Infantry during the late war; Itobert J., a lawyer, legislator and soldier; and William JI. Lowe, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Davis is living in Huntsvilie with two children: Nichols C. Jr., and Sophie L. THOMAS W. WHITE, one of the representa- tive Planters of Northern Alabama, is a native of N'irginia, where his father and mother were also born. His parents were Colonel James and Eliza (Wilson) White. The former was one of the first business men in Northern Alabama, and a large land owner in the vicinity of Huntsvilie. He died in Virginia in 1838. Oui- subject was born in Virginia in Isll.aiul resided there until he came to Huntsvilie in 183'.). ^Ir. AVhite has been a planter all of his life, and owns a fine plantation on each side of the Ten- nessee River, ac Whitesburg. While, in no sense, a politician, he has been honored by his fellow- citizens who elected him to tlie mayoralty of Huntsvilie in 1881 and 188^'. .Ml'. White is a man of commanding presence, and a noble type of a Southern gentleman. In 1840 he was united in marriage with Miss Susan Bradley, a daughter of Major .James Bradley, a cotton broker and commission merch- ant, well-known in Huntsvilie and New Orleans. Twelve children have been born to them. Three sons were in the Southern army, Ale.xander, James and William. JAMES M. HUTCHENS, a prominent Contrac- tor and Buililcr. is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Jordan) llutchens. His father was a native of England and came to America at an early day, settling in South Carolina, subseipiently removing to Eastern Tennessee, where he remained until his death. He was a manufacturer. James M. was reared and educated in East Ten- nessee, and early learned the trade of a carpen- ter, which he has followed with success all of his life. He served gallantly in the Confederate service, entering the Fourth Alabama Cavalry, Company B, in 18(J1, and served under Forrest, Wheeler and Longstreet. He was with Forrest through all the Tennessee raids. Fort Donelson, and in March, 1853, was taken prisoner at Unionville, Tenn., and confined for four months in Camp Chase, at Columbus, Ohio. He was then paroled and soon after exchanged and re-entered the army, parti- cipating in Longstreet's Campaign in East Ten- nessee, and serving until discharged at the end of the war. He became a resident of Huntsvilie in 18.")7, and has since made his home there. He is one of the leading contractors of that city, and employs a large number of assistants. He is an enterprising and respected citizen and has served asalderman for a number of vears. Mr. llutchens 280 NORTHERN ALABAMA. was married to Miss Lucy Hodges, of East Ten- nessee, in 1859. They have four children, and are members of the Cumberland Presbvteriun Churcli. JOHN M. CROSS, a prominent Real Estate Operator, is a native of Iluntsville, where he was born in 1833 and has resided all of his life. He is ie son of Andrew Cross, a native of Vir- ginia, who was of English stock, and one of the first settlers in Huntsville. Our subject was in early life a clerk, and from 1859 until 1867 followed planting. He was op- posed to the war, and at the first election after the war he was elected Tax Assessor by tlie Ke- iniblicans. In 1873 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Huntsville, and held that position twelve years. Since that period Mr. Cross has devoted his attention to real estate transactions, and is now a member of that well- know firm of Lane, Cross & Gill. Mr. Cross was a candidate for the office of Pro- bate Judge on the Republican ticket in 1886, and has always affiliated himself with that party. He has accumulated some jjroperty, and is an es- teemed citizen. Mr. Cross has been thrice married and has nine children living. EDMUND L MASTIN, Mayor of Huntsville, is a son of William .J. and Mary '(Clark) Mastin, both natives of Virginia. Wm. J. Mastin was of English stock and his progenitors came to America with Lord Fairfax. Frank Mastin, grandfather of our subject, was a captain in the War of 1813. Wm. J. Mastin came to Alabama in his youth, and resided in Huntsville until his death in 18-45. He was a graduate of the Law and Classical Department of Yale College, and a staunch Whig in politics. He was a member of the convention which nominated Henry Clay in 1844. His mother was also of English lineage, and died in 1881. The subject of this biography was born in Huntsville, in 1841, and has lived here all of his life He is one of three brotiiers. Wm. F., who served as adjutant-general with Geneial Buckuer during the war, died while Mayor of Huntsville in 1871. Gustavus B. commanded a company in the Fourth Alabama Infantry, and was killed in the battle of Seven Pines, in 1802. Our subject was educated in the schools of Huntsville and at the Lagrange Military Institute, which was destroyed during the war. He entered the army in 1801, as drill-master, and subsequent- ly became adjutant of the Eighth Arkansas Regiment; adjutant-general of Kelley's Brigade of Infantry under General Buckner, and also ad- jutant-general of the Fourth Division of Cavalry, commanded by Gen. J. H. Kelley, in Wheeler's Corps. He was taken prisoner at Charleston, Tenn., in 1804, and sent to Camp Chase at Columbus, Ohio, and from there to Fort Delaware, where he was selected as one of 600 men for special retaliation, sent to Morris Island and placed under the fire of Confederate batteries. He was fortunate enough to escape unharmed, and was released from Fort Delaware in June, 1865. Since the war ^Mayor Mastin has been engaged in the family grocery trade; as contractor on the Memjjhis & Chattanooga Railroad, and is now en- gaged in brick manufacture and contracting and building. He has served as City Clerk for four years, and is serving his sixth year as Mayor of the city. He is a genial and accomplished gentle- man, and deservedly popular with all classes. He is a member of the I. 0. 0. F. and the K. of P. fraternities. JAMES H. BONE, United States Commissioner, was born October 27, 1836, in Warren County, Ohio. His parents were John and Christiana (Maple) Bone, natives of Ohio and New Jersey. The senior Bone was a farmer and trader. He was a Whig before the war; served his county as commissioner ten or twelve years, and died in 1887. The Bone family first appeared in America in North Cai'olina, whence James Bone removed to Virginia, where he married Nancy Hart, and soon afterward emigrated to Warren County. He was J. H. Bone's grandfather. He served as an officer in the war of 1812. His father came from Scotland and settled in North Carolina. J. H. Bone was reared on a farm and educated at Lebanon Academy. At the age of seventeen, he entered a store as a clerk and soon began dealing in supplies and provisions on his own account and con- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 281 tinned this businessuntil IHdl. In July, l.S weight upon this experimental machine were comiiressed to a density of twenty-four pounds to the cubic foot; soon thereafter a company was organ- ized to manufacture the compresses, and a con- tract was made with W. P. Calahan & Co., of Dayton, Ohio, in December, 1886. The first working machine was erected at Huntsville, and there thoroughly tested in compressing several thousand bales of the crop of lS8fi. It was then sold to Landman & Co., cotton buyers of Hunts- ville. Ala., and has been continuously operated by them, and has stood the severest tests, meeting every requirement of railroads and export ship- pers. Other presses of this pattern, but greatly improved in material and construction have been erected by the Curry Press Company at Holly Springs and Florence. The average density of bales compressed by these machines is twenty- eight pounds to thecu!)ic foot. The presses, from their etticiency, durability and cheapness in cost and great economy in expense of operating, have attracted great interest toward them. These presses cost about one-fourth the price of the steam compresses now in use, and will run ten hours, consuming only about one ton of coal. Captain Curry has also invented a Portable Hay Press, which is remarkable for its simplicity and etticiency. This press is portable, of light draft, can be traveled through the meadow between the winrows or shocks of hay, making bales as it goes. The power is attached lo and is a pari of this machine, and therefore, unlike other portable hay presses, does not require to be set up in the field, but travels through to its work. Captain Curry is also the inventor and patentee of fruit (cider 284 NORTHERN ALABAMA. and wine) presses, tobacco and cheese presses, and of several other mechanical appliances. Captain Curry was married March 9, 1S(!5, to Miss Bettie Hammond, daughter of Judge F. L. Hammond, of Huntsville. Two children have been born to them: P\ L. Hammond Curry and Anna Lamar Curry. ««5^J^"* ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL was born September 0, 18"-i8, in Cavan County, Ireland, and is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Coomey) Campbell, natives, respectively, of Derry and Cavan Counties, Ire- land. Robert Campbell was a Presbyterian clergyman. He emigrated to the United States in 1829, and settled in Brooklyn, N. Y. He soon after connect- ed himself with the Episcopal Church. He spent a short time in Havana, and the rest of his life in New York. He reared nine children. Our subject received a good commercial educa- tion. At the age of fifteen he became a clerk in a dry-goods store, and a few years subsequently was made a partner. In 18G2 he went to Mem- phis, Tenn., and embarked in the book and stationery business. In 1865 he located in Hunts- ville, and, in partnership with a man by the name of Lutzell, engaged in the dry-goods business. This partnership continued for two years. He then carried on the business alone for two years, and formed a partnership with a man by the name of Baily, which lasted six years. Since 1878 the firm name has been Campbell & Son, and the business has been very successful. Mr. Campbell is interested in the North Alabama Improvement Company, and the Huntsville Land, Building and Manufacturing Association . He married Caroline E. Berry, a daughter of Thomas and Catharine (Coomey) Berry, natives of Ireland. They have six children. JAMES R. STEVENS, Banker, was born in Caswell County, N. C, and is a son of George and Susan P. (Richardson) Stevens, natives of Virginia and North Carolina, respectively. George Stevens was a minister of the ilethodist Episcopal Church, and a man of Scotch blood. He married in North Caroliuaand moved to Christian County, Ky., where he died. His wife died at Huntsville in July, 1887, at the age of seventy-four years. She was a daughter of James Richardson, of North Carolina. The subject of this sketch was six years old when his parents settled in Kentucky. He received his education in the schools of the vicinity, mostly at Penbrook and Ilopkinsville. At the age of eighteen he entered the store of his uncle, Edward Richard- son, as a saleman at Brandon. Miss., and succeeded his uncle in the business in 18G0. In July, 1861, he entered the Confederate Army as a member of Company I, Sixth Mississippi Regiment, and was elected its third lieutenant. He participated in the battle of Shiloh, and after this battle, when the regiment was re-organized, was elected its major. He fought at Corinth, Fort Gibson, Fort Hudson, Baker's Creek and in the siege of Vicks- burg, where he was captured July 4, 1863. After the war he returned to Brandon, and re-opened his biisinessand conducted it until 1874, when he moved to Huntsville, Ala., and there engaged in mercantile business until 1880, when he retired. After this he was elected president of the National Bank of Huntsville, in January, 1881, which posi- tion he now holds. He was one of the incorpora- tors of the North Alabama Improvement Company, and is a director and treasurer of the same. He is also one of the incorporators and a director of the Decatur Land, Iron and Furnace Company. He was married in December, 1867, to Miss Mat- tie Lee Patton, daughter of Dr. Chas. Patton, of Huntsville. He has one son, James R., who is now in the Episcopal High School, at Alexandria, Va. His wife died on the 22d of December, 1875. Mr. Stevens is a K. of H., K. of P., an Odd Fellow and a Freemason. ►^- JOHN LEWIS RISON, Druggist, Huntsville, was born in this city October 18, 1839. His father, Archibald Rison, was born near Car- thage, Tenn., November 3, 1803. After receiving a good education, he came to Huntsville about 1822, and became a manufacturer of cotton gins, his being among the first establishments of that kind in the city. He continued this business until his death in 1862. He was a member of the Methodist Church and of the Masonic fraternity. He reared three sons, Wm. R., John L. and Wilson B. William R. was a lieutenant in the Fourth Alabama Cavalry Regimen: in the late war; AVilson B. was a lieutenant in the Fourth Alabama Infantry and. afterward a member of NORTHERN ALABAMA. 285 Foiirtli Alabama Cavalry Regiment, and was killed at Lexington, Tenn. The mother of these sons, Martha (Bibb) Kison, was born in Iluntsville Feb- ruary 2"2, ISU;. J. L. Risen 's grandfather, Richard Eison, a native of Virginia, immigrated to Ten- nessee about ITSo, became a planter, and spent the balance of his days there. He reared a large family, and two of his sons fought in the battle of Xew Orleans. His ancestors came from Wales. Our subject was reared and educated in Hnnts- ville. Wiien but fourteen years of age he began tlic drug business as a salesman. In liS60 he established a drug store of his own, and has con- ducted the business until the present time with marked success. i[r. Rison is a public-spirited man. and has taken an active part in the various schemes to develop Uuntsville, and place her upon her present high road to greatness. He was married February 22, LSOO, to iliss Martha T. Erwin, daughter of Rev. A. R. Erwin, a minister of the Tennessee Conference (Methodist Church), and President of the Huntsville Female College. Her mother was Louisa Boyd Erwin. Mr. Rison is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, a Knight of Pythias and a Knight Templar Mason. • •♦ > • S^}^- < '- • HENRY BENTLY ROPER, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Huntiville. Ala., son of William M. and Lavinia (Bently) Roper, was born near Hunts- ville January 19, 1S30. He received a common- school education, and, at the age *f lifteen years, came into Huntsville, where he was clerking in a mercantile establishment at the outbreak of the war. In the spring of 18G1 he enlisted in the Fourth Alabama Infantry, and at the first battle of Manassas was wounded. In the winter following he re-enlisted, and was connected with the service until the close of hostilities. He was in all the battles around Richmond, and, in the second day's fight at Cettysburg, was shot through the body and left on the battle-field for dead. He was at that time a lieutenant. He lay at Gettysburg, in hospital, for two months, when he was taken to Fort McHenry, and there and at Point Lookout was kept in prison eight months. Being ex- changed he returned to Alabama, where he remained to the close of the war. He was married January 30, 1869, to Miss Cornelia Clopton, the accomjilislied daughter of Dr. James A. Clopton, and has had born to him two children: Irene C, Feb- ruary 24, ISTO. and Bell (J., March 18, 1874. Mrs. Roper died .Vpril 1, 1814. William M. Roper, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Cumberland County, Va., March .31, 1801. and died in Madison County, Ala., December 8, 1883. He was one of the most substantial planters of this county. He started in life without money, but the beginning of the war found him pos.sessed of a handsome compe- tency. His eldest son, William M., was born December C, 1830; was clerk to the quartermaster of the Fourth Alabama Regiment during the war, and is now a farmer in Texas. The second son, Ale.x B., was born December 1 9, 1832, and died September 10, 183.5; Mary E., born April 4, 183.J, died September 22, 1837; Elvira G., born November 4, 1837, died November 1.5, 1878; Ellen M. born March 8. 18.51; Caroline, born June 17, 18.55. James Roper, father of said William M. Roper, also a Virginian, married Mary Sims, and came to Alabama in 1813. He died in 1814. WILLIAM T. DUNCAN, Merchant, Huntsville, a native of Buckingham County, Va., was born Jan- uary 31, 1844. His jjarents Geo. M. B. and Mary Jane (Gills) Duncan, were natives of Tennessee and Virginia, respectively. He was graduated from the Virginia ililitary Institute in 1804, and was at once appointed to the Engineering Department of the Confederate Government with the rank of captain. He was connected with the service until the close of the war, and surrendered with Gen. Joe Johnston at Greenboro, N. C. Returning home he taught school one year, and in 18ii7 em- barked in mercantile business. In January, 18tl, he came to Huntsville, in a clerical capacity, and in 187G formed a partnership with Mr. E. S. John- ston. In addition to his general merchandise busi- ness, he is prominently identified with the Hunts- ville Compress Company and with other important industries. He was married in February. 18G9, to Miss Louisa Johnson, the accomplished daughter of Alex. Johnson, Esq., of Virginia, and has had born to him six children, three only of whom are living. The family are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Duncan is a Knight of Honor. The senior Mr. Duncan, a planter by occupation, and teacher by i)rofession, was a griduate of Nash- ville L'niversitv, and died in Virginia in iNSo, at 286 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the age of 69 years. His father, William Duncan, was a native of Virginia, and migrated in an early day to Tennessee. The Duncans came originally from Scotland, and the Gill family came to this country from J]ngland. GEORGE P. LANDMAN, Cotton Broker, Huntsville, son of George P. and Eliza (Griffin) Landman, was born in Madison County, this State, in January, 1839. At the age of fif- teen years, with John Reed, at Huntsville, he began life as a clerk. Two years later he was with Bradley, Wilson & Co,, of New Orleaas, in charge of their branch office at Huntsville. Early in the beginning of the war he joined the Fourth Alabama Cavalrv, and remained with it, partici- pating in all of its battles, to the close of hostili- ties. After the war he engaged at merchandising, and in 1869, at the head of the firm of Landman, Scruggs & Co., engaged in cotton commission business. At this writing (and since the fall of 1887), the style of the firm is Landman & Co. This firm does purely a cotton brokerage business, and handles from l(i,000 to 18,000 bales -per annum. In addition to his cotton interests, Mr. Landman is variously interested in other import- ant Hunt.sville industries, and is altogther one of the most enterprising and successful business men of his city, Mr. Landman was married, August 30, 1860, to Miss Mary F. Sivley, and the children born to this union are named respectively : Lucy Lee, Lillie B, (Mrs, R. S. Halsey), Laura M. (Mrs. Kejjley), EmmaE., Arthur, Joseph and George P. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Mr. Landman is a K. of P. The senior Mr. Landman, was born in this county, near Huntsville; was a planter by occupa- tion, and died while yet a j^oung man. His widow married a Mr. IJeedy, and is still living. years he began clerking in a store at Salem, Tenn., and fi'om there, three years later, he moved to Jackson County, Ala., where he was similarly employed. He was twenty-six years of age when he came to Huntsville. Here he was for a while receiver and manager of stage lines, and also ran a hotel for a shoi't time. He returned to Tennes- see, and was there engaged in mercantile and mill- ing business until 1861. In that year he located at Winchester, and in 1882 returned to Hunts- ville, where he has since resided, retired from all business. Mr. Hunt was married in 18-14, to Miss Priscilla J. Powell, at Winchester, Tenn., and has reared four children: Benjamin P., David (deceased), George R. and Addie B. The last named is the wife of Samuel L. Nelson, of Baldwyn, Miss. The mother of these children died July 24, 1873, and in November, 1882, Mr. Hunt married Mrs, Mc- Calley, a daughter of Joel Rice, Esq, David Hunt, George W. -Hunt's father, when a lad, accompanied his parents to South Carolina, and from thence to Eogersville, Tenn., in the early part of the present century. In 1806, he located in Franklin County, Tenn., where he lived until the time of his death, which occurred in 1839. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and held the rank of major. He was a quiet, unostentatious. Christian gentleman. He reared a family of ten children. His father, John Hunt, w;is a Virgin- ian by birth, and was a Revolutionaiy soldier. It was for him the town of Huntsville was named. About seventy-five yards south of the Huntsville Springs he erected the first building at this place, a small log-cabin. GEORGE W. HUNT was born in Franklin County, Tenn., October 20, 1813, and is a son of David and Elizabeth (Larken) Hunt, natives of Virginia, He was reared on a farm, and received a common-school education. At the age of twenty A. FRANKLE. .^rerchant, Huntsville, was born in Russian Poland in 1835, and came to the United States in 1860. He located first at Mobile, and subsequently joined the Twenty-second Lou- isiana Regiment, while it was encamped at Mo- bile, He served with this regiment until the surrender of Vicksburg, after which he was in heavy artillery. From Mobile he moved to New Orleans, and from there to Shelby ville, Tenn,, where he engaged in the dry goods and clothing business. In November, 1886, became to Hunts- ville, where he carries on one of the largest dry goods establishments in Northern Alabama^ He NORTHERN ALABAMA. 287 was married in Shelbyville, Tenn., to Miss Lizzie Yancey, of that place. Miss Yancey was the (laughter of James Yancey, and was distinguished for her heauty. The Yanceys are among the old- est and wealthiest families of Tennessee. Mr. Frankle is a member of the Masonic frater- nity, K. of P., K. and K. A. C. In addition to his IIuntsvillebusiness,he still carrieson his estab- lishment at Shelbyville. lie began life in Amer- ica penniless, but has succeeded in amassing a fortune. JOSEPH HUMPHREY SLOSS, a native of of Somerville, Ala., son of tlie Kev. James L. and Letitia (Campbell) Sloss, was born October 12, 1820. lie was educated at Florence this State; read law, and was admitted to the bar at the age of eighteen years. He began the practice of law at St. F.ouis, from which place, at the end of three or four years, he moved to Edwardsville, 111. He was living in Illinois at the outbreak of the late war, and early in ISdl came to Alabama, and raised a company of which he became captain, and with it joined the Fourth Alabama Cavalry Kegiment. He was ])romoted to major in l.sfj;5. lie was in active service from first to last, and took a gallant and conspicuous part in many hotly con- tested engagements. After the war Major Sloss resumed the practice of law at Tuscumbia, this State, and formed a partnership with Robert B. Lindsay, afterward (iovernor of Alabama. This partnership continued until Major Sloss was elected to Congress in 1871. He served in both the Forty-second and Forty- third sessions of the United States Congress, and in 1870 was appointed United States Marshal for the Northern Disti'ict of Alabama. This office, which he held three years, necessitated a change of residence, and he moved to Iluntsville in 1879. He resigned the marshalshiii in lss2 to engage in real estate business. Major Sloss is prominent in both the Masonic and Odd Fellows' societies. He was married April 2, 1850, at Edwardsville, 111., to Miss Mary L. Lusk, and has had born to him five children: James L., deceased; JIary L., deceased; Josie L., deceased; Percy M., Annie C. Rev. James L. Sloss, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Northwest Ireland in 17112; came to the United States when a boy and settled in South Carolina; and was educated at Princeton (N. J.) College. Immediately after graduating he entered the Presbyterian ministry and located at Cahaba, Ala. He was there married, and soon afterward moved to Somerville. In 1830 he moved to Florence, and there died in 1844r. He was a teacher in the schools at Somerville and Florence. He reared a family of four sons and three, daughters. His eldest, daughter, Ann Eliza, became the wife of Col. A. 1). Cotfee; Mary L. married M. J. Warren, of Tuscumbia; Titia V. married Cen. F. S. Rutherford, now of Alton, 111. His son, Thomas JI. Sloss, died in 18T:5. Thomas M. was captain in the Seventh Alabama Cavalry during the war, and afterward moved to Texas, where he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court. Another son, Robert C, is a farmer in JIadison County, 111. His wife, nie Letitia V. Campbell, was born at Washington, Tenn., in 1801. Her father, David Campl)ell, was the first United States Judge of Tennessee Territorv. FLORENCE. Florence is situated on the nortli bank of the Tennessee River, at the foot of the Mussel Shoals, and consequently at the head of navigation of the Lower Tennessee River. It is the county seat of Lauderdale County, and has long been an im- portant town. Its population is now estimated at 3,000. In the year 1818 a company of men, operating under the name of the Cypress Land Comjiany, bought from the United States the land whereon the town is situated. In the year following the purchase of the site, the land company had a great auction sale of town lots. The prices realized were almost fabulous, considering the amount of land then open for settlement. The land was di- vided into lots of a half-acre each, and one of these brought the sum of |;3,500, the purchaser being James Jackson, who was afterward one of the foremost citizens of the place. A lot on the river bank, near the present railroad bridge, to- gether with the ferry privilege, was sold to John J. Winston for $10,100. The total amount of sales aggregated $319,513. It is naturally a matter of wonder, wliat were the expectations in regard to Florence that caused real estate to bring such enormous prices. The men who had in hand the work of building up the young city were men of wealth and note, and the weight of their reputation possibly had some- thing to do with it, but more particularly did the unrivaled location and the wonderful natural ad- vantages of the place lend aid to the project. It must be remembered that at this time Memphis was simjily a ferry landing, Nashville a small vil- lage, and Louisville a town of only a few thousand inhabitants. All this vast domain west of the Alleghany Mountains and south of the Ohio River was at that time just being opened up to the white settlers. The East was sending out emigrants in a steady stream. The land was found to be pecul- iarly adapted to the raising of cotton, the cultiva- tion of which had just begun to be a matter of importance. The forests were filled wth fine tim- ber of endless variety, the woods and streams with fish and game. It was, therefore, not unreason- able to conclude that here, at the head of naviga- tion of A large river, in the center of a magnifi- cent agricultural country, there would soon be built a great city. In the absence of railroads, the Tennessee River, nature's great, highway, would furnish transportation, and the founders of Florence no doubt often pictured it as a busy metropolis, its streets filled with rushing throngs, and the air resounding with the hum of many in- dustries. During the first decade of the young city's history, her growth was tremendous. Capital began to flow in, and moneyed men began to show their faith by their works. Florence was the great distributing point for all the merchandise brought back from the North in exchange for the agricultural productsannually sent thither. Large warehouses were built on the banks of the river to receive freight and goods consigned to Huntsville, Athens, Fayetteville, Tenn., and other interior towns: beautiful residences were built, storehouses were being erected, and a large wholesale as well as a retail trade was growing up. At this time (183:2) the cultivation of cotton in territory east of Florence had become so great that it was found necessary to have increased facilities for transi^ortation, and the question of digging a canal around the Mussel Shoals began to be talked of. Congress made an appropriation of land for that purpose, and by the year 1840 work had so far adva::ced as to enable flat-boats to pass through the canal, but when the first steam- boat attemjited to enter, the locks were found too short. In the following year a break occurred, and the Fedai'al and State Governments having both refused further aid, the work was alloAved to go to destruction. In 1876, however, the General Government again began the building of a canal, this time on a larger scale. This great work has 288 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 289 progressed as rapidly as could be e.\i)eeted. and it is thought will be completed during the present year. Another enterprise almost as im]iortant as the canal, and one begun at about the same time, was the building of a bridge across the river. This was completed at a great cost about the year l.S4ti. The bridge was partially destroyed by a tornado in 1S.">4. and in l.S.io, exactly one year after, the reniaiiuler was swept away. In 18")8 a railroad bridge was built, which was burned by Confeder- ate troops during the war. Since that time the Memphis & Charleston liailroad Company have built a third bridge, which is still in use. Although farming and stock raising was the principal occupation of the people contiguous to Florence, the trade of these people being the princi- pal sourcefrom which the town derived its sujiport, yet there were several manufacturing establish- ments of no mean importance erected iu the county. Samuel Vanlier built an iron furnace near the northern edge of the county, and the iron manufactured by him was brought to Flor- ence in wagons, and shijjped to market by river. Flowing by the western part of the place is Cy- press Creek, a noble stream that has its rise in Tennessee ; on the banks of this creek were erected cotton mills, woolen mills and lumber mills. Almost within sight were the two extensive cotton factories of ^lartin, Weakley & Co. All of these establishments, with the exception of one factory owned by the latter firm, were destroyed during tlie war, and have not since been rebuilt. The one cotton factory remaining jiassed into the hands of the Cypress Mills Company, and was run by them until recently, when it was jnir- chased by a syndicate of foreign capitalists, who are at present operating it to great advantage. The Kernachan mills is another cotton factory situated also on the Cypress Creek, and was more recently erected. It is now operated to its fullest capacity, and pays a handsome dividend. The iron foundry of Wright & IJice was another one of the important enterprises of early days. Wiiilc the chief advantage of early Florence was its remirkable facilities for water transporta- tion, yet her citizens were not slow to recognize the importance of quicker communication by means of railroads. Her people subscribed liber- ally to the building of the >remiihis& Charleston Railroad, expecting that the line at tins place would run on the north side of the river. When the road was located on the opposite side, they secured the building of a branch from Tuscumbia and the reconstruction of the bridge across the Tennessee Hiver. The importance of having a northern outlet by means of a railroad leading to Nashville, has long been recognized, and the want of this, together with the failure of the (Jovern- ment to complete the canal, more than anything else conspired to hold the town at a stand still for forty years. Various attempts have been made to have this road built, and the citizens of Florence have always been ready to contri- bute liberally to its construction. It has oidy been since the organization of the Florence Land Company and the locating of many new enterprises at Florence, that capitalists have looked favorably upon the building of this line. The Louisville & Nashville Kailroad Company, with an eye to the ever increasing freight traffic of Florence and Sheffield, finally closed a contract with representa- tives of the two places, by which they bound them- selves to build, equip and operate the road. The greater part of the work is already completed, and trains will be running over the new line in a short while. Save for a short time during the war, Florence has never been without a newspaper. The Flor- ence Gazette was established in ISIO, by W. S. Fulton, and has been, since its foundation, a con- servative democratic paper. Its founder was also the first editor, atul judging from the public re- cords, Fulton must have been a leading spirit in the early history of the place. He was the first .ludge of the County Court, and also the first post- master of the place. He was followed by numer- ous other men as prominent as he, and. possibly of his successors, the one most widely-known in newspaper circles, was M. C. Galloway, now of Memphis, and until recently, the editor-in-chief of the Memphis Appial. Colonel Calloway went to Florence from .Moulton. Ala., and from Florence to Memphis, where he now lives in honored retire- ment. There have been many other papers pub- lished in Florence, among the number were the Florence Einjircr, the American Democrat, the Florence Journal, and the Lamlerdale Timeit. In the latter days, many papers have suddenly bloomed forth, and almost as suddenly faded away. The interests of the town are now zealously guarded by three excellent weekly papers: the Gazette, the linuiier and the Wave. The ]M-ini-ipal churches of the place liavc always 290 NORTHERN ALABAMA. been the Presbyterian, Methodist, and tlie Epis- copalian: but, since the recent growth began, other denominations have come in. The Catho- lics have already erected a church, and the C'amp- bellites and Baptists are now preparing to build houses of worships. The first pastor of the Jlethodist Church, and, j)robably, the first one of the place, was Xathaniel Garret, and, since his time, there is a long list of men, who liave been, and are yet, more or less prominent throughout the South. Among the number were Dr. R. H. Rivers, who was also president of the Wesleyan University; Rev. J. D. Barber, Dr. R. A. Young, Dr. Ilardie Brown, and others equally as well known. The first pastor of the Presbyterian Church was Dr. Campbell. From the articles of faith which were adopted, and which are to be found on the county records, we learn that the church was organized on July 'ii), 1837. The trustees were five in number, and all intimately and prom- inently connected with the early history of the town. John McKinley, who was afterward a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, James Irvine and John Simpson, two lead- ing citizens, Robert M. Patton, a merchant and afterward Governor of Alabama, and Dr. Neal Eowell, a highly respected and prominent physi- cian of the county, formed the board. Rev. J. L. Sloss and Dr. W. II. ^Mitchell, both accom- plished divines, have filled this pulpit. The pres- ent pastor is Rev. M. L. Frierson. The first school taught in Florence was presided over by Mr. Charles Sullivan, and the next by Mr. Wall, an Episcopal clergyman. The building used by him is still standing. One of the most prom- inent of early educators was Mr. James L. Sloss, who had charge of the male academy for a num- ber of years. He was at the same time pastor of the Presbyterian Church: a fine scholar, greatly beloved and esteemed by all denominations. In 1864 the project of removing La Grange Col- lege to Florence was started. It was not in a flourishing condition at that place, and the Meth- odist Church, to whom the projjerty belonged, de- sired to move it to some place where the field of usefulness would be enlarged. The citizens took kindly to the idea, and offered such inducements that the removal was finally accomplished. A large and commodious three-story brick building was erected in the center of a beautiful grove, near the then suburbs of the town, and with Dr. R. H. Rivers as president, the new institution of learn- ing began a prosperous career under the name of the Wesleyan University. The school flourished until the war, when both preceptor and pupil were called upon to shoulder the musket. An attemjit was made to reorganize it after the war, but owing to the impoverished condition of the country it never succeeded. The building and grounds were afterward turned over to the State Board of Edu- cation, and in the year 1873 the State Normal College was established. For the support of this institution the State makes an annual appropria- tion of ^7,500: and since its foundation the school has been in a most flourishing condition, steadily growing in popularity and strength. Its gradu- ates are scattered all over the State, and their system of teaching has had a marked influence over the public schools of Alabama. The jiresi- dent of the faculty is Prof. T. J. Mitchell. There have been good female schools in Florence since the founding of the town, and among the best of these was that taught for a long while by Mr. N. M. Hentz and his accomplished wife, Mrs. Caro- line Lee Hentz. They moved away in 1842, much to the regret of the jjeople, and took up their resi- dence at Tuscaloosa. After their departure, the Florence Female Academy was opened, which was afterward merged into the Florence Synodical Female College, which was under the control of the Memphis Synod of the Presbyterian Church. The citizens were again called upon to assist in erecting buildings, and two handsome brick edifices now stand as evidence of the high estimate placed upon female education. The school had for a number of years, as its efficient principal, the Rev. Dr. W. II. Mitchell, who was also pastor of the Presbyterian Church. It is a quite well-known fact that this institution was the especial care of the late lamented ex-Gov. R. M. Patton, who was the President of the Board of Trustees till his death. He lent the weight of his influence and his purse unstintingly to its support, and his name is still held in most affectionate remembrance by its many pupils. The school is now under the charge of Miss Sallie Collier, and still retains its reputation as an institution of learning and refine- ment. The civil administration of Florence has always been in the hands of honest and capable men. There have been no defalcations, no dishonesty in high places. When the people find they have an efficient officer in charge it has been their custom NORTHERN ALABAMA. 291 to re-elect liim with persistent regularity. The same is true of the County officers. William W. Garrard, who was one of the foremost of the early settlers, held the office of Clerk of the County Court for twenty years. He was succeeded hy Wiley T. Hawkins, who remained in office for ten years, till the County Court was abolished and the office of Probate Judge created, whicli office he filled for twelve years till his death in \%^\i. The city government is in the hands of a mayor and five aldermen who are elected annually. The present nniyor is Hon. Z. P. Morrison, a \'irginian by birth and a man higlily esteemed for his integrity of character and great executive ca- pacity. He was first elected in 1881, and has held the ottice since that time. To him more than any one else is the town indebted for the reputa- tion it enjoys as being a well governed community and comparatively free from crime. Since his coming into office the streets h.ave been greatly improved, drainage ])erfected, the city has been lighted, and various other improvements have been made. Enough has been said to give an idea of the Flor- ence of tlie past; but the wide-awake business man asks, " A\'hat of the future?" '• A beautiful town, a refined community, and good schools are very much to be desired; but what of the business prospect ? " The same reasons that, seventy years ago, brought the place into existence still hold good, and the great changes wrought in the indus- trial character of the South, during that time, have added others equally as strong. A glance at a map will show that Florence is the centre of a circle, of which Birmingham, Memi)his, Nashville and Chattanooga, standing at the average distance of Vlh miles, are points on the circumference. The Tennessee Kiver might be called the diameter of this circle; and com- pleted lines of railroad, running from each of these points, form its radii. Within this circle, on the north, is to be found the brown hematite ore of Tennessee, and oii the south and east are deposits of coal practically inexhaustible. The farm lands of the Tennesssee Valley are the most productive in the South, and throughout Lauder- dale County are large forests of timber yet un- touched. The trade of this region must have a center: there must be a distributing point, and that point must have transportation facilities. Florence replies to the demand with the Tennessee River and tliree completed lines of railroad. Nature has been lavish in her gifts to North Alabanni, they are hid underneath the surface, it is true, but they are here nevertheless. And it was to develop these resources that our forefathers, seventy years ago, pushed through thicket and wilderness till they halted on the banks of the beautiful Tennessee, and like the red man said: •'Alabama: Here we rest." A celebrated newspaper writer, speaking of the place, say's: " Five years ago Florence was as dead as a town could be killed, but now it is brim-full of energy and enterjjrise." What brought about the change? In 1880 her citizens, having seen Sheffield spring up from almost beneath her feet, began again to jnit their wits together, to evolve some plan for the advancement of the place. The result was the formation of the Florence Land Mining and Manufacturing Company. This company had, as a basis for its organization, a large number of valuable town lots, extensive tract of mineral lands, and about *:{(iO,OOfi in cash subscriptions. Its object is the building of manufacturing enter- prises of all kinds, inducing immigration, and, in fact, the general devclojunent and improvement of the place. The president of the company is Hon. AV. B. Wood, a man who has always been a lead- ing spirit in every movement, looking to the good of the place. The great object in the organiza- tion of this company was to obtain a concentra- tion of effort. The citizens, with a strong and abiding faith in the success of the enterprise, subscribed liberally to the capital stock. It was, in fact, a popular uprising, a determination of the people to combine their forces, and to work together for the common good. The scheme has been a success. The town has been well advertised, the claimsof her people have been recognized and capitalists have not been slow to invest where such handsome returns have been assured. Within the last twelve months the town has almost doubled her population; her taxable values have largely increased. The enter))rises which have already been estab- lished, will, wlien completed, give employment to over two thousand men, thus assuring to the town, in the early future, an additional population of ten thousand souls. In aoggs. and, of the nine children born to him. three only are living: Mrs. Chas. H. Patton, Mrs. Paul King and Mrs. S. E. Rice. HENRY C. JONES, Solicitor of the Figlitli .ludicial District of Alabama, son of William S. and Ann (Coy) Jones, natives of the State of \'ir- ginia and of English descent, was born in l'"raiik- lin County, this State, January 'l'-'>, 18"2I. The Jones family was among the early colonial settlers of Virginia, and H. C. Jones' grand- father, Thomas S. Jones, is known in tlie history of the United States as a gallant colonel in the Hevolutionary War. Mr. Jones' father came to Alabama in 1813, settled in Madison County, and moved from there to Franklin County in l.sl'.i, where he died in 1874, at the age of seventy-six years. He reared a family of four sons and three daughters, all of whom are now living. Henry C. Jones was educated primarily at the country schools, graduated from LaGrauge College in 1S4<), read law under Professor Tutwilerat tliat college and the Hon. Daniel Coleman, of Athens, and was admitted to the bar in Franklin County, in 1S41. Soon after coming to the bar — in fact, during the same year he was elected Probate Judge of Franklin, and resigned the office at the end of eighteen months to go to the I^egislature. In speaking of Judge Jones, another writer says: " Judge Jones brought into the Legislature a mind well cultivated and )>ractical, with ready sjieaking abilities, ami soon became one of the active busi- ness members. After serving many years in the House, lie was transferred to the Senate, exhibit- ing maturity of mind, and legislative talent, which gave him j)rominence in the deliberations of that body. He was a Democrat, and entered fully into the councils of the party. In 1861, he was a member of the State Convention called upon the election of Mr. Lincoln, and took a decided stand against tiie ordinance of secession, opposing it with all his influence and ability in debate. Not- withstanding this, he was elected a deputy to the Congress of States, to assemble at Montgomery, for the purpose of forming a separate government for the South. This was no small compliment to him, considering how he liad opposed the wishes and views of the majority." Judge Jones settled at Florence in 1856, and has here since made his home. He was a Doug- las, elector and in the convention of 18C0, as lias been seen, strenuously ojiposed secession. Notwithstanding this, he was elected to the Con- federate Provisional Congress, in which body he served one year. During the war he was engaged at the manufacture of cotton and woolens in Mis- sissippi, under a contract, for the Confederate Government. After cessation of hostilities he re- sumed the practice of law at Florence, where he readily took high rank in the profession. He was associated at different times with two of the most distinguished lawyers at the South, viz. : Sidney C. Posey and the Hon. Josiah Patterson, the latter now of Memphis. Judge Jones has always been an active poli- tician in the higher sense of that term. During the ])eriod of re-construction he was for five years chairman of the Democratic Central Committee, and displayed therein much more than ordinary executive ability. In ISTO he was the Tilden and Hendricks elector from his district, and in sup- port of the ticket spoke throughout Northern Alabama. The Legislature of 18H elected Judge Jones to the office of Solicitor of the Eighth District, a position to which he has been successively re- turned up to the present time, and is now serving his third term, whidi will expire by limitation in 189:J. He is a j)ublic-spirited man. a superior lawyer, a conscientious prosecutor of the pleas of the State: is identified more or less with all the le.-uliiig industries of Florence, ami. thoufrh well 296 NORTHERN ALABAMA. advanced in years, gives the various matters in which he is interested his personal attention, and brings to them the activity of a vigorous and per- fect mind. At Athens, Ala., October 13, 1844, Henry C. Jones was married to Martha L. Keyes, who died at her home in Florence, May 6, 1887. She was the mother of ten children, six sons and four daughters. The eldest son. William S., a gallant soldier under Forrest, was killed at Pulaski, Tenn., September 27, 1864; the second son, Geo. P., is a prominent lawyer at Florence; Henry C, Jr., also a lawyer, is located at Decatur; Robert Y. is a doctor of dental surgery at Nashville ; and John is a railroad man in St. Louis. One of the daughters is the wife of L. M. Allen, cotton manufacturer," and another is an accom- plished teacher, now at Birmingham. Judge Jones is a man of high-moral character, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and one of North Alabama's most prominent citizens. -«- ROBERT McFARLAND, Attorney-at-law, was born in County Londonderry, L-eland, August G, 1836. His parents were William and Jane (Mc- Cnlley) McFarland. Robert McFarland was educated at the best schools in Ireland, and was there prejoared for the army, but, failing to get into the Crimean War, he left the old country in May, 18.54, landed in New York, and soon afterward entered Washing- ton College (now Washington and Lee), from which institution he was graduated third in the class of 18.58. At Lexington, Va., he studied law un- der John W. Brockenborough, and was graduated as a Bachelor of Law in 1860. He came to Florence in April of that year, and, forming a partnership with .James B. Irvine, entered at once into the practice of his chosen profession. April :28, 1861, as Captain of the Lauderdale Volunteers, he en- tered the Confederate service. His company was subsequently organized into the Fourth Alabama Infantry, and at Harper's Ferry the command joined Stonewall Jackson's Cor23s, and participated in the flr.st battle of Manassas. Major McFarland kaew General Jackson per- sonally, having frequently met him while in Lex- ington. At Manassas the Major Was watching the progress of the fight, and heard General Bee refer to Jackson's command in the memorable words attaching themselves forever thereafter to the great hero of Manassas, to-wit: '' See Jackson's men standing like a stone wall.'' (General Bee was killed on that day.) The twelve months for which Captain McFar- land had entered service having expired, he was authorized to recruit a cavalry regiment, which he did, and with a portion of it joined Gen. .John H. Morgan at Knoxville, Tenn., and remained with the redoubtable ^lorgaii until after the Ohio raid. He accompanied Morgan across the Ohio River and was the first man in the command to leap on to Indiana's soil. After Morgan's capture, McFarland was assigned by the Secretary of War to General (.'leburne's command, and was with him to the close. He led the famous charge at Dug Gap, and for gallantry was complimented by the commander. At Villa Rica, Ga., he was wounded by having his horse killed under him, the horse falling upon him and injuring him to such an extent that he has never fully recovered from it. In December, 1864, he was in command at Hunts- ville, and remained there until the Federals drove him out in January, 1865. He was finally paroled at Pond Springs and came to Florence. He had no money, and as he exjjressed it, "no home," and the only clothing that he had was his much worn Confederate uniform. This he con- tinued to wear until a Federal officer issued a peremptory order that the Confederate uniform be taken off. Having nothing else to wear, the Major was in a pretty bad fix until a friend who was clerking for a Jew volunteered to go his security for a linen duster. In October, 1865, he opened an office at Florence and began the practice of law, and here he has remained. He at once stepped into a good paying practice; became popular with his clients and rapidly made a reputation as one of the most successful lawyers of the North Alabama bar. He was married in March, 1868, to Miss Kate Arme- stead, daughter of Fontaine Armestead, Esq., then of Franklin, now of Colbert, County, and has had born to him seven children, six of whom are living. Major McFarland, since the close of the hostitilities in which he took such a prominent part, has openly and at all times, advocated a loyal support of the General Government. He was a Douglas man before the war, and a Union man up to the time his State had with- drawn, when he gave his services freely, and laid his life, as it were, upon the altar of his convic- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 297 tions. No man in any part of the' State was more loyal to the South than Robert McFarland. He is an active Democratic worker: takes part in all the National and State campaigns: is a sjieaker of rare force, has a ready command of hmcrtiage, quick of repartee, and possessed of the ready wit so characteristic of his race. He was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention that nom- inated (ireeley. He is a member of the Knights of I'vthias. ►^> ROBERT TENNENT SIMPSON. ].romincnt Attuniey-at-law, Flurenre. Ala., snii of .lolin and Margaret (I'atton) Simpson, natives, respectively, of Tyrone and Belfast, Ireland. The senior Mr. Simpson came to America in 18 IS, settled at Florence, engaged at mercantile business, and at the end of seven years, returned to Ireland and married. Bringing his wife to .\inerica, they lived at Florence the rest of their days. They reared four sons and two daughters. Three of his sons were in the Confederate Army. John Simj)son, Jr., First Lieutenant of Lauderdale \'(ilunteers, was killed at Manassas. The subject of this sketch is a graduate of Princeton College, class of 1S.">T, and of the law department of the Cumberland University, Leba- non. Tenn., class of 18.i0. Immediately after leaving Lebanon, he began the })ractice of law at Des Arc, Ark., and was there at the outbreak of the war. In April, 1801, he enlisted as private in the Fourth Alabama Regiment, and took part with that regiment in the first battle of Manassas, and, shortly thereafter, was appointed second lieuten- ant in the First Alabama Battalion of Artillery. He was afterward promoted to first lieutenant in that command. He was cut off from his command when Fort Morgan was besieged, and assigned to duty as adjutant-general of (ieneral Liddell's Brigade. While serving in that capacity, he was elected captain of one of the companies in the Sixty-third Alabama Regiment, which position he accepted, and commanded the company through the sieges at ."Spanish Fort and Blakely. At tlie surrender of his command, at the last named place, on April '.', IS";."!, he was taken as a prisoner of war to Sliip Island, where he remained till the com- mand was brought to Jackson, Tenn., and there l)aroled in May, 1805. After the close of the war he settled at Camden, Ala., where he practiced law until 1870, at which time he returned to Florence. He was elected to the Legislature in ]88-^', and to the Senate from the district composed of Lauderdale and Lime- stone Counties in ISS-t. In both houses of the (ieneral Assembly, Captain Simpson proved him- self an active and useful member. He was married at Florence. September, ]8(il, to Miss Mattie Collier, daughter of Mr. Wyat Collier, of Lauderdale County. To this union have been born one son and four daughters ; the former is a student at law, in Kansas. Captain Simpson is a member of the Knights of Honor and Knights and Ladies of Honor; President of the Board of Trustees of the Female Synodical College of Florence, and is an elder in the Presbyterian Church. — — •■♦"J^ji^;-^' — ~- EMMET O'NEAL, prominent Attorney-at-law, Floieiue, Ala., son of the Hon. Edward Asbury O'Neal, a sketch of whom will be found in another part of this volume, was born at Florence Septem- ber i'i, lf5:i. Mr. O'Neal was educated at the Florence Wes- leyan University, University of Mississippi, and wa.-; graduated from the University of Alabama in 18T3. After leaving college he at once entered upon the study of law in the office of his father, iind was admitted to the bar in IsT'i. Before entering the University. ^Ir. (J'Xeal was tendered and accepted an appointment to West Point Academy, bnt admission was refused him on account of his politics. Since his admission to the bar Mr. O'Neal has given the profession almost his undivided atten- tion, and it is but just to say of him that he has risen by merit to an elevated position at the North Alabama bar. He is a prominent factor in the Democratic party: an eloquent, forcible speaker; a lawyer of recognized ability, a polished, courteous gentleman: a terse and vigorous writer; and alto- gether promises to l)e a brilliant successor to a brilliant father in the hearts and confidences of the people. He was married at Tuscaloosa July 'l\. 1881, to a young lady of Florence, Miss Lizzie Kirkman, the beautiful and accomplished daugh- ter of .Samuel Kirkman, Esq. Mr. O'Neal is a member, at this writing (1888), of the State Democratic E.xecutive Committee: a 298 NORTHERN ALABAMA. member of the Board of Aldermen of Florence; and was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated Hancock and English. In a busi- ness way he is a director in the W. B. Wood Fur- nace Company, ShefSeld Marble and Phosphate Company, and is more or less identified with other Xorth Alabama enterprises. He is a member of the order of Knights of Pvthias and of the Knights of Honor. GEORGE P. JONES, prominent Attorney-at- law, Florence, was born near Russellville this State, January 11, 1850, and is the son of the Hon. Henry C. Jones, a sketch of whom will be found in another part of this volume. He was educated at Florence; read law nnder Chancellor Keyes, and was admitted to the bar in 1871. After spending a few months in the oflBce of Josiah Patterson, he, in the latter part of 18T2, embarked fully into the practice of the law and readily took high rank in the profession. He is now of the firm of Simpson & Jones. Though devoted to his profession, ilr. Jones gives much attention to other matters. He is President of the Board of Directors of the Nor- mal College at Florence ; identified with some of the leading industries of the place, and is regarded as a wide-awake, public-spirited, present-day North Alabamian. JOHN JACKSON MITCHELL, Probate Judge, Lauderdale County, was born at Florence, Sept- ember 15, 1854, and is a son of the late Kev. Wm. H. ^Mitchell, D.D., of the Presbyterian Church. Kev. Dr. Mitchell was a native of Ireland. He came to America in 1843, and died at Florence in 1872, at the age of 5H years. J. J. Mitchell was educated at Florence, and at the University of Mississippi, afterward graduat- ing in bookkeeping at Eastman College, at At- lanta. He studied law at the Lebanon Law School, Lebanon, Tenn., and was admitted to the bar of that State. He subsequently purchased the Chilton County Courier, published at Canton, Ala., conducted it a few months, sold out, and came to Florence, where, in 1876, he purchased the Gazette, of Jas. B. Ervine. He edited the Gazette up to January, 1881; and, having in No- vember of the preceding year been made Clerk of the Probate Court, he sold the paper to Major Morgan. He occupied the position of Clerk of Probate until January, 1884, and, having in that year purchased the Alabama Progress, published at Florence, he changed its name to the North Star; conducted that paper for twelve months, and sold it out to Mr. I. S. Barr, who, in 1885, merged it into the Banner. In 1886 he was elected Judge of Probate. Mr. Mitchell was married at Prattville, Ala., June 25, 1879, to Miss Etoile Hurd, and has had born to him two children. Thongh quite a young man. Judge ^litchell is regarded as one of the best officials Lauderdale County has had. His popularity is attested by his successful election to the office over a combina- tion of independents and others, of supposed great strength, by a neat majority. *JOHN COFFEE was born in Prince Edward County, Va., on June 2, 1772. His father, Joshua Coffee, was born in the same county January 26,1745. His mother, Elizabeth Graves, was born in Hanover County, Va., January 28, 1751. They were married June 2, 1767. Joshua Coffee was a tobacco-planter, and after his marriage continued to reside in Prince Edward County until 1775, when he removed to Gran- ville County, N. C, where he remained until the close of the Revolutionary War, when he removed to the County of liockingham. Here he continued to reside until his death, which occurred September 8, 1797. During 1780 he commanded a company of mounted gun-men. During the month of April, 1798, John Coffee removed with his motlier to Davidson County, Tenn., where she died in 1804. Mr. Coffee engaged in merchandise and con- tinued in it until 1807, and (to use his own words) •'from some accidents and losses, and from bad management," it jsroved to be a losing busi- ness. He engaged in surveying in the then newly acquired country on Duck and Elk Rivers, which business, by his great exertions, and unremitted attention, proved to be profitable. In the course of two years thereby he was enabled to pay the •The sketch of General Coffee was written by Col. James E. Saunders. KOR TIIERX ALABAMA. 299 arrearages of his mercantile debt, ainoutiiig to six thoiisaiui dollars, besides reserving to himself sev- eral valuable tracts of land. Clu October 3, 1809, he married .M:irv Donelson, then sixteen years of age, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of John Donelson, who carried the wives and children of the part}', who went in ad- vance with Gen. James Robertson to Nashville in ITT'.i to build houses. The voyage was performed in boats from East Tennessee, down the Tennes- see River and up the Cumberland through a nation of hostile Indians. Rachel, the eldest sister of ]\Iary Donelson (not then born), would sometimes fearlessly take the helm, when the boats were jittacked, to enable her father to take a shot at the enemy. This Rachel became the wife of Gen. Andrew .lackson, and when John Coffee married Mary Donelson, this family union cemented a friendship which had existed between them for some years before, and continued during their joint lives. About this time ilr. Coffee was elected Clerk of the County Court of Rutherford, a position he was holding at the outbreak of the <'reek War. (leneral Coffee was engaged with General Jack- son in the bloody fight which occurred between the Jackson and Benton factions, just before the Creek War of 1813; an unfortunate affair, which was brought about by the rashness of Jesse, a brother of Thomas H. Benton, afterward the dis- tinguished senator from Missouri. In a few months the feud was at an end between the prin- cijial parties, and the latter was actively engaged in making speeches to raise volunteers to serve under (Jeneral Jackson: took command as colonel of one of the regiments raised, and was the confi- dential personal and political friend of Jackson ever afterward. But Jesse Benton never made friends with any of the other party; and, it is said, never spoke to his brother Thomas after- ward. He was a little volcano which was ahvuijs in a state of eruption. Coffee was not only a sincere, but a fearless friend. An amusing illustration of this is given by Judge Guild. Jackson was very fond of the turf; had the finest horses, and for some years was the ruler of it. At length his competitors brought in a chestnut filly, named Haynies .Maria, that ran away from every horse entered against her. This worked up Jackson to a lively re- solve that she should be beaten. lie canvassed Virginia and gave his friends carle blanche to buy for him tl -''f.l! test h-^rie in that or any other State. He finally bought Pacolet of AVm. R. Johnson, at a fabulous price, with which he made a race against JIaria. The appointed day and hour came. Monkey Simon, who rode Maria, had orders to i)ull the mare at the end of each quarter and fall back, their object being to get bets. This order was strictly carried out. Jackson was thus led to believe that Jfaria would not win, and proposed to bet I>10,0(i0 that she would be beaten. Elliott said he would take the bet. General Coffee, who was a giant in stature, endeavored to dissuade Jackson from betting, but. not succeeding, he stepped behind him, lifted him on his shoulders and carried him out of the crowd, kicking and cursing, and never put him on the ground again until Monkey Simon applied the whip and won the race. The war of 1812 was ushered in with so many reverses in the northern part of the Union that the fiery Tennesseans found vent for their en- ergies by engaging zealously in the contest. Gen- eral Jackson and his friends raised a brigade of volunteers; one regiment of cavalry was com- manded by Colonel Coffee, one of infantry by Col. Thomas II. Benton, and another of the same by Colonel Hall. The infantry descended the river in boats, under the immediate command of General Jackson, to Natchez, and the cavalry, under Colonel Coffee, marched by the overland route to the same place, where they were ordered into a cantonment in the little town of Washing- ton, Miss., and remained for several months. At length an order came to General Jackson, from the War Department, '• to consider his force dis- missed from service, and to take measures for the delivery of all articles of the public proj)erty in his possession to (ieneral Wilkinson," who was a brigadier-general in the regular army. The effect of this disgraceful order would have been to have turned these patriotic men loose, hundreds of miles from home, without supplies or transportation, to make their way home as best they could, through the territories of two Indian tribes, where subsistence was always scant. Gen- eral Jackson assumed the responsibility of disobey- ing the order, and marched them back into Tenn- essee. In this movement he was firmly sustained by Colonel Coffee, and his attitude M-as remem- bered gratefully: for in the fall, when he called his men to fight the Creek Indians, two regiments in- stead of one. came to his standard. 300 NORTHERN ALABAMA. This call occurred in Septembft'^, 1»13. The massacre at Fort Mims on the 30th of August sent a thrill of horror through the bosoms of the brave Tennesseeans, but it was succeeded by a reaction as powerful. As slowl^vas news was then transmitted, a strong volunteer force came to ren- dezvous at Fayetteville on the 3d of October. On the 4th, General Jackson dispatched General Cof- fee with a large detachment to Hiintsville, Ala., to keep an eye on the Creek warriors, and shortly afterward followed with his whole command. He failed to get the supplies he expected down the Tennessee River. In this emergency he deter- mined to forage upon the enemy, and moved his force into the Indian country. On the 2d of November he issued an order to Coffee, now promoted to the rank of Brigadier, to take 1,000 men and proceed to the town of Tal- lascehatche, thirteen miles distant from the camp, and destroy it. He surrounded the town about sunrise, and was fiercely met by the savages, with war-whoops and the sounding of drums, the proph- ets being in advance. The troops charged them, with great slaughter. After a short but terrible action about two hundred warriors lay dead on the field. Not a solitary one begged for his life. Late in the evening of the same day Coffee re- crossed the Coosa, and returned to headquarters. Talladega was the next battle fought by General Jackson in person. Here was a small fort, in which a number of friendly Indians had taken refuge, and were closely surrounded by the hos- tiles. They were out of food and water in the garrison, where a noted chief enveloped himself in a hog-skin, and went rooting and grunting around, until he made his way through the lines, and, as fleet as the wind, reached the camp of General Jackson. He implored the General to march immediately to the rescue of his friends, which, midnight as it was, he did. He forded the Coosa, here 600 yards wide, with a rocky, uneven bottom. Each horseman carried behind him a foot-man until the whole army was over. He en- camped in the evening within six miles of the fort. At four o'clock next morning he surrounded the enemy, numbering 1,100 warriors. After a sharp but decisive action, he defeated them. They left 295 warriors dead on the field. •' This brilliant victory exerted a powerful influence on the enemy as well the country. General Coffee, with his force of 1,000 mounted volunteers, par- ticipated in this battle, and contributed largely to the victory achieved on that hotly contested field. He was a giant in stature, finely propor- tioned, taciturn, with nothing of the braggart or pretender about him. While he was deter- mined to do his duty, he was wholly uncon- cerned as to who should reap the glory. He was the first in the field, and had been in the sad- dle for a month, leading his brave soldiers up and down the country, keeping the enemy from the frontiers, which they were watching like a wolf ready to pounce on the flock. His presence on the frontier dispelled the alarm of the citizens, while his swift movements indicated that he meant business, and made him a terror to the Indians. He and (Jen. William Carroll were the right arm of General Jackson, and faithfully they jx-rformed the duties entrusted to them."' After this battle General Jackson marchetl his small army, which was out of provisions, back as rapidly as possible to Fort Strother. Arriving there, he was deeply mortified to find that no pro- visions had arrived at that point. The men were hungry, and there was great dissatisfaction in the camp. Bonaparte was asked once, what were the two things most essential to a soldier, and his re- ply was, " A full belly and astrong pair of rshoes."' The men who had behaved so well in battle were impatient of hunger, and took up their line of march for Tennessee. He threw himself ahead of the men who were moving off, and, with General Coffee, Carroll, and a few brave fellows, he formed a line in front of them, seized a musket from one of his men and declared that he would shoot the first man who dared to march. They only saw his flashing eye and de- termined look, and the power of numbers quailed before the iron will — the moral greatness of one man. He, however, promised the men, that if in a reasonable time i^rovisions did not ari'ive, they might go, as their time of service was about to expire. He kept his word, and in a few days he was left in a savage land, with only one hundred men. But they were choice spirits, with gallantry enough to leven a small army, as will be seen in the two following battles, in which there were feats of valor, not excelled in the pages of romance. At length two regiments arrived, numbering about 850 men, which had only been enlisted for sixty days. As their time was short he employed no drill-master; determined to drill them in actual battle. He marched them across the Coosa, NORTHERN ALABAMA. 301 was joinrd by "^HO C'lierokees and friendly Creeks, and sought the enemy at Einiiekfaw. Besides tliese tliere was a company composed of ofliccrs entirely, whose command had returned home, forty-live in number, amongst them General CotTee, Inspec- tor-General Carroll, and Adjutant-Geneial Sitter. '• When the alarm was given the whole line was led to the charge by General Coffee, and the Indians were forced to abandon the ground in a rapid manner. Shortly aftciward a body of the enemy boldly advanced and attacked the right wing of Jackson's encampment. Coffee again charged, but, through some mistake, only forty-tivemen followeil, composing liis own company of volunteer oIKcers; but the friendly Indians were sent by Jackson to his support. Dismounting his men he soon pur- sued tlie ' Red Sticks " to the swamj) of a creek. Jackson had ordered iiis left flank to remain firm, and now the Indians came rushing with yells against it: but they were repelled by a charge made by the impetuous Carroll. In the meantime. Coffee kept the enemy at bay, who had now re- turned upon him from the swamp, until (ieneral .lackson strengthened him with a re-enforcement of one hundred friendly warriors. Coffee again charged, when the Indians once more gave way; and the pursuit was continued for three miles, with the loss of 4.5 savages," The brave Creeks had now been repulsed on every attempt, but they exhibited a ferocity and daring which commanded the serious consideration of Gen- eral .Fackson. He had no forage for his horses, and very few rations for his men, and his force was weaker than he desired. He determined to return to Fort Strother, with all possible dis- patch. In this battle Alexander Donelson aide- de-camp of (ieneral Coffee, and eldest brother of his wife, was killed. Next morning the army commenced its retrograde movement, bearing the, Wounded in litters, constructed of the hides of the slain horses. In one of these lay General Coffee, who, at the conclusion of the third charge, was wounded, as it was thought, mortally. Hefore night Jackson encamped near the ford of the Enotochopco. which they had crossed in marching down, and fortified himself. The Indians were prf>wling around, but refrained from an at- tack Dreading an onset at the ford of the creek, which had great facilities for ambuscades, he selected another crossing six hundred yards lower down. Next morning the march was begun. The front-guard with the wounded had passed the creek, and the artillery was in the creek, when an alarm gun was heard which was succeeded by a fierce attack of the savages on the rear-guard. The new regiments, siezed by a sudden panic, fled without firing a gun. A scene of wonderful con- fusion prevailed for awhile. The six pounder was brought on the hill, but in the confusion the ram- rod was lost and Constantine Perkins rammed down the charge with his musket, and Craven .lackson picked the touch-hole with his ram-rod. While Carroll was scarcely holding the rear with a few brave men. Gen. Coffee leaped from his litter, mounted his horse and ^'ii\ R. M. Patton moved to Florence. Here he began a long and prosperous career as a merchant, in connection with large jilanting inter- ests. In 1859 he was succeeded in business by his two sons. In Vi'i'l he married Jane Locke Brahan, daugh- ter of General .lohn Bralian, of Huntsville. He and his accomplished wife, for more than half a century, made Sweet AA'ater, near Florence, the typical home of Southern hospitality. This excellent couple were blessed with gallant sons and charming daughters. Two sons, J. B. and W. A. Patton, were merchants at Florence until the breaking out of the late civil war. John Brahan Patton, the eldest son, enlisted in the ranks of the gallant '• Florence Guards; " survived the dangers of the field and is now quietly domiciled at the pleasant country home presided over by the venerated widowed mother. William Ander- son Patton was educated at the Military college, LaCJrange, Ala. When the tocsin of war sounded he hastened to obey the call to defend his native State. He was elected first lieutenant of his com- pany, and was killed at Shiloh 6th of April, 186::^. Robert Weakley Patton, then a student at the University of Alabama, with the "Cadet Corps" bravely assisted in the defence of Alabama. He was wounded at Selma, April .'!, 1865, and died in hospital April 6. John Simpson Patton died at an early age. Charles Hays Patton resides at Florence and is at present engaged in the banking business. Mary Jane Patton married J. J. Mc- David, attorney-at-law, Huntsville, ]\Iattie Hays Patton, married Col, John Weeden, a prominent lawyer of Huntsville. The friends of Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Patton were called upon to sincerely sympathize with them in the terrible affliction that fell upon the happy household at '"Sweet Water." The war over. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 307 peiice restored, time on its healing wings had broiiglit resignation and a chastened sorrow for the hiss of the gallant sons; the daughters were happily married: loved and loving grandchildren made tiie halls of the old homestead ring with mirth; two sons were at home, but misfortune was to overtake the youngest. Andrew Bierue Patton returned home from his studies at (ireen Spring, to be- come a confirmed invalid, and was confined to his bed or room for nearly seven years before death released him from his terrible suffering. From this outline sketch of the family of Robert M. Patton we return to the subject of himself, with a brief record of his public life. In 18:50. although a Whig in politics, he was. at the early age of twenty-five, elected to the Legislature from Lauderdale t'ounty, which had several hundred Democratic majority. A writer says of him; " He was chosen by the people for his energy, prudence and financial capacity, as a member of the Special Legislature, called by(;overnor Bagby, in 1837, to relieve the people of the unprecedented financial panic of that year." He was for several terms elected President of the Alabama Senate, and al- ways occupied a prominent jiosition with the com- mittees which required financial ability and business experience. When quite a young man he was one of the leading directors of the State Bank at Decatur, and also a Trustee of the State Uni- versity. He was a member of the National con- vention which met at Charleston, S. C, in 1860. A biographer says of him: " He opposed the pas- sage of the Alabama Ordinance of Secession, believing that such measures would produce war and its attendant horrors. But when the ordi- nance was passed, he bowed to the inevitable, and, uniting with the will of the people, threw his whole soul into the work of aiding the Southern ca'ise." His time and fortune were generously given for the support of the rights of his loved Southland. Three sons were given to the Con- federacy, two of whom gallantly fell in battle. As commissioner under the Confederate (Jovern- ment. he raised millions of dollars in cotton and money for the support of Alabanui soldiers in the field, lie was a prominent member of the Con- stitutiomil convention which met in 1865 for the purpose of revising the Constitution of Alabama, to meet the changed condition of affairs. In ISCS Robert M. Patton was elected (Governor of the State. His inaugural adilress was an embod- iment of plain practical ideas, lie had never been an ardent disseverer of the loved Federal Union. His heart still lingered amidst the dear and well- remembered scenes of his early life and associations. Standing before the vast assemblage gathered in the hall of the House of Representatives, with his '■ blushing honors thick u])on him," his memory reverted to the days of Alaliama's i)rosperity. '•The land so fair; its people so happy." Alas', how changed I desolation and ruin — the wrecks that marked the foeman's jiaths. Standing with the changes all around him, he says: "At the beginning of the year 18C1, Ala- bama contained nearly one million inhabitants, and all branches of industry and trade were pros- perous. \'illages, towns and cities were flourish- ing, and internal improvements were rapidly and satisfactorily progressing. * * * * "On the nth day of January, 18til, a conven- tion of the State passed an ordinance declaring, in effect, that the ])coi)le of Alabama were thence- forth absolved from all allegiance to the govern- ment of the United States. Those who took this step maintained the theory that a State had the constitutional right to dissolve its connection with the Federal Union, and decided that the time had come when it was expedient and proper to sever the relations which bound us to the (Jeneral (iov- ernment. I trust that it will not be inconsistent with the proprieties of the occasion to state that 1 did not concur in this reasoning. Jly judgment did not approve of either the doctrine or act of secession. I thought that the position assumed by Alabama and th(i other Southern States would precipitate the Northern and Southern States into an unnatural and protracted war. But while firmly entertaining this opinion, I deemed it a duty, as a citizen of Alabama, to yield a peaceful obedience to what had been done. Painfully ap- prehending that the step which had been taken would bring ruin upon us, I nevertheless held my- self bound to tlie authoritative decree which was deliberately pronounced by the people, through a convention of their own choice. I can jioint to this action, on my jiart, as at least attesting my devotion to all the regular forms of authority in the State and as some proof of my readiness to share the fate of my fellow citizens under any aiul all circumstances, whatever the fate may be. In this brief reference to the events of the last four years I do not wish to be understood as seeking to vindicate the correctness of opinions which I en- tertained and expressed at the incipiency of our 308 NORTHERN ALABAMA. late troubles. It is true that disaster and ruin were predicted; but Heaven knows I take no pleas- ure in pointing to the fulfillment. Tliose events are now historic, and we should only recur to them in that calm and philosophic spirit with whicli we may appeal to any other history for profitable les- sons to guide us in our actions wliile dealing with the momentous present, and preparing for the du- bious and even threatening future. For this pur- pose I think we may all profit much by contrast- ing the prosperity and liappiness which our coun- try enjoyed at the beginning of the recent war, with its crippled and almost ruined condition. In doing this, we slioiild forget the contention, bick- erings, passions, excitements and dissensions through which we have passed ; or, if we cannot forget, let us at least rise above them ; let us be as one man ; and if we are unable to recover that which has been lost, it becomes us to bend our united energies in saving and improving that which remains to us. ' These extracts from his inaugural address con- clude the sketch of his political career. When his term of Governor expired he organized an association of Eastern capitalists to connect Chat- tanooga, Mobile and New Orleans by rail. He was made President of the road from Chattanooga to Meridian, a distance of three hundred miles, and subsequently succeeded John Whitney as President of the Soutli & North Alabama Rail- road Co., extending from Decatur to Montgomery. These two offices lie lield at the same time and successfully consolidated the several incorporations of these two roads. He was active in building the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. In 18TG he received an appointment as a mem- ber of the honorable Board of Finance for the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. He was also appointed Vice-President of the National Cotton Planters' Association, and a member of the board of management of the World's Industrial and Cotton Exposition at New Orleans, The educational interest of his State always found in him an earnest advocate. Robert M, Patton attended school at Greene Academy, Huntsville, Ala. When quite young he was placed in a commer'-ial liouse to learn the routine of business. His education was somewhat limited, and this fact may have been the inspira- tion of his untiring zeal to promote the advan- tages of proper educational training. For many years, and up to the time of his death, he was President of the Board of Trustees of the Flor- ence Synodical Female College and also of the Board of Directors of the State Normal College at Florence. At an early age he joined the Pres- byterian Church, and always took an active inter- est in the affairs of the church and Sibbath-school, For one year prior to his death he was the senior elder of the church, and Superintendent of the Sabbath-school, at Florence. The Cotton Exposition of New Orleans aroused all the waning powers of the venerable ex-(iov- ernor. (Col. Ed. Richardson, his esteemed brother-in-law, was its projector.) The cotton interests of the South were to be crowned with a national outpouring of honor and success at the beautiful Southern city of New Orleans. It was to him a subject of eshaustless merit, and the re- alization of a life-long cherished hope and ambi- tion was within his grasp. Alas! for human expectation, Governor Patton "had crossed over the river " ere the long wished for event trans- pired, and, not very long after. Col. Ed. Richard- son wa3 borne to his las*- resting place (to that dreamless sleep) amidst the proud achievements of his success. On the 31st of January, 1882, the halls of the hosjjitable mansion at Sweet Water resounded with mirth and good cheer: children and grand- children, with many friends, gathered to celebrate the " Golden Wedding" of this esteemed couple. Three years after, in tlie month of February, 1885, friends and relatives were again gathered at Sweet Water, but not to the sounds of mirth; the dark- ened chamber and saddened faces revealed the loss of a loved father and friend. Mrs. Mattie Weeden (one of the daughters) faid to the writer, " history will tell of his public acts, of which we too are proud, but w-e love best to re- member him as the dear, good Christian father." "We live in deeds, not years: in thoughts, not breaths ; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." -■*-- WILLIAM C. SHERROD is a native of Law- rence County, this State; son of Col. Benjamin and Talitha (Goode) Sherrod, and was born August 17. 1831. The Sherrods came originally from England and settled in North Carolina, and the Goodes, NORTHERN ALABAMA. 309 also English, wer.t from the lU'rtinulu Islands to iiifliinoiul, Va., as early as I'On. Tliu subject of this sketch was prejjared for col- lege at Edgefield, S. C, and received his siij)ple- mentary edtication at the University of North t'aroliiKi. In early life he engaged in cotton planting in Lawrence County, Ala., extending his l)lanting interests into Arkansas, where in DeShay County, on the Arkansas Kiver, he is tiie owner of an immense i)lantation which annually yields him many bales of the fibrous fabric. lie also owns and manages the old homestead in Lawrence County, one of the finest plantations in the Ten- nessee Valley. As was his father, in his lifetime, Colonel Sherrod before the war was one of the most extensive planters and slave-owners in North- ern Alabama. He represented [jawrence County in the Legislature, sessions of IS-")'.' and liSOO, and was a delegate to the Charleston Convention of the latter year. In the Legislature he was a I'nion man, and distinguished as one of the three members that refused to sign the ordinance of seces- sion. In the Charleston Convention he supported Stephen A. Douglas, as he did at Baltimore, wjiere he was also a delegate. Notwithstanding his opposition to secession, after his State with- drew from the Federal Union, he, as did every other true man, espoused the cause of the South, and at once volunteered his services in her defense, lie was appointed Captain of Commis- sary for Patterson's Brigade of Cavalry, and was connected with the service from the first to the last, participating in many hotly-contested battles in Alabama and other Gulf States. At the close of the war, he returned to Lawience County and to cotton planting, and spent his time thereat until 18S(i. He was a member of the Forty-first United States Congress, and had charge of the Southern Pacific Railway Bill, and conducted it to its final passage. During his term in Congress, the records show that he devoted his time and his talents to the advancement of internal improve- ments, to the exclusion of political discussion; and the history of legislation during that period attests the fact that he was one of the most useful mem- bers of that body. In 1.S79 he represented the Second Senatorial District in the upper house of the State Legisla- ture, and as a member of the Finance Committee assisted in framing the revenue bill that piloted the .State out of its indebtedness. He came to Florence in June, 188^!, for the purpose of school- ing his children, and in June, 1886, in connection with the Hon. \V. B. Wood, formulated the idea of the Florence " boom." He was one of the originators of the Florence Land, Mining, etc. Co.; of the W. B. Wood Furnace Co., of which he is vice-president; also of the Florence Coal, Coke and Iron Co.; of the Florence, Tuscaloosa & Montgomery Railroad Co.; of the Tennessee & .\labama Railway; the Alabama, Florence & Cincinnati Railway; the Florence & St. Louis Railway, in all of which he is of the several boards of directors. To recur to his Congressional record, we find that the Southern Pacific Railway bill was turned over to him after it had been abandoned by all others, and that it was placed in his hands at the special request of General Fremont. Colonel Sherrod knew almost intimately every leading man in the Forty-first Congress, and was upon terms of amity with them without regard to politics. To his credit, it may be said that he had at all times labored to promote aiid rebuild the country and that he participated not in political dissensions. He was married at Nashville, Tenn., October 21, 18G(i, to Miss Amanda Morgan, the accom- plished daughter of Samuel D. Morgan, whose body lies in the Capitol by order of the Legisla- ture. Colonel Sherrod's five sons are: Charles Morgan, a lawyer; William C, a planter; St. Clair il., in the iron business; Benjamin and Eugene, students; and his two daughters are named Lilian atul Lucille. WILLIAM M. JACKSON was born in Lauder- dale County, this State, June I'.t, 1824. His parents were .James and Sarah (Moore) Jackson, the former a native of Ireland, and the latter of the State of North Carolina. Mrs. Jackson was a great-granddaughter of the celebrated James Moore, who, in his lifetime, filled the oHices of governor, at different times, of the colonies of both North and South Carolina. .lames Jackson came to this county from Nash- ville, Tenn., in 18llt, and here followed planting and stock breeding the rest of his life, dying in 1840, at the age of .")8 years. He was a Whig in politics, rej)resented this county several terms in the Legislature, and the district two or three times in the State Senate, of which he was twice president. He w;is one of 310 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the pioneers of Lauderdale. In fact, he was oue of the company of five that composed tlie very first settlers of the county. The subject of this sketch was educated at the University of Xorth Carolina, and subsequently studied law at Transylvania University, Lexing- ton, Ky. Since 1848 up to the present time, he has been interested in cotton planting, both in Alabama and Arkansas. He has made his home in Florence since 1875. He was the representative to the Legislature from Franklin County, session of ISoT; was in the Senate from 18.59 to 1865; and was a mem- ber until the time of the military government. He has always taken an active interest in jjolitics, is a good Democrat, and has represented his party many times as delegate to the various State and Congressional Conventions. He is at present living in virtual retirement, though discharging the duties of Notary Public. He was married in Franklin County (now Col- bert) in 1840, to Miss Thirmuthies McKiernan, daughter of Maj. Bernard ilcKiernan, an exten- sive planter of Colbert. Mr. Jackson's sons, James, Thomas H. and B. M. are all attorneys-at-law. first-class and rapidly increasing practice. He is regarded as a skillful, careful and reliable phys- ician, and is a man with encouraging prospects. LEONARD W. ARNOLD, M. D., Piiysician and Surgeon, Florence, Ala., native of Boyd County, Ky., son of Dr. Andrew and Martha J. (Dupuy) Arnold, natives of the States of Penn- sylvania and Kentucky, and of Scotch and L-ish extraction, res2iectively, was born October 17, 185"2. He was educated at Ashland Academy, Ashland, Ky., at the Kentucky University, and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1880 as a Doctor of Medicine. Coming into Alabama immediately after leaving college, he located at Gravelly Springs, Lauderdale County, where he entered at once into a successful practice. That he might be nearer to schools for his children, he removed into Florence in January, 1887, and permanently located. He was married in this county, March 17, 1884, to Mits Cornelia Darby, and has had born to him two children. The family are mem- bers of the Methodist Ejiiscopal Church, and the Doctor is a Mason. Though comparatively a stranger in this part of the county, Dr. Arnold is in the enjoyment of a WILLIAM M. PRICE, A.M., M.D., son of James B. and Frances (Mason) Price, natives of Tennes- see and Virginia, and of Scotch-Irish and English extraction, respectively, was born near Florence, June 3, 1837. The senior Mr. Price who was a farmer during his lifetime, was one of the early settlers of Lau- derdale County, married here, reared his family of four sons and two daughters, and here died in 1883, at the age of 78 years. "William JI. Price took his Baccalaureate at the Florence Wesleyan University, class of 18.57, and received the degree of M. A. from that institution in 1800. As Doctor of Medicine he graduated from the University of Nashville in 1805, and be- gan the jiractice at Bayley Springs, Lauderdale County, immediately after leaving college, and was there until his coming to Florence in 1879. He entered the army, in 186"2, as a private and served one year, most of the time on detail in the surgeon's office. It was probably while in this department that he conceived the idea of, and determined up- on, the profession of medicine. Dr. Price was married at Corinth, Miss., in 1858, to Miss JLirtha J. Fort. She died in 1863, leav- ing one son, now Dr. Percy I. Price, at Florence. The Doctor's second marriage occurred in Maury County, Tenn., September 12, 1865, when he led to the altar Miss Nannie Henderson. To this marriage are eight children born. Dr. Price probably stands at the head of the medical profession in Lauderdale County. He is a memberof the State Medical Society, president of the Lauderdale Medical Society, chairman of the County Board of Censors, a Knight of Honor, and a consistent member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church. WILLIAM E. HARAWAY, M. D., was born in (;iles County, Tenn., January rlh, 1817 ; received his primary education in the common schools ; read medicine under Dr. Kyle, at Rog- ersville, Ala., and began practice in Limestone County when about twenty-eight years of age. At the end of one year he removed to his native NORTHERN ALABAMA. 311 county ; practiced there two years, coming tiience back to liogersville, where he devoted his time and talents to the practice of liis profession for thirty jears. In 1880, lie retired from the prac- tice of medicine, moved into Florence, and was elected Judge of the Probate t'ourt, and held the oftice one term. At the outbreak of the war, Doctor Ilaraway volunteered as a soldier, but being the only l)hysi- cian in the neighborhood where he lived, the people entered such an universal protest against his leav- ing, that he was compelled to remain at home. The Doctor is a public-spirited man, fully abreiist of tiie tide of modern progress. lie is at jiresent largely interested with other gentlemen in the organization and construction of an important line of railway. lie was married at Fort Hamp- ton, Limestone County. December 4. 1844. to Eliza C. Bonner. The Doctor is a son of Samuel and Nancy (Williamson) Haraway, natives of Virginia, and descendants from Scotch ancestry. He is a self- made man and his present ample fortune is the result of his individual ctfort and industry. ■ ■' > -{^^ "< '- • WILLIAM BASIL WOOD. President of the Flor- ence Land. Mining i^ .Manufacturing Company, of the \V. Ji. \\ ood Furnace Company, of the Charcoal & Chemical Company, of the Florence, Tuscaloosa & Montgomery Railroad C'omi)any, of the Florence & Chicago Railroad Company, and Secretary of the Alabama Improvement Com- l)any, was born at Nashville. Tenn., October :{1, 18'^(i. His parents were Alexander II. and Mary H (Evans) Wood — his father a native of \'irginia, his mother of England. Wni. V>. Wood's paternal grandfather was secre- tary to Alexander Hamilton, and liad commanded troops in the Colonial army: his father was an of- ficer in the War of 1812. Upon his mother's side, his grandfather Evans was a colonel in the British army, hut after the declaration of peace he chose to return to this side of the water and cast his lot with the " Rebels." The subject of this sketch was educated at La Grange College, Franklin County: read law under .ludge Coleman (afterward of the Supremebench): was admitted to the bar at Florence in 184:J; be- gan the i>ractice of law at once, and in 1S44, was elected Judge of Lauderdale County Court. While in the army in 1862, he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court, and in IsUtJ was re-elected, and co- pied the bench until 18.S0, except during the re- construction period. In August, 1801, he was elected colonel of the Si.xleenth Alabama Infantry; in fact, he raised that regiment and organized it at Courtland, became its colonel and commanded it for nearly two years. In ISfiij he was transferred to the army of Northern Virginia, appointed by Mr. Davis, president judge of the Military Court of the First Army Corps, and was there to the close of the war. As colonel, he jjarticipated in the battle of Fishing Creek, Ky., where Zollicort'er was killed, lie was also at Triune, Tenn., Murfreesboro, and his regiment was at Shiloh and all the battles of the Army of Tennessee. At the close of the war he returned to Florence, and, as we have before seen, presided over the Circuit Court of his dis- trict. Prior to the war Mr. Wood, in addition to his professional duties, was largely interested in various other enterprises. Hewasengaged in the manufacture of woolens; was interested in the steamboat business: was principal owner and con- trolled a line of steamers which plied the Tennes- see, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. lie was also in the steamboat business after the war. His com- pany built the " Rapidan " in 18G8, and the "Florence Lee" in 1870. He also owned the '•James R.," built the '• Sallie AVood " and the '• William Dickson," and retired Jully from steam- boat business not until 187G. In 1882 he began turning his attention to railroads. lie was one of the organizers of the Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railway, now completed between Clarks- ville, Tenn., and Princeton, Ky., and was its vice-president. He was also one of the organizers of the Birmingham & Tennessee Railroad, now known as the Sheftield & Birmingham. He or- ganized the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad, and sold it to the Nashville, Florence & Sheffield Comjiany. This line is now being constructed by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company. November 2'.i. 188t>, as one of the organizers of of the F'lorence Land. Jlining and Manufacturing Company, he was made president, and re-elected in November, 1888. Judge Wood is a member of the Methodist Epis- co])al Church, a Master Mason, R. A. and Knight Temjilar, and in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was (Ji-and Master of the State two years (180'.i-7O). 313 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He originated the idea, and raised the subscrip- tion for, the Florence Wesleyan University (now the State Normal College): gave liberally to it himself, and was for some years president of its Board of Trustees. Its endowment being ex- hausted at the end of the war, he succeeded in having it sold to the State, and it was converted into the State Normal Scliooi, with which Judge Wood has been since officially identified. Away back in ]844, he organized the Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school, to which he has since given particular attention and devoted much time and money. That he has since its organization been its superintendent, teacher and regular at- tendant, he says he " regards as the proudest achievement of his life."' He has been steward and trustee in his church since 1840. He organized the Sunday-school two years before he became a member of the church. He was married April 21, 1843, to Sarah B. Leftwich, a daughter of Major Leftwich, of Vir- ginia. WILLIAM P. CAMPBELL, Banker, was born in the County Donegal, Ireland, December 3, 184"2, and came with his parents, four brothers and two sisters to America in 1851. The family located upon a farm near Franklin, Tenn., and there the two old people spent the lest of their lives. The oldest son, Joseph L., color-bearer of the First Tennessee Infantry, was killed at Chickamauga, and a portrait of him forms the frontispiece in a recently ])ublished history of Tennessee. Wm. P. Campbell was educated at Franklin, Tenn., became a clerk in a dry goods house at Nashville when sixteen years of age, and came to Florence at the age of eighteen. September 1, 1862, he entered the Confederate service as a pri- vate in Company F, Fourth Alabama Cavalry, and served to the close of the war, participating in all the engagements for which the Fourth Reg- iment is somewhat famous in history. He was captured at Selma in April, 1805, by Wilson's Cavalry; escaped, rejoined his command, and sur- rendered finally at Wheeler's Station. Upon his return to Florence he arrived at the south side of the Tennessee River, the possessor of but one dollar in the world, and this he gave to the ferryman to carry him over. To his best friend, Mr. I. W. McAlester, he was indebted for clothes and money furnished while in the army. So if the roadto ultimate prosperity appeared to young Campbell as one of great length, it is not to be wondered at. He went at once into the store of McAlester & Ervine and clerked for them six years, applying his net earnings to the li(|uidation of his war- time indebtedness. In 1872, he engaged in the dry goods business for himself, and, \\\ 1880, organ- ized the banking house of W. P. Campbell & Co., in the mana.;emeut of whied he has made money and reputation as a financier. He is largely inter- ested in agriculture and manufacturing: is treas- urer of the Florence Land Company, president of the Florence Compress Company, a member of the Legion of Honor, and an elder in the Pres- byterian Church. Notwithstanding the fact that the Campbells started in life minus the advantages of wealth, it appears that they have all succeeded reasonably well. One of the brothers, John, is connected with the Nashville Cotton-Seed Oil Company, at Nashville; Andrew is cashier of the First National Bank of Natchez, Miss., and Patrick is a prosper- ous merchant in the capital city of Tennessee. William P. Campbell was first married in Flor- ence to Miss Sarah Andrews, in 1871. She died in January, 1877, leaving one child, Sarah. January 20, 1886, Mr. Campbell led to the altar the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Capt. Alexander D. Coffee and the granddaughter of the famous Gen. John Coffee. CHARLES HAYS PATTON, Banker, Florence, Ala., son of ex-Governor Robert M. Patton was born at Sweet Water, near Florence, Ala., April 8, 1850, and was educated, primarily, at Florence, and subsequently at the University of Virginia, graduating also from Eastman's Busi- ness College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Mr. Patton read law in the Cumberland Uni- versity, Tennessee: graduated therefrom June 5, 1873; and practiced law until 1887, In June of this year, he organized the banking house of Patton & Co., and is at this writing (1888) giving this financial institution his special attention. He represented Lauderdale County in the Legis- lature (session of 1880-1), and jn-oved himself a highly useful member. He was married at Florence, December 27, 1882, to a daughter of Judge R. 0. Pickett. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 313 Mr. Piitton is a member of the Knights o{ IIoiioi-, the Knights and Ladiesof Honor, director and secretary of the Synodical Female College, and a deacon in the Presbyterian Church. HENRY C. WOOD. Secretary of the Florence Lund, Mining and .Manufacturing Company, Flor- ence, .Ala., was born at this place February 5, 1S31, and is a son of .Vlexander II. and Mary E. (Evans) Wood. [See W. B. Wood, tliis volume.] He was educated at LaGrange, Ky., and St. Joseph College, Hardstown, Ky. In 1850, he en- gaged in the drug business at Florence and followed it until .\pril. 1S61, when he enlisted in the Flor- ence (iuard^: was made orderly sergeant; went- at once to Fort Morgan, and joined General Hardee. He served over four years, leaving the army with the rank of major. He was promoted to lieutenant in August, 1861, and was acting adjutant of the Si.xteenth Alabama when assigned as aide-de-camp to General Wood in February, 18(;-2. He was on the staff of (ieneral Wood in 18(i;}, when in Janu- ary of that year, he was promoted to major and made brigade-commissary. He surrendered at (ireeensboro, N. C, under (ien. Joe Johnson, returned to Florence at the end of the war, and engaged in mercantile business. At the end of four years he sold out and, from that time up to the organization of the company with which he is now connected, was in the cotton and insurance business. He was married at Richmond, \'a., October !», 1857, to Miss Sallie Shepard, and has had born to him two sons and three daughters. The eldest son is a civil engineer. The family are of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Major Wood is a member of the I.«gion of Honor. invested |i-.J0.000 in a cotton factory. It was destroyed in 1865 by Wilson's Cavalry, and with it TOO bales of cotton. For the succeeding six or seven years he purchased cotton at Florence for Eastern dealers, and discovered thereat such fa- cility that he was employed regularly thereafter by one of the largest cotton houses in the United States as an expert cotton crop statistician, the only man employed in such specialty in the United States. Mr. Kirkman's jiarents were Thomas and Eliza- beth (Mc('ulloch) Kirkman, the former a native of Irelaiul and the latter of Tennessee. The senior Mr. Kirkman came to Florence in 1821; here carried on the dry goods business for upward of forty years, and died in 1864 at the age of sixty-four years. He reared five sons to manhood, four of whom served in the Confederate Army during the late war. Mr. Kirkman was a polished gentleman of the old school, a careful, systematic, business man, and enjoyed the confi- dence and respect of the community. He gave particular attention to the education of his chil- dren, and placed them in the front rank of social respectability. Samuel Kirkman was probably one of the young- est men that ever graduated from Harvard, and is to-day regarded as one of the shrewdest business men in Northern Alabama. He was married at Nashville, Tenn., in 1858, to a daughter of Mr. James AVoods. She died in 1865, leaving two daughters, the eldest now the accomplished wife of Mr. Emmet O'Neal, a brill- iant young attorney at Florence. Mr. Kirkman has been for fifteen years a direc- tor in the Female Synodical College of Florence. SAMUEL KIRKMAN was born at Florence, Ala., in 18:)"2. and was educated at the common schools, primarily, graduating from Harvard Uni- versity when eighteen years of age, the youngest man to enter thesenior class from common schools. Leaving Harvard, he returned to Horence and clerked in the store of his father two years: going thence to St. I.ouis, where he established a com- mission house, under the style and tirm name of Kirkmati & Luke. At the end of eight years lie returned to Florence, and at TusaJoosa, in 18til, JOHN H. YOUNG. Cotton Broker, native of r>auderdale County, was born March 22,. 1848. His father, Wm. B. Young, came from Tennes- see, and is now a farmer in this county. John H. Y'oung spent the first twenty-one years of his life upon his father's farm, receiving in the meantime, a good common-school education. In the latter part of 1868, as a member of the firm of Rice & Y^oung, he embarked in mer- cantile business at Florence. Mr. Rice retired from the firm in a short time, and was succeeded by a brother of Mr. Young. At tlie end of about three years, they gave up mercantile busi- 314 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ness, and Mr. Young engaged at once as a cotton merchant. He is at present a member of the firm of Embry, Son & Young, man- ufacturers of cotton yarns. Their mills are located seven miles north of Florence, upon tlie waters of Cypress Creek, and have a capacity of about 3,500 spindles. Mr. Young was a member of the Board of Di- rectors of the State Normal College from 1884 up to June, 1887, at which time tlie school, hav- ing been by an act of the Legislature delocalized, he retired. He was married at Florence, in 1870, to Miss Ella Holt, who died in 1881, leaving five children, one of whom has since died. His second marri- age occurred in June, 1885, at Florence. Ala., with Miss I3e LaTre Bradley, daughter of the late Dr. Jerry Bradley. To this union two children have been born. Mr. Young is purely a self-made man ; without the advantages of pecuniary inheritance, he has succeeded in the accumulation of wealth, and in establishing a most enviable name and reputa- tion as a citizen. SAMUEL D. WEAKLEY, one of the pioneers of Florence, is a native of Davidson County, Tenn., and was born October 2, 1812. His parents, Samuel and Sarah ( Vaughan) Weak- ley, were natives of Halifax County, Va., and de- scended from Irish and Welsh parentage. The senior Mr. Weakley was a planter and surveyor during his life, and died in 1833, at the age of sixty-five years. Of his four sons the subject of this sketch is the youngest. He was educated at Nashville, Tenn., and came to Florence in 1831, where an elder brother, James H. Weakley, Sur- veyor-fxeneral of Alabama, then resided. Samuel D. Weakley was then aboixt twenty years of age. He had learned surveying under his father, and at once, upon coming into Alabama, took a position in the office of his brother. He spent about ten years re-tracing old survey field-notes which had been largely obliterated by fire. In 1849, in company with James Martin and others, he engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods and yarns near Florence. In the spring of 1861 he was elected major-general of militia, a posi- tion he held about one year and a half, when. the act of conscription having placed every able- bodied man from seventeen to fifty years of age in the army and leaving him nobody to command, he resigned. Early in his life he was a lieuten- ant-colonel in a State regiment, so, at the time of his appointment as major-general, he possessed more than ordinary knowledge of military affairs. Up to 1803 (ieneral Weakley was an active busi- ness man, interested largely in railroads and steam- boats, but since that date he has been living in virtual retirement. He was married in Lauder- dale County, in 1836, to Miss Eliza B. Bedford, a daughter of the late John R. Bedford, and they have reared one son and five daughters. JAMES HARVEY WEAKLEY was born in Halifax C'ounty, Va., in 17'J8, and was brought by his parents to Davidson County, Tenn., in 1799. He was educated at the Cumberland University, and, in 1817, appointed by Gen. John Coffee surveyor of public lands of Alabama. General Coffee was a warm personal friend of Samuel Weakley, the father of the subject of this sketch. James H. Weakley's first position in the sur- veyor-general's office, then located at Iliintsville, was that of chief clerk, and he remained in that capacity until the death of General Coffee, in 1833. when he was immediately appointed by Andrew Jackson as the successor of his late chief. Mr. Weakley remained surveyor-general of pub- lic lands until that office was abolished in 1851 by an Act of Congress. He then at once embarked in cotton commission business at New Orleans, and remained there the rest of his life. He died in 1856. To his many friends and associates, James H. Weakley was known as "Judge," a title pecu- liarly appropriate to his quiet dignity of manner and to his exemplary character. He married at Huntsville, Ala., in 1830, Ellen M. Donegan, a a native of the city of Cork, Ireland. She came to America with her brother, and spent some time with a relative in Baltimore, and afterward visited Huntsville, where she first met Mr. Weakley. After Mr. Weakley's death she removed to Nashville, and spent the rest of her life at the Convent Academy of St. Cecilia. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 315 REV. MARTIN LUTHER FRIERSON, Pastor of tlie Florence rresliytoriim Cliurcii. and Profes- sor of Knglisli in the State Normal School at this jilaee. was born in Williamsburg County. S. C, May fi, l>s:i8. llis j>arents were Daniel and Jane (.Mcintosh) Frierson, natives of South Carolina, juul of Irish and Scotch extraction, respectively. Jlr. Fiierson, of this sketch, received his acad- emic education at the famous Mt. Zion School, taught by the Rev. C. P. Beman, I). 1)., at Mt. Zion, Ga., and subsequently graduated from Ogle- thorpe I'niversity, near Milledgeville. From Ogle- thorpe, he entered the Ninth South I'arolina Kegi- ■ inent of Infantry, C. S. A. The Ninth Regiment being disbanded in 1802, he entered the Fourth South Carolina Cavalry, with which he surrendered nt Greensboro, X. C. While with the Ninth, he participated in all the battles fought by Long- street; in the Fourth, he was under General But- ler. At the close of the war he returned to his native county, studied law, came into Alabama in 18<5!), and was admitted to the bar in Lawrence County in 1870. For the four succeeding years he devoted his time to the practice of law, and, in 1ST4, entered the Presbyterian ministry, taking charge of a group of churches comprising Deca- tur, Somerville and Fairview, all in Morgan County. He preached at those places about one year, when he was elected to the professorship of English language and literature in the State Nor- mal School at Florence. In 187T Mr. Frierson succeeded his brother, the Iiev. E. 0. Frierson as pastor of the Florence Presbyterian Church, and has since devoted his time to the Church and the interests of education. While a resident of Lawrence County, Mr. Frier- son established the Courtland A>«'« (1872), which paper, at tiie end of one year, he removed to Deca- tur, and there published it as Tlie Keii'K for two succeeding years, — and it is written of him, that '• he made it a red-hot political jjaper. "' Since going into the ministry, he has had nothing to do with politics. In .Vpril, 1888, he was elected to the presidency of the Florence Syn- odical Female College. He was married in Williamsburg County, S. C, August 21, 1862. to Miss Margaret Gordon, and of the nine cliildren born to this union, we quote the following : The eldest, John G., is a practic- ing physician of much promise at Florence ; the second. Daniel Irving, died in February, 1872, at the age of five years : the third, William Rogers, died February, 1870, at the age of eighteen months, and the rest :ire named, respectively, Sarah Camilla, Danella Isidora, Jane Mcintosh, Louise .Margaret, Lucy II. and Martin Luther, .Ir. JAMES K. POWERS, A.M., Professor of Math- ematics. State .Normal College, Florence, Ala., was born in Lauderdale County, August 15, 1851. He was educated at Florence Wesleyan University, in which institution he was a tutor in 1870-71, and was graduated from the State C^niversityjn 1873, receiving therefrom the degree of A.M. He was appointed to his present position in the Normal College immediately upon his graduation from the University; accepted the place, and has since discharged the duties incumbent upon him with much credit to himself and to the highest satis- faction of the many patrons of this most popular school. He was appointed County Superintendent of Education in 188.5, to fill out the unexpired term of a late defaulting incumbent of that office. Professor Powers is devoted to education. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a Knight of Pythias, and present (!rand Dictator for the State in the order of the Knights of Honor. lie was married January 30, 1870, at Nashville, Tenn., to Miss Lulu Reynolds, of Giles County, that State, and the daughter of the late Calvin A. Reynolds. JOSEPH C. CONNER, D.D.S., General Admin- istrator of the County of Lauderdale, was born in Owen County, Ky., March !», 1838, and was edu- cated at Elkton, in his native State. He began the drug business in Nashville in 1852, and there read medicine, attended lectures, and studied dentistry. He began the practice of den- tal surgery in 185'.i, and in 18(Jl,came to Florence. He entered the Confederate service as a non- commissioned officer in C'o. F, Fourth Alabama Cavalry, and served to the close of the war. During the last year, he was acting assistant-surgeon. He was under (ieneral Forrest about a year and a half, and the rest of the time in the general cavalry service. He surrendered at Selma in 18(>o, re- turned to Florence, and again took up the prac- tice of dentistry. He was one of the organizers of 316 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the Florence Land, Mining and Manufacturing Co., and has been one of its board of directors from the first. He is also a director in the Home Protection Fire Insuraiice Co., of Huutsville : of the Synodical Female College, of Florence ; of the Southern Charcoal and Chemical Co., of Florence ; of the W. B. Wood Furnace Co. ; and secretary of the Cypress Mills Co. He is also interested in agriculture, deals extensively in real estate, and, altogetlier, is successful in the accumulation of valuable property. He was married in Lauderdale C'ounty in 1870, to Miss Mary H. Key, daughter of W. H. Key, Esq., a planter of this county. JAMES E. PRIDE was born at Tuscumbia. this State, July 2, isiiv!, and is the eldest son of John F. and Susan Smith (Barrett) Pride, natives of North Carolina. The senior Mr. Pride was married in Limestone County, and, in 182"^, settled at Tuscumbia, where he lived a great many years. From there the old gentleman removed to his present home at Pride Station, and at this writing (1887) is upward of ninety-six years of age. His wife died in August, 1885, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. The Prides came originally from Wales, and the Barretts from France. John F. Pride was a soldier in the war of 1812, and his father was a minister of the gospel away back in the colonial days. It is related of the Rev. Mr. Pride that, for selling a negro woman that she might- go with her husband, who was being carried to another part of the country, the authorities of the Jletho- dist Episcopal Church, of whose ministry he was, revoked his license as preacher. The old grand- father Barrett was also a colonial minister, but of what church, the data is not at hand. The Prides settled first in Virginia, thence into theCarolinas, from whence, they came, later, into Alabama. Of the seven children born to John F. Pride, in addi- tion to the subject of this sketch, we have the fol- lowing data: two of the sons, William ]\I. and Dr. J. P., and a daughter. .Jactjuiline, who married Col. Sam Thompson, reside at Pride Station; George was killed at the battle of Fishing Creek, Ky., where he participated as a member of the Sixteenth Alabama Infantry: when found his body lay beside that of ZoUicoffer. .John F. . Jr. . died in Mississippi ; he was also a member of the Sixteenth Alabama Infantry, and was a paroled prisoner at the time of his death; one daughter died in infancy. William M. Pride was a gallant soldier of the late war, and served under Forrest. James E. removed from Tuscumbia to Florence in 1885. He was married, at Charlotteville, Va., September 10, 185f>, to Miss S. A. Price, a native of that place, and has had born to him five chil- dren, one of whom died in infancy, Mr. Pride is a member of the Masonic fraternity. JAMES M. CROW, son of Thomas J. and Eliza- beth Crow, was born at Florence, March 16, 1836. His father imigrated to this place from Kentucky, in 1821, and resided here until he died in 1869. He was an honest man and left scores of friends to mourn his loss. His mother, Elizabeth Hooks, emigrated from Xorth Carolina to Tennessee in 1824, where she lived until she married his father in 1833. She died in 1886. She was loved and respected by the entire com- munity. James M. Crow received his education at the Florence High School. At the outbreak of the war, he was keeping books for Kice Brothers. In April, 1861, he entered Company D, Ninth Alabama Infantry, as second-lieutenant, and surrendered at Appomattox with the rank of major. His first promotion was to first-lieuten- ant, at Broad Run, Va.,in 1861, and at Williams- burg, in 1862, he was commissioned captain of his old company. At Orange Court House, in the fall of 1863, he was commissioned major. He participated in. all the battles of the Wilderness; at Petersburg, second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, etc., and was wounded in the Seven Days' Fight around Richmond, but so slightly as to leave no permanent effect. Major Crow was one of the most gallant soldiers that went into the army from North Alabama. At the close of the war he returned at once to Florence, and engaged in the dry goods business for about a year. He then turned his attention to steamboating on the Tennessee River, and fol- lowed it for ten or twelve years. At Saltillo, Tenn., he was in the dry goods business for a short time, but gave it up to return to steamboat- ing. He retired from the steamboat business in 1884, and in 1885 or '8(1, was made deputy United States marshal under Captain Kellar, with NORTHERN ALABAMA. 317 heailqiiarters at Binningliam. From this position, ;it the end of eighteen months, he returned to l'"lorence, to engage in real estate business. Upon the oonii)letion of the new Florence Hotel, Major Crow associated with T. .1. Patty, became its first landlord, where it is unnecessary to say that the traveling public will find him in his element. He was married March 31, 1807, to Miss Mary .1. Hrandon, daughter of the late Washington M. Brandon. Siie died in ISTS, leaving two children, a son and a daughter, Thomas Wood and Mary F. The former. Thomas Wood Crow, graduated from the State N'omial College at Florence, and immedi- ately entered as a member of a civil engineer corps. The .Major is a ]\[ason, a member of the I. 0. 0. F.. and of the Methodist Episcopal Church. JAMES HANCOCK. Wholesalcand Retail 9^^!-^^ III. DECATUR. 'I'lie State of Alabama was admitted into the Union in December, 1811). Morgan County, tlien called Cotoca County, was a part of the reserva- tion of the Cherokee Indians, and continued to be until the removal of the Iiidian.s, in 1837. An old map published in 1836 marks tlie Indian Res- ervation of the Cherokees, and notes no town in Xorthern Alabama e.\eept lluntsville. The first mention of the town of Decatur is in a letter from President Jlonroe to the Register and .Surveyor-(ieneral, dated January 13, 1820, in which the President reserves a site for a town to be called Decatur. It wa.s named in honor of Commodore Decatur, the distinguished officer of the United States Navy. The location seems at that early day to have impressed the authorities as a very favorable one. 1 he new town was situated on a phiteau on the south bank of the Tennessee River, on the highest land between tlie Ohio River and tlie Gulf of Mexico. It also niai'ked tlie western limit of the navigation of the Tennessee River, for between this point and Florence inter- vened the obstructions called tiie Mu.ssel Shoals. The town when first laid out embraced an area extending about half a mile east of what is now the Somerville road, thence south about one fourtli of a mile, thence west to where tlie Decatur ceme- tery is now located, and thence north to the river. Kven at that early day it will be seen towns were laid out with ample room for growth and expan- sion. The embryo town had a river front of some three milej, and shows that the grea^ advantages of the river were recognized by tiie officials having the matter in charge. In tiie year 1820. there was formed the first ]>ecatur Laud Company. The trustees of the company were Dr. Henry W. Rhodes, Oeorge i'l'ck, Isaac Lane, Jesse W. Garth and McKinney Holderness. This company entered the land from the Government, on which Decatur was laid out. The Company made its first deed on the 0th of July. 1821. The lot so deeded was lot tiiirty- .six, and wjis sold to Amos Ilardiu for *51. This lot is on the corner of Water and Canal Streets and fronts on the river. The town thus organ- ized remainod a part of the Ciierokee Reservation under jurisdiction of the State until 1820. It was then officially incorporated by an act of the Alabama Legislature. The town had been known heretofore rather as "Rhodes' Ferry" than as Decatur, but from this time forward the latter name came into general use as the name of the place. In the year 1830, the first addition was made to the town. This was an area of ground extending from Line street east to Alabama street, and from Lafayette street to the river. From this time on Decatur seems to have had a slow growth and an uneventful history. The pop- ulation did not increase rapidly, although the place became one where considerable building was done. A branch of the State Bank was located here and the building occupied by it yet remains. During the war Decatur was a strategic point and was alternately occupied by the forces of both armies, but most of the time was in possession of the Union Army. General Hood, on his march to Nashville, in 1804. menaced the place, but found it so well fortified that he did not attack it, but marched his forces toTuscumbia and there crossed the river. Nearly all the buildings of the town were destroyed during the war, the bank building, the McCartney hotel, the Hinds' building being the principal ones left standing. The latter named building was used as headquarters at different times by the officers of each army, ilarks of shot and shell can yet be seen upon the columns of the bank building. After the war had clo.sed the old citizens re- turned, and business gradually revived. The con- struction of the Louisville & Nashville to the south made this point the crossing of two im- portant railroads and gave business an upward movement. About 18T0 the corporate limits of the town were increased and definitely defined. Since that time the town increased but little in wealth or jiopulation, and in 1880 had only 300 321 322 NORTHERN ALABAMA. people. From that time the town slumbered in obscurity until the summer of 188G. Its very eligible location had attracted the atten- tion of Maj. E. C. (rordon and others, and it was determined to make its advantages known and utilized. It was believed that a prosperous city was to grow up somewhere in Northern Alabama, and Decatur was thought to possess the superior location, as it was on the river and at the crossing of two great systems of railroad. Major (iordon and his associates, after carefully investigating the matter and viewing the ground, determined upon the rejuvenation and regeneration of what was then a dead old village. In the autumn and early winter of 1886 they bought up some .">,60() acres of land in and adjacent to Decatur, and 50,00(» acres of mineral land in Northern Alabama. A land company was then formed, with a capital of ^7,500,000, and the lands so purchased were sold to the company. A directory, composed of prom- inent business men of this and adjoining States, was elected in January, 1887, and the directors elected Major E. C. Gordon president, H. G. Bond vice-president and general manager, and W. E, Forest secretary. The company formed their plans to make Decatur an industrial city of varied manufactures. The merits of the place were made known through pamphlets, circulars and newspapers, and within a few months several very important manufacturies Avere secured for the new city. These embraced such establishments as the Charcoal Chemical Works, the American Oak Extract Works, the Ivins & Son's Machine shops, and several others of less importance. A beginning was thus made, and, continuing the work, other establishments were induced to locate here until, in December, 1887, the number amounted to forty-one. These embrace a varied liue of wood aud iron mauufactories, chief among which may be mentioned the immense car and construction shops of the Louisville A Nashville Railroad. These works, the building of which is now under contract, comprise some fourteen buildings of large size, covering with the necessary tracks about fifty-seven acres of ground. The works will employ at the start odO skilled mechanics, and will be the largest shop of the kind south of the Ohio River. In addition to the manufactories located at De- catur, some five hundred houses for residence and business have been erected during the year 1887. Some of these are large and elegant buildings. among which are the " Tavern," the Bond Block and the Scott Block. Under the management of the Land Company the city has been laid out by a competent landscape engineer, with a view to making it a pleasant place of residence. A thorough system of sewer- age and drainage has been put in, and waterworks are under contract. The city is already provided with two electric light plants, telephone service and street cars. The population of the city increased from 1,200 in January to 5,000 in December, 1887. Business in all directions has kept up with the increase of population, and all branches of trade are well represented. Decatur is supplied with churches of different denominations as follows: Baptist, Catholic, Chris- tian, Congregational, Episcopal, Methodist Epis- copal, ]\Iethodist Episcopal, South, and Presby- terian. PROSPErXIVE RAILROADS. The Rome & Decatur Railroad is being built: also the Chesapeake, Decatur & New Orleans Rail- road has been located, and will be built this year. The Tombigbee Railroad, from Columbus, Miss., to Decatur, is permanently established. The Warrior Coal Field Railroad, from ]\Ieridan, Miss., to Decatur, is now under construction. The Decatur, St. Louis & South Atlantic Railroad, from Carbondale. 111., by way of Paducah, Ky., to Decatur, connecting with the Rome & Decatur Railroad, is now being built. The Mussel Shoals, the only serious obstruction between Decatur and the mouth of the river, will be open to large boats this year, the Government having already spent 82,700,000 to open it, and only $200,000 more is required to complete the work. The following enterprises have been located in Decatur since February 1, 1887, and many of them are in operation: The Decatur Land Improvement and Furnace Company was organized on the 11th day of Janu- ary, 1887. Since that time there have been com- menced the following enterprises: 1st. The Charcoal Company's plant, costing §120,000. Fifty ovens are erected and ready for operation. Employs 200 men. 2d. A 70-ton charcoal iron furnace, costing til20,000; Gordon, Laurea & Straubel, of Phila- delphia, builders: employs 100 men. 3d. One 100-ton blast iron furnace, costing NORTHERN ALABAMA. 32a *225,000, by the Decatur Land, Improvement and Furnace Company: employs '-ioo men. 4th. The Heoatur Iron Bridge and Construc- tion Company; Ceorge A. Mooar, of Keokuk, Iowa, president, Mr. Robert Curtis, of Chicago, vice-president; "cost 45100,000; employs 150 men. 5th. The American Oak E.vtract Company, J. E. McCarty, of Barkville, W. Va., president; the largest enterprise of the kind in the world: cost |;(i0,00O; employs 150 men. Cth. Ivens & Son, of New Orleans: steam engines and iron working plant; building 2SOxl(tO ffet; cost |ilOO,()00: employs 100 men. 7th. Morse Cotton Compress; plant cost 845,- 100: employs 52 men. 8th. Decatur J^imber Company, of Ohio: W. H. Mead, president, II. 8. Doggett, secretary, and treasurer, N. K. .Mead.. manager. .Mammoth saw and planing mills and sash, door and blind fac- tory, costing *5n. (100; employs 50 men. '.Hh. Berthard & Co., of Springfield, Ohio; sash, door and blind factory; cost $15,000: employs 20 men. Kith. Brush Electric I>ight Company: thirty- light plant; cost 8S, 000: employs 5 men. 11th. The Iron (Ohio) Wheelbiirrow Company: cost, $25,000; employs 50 men. 12th. Inman & Co., of New York City; Water Works system; cost of plant, $200,000. 13th. Blymeyer Artificial Ice Company; now in operation; cost of plant, $10,000. 14th. Three brick yards are in operation at this j)lace. One Eureka Dry Press steam machine; two Anderson Chief machines; cost, $40,000; men em- ployed, iiO. 15tli. Jones, Poley & Co., lumber dealers; B. E. I'oley, of Auburn, 111., manager; carries 500,000 feet of lumber in stock. IGth. Hoosier Mills liuilding Material Co., (Jraber & Son, proprietors; employs .'!0 men. ITth. The (Jate City Sash and Door Company; Siddons & Co., projirietors; employs 25 men. ISth. The Alabama Farmers' Fence Company; employs 2(i men. 19th. The Decatur Artifical Stone Company: employs 5 men. 20tli. About 25(» carpenters are engaged in erecting cottages. 21st. Natural (ias Company, A. F. .Murray, pres- ident, H. G. Bond, of New York, treasurer; capi- tal stock, $200,000. 22d. First National Bank; capital $100,0(tO; C. C. Harris, president, W. W. Littlejolin, treasurer. 23d. -Merchants' Insurance Company of Deca- tur; capital, $100,00(1; J. W. Nelson, of Chicago, president, C. I'eacher, of Montgomery, secretary. 24th. Decatur Building Association: Capital, $300,000. 25tli. The Decatur .Mineral Water and Bottling Establishment; B. F. Bucheit, proprietor; em- ploys 10 men. 26th. The Decatur Printing Company; II. (1. Rising and B. W. Brigg, proprietors; publishers Decatur Daily Journal. 27th. The Gate City Telephone Company; op- erating 50 stations. 28th. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad have contracted to locate at Decatur their consoli- dated Car Construction and Repair Shops. Ground has already been broken for these works, and they will be built as rajiidly as possible. They will etnploy over 500 men, and will add 2,000 popula- tion to the city. 29th. The Street Car line from the corner of Lafayette and Bank streets to Grant street, a dis- tance of two miles, is in successful operation. 30th. An Incandescent Electric Light plant of 500 lights, lighting the new hotel and adjacent cottages, is in operation. 31st. Gas and Water Works are in process of construction, and will be completed in the shortest possible time. 32d. The United States Rolling Stock Company is now building an immense plant at Decatur for manufacturing railway cars, and will remove its entire plant from I'rbana, Ohio, to Decatur. The works here will occupy fifty acres of land, and it is estimated will employ l,(iOO skilled mechanics, besides a large number of ordinary laborers. This is one of the largest rolling stock companies in the woild, matiufacturing cars, both freight and pas- senger, including (uir wheels, and everything inci- dent to the rolling stock of a railroad. The capital stock of the company has been recently increased from $3.ti00,(i0(» to $4,(i00,((00. 33d. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Com- pany handle daily in their yard here ')4(t cars — 360 going south and 2H0 north. Th«-y employ 324 NORTHERN ALABAMA. eighty- five men, and payout to their employes the sum of $6,000 per month. In March, 1887, the number of inhabitants was 1,300; in March, 1888. it is estimated at 7,000. The municipal government in 18S8 is in charge of R. P. IJaker, Mayor, and Councilmen H. 'A. Freeman, H. A. Skeggs, P. J. Edwards, \i. W. Falk. C. P. Sykes. The location of Decatur is also a natural one for a great city, and although this fact has been known for years by well-informed persons, it was only in the past year that the advantages of its situation were seized upon. The promoters of tliis, the " Chicago of the South," point with pride to what has been accomplished here since the first of Janu- ary, 1887. No other city of the South has made so rapid progress in the same time. The work done has insured the future of the city; it has been done on a firm foundation and without any mere empty pretense; everything has been sought after with a view of endurance and permanence, not specula- tion. Let it be understood, that the development of Decatur and the adjacent country is no longer an exj)eriment; its 'future growth and pVo'sperity iS"- fully assured; and its prospects have become better with every day that has passed since the work of increase has begun; ever^ step has been carefully taken, and every enterprise so well guarded, that no standing still or backward movement could be observed, lieal estate has continued to grow in value; stock of the various corporations has steadily advanced in price for several months past, and is now held as a permanent investment. The prosperity and lapid growth of Decatur has i^roven the wisdom of its enterprising citizens. It will be observed, that from an obscure village, it now numbers its population by thousands; so rapidly has the city increased by new arrivals, that every mind south of Mason and I^ixon's line has been attracted by its prosperity. In the olden days of slave labor, many people in the South looked with disfavor on the immigration of free labor, fearing it might prove a disturbing element and interfere with their existing system. But now all is changed ; the old system is gone, and the people generally want immigration, and heartily welcome all who come to invest capital or to labor and live among them. Decatur is now virtually but in the second year of her existence, with no cloudobscuring her future. The events of the year just past have crowded her beyond obscurity. The wondrous changes that have been wrought were scarcely conceivable, and to the greatest extent they were realized by her home people. Inured by this time to the strokes of adversity, with characteristic energy the people proceeded to grapple the material interest which remained to them. What has been accomplished is only an earnest of what is to be done. The future of De- catur is bright with the halo of promise. The wondrous treasure locked within her bosom; her very superior location, combined with the energies and •^'irtues of her people, will surely give her proud pre-eminence in the South. The i^ast is secure; it is only the future that can give concern, and if left to the energies of her peo- ple, and they entrusted with the privileges of solving the problem of their own destiny, the happiest re- sults may be pre-pictured . Emulous of the achieve- ments of a noble ancestry, endowed with the rich legacy of modern knowledge, and imbued with the spirit of contemporary progress, her people may well hope to compass the loftiest aims of mortal asjiiration. ROBERT PERRY BAKER, Ma} or of Decatur, was born in Jersey Shore, Lycoming County, Pa., December 24, 1837, of Scotch-Irish parentage; received an academic education in the West Branch High School; learned the printing trade under his father, and assisted in the publication of the organ of that county. In January, 1859, he came South, and aided in the publication of the Decatur Times, assisted by Joe W. Furey. In 1861 he published The Consd- tution at Tuscumbia, Ala. In 1862 he enlisted in the Thirty-fifth Alabama Regiment, C S^ A.,and served gallantly at the battles of Corinth, Baton Rouge and Vicksburg. In 1864 he re- turned to Pennsylvania and remained there until the fall of 1865, when he returned to Decatur. In 1872 he was appointed Southern Claims Com- missioner by theTreasury Department, at Washing- ton. In 1875 he was appointed by President U. S. Grant United States Marshal for the Northern District of Alabama, where he served four years, making many friends and few enemies by his rigid enforcement of the revenue laws. In 1880 he purchased the McCartney Hotel property, and added greatly to its beauty by remodeling the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 325 buildings and yards. In 188() he was elected Mayor of Decatur, announcing, as his {ihitforni, "free jniblic schools, internal improvements and sanitary regulations,'" tlius taking an almost fore- most step in Decatur's present bootn. He is a member of Decatur Chapter, No. 38, H. A. M.; Hising Sun Lodge, \o. 29, A. F. & A. M.: K. of 1'., and A. (>. U. \V., in all of which orders he has received the highest honors and held the highest offices. He is also a member of the Stock Exchange, etc. Mr. Maker is a man of conservative views, social pl^iracteristics and jpleasant manneFe. He has filled his position as chief officer of the city in an admirable maiiner and gives general satisfaction. All that he committed liimself to in the canvass lias been faithfully observed in his adniitiistration of the city's government, and his :idministration has been a success. Robert I'. Baker was married June 5, 1807, to Miss Mary E., daughter of .Michael and Nancy (Ihivis) Sensabaugh, whocame to Decaturin 1818. They have two sons and three daughters: Robert S., .Mary K.. Thomas E., .Margaret I)., and Mattie E. J. R. STUART, Attorney and Counselor-at- law, Decatur, was born in .Morgan County, this State, and educated at Union University, Mur- freesboro. Tenn. A short time before he was due to graduate in special course in languages, he was called home to engage in business. He sub- secpiently read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1ST4. He was elected Clerk of the C^ity of Decatur in 1ST8, and has continued since in that oHicc. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1880. and re-elected in 1884. In law he has been remarkably suc<'essful, while in official posi- tions he has discharged his duties with distin- guished ability. He is at this time active in the advancement of the City of Decatur, and is identi- fied with many of her most prominent enterprises. John B. Stuart. the,father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Morgan County, June l."i, 1S2.J; learned the carpenter's trade while a young nuin, and at the age of eighteen years embarked in mercantile business. He came to Decatur in 1H42, and from there two years later, moved to Somerville. In 1851 he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court; in 1858 he was a traveling man, and, in 18G1, resumed the mercantile business at Somerville. After the war he returned to Deca- tur, where he has since been one of the most suc- cessful merchants of tliis jdace. He entered the army in 18G1 as captain of a company: the regi- ment to which he was attached failing to be received into seivice, it was disbanded. He therefore, in the sj)ring of 1S62, joined Company H, Twenty-seventh Alabama, and was soon after- ward made its captain. At Fort Donelsoii he fell into the hands , 1887, is the accomplished danghter of Capt. David Brown, of Massachusetts. She is noted for her many rare and admirable qualities and her superior educa- tional attainments. Mr. Roquemore is a Knight Templar i^Iasonand a Knight of Pythias. WILLIAM E. SKEGGS, son of Henry and Mary J. (Hunt) Skeggs, was born in Huntsville, Ala., April 27, 1852. He was educated in Huntsville Academy under Prof. C. G. Smith, late president of the State University; came to Decatur in 1871; taught school at Decatur and Somerville, and studied law until 1878; was admitted to the bar at Somerville and practiced there until January, 1887, when he opened an office in Decatur. Mr. Skeggs represented his county in the Legis- lature in 1880-81. He served as Register in Chancery of Morgan County from 1883 until Sep- tember, 1887. Since 1880. he has been a delegate to various State Conventions. He is a stock- holder in both Land Companies of Decatur, the First National Bank, the P^lectric Light Company, and the Cotton Compress Company. Mr. Skeggs was married November 22, 1869, to Miss Celia E. Bean, of Morgan County, daughter of Maj. Benjamin F. and Mary J. (Garner) Bean, and has four children: Henry A., John H., Ella B., and Olive H. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Honor. EDGAR W. GODBEY, Attorney-at-law, Deca- tur, son of Crockette and Evaline (Forgey) Godbey, was born in ilarch, 1861, at Morristown, Tenn. The senior Godbey was a native of Halifax County. Va., where he was born in May, 1818. In early manhood, he moved with his parents to Lou- don County, Tenn., and was for many years a preacher of the Methodist Church, South, and a member of Ilolston Conference. Upon the outbreak of the late war. he took sides with the South, and entered Gracey's command as a chaplain in the army, holding this position throughout the entire war. After its close, he came to Alabama and lo- cated near Huntsville, in which city he was for a short time pastor of a congregation of the Methodist Church, South, and afterward united with the North Alabama Conference. He was the father of NORTHERN ALABAMA. 337 five children, four of whom are living: PItlgar W. is the eldest; the others are l.aiira. (lias. ('. and Al- bert S. Wm. Godbey, great-grandfather of Edgar W., was a soldier in the Hevolutionary War. and among the early settlers of Virginia. Mr. (iodbey's mother was born in Ha\vkin.s County. Tenn., in 1835. She was a daughter of Win. Korgey, of Irish descent. Edgar W. Godbey graduated at lliawassee Col- lege. Tenn., in 18S-2, taught school seven months atSomerville. Ala., and subsequently was Principal of Dyersburg District High School, an institution under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and located near Memphis, Tenn. After teaching here eighteen months, he entered the law department. University of Alabama, and graduated in February, 1S85 ; after which he located at Decatur, and commenced the practice of law, in which he was quite successful. lie was for a time County Solicitor. Mr. Godbey is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church and the Masonic fraternity, and was during college life a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. — • — •■•?•-• ^sij^^*~**^' *~~ CHARLES C. SHEATS, United States Com- iiiissiiincr. Decatur, was born April 10, 1831), in \\ alker County, Ala. Tie was reared on a farm; received a good English education at Somerville Academy, and at the age of eighteen, began teaching school. He was a member of the Seces- sion Convention which met at Montgomery in 18G1, and there gave his infiuence in opposition to .secession. In 1801, he was elected to the Legis- lature from Winston County, and was expelled in 18(i-i, on account of his alleged disloyalty to the Southern Confederacy. lie was arraigned, indicted and imprisoned for treason, but General Thonnis, of the Federal Army, retaliated by arresting Gen- eral .McDowell, and holding him as hostage until Mr. Slieats was released in reciprocity. However, he remained in duress until the close of the war. Septeijiber. 186."), he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention for the same county, and was a candidate for Congress from the Si.xth District in the same year. In 1808 he was a Grant elector, and in 180tt was api)ointed T'nited States Consul to Denmark, where he remained three years. In 1872 he was a delegate to tiie Fhiladelphia convention which nominated Grant for his second term, and in the same year was elected to Con- gress from the State at large by a majority of 10,- 000, over Gen. Ali)heus Haker. In 18T4, he was re-elected to Congress, receiving 09,000 votes, but was counted out by 13,000. In 18T.5 he was Si.xth Auditor of the United States Treasury for the postoffice department and in 1877, resigned and was appointed Appraiser of ilerchandise for the port of .Mobile. He served in this capacity until 1878, when he was appointed Assistant Col- lector of Internal Revenue for the State of Alabama, and served until Cleveland was inaugur- ated. Mr. Sheats was married .January 27, 1880, to Jlrs. Mary Anderson, niv Dickson. Her grand- father and grandmother were English. Mr. Sheats has been a great stump speaker, and is said to have spoken on political questions in every county in the State. He is a son of William W. and Mary (Garner) Sheats. His father was born in Wilkes County, Ga., October 22, 1809; came to Lawrence County, Ala., in 1822, with his parents, and became a farmer. He located in Walker County, January 1, 1845, and now lives in Cullman, on a farm which has been in five counties since he has lived there. He is a son of Archibald and Amanda (Gibson) Sheats, who were natives of (Jeorgia, where the father was born in 1776. Our subject's mother was born in Tennessee in 1811, and was a daughter of Jacob and .Mary ( Hunter) Garner. Mr. Garner was a soldier under General Houston in 1830, and in the Mexican War. — • — ■■'>— t ji ; 3> '— •^' ' ' REV. THOMAS ARMSTRONG was born in Wilcox County, Ala., Suiitcinljei- 10, 1835; reared on a farm; attended an academy in his early days; received the degree of A. M. from Centenary Col- lege, Louisiana, In early life, he began to teach near Hamburg, Ala. Was not engaged in the war. In 1803, taught with his brother. Rev. James K. Armstrong, in Marion Female Sem- itiarv. In 1804, was elected principal of Eutaw Male and Female Academy, where he remained till the spring of 1807; then engaged in farming in the Black IJelt of .\labama. between Greens- boro and Demopolis. In 1871, he bought of Foot & Maloue, of Mobile, a half interest in the plant- 328 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ations of the late Colonel Barney, of Marengo County, and farmed till 1874, in the summer of which year he was elected president of Mansfield Female College, which position he resigned in 1880. He then taught in the Alabama Central Female College, at Tuscaloosa, and in Birming- ham, Ala., until 1684, when he entered the North Alabama Conference as an itinerant Methodist minister. His first charge was at Tuscumbia, Ala., which he served two years and three months. At this time. Rev. Mr. Law, then in charge of the church lit Decatur, resigned his position, and Bishop Wilson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, appointed Kev. ^Ir. Armstrong to succeed him. Mr. Armstrong married Miss Mattie DuBois, of Greensboro, Ala., a daughter of llev. John DuBois, the inventor of the DuBois Cotton Gin.' He has two children: Marielon and Samuel D. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. DR. L. HENSLY GRUBBS, Editor and Pro- prietor of the Decatur Weekly News, and son of Thomas Washington and Lucy D. (Brown) Grubbs. was born at Pulaski, Tenn., September 28, 1838. His early boyhood was spent on a farm. At the age of twelve years he procured employment in a dry goods store in his native town, and continued as a salesman several years. He spent two years in La Grange College, and went to Leighton, Ala., in 1852, where he was again employed in a dry goods store, railroad office and assistant postmaster. In April, 185(i, he was licensed to preach in the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, and continued in the pasto- ral work of the itinerant ministry fourteen years. In 18.72 he located in Decatur, Ala., and engaged in the drug business, in which he continued until 1886. In 1873 he established the Decatur Weekly Neivs, which was the only paper published in the city until 1885. The News has a large and rap- idly increasing circulation, and has been a potent factor in controlling local politics and county, judicial and congressional elections. The News has been foremost; in promoting the development and 2>rogress which has so signally characterized the city of Decatur during the last twelve months. Dr. Grubbs was appointed postmaster at De- catur March 27, 1885, it being the first appoint- ment of a Southern man made by President Cleve- land except his cabinet officers. The following year he was chosen president of tlie first national convention of postmasters held in the city of Chicago. As a citizen and business man he is prominent, and has exerted his influence for the advancement and upbuilding of every interest in the community where he resides. He owns stock in the Decatur Land, Improvement and Furnace Company and the Morgan County Building and Loan Association. As a newspaper writer he is strong, forcible and incisive, and expresses bis convictions with a clearness that is easily under- stood. Mr. Grubbs was united in marriage with Jliss Mary J. Perry, second youngest daughter of Kev. Francis A. and Rhoda (Thompson) Perry, at Cornersville, Tenn., March 20, 18(10. To this union seven children have been born, six daugh- ters and one son. Four of them are now living, namely: Minnie Lou Ilense, now Mrs. B.H.Lambert of New York City; Walter Marvin, Lelia Virginia and Nona Aline. Mr. and Mrs. Grubbs and their children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Order of Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, and Ancient Order of United Workmen, and is prominently connected as a State officer with each of these secret societies. Our subject's father, Thomas W. Grubbs, was born in Brunswick County, Ya., about 1792. His wife was a native of the same county, and just thirty days younger than her husband. In early married life they moved to Giles County, Tenn., where they lived on a farm and where their dust now repose. He filled various offices of trust, such as sheriff, collector and census taker, and in 1840, it is said, was jiersonally ac- quainted with every householder in (iiles County. He was a son of Ezekiel Grubbs of Revolutionary fame. DR. WILLIAM EDWARD FOREST, President of tlie Decatur Building and Investment Com- pany, was born March 17, 1850, in Burlington, Yt. He is a son of John R. and Caroline (Powers) Forest, the former a native of England. William E. Forest graduated at the University of Yermont, at Burlington, in 1874, in the classical course, and again at the University of New York, NORTHERN ALABAMA. 329 ill 187G. in the medical course. He practiced ten yt'ar.s in the hospitals of New York City and else- wiicre. was conneotod with tlie Women's Asylum and the New Yori< Dispensary, and contributed many monograplis to medical journals, lie was a MU'inber of several medical soal Church, and he is a Mason. James Black was born in Lincoln County, N. C, in 18n2; came to Alabama in 18:58. located first in Cherokee C'ounty, and subsequently in Pickens County, where he died in 18.5.5. He had eight children. William Black, the Doctor's grandfather, was born at the same place, and was a soldier in the War of 1812. He was of Irish descent. — — *•- ; ^ ^^^x^,.^-^^^^^ ■ ^- *^ ^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 335 to tlie Decatur Land Company, and retained tlie balance for liis own use. This fortunate invest- ment resulted so favoral)ly tliat he thought it unnecessarj' to continue loiiser in the service of tile railroad company, lie is now a stock-holder in the First National liank, the Decatur Land, Improvement iS: Furnace Conipany. and other enterprises. lleinrich (or Henry) Frey was a native of the City of Zurich, Switzerland, which place he left in 11188, and accompanied by his wife, sailed for America. The Hurgoniaster of Zui-ich gave him then an open letter addressed to "Whom it may concern,'' recommending the bearer as a worthy and honest man. [This letter is still in the possession of the family.] He traveled down the l{hine to Amsterdam, where he took passage for New York. His vessel was stranded on the shore of the Isle of Wight, and he was transferred to an English ship. The (iovernor of the Island gave him a letter of introduction to the (iovernor of Xew York. He landed in that city in 1689, and the Governor of Xew York gave him a free grant of a liundred acres of land, near that city. But he subsequently abandoned this, and located near I'alatine Bridge, in the Mohawk Valley, where he purchased a large tract of land, which is known to this day as Prey's Bush. He was acci- . he went to Davenport, Iowa, where he engaged in runningasaw-mill, and lost his right arm. He entered tiie Quarternnister's De))artment of the Federal Army, in the Depart- ment of the Cumberland, where he became chief clerk under ^lajor Smith, and in which depart- ment he went through the Georgia campaign, and finally to Texas. He came to Huntsville in 1865, and engaged in business with A. F. Murray. In 1880, he was apjiointed postmaster at Hunts- ville, and held that otKce until the spring of 188;, when he accepted the management of the Decatur, Ala., Mineral Company. In the fall of the same year he accepted the management of the "The Tav- ern," at Decatur, which is one of the finest hotels in .Mabama. It lias a capacity for three hundred guests. Mr. Reed was married, in 1881, to ^liss Theo. Temple, of Tennessee, a lady of superior education and musical accomplishment. They are members of tlie Presbyterian Church, and he is an Odd Fellow. EDWIN D. OLMSTEAD, secretary and treasurer of the l>ecatur li'in Uridge ami Construction Co., 338 NORTHERN ALABAMA. was born in New York in 1855. His parents, L. J. and !Mary W. (Campbell) Olmstead, are natives of the same State. His father is, by occujiation, an architect and builder,- and has been a resident of the South since 18G6. He was for a time engaged in refining sugar in A'ew Orleans, but subsequently resumed his j^rofession. In ISSO he came to Alabama and is now a resident of Hirmingham. E. D. Olmstead came South when a youth, and has always since been identified with Southern in- terests. Altliough but a young man, he has achieved an honorable business record in Birming- ham, where he was a member of the firm of Olm- stead & Kiernan. which subsequently became Olmstead & Varney. After two years of success- ful business in Birmingham, he disjiosed of his in- terest there to become an officer in one of the lead- ing corporate industries of Xorthern Alabama, the duties of which he is now fulfilling in a most creditable manner. Mr. Olmstead was united in marriage in 1885, to Miss Annie Head, of New Orleans. They are blessed with one child. He is a Mason, and a gen- tleman of the most excellent character and repu- tation. J. MONROE NELSON, Dealer in Eeal Estate. Decatur, son of .James and Barbara (Fifer) Nel- son, natives of (Jreensboro, N. C, was born in Orange County, N. C, on Christmas day, 1823. He was reared in Scipio, Ind.,and received a ?ood English education at the common schools in that vicinity. He began teaching school at the age of fifteen, and continued it for some years, studying law as occasion permitted, and was admitted to the bar at Vei'non, Ind., about 1845. He prac- ticed law till about 1850, and then went upon a farm. In 1856, he was elected County Auditor, and heldtliat position until 1804. He represented the Third Congressional District as member of the State Board of Education, when he moved to New- ton County, Ind., and again farmed. While here, he served as County Superintendent of Education for three years. In January, 1873, he came to Deca- tur, where he has since resided. After com- ing here he followed farming for some years, but having sold a portion of his farm at an enormous profit, and bought other property near the city, he was enabled to effect large transactions in real estate, and is now making that his exclusive busi- ness. Mr. Nelson was married February 14, 1850, to Miss Abbie Adams, of Dearborn County, Ind., and daughter of Moses Adams, of Massachusetts, a soldier of the War of 1812. Mr. Nelson has seven children, namely: George A., Ruth A., James B., John C. F., Mattie Jennie, Mary Addie and Willie W. Mr. Nelson is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity. James Nelson, tlie father of J. ]\I. Nelson, was of Scotch-Irish descent; moved from North Carolina to Jennings County, Ind., in 1830, and settled in Scipio, where he died in 1845, at about seventy-five years of age. He reared three children. His wife W!is a lady of German descent, and died in 1858, at the age of seventy. JOHN PEACHER, Jr., of the firm of Elsberry, Peacher & Co., Music Dealers, Decatur, son of John and Louisa (Barnett) Peacher, was born in Oxford, Scott County, Ky., October 7, 186'.i; re- ceived his edueation at Montgomery, Ala., and when about twenty years of age began traveling for a prominent wholesale hat house of New York City. He continued in the hat business and other mercantile and traveling jmrsuits until June 15, 1887. when he located at Decatur, Ala., and en- tered the real estate business in partnershijj with Mr. M. C. Hooper. He is now Secretary and Treasurer of the Eeal Estate Association of Deca- tur, and a Knight of Pythias. John Peacher was a native of A'irginia and his wife of Kentucky. He now resides in Louisville. His wife died in February, 1885, in Montgomery, Ala. William Barnett, ]\Ir..Peacher's maternal grand- father, was a pioneer farmer of Kentucky. Mr. Peacher's parents moved to Montgomery, Ala., in 1872, where his father became a dealer in stock. The Peachers are of English origin and members of the Christian Church, except the subject of this sketch, who is a Bajitist. -^--S^t^-i— — J. E. McRRIDE, Manager of the Decatur Ice Company, was born in Brockport, N. Y., in 1857. He received his education at the State Normal School at Brockport; learned his trade as a NORTHERN ALABAMA. 339 machinist at Rochester, X. Y., and then spent two vears at school at meclianical engineering; came South in 1881 and engaged in tlte cotton- seed oil business: was with Valley Oil Mill one season: the two following years was engaged in erecting mills all through the South: was coji- nected with the Sunflower Oil Comiianyat Clarks- dale. Miss., three years: in May, 1887. came to iK'taturaiul jiut up the Decatur Ice Company's niailiiiu'. (if whicli he is now general manager. I'lic Kfcatur Ice Company was oi-ganized in the s|)ring of 188], hy .1. V . Scott. W. W. Littlcjohn, C. C. Harris. A. 1-". .Murry and others: capital stock, ?;•,'(•. 1(10. 'Pile factory has a capacity of six Ions, and is now adding twenty tons more per day. The ma- chines are of the absorption pattern, and made by the Cincinnati Ice JIachine Company of Cincin- nati, Ohio. Mr. McHride, was married at Huffalo, X. Y., in ,Sei>tember, 1885, to Miss Kittie A. Smith, of LockiKirt, \. Y. They iiave one child. GEORGE W. VANDEGRIFT, son of John and Lydia (llardwick) Vandegrift, was born in St. (lair County, Ala., July H, 1848. Ilis education, which was somewhat limited on account of the war, was received at the common schools of his native couiity. When about twenty-one years of age he became a salesman in the store of his brother, where he remained five years. In IST^J he engaged in mercantile business, on his own account, at Athens, this State, and built up the largest and most extensive general merchandise trade in that place. In the spring of lS8(i he sold out his business, and began dealing in real estate, and has now become a large land- Inilder in Limestone County. Mr. \'an(legrift located at Decatur, September 1, 1887. John Vandegrift was born in Chester, S. ('., in 18tt2. and is now quite an active man at the age of eighty-si.\". His wife was born in Georgia in 18rj. He came to St. Clair County, Ala., at an early day. and entered lauds there, anal Church and of the I. 0. 0. F. T. M. Scruggs is the only child of Phineas Thonuis Scruggs, wlio was born in Colbert County, -Via., in 1830. He became a druggist at Decatur; 342 NORTHERN ALABAMA. married Elizabeth Marshall .Arnrphy, and died in 1855. PhineasT. Scruggs was the youngest son of Kev. Finch C. Scruggs, who was born in Buckingham County, Va., about 1790. He went to Tennessee at an early day, and became minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married a Miss Thomas, of that State, and settled in Colbert Reserve, in Colbert County, Ala., in the thirties; came to Decatur about 18-iO, and remained there the balance of his life. Their children were: Louis S., a merchant at Holly Springs, and a major in the Confederate Army: Solomon K., a captain in the late war, and now in Mexia, Texas; Edward, a soldier, who was killed at the battle of Chickamauga: and Phineas T. P. T. Scruggs was married the second time to Mrs. Susan J., widow of Captain Thomas B. Murphy, of Memjiliis, Tenn., in 1849, by whom he had a daughter, Catharine, who is now the wife of C'harles (Uithry, an artist of Paris, France. Mrs. Susan Mnrjiliy had three children by her first husband, one of whom was the wife of Phineas T. Scruggs, and the mother of our sub- ject. Thomas Murphy was an Irishman; a captain in the War of 1813, and a wealthy jalanter in Ala- bama. Rev. F. C. Scruggs died in 1881, while on a visit at Holly Springs, at the age of about eighty years. HARRIS & WATKINS HARDWARE COM- PANY. D. T. Harris, of the above firm, was born in Hollidaysburg, Pa., in 1860, and is a son of T. R. and Margaret J. Harris, natives of Wales, who first came to this country and settled in Pennsyl- vania. In 1801 they moved to Knoxville, Tenn., and in 1865 moved back to Ohio, to a place called Ironton. At an early age, D. T. Harris left school to work in a machine shop, staying there for about six months. He was employed as salesman in a hardware store, and was quite successful; he was in the hardware business for about eleven years. Coming to Decatur in 1887, he organized the now flourishing and enterprising firm of Harris & Watkins Hardware Company. He was married in 1885 to Miss Mary S. Jones, of Ironton, Ohio. Mr. Harris is a Knight of Pythias .and member of the Uniformed Rank, also a member of the National Fire Insurance Association. L. R. Watkins, son of Thomas B and Mary A. Watkins, was born in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio, September 7, 1862. His father was a native of Virginia, and mother of Ireland. He was educated in the public schools of Portsmouth, Ohio. At the age of sixteen he was engaged in the shoe business, after which he went to stove moulding, which he followed for six years. He was in 1885 married to Miss Eliza Williams, of Portsmouth, Ohio. They have one child, Elsie. They are members of Presbyterian Church of Decatur, Ala. L. H. SCRUGGS was born in Madison County, Ala., in is.'i;, and is a son of Henry F. and Sarah (Scruggs) Scruggs, both natives of Virginia. The ancestors of this family came from Wales, and were among the very early settlers in Virginia. Henry F. ■Scruggs came with his father to Madison County at an early date, and settled on a plantation. He was a member of the bar in Madison County, and, after moving to Sumter County, was C'ircuit .Judge about 1844. He was a member of the Legislature from Sumter for several years: moved to Morgan County and practiced law there until his death. Five of his children arc still living. L. H. Scruggs was reared and educated in Sum- ter and Madison Counties, and in 1861 he entered the Confederate Army as a private in Company I, Fourth Alabama Infantry. He spent four years in the Army of Virginia, and was in all the battles except that of the Wilderness. He was also engaged at Chickamauga, in the Seven Days' Fight before Richmond, Antietam and Farmersville. He was wounded four times. When the war closed he was lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, and commanded it after the battle of Antietam. He surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox. After the war he entered the cotton trade at Iluutsville, and followed it there until the fall of 1887. Mr. Scruggs is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight of Pythias, a Knight of Honor, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Working- men. Mr. Scruggs was married in 1871, to Miss Em- ma Cooley, of Nashville. They have five children. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 343 and are members of tlie Metliodist Episcopal Cliiiri-li, Sotilh. Mr. Suruggs is a memberof tin' tirin nf .Miirmy. Soniggs tS: Co., real estate, stoclv ami i)f)n(l brokers, ill Decatur. JOSEPH MONROE HINDS was bom i.i Illi- nois January G, 18-i"-i. His father, Simeon Hinds, of Ilopkinsville, Ky., was one of the most exten- sive farmers of his county, and raised and traded largely in stock. Ilis mother was from Knoxville, Tcim. .losi'ph M. llinds'early (lays were spent in herd- ing cattle upon the broad prairiesof Illinois, work- ing on the farm, and in attending country schools. At the age of eighteen he commenced the st^idyof law with Greathouse (a partner of Stephen A. Oouglas), but upon the beginning of the war abandoned his studiesand volunteered asa private in the Eighth Illinois Infantry. He was in all the battles in which his regiment participated. After the capture of Vicksburg he was promoted to a second lieuteiumcy, and iu 18G4 was trans- ferred to tiie First Alabama (Federal) Cavalry as acting regimental quartermaster. In this regi- ment he accompanied Sherman in his famous ■• march to the sea," and was at the surrender of (len. Joe Johnston, in Xorth Carolina. The regi- ment came to Iluntsville after that event, and was there mustered out in October. I.S(i5. At the close of the war Decatur was in ruins and had but two inhabitable dwelling-liouses left, but tlie Hinds brothers, pleased with the location and prospects, determined to unite their interests with the South, and bc'Ught property there, including the house in which had been headquarters for each army in turn. Captain Hiiuls now lives in the house. Captain Hinds, associated witli his brother, traded in stock and merchandise, and, aftcrsecur- ing some mail contracts, put a line of steamboats on the Tennessee Iiiver. They also had stage lines running in ditferent directions throughout the country. In 1872 our subject was aiipoinlcil Consul- General for the United States at Hio Janeiro, Brazil, whence, in 1878, he returned to De- catur. In 1882 he was appointed United States Marshal for the Northern District of Ala- bama, and removed to Iluntsville. While in this jiosition many notable events occurred, and he had for a time the custody of the notorious Frank James and Dick Liddle. When his term as Marshal had expired Captain Hinds again returned to Decatur, where he is en- gaged in trying to improve his property in tiie city and his farm. He was a delegate to the Re- publican (Jonvention in Chicago whicii nominated Garfield. In 1873 he was married, while in Rio Janeiro, to Miss Lucia Annita Trillia, of Buenos Ayres, a lady of English and Italian blood. Tiiey have four children, two boys and two girls. H. S. FREEMAN, maiiufaeturer, Decatur. Ala., son of Gurdon and Lucinda (Baker) Freeman, na- tives of Connecticut, was born in Saratoga County, Conn., September 15, 1838. He lost his parents when about nine years of age. Ilis education, in the common schools and academy, was obtained as the result of his own determined effort. He worked on the farm in the summer to acquire means wherewith to attend school in the winter. At the age of nineteen, he began operating a saw- mill, and has since conducted saw-mills, grist- mills, paper-mills and planing-mills in various places. When the war broke out, he was pros- pecting at Detroit, Mich., and there recruited a company for service in the Federal .\rmy. During the war, his health failed him. and in 1804, he came to Nashville in search of a better climate. Subse(piently he engaged in lumber business at Jackson, Tenn., and in 1870, located in Decatur, where he has since resided. Ca|)tain Freennm is regarded as one of the sub- stantial and influential citizens of Decatur. He is still interested in the milling business, and is an extensive stockholder in nearly all the corporations and insitutions which have been projected for the development of the town. He was married in August, 18';.i. to Miss Rachel E. Southerland, a daughter of Frank Southerland, of Jackson County, Ala. They have one child, Olive 0. Mrs. Freeman is a member of the Baptist Church. Captain Freeman has been an aldcrnian ever since he has lived in Decatur. GEORGE ARANTZ, son of Phillip and Rebecca (Zweir) .Vranlz, natives of Pennsylvania, was born in Lebanon, Pa., September, 1850. 344 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He received a common education at the schools to which he liad access, worked for his father until June, 1880, when he located in Decatur, and engaged extensively in the manufacture of lumber. He was probably the first man to introduce the band-saw in Alabama for the purpose of working heavv timber. He manufactures all sorts of lum- ber for building purposes, giving special attention to hardwood and finishing stuff. WILLIAM W. SCOTT, son of William and Koxet L. (Wandley) Scott, was born in Luzerne County, Penu., December 25, 1852. He was reared in Philadelphia, and received his education at the public schools. He began life as a bell-boy at the Jefferson Hotel, that city. After a varied experience in all the different positions connected with hotels and their management, he came to Huntsville, Ala., in 1872, and was there connected with the Huntsville House; thence he went to Elount Springs, and later on to New Orleans. He sjDent some time in different hotels in Mont- gomery; was proprietor of the Clifton House, Ver- bena; was connected with hotels in Xew York, Long Branch and Birmingham, where he specu- lated in real estaie. In March, 1887, he became a real estate dealer and speculator in Decatur. He is a stockholder in the Decatur Laud Com- pany, and was one of the incorporators of the Mineral Land Company. William Scott, Sr., was a native of Scotland, and his wife was born in Pennsylvania. He came to the United States in 184(), and was here for a time a fur dealer, and afterward a contractor on public works. In the latter business, he assisted in the construction of the Lehigh Valley Canal, in Pennsylvania. He died in 1854. His wife still survives him. JOHN FLETCHER SCOTT, son of Charles and Anna (Cully) Scott, natives of Brooke County, Va., was born October 10, 18:511; went with his parents in his infancy to North Illinois, and later to Lancaster, Wis., where he received his early instructions in the common schools, and worked in lead mines. When but nineteen he engaged in commercial business, and in 18G5 went to Mexico and became a contractor on a railroad running from the City of Vera Cruz to the City of ]\Iexico. After remaining there fifteen months, he returned to AVisconsin, and soon after went to Memphis, Tenn., and thence to Decatur, Ala., where he located, in 1806, as a merchant. In 1887 he erected the well-known brick building on the corner of Bank and Lafayette streets. He is a stockholder in the Exchange Bank of Decatur, the Decatur Land and Improvement Company, the Decatur Building and Loan Association, and has a tine orange grove in Florida, He has been very active in building up the town of Decatur. Mr. Scott was married January 1, 1877, to Mrs. Mary J. ^IcCallum, nve Smith. Charles Scott was born about 17U0, and his wife in 1T!)0. He was a merchant, and afterward con- ducted a hotel in Lancaster, Wis., where he died in 1842. His wife died in l)ecatur in January, 1876. They reared seven children, of whom John Fletcher is the youngest. MATHEW T. CARTWRIGHT, son of Hezekiah Bi'adley and ilartha (Cray) Cartwright, natives of Wilson County. Tenn., and Alabama, respectively, was born in Limestone County, Ala., February (I, 184<). He was reared on a farm and in a country store, and received an ordinary education in the common schools. He became a member of the Confederate Army, Company F, Ninth Alabama Infantry, June 6. 1861 ; was in engagements at Frazer Farm, Seven Days' Fight before Kichmond, Sliarpesburg, second battle of Manassas, the Wilderness, Seven Pines, Chaucellorsville, Antie- tam, Gettysburg, and nearly all the battles in which Lee's army participated. He served with a battalion of sharjjshooters during the last twelve months, and was in Lee's army at the cluse of the war. After the surrender, he farmed for a time, came to Decatur in 18?], and engaged in general mercantile business, which he has jjrosecuted with considerable success, and now owns desirable property. Mr. Cartwright was married, November 10, 1867, to Miss Carrie, daughter of Samuel F. and Eugenia (Bayley) Mitchell. They have one child, Herbert. Mrs. Cartwright died in the fall of 1869, and in 18T2 he was married to Miss Ella, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth (Parks) Thomi- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 345 son. of Lincoln County, Tenn. The second wife (lied in 1881, and in Ma\', 188."), he was married, to Miss Anna T., a sister of liis second wift-. Mr. f'artwright is a Knight of Honor, and a Knight of the (Jolden Hule. II. r>. Cartwriglit, our subject's father, was horn in 181"->, and came to Limestone County, Ala., with liis parents about 18--.*5; conducted a farm and two stores: served in the Creek War: married twice, reared seven children, and died in Limestone County in 18G0. M. T. Cartwright is a son of the first wife, who was born in 181<), and died in 18(10. She was the daughter of Matthew and Matilda (\'ining) Gray, pioneers of Limestone (^'ounty. C. W. JOSEPH, son of Thomas and Sarah A. (Hiley) Josepli was born in Montgomery, Ala., February 8, 18.i'.i: reared in Montgomery, and educated there and at Auburn College. He spent some years i7i the Montgomery Mills with iiis fatiier, and about six years on a farm. He came to Decatur in .January, 188T, and engaged in the real estate and commission business, and is now a stockholder in Ijotli the land coiniiaiiiesand banks of the town. Mr. Joseph was married in January, 1881, to Miss JIattie E. Jackson, daughter of Dr. W. E. and Fannie (Bibb) Jackson, of Montgomery. They have three children: Mattie. Tiiomas and Charles W. ilr. Joseph is a Knigiit of Pythias. Tliomas .Joseph was born on the Island of Flo- rico, in the .\zores, and came to Montgomery. Ala., about 184".2, where he became a merchant, and proprietor of the Montgomery Mills. He operated the mills during and since the war, and sold them to his son. In 1871 he organized the Capital City Insurance Company, and was elected its president, a position which he held until liis death in 18S3. This insurance company ranks among the strongest in the South. .A[r. .Joseph was also a director of the Louisville & Nashville liailroad. He was the father of seveti children: was a succe. landed in Philadel- phia. He spent a short time in New York, and came to Florence, .Via., wliere he clerked in a store. In 18.")7, he established a store of his own, twenty-two miles south of Decatur, and named the i)lace Falkville, a station on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. When the war broke out, he enlisted in the Confederate Army for one year, but this company was not received, and in the summer of 18(;2 he enlisted in Company A, Fourth Alabama Cavalry, and served mostly in this State and Ten- nessee. In 1864, he was captureil near Pond Spring, Ala., and sent to Camp Douglas, where he was imprisoned until the close of the war. Sub- sequently, he clerked for a while in Nashville, and in Danville, Ala., where he afterward went into business in partnership with an uncle. In 18G9, ilr. Falk located in Decatur, where he hjis since been successfully engaged in merchan- dising, and where he is now the oldest merchant in the city. He is a stockholder in the Decatur Land Company, the Electric Light Company, the Artilicial Ice Company, and vice-president of the Decatur Wire Fence Manufacturing Company. He is a director in the First National Bank, an alder- man and member of the School Board. Mr. Falk was married in 1S73, to Miss Ilattie (loodheart, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and three children have been born to this union, viz.: Morrey L., Harvey L.. and Estella May. Mrs. Falk died July 5, 188(i. Mr. Falk is a Hoyal Arch Mason, a Knight of Pvthias. and a member of the I. 0. B. B. -«-!^^-»' JOHN T. BANKS. Druggist. Decatur, son of Jolin F. and Frances E. (Roberts) Banks, was born in Somerville, Morgan County, Ala., March 28, 1837: was reared in Somerville, lived with and was educated by his uncle, John T. Kather, (who was a captain in the War of 181'^): received his education in Decatur, and at the age of sixteen entered the drug busines."; with J. W. Cain, and after- ward with T. F. Scruggs. In 1858 he purchased the business and conducted it until 18iil, wlien he was broken up by the war. The first Federal force which entered Decatur burned the bridge, 346 NORTHERN ALABAMA. and destroyed his stock. He enlisted in the Sixth Alabama Regiment soon after the battle of Shiloh, and was immediately detailed on duty in the hospital department as a jiharmacist. He spent his first eighteen months at Okolona, Miss., thence was sent to Meridian, and just before the close of the war, was returned to Okolona, where he surrendered in 18G5. He walked home and opened another drug store in Decatur, and has followed the business there ever since, excepting two years. Mr. Banks was appointed Notary Public and ex-officio Justice of the Peace. In May, 1887, he sold his drug store to Dr. T. H. Hughes, and is now erecting a handsome three-story build- ing for a drug store, on the corner of Oak and Cain streets. He is a stockholder in the Decatur Land, Furnace & Improvement Company. Mr. Banks was married in December, 18G8, to Miss Maria L. Long, at Tuscumbia. They have four children, viz. — Fannie Lee, John Ellis, Margaret L. and Mary Fields. Mr. Banks and wife are members of the Presby- terian Church, and he is a Free Mason and a mem- ber of the City Council. In November, 1885, Mr. Banks was a prime mover in locating and obtaining stock for the De- catur Charcoal and Chemical Works, and neglected his business for a time in the interests of that in- stitution. John F. Banks, the father of our subject, was born in Oulpeper County, Va., in 17',i7, and his wife in 1815. They came to Alabama about 1828, and settled in Morgan County. He was a tanner by trade, and probably the first man in that busi- ness in the county. He afterward became a drug- gist in Somerville and died at the residence of his son in Newburg, Franklin County, in 1884. He wa? a soldier in the War of 1812. He reared a family of six children. BERT E. FOLEY, son of Elisha and Mary C. (Thrasher) Poley, was born in Austin City, Nev., February 8, 1860; received his early education in the common schools, and graduated from the col- lege at Vali)araiso, Ind., 1884. He was engaged in the mail service on the Chicago & Alton Railroad one year, spent a short time at Maryville, Mo., and located at Clarinda, Iowa, where he became assistant teller in the bank of an uncle, I. J. Poley. Having remained there a short time he went to Quitman, Mo., and en- gaged in the grain business. In 1875 he became assistant book-keeper and secretary in Smith, Poley & Co.'s mills at Brewton, Ala., and in February, 1887, came to Decatur, and established a lumber business in partnershiiD with M. D. Jones, whose interest he bought out later. He has a successful trade. Elisha Poley was born in Fayette County, Ky., in 182G, and Mary C. Thrasher was born in Waverly, 111., in 1844. He was a self-educated man, and taught school from 1648 until 185C. near Auburn, 111. He went to California in 1865, and spent six years in speculating and mining in that State and Nevada. After various adventures in Illinois, he located in Maryville, Mo., in 1874, and dealt in grain there until his death in the same year. He had seven children born to him, of whom Bert E. was the second. JOSEPH S. SUGARS was born in Decatur. May 13, 1845, and was reared and received his education at the common schools of this place. In the fall of 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate Army, in Company E, First Alabama Cavalry, and was de- tailed on special duty in General Roddy's Escort. He was in the engagements at Pond Springs and continuous skirmishes in front of Wilson. He was i^resent at the battles of Harrisburg and Tupelo, Miss., East Point, Ga., and the siege of Atlanta, which was his last battle in the war. He was at Montgomery at the time it surrendered, and at once returned to his father's farm, where he remained about two years. He then came to Decatur, and as a member of the firm of Levy, Sugars & Son, jewellers, met with good success. He is a director in the North Alabama Oil and As- phalt Company, of Birmingham, Ala., and owns considerable property in Decatur. Mr. Sugars was married in November, 1872, to Miss Ann Callahan, daughter of AVilliam and Elizabeth (Bird) Callahan, of Decatur, and they have three children, viz.: Ethel, Chas. C. and Josephine. Mr. Sugars and wife are members of the ileth- odist Episcopal Church, South. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Pytliias, NORTHERN ALABAMA. 347 Kiiiglits of Honor, and of tlie Knights and T.adies of Honor. .1. S. .Sugars is a son of Levy and Mary .lane { Lock) Sugars. 'I'lie father was born in f^ancaster, I'a., in LsO'.i. He learned clockniaking in Con- necticut, and remained there seven years, after which lie travelled selling clocks in \'irginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, eight years. About 1M4(> he located at Huntsville, Ala., and manufac- tured surveyors' compasses, and did a general watclimaking and silvercinith business in connec- tion with David Knox. xVbout 1842 he located in Uecatur, and engaged in the jewelry business, which he continued until liST'i, excepting three years during the war, which he spent on a farm in Lawrence County. He died in 1875. He was married three times, and reared two children. Mary Jane Sugars, our subject's mother, died in 1.S4T. WILLIAM R. JONES, was born in Tuscunibia, June 1, IS.'iH, and is a son of John Wesley and -Mary Martha (Rather) Jones. His father was also a native of Alabama, and was born in Mar- shall County about 18'^7, reared as a farmer, and received a common-school education. W. 15. Jones, grandfather of our subject, was a soldier in the War of 1.812, and one of the first settlers of Marshall County. He was a minister of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. \y . K. Jones entered one of the first printing otlices in the State, at Somerville, and worked as a printer five years. He subserpiently became one of the first merchants of Decatur, where he remained eight years. He spent four years at Tuscunibia as Superintendent of the Hunts- ville iS: Decatur liailroad, and upon the comple- tion of that line was appointed its agent at Deca- tur, where he remained iu charge of the company's atfairs until his death, in December, 1884. Mr. .Jones entered tiie Confederate service in the spring of 1802, as Second Lieutenant of Com- pany D, .Seventh Alabama, and served with his regi- ment until tlie close of the war. He was for a while a statT oHicer to (ieneral Hood, and was pro- moted to a captaincy. Captain Jones returned to Decatur, was an esteemed citizen, and served as a representative to the Constitutional Convention in XXIh. He was thrice elected Mayor of Decatur, and was a leading member of tlie Masonic and K. of H. fraternities. He was twice married. His fiist wife died iu 18(j.i, leaving him seven children, of whom four are living: William R. Paul, in the railroad business at Houston, Te.xas; Samuel E., in the same business at St. Louis: Edwin T. and Mrs. IJessie East. His second wife was .Mrs. Zelia Ilartstield, of Morgan County. She is still livina; at Decatur, and has three children: Mattie M., Nettie O.. and Frank D. W. R. Jones has made Decatur his home since his youth; he received an academic education and began to learn raili'oad business with his father at the age of si.xteen. In 187G he was appointed agent at Grand Junction, thence went to Memphis, and subsequently to New Orleans. In April, 1887, he was appointed agent of the M. & C. R. R., at Decatur, and is in every way worthy of, and well fitted for, this important trust. While Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston was at Decatur, William R. Jones served as his private messenger for four months. Mr. .Jones was united in marriage December 12, 1871, to Miss Matilda W. Banks, daughter of Col. L. S. Banks. One child has been born to them, -Maury Wesley. Mr. and Mrs. Jones are members of the ]\Iethod- ist Episcopal t'hurch. South, and he is a Knight of Honor. ■ •' '>" '^§^'<" — WILLIAM FRANKLIN BALDRIDGE. was born in Lauderdale County, Alabama, in l.s4il. He is a son of T\'illiam K. and Caroline E. (Mitchell) Bald ridge. His father is a native of North Caro- lina, and came to Tennessee, in 1809, with his par- ents, being then quite young. His mother was of Irish descent, and born in Tenncsee. They were married in ilurray County, came to Alabama about 1S40, and settled in Lauderdale County, From here he removed to Madison County, where he became a farmer, and remained until 1881. He then moved to Te.xas where he now lives. His wife died in Madison County in 18C.5. They had born to them ten children, of whom seven are now living. W. F. Baldridge, was reared in Madison County, received his early education there, and has been interested in farming all his life. He now owns a farm of a thousand acres near Huntsville, and takes a special interest in raising and breeding 348 NORTHERN ALABAMA. stock, especially Holsteiii and Jersey cattle, and lie has found this i^ursuit quite profitable. He entered the real estate business in Huntsville, in connection with Ben. P. Hunt, under the firm name of Baldridge & Hunt. The firm of Bald- I'idge, Murray & Scruggs, was organized in 1887. Mr. Baldridge was married in 1870, to Miss Julia A., daughter of James Landman, of Madi- son County. They have six children living, viz.: Lula B., James H., Ella May, Oscar, Lee, and an infant. He is a member of the Methodist Ejois- copal Church, South, and of the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias. Li 18G4, Mr. Baldridge eniered the Confederate Army in Company K, Fourth Alabama Cavalry, which was commanded by Colonel Russell, and under General Forrest. He served in this com- mand eighteen months, mostly on detached duty as a scout. He had two brothers killed in the army. James at the siege of Port Hudson, and .John at the Battle of Shiloh. HENRY A. SKEGGS, Sp., son of Leonard Thomas and iliilialaii (llice) Skeggs, was born in Frederick County, Md., in Xovember, 1815; be- came a merchant tailor: came to Huntsville in 1846, and subsequently carried on his business at Huntsville, New Orleans and other places. He served through the war principally in General Wheeler's Cavalry, and was captured twice, once witli Wheeler and once with Forrest. Returning from the army, he went first to Huntsville, then to Chattanooga, and in 18^ "i came to Decatur, where he still resides. His father, L. T. Skeggs, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and his grandfather, John Skeggs, of Greenbrier County, Va., served in the Revolu- tionary War. H. A. Skeggs, Sr., reared three sons: Will- iam E., Rufus H., now dead: and Henry A. Skeggs, .Jr., who was born May 12, 1854, at Huntsville, Ala. His mother, Mary J. (Hunt) Skeggs, was a daughter of Major Hunt of Hunts- ville, and a great-granddaughter of the man who located that city, and from whom it takes its name. Mr. Skeggs, Jr., was reared in Huntsville; re- ceived his early education in the common schools of that place; lost his mother in 1852, and during the war lived with Col. Russell Kelley, near Maysville After the war he attended school in Huntsville until 1872, when he became a sales- man in the grocery of J. B. Trotman & Son. In October, 1875, he was employed as book-keeper and salesman with L. M. Falk, of Decatur. In May, 1874, he traveled for J. H. Goodhart & Co., of Cincinnati, buying cotton, and subse- quently for other houses until June, 1877; then he went to Colorado, and engaged in mining at Georgetown. In November, 1878, he returned to Decatur, and was again salesman for L. M. Falk. In 1880 he established a store of his own, which he conducted successfully u:;til 1887, and then sold it, having embarked in the real estate busi- ness in January of that year. He is a stockholder in nearly all of the stock companies of Decatur: is prominent in the Mineral Land Company, and is a member of the City Council. Mr. Skeggs was married June 7, 188.3, to Miss Sue A. Burkett, of Trinity, Ala., a daughter of Thaddeus and Mary (Tie) Burkett, natives of Kentucky. H. A. Skeggs. Jr., has three children: William T., Annie C. and Thomas H. Mrs. Skeggs is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is a Mason and a Knight of Pythias. EUSTACE C. BENSON, :\Ierchant, Decatur, made his advent into life February 20, 1853, at Montgomery, Ala., and there received his educa- tion and business training. He went ' into business on his own account as the junior member of the firm of Benson Bros», long well known in Montgomery and elsewhere. John M. Benson, the senior member, died in 1881, and E. C. Ben- son conducted the business under the old name until June, 1887. when John L. Brown, who married Mr. Benson's sister, became an equal partner in the business, and the firm name became Benson & Brown. They still continue their business on Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, and in 1887 established a house on LaFayette street, Decatur, under the supervision of Mr. E. C. Benson, who has resided here since that time. The business conducted by him has been eminently satisfactory. James R. Benson, our subject's fatlier, was a native of Virginia, and came to Alabama in 1845; NORTHERN ALABAMA. 349 he was a fanner and merchant. His wife, also of Virginia, was Susan, (laughter of ^\ in. Hell. They had seven sons and four daughters, our sub- ject being among the younger members of the family. lie is a membei- of the Baptist Church, a prominent Knight of Pythias, and an active, ener- getic man, devoted to the progress of Decatur. ►^ R. L. TODD was born in .Montgomery in 1804, and is a son of James J. and Louisa R. (String- fellow) Todd, both natives of Virginia. Jas. J. Todd was secretary and treasurer of the Atlanta & Western Railroad and the Montgomery & Ku- faula Itailroad until his death, in 1S85. The mother also died in 1883. They had two children, William E.,of Montgomery, and R. L. Todd, who was reared and educated in Montgomery, and con- ducted the grocery business there for four years. He came to Decatur in August, in 1887, and formed a partnership with James A. EUsberry, under the firm name of Todd & Ellsberry. James A. Ellsberry was born in Montgomery in 185!<. He is a son of James H. and Fannie E. (Oleason) Ellsberry, natives of (Jeorgia and Nortli Carolina. The father died in Montgomery. J. A. Ellsberry was reared and educated in MdUtgomery, and commenced his active life as a baggage-master on the M. & f. Railroad, where he subserjuently became a conductor, and finally was employed in the running and forwarding de- partments of the Central & Western Railroad. He then became a member of the present firm. A. G. BETHARD was born in I'niou County, Ohio. 1840; was a soldier in the late war, of Com- pany E, Sixty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served through the war. and was a musician for one year and a half of the time of his service. He learned the trade of a carpenter in his younger days, and after the war became a foreman, con- tractor and builder, in Springfield, Ohio, until March. 18T'2, in connection with other parties. After that time his business was entirely on his own account and in the same city. He continued it successfully until he camQ to Decatur, in 1887, where he organized the Bethard Manufacturing Company. This company consists of A. G. and D. 1'. Bethard. They are now doing a very extensive atid profitable business in buildcs' supplies. Mr. Bethard was married in 1864, toMiss^fary Roberts, who died in 187G, leaving him one child. He was married again in 1877, to Jliss Adenia Gates, and they have two children. ^Ir. Bethard and wife are members of the Con- gregational Church. He is a member of I. 0. 0. E., K. of P., G. A. R.. K. of G. R., and 1. 0. R. M. ►^^ C. H. ALBES. Proprietor Hotel Bismarck, De- catur, sou of Henry and Mary E. (Deppe) Albes, was born in Hanover, Germany, October 13, 183.5; came to the United States in 1854, and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where lie established a wholesale grocery and provision business, and remained un- til 1804. He then moved to Xashville, Tenn., and was connected with a newspaper for a few years. In 1870, he came to Decatur, and was agent of the Southern Express Company three years. He began keeping hotel on a small scale, and being fortunate in location, has been successful in securing a patronage, heretofore un- known to Decatur, and largely in excess of his now greatly increased capacity. Mr. Albes was married February 27, 1807, to Miss Fredrica La- croix, of Nashville, Tenn., and three children have been born to their union, of whom Charles Edward is now a member of the Senior Class in Vanderbilt University (December, 1887). Mr. Albes' grandfather, Conrad D. Albes, served eighteen years in the German Army, and fought under Wellington at the battle of Waterloo. C. H. Albes is a member of the A. 0. U. W., and has served in the Council of Decatur several years. IV. GADSDEN. Bv Prof. J. W. Dc Bose. The county of Etowah is situated in tlie north- eastern joart of the State, just above the thirty- fourth parallel of north latitude, and is nearly di- vided by the eighty-sixth meridian of west longi- tude. It is located in that section of the State, which is so rich in mineral wealth. The county also contains very productive lands, and large forests of the most valuable limber. The name "Etowah" is an Indian word, and signifies large trees. The county was first organ- ized under the name of Baine County, in March, 18fi7. It was composed of parts of Cherokee, St. Clair, Marshall, Blount, Calhoun and DeKalb Counties, and contained 520 square miles. The Constitutional Convention of the sam.e year, 1867, abolished the county of Baine, and in December, of the following year, 18(38, the Legislature re- established the county with the name of Etowah. The territory, out of which Etowah County was formed, was originally known as the Missis- sippi Territory, and was formerly occupied by the Creek and Cherokee Indians. The first white settlers, of whom we have any knowledge, were John Radclilfe and James Leslie, who settled in this county about the year 180. (iadsden, nearly Arl years old, has had three postmasters. Dr. AV. T. Ewing succeeded Mr. ilcMichael In 18G.5, and held it for twenty years, and was succeeded by the present incum- bent, Mr. Daniel Liddel. The town of Gadsden grew very slowly until after the formation of the county in lS(i7, when it was incorporated and received a fresh impetus. Tiie jiresent court-house was built in 1870, and the jail in 1874. The present population of the city is about 5,000 inhabitants. The Alabama Great Southern, which is now a division of the Queen & Crescent Route, was built through this county during the years of 18(J7 and 1870. and was known as the Alabama A Chattanooga Rail- road. 'i"lu' iron on the Tennessee & Coosa Railroad was laid in IS71. between Gadsden and Atlanta, on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. During the past year, the Tennessee & Coosa I{ailroad has been extended a few miles beyond Atlanta to the foot of Sand Mountains. Among some of the old inhabitants of (iadsden. who are now living, we mention Dr. Josejih Bevans, A. L. AVoodliff and R. B. Kyle. Doctor lie vans has practiced medicine over thirty years in Gadsden, and is to-day a valu- alile citizen. At the close of the war in 18G5, Captain Woodliff was elected Senator from Chero- kee County, as it was then known, and introduced the bill creating the county of Baine, which was passed in 1S67. Col. R. B. Kyle, for thirty years has been so intimately associated with Gadsden and Etawah County, and has been such an impor- tant factor in their development that any histoiy of Gadsden without him would be incomplete. We refer you to hisbiograi)hy. which you will find in this volume. 'J'he city of Gadsden was named for (ieneral (iadsden, of South Cai-olina. Hon. I. P. Moragne and his brother, J. S. Moragne, were from South Carolina, and, being great admirers of (ieneral (iadsden, named the infant city for him. It is situated at the southern terminus of Lookout Mountain, on the west bank of the Coosa River. It is about ninety miles south of Chattanooga, Tenn., fifty-two miles west of Rome, Ga., and fifty-five miles northeast of Birmingham, Ala. It is beautifully located at the foot of Lookout Mountain, which rises like a wall on the north" to shelter it from the cold winds. The beautiful Coosa, a bold, navigable stream, flows at its feet, and furnishes water transportation for a large part of its traffic. Until the great awakening in the mineral region, (iadsden was content to be the center of trade for about seven or eight counties that surrounded her. (iadsden for man\' years has controlled a large trade from the sirrrounding counties, and not knowing the great mineral wealth placed by nature at her very door, has directed her energies in the commercial line. When Birmingham attracted the attention of the whole country, and sprang into such wonderful activity, Gadsden found itself right in the heart of the great mineral region of North Alabama, and has begun the development of her groat min- eral wealth. \\'e believe no city in the South has more assuring prospects or a brighter future than (iadsden. Certainly no city in the mineral region of North Alabama has any natural ad- vantages overit. Coal, ironand limestone abound in the mountains around it, while manganese, marble, slates and building stones of the best quality are to be found at its very door. (iadsden is situated on a large plateau, T'lO feet above the level of the sea, about fifty feet above the highest water, with sufficient inclination to- ward the river to give it the finest natural drain- age possible. Nortii and west of it are Lookout ilountains, which furnish the most delightful sites for residences, and all within easy reach of the ])res- ent business part of the city. 352 NORTHERX ALABAMA. On the east side of the city flows the beautiful Coosa. There is not a more important stream in the State than this river. It jjasses right through the center of the great mineral region of the State, and empties its waters into the Gulf of Mexico through Mobile Bay. This river supjjlies the city of Gadsden with the finest water, while it afl^ords the opportunity foT the cheapest, as well as the finest sewerage system in the world. Northeast of the city about three miles, tliere is a rapid mountain stream, wliich overleaj)s a large rock bluff, descending one hundred feet be- low into a mountain gorge, forming one of the most picturesque scenes to be found on the Amer- ican Continent. These falls are known as "No- chalula,"' or Black Creek Falls. They will be de- scribed hereafter. While Gadsden's future will, in a great measure, be directed to development of the mineral wealth all round her door, she is not dependent ui:)on it for her prosperity. At a convenient distance ujj and down the Coosa River are vast forests of long- leaf yellow pine, which excels all other wood in the production of fine lumber. This is now a very lucrative industry in Gadsden. For fifteen years it has been the principal industry of the city, and Gadsden is now manufacturing lumber at the rate of twenty millions of feet annually. The lumber interest is at present represented by the Kyle Lumber Company, the Gadsden Lum- ber Company, and the " Red .Jack Company." These establishments, as before said, have an annual capacity of twenty million feet. These mills have attached to each of them large dry kilns and planing mills. So superior is the lumber manu- factured in Gadsden that nine-tenths of the pro- ducts of these mills have been marketed north of the Ohio River, and some of it going even to Canada. The Elliott Car Works have started under as favorable auspices as any similar enterprise in the South. They have four immense buildings, 50x xJOO feet each, and when in operation can turn out twelve cars per day. The works now employ about four hundred hands, and will doubtless be enlarged. The advantages enjoyed by this com- pany are superior. The Kyle Lumber Company has contracted to furnish all the lumber required, both of yellow pine and oak, necessary for the construction of cars, while the Round Mountain Charcoal Blast Furnace has contracted to furnish the iron for car-wheels. Capt. J. M. Elliott, who is president of the car works, has also the manage- ment of the furnace, which is just above Gadsden, on the Coosa River. This furnace turns out a cold-blast charcoal iron equal to any on the conti- nent, and the Elliott Car Company has made fair terms with this furnace for the iron to be used in the construction of ics cars. All the wood and iron necessary for the con- struction of cars are manufactured and produced right here, and with no expense for freight. Gadsden has two iron furnaces, which j^erhaps it would be better to describe separately. The first, known as the Gadsden Iron Company's, is a large charcoal furnace, with a capacity of sixty tons jjer day. The iron made by this furnace is of the finest quality, and is made of the red fos- siliferous ores, which are mined within one mile of the furnace. This ore is worked direct from the mines without roasting, and contains sufficient limestone to render it self-fluxing. The charcoal for this furnace is obtained from extensive forests up and down the Coosa, and the wood is. brought to the ovens in barges. These forests will supply charcoal enough for several furnaces for an in- definite time. The second furnace owned by the Gadsden Furnace Company is one of the largest coke fur- naces in the South, and will have a capacity of 120 tons per day. The furnace will go into blast about April 1, 1888. This furnace comjjany owns thirteen miles of the finest soft red ores in Ala- bama. Tlie furnace plant is located on the Coosa River, and immediately on the line of the Rome & Decatur Railroad, one mile northeast of the city of Gadsden. GADSDEN L.'VIfD AND IMPROVEMENT COMPANY. This company was organized a year ago, and owns some of the finest property in and around the city of Gadsden. It has 700 acres of land, much of which is beautifully situated for the ex- tension of the city. It also owns a large tract of land on the Highlands, immediately north of the city, and near to Nochalula Falls, which furnishes some of the most picturesque scenery to be found anywhere. These Highlands are very valuable for residences, as they command a magnificent view, stretching southward for a number of miles, and taking in the whole city of Gadsden. Just north of the city, on the Rome & Decatur Railroad, is located a $12,000 plant, in the shape of a paint-mill. This mill is newly built, with NORTHERN ALABAMA. 35:3 the finest and most iipjiroved machinery for mak- ing metiiUic paint. The capacity of tiic mil! is twelve tons jjcr day. One of the oldest as well as one of the hest paying institutions of Gadsden is the iron foundry. In it all iron and hrass castings are maiie, and everything made of iron, from an engine to the smallest castings. Besides the industries already iianuHl. we men- tion a machine shop, two sash, door and hliml factories, and a large cotton warehouse. In addition to these, we have one ^I'ational Bank, good schools, churches of all denominations, and a fine system of water works. Uadsden has lodges in fine working order of the following secret organizations : The .Masons, including Blue Lodge, ]{oyal Arch Chapter. ;ind Commandery. Also an Odd Fellows lodge, a lodge of Knights of Pythias, one of the Knights of Honor. .\lso a Knights of Labor lodge. There is a Masonic lodge for colored persons, in addition to the above mentioned lodges. The streets of Gadsden are beautifully lighted with electricity, and nearly all the business houses are using the incandescent lights. The churches are lighted also with them. One of the finest opera houses of the State is to be found in the city. Its recent furniture is all of the most approved style. It has a seating capacity of 800. .\ year ago a stock company was organized with a cash capital of 815,000, for the purposoof build- ing an ice factory. About the 1st of July every- thing was completed, and the city of (iadsden was using ice made in her own limits. Tlie factory is complete in every particular, and works most ad- miral)iy. Its capacity is tw'elve tons per day. Gadsden has three hotels, the E.xchange, the .lohuson House and the Printup. The Printnp, which is just now nearing completion, is a gem of beauty and architectural skill. It is made of stone and brick, four stories besides a basement, and is conceded tobeoneofthe finest hotels in the South. There is a fiourishing Young Men's Ohristian Association in the city. It has a hall open day and night to receive visitors and strangers. Without mentioning any of the projected rail- roads which will be built to Gadsden in the near future, we name the following railroads which are now running trains in and through (iadsden. The Tennessee & Coosa Hailroail, which is in- tended to connect the two rivers from which it gets its name. It is completed from Gadsden to a l)oint beyond .\talla, a rlistance of about ten miles. The .\nniston & Cincinnati Railroad is near- ing comj)letion, and \s\\\ soon run through trains between the points which give the name. The Rome & Decatur Railroad is running its trains through the city, but in a short time will have the road completed from Rome. Ga., to Decatur, on the Tennessee River. At the foot of Locust street is the bridge of the Anniston & Cincinnati Railroad. This bridge is a nuignificent iron structure, so arranged as to allow wagons and passengers to cross on it. It is a free bridge, and furnishes a thoroughfare to and from Gadsden for the eastern portions of the county. The society of (iadsden is refined and cul- tivated. The hcaltlifulness of the place, and the beauty of its surroundings, have conspired to draw to it the best class of population, and in a few years no doubt its society will rival in culture some of the older cities of the New Kngland States. Fine private schools, a graded public institute, with excellent churches of all denominations, leave nothing to be desired to those seeking a beautiful home with nice surroundings. The First National Bank of Gadsden was estab- lished April 1, 1S8T. Its cash capital is #50,000. It has an extensive line of deposits, aggregating over «! 100,000. The president, -Mr. A. L. (ilenn,is known in finan- cial circles: while its popular cashier, Mr. W. G. Brockw-ay, was in a manner born to the business, having from his earliest boyhood been trained to banking. The vice-president is Major R. 0. Randall, a man of large experience and fine success in business matters. The directors are among the best men of (iadsden and men who own large interests in the city. The Bank has done a line business, and its future is very bright. The probability is that the capital will be increased to*100,000 this fall (1888). Gailsden up to a year ago had two weekly papers, the Timea and the News'. On February 1, 1887, these two weeklies consolidated for the purpose of running a ilaily at a very early period. The con- solidated pajjer is known as the Gadsden Times finil News, and is regarded as one of the best weeklies published in the State. Meeks and Johnson, the editors and proprietors. 354 NORTHERN ALABAMA. are lifelong newspaper men, and have succeeded always in fnrnisliing a good paper to the people. The Tiniest and Xeus will merge into a daily as soon as the railroads now in process of construc- tion to Gadsden are completed. At present it is a weekly devoted to agriculture, politics, general literature and the news of the day. Its politics are Democratic. The Times before its consolidation with tlie Xeirs was one of the oldest papers in the State, having been established in 1867. They were consolidated in 1887. The News was established in 1880. Three miles northwest of Gadsden are situated the beautiful and picturesque Xochalula Falls. Black Creek flows along the summit of the southern spur of Lookout Mountain, for some distance, until it abruptly widens over a vast ledge of rock, falling one hundred feet into a whirlpool below. Like nearly all fine scenes in nature, it is impos- sible to give such a description as would convey to the mind of the reader an accurate idea of the beauty to be seen here. While not so grand as Niagara Falls, they exceed them in beauty and picturesque appearance. It is all nature's work, as art has done nothing to change or modify their appearance, but they pos- sess all the wild beauty that they had in days of yore, when the Indian legend tells us, that the beautiful Star, Alivilda, of the Cherokee tribe, leaped over them to avoid going with the Creek chief to his dista,nt wigwam. Five miles west of the City of Gadsden is the thriving little City of Atalla. It is situated right in the middle of the mineral wealth of the county. Its present railroad facilities are superior to those of Gadsden. It is immediately on the line of the great Queen & Crescent Route, which is one of the finest and longest railroad lines in the South. Besides the Queen & Crescent Route, Atalla has all the other railroads of the county centering and crossing there. The Anniston & Cincinnati Railroad, the Rome & Decatur, and the Tennessee & Coosa Railroads, all center in Atalla. This little city, like many other towns in the mineral belt, for a number of years has relied on agriculture for its support. Atalla has awakened from its slumber, and its enterprising citizens are now bending their energies toward the develop- ment of her great mineral wealth. Her popula- tion is increasing very rapidly, and it numbers now over l,-<;00. The city is improving quite rap- idly, and in a short while several furnaces, which are now in process of erection, will be converting the fine iron ores around her doors into merchant- able pig-iron. The society of this little city is very good, having excellent churches and fine schools. The location of the city is indeed fine and attractive, being surrounded on two sides by high hills, with two beautiful valleys coming to- getlier right above it. Atalla has a bright future before her, and her enterprising citizens are exert- ing themselves for her growth and prosperity. Atalla is largely engaged in the mercantile business, besides mining large quantities of iron ore, which is shipped to farmers in Tennessee and Georgia. The city has two newspapers, the Netv Age, published and edited by A. G. Lee, and the At- alla Herald, published and edited by T. J. Wat- kins. Both of these papers are Democratic in politics, and are working for the development and prosperity of Atalla and Etowah County. In addition to the cities of Gadsden and Atalla the county of Etowah has several other prosperous villages, among which we mention Walnut Grove, as remarkable for its good society, excellent churches and fine schools. [See Etowah County, this volume.] ROBERT B. KYLE, distinguished citizen and business man, of Gadsden, was born in Rockingham County, N. C, May 24, 1826, and is a son of James and Elizabeth (Jones) Kyle, the former a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, and the latter of Henry County, Va. The senior Mr. Kyle came to America and settled in Rock- ingham County in 1820, and there in 1824 married Miss Jones. They had born to them two sons and five daughters. Mr. Kyle was a tobacco manufacturer at Leaksville, N. C, where he died in 1836. The subject of this sketch, from his early youth, was reared by his stepfather. Col. Joseph Kyle, a prominent business man at Columbus, Ga. Early in 1861 he joined the Thirty-first Alabama Infantry as first lieutenant, and at the organization of the regiment was made quartermaster. His health failing him, he was some time thereafter appointed to the local quartermaster's service, and assigned '/ //^^^^ C L NORTHERN ALABAMA. 355 to Columbus, f!a., where lie retnained to tlie close of the war. Col. lvol)ert B. Kyle was one of the contractoi's who built the railroad from Opelika, Ala., to Columbus, Cia,, in 1852. In thelatterpart of that year he moved to Cherokee County, Ala., and oommcneed farming; but, being of an active temperament and restless, unless engaged in trade and handling money, he left his farm, moved to (iadsden in September, 1857, and commenced merchandising. Gadsden at that time had a ]H)i)ulation of but one hundred and fifty people and l)ut three small stores. Through his energy and management, Colonel Kyle at once built up a tine trade with all the surrounding counties of Northeast Alabama, and with others in Central Alabama. The shipping facilities of (Jadsden at that time were very inadequate, but Colonel Kyle, perceiv- ing the necessity of more enlarged means of trans- jiortation, organized a company and built a steam- boat for the Coosa River and its tributaries. This accomplished, Gadsden became a considerable cotton market, and trade generally more than trebled itself in a remarkably short time. At the outbreak of the war. Colonel Kyle had built up a very large business, and the population of the town had greatly increased. After the war. Colonel Kyle returned to (Jadsden and set about the rebuilding of his fortune. With the eye of a far-seeing intellect, he understood the natural advantages of this location, and proceeded without delay to develop them. He engaged at the mercantile business and soon afterward under- tosk the construction of the Alabama & Chatta- nooga Railroad, and subsequently, in connection with the late W. V. Hollingsworth, built the (iads- (ieii branch from Atalla. This was the first im- portant step toward the development of the nat- ural resources of this town, and gave him addi- tional facilities for handling lumber, cotton and other products of the county. His enterprise and business tact brought this business to the notice of the world, and, through him, fiadsden has become one of the largest interior manufacturing points of the long-leaf yellow pine lumber. His trade rap- idly spread out to all parts of the country, and he shipped lumber as far north as Chicago, as far west as Kansas City, and eastward to the Atlantic seaboard. Under Colonel Kyle's management, the lum- ber interest at Gadsden has become a gigantic in- dustry, and gives employment to over one thousand men. Colonel Kyle has been equally active in the u{)building and development of almost every other meritorious enterprise so far established at Gads- den. He was the leading spirit in the organiza- tion of the (Jadsden Furnace Company, and of the Elliott Car Works ; is president of the Gadsden Ivand and Improvement Company, and holds a directorship in almost every other iiicorj)orated institution at this place. Colonel Kyle isaniodest.unassiiminggentleinan, takes a deep interest in the moral and intellectual advancement of his city and country, and is alto- gether one of the most progressive citizens of Northern Alabama. Knergetic, far-seeing, brave and daring, he allows no obstacle to stand be- tween him and the objects at all times in view. In speaking of him, a recent publication says: "He has liewn down all obstacles, and brought his section of the country from a wild wilderness to be one of the most enterprising and inviting of the South. He is now a ' sentinel upon the watch-tower' that looks out to warn off all danger, as well as to see the necessities and ad- vantages of his country, and at once forms all combinations necessary to meet and utilize them to the interests of the community. No truer man lives: no jiolitician, yet an anxious wisher for good and honest government. Such is Col. Rob- ert B. Kyle, one of nature's noblemen." Colonel Kyle was married December 1. 1848, to Miss Mary Thornton, a daughterof Dozier Thorn- ton, of Cherokee County, and had born to him two children, one of whom is dead. The other, Mary A., is the wife of ^farcns L. Foster, of Gadsden. Mrs. Kyle died in Cherokee County, Ala., 1855; in October, 185'i, the Colonel was married to Miss Mary Nuckolls, daughter of Nathaniel Nuckolls, of Columbus, Ga. To this union twelve children were born, si.\ of whom are dead. The living are -Mrs. Nena Kyle Elliott, wife of James M. Elliott, Jr., Miss Bessie Eee Kyle, Miss Edith Marion Kyle, MifS Robbie E. Kyle, Miss Florie Male Kyle, and Mr. Thomas Stonewall Kyle, who is secretary and treasurer of the Kyle Lumber Company. In consideration of Colonel Kyle's prominence and popularity as a citizen of Gadsden, the pub- lishers take pleasure in presenting with this chap- ter a steel plate portrait of that gentleman. 356 NORTHERN ALABAMA. DANIEL C. TURRENTINE was born October 18, 1807, at ii place now covered by the town of Milledgeville, in (leorgia. He was a merchant in his early days; came to Alabama aboi;t 1839, and entered a large tract of land near Lebanon, in De Kalb County, njion which he settled and farmed. About 1845 he moved to the present site of Gads- den, and ujion the banks of the river erected the first house of that city. Here Mr. Turrentine kept a tavern and store. There were six lines of stages running by this place and making it their head- quarters; it was also the landing for James Laffer- ty's steamboat, the fir.st ever run on the Coosa Eiver, and these things made the place an excel- lent location for business. After a time his wife's declining health com- I^elled Mr. Turrentine to relinquish his activity, and about 1851 he purchased a farm about a mile from the landing, and built a residence ujaon it, in which his family now reside. As a general of militia he got the title by which was ever after- ward known. He was a captain in the Florida War and a quartermaster in the Confederate States Army. The amj>le fortune of which he became possessed was the result of his own energy, and was accumu- lated in spite of his numerous charitable bequests, and kindhearted disijosition to become security for his friends by which means he lost largely. He was also an active member of the ilethodist Epis- copal Church, organized the first Sunday-school in Gadsden, and made his house a home for all the preachers. In his capacity as Justice of the Peace, which office he held for nine years, he per- formed nearly all the marriage ceremonies in the community. His death occurred in September, 1883. Mr. Turrentine was married to Miss Caroline E. Lucy, daughter of Joshua and Louisa A. (Hunnicutt) Lucy, natives of Virginia, and of Eng- lish descent. Mrs. Turrentine died in July, 1881. They had seven sons and seven daughters born to them, twelve of whom grew to maturity: William A., Louisa J., Virginia A., James L., Caroline L., Joshua L., Samuel M. (now dead), Lillie A., Daniel ('., George Edward, Mary Ellen, and Albert T. A\'illiam A. died of a wound received in the fight before Ilichmond. Daniel C. Turrentine was a son of James and Catharine (Clower) Turrentine, both natives of North <^arolina. James Turrentine was a farmer. They were married September 19, 1793, and had nine sons and three daughters born to them; the names of these were: William, Samuel, George, Morgan C, Allen, Dan, Thomas C, Joseph T., James, Frances, Elizabeth and Xancy. They nearly all lived to be quite old, and most of them raised children, among whom were after- ward many of the leading families of the State. James Turrentine, Sr., moved to Georgia, prob- ably about 1795. He and his family were mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church and very pious people. He died in September, 1831, aged sixty years. His wife died in 18'iO, aged eighty-four years. The Turrentine family were originally from France. WILLIAM PERRY HOLLINGSWORTH was born in St. Clair County. Ala., August 'li, 18'iS, and was a son of Jacob and Delphia (Henderson) Hollingsworth, natives of Virginia. At the age of eleven years he began clerking for his brother ill a mercantile establishment at Gadsden, and at the age of sixteen was given a partnership in the business. From that time to within a short time of his death, he was an active business man. He started in the world as a poor boy, and rounded up at a ripe old age, possessed of an elegant for- tune, and with the happy consciousness of having never wronged a man out of a penny. No man in Gadsden ever stood higher in the esteem of the people, than did Mr. Hollingsworth. In August, 18(31, he was elected captain of a company in the Nineteenth Alabama Regiment, and he remained in the service until the close of the war. After his first year in tLe army be was transferred to the Commissary Department, and remained there dur- ing the rest of the time. The war depleted his fortune almost entirely, but he subsequently, in mercantile business, recouped it to a large ex- tent, and when he died he was one of the wealth- iest men in his county. He was by far the most extensive dry goods merchant ever at Gadsden, if not in all Northeastern Alabama. Throughout his entire life his efforts appear to have been crowned with success. It is said of him, that he never took hold of anything, in a business way, that he did not turn into money. He was a de- voted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; was always actively interested in educa- tion, and was noted for his charity, his liberal- ity, and his punctuality in all things. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 357 Mr. llolliiigs worth was married November 27. 1S.">1, to >riss .Mary J. Lewis, diiugiiter of Joel and Ann 0. (Krider) Le\vi:3. and reared six children: Annie 0. (now the wife of -Mr. Paden), Lanra J. (now Mrs. Lay). Katie M. (.Mrs. Standifer), Willie A. (wife of \V. 1'. .lohnson). Kdinond '1'., and Alice M William llollingsworth, the great-grandfather of the sul)ject of this sketch, catne from England with William Penn. Mrs. llollingsworth's father, .loel Lewis, was a native of South Carolina, and her mother, Ann C. Krider. was horn and reared in Philadelphia. WILLIAM HENRY DENSON. United States District Attorney, was born in Knssell County, Ala., March 4, IS-ttJ. His parents, Augustus K. and Elizabeth (Ivey) Denson, were born, respectively, in Franklin County, X. C, in lSl-2, and Baldwin County, Ga., in 1810. The senior Mr. Denson, a plant<;r by occupa- tion, took part in the War of 1S3(;, going into the army from Alabama, whither he had moved in is:i3. lie lived in Russell County, this State, and there reared tive sons and three daughters. 'l"he eldest son, .lohn B., of Waddell's Artillery, was killed at Resaca, Ga. ; Robert II. lives at Trenton, Mo.; X. D. is an attorney-at-law in Chambers County, this State; Augustus M., late sheriff of Etowah County, died in April, 1S,S,"); and the snl)- ject of this sketch, one of the leading attorneys of Alabama, will be treated of hereafter. The old gen- tleman was a son of ,Iohn K. Denson, a \'irginian, who moved into Xortli Carolina at the beginning of the present century, and there married Frances Hill-Smau. He was a soldier in the A\'ar of 1812, and reared a large family of children. The Deiisons came originally from England, and were (^usikers. The first one that came to this country was William Denson. He settled in West- moreland County, \'a., aiul reared three sons; one of the sons settled in Maryland, anothei- in Penn- sylvania, and the third in Xorth Carolina. They were farmers, and from them iiave descended many noble men and women, distinguished, some of tiiem. in the history of the Cliurch and of State. The Ivey family, from wliom the subject of this sketch descends in the maternal line, came origi- nally from Wales in the person of Barney Ivey. Barney married .Vlcey Davis, a native of Georgia, and lived to be ninety-one years of age. He died in Xovember, l.S)S(i. He reared a large family of sons and daughters, all of whom it appears heeiled well * the injunction of the Bible in nuiltii)lying and reiilcnishing the earth. William Henry Denson spent the first seventeen years of his life on his father's farm, at the neigh- boring schools and at the University of Ahibama. He entered the army in February, IS'iiJ, as a mem- ber of Waddell's Battalion of Artillery, and was in every battle from Dalton to Atlanta. In i.s04 he was furloughed on account of his protracted sick- ness: rejoined his command at Macon, (ia., and remained to the close of the war. For the first year after the restoration of peace he turned his hand to farming, raised a crop, sold it, and with the jiroceeds, went to Columbus, Ga., where, in the olhce with R. .1. Moses, he began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in February, 18t>i, but it appears did not enter the practice until 1«70. In that year he hung out his shingle at IjaFayette, Ala., and was at once recognized as a brilliant and successful attorney. In 18T'> he was a member of the Legislature, where he served with marked ability on the Judiciary Committee, and as a member of the joint committee on the revision of the Code. After a trip West, he, in the fall of 1877, settled in Gadsden, were he has since remained, and where he unquestionably stands at the very head of his profession. Colonel Denson is an active politician, an un- compromising Democrat, and serves his party with much zeal and distinguished effect. He was a Cleveland elector in 1884, and in June, 1885, was appointed United States District Attorney for the Xorthernand Middle Districts of Alabama. He is a Royal Arch -Mason and a Knight of Pyth- ias: is an active business man, live, energetic, wide-awake, broad-guaged, and belongs to the noble army of modern Southern men, now growing rap- idly famous for their energy and enterjirise. As a public man, his record is without a blemish. Op- posed to rings and monopolies of all kiiuls, he be- lieves in a Government of the peojile. by the peo- ple, and for the people. With him jobbery, "chicanerv. scheming and iiusillanimity linds no abiding place, nor lias he any patience with any man, be he ever so great, who panders to such things and demagoguery in his efTorts for jiolitical advancement. He has implicit faith in the intel- ligence and integrity of the people at large, and believes that the whole people should and must 358 NORTHERN ALABAMA. have a voice in the Government. In speaking of the people, it should be understood that Colonel ' Denson means the white jieople. Physically, Colonel Denson is a broad-shoul- dered, heavy-set, I'otund sort of a man; florid complexion, hair and beard slightly tinged with gray. Before a jury he is a powerful advocate; on the stump he is a forcible, logical and eloquent speaker; in conversation he is pleasing, cordial and entertaining. The publishers take pleasure in prefacing this article with the portrait of the gen- tleman as a mark of distinction and of their ap- preciation of his high merit as a citizen. Colonel Denson was married December 'l\, 1SC8, to Kosa H Cowan, a native of Eufaula, and daughter of Dr. William Cowan, one of the pio- neers of that town, known first as Irwinton. Mrs. Denson's mother is a sister of the Hon. J. L. Pagh, United States Senator. Colonel and Mrs. Denson have five children: Annie L., Hugh C, William A., John and Lola E. The family are Presbyterians. REV. JOHN A. THOMPSON, Pastor in charge of the Metliodist Episcopal Church, South, located at Gadsden, is a native of Fi'anklin County, this State, and was born December 15, 1842. His early years were spent in the country on his father's farm and in attend- ance at the common schools. At fourteen 3'ears of age he entered the academy at Lib- erty Hill, and was there at school when the war came on. In August, 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier, and served up to and partially through the battle of Murfreesboro. Here he was so seriously disabled as to necessitate his dis- charge, and he remained at Murfreesboro to the close of the war. From his earliesi youth, Mr. Thompson was religiously disposed, and he be- gan preaching when seventeen years of age, joining the Tennessee Conference, October 10, 1860. His studies were always pursued with a view to the ministry. In 1870 he became a mem- ber of the North Alabama Conference. He was ordained elder in October, ]86.i, since when he has given his time and study to his profession. He has been fifteen years secretary of the North Alabama Conference; was at one time the corres- ponding editor of the Alabama Advocafe; has been editor of the Times and News of Gadsden; served as presiding elder of the Huntsville District, and has been for several years gathering data prepara- tory to a publication of the history of Methodism in North Alabama, particularly of the North Ala- bama Conference. The subject of this sketch is a son of T. W. and Mary D. (Wilder) Thompson, natives of Georgia and Virginia, respectively. The senior Mr. Thomp- son was born in 1813, and his parents settled in Lauderdale County about 18'20. He was educated in that county, became an extensive planter, and a popular public man. He held the office of county commissioner and magistrate for over thirty years. At this writing (1888) he resides in Colbert County. His wife died in March. 18?.'). They reared a family of eight sons and five daugliters: three of the sons were in the army under General Forrest, and Wni. J., the eldest, was killed in Georgia in 1864; Emmet B., the second son, is now a ilethodisc Episcopal minister in Texas. The Thompsons came from North Carolina into Georgia in the latter part of the last century, and Henry Thompson, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was an officer in the War of 1812. The Thompsons came originally from England, and were Baptists, but it appears that all of the younger generations were, and are identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Thomi)son is a Knight Templar ^lason. and has also been connected with the I. 0. 0. F., K. of P., K. of II. and I. O. R. M. He is happy in his domestic relations, enjoying the companion- ship of his excellent wife, who is a daughter of General Patterson, of Huntsville, Ala., and his interesting child, John Rison. -«" JAMES A. TALLMAN, Probate Judge of Eto- wah County, was born at Abbeville Court House, S. C, November 27,1818. His father was Thomas W. Tallman, and his mother, before marriage, was Margaret Taggart. The senior Mr. Tallman was orphaned when very young, and was by his gnardian bound to a tailor in New York City. At an early age he ran away from his employer and shipped on a steamer for Ciiarleston, S. C, at which place he afterward made his home. He lived to be eighty four years of age. His wife was a daughter of Moses Taggart, a native of Ireland, who came to the United NORTHERN ALABAMA. 359 States about the close of the Revolutionary AVar, and settled in South Carolina, in the ChIIiouu Settlement. He was a school teacher by profes- sion. He served as Ordinary, or Probate Judge, of his county a number of years, lie died in 1S40, ui)ward of eighty years of age. The subject of this sketch spent tiie first twelve years of his life in the village of his nativity, going thence to the country upon a farm, and later, re- turning to Abbeville, turned his liand for a while to the printing business. At the age of sixteen years, he accepted a clerkship in a country store, and in liS;58, came to Alal)ama, located in Greene County, where he was employed as a salesman and book-keeper in a mercantile establisiiment until 18."):i. In that year he engaged in mercantile busi- ness on his own account at (Jreensboro, and was there until IMfil. Daring the war he was post- nuister at (ireensboro, Ala., to which he was appointed by President Davis. From 1SG6 to lS(;,s, lie was interested in the hotel business at (ireensboro and Selma. and in the lattei- year came to (Jadsden as book-keeper for AV. P. Hollings- worth. In IMTT he was elected tax assessor, held that office ten successive years, and in November, 1S,S7, resigned to accept the probate judgeship. .ludge Tallmaii is one of the active, wide-awake, progressive citizens of the modern city of Oails- den. lie is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Presbyterian Church. October, lS4->, in Greene County, he was married to .Julia A. Dorroii, daughter of James and Malinda (Wright) Dorroh. She died in isoij, leaving three chil- dren, to-wit: Klizabetli, Timothy T. and Harriet W. (Mrs. Samuel W. Smith, of Monticello, (ia). In 1S.")S, the Judge was married to Miss Annie 11. Webb, daughter of Dr. Henry Webb, and they have had born to them two children: Julia D., wife of .lames F. WoiniiitT. and .Maigaiet. now deceased. JAMES L. TANNER, prominent young Attor- ney-al-law, Gadsden, Ala., a native of Macon County, this State, son of Lemuel H. and (tphelia (Masters) Tanner, was born Sejitember IS, iy.")8. The senior .Mr. Tanner, a Georgian by birth, was an extensive i)lanler: came to .Mabama in 1S44, settled in Macon, now Hullock, County, and from there entered the Confederate Army, wherein he served gallantly as a member of the Third Ala- bama, in General Lee's army, for three years or more in the late war. He was a prominent Free- mason, and a consistent member of the -Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He died at Union Springs July 13, 188.5. His widow yet survives him, and resides at Tallassee, this State. The Tanners are of F"rench and English extraction, and the Masters are descendants from the English and Irish. The subject of this sketch was reared at Union Springs and educated at tiie State University of .Vlabama, graduating from the law department, class of 1880. For a short time before entering college he was on the road as a traveling man, selling dry goods, and, after graduating, was con- nected for a while with the Eufaula Times ami Neios. In February, 1881, he opened a law office at Union Springs, and from there, in June, ls,s:j, came to (iadsden. WtiYa he formed a partnership, in .May. 1887, with Hon. Wm. H. Denson. At this writing (1888) Denson & Tanner are recog- nized as the leading law firm at the Gadsden bar. He is a member of (iovernor Seay's staff. Mr. Tanner was married, December, 188i!, to Miss Sallie Ward, daughter of Mrs. Sarah Ward, widow of 0. W. Ward, deceased, of this city. JAMES AIKEN, prominent Attoriiey-at-law, (iadsden. Ala., native of Fairfield District. S. C, son of William and Elizabeth (Stitt) Aiken, was born August 8, 18;5(i. The senior .Mr. .\iken was born in County Antrim, Ireland, toward the latter part of the last century, and with his parents migrated to .Vmerica in 18"20. The family settled in Fairfield District, and there the two old people *]ient the rest of their lives. They, William and Elizabeth, reared four children, two of whom. Robert S. anil William M., died from wounds received in battle during the late war. The Stitt family came also from Ireland, away back in the present century, and settled in South Carolina, where they became highly respectable and substantial farmers. 'i'he subject of this sket h was reared on a farm until he was seventeen years of age, and received during that iieriod. at the common scliools, a good English education. In 1847 he was appointed cadet to the South Carolina Military Academy at Charleston, graduated from that institution in 360 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 1851, and taught school for several years, probably until 1856. In 1854 he came to Alabama, settled in Randolph County, taught school two years, read law in the meantime, and was admittetl to the bar in November. 1 56. From the time of his admission to the bar he has been continuously to the present identified with the profession. In July, 1861, he raised a company of volunteers for the Southern Army, and upon its organization, was made captain. It was known as Company D, Thirteenth Alabama, and Captain Aiken led it gallantly in many a hotly-contested battle. He was seriously wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, and did not I'ejoin his command nntil the fall thereafter. lie was also wounded at Chancellors- ville, and again at Bristow's Station. After the battle of Seven Pines he was promoted to major, \ after Chanctillorsville to lieutenant-colonel, and within a very short time was promoted to colonel. | With this rank, he remained in the service until I Lee's surrender, at which time he returned home and resumed the practice of law. He located in Gadsden in 1869, and here he has since made his ] home. In 1875 Colonel Aiken was elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and in February, 1885, was appointed Circuit Judge by (Governor O'Neal. During the war, from captain to major, lieuten- ant-colonel and colonel, in regular order and rapid succession, the subject of this sketch rose upon his merits, and without any solicitation upon his own part; so in civil life, by merit, by real worth, he has risen in his jn-ofession until he is recognized as one of its leaders. His appoint- ment to the judgeshi]! was without solicitation upon his part, and was in keeping with the wisdom exercised by Governor O'Neal in all of his appointments. While in the army, and at the front, the people of his county elected him to the Legislature, and he left the service long enough to serve one session. Judge Aiken was married January 26, 1877, to Mrs. L. N McClelland, daughter of Linsey and Lucinda (Pace) Weaver, of Calhoun County, and has had born to him four children: Lucy A., James, Robert S. and Annie. ROBERT A. D. DUNLAP, Attorney-at-law and Register in Chancery, Gadsden, son of Sam- uel C. and Angeline C. (Tatum) Dunlap, was born in Henry County, Tenn., October 18, 1843. The senior Mr. Dunlap was born in Lancaster District, S. C, 1808, in and his wife, six years before, was born in North Carolina. They were married in North Carolina, and from there migrated to Ken- tucky about the year 1834. From Kentucky they moved to Tennessee, and settled at Caledonia, where the old gentleman died in 1856. The subject of this sketch was reared in Cale- donia, there received his education, and, in 1862, entered the Confederate Army. Though not an enlisted soldier, he participated in the battle of Shiloh. At Corinth he was taken sick and returned home. In September, 1863, he enlisted in the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry (Forrest's command), and his company took part in many cavalry en- gagements in Mississippi and Tennessee. He was wounded at Guntown, Miss., and finally sur- rendered at Gainesville, Ala. For a short time after the war, he taught school, and in November, 1866, he located in DeKalb County, Ala., began the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1867, and has practiced law ever since. He moved to Chattanooga in the fall of 1874, and from there, a year later, came to Gadsden. Here, in partnership with Colonels Denson and Disque, he practiced law two years; in partnership with Mr. Dortch he prac- ticed some years; and since January, 1885, he has been unassociated. November, 1886, he was ap- pointed Register in Chancery, which, aside from that of alderman in the City of Gadsden, appears to constitute the sum of his office holding. Mr. Dunlap was married in July, 1868, to Susan G. Jacoway, daughter of John G. and Nancy Mid- dleton Jacoway, of DeKalb County, and to them have been born nine children, viz.: John 1)., Sam- uel D., Horace E., Jessie M. (since deceased), Maggie PI, Robert H., William W., Susan, and Frank C. The family are members of the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Dunlap is a member of the Order of Knights of Pythias. .H^— JOHN HAROLD DISQUE, Attorney-at-law, tiadsden, was lioni in New Orleans March 23, 1848, and is a son of Charles H. Disque, a native of Frankfort-on-the-Main. Charles H. Disque accompanied his parents to America. They set- tled at New Orleans, and there Charles H. was educated. His father was a native of Paris,. France. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 361 John II. Disqiie was educated in New Orleans. After coming to Gadsden be studied law, and in IS^"-' was admitted to the bar. Immediately after coming to tbe bar he was elected Prosecuting At- torney, and held the office four years. In the meantime he was elected Mayor of Gadsden, and held the office three years. In 1880, he was a dele- gate to the Democratic National Convention, and in 1887, witiiout solicitation upon his part, the people of Gadsdpu again called him to the mayor- alty. Mr. Disque is an able and populai- attorney, in fact, as a criminal lawyer he is ranked among the foremost of the State. lie was married ilarch 30, 18f'>9, to the accomplished daughter of Judge L. ,1. Standifer. of this city. — «-!^^-*- — JOHN SANFORD PADEN was born in Cobb County, Ga., February 14, 1S4J, and is a sou of John T. and Margaret (Foster) Paden, natives of South Carolina. John T. Paden was a farmer, and alucal minis- ter of the Methodist Episcojjal Church. When a young man, he moved to Forsyth County, Ga., and later to Cobb, where he lived until his death. He reared five sons and four daughters by his first marriage, to-wit : Robert S. died in (ieorgia: James Washington was killed at the battle of Hull Klin: John Sanford (our subject); Elijah P., is now a Methodist Episcopal minister. He served through the war in the Fifty-sixth Georgia Regi- ment; Samuel Renau died in Texas: Elizabeth, wife of J. A. Gunter, of Georgia; Susan ('., wife of Nathaniel Sherman, a manufacturer of (ieor- gia, and Emma, wife of John Fowler, of Georgia. The mother of our subject died about 185^, and later on, Mr. Paden was married to Mrs. Sampler, who bore him one child, Aaron. The senior Mr. Paden died in 1881. The subject of this sketch was reared in Ros- well. Cobb County, Ga., where he received a limited education. At the outbreak of the war he entered the Confederate service with Company H, Seventh Georgia Infantry, and was in the first battle of Bull Run. He participated in all the battles in and around Richmond; was with General Longstreet at Chickamauga, and surrendered with (ieneral Lee"s army at Appomattox. Shortly after coming home he went to Indiana and Kentucky, in which States he spent about two years. Return- ing to Georgia »gain, he entered into mercantile business with T. 1). Evans, of Cherokee County, that State, and in the fall of 1809, located at tJadsden. Here he entered mercantile business on a small scale, building up gradually as his business increased, and at the present time has the largest country trade of any merchant in Northern Alabama. In 1878 he began the busi- ness known as "advancing and crediting." taking cotton in return. This latter business proved very lucrative to him, and he now handles on an ave- rage of four thousand bales of cotton a year. ilr. Paden is largely interested in the two Min- eral Land Companies of Gadsden ; is vice-pres- ident of the Gadsden Land and Improvement Com- pany: is a director and stockholder in the Gadsden Metallic Paint Company, an. IS, 4, to .Miss .\nnie Ilollingsworth, daughter of William P, and .Mary J. (Lewis) Ilollingsworth, and has had born to him five children, viz.: William C, John S., Joseph P., Anna J. and Alice M. Thefamilyare members of the Methodist Ejiiscopal Church. JOHN WESLEY DuBOSE. A.M., was born in .Marengo County, Ala., October 31, 1849, and is a son of Joel C. and Esther G. (Cleland) DuBose, natives of Darlington District, South Carolina. The senior Mr. DuBose was a merchant in early life at Charleston, S. C. He came to Alabama in 1838, settled in JIarengo County, and as he owned a large number of slaves, turned his attention to farming. He served his county in various offices, and was a very popular Whig in politics. He was the only member of that ])arty ever elected to office in that county. He and his wife were mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They reared four sons and three daughters, to-wit: Joseph L., served in Stewart's Cavalry during the war and died in the West; Mavbank D., teacher 362 NORTHERN ALABAMA. in Alabama, served in General Khodes' Brigade in Virginia, and was wounded at Spotsylvania and Snicker's Gap; Abner G., a farmer and merchant near Corsicana, Texas; and the subject of this sketch. Mr. DuBose died in 1858, at the age of fifty-six years, and his wife in 1S64. Mrs. DuBoso was of Scotch-Irish descent. The subject of this sketch was reared in his native county, attended schools near Linden, and when a youth was sent to Goodman Institute, where he remained several years. The Southern University of Greensboro, Ala., in 1874:, conferred ujion him the blaster of Arts degree. Since 1880 to the present time he has been continuously in charge of the Gadsden Public Institute. Professor DuBose before coming to Gadsden was Superintendent of Sumter County, and since coming here, he has been Superintendent of Etowah County. He was married in October, 1877, to Miss Lizzie Lake Cobbs, the accomplished daugliter of .Judge James Cobbs, of Mobile, Ala., and has had born to him four children: Edgar L. (deceased), Maggie C, John W. , Jr., and James Guei'in. Professor DuBose and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Professor is of the Masonic fraternity. He is the author of the history of Gadsden and Etowah County, as published in this volume, and it will be found to be one of the most accurate, as well as one of the most readable chapters in the book. ROBERT NORMAN KITTRELL. M. D., son of Dr. \Villiam Jones and Elizabeth Martha (Came) Kittrell, natives, resi5ectively,of the States of North and South Carolina, was born in Cam- den, Wilcox County, Ala. The senior Dr. Kittrell was a graduate of the University of Noi'th Carolina, and from the Ala- bama Medical College, Mobile. He died at Cam- den in 1803, leaving eight children. His eldest son, Benjamin F., now a physician at Black Hawk, Miss., served as a surgeon in a ^Mississipjii regiment during the late war ; one of his daugh- ters, Sarah B., is now the wife of Dr. Anson AVest; William P. died at Talladega: Mary N. (Mrs. E. E. Craig, of Dallas, Texas) ; Bryant J., merchant in Gadsden and a leading citizen, died in 1881 ; Laura W., wife of Dr. W. G. Stone, of West Sta- tion, Miss., and Alice H., married Dr. M. C. Marshall, of Little Rock, Ark. Mrs. Marshall is not living. The Kittrell family came from England, and the Cames originally from Ireland. The subject of this sketch was reared at Camden, Ala., there acquired the elements of an education, and in 1883 graduated from the L^niversity of Missis- sippi. From 1873 to 1878 he had clerked in a mercantile establishment at Black Hawk, that State, and, after graduating, taught one year in the Female Synodical Institute at Talladega. From Talladega he returned to ^lississippi and taught a term at Meridian. In the summer of 1884, at Black Hawk, he took up the study of medicine, and in 1886 graduated from Vander- bilt LTniversity as an M. D., taking the first hon- ors of his class. After graduating he remained one year on duty at the city hospital in Nashville, and in March, 1887, returned to Black Hawk, and married Miss Cora Meek, the accomijlished daughter of Dr. E. D. Meek, of that place. Immediately after mar- riage he came to Gadsden and settled down. He is at this writing in the enjoyment of a first-class and lucrative practice. WHITLEY THOMAS EWING, M.D., was born in Washington County, Va., December '.^8, 1823, and is a son of Samuel and Mary (Davis) Ewing, of that State. The senior Mr. Ewing was a teacher by profes- sion; reared a family of seven children, and died in 1825 at the age of about forty-five years. Dr. Ewing was reared in the country; went West at the age of fifteen years, stopping first at Rogersville, Tenn.; from there traveled through Alabama to Memphis, and down the river to Arkansas. He was accompanied by his brother when he left home; they, it appears, having ran away from a disagreeable step-father. From Ar- kansas he drifted into Louisiana, where he worked a while as a common laborer for seven dollars a month. From home his brother William Ewing went almost directly to Illinois, and at Quincy, that State, Whitley Thomas joined him. He worked four years in Quincy at the Manual Labor School, and from there entered the Mari- etta, Ohio, College, from which institution he NORTHERN ALABAMA. 363 received his education. To pay his expenses, while at college, he kept books and taught schodl in tlie neigliliorhood of JIurietta. Leaving college he returned to Quincy, and, with Dr. Stalil, began the study of medicine, lie received his first course of lectures at Jacksonville, 111., and graduated from the St. Louis Medical Col- lege in 184S. \\\ \i\\\\ he began jiractice in the city last named, remained there one year, and in 1IS.")U. accompanied again by his brother, went, over-land, to California. There he entered into a good practice, made money, ran a ho.spital for a time between Ilangtown (now I'lacerville) and Cold Springs. Doctor Ewing returned to St. Louis in 18.")o, and there, on the 'l\W\ day of August, that year, marrieii Hannah L I'ettcngill, a native of Massa- cliusetts From St. Louis, at the end of eight months, lie went to Cass County, Georgia, and practiced medicine eight years, lie was a strong Union man, which accounted for his leaving the latter State in ISii-^, at which time he came to Gadsden. Here he has since given much of his attention to the practice of medicine. He was a member of the Reconstruction Conventions of 1867 and 18(18, and lias been more or less in politics ever since. He has been several times a candidate for office, and he is the most popular Republican in this part of the State. Doctor Pawing was ainiDintcd postmaster in ISiiti, and held the office until 18S.">. He was the chairman of the executive committee of the Republican party for the Seventh Congressional District during almost that entire period. >.'ot- withstanding his radicalism, he was a jiopnlar official, and, by his courtesy and gentlemanly treatment of everybody, gained and held tlie respect of the people. His chief deputy, during his entire incumbency as postmaster, was an old line Wliig, now acting with tiic Democrats. His wife died in June. 188, when he resigned and returned to Gadsden. Here he has since been actively engaged in tlie practice of medicine, and is at this writing (1888) 3G4 NORTHERN ALABAMA. in the enjoyment of a handsome competency, the result of his success as a doctor of medicine. He joined the State iledical Association in 1878; is now the president of the County Association, and is recognized by the profession generally as a physician of fine attainments. In addition to his practice he carries on an extensive drug store. Doctor Bevens was married in July, 184'-i, to Miss Temperance Gandy, daughter of Edward Gandy, of Gaudy's Cove, Morgan County, Ala., and has had born to him six children, to-wit: Mary E. (Mrs. Wright), John "\V., James M. (iihysician), Jannie (Mrs Hughes), Edward G., M. D., of Gadsden: Idella (]\Irs. Young). The mother of these chil- dren died in 1870, and in 1873 the Doctor mar- ried Mrs. Nancy Pett}', nee Sibly. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church, and the Doctor has been a Mason since 1853. He is at this writing a member of tlie Board of Health and chairman of the Board of Censors of the county. MARCUS LAFAYETTE HICKS, son of Tal- bertlL, ami Comfort (Britton) Ilicks, natives, re- spectively, of Tennessee and North Carolina, was born in Monroe County, Tenn., December 25, 184G. He was educated at the village schools; began clerking in a store at Merry Valley, East Tennessee, when thirteen years of age, and in February, 1862, entered the army as a member of Monsaret's Light Artillery, which in 1803 consoli- dated with the Second Alabama Battery, and 1864 with Barrett's Tenth Missouri Battery. From first to last he was in the battles of Farmington, Corinth, luka, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, around Atlanta, and, finally, at Columbus, Ga., surrendered to General Wilson. He returned to Tennessee and worked a while in a tanyard; came South with horses and mules, and in the sjiring of 1800, at Morrisville, Ala., apprenticed himself to a millwright. He remained at that trade about three years, located at Oxford as a clerk two years, and at the town of Bowden, Ga., in May, 1870, married Miss Lizzie Morris. In the following year, at Oxford, he began work in a sash, door and blind factory, and from there, in 1870, came to Gadsden. At this place, as a member of the firm of Vowell, Bac- chus & Ilicks, he manufactured sash, doors and blinds a short time, when he was made superin- tendent of the planing department of the Red Jacket Mills. After the death of Mr. Kittrell, in partnership witli ]\Ir. Standifer, Mr. Hicks pur- chased the Red Jacket Mills, which in six months thereafter (1882) burned down. In 1883 the large works of Kinnebrew & Hicks were started. In April, 1884, Kinnebrew withdrew from the firm, and was succeeded by Mr. Gwinn, and in ^larch, 1887, Mr. Lane came into the firm, which is now Gwinn, Hicks & Lane. It is one of the most enterprising concerns and one of the most suc- cessful at Gadsden. Mr. Hicks is a member of the ilasonic. Odd Fellows, and K. of P. fraternities. The senior Mr. Ilicks, a carpenter by trade, j^ar- ticipated in the Indian War of 1836, and died soon after the late war between the States, at the age of s'eventy years. He was the son of Charles Hicks, one of the pioneers of East Tennessee. His wife died about 1852. They reared seven children, viz.: George (deceased), Jane (Mrs. John Ed- wards), Asberry H., Amanda (Mrs. John C. Ma- son). Sarah (Mrs. James Belt), Nancy Ann (Mrs. Elisha Webb), and the subject of this sketch. Asberry H., a farmer of Monroe County, Tenn., was a soldier in the Mexican War, and .served in the last war as a member of an artillery com- pany. DANIEL LIDDELL, Postmaster, Gadsden, is a native of Gwinett County, Ga., where he was born May 30, 1850. He was reared on his father's farm, and at the neighborhood schools received a good English education. Soon after arriving at twenty-one years of age he nligrated to Texas, and was there for two years in the mercantile business. Coming thence into Alabama he turned his atten- tion to farming, and on November 10, 18T4, at Gadsden, was married to Miss Mary V. Nuckolls. In 1876 he again entered mercantile business, and followed it up to the time he was aj^jjointed to his present position, April, 1885. He took charge of the office on ^lay 1st, and was confirmed by the Senate in January, 1886. Mr. Liddell is an active Democratic worker, and was the Chairman of the County Democratic Executive Committee from 1884 until after he was appointed postmaster. He has living three children, and has buried two. ilr. and .Mrs. Liddell are members of the Baj^- ■ f iJ NORTHERX ALABAMA. 305 list Chiircli, and i[r. Liddell is a member of the I. 0. 0. F. , Knights of Pythias and the Masonic fraternities. Tiie Liddc'll family were among the very earliest settlers of (ieorgia, and several of them, among whom was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, were soldiers in the Kcvolutionary AVar. Mr. Liddell's parents were William C. P. and Evaline K. (Wynne) Liddell, natives, respect- ively, of Georgia and South Carolina. They came into Alabama in 18.!)(J, and settled near llokes Bluff, in Etowah County. The senior ^[r. Liddell was a soldier in the Southern Army in the late war, and held the rank of third lieutenant. He was discharged from the service on account of ill- health, lie entered the army from Gadsden, where he had been living since 18.5'.t. GEORGE E. TURRENTINE, In.surance Agent and Keal Estate Broker, (iadsden, was born in this town April IT, 1857, and is a son of Daniel C. and Caroline E. (Lucy) Turrentiue, natives, respectively, of Milledgeville, Ga., and Petersburg, Va. The senior Mr. Turrentine was born in 18(iT: received a good education; was a merchant early in life; came to Alabama in 184".i, and was the first settler and erected the first house ever built upon the site where now stands the flourishing city of Gadsden. A part of the house is still standing, and is located on the corner of Broad aud First streets. It was built for a hotel and stage stand, and was the popular rendezvous and relay station for the early travelers between Xew Orleans and the capital of the United States. In addition to his hotel, ^Ir. Turrentine carried on a small mercantile business. lie was also the first merchant in (iadsden, and was an active temper- ance organizer and influential politician. Mr. Turrentine was a prominent member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South, and organized the first Sunday-school ever known in Etowah County. He was also a prominent Mason, a general of militia in ante-beUum days, and i)articipated in behalf of the South during the war between the States. He died in September, iss:i. and his wife in -Tuly, 1881. He reared a large family of chil- dren, several of whom survived him. One of his sons, William T.. was killed in the Seven Davs' Fight around Richmond; another son, James L., served through the war; Samuel M. is dead; Joshua L., 1). C. Jr., (ieorge E. and Albert F. constitute the surviving male members of his fam- ily. Of his daughters, Catherine and Leila I. are dead; Josephine is the wife of 1{. 0. Randall; Adelaide V. is the wife of A. Harris; Lillie A. is the wife of J. J. Anshutz; ilinnie E. is the wife of N. N. Polk; Carrie L. is single. George E. Turrentine was reared in Gadsden, where he received such education as was practi- cable before attaining the age of fourteen years. He began life after leaving school as a farmer, and to that and the teaching of school applied himself for several years. In 1883 he entered into his present business. He and his partner represent twenty-three large companies and carry about all the insurance of (iadsden. Mr. Turrentine was appointed justice of the peace in 1883, resigned it in 1884, and was appointed notary public. He is a Mason, a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South. . .. > . ■^^^>^»>->- WILLIAM MARION MEEKS, President of the Alabama Press Association, was born in Floyd County, Ga., the Kith of February, 1845. His parents moved to Cherokee, Ala., when the subject of this sketch was but four years of age, so he may be considered the product of Alabama. When a lad of twelve years he entered the office of the Coosa River Argus, published at Centre, Ala., by L. !M. Stiff. He served out the full term of the contract, which ran three years. Soon after this, in 1800, he went into the office of the National Democrat, which had but a brief existence, being but a campaign paper, and suspended upon the election of Lincoln. Young Meeks then returned to his native State, and early in the spring of 1801, entered the office of the True Flaij, published in Rome, Ga. He continued as foreman of this paper until its suspension, in the fall of the same year. He then entered the office of the Rome Courier, where he remained until the early part of 1863, when he entered the volunteer service with a company from Cherokee County, Ala., and continued in the service until the war closed. Although but seventeen years of age, he made a faithful and gallant soldier. At 366 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the close of the war, in 1866, he connected him- self with the Advertiser, at Centre, Ala., from wliich he retired in the fall of the same year. Xovember 10, 1866, he married Mary J. Coth- ran, of Centre, and returned to Atlanta, 6a. Here he worked as a journeyman printer until 1869, when he returned to C'entre to take charge of the Advertiser. He began at this time to show that ability which has since made him conspicuous in Alabama jour- nalism. The 1st of July, 1871, he purchased the Gadsden Times and continued its editor and projjrietor un- til last February, when that paper and the Neros consolidated and have been published as the Times and News, Meeks & Johnson being the lirojirietors. Mr. Meeks began life without means, or influ- ential friends, and with but a limited education, which he gathered at the case. He purchased the Gadsden Times, by giving a mortgage on the plant, and making a small cash jjayment. The sale included the books and good- will of the paper. As an evidence of his business capacity, he collected from the old accounts enough to pay the concern out of debt. The Times since that day until its consolidation was an influ- ential journal and a decided financial success. Through that means Mr. Meeks has laid the foun- dation of a handsome fortune. He is a man of superior natural endowment, and of great energy and industry. He seldom indulges in an idle hour, generally keeping himself full of business. He is one of Gadsden's most j^rogressive men, and has contributed his time, talent, and money to her success and development. Mr. Meeks is a man of strong convictions and has the courage of them. When he settles down on a question, neither fear nor force can shake him. The same energy and tact he has brought to jour- nalism would have rendered him successful in any department of business. --^ ^^^ WM. P. JOHNSON, the joint publisher and editor of the Times and News, Gadsden, Ala., was born in Cherokee County, this State, March 14, 1855, and is therefore at this writing less than thirty years of age. Mr. Johnson entered upon the profession of the art preservative at the age of fourteen, and has since followed it without inter- mission. His first work was on the Advertiser at Centre, Ala. In 1871 he came with Mr. W. M. Weeks, to Gadsden. Ala., and was on the Times until 1870. This year he concluded to try his fortune in the Lone Star State, and made that his home for two years. During this time his life was without in- cident, only as usually happens to the craft. The love of the home of his youth was an attraction so strong, that he no longer resisted it, and returned in 1878 and resumed his place on the Times, which i-elation he continued to sustain until 1881. He was for some time the foreman of that excel- lent paper and its local editor, both of which places he filled to the eminent satisfaction of all concerned. In the year 1880 he married one of the accomplished daughters of Maj. AV. P. Hol- lingsworth. He was fortunate in his marriage, finding in his wife not only a congenial companion, but one who had a just appreciation of his iirofes- sion and work, to which he proposes to devote his life. In January, 1881, Mr. .Johnson, in connection with Mr. Wellington Vandiver, established the News. Soon Mr. A^andiver retired, leaving Mr. Johnson sole editor and proprietor. He was now in position to show the world his tact and ability in the conduct of a newspaper. Nobly did he meet exjjectatious, and even went beyond them. The Netvs was an ably conducted, clean and pure paper. Jlr. Johnson gave it his entire time and attention, and put it on a i:iaying basis. Last February the Times and the News were consolidated, since which time Mr. .Johnson has been joint publisher and editor. Mr. Johnson is a painstaking business man. Seldom does an item of any kind go into his paper which has not passed under his eye. He is a genial and jJeasant companion, a true and tried friend. He is prosperous so far as the world is concerned, and a bright future awaits him. JOHN W. DUNCAN was born at Kingston, Tenn., August 'I'l, 184o. His great-grandfather on his father's side, came from Virginia, and was killed by the Indians in 1780, in Washington County. Tenn. His grandfatlier, Robert Duncan, moved from Washington County, Tenn., to Roane County, that NORTHERK ALABAMA. 367 State, ami died therein 181-4. Ilisfatlier, liobert D. DuiicHii.Wiis born in Kouiie County, Teiin., Febuary 1."), isd.s; iind married Nancy K. Liggett at Kings- ton, Tenn., January 10, IS.'ili. Eight children were born unto them, five of whom still survive. Robert D. Duncan was a merchant at Kingston, Tenn., for many years until the breaking out of the civil war: came South at its close and located near Fort Payne, Ala., engaging in agricultural per- suit until 1ST8, when he removed to Atalla, Ala., and again entered and continued in the mercan- tile business until his death, which occurred in March, 1SS5. lie was a consistent Christian fifty- three years, being a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. His mother, who was also a member of the same church, survived until October 8, 1887. His grandfather on his moth- er's side was Henry Liggett. He served in the War of \^\i. He came from Wythe County, A'a., in 1816, to Kingston, Tenn; married Elizabeth Center, of that place, and engaged in the hotel and mercantile business. He amassed a considerable fortune; was a prominent Mason, and held various offices of trust, among wiiich that of County Judge. Died in 18(;i. The subject of this sketch entered the cavalry branch of the Confederate Army as private, at an early age, serving in Tennessee and Virginia; with Creneral Early in .Maryland in 1884, and with Armstrong's Scouts, operating inside the Federal lines till the war closed: was paroled at Kingston, (ia. At the close of the war, came to Alabama, and had his first experience as a plow boy, making a crop. Growing weary with farming, sought and obtained a position as clerk in a railroad store, and soon after, in connection with a fellow clerk, bought a small stock of merchandise and opened uj) in a tent, following the line of construction of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. June 1, 1S70, was married to Mary F., daughter of J. S. Morgan and Sarah J. Revel. Four children have been born to them as the result of this union. Eula M., Oscar D., and Charles O'Connor, still survive, while little Myrtle has gone to join the angels. In l,s72, with a small stock of merchan- dise, he again commenced business in Atalla — a place that was then justly celebrated for the fail- ures of her merchants, not one of whom up to that time had proved a success. But with untir- ing energy, coupled with a determination to win, he con(|uerei! all (>l)stacles and scored the first suc- cess that had been achieved at that place. In 1873, in connection with John S. Morgan, he took a contract to mine and shiii the first lot of ore ever sent from this section of North Alabama, hauling the same in ox wagons. The ore was mined on lands owned by J. S. Morgan, the pioneer in the mineral business of this country. He was born in Abbeville District, S. C., in 1S14: came to Alabama when a young man. and settled in what was then Cherokee County: rep- resented that county in the Legislature in 1851-52; was one of the founders of (Jadsden, giving her the name she bears; gave the name of Etowah to our county, and also that of Atalla to our neigh- boring town. He devoted thirty years of his life to the investigation of minerals, predicting, years ago, a great future for our country; but he did not live to see the fulfillment of his prediction, as he died March 22, 1881. Subject of this sketch, after successfully prose- cuting the mercantile business in Atalla till 18b2, moved to Gadsden and continued to carry it on until January 1, 1867, when he closed out, and has since devoted his time to other duties, being one of the incorporators and secretary and treas- urer of the (Jadsden Ice Comi)any. Is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as is also his wife. WILLIAM B. WYNNE. Real Estate Broker, (nidsden, son of Thomas and Mary (Benson) Wynne, natives, respectively, of Virginia and Soutli Carolina, was born in Greenville District, S. C, October 2, 1820. The senior Mr. Wynne was an officer in the AVar of 1812. In 1826 he migrated to Georgia, where he died in 1830. His widow survived him until 18G6. He was a planter by occupation, be- gan life as a poor boy, but at his death was pos- sessed with an ample fortune. The Wynne family came originally from Wales, and settled in Vir- ginia away back in the early colonial days, and removed thence, as has been seen, into the South Atlantic Colony of Carolina. The Benson family are of Saxon origin, and many of them are found in this country and throughout England at this day. William B. Wynne's maternal grandfather was Maj. Thomas Benson, of Revolutionary fame. He married into the Prince family, for whom old Fort Prince was Tianied. A history of the collat- eral branches of these various families wouhl intro- duce many characters prominent both in Church 368 NORTHERJSF ALABAMA. and State, and would make a volume of interesting reading. The subject of this sketch spent the first four- teen years of his life on his father's farm, and during that i^eriod acquired such learning as was possible at the schools of his neighborhood. While yet a boy he was emjDloyed by a relative as a sales- man in a mercantile establishment at Anderson, S. C, and he remained there four years. At the death of his father he returned to Georgia, and for two years peddled merchandise about the country. At the end of that time, in partnership with his brother, he embarked in mercantile busi- ness at Pine Mountain, Ga. From here he re- moved to Franklin, Ga., where he married Mary A. Cowden. In 1845 he came into Alabama, and at Jacksonville was engaged in mercantile business until 1850. In that year he moved to Etowah County, and there, at two or three difiEerent places, carried on mercantile business. In 1857 he located at (iadsden, where, in partnership with Col. R. B. Kyle, he was engaged at mercliandising at the outbreak of the late war. The mercantile business was suspended during the war, and he established a tannery, which carried on an extensive traffic until 1867. From 1808 to 1876 he was in mer- cantile business in New York City, and made thereat a considerable sum of money. In the latter named year he removed to Atlanta, Ga., and from that time he has been variously engaged at mei'chandising, as traveling salesman, etc., and, in December, 1885, was at Birmingham, manufacturing wire fence. He located finally, and in his present business, at Gadsden, in Decem- ber, 1886, and became one of the prime movers in the Gadsden "boom." It is recorded of him that he has sold more real estate than any other man in Gadsden. Mr. ^Vynne was married August "^9, 184-4, and has reared a large family of children. Of the lat- ter we make the following memoranda: Thomas F., assistant chief engineer of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, Kansas City; William C, clerk for same concern: John F., of Atlanta, Ga. ; Joseph A., pastor of the Baptist Church at Gadsden; Mary W. (Mrs. E. N. Meade), of Kirk- wood, Ga. ; Emma W. (Mrs. A. P. Evans), deceased; Katie P. (Mrs. Charles Weatherly). of Kansas City; Charles C, of Chattanooga; Annie (^[rs. B. B. Hay, of Edgewood, Ga.); and Minnie W., deceased. The entire family are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Wynne is a Mason. OBADIAH WARD was born near Spartanburg, S. C, December 14, 1817, and died at Gadsden, April 21, 1880. He was reared on a farm, and at the old field schools of his neighborhood acquired a limited education. To this, however, he subse- quently, by diligent apialication, added nntil he was possessed of more than ordinary infor- mation. While quite a young man, he engaged in mer- cantile business in De Kalb County ; first as a clerk and soon afterward as proprietor. He inherited no fortune, but through industry and the exercise of a sound business judgment, he built up an ample income. He was married, in August, 1850, in Cherokee County, to Sarah Sed- berry, daughter of S. H. and Annie J. (Fletcher) Sedberry, of that county, but natives of Xorth Carolina. Mr. Ward remained in De Kalb County until 1868, at which time he came into Gadsden. Here he engaged at the mercantile business, and continued thereat until driven by ill health to a discontinuance of all labors, some five or si.x years before his death. Mr. Ward was a strong uncompromising tem- perance man, a member of the Masonic frater- nity, and a consistent Christian. He was a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was noted for his charity. He reared a family of five children, to-wit : John, now of Xashville, Tenn. ; Charlsie, wife of J. B. Martin ; Mary, deceased ; Sallie, wife of James L. Tanner; and Charles. Mr. Ward's parents were Samuel and Susanna (Cannon) Ward. The senior Mr. Ward was a planter in South Carolina, and was a soldier in the War of 181"2. He reared a family of four sons and four daughters, and, in about 1834, removed to Alabama, and settled in Cherokee County; later on he removed to De Kalb County, this State, and here spent the rest of his life. His wife died prior to his leaving South Caro- lina. ;■ ■ < «■ • JOHN L. POGUE, Manufacturer, Gadsden, was born in Chambers County, this State, June 23, 1850, and is a son of John L. and Elizabeth (Pratt) Pogue, natives of Georgia. His earlier life was spent at Wetumpka, receiving there a common- school education, and from the age of seventeen to twenty-one was engaged in farming. In 1871 he came to Gadsden and accepted employment on salary until 1883, at which time he engaged in the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 369 lumber business. In 1887 he formed a partiier- ship with II. Herzberg, in the manufacture of himber. Tiie mills were established in 187.">, by B. J. Kittrell, burned down in 1.S82, re-built in 1884. Mr. I'ogue is also interested in dtlicr business enterprises, and is one of Gadsden's live, wide- awake business men. He was married in Decem- ber, 1883, to Mrs. B. J. Kittrell, daughter of John and Sarah (Pressley) Miller, natives of South Carolina. Mr. Miller was a Presbyterian minister; moved to South Alabama in 1843, and spent the rest of his life in Wilcox County. In addition to the ministry, he was a ])opular educa- tor and taught many years in the Wilcox Institute, lie reared a family of five sons and three daugh- ters. Of tiie fornier, Joseph is an attorney, at Camden; John is a professor in Erskine College, South Carolina; James is a citizen of Gadsden; .^leek is a student at law; and David is a sopho- more in Krskine College, Ilis daughters are all married to gentlemen of higli standing in the various communities where they live. The ilillers came originally from Ireland. John I^. Pogue and wife are members of the Old School Presliyterian Church. To her first hus- band, Mr. Kittrell, Mrs. Pogue bore five children. ■ • •« > • '^^' <" • ■ JAMES M. ELLIOTT, Jr., Manufacturer, Gadsden, Al;i.. was born in Rome, Ga., November 12, 1854. there attended the common schools, and graduated in 1874. from Kmory and Henry Col- lege. Virginia. Leaving school, he engaged in steamboat business, and, in connection with lumber manufacture, continued thereat until 1S85. Since the latter year, having closed out his steam- boat interest, he has given his entire attention to the production of and traffic in lumber. From 18S3 to 188G he operated in lumber in Alabama, Kansas and Te.xas, and in 1887 organized the Elliott Car Company, of whicli he is president and general manager. He is also connected with the Kyle Lumber Company and tlie Elliott Pig Iron Company. In January. 1878, he married .Miss Nena Kyle, the accomplished daughter of Col. Itobert Kyle, of Gadsden. Mr. Elliott is a son of James .M. and Emily J. (lloss) Elliott, natives, respectively, of Virginia and Alabama. J. M. Elliott, Sr., settled at Home, Ga., in 1847. and from that time until 1881 was in the steamboat business on the Coosa River. He was the second man that ever ran a boat on this river. He began life a poor boy, but at this writing he is possessed of a handsome competency. In 187i. he organized the Kound Mountain Pig Iron Works, and was the general superintendent of that concern a number of years. He is now the president of the Elliott Pig Iron Company, located at Round .Mountain. His forefathers were among the early settlers of \'irginia. He has roared a family of three sons and three daughters. The sons are all active business men, and the daughters, with one exception, are married. -«« ►^- WILLIAM J. SIBERT, was born October 17, 183.3. in St. Clair County, Ala., and is a son of David and Elizabeth (Cook) Sibert, natives of Abbeyville District, S. C. The senior Mr. Sibert was a planter. He moved to St. Clair County in 181!t, and thence to DeKalb County in 1833, where he purchased land from the Indians, eighty acres of which, according to their tradition, had been in cultivation over one hundred years. The old gentleman spent the rest of his life in DeKalb County. He was the father of eleven children, eight of whom grew to adult estate, to-wit: John W., farmer died in Arkansas; Henry, farmer, DeKalb County; Martha, widow of William Waddell, of Arkansas; Geo. W., deceased; Jasper, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, now of Ar- kansas; Julia (Mrs. .Vrthur A. Parr), both she and her husband are dead; Hulda. deceased; Mary (Mrs. W. B. Beeson, of DeKalb County). John W. and Henry were both soldiers in the Southern Army during the late war. David Sibert's father came to .Vmerica as a soldier in the British .\rmy, served his term of enlistment, and at once joined the Colonial Army under tieneral Marion, and adopted this country as his home. He married a Miss Wilmore, of Virginia, reared three sons and three daughters, and died in South Carolina, where he had been a farmer, and a preacher in the Lutheran Church. The Cook lamily. from which the subject of tliis sketch is descended through the maternal line, were probably of mixed German and Englisii extraction. William .1. Sibert was reared on a farm, received a common-school education, and was thirtv-five 370 NORTHERN ALABAMA. years of age when he enlisted in Company I, Tenth Alabama, as a second lieutenant. He served a few months, when ill-health forced him to resign. In the sjiring of 1862, he joined Company G, Forty- eighth Alabama, and with that regiment partici- pated in the battles of second Manassas, the Wilder- ness, Petersburg, etc. He was wounded at Manassas, and at Petersburg was forced from its effects to retire from field duty. He then accepted a posi- tion in the quartermaster's dejiartment and re- mained to the close of the war. After farming two years, he, in 1867, came to Oadsden, engaged in hotel business, until 1879, then in mercantile business, to which he has since given his attention. His first piartner was named Bar- rett, firm of Barrett & Sibert. Mr. Barrett retired in 1883, and the firm has since been Sibert & Ward. He is also the senior member of the firm of Sibert & Blair, wholesale and retail dealers in hardware. In addition to mercantile business, he has been and is now interested in agriculture. He was married September 20, 185(5, to Miss Mary E. Ward. Of the ten children born to them, six are living: Charlcie (Mrs. A. J. Blair); William L., graduate of the West Point Class 1884, also in corjDs of en- gineers at Willett's Point, N. Y., class of 1887, and a lieutenant in the United States Engineers Corps; Samuel 11., Martin D., Fannie B., Olin W. The family is connected with the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, and Mr. Sibert is a Free- mason. RODOLFHUS OGILVIE RANDALL, Jeweler and yueensware Merchant, was born at Brockport, Monroe County, N. Y., April 15, 1840, and is a son of Myrick 0. and Lucy N. (Kingsbury) Randall, natives, respectively, of Vermont and New York. He was reared and educated at Brockport, and wliile quite a youth learned the trade of watchmaker. At the age of eighteen years he went to New York City, and there, under .James M. Bottom, at the time the leading watchmaker of this country, per- fected his trade. He came to Gadsden in Sep- tember, 1858, took charge of Kyle, Wynne & Co.'s jewelry department, and remained with them until January, 1860. At that date his employers dissolved partnership, and he j^urchased their jewelry stock and started in business for himself. March, 1862, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company A, Thirty-first Alabama Infantry, and with that command served one year. Leaving the service at Vicksburg, he returned to Gadsden, resumed the jewelry business and followed it until 1872. His was the first jewelry store, exclusively, established at Gadsden. From 1872 to 18 5 he devoted his time to life insurance business, and spent j^art of that period at Mobile, Atlanta and Louisville. In the fall of the last-named year he returned to Gadsden, and in the latter part of 1886 established his present business. He has the finest establishment of the kind in North Alabama. February 22, 1860, Mr. Randall married Miss Josephine Turrentine, daughter of the late Gen. D. C. Turrentine, and has had born to him ten children, eight of whom are now living, namely: Carrie L. (j\lrs. John L. Caldwell), James W., Robert E., Ruth, Bianca, Josejih P., Edith and Daniel M. The family are connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Mr. Randall is a Knight of Honor and a Knight Templar Mason. In addition to his mercantile business, Mr. Ran- dall is vice-president of the First National Bank, I^resident of the Gadsden Metallic Paint Company, and is more or less interested in several other of Gadsden's leading enterprises. The senior Mr. Randall was a watchmaker and jeweler for many years. Of his three children the subject of this sketch was the eldest. His second son, Eugene A., was a jeweler also, and died at the age of thirty years. His only daughter, Bianca, is the wife of C. F. Miller, of Chattanooga, Tenn. The old gentleman is yet living, and is seventy- one years of age. His father was Nathaniel Ran- dall, a farmer by occupation, born at Pembrook, Mass. ; married Betsy Brown, who, like himself, was of old Puritan stock. He reared a family of eight sons and two daughters, all but two of whom married and brought up families. The Kingsbury family is also of Massachusetts Puritan stock, and lived near Boston. There are living in various States of the Union a large number of Kings- burys, all descendants of the same stock. JOSEPH R. HUGHES was born at Gadsden ilareli 14, 1842, and is a son of Gabriel and Asenath I). (Young) Hughes, natives of Hay- wood, Lincoln County, N. C. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 371 The senior Jlr. Hughes migrated to Georgia in early life. There, in 1S32, was married, and in 1.S3S came to Alabama. He located near Jack- sonville, in Calhoun County, and in 1840 moved to Double Springs, near (iadsden, and in 184."), with his associates, James Hughes and John 8. ^lorgan, founded the now thriving city of (iads- den. He died in March, 1886; his wife died in 1885. He was one of the first postmasters at (iadsden, then known as Houble Springs. It seems that he made his home where now stands the town of Atalla from 185T up to the time of his death. He was a jjrominent llason, and his wife a consistent member of the Methodist Kpis- copal Church. The Hughes family, after coming to America, settled first in Pennsylvania, remov- ing thence to the Carolinas. This brancii of the Young family are of German descent. 'I'he subject of this sketch lived on his father's farm until the year 18.")T. He was attending school in April, 18G2, when he entered the Confederate Army as a member of Company (i. Forty-eighth Alabama, and with that regiment participated in the Seven Days' l-'ight around Kiclimond. at Manassas, where he was slightly wounded, and at Sharpesburg. In October, 18G2, he was, on account of failing health, honorably discharged: came home, and in November following joined Tracy's Hrigade as chief clerk of the Commissary Department, under Major Hollingsworth. He was in the memorable siege of \'icksburg; was present at the surrender of (ieneral Pemberton. on Fourth of July, 18G3, and, being jiaroled, joined his command at Missionary Kidge, in September, ISGIJ. He was afterward in the campaigns of Halton and .Vtlanta; at the battle of Jonesboro: was with Hood in his raid into Tennessee, and all the battles from Nashville to North Carolina, where he surrendered with .Johnston. IJeturning home, he entered a dry goods estab- lishment as clerk, and in a short time moved to Cherokee County, where he was deputy in the Cir- cuit Clerk's office. He came to Gadsden, and on December 14, 18GT, was married to Mary E. Davis, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Adams) Davis of this place. Mr. Hughes Iniilt the Exchange Hotel, and was its first proprietor ; erected the first steam flour mill at (iadsden, and was in the milling business until 18T4, when he was elected Clerk of the C'ir- cuit Court of Etowah County. He was re-elected Clerk in 1880, and since 188G has been engaged in the real estate business. He owns a large number of acres of land : gives some attention to agricul- ture ; is interested in the new Gadsden Hotel, and is also secretary of the GadsdeJi Ileal Estate Com- pany. Aside from the oflice of Clerk of the Court he has been several times a member of the City Council. He is an extensive owner of mineral lands, and is more or less identified with the leading industries of the booming town of (iadsden. The family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and Mr. Hughes is a Knight of Honor and a staunch Democrat. Their three sous are named William F., Robert (t. and Preston M. -«-; «^- JAMES RUSH NOWLIN, Manufacturer, Gads- den, was li(ini in IxMlfonl County, Va., January 18, 1846, and is a son of Dr. .lames II. and .Ma- linda B. (Staples) Nowlin. Dr. Nowlin, in addition to practicing medicine, was a druggist in Virginia, and in 18G2 removed from there to (ieorgia, where he continued the same profession and line of business. He died in May, 188G. He reared three children; the eldest, Samuel H., served through the war under Gen. Fitzhugli Lee, was three times a prisoner, and made two escapes — he is now of Little Rock, Ark.; the third son, Casper W., was in the army toward the latter part of the war, and is now also at Little Iiock. Dr. Nowlin's first wife died while her children were quite young, and his second wife, to whom he was married some years afterward, bore him one daughter, Olivia, now Mrs. Noble. The Doctor was a graduate from the medical department of the University of Vir- ginia. He was a brilliant scholar and skillful physician, and during his life contributed much valuable literature to the profession. 'i'he subject of this sketch was educated at Roanoke College, \'irginia, from which institution he was graduated as A. B. in IbG'.i, and in 187'.J received the degree of M. A. He was clerking in his father's drug store at the outbreak of the late war, and in February, 18G3. joined Company D, Fifth \'irgiiiia Cavalry; with that conunand par- ticijiated in the battles of Yellow Tavern, Spot- sylvania Court House, Winchester, New Town, Harrisburg, Five Forks, all the battles of the 37i NORTHERN ALABAMA. Shenaudoah Valley, and was with General Lee at Appomattox. At the close of the war he returned home, and to the drug business, and later on had some experience as a dry goods clerk. In 18(i7 he located at Gadsden, and entered into the drug business. In 1868 he entered Roanoke College, from which institution he graduated with honors, and in metaphysics took the gold medal. After graduation he resumed the drug business, and since 1870 has been interested in farming. He was one of the incorporators of the Gadsden Ice Company, and is its president; he is secretary, treasurer and business manager of the Gadsden Metallic Paint Company, and is interested in various enterjirises, manufacturing and other- wise. Mr. Xowlin is regarded by the people of Gads- den as one of their most enterprising, wide-awake, jjublic-spirited citizens. He started in life with- out a dollar, and, without the intervention of "windfalls " or legacies, has accumulated a com- petency. Mr. Nowlin was married Xovember 3, 18G9, to Adella L. Nuckolls, daughter of Col. Nathaniel M. Nuckolls, a prominent capitalist of Columbus, Ga., and the children born to him are, .Jennie L., Linda S., Adella L., .James R., Emma 0., Henry Clay, Corrie May and Robert Lee. The family are members of the Baptist Church. SAMUEL HENRY, Merchant, Gadsden, was born in Sevier County, East Tenn., July 17, 18"-25, and is a son of Samuel and ^largaret (Bryan) Henry. The senior Mr. Henry was born in the same county in 1788, and his wife in 1798. They reared three children: ]\Iary A., wife of A. G. Henry; John B., merchant and farmer; and the subject of this sketch. John B. was a soldier in the Confederate Army during the war, and the senior Mr Henry, a farmer all his life by occupa- tion, was with General Jackson in the War of 181'2,and by him appointed collector of commissary, associated witli .Judge Porter. He died at Henry's C'ross Roads, East Tenn., 1835. His widow died in 1845. They were both members of tlie ilethodist Episcopal Church. The family came from Vir- ginia into Tennessee away back in the early set- tlement of the latter State. Colonel Herbert [see Ramsay's History of Ten- nessee], the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a distinguished Indian fighter during his days. He was a prominent farmer, and served many times in the Legislature of Tennessee. Samuel Henry was reared on a farm, and re- ceived a West Point education. At the age of twenty-three years he entered mercantile business with his cousin, A. G. Henry, at Gunter's Land- ing, and was there until 1861. In April, 18G1, he raised a company and went into the war, and was a member of the Ninth Alabama Infantry; and later became a member of the Eighth Ala- bama Cavalry, Clanion's Brigade. He left the service with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In the spring of 1866, he located at Gadsden, where he has since been in the mercantile busi- ness. He was married in 18.56 to Miss Charity E. Fennell, daughter of Dr. James W. Fennell. Mr. Henry is a member of the Masonic frater- nity and the Knights of Honor. .r.^^ WILLIAM HAG AN, born in Denmark, April 9, 18-15, is a son of Carl Frederick and Elizabeth Ilagan. He came to this country in 18GIJ, landed at Quebec, going thence to Chicago, where he fol- lowed his trade (that of moulder) for several years. Soon after the late war he came South on a pros- pecting tour, and in 1872 located at Rome, Ga., and remained until 1879. In that year lie came to Gadsden, where, in partnership with John Flynn, he established a small foundry and machine shop. In 18s:5, Mr. G. E. Line came into the firm, and they organized and established the Gads- den Foundry and ^lachine Works, with a capital stock of S^IO.OOO. This was the first iron working concern started at Gadsden, and the success of the enterprise has been even greater than its founders ever expected. Messrs. Hagan & Flynn imrchased Line's inter- est in the foundry and machine works in March, 1887, and are now its exclusive owners. Mr. Hagan was married in September, 1872, at Rome, Ga., to Miss Jennie Martin, and their two children are named, respectively, Daisy and Fred- erick. Mr. and Mrs. Hagan are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Hagan is a member of the Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 373 JOHN FLYNN was born in Jefferson Count}-, Iiul.. in ls:)t, wlicre lie learned the trade of ma- chinist. He came South in IS.")! ; since then has been a continuous resident of the South, princi- pally Alabama. In IST'.i, in connection with .Mr. Ilauun, he es- tablished the first foundr}' in (iadsden, in which business they have been very successful. lie is at present writing a member of the l^oard of .Mder- men of Gadsden. .Mr. Flynn is a married man with five children, namely : Mildred, .lames, .Inhn. lleiii-y and JIamie. Mr. Flynn is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities, and is regarded as one of the sterling business men of Gadsden. AUGUSTIN L. WOODLIFF was i)orn in Hall County, (ia., October 7, l.S"27,, and is a son of (n'orgeand Isabella (Henderson) Woodlill, natives, respectively, of Virginia and South Carolina. The former was born in 1780, and the latter in 170"-3. The senior Mr. Woodliff migrated to (ieorgia, locating in Clarke County in 1820, and it was there he was married to Miss Henderson. He was a farmer by occupation, and a man of considerable local influence. They reared a family of si.\- chil- dren, of whom we make the following mention: Josiah H. is a farmer in Forsyth County, Ga.: Nancy J. is the wife of Col. James A. (irecne, of Milledgeville, Ga. Colonel Greene was once sur- veyor-general of Georgia, and has been a member of the l^egislature of that State. George F. is a farmer near Gainesville. Thomas J. was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg. Ho was a lieuten- ant, and entered the army from Arkansas, and participated in the Missouri campaign. Oliver P., now of Belton, (Ja., served in the Fourteenth (ieorgia Regiment during the war. The senior Mr. Woodliff was in the War of 1812. He died in 184'J. His father was also a native of Virginia, and was a soldier in the Warof the Revolution and aft- erward in the War of 1812. The family came from Scotland to America. The subject of this sketch sj)ent the first seven- teen years of his life on his father's farm, and re- ceived a fair education at the common schools of the neighborhood. In 1840 he accepted aclerksiiip in a mercantile establishment at Niickelsville, Ga., and from there, at the end of one year, went to Gainesville, where he remained until 1850. In the latter year he migrated to California in search of gold, and there he was both miner and specu- lator. He returned to the States in 18.")3, pos- sessed of a considerable sum of money. Mr. Woodliff was married in January, 1854, to Miss LaviniaC, Law, daughter of James and Mary (Ingram) Law. .Mr. Law was for twenty-one years Clerk of the Court of Hall County, Ga., and was a popular and wealthy man. He died in I8.")!<, and his wife in 1870. The subject of this sketch has had born to him the following named children: Ida A. (Mrs. M. 1). Lowe), James F.; George II., at Foit Worth, Texas; Thomas J., Au- gustin Wyly, Henry L., at Galveston, Te.xas: Mollie B. (Mrs. Dr. Ralph M. J{ussell), Sallie Law, deceased; Olive G.; >«annie L. deceased; William .loe: Paulina Chester, deceased; Eddie (iuv, Bessie Clark . Soon after his marriage Mr. Woodliff engaged in the mercantile business, and followed it at Cumming, (ia., until 18.">7, in which year he came to (iadsden and engaged at farming. In 1861 he enlisted in Company ({, Nineteenth Alabama Regiment, as first orderly, and was soon after- ward promoted to third lieutenant. He resigned in 18»;2 on account of ill health, and in May following re-entered the army as first lieutenant of Company J), Forty-eighth Alabama. He was promoted to captain in less than a month after- ward, and participated in the Seven Days' Fight around Richmond, Cedar Run, near Culpeper Court House, second battle of Manassas, siege and capture of Harper's Ferry, Antietam, Fredericks- burg, and in March, 1803, resigned to accept the appointment of Tax-Assessor, which jiosition he filled until the close of the war. In the fall of 180-') Mr. Woodliff was elected to the State Senate, and introduced the bill forming Baine County. This county, abolished by the Reconstructionists in 18G8, was afterward re-es- tablished and called Etowah County. In the last named year he turned his attention to merchan- dising and followed it four years, going thence into the lumber and machine business. Since that time he has been engaged variously at mercantile aiul livery business, and is now devoting his time to the sale of wagons, buggies, real estate, etc. He is one of the largest real estate owners in the the countv. 374 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Mr. Woodliff is a very active man. Having lost every dollar of his property during the war, what of his worldly possessions he has since acquired is the result of his individual effort and industry. He is variously interested in the principal enter- prises of Gadsden, and owns the largest livery stable in that place, and probably the largest in the State, outside of Birmingham. He is a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Honor. WILLIAM PATRICK LAY is a native of Chero- kee County, Ala., sun of Cumins M. and Eliza- beth (McGhee) Lay, was born in June, 1S53. The senior Mr. Lay, a native of Tennessee, came to Alabama in 1835, and engaged at flat-boating, and subsequently at steamboating on the Coosa River; and to that business devoted his entire time. He reared seven children, to-wit : .John H., carpenter and builder; William Patrick (sub- ject of this sketch); James M., merchant at Rome, Ga. ; AVashington C, steamboat captain; Sallie B., wife of H. B. Myers; Mary L. and Minnie L. His father, John Lay, was an English- man; came to America, settled first in Virginia, thence migrated to Tennessee; came into Ala- bama in 1835, and, in 1859, removed to Dallas, Texas, and there died in 1866. The subject of this sketch received an acade- mic education, and, at the age of eighteen years, began the machinist trade in the engine department of extensive railroad shops, and worked at that trade six years. From the shop he went on the road as a locomotive engineer; and in 18T4: came to Gadsden as a book-keeper for W. P. Hollingsworth. At the death of Mr. Ilollings- worth, Mr. I^ay was appointed managing executor of his estate, the settlement and management of which has since that date (1880) required much of his time. He is also largely interested in the manufacture of lumber, is general manager of the Gadsden Electric Light Company, jn-esident of the Gadsden Hotel Company, director in the Woodlawn Land Company, an extensive cotton buyer, and more or less interested in various other Gadsden enterprises. Mr. Lay was married in April, 1876, to Miss Laura J. Hollingsworth, daughter of the late W. P. Hollingsworth, and the four children born to him are William E., Carl S., Tracy H., and Ralph. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Lay is a member of the Order of the Knights of Pythias. He has served the city several terms as council- man, and is now chief of her fire department. — " — **J* '^St^^' '^** *^ WILLIAM HENDERSON STANDIFER is a na- tive of Clierokee, Ala., son uf Lemuel J. and Sarah F. (Underwood) Standifer, and was born in De- cember, 1850. The senior Mr. Standifer is a native of Tennes- see, came to Alabama wiien a young man, read law, was admitted to the bar at Rome, Ga., prac- ticed a while in Floyd County, that State, married at Cold Springs, returned to Alabama, and was a farmer in Cherokee County until 1860. In that year he was elected probate Judge; soon afterward entered the army, served a short time, was dis- charged for disability, came back to his Judgeship, and filled that office until 1868. From 1868 to 1874 he gave his time to the practice of law', and, at the age of sixty-nine years, located at Gadsden, where he served as United States Commissioner several years. He is at this writing (1888) retired from all business. Of his eight children we make the following memoranda: Leoni (Mrs. John L. Daughdrill), L. V. (widow of H. C. Harrison), Augusta G. (Mrs. John H. Disque), Walter S., Florence (Mrs. William W. Stevenson), John H., Ada, and the subject of this sketch, who was the second in order of birth. The Stand if ers migrated from(Teorgia into Ten- nessee probably in the person of William H. Stan- difer, and settled in Bledsoe County. He was a merchant and farmer; married a Miss Hogue, and reared seven sons and three daughters. From Bledsoe, at a very early date, he moved into Cher- okee County, Ala., and there died in 1860, at the age of se\enty years. His wife died in 1S8"-J, at the age of eighty-eight years. They ^vere the grand- parents of the subject of this sketch. They were nice old people, strict Presbyterians, and wielded a marked influence for good in the neighborhood. The Underwood family were (ieorgians. The subject of this sketch was reared in the country, educated at the common schools, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in DeKalb County, this State. He began the practice at Gadsden, where he has since resided. He has NORTHERN ALABAMA. 375 been three times Afayor of this city, and in 18&"-J lie was appointed Justice of the Peace, to which ortice lie was elected in 1884. Jle declined tlic ottice of I'nited States Commissioner in lo "i, and is, at this writing, discharging the duties of Jus- tice. It is recorded of hirn that he made one of the best Mayors that Gadsden ever had. 'I'lu' water-works were established under his aihninis- tration: a system of street improvement was inau- gurated, and really the foundation of what has since become known as the (iadsden boom was laid while he was Mayor. JOSEPH R. HUGHES was born at (iadsden, March 14. 1S4'.'. and is a son of Gabriel Hughes, native of Haywood County, X. C. The senior .Mr. Hughes migrated to (Jeorgia in early life, there married and came to Alabama. He located at Jackson, Calhoun County, snbse- (juently moving to l)ouble Springs, near Gadsden, and became one of the founders of this place. He died in JIarch, 18?5ti. He was the first jiostniaster at Gadsden, then known as Double Springs. It seems that he made his home where now stands the town of Alalia from 185T up to the time of his death. He was a ]irominent Mason and a consistent member of the Methodist Ki)iscopal Church. The Hughes fam- ily, after coming to America, settled fii'st in Penn- sylvania, removing thence to the Carolinas. The subject of this sketch lived on his father's farm until the year 1857. He was attending school in April, 18fi2, when he entered the Con- federate Army as a member of Company B, Forty- eighth .Vlabama, and with that regiment partici- j)ated in theSeven Days' Fight around Richmond, at Manassas, where he was slightly wounded, and at Sharpesburg, in October, 188'2. he was dis- charged, came home, and in Xovember following joined Tracy's Brigade as chief clerk of the Com- missary Department. He surrendered, with (ien- eral Pembcrton. at Vicksburg, and after being paroled joined his command at Missionary I{idge in September, 18C:5. He was afterward in the campaigns of Dalton and Atlanta, at the battle of .Jonesboro; was with Hood in his raid into Tennessee, and all the battles from Nashville to North Carolina, where he participated in the last battle of the war, and surrendered with Johnson. Returning home he entered a dry goods estab- lishment as clerk, and in a short time moved to Cherokee County, where he was deputy in the circuit clerk's otHce. He came to Gadsden, and on December 14, was married to Mary Davis, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Adams) Davis. -Mr. lluglu's built the Exchange Hotel, and managed it two years; erected the first steam flour mill at Gadsden, and was in the milling business until 18T4, whenhe was elected Clerk of the Court. He was re-elected Clerk in 1880, and since 1886 has been engaged in the real estate business. He owns a large number of acres of land, gives some attention to agriculture: is interested in the new (iadsden hotel, and also in the Gadsden Land and Iron Company. Aside from the office of Clerk of the Court, he has been several times a member of the City Council. He is an extensive owner of mineral lands; is more or less identified with the leading industries of the booming town of (iadsden. The family are members of the ^[ethodist Epis- copal Cliurcii, and Mr. Hughes is a Knight of Honor. I'heir three sons are named William F., Robert S. and Preston M. WILLIAM CLINTON BELLENGER, Merchant, (iadsden, was born in Fulton County, (ia., .\pril 15, 1850; spent the first fourteen years of his life upon his father's farm, and received his education at the schools of Decatur, that State. After leaving school he followed railroading for a period of about si.x years, and in March, 18T4, came to Gadsden, where, with Messrs. Hodges & AV right, he established a supply store, the style of the firm being Hodges, Bellenger & Wright. In 1875 Mr. Hodges withdrew, and the firm be- came Bellenger & Wright. At this writing, and after two or three changes in the firm, the style of the firm is Bellenger Bros. Aside from his mercantile business, Mr. Bellenger is largely interested in agrictilture, and is more or less identified with various leading iiuhistries in (iadsden. He started in life relying wholly upon his individual effort and industry, and though yet a young man, he has succeeded in plac- ing himself at the head of one of the largest establishments of the citv, and of accumulating 376 NORTHERN ALABAMA. some of the most valuable property in the county. He belongs to that modern class of Southern men who appear to have come to the surface as if by magic, and whose feats in enterprise and progress are attracting the attention of the civilized world . Mr. Bellenger was married October \i, 18y2, to Miss Sallie S. Ealls, the accomplished daughter of Dr. John P. Ealls, of Gadsden, and has had born to him two cliildren: Mary and Harry. John Nelson Bellenger, father of the subject of this sketch, a native South Carolinian and a pio- neer of Georgia, was a prominent attorney, and served several terms as Judge of the Superior Court. He was also a member of the house of Representatives in the Legislature of his State several terms; was prominently identified with church work, and equally prominent as a Mason and an Odd Fellow. In addition to the law and other matters, he gave much attention to agricul- ture. At the Forks of Peach Tree Creek, near Atlanta, at a place known as Bellenger Springs, taking its name from Sir Edward Bellenger, of England. Judge Bellenger owned an extensive plantation, which is probably in the family at this writing. Judge Bellenger died in July, 1853. Two of his sons served gallantly in the Confederate Army. His wife was Miss Sarali Ann Collier be- fore her first marriage. She was a native of Atlanta, and was the widow of John Patey. HERMAN HERZBERG, Merchant, Gadsden, was born in Westphalia. Prussia, September, 1837, and is a son of Isaac and Helene (Aronstein) Ilerz- berg. Mr. Herzberg was educated in the old country, graduated at Minden, Prussia, and served one year as volunteer in the Prussian Army. He i-e- ceived his commercial training at Dortmund, Westphalia, and at Cologne, Rhenish Prussia. In 1859 he came to America on a visit to relatives in Georgia, and while here had his attention called to Gadsden through Civil Engineer Hardee, then surveying a line of railroad from Dalton to Gads- den. The latter place being pointed out as tlie terminus of the Coosa & Tennessee, the Alabama & Tennessee, the Wills" A'alley, and other rail- road lines, he was induced to settle at this place, and did so in the summer of IS'iO. In the spring of 1801 he entered the Confederate service as a private soldier in Company I, Tenth Ala- bama Infantry, and remained in the service until after the battle of Fredericksburg. While in the army he participated in hard-fought battles, and at Dranesville, Ya., received a severe gun-shot wound, which ultimately necessitated his dis- charge from the service. After leaving the army he returned to Gadsden, and has here since made his home. Mr. Herzberg brought with him to America a considerable sum of money, but the close of the war found him comparatively penniless. So soon as he was able to arrange matters he engaged in the mercantile business, which, begun in a small way, has long since grown into one of the most extensive enterprises of its kind in Xorth Ala- bama; in fact, it is probable that his store at Gadsden is the largest individual concern of its character north of Montgomery. In addition to his mercantile business, Mr. Herzberg is exten- sively interested in the manufacture of raw lum- ber; is a large stockholder in the Gadsden Fur- nace Company; is president of the Gadsden Mineral Land Company; president of the Queen City Electric Light Company; director in the Gadsden Land and Improvement Company; direc- tor in the First National Bank of (iadsden; director in the Gadsden Ice Company, and is more or less identified with various enterprises' and industries. He was the first buyer of cotton at Gadsden since the war; is active in every way in developing the town and its best interests; owns several large farms in the county, and acres upon acres of the finest mineral land in the world. He was one of the commissioners to call an election to in- corporate the town of Gadsden, and afterwa^rd held the office of Alderman. He is a prominent Mason; member of the Chapter, and has been pre- siding officer of the Council. Mr. Herzberg was married in ilarch. 1S<;3, to Miss ^[ary I. Liddell, daughter of W. C. Liddell, and has had born to liim five children: William I., Albert, Louis L., Herman and Eva B. Mrs. Herzberg died in October, 1884. SAMUEL W. BERGER, Merchant, Capitalist and Manufacturer, Gadsden, was born in Hungary, Austria, May 12, 1857: came to America in June, 1870, and landed in New York City, the possessor of Austrian coin, equivalent in value to forty cents. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 377 His fiither, Joseph Berger, was a fanner and flour (K'aler in Austria, and there died in 1S(;4. Tlie subject of this sketcli was educated at tlie scliools of llungar}-, and since coming to America, by dint of close application and perseverance in study, he has possessed himself of a fair English education. From New York y[\\ Berger came direct to Xashville, Tenn., wiiere for the first two years he did little else than attend school. In 187"-i he came into Alabama, located at Tuscaloosa, and was there in the ca})acity of a salesman in a mercantile establishment eight years. He came to fJadsden in 18assed in the Senate, as will be seen from the following letters: Blouxtsville, Al.\., .March .">, IST'!. Hon. L. M. Wihon: On reaching this place, I find the ])eople here much opposed to the creation of the new county of Cullnum. They say they have had no oppor- tunity to be heard. Please oppose the bill. Yours truly, .1. W. Ixzoi:. Bl.OLXT.sviLLE, Al.\.. .March C, 1S;0. Hi))(. John M. C. Wharton: De.\k Sik: On arriving here, I find the peoiile much opposed to the creation of the new county of Cullman. I trust you will vigilantly oppose the measure. They say they have had no chance to be heard on this subject. Yours truly, J. W. Ixzoi;. This defeat did not discourage the sturdy set- tlers. In the following election, lion, liret Ran- dolph, of Blount County, was elected State Sena- tor, who promised to use all his influence to secure us the organization of a new county: and lion. W. M. Crump, of \'iola, Blount County, was elected liepresentative. lie was a true friend to the colo- nists, and did prove so by the interest he took in securing the bill; he introduced the .same in the House, which was jtassed with eighty-two against two votes. In the Senate a Senator, who was elected on the pledge of supporting the bill, opjiosed the same. He went so far as to say: " It would be better to build a poor-house at Cullman, instead of a court-house." Notwithstanding his opposition, the bill for the creation of the county of Cullman passed in the Senate on the ••i4th day of February, l.sT?, with twenty-two against seven votes, and was signed by the Governor at once. As the State at that time had not the means to practically further immigration, the creation of the new county was an advertisement that the State wanted immigration, and every one of the 382 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the gentlemen who voted for the bill will i^robably by this time have noticed the grand fruits har- vested from the seed sown by the i:)assage of the bill. An election was ordered by the Governor of Alabama, to be held on March G, 1877, for all the necessary county officers, and the organization of the countv was comjileted. In March, 1878, steps were taken for the build- ing of a court-house in the town of Cullman, which place had been selected as the county seat, and in April of tlie same year the contract for the building of the same was awarded to Mr. Nelson, a resident of the town, for 15,100. The same was completed and received by the county commis- sioners on February 10, 1879, costing in all, with extra labor, about So, GOO, and Cullman has one of the finest conrt-houses on the line of railroad or in North Alabama, built of brick made at home. Immigration increased rapidly since tlie county had been organized, industries of all kinds were inaugurated, among them a furniture factory operated by Mr. Adam Dreher, an energetic and enterprising business man; a steam flouring mill; wagon factory carried on by the Hammer Bros. ; cigar factories which jjrincipally manufacture cigars from tobacco raised in the colony; a tannery and many other enterprises which have been car- ried on with success. On the 14th day of June, 1883, the Wine Com- pany of Cullman organized itself with a capital of $20,000; Col. John G. Cullmann, president; his son, Astor Cullmann, as secretary and treasurer; and G. P. H. Fruhauff, superintendent, and built large and magnificent cellars and buildings for the manufacture and storage of domestic wines, the grapes of which were raised by the colonists, and are of a superior quality. This establishment did give the grape culture a new impetus, and many acres were planted out with the finest and best varieties. !Many farmers commenced to pay special attention to the culture of strawberries, and has proved to be a success, so that to-day hundreds of bushels of that delicious fruit are shipped daily to the Northern and even Southern markets. This all has been accom- plished through the indomitable energy and perse- verance of the founder of the colony, Mr. John 6. Cullmann, without any aid from the State of Alabama or any other person or organization. There are about twenty-seven saw-mills in the county, and in the town four hotels fitted up with all the comforts for travelers: eighteen stores- filled with the necessary articles used for the set- tlers; one bank; two livery stables; two steam cot- ton gins; two tailor shops; two millinery estab- lishments; five saloons; one saddler shop; one real estate agency, carried on by Capt. Charles A. Beckert; one tonsorial saloon; two drug stores; one permanent photograph gallery, one cooper shop, which manufacture large quantities of barrels for the oil factories in the different jiarts of the South from our own sjilendid timber; we have also six churches, one high school, and public and pri- vate schools, in fact, what concerns education, there is no other place of the same age and size which has the same facilities for educating the growing up generation as we have, and especially on account of our healthy and invigorating cli- mate, students from abroad are coming in daily, and are well pleased: the highschool is under the efficient management of Professor Wood, for- merly of Ilartsell's, Ala., a town about twenty miles north of Cullman. All kinds of products and cereals are raised here, and find an excellent home market and in the ad- jacent mining and manufacturing cities. As a summer as well as a winter resort this town can not be excelled, as the average temperature in the spring is59. 8° Fahrenheit, in summer 77.7, and in the winter 4.5°, with a light breeze all the summer through, being about eight hundred feet above sea level. The town of Cullman has at present over 2,500 inhabitants, and the number is steadily increasing. The population of the county is esti- mated at about 17,000, including several jirosper- ous towns and villages. From 1873 to 1886, Col. John (i. Cullmann was agent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and had the control and sale of 500,000 acres of land belonging to said Louisville ilt Nashville Rail- road Comjiany, lying within fifteen miles on each side of said railroad, from Decatur to Montgonier}', including about 200,000 acres of valuable mineral lands; through his energy and perseverance he sold many thousands of acres of said lands to actu- al settlers and immigrants, who have built them- selves p)leasant and comfortable homes, and made out of a wilderness the garden spot of North Ala- bama. To have a better field of operation and to be more independent Colonel Cullmann organized in the month of February, 188G, the North Alabama NORTHERN ALABAMA. 383 Land Company, with paid up capital of ^150, 000. Col. John (t. Ciillmann was elected general man- ager of said company, on account of his knowl- edge as to induce immigration to the colony, and his excellent business qualitications; this company purchased from the Louisville I'i: Nashville Railroad Company about loii.OOO acres of land, besides all the vacant lots in the town of Cullman. Jluring the summer of the same year. Colonel Cullmann went to Europe, visited Germany and Switzerland, appointed immigration agents, and made all the necessary arrangements for a future large immigration to this colony and the South gei»erall3'. He met in all parts of the old country, where he is well-known, with great encourage- ment. On June 10, 188i, the North Alabama Land and luimigration Company was organized and chartered, with a capital stock of ^2.50(1,000, and purchased all the above-mentioned lands from the North Ahibama Land C'ompany, including town lots: the following gentlemen were elected officers of said company: -M. L. Jloses, of Montgomery, Ala., president: IL liulman, Terre Haute, Ind., vice-president; Louis Duenweeg, Terre Haute, Ind., secretary: W. L. Chambers, Sheffield, Ala., treasurer; John G. Cullmann, Cullman, Ala., manager. These gentlemen are all wide-awake and ener- getic business men, and prominently known in business circles, and are giving tlie enterprise the positive assurance of success. Tiie Company has purchased a Diamond Drill and steam power to operate the same, and are at l)resent engaged \inder the superintendency of J[r. A. (J. ilanmann, in boring and prospecting for coal and other minerals along the line of the rail- road, and are meeting with fair prosjiect of suc- cess. Another company, the Cullman Land and Im- provement Company, was organized in January, l!S87, with a capital of ¥1(1,000, uiuler the man- agement of Mr. George H. Parker, president, and Wm. Bauer as secretary and treasurer. This company commenced the boring of an artesian well in the town of Cullman, to supply the town with sufficient water for all manufacturing pur- poses. A well to the depth of 1,-ioO feet was sunk, wlien the auger stuck fast and could not be re- moved. The well affords, as it is now, abund- ant water for all demands, but the same has to be pumped, and a steam pump has for this purpose been purchased by the company, and is now in progress of erection. We advise all who desire to select a new home for themselves in the South, to pay the thriving town of Cullman and the colony of Cullman a visit before they make their selection, and we are confident that they will be jileased and satisfied with their choice. There are thousands of acres of lands vacant and awaiting the sturdy arm of the settler to open tiie same for cultivation. JOHN GOTTFRIED CULLMANN. General ^lanager of the Xoith Alabama Laud and Immi- gration Company, Culman, Ala., was born on the Rhine, in Bavaria, July 'I, 18"23; came to America in 18G5, and to Alabama in 1811. In January of the latter year he arrived first at Florence, where he met the Hon. Robert M. Pat- ton, ex-Governor of Alabama, wiio, taking an interest in Mr. Cullmann and his enterprise, fur- nished horses and wagons for the explorations of the surrounding country, which led to the estab- lishment of the German colony in that part of the State. Colonel Cullmann remained at Florence for something like two years, when he removed to Tuscumbia, and there made his home probably twelve months. Having met in December, 1S72, Mr. Fink, of the North and South Railroad, and with him traveled over the Louisville it Nashville Railroad, he succeeded through that gentleman in closing a contract with said railroad company, for about 3411,000 acres of land. The terms of the conveyance in brief were to the effect that Colouel Cullmann sliould pay all the exi)enses of advertising, and those incident to the bringing to America the desired immigration for this particu- lar territory. In lo73 Colonel Cullmann located where now stands the town of Cullman, a small colony consisting of fourteen (ierman families, and proceeded to lay out the town which thenceforth had an existence, and has since grown to be one of the most important places of its kind in the South. Before proceeding further with this sketch, the writer wishes to lay down in general terms this proposition, to-wit: That Col. .John (L Cullmann has done more during the brief period of his citizenship towards building up and advancing the interests of Alabama and the South than any 384 NORTHERN ALABAMA. other twenty men in the State. True, he has not develojjed any immense Red Mountain ore banks, nor has he manipulated any city building schemes, such as converting old fields into corner lots; he has not built many '• dummy lines," nor any iron furnaces on paper, and many other things he has not done, but he has brought into the State and located over 100,000 people, and all under his immediate personal supervision. His son, Otto Cullmann, came to America in 1878, and was asso- ciated with him for some time in the management of the Cullmann Land Company. Otto died in 1884, at the age of twenty-six years. Col. Cullmann's eldest son was associated with him as one of the original founders of Cullman. He was a young man of extraordinary attainments, and was the pride of an indulgent father. He died in 18T3, at the age of twenty-six years. It was some time after his death that Otto came to America. Colonel Cullmann, at the schools of his native country, received a thorough education, and he was there a man of marked influence. He was a wholesale merchant in his native citj% and exported many goods to America, but entertaining some ideas not altogether comjjatible with those of the German Government, and being a man possessed to the fullest extent of the courage of his convictions, he was soon in the midst of a revolution, at least in an attempt at a revolu- tion, and he acquired his title of Colonel at that time, by being, as he says, for the period of one day, in the command of a regiment of revolu- tionists. In 1878,Colonel Cullmann entered into additional contracts with the L. & N. R. R. Co., whereby he came into possession of 600,000 acres of land, lying along that railroad, between Decatur and Montgomery ; and it is to the sale and settlement of these lands that he is now giving his special at- tention. In January, 1880, he organized the North Alabama Land Company, with a paid up capital of ^150,000. In ]\[ay of that year he made a trip to Europe in the interest of immigration, and returned the following fall to find the North Alabama •' boom" at its highest tide. Seeing his opportunity, he at once, in February, 1888, organ- ized the j)resent company of which he is General Manager, with a capital of -S2, 500,000. The com- pany owns about 160,000 acres of land and a thou- sand lots in Cullman. It is proper to state in this connection that there exists in some quarters an erroneous impression to the effect that Cullman is a German town. While there are a great many Germans in and around the little city, there are a great many others, and all are alike invited and welcome. It is not a town of race, of church, or politics, but is open and free to all good people. Though a German by birth and education. Colonel Cullmann proudly says: "I live in America, and I am an American I " In 1876 he founded Garden City, now a little place of three hundred people. He also located immigrants in all settlements along the railroad and at other jjlaces in theState. Hewas invited by Governor Houston, dur- ing that gentleman's administration, to formulate a plan of immigration. This he proceeded to do, and the plan, though adop)ted by the Senate, was defeated in the House. At the succeeding session of the Legislature, the bill was again before the General Assembly, and was at that timeadojjted by the House, but defeated by the Senate. It is now known that those results were jiurposely planned by the enemies of immigration. That any one should opjaose the influx of immigration is as- tonishing, but that there have been men (now quite scarce) that were willing to do anything to retard it, is a fact well known. It is not necessary in this sketch to discuss the matter jsro or con. The publishers take pleasure in presenting to their readers in this volume a handsome steel plate portrait of Colonel Cullmann, engraved especially for this work. The small dent, almost invisible, in his forehead is the result of a dastardly assault made upon him in the early history of the town of Cullman. It was in 1874, some rough charac- ters, thinking that the building uji of a town in their midst might operate in time to interfere with their vile practices, decided to put a stojj to the growth of the town by removing its founder. The immediate agent selected for the perpetration of this foul deed was a villain by the name of , who attacked Colonel Cullmann with a huge knife, plunging it twice in his forehead, destroy- ing a large section of the skull and exposing the brain. That he ever survived may be attributed to Providence. It is somewhat gratifying to know- that his assailant was subsequently caught in the act of horse-stealing near Macon, Ga., and paid the penalty of his misdeeds at the end of a rojie. Colonel Cullmann was married in his native country, in 1846, to Miss Loew, and there was born to him two sons and two daughters. Mrs. Cullmann and her daughters are in Europe. The NORTHERN ALABAMA. 385 Colonel is ami always lias been, even before coming to America, a stauncli Democrat. He is a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity ami of the Evangel- ical Protestatit Church. lie is an active, energetic, wide-awake and progressive man, in full sympathy with the progress of .\labania and its people: a liberal giver to charity, and a substantial snijjiorter and champion of legitimate enterprise. Churches, schools, and all charitable institutions are at all times the recipients of his liberal bounty. ASA BRINDLEY HAYS, Judge of the Probate Court of (,'ullman County, was born in I51ount County, Ala., .May IT, 184-,'. His father, lieuben Hays, a man of Scotch extraction and a native of Xiirth Carolina, was one of the first settlers of Hlounl County. He was a farmer and a black- smith. -Vsa 1$. Hays was one of a family of nine, the most of whom died in infancy. He attended the common schools in ^[urphrees' Valley. After the war he taught penmanship in different places in Tennessee and Alabama. He was appointed Clerk (if the Circuit Court of Winston County, Ala., in ISGC. He resigned that position, and clerked for the Probate Court of that county for a short time. Upon the resignation of the Probate Judge, in 1871, Jlr. Hays was appointed his successor, and, after serving out the unexpired term, was elected to the same office, and held it nearly eight years in all. He resigned that position in November, 1878, and came to Cullman, where he was Register in Chancery for a short time, and was elected Probate Judge in August, 1880. He has filled that posi- tion with great credit until the jjresent time. .fudge Hays is a Mason ami a Knight of Pythias. He was married in Winston County, in 18(>7, to Miss Minerva C. Williams, who has borne him five children, four of whom are now livinjr. -♦- GOTTFRIED A. PRINZ. County Treasurer, Cullman, was l)orn in Xieder Ingelheim, Hesse (on the River Rhine), in December, 18.51. His grand-parents were Huguenots, and were driven from France on account of their religion. Gott- fried was left an orphan when twelve years of age. He came to the I'nited States in 18(58, located first at Cincinnati, where he remained until 1872, and then returiied to Germany to settle up his father's estate. In l.s7:j he returned to Cincin- nati, and, finding business dull there on account of the {)anic of that year, he accompanied Mr. Cullmann to the town bearing his (Mr. C.'s) name, embarked in mercantile business, and has re- mained here ever since. Jlr. I'rinz was postmaster at Cullman fi-ijin IS74 until 1.S77. He was elected County Treasurer in 188"^ and is still satisfactorily performing the duties of that office. He was Mayor of the town in 1S7G and ]8^s, and is now councilman, city clerk, trustee of the public schools, and is one of the largest merchants in the jilace. Mr. Prinz was married at Tuscumbia, Ala., November, 1875, to Miss Ingeborg fjueddemann, of Milwaukee, a lady of American birth, l)ut of Nor- wegian and German descent. Her father posses. by Gover- nor Cobb, and elected to that position in 1880, but in consefpience of imperfect returns, a contest 386 NORTHERN ALABAMA. of the election arose, which was compromised by consolidating i}\Q Alabama 2'ribune and the Soutli- ern Immigrant, under Mr. Jolinson's management. The contestants for the office were the editors of the two papers. He was appointed Judge of the County Court of Cullman in ISSO, and retained that position until 1884. From the time Mr. Johnson took charge of the Tribune (November 1, 1880), until the present writing, the paper has never missed an issue, and although opf)ositiou jiapers have frequently arisen, the Tribune is now the only iJajjer published at Cullman, and it has a larger circulation than any other jjaper ever had in this county. Mr. Johnson claims to be the oldest editor in the State now actively engaged in business. When he began his career as printer, in 1837, with the jjublication of the Nashville Christian Advocate, he was asso- ciated with the Hev. Thomas Stringfield, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Johnson's father, Cliristian A. Johnson, was a resident of Danville, Ya. He was a farmer, and died in 1883. ilr. Johnson's mother, whose maiden name was Nancy W. Franklin, was born in Eichmond County, Ga., and died in Athens, Ala., in 18.57. • < ♦■ • SAMUEL H. HERRIN, Mayor of the City of Cull- man, was born near (hmtersville, Ala., January 'Z'i, 1837, and is a son of Curtis Herrin, a native of Tennessee, and who was for some years prior to and at the time of his death, Sheriff of Marshall County, this State. The senior Mr. Herrin was a promineTit Mason, a man of wealth; participated in the Indian wars, and took part in the removal of the Red Men to the Indian Territory. His wife was Martha A. Cooper, a native of Virginia. Her father was a soldier in the War of 1812. S. H. Herrin spent his early life in the neigli- borhood of (xuntersville, and at the common schools acquired the rudiments of an education. In 1859, he moved to Morgan County, this State, and there married Miss ilellissa C. Henson, Octo- ber, 1860. (Miss Henson was a niece of the late General Lee, who was a colonel in the Me.xjcan War.) Mr. Herrin taught school in Morgan County until 1863, at which time he entered the service of the Confederacy, as a lieutenant in the Fourth Alabama Cavalry. Returning home at the close of the war he followed farming until 1871, at which time he embarked in mercantile business, which he followed about three years. He was six years Commissioner of Morgan County, and about the same length of time agent of the L. & N. R. R. He is now Mayor of the city of Cullman, and Judge of the County Court. He served nineteen years as Justice of the Peace in Morgan County, and in 1886 was admitted to the bar at Cullman. He was appointed a postmaster in 1857. He be- longs to the Masonic fraternity and the Knightsof Pythias. GEORGE H. PARKER, Banker and Attorney- at-law, Cullman, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 17, 185"2, and was educated at Pox- bury High School, Boston, Mass., from which institution he graduated in 1870. Upon leaving school he embarked in the commission business in Boston, followed it two years, came to Ohio, studied law at Hillsboro, and was admitted to the bar in 1873. He i^racticed law a short time at Hillsboro, and in August, 1874, came to Cullman. Here, in addition to the practice of law, he en- gaged for a tiuie in the drug business, and in 1884 established the banking house of Parker & Co. Though the banking concern bears the name of Parker & Co., Mr. Parker is its sole owner, and at this writing it is tlie only banking house between Decatur and Birmingham. Mr. Parker is a member of the Knights of Pythias, takes an active interest in the cause of education, and is a wide-awake, thorough-going 2iresent-day man. He was married June 17, 1874, to iliss Cora A., daughter of Dr. (ieorge Heidel- berg, of Hillsboro, Ohio, and has had born to him five children: George H., Mary A., Robert B., Hattie and Sarah Seaver. Thomas H. Parker, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Dorchester, Mass., in 1821, and his family own land to this day at that point, that came into their possession in 1631. On the maternal side of his familj' he was descended from the Seavers, some of whom have been conspicuous in the history of the country. His grandfather, Ebenezer Seaver, was a noted man during Jack- son's administration as President of the United States. He was many years a member of Con- gress, but was particularly distinguished for having been forty years mayor of his native city Mr. T. H. Parker was many years a merchant in NORTHERN ALABAMA. 387 Cincinnati, but since 1804 has been engaged at fiirniing nearllillsboro. lie is a man of consider- able wealtii, a consistent member of the Baptist Church, and has held the office of school trustee for twenty consecutive years. lie, on October 4, 1849, married Mary Joanna Cheever, of one of the oldest families of Providence, \\. I., and lias reared eiglit children, viz.: Howard J., George II., Ed- ward M.. William II., Abbott A., Seaver. Omar, Stella. JAMES A. McMINN was born near the place wliero now stands the city of Cullman, in 18")7, and is the son of Thaddeus W. Mc.Minn, a native of Marion County, this State, and of Scotcli-Irish descent. The senior Mr. McJIinn was the first Probate Judge of Cullman County: he. afterward served two or tliree terms as Siieriff, and died while holding that office. His wife, before mar- ri:ige, was Sarah IJeyer, of South Carolina. Her family came from Germany. She was tlie second wife of Mr. McMinn; the McMinn children, three sons and two daughters, were by a second wife, and tlieir names are : John K. McMinn, farmer, Cullman County: Elizabeth, now widow of X. Quartlibome; James A., subject of this sketch: Charles, a farmer, and Sonora, deceased. James A. McMinn was reared on a farm in this county, and lie, in December, 18To, married Miss Xancy Speegle, and lias four children: T. D., Lora, Oscar and Ab. ROBERT THOMAS SEARCY. M. D., was born in lU'ilford County, Tenn.. .hiiiuary 11, 18".24. His father, Orville II. Searcy, was born in Xash- ville, Tenn., in 1800, and was of French and (Jerman origin. Our subjeqt was taken to Missouri when but seven years of age, but was educated in Bedford Count V, Tenn. He took his degree of M. D. at Xashville. He subsequently located in Lincoln County, that State, and practiced there, and in Fayetteville, until the breaking out of tlie war, when he entered the Confederate Army, as surgeon of the post, at Camp Trous: his ancestors were all of that country. .Mr. Mohr was educated in the best schools of his native land, not only in the classics, but he made a specialty of the sciences of geology and mineralogy at the University of Tiibingen, Wiirt- emberg, (iermany. Afterward he acted as col- lector for the museum at ^'ienna, the British Museum at London, and others. In 1S4S he went to London, and was employed in the miner- alogical department of the British Museum for a considerable time. Mr. Mohr left London and came to the L^nited States; he went first to Cincinnati, then to Indiana, and returned to Cincinnati in lS5:i, where he organized the firm of Mohr, Sol- omon & Mohr, in the distilling and rectifying business. This firm was very widely known. In ls»;4 Mr. Mohr went to Clermont County, Ohio, and farmed there for about ten years near Ban- tam. In 1S74 his brother, who had been connect- ed with him in the distillery, died, and he was compelled to return and take charge of that busi- ness in Cincinnati. The firm was thereafter known as " Mohr Company." In 1.S84 our sub- . jectcame to Cullman, on account of the health of his wife. He bought a farm here, and has since been engaged in farming and cultiva- ting fruit. Since May, 1S87, Mr. Mohr has been employed by the Xorth Alabama Land and Immi- gration Company as land examiner and geologist. The subject of tliis sketch was married in Ger- many, in 18-tfI, to Miss Fredericka Dieterlen, daughter of a professor in one of the schools there. They liave seven children, two sons and five daugh- ters: Paul F. Mohr, the eldest of these, is chief engineer in construction of the Spokane & Palouse Kailway, in Washington Territory: Augustus Mohr is with his father in the fruit and distilling business. Of Mr. Mohr's five daugiiters three are teachers: Mary is in Culhnan, Theckla in Cincin- nati and Emma in Indiaiiaj)olis; Emily and Ma- tilda are at home. Mr. Mohr is a member of the Society of Natural History, in Cincinnati, and he and his daughters are members of the American Association of Sci- ence. Mr. ^lohr's ancestors were prominent people in the Fatherland, and a numlier of them lost their lives in the Thirty Vcars^ War, under Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. l^-fy^ -«-J ANDREW J. YORK, Sheriff of Cullman County, was born in Maron County, this State, in Novem- ber, 1S61. His father, AV'illiam York, moved to Alabama in early times. He was a farmer and a member of an old Georgia family. He married Delilah World, also a native of (Jeorgia. Thej' had a family of ten children, three sons and seven daughters. Mr. York's grandfather. Singleton York, was a prominent man in Colbert County, Ga., and held a number of public offices there. He owned a large number of slaves before their emancipa- tion. Andrew .J. York was reared and educated at Cedar Plains, Morgan County, Ala. He taught school two years, farmed for awhile and went into the livery business in Cullman in 1881. Under his management this business has increased, not- withstanding a lively competition, until it is now more than five times as great as it was at first. Mr. York has been Marshal of the town for two years, and was appointed Sheriff in 1884. He is blaster of the Masonic Lodge here, and Past Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. Our subject was married. January \^, ISTU, to Miss Sallie A. Wallace, whose father was killed by the bushwhackers during the war. Mr. York has one son. — — -^--i^j^i-^ — — S. L. FULLER, Land Agent, Cullman, was born near this town in 1855, and spent the early part of his life on the plantation and in attendance at the old-field schools. Later in life spent part of 1872-3 at .school in .Morgan, adjacent county, and on January 9, 1870, married Miss Evelyn E. .^90 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Hubert, daughter of J. G. Hubert, of Cincinnati, •Ohio. Mr. Hubert was born in Germany in 1817, and came to this countr}' in early life, and served as an officer in the Florida War. After the war Mr. Hubert located in Iowa, and there laid out the town of Lansing, and subsequently moved to Cincinnati. He was in the Federal Army com- missary department during the latewar, and was afterward connected for several years with the Volkshlait paper at Cincinnati. In 1875 he came to Cullman, where he is at this writing Dep- uty Postmaster, his .daughter, wife of the subject •of this sketch, being the Postmistress. 3Ir. Fuller, having a fondness for law, although a limited edu- •cation and a family to supjDort, was forced to abandon his studies, and engaged in various pur- suits to make his living and gather uj) enough of this world's goods to renew his studies. He ■divided his attention between farming and lumber business until 1883, at which time he began a land speculation in the new West in buying, selling and locating soldiers' additional land claims. He has been for some time and is now particularly engaged in the location of town sites on the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Eailroad, for the railroad company, through Kansas, Xebraska, Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming; and has now, at this late date, at the age of thirty-three years, en- tered the college to complete his studies prejiara- tory to his old favorite business (law and politics). Mr. Fuller has five children living: Asa, Xellie, Dwightie, Harry and Forney. The family are of the Baptist faith. Mr. Fuller is a land agent and notary public. — «-;^t^'-<'- • ■ McENTIRE BROTHERS, Dealers in General Merchandise, Cullman. This firm is composed of Harrison P., Bennett P., Leroy and Millard McEntire. Mr. McEntire, the father of these gentlemen, was a native of North Carolina, and descended from Scotch-Irish parentage. He was a farmer by occupation, was many years a justice of the peace, and at one time a captain of State militia. His wife, whose maiden name was Plum- mer, a native North Carolinian, was descended from the French. They reared a family of nine children, seven sons and two daughters. Two of the for- mer, Albana and Robert, were soldiers during the late war, and gave up their lives during that con- flict. One of them died in prison, and the other in hospital from exposure while on the field. Harrison P., of McEntire Brothers, since the war, has been engaged in mercantile business and in the United States mail and internal revenue ser- vice. He was married, in 18T5, to Miss Emma K. McCullough. Bennett P., the second sou, went to Texas in 1871, and was there engaged at stock raising until 1883. In that year he returned to Alabama, and was in stock business at Cullman until 188.5, at which time he engaged as at present. Leroy McEntire, the third brother, as did the rest of the family, spent his earlier life in North Carolina. The family settled in De Kalb County, this State, in 1859, and from there, in 1875, Leroy removed to Indian Territory. In 1877, he migrated to Texas, whence he returned to De- Kalb County. His father died in 1878, and he took charge of and managed the farm until 1885. In that j'ear he came to Cullman, as a member of the firm of McEntire Brothers. Millard ^IcEntire also spent some time in Texas, where he went in 1878, and was there a farmer. Rufus, another brother, has made his home in Texas continuously since 1876. The business now conducted by McEntire Brothers at Cullman was established in 1885 by Bennett P. Beginning in a small way, it has steadily grown, until it has become one of the most substantial and extensive concerns of this flour- ishing town. ., ^ .^^^! p^T^ VI. GUNTERSVILLE. Bv Edwin O. Neelv. In the general chapter on the county will be found the early history of its seat of government. This sketch will treat tlie town as it is to-day. At this writing (March, 1888), the town, which has for fortr\' years been content to do the shijijiing and furnisliing for the country around (a radius of from fifteen to thirty miles), has been thor- oughly aroused, and is taking such active steps as will cause a speedy increase of population, and a change from the all-cotton policy to becoming a mart of trade and a hive of industry— ; paying close attention to manufacturing and the handling of those diversified products which are so well adapted to this section. This town has been heretofore dependent upon the Tennessee Hiver for transportation, and has done a business of about *750,000 per year for the past five years — a business consisting principally of furnishing supplies to cotton planters. The ])resent population is about oOd souls. Here are two commodious houses of worship, both of which are situated in the southern portion •of town. These churches are tlie Methodist I^pis- •copal. South, and the Cumberland Presbyterian. A large and commodious public school building is 4ilso on the same square, in which is conducted a liigli school and a normal course of instruction. There are sixteen business liouses in Gunters- ville, and the commercial standing of these mer- chants is unsurpa.ssed by any town of twice its l)opulation in the United States. The large brick court-house is situated in the center of a spacious yard, and is surrounded by the court square, so often seen in the South. The postottice at Ountersville does a business of forty thousand dollars per annum. Immediately under the western portion of Gun- tersville runs a ridge of low hills, which extend to- ward Birmingham on the southwest, and continue toward Cliattaiiooga in the opposite direction. These hills carry red fossiliferous hematite,an ore of iron very rich in pure metal, in such quantities as to apijear inexhaustible. The ridge extends through the county, a length of about twentv-five miles. Guntersville is tiie most important point in this county, and is one of the oldest places in North Alabama. It derives its name from an Indian fam- ily for whom the (iovernment made a reservation of nearly one thousand acres of land just on the north bank of the Tennessee Kiver, opjiosite the site of Guntersville. There was a ferry across the river at this point and a common and j)opular place for barge boats coming from up the river to land and dispose of their loads of grain, provisions, etc. Hence the name of (Junter's Landing orCiunters- ville. In the very early history of the country a con- siderable trade grew up at this place, and business at Gunter's Landing compared well with any trad- ing-post in the State; consequently when the peo- ple cast about to locate theircounty seat, Gunter's Landing was best situated and was voted the place. The population, however, was small and it was not until some years after the late civil war that it became of such importance as to demand municipal government. At last, however, this became necessary, and in LS73, an act was passed by the Legislature of Alabama, granting her cor- porate limits, powers and authority. The act re- quired a Mayor and five Councilmen, and limited the taxing power of the municipal government to one-half of one per ceuliim. The mayoralty passed around from one man to another, until 1884. when James L. Burke was elected to the Legislature, and a new charter was granted to the 391 393 NORTHERX ALABAMA. town, giving, power to the Mayor g in the law was so -precise and whose decisions were so clear that it may have been well said of him, — his advice was always right. Few, if any, men in Xortli Alabama have been his peers in the full and perfect knowl- edge of the common law of the land. His memory will ever be cherished in this county as the found- er of the bar and the father of the profession. It was always said of him that he felt kindly toward his brothers and lent aid to his fellows, being an especial friend to him who aspired to legal lore; and among hi.« disciples may be found the names of Porter, Barclay and Boyd, and perhaps a dozen of less fame. The bar of this county may be well said to be the child of his own begetting, for it was him ^\;ho first rocked it in its infancy, and it was him that left it as a legacy to his own professional child, the late Eufus K. Boyd, whose mind was as bright as a meteor, and whose training brought forth the craftiness and genius of his nature. Few- men in the history of Alabama had such perfect control of the people as the above mentioned B. K. Boyd. As a friend he was true and abiding, and as an advocate he was warm and zealous. Boyd was a maji of great personal magnetism, and therefore a successful politician. In 187.3 he was elected to the Legislature of this State by an overwhelming vote, and from that time his poj)- ularity began to grow until 1876, when he was unanimously nominated for Secretary of State, and in August of that year he was triumphantly elected, in which office he served the peojile most satisfactorily, and retired to his practice. The late Mr. Porter, in whose name appears the early State reports of the Alabama Supreme Court, was in his younger days a practicing lawyer at this bar, and it was here that he conceived the idea of publishing the reports. It was at this place that the Hon. Sol. Palmer first entered the active practice of the law, in co- partnership with Hon. C. F. Hamill, of Blounts- ville, afterward forming a partnership with 11. K. Boyd, whose popularity and friendship lent him NORTHERN ALABAMA. 393 considerable aid in attaining his present position of State Siiperinteiideiit of Education. John 1). Weeden, now dean of the law faculty of tlie University of Alabama, first entered the practice at the .Marshall County bar. But this chapter would be incomplete should we fail to say that its present status is greatly due to the influence of visiting attorneys such as W. C Chapman, David I'. Lewis, \\. C. Hrickell, L. P. Walker, Sep. Cabiness and others, of llunts- ville, Ala. The present bar is composed of young men, scarcely one of whom has reached the merid- ian of life, but of whose ability the reader may judge by the illustrious examples made by their renowned and honored pi'edecessors. The litigation in this county has always been necessarily light, on account of so few wealthy citi- zens. There have been a few cases concerning the titles to the ricli bottom lands that were of considerable importance, but generally the titles to property in this county are clear, being but a few removes from the common source, the Govern- ment. The general grounds of litigation thus far liavebeen suits for the collection of debts and trials concerning personal property. • Crime in JIarshall is a small matter, there being but few cases of higher grade than misdemeanors; in fact, nearly all the felonies on the docket now or for years past have been against transient and floating defendants. The term of court here is two weeks in the spring and two in the fall, and the criminal side of the docket is easily disposed of in a few days. If, liowever, this county is pen- etrated by railroads, and the floating tide of hu- manity turned in upon it, like Birmingham and other places, its courts will soon be full. At pres- ent, however, good order, good government and good debt-paying citizens make .Marshall County, in a sense, free from litigation. MEDICAL PHOFESSIOX. The facts herewith presented, constitnte brief biographical sketches of leading members of the medical profession who have in years past practiced in .Marshall County. Doctors Andrew Jloore and <>. X. riieemster were the first regular practition- ers of medicine here. Dr. Axduew Mooke was a native of Xorth Carolina; he came to this county about the year 1H23. He was a citizen liere, and was practicing medicine at Claysville, the former county-seat, before the Countv of Marshall was constituted, lie practiced here first as an undergraduate for some years before receiving a diploma; he graduated from the Louisville Medical College, while under the tuition of the celebrated S. D. (iross, of that institution. Dr. Moore was a man of fine physifjue and wonderful jiowers of endurance. He was emi- nently fitted for the duties of a pioneer physician, being a man of great courage, and withal a man of more than the average attainments. He was a man of close study and rjuick observation: came to conclusions logically, and fully merited the title of father of JIarshall County physicians. Being intelligent and well-informed, he was con- sidered a model for all ambitious young men in the profession. A number of students were taught under his eye before going to a medical college, and it is said each one felt the impress of his in- dividuality in a variety of ways. Dr. Mookk died in Larkinsville, Ala., in 1805, at the age of seventy years. Dr. 0. M. Pheemster was another of the pioneer physicians who did a large amount of good, and who had a large jjractice; but lie re- moved to the West about the year 1840. Dr. J. \V. Fexxell was also among the early physicians. He was a native of Virginia, and a graduate of a leading medical college in that State. He removed here some years after the organization of the county. Dr. Fennell was far above the average of his profession at his day in general literature and those qualities which go to make a man polished and urbane. He gained a large circle of warm friends by his gentlemanly bearing, and was the leading phy- sician in the county during his whole career as practitioner. He died near Deposit Ferry, five miles below Guntersville, in the year 18'!:!, loved and honored by all who knew him. Dr. W.m. II.\rhisox, who died in Talladega County, Ala., about the year 18fi4, was for a number of years a successful practitioner in this county. He was noted for painstaking methods in sickness, and for unusual jirudence and caution. Of the many good physicians now in practice in Guntersville and ilarshall County, there are now (ISSS) only three who were practicing here before the late war between the States. These are Doctors William Smith, of A\'arrenton, James M. Jackson, and William .M. liicketts, of (•untcrsville. 394 NORTHERN ALABAMA. THE PRESS. The first newspaper published in ^larshall County was about the year 1852, as well as we I have been able to learn. It waS called the Mar- I shall County yeirs, and was published by James ! Peebles, who afterward sold out to Judge B. F. I Porter. Judge Porter changed its name to the Mar shall County Eagle. \ AVilliam M. Ricketts and Samuel Manning suc- ceeded to the ownership shortly after, and again, after twelve months, the latter ran the paper alone for a time. Manning sold out to James Eubanks, who kept the paper in operation up to the break- ing out of the late war, when he entered the army and was killed at the battle of Chickamauga. For some years after hostilities ceased no paper was published in Marshall County. Some time during 18G9 the Guntersville Post was started here by Joe A. Walden, which suspended after six months. The Etowah Sliield was removed to Gunters- ville from Gadsden in 1871, by James L. Burke, who in 187'-i changed the name of the jjaper to the Marshall Tribune, and admitted George Harper to a partnership. In 1873 they sold the paper and plant to Cullman parties, who removed it to that place. The Guntersville Democrat was established in 1880 by W. M. Meeks, who disposed of his inter- ests to E. D. Byars in 1882. The latter was in feeble health on coming here, and sold out to Hon. Solomon Palmer the following year. The latter conducted the Democrat until the first of Novem- ber, 1»85, when he leased it to Robert M. Bell, who sub-let it to Broussais Coman and W. R. Walker. . They ran the Democrat during 1886. On January 1, 1887, Solomon Palmer again took hold of the paper, assisted by his daughter. Miss Lillie (now Mrs. R. X. Bell). On May 1st of the same year, Major Palmer leased the Democrat for twelve months to E. 0. Neely, who, in January, IbSS, purchased the paper, together with the building and lot on the Public Square in Guntersville where it is printed. The Democrat is a live paper. Democratic in politics, and devoted to the best interests of the people of Marshall County. RAILROADS. The Tennessee & Coosa Railroad is surveyed and graded from Gadsden to Guntersville, and the surveyors have completed the locating of th« line to Huntsville. The newly elected oflBcers, representing Xew York capital, have given a guarantee to finish the line from Gadsden to Guntersville by October 1, 1888, and to cross the river at Guntersville and over to Huntsville by the nest eight months. This road will make part of a trunk line from St. Louis, Mo., via Milan, Tenu., to Brunswick, Ga., on the Atlantic coast. It is being rapidly built, and bids fair to be a formidable rival of the Louisville & Xashville system. The Birmingham mineral division of the Louis- ville it Nashville, surveyed from Bessemer to Huntsville, has a large force of hands engaged on the lower end, and will be completed to the Ten- nessee River at Beard's Bluff or Manchester within twelve months. The Scottsboro & Guntersville Railroad Com- pany was organized in March, 1888, and incorpor- ated with R. C. Hunt, Scottsboro, jiresident; J. L. Jordan, Guntersville, secretary; and T. B. Lusk, Guntersville, treasurer. This road will be built to intersect the Mem- phis & Charleston Railroad at Scottsboro. ALBERT G. HENRY, the most distinguish- ed Merchant, Capitalist and citizen of North- eastern Alabama, was born in Sevier County, Tenn., December 5, 1816. His educational training was limited to juvenile and youthful years, and to the common schools. He was twelve years of age when he came to Alabama with his father, Hugh Henry, who established a small mercantile house in Jackson County, on the north side of the Tennessee, opposite (Gunters- ville. At eighteen years of age he quitted school and entered his father's establishment as a clerk. At the age of twenty he was given an interest in the concern, and five years later, on the south side of the river, at Gunter's Landing, he established himself in business, and was the first merchant on this side of the river at this point. With the excejjtion of two years during the war, he has been continuously since that date a merchant at Guntersville. For many years prior to the war, he held almost entire control of the traffic at that place. He was probably the first man in North- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 395 eastern Alahama to introduce the continued credit system. From yeiir to year lie carried his patrons tijion his books, and many of them, among whom wi're some of the wealthiest in that part of the country, depended as entirely u])on him and his resources for money, clotiiing and jirovisions as if he had been by them appointed special guardian. The return of peace finding his patrons, almost without exception, financially broken up, it was necessary tiiat he should devise some method of securing himself against loss w-hile he advanced to them the means necessary to their existence, lie had about §r>(l,000 in money, and being with- out legal remedy, under the statutes at that time, he conceived the idea of the mortgage law as at present in vogue. With this protection he could again advance to the people the necessaries of life, and enable them to recruit their lost fortunes. That his kindness has been appreciated is evi- denced, not only by his success as a business man, but by the iiigh esteem in which he is held by the community at large. A. (;. Henry has been for more than a decade recognized as one of the most skillful, reliable and substantial business men in the South. Never a lioliticiaii; never a speculator; never an adventurer, lie has built no iron furnaces, laid out no cities, in- vented no schemes whereby the money of other people might be transferred to his own pockets; but as an every-day, steady, thorough-going busi- ness man, he has prospered, he has grown wealthy while thousands have failed. The result of his life comes as nearly being the reward of merit as does that of any man in modern history. While he has been careful in his financial dealings, and, economical in his living, it has never been charged that he has been dishonest, that he has sought another man's money without giving in return an ample ef|uivaleiit. Nor has he been charged with any petty meanness, with any smallness, with any cruelty to those who, through accei)ting his bounty, had come to exist almost at his mercy. In personal appearance Jfr. llenry is somewhat imposing. lie is over six feet tall, straight as an arrow, always cleanly shaven and neatly dressed. His face is somewhat mobile, his eyes set deep in his head, his nose is rather aquiline, and his mouth and chin denote both longevity and exceed- ing firmness. As a mark of distinction and as a memorial to the worth and merit of Mr. Henry as a citizen, the publishers are pleased to embellish this volume with a portrait of what they consider a genuine type of a self-made man. Mr. Henry was first married August 18, 1838, to ,Mary Ann Henry, of Tennessee. She became the mother of eight children, and on December 31, 1884-, died at Ciuntersville at the age of 04 years. The present Mrs. Henry was Mrs. Julia Waitt, nee Julia Brown. Of Mr. Henry's children we make the following memoranda: Wallace H. (deceased), Hugh, Margaret (Mrs. Dr. Clifton, Waco, Texas), Mary (Mrs. 1). J. Miller, Texas), Sallie H. (Mrs. J. D. Bell, Waco, Texas), Albert G., Jr., and Sam- uel. Mr. Henry is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his wife is of the Christian C'hui'ch. «4i- LOUIS WEISS WYETH was born in Harris- burg, I'a., Juneau, 181:.'. and is a son of John and Louisa (Weiss) Wyeth, natives, respectively, of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. He was reared and educated at Harrisburg ; began the study of law at the age of eighteen years, and three years thereafter w^as admitted to the bar at Carlisle, Pa. In 18:{.3, he located in the practice of law at Harrisburg, and in March, 1836, came South, landing at (iuntersville, April :2!t, 183G. Here he immediately began the practice of law, and soon became one of the most successful attor- neys in this part of the country. In 1837 he was appointed County Judge, and was afterward elect- ed by the Legislature to that office for a te>-m of six years. He held the office, however, only about six months and resigned, and from that time until 1874, when he was elected Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, he never asked for any official preferment. He was married, Ajiril 0, 183'.l, to Miss Euphemia Allan, a daughter of the Rev. John Allan, a Presbyterian minister wlio came from England, settled in Georgia, and finally at Iluntsville. To this marriage three chil- dren were born and have been reared, namely : ilary, wife of Hugh Carlisle, a prominent con- tractor ; Louisa Weiss, wife of A\'m. Todd, of Guntersville ; and John A., a surgeon of distinc- tion in New York City. The family are all mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church. In thus hastily scanning over the life of one of the most prominent men of Northeastern Ala- bama, we have taken no occasion to comment. 396 NORTHERN ALABAMA. eulogize or state conclusions. Those that know Judge Wj'eth, and their number is legion, are of but one mind as to his worth as a citizen, his ability as a lawyer, his sound discrimination and justice as a judge. He has lived long in this community, here reared his family, amassed a for- tune, and in his ripe old age has the satisfaction of knowing that he is loved, honored, trusted and respected by the entire community, jirobably in a degree enjoyed by no other man. The Judge takes an active interest in the up- building and developmejit of all Northeastern Alabama, and particularly of the vicinity of Guntersville. The new and promising town but recently laid out and designed as the manufactur- ing center of this immediate portion of the State, has been named in his honor, Wyetli City. He is president of the Tennessee & Coosa Railroad ; director in the Wyeth City Land Company, and more or less identified with other important industries. | John Wyeth, the father of Judge Wyeth, was born at Fresh Pond, three miles from Boston, and when twenty-one years of age, from there went to Philadelphia. Here he accepted employ- ment in a printing office, where he was at work, when, in response to an invitation of a French gentleman, he sailed to San Domingo. Here he edited a Republican paper until the outbreak of an insurrection, which forced him to flee from the island for safety. He returned to Philadelphia, and later on to Harrisburg. At the latter place he established and jiublished the Oracle of Daupliln, the first newspajjer ever printed in Harrisburg. In addition to his newspaper he ran a book store, and was the first postmaster appointed at Harrisburg. His commission was signed by George Washington. He retired from all business in 18'-i6, returned to Pliiladelphia, and there spent the remainder of his life. His wife, Louisa Weiss, was a daughter of Louis Weiss, chaplain to the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. He was one of the most jsrofonnd scholars of his day, but for his espousal of the Moravian doctrine was removed from his office by the Grand Duke, and at once came to America. He settled in Philadel- phia, where he held the ofiice of notary public, and was many years employed as translator of foreign papers and languages. Of Judge Wyeth's brothers and sisters we have the following data: John Wyeth is an attorney at Harrisburg, Pa.; Francis Wyeth, a book-dealer; Charles A., a printer; Samuel D., a stereotyper in Philadelphia^ Louisa, wife of Samuel Douglass, an eminent attorney at Harrisburg; and Mary, wife of the Rev. Daniel McKinley. The Wyethscame originally from England and settled at Boston, or near there, when that place was a small village. WASHINGTON T. MAY was born near Win- chester, Tenn., October 1, 1810, and his jmrents were named LeRoy and Elizabeth (Davis) May. LeRoy May was born in Virginia about the year 1782, and was taken by his parents to North Carolina in 179.5. From there the family migrated to Tennessee in the year 1800, settling first in McMinn County and afterward in Franklin. Le- Roy was a surveyor by profession and devoted his life thereto. In 1845 he moved to Arkansas where he died in 1870. He was under General Jackson during the Creek War as a topographical engineer. The children reared by Mr. May are as follows: Washington T. (the sixbject of this sketch), Musi- dora (Mrs. William Duncan), Attilia (Mrs. Ed- mond Wagner), Mary (Mrs. George Wagner), Virginia (Mrs. Greathouse), Ann (Mrs. Norcross), Elizabeth (Mrs. James Smith), Tennessee May, Gibson May and Bolivar May. John May, LeRoy May's father, was also a Vir- ginian by birth. He died in Polk County, Tenn., in 18-15. Washington T. May was reared at Winchester, Tenn., and at the age of seventeen years began life for himself as an employe in the county clerk's office. He soon afterward studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. In the spring of that year he came to Alabama, and located at Bellefonte, Jackson County, in the practice of law. In January, 1836, he was elected County Judge of Marshall, and held that office twelve or fifteen years. In 18i)"2 he was appointed Probate Judge of this county, and in 18'j6 was elected to that office, but two years later was turned out by the Reconstructionists. Since that time he has given his attention to farming. Mr. May is one of the most progressive men in ^Marshall County, and as a citizen is held in very high esteem by the people. He was married April VI, 1840, to Margaret W. Johnson, and of the children he has had born to NORTHERN ALABAMA. 397 him we make the following notice: Washington W. (lied at C'larksonville, Tenn., in ItSGl, wliile in the Confi'ilerate Army and on the staff of Colonel .Taekson: William, a physician, was a captain in tlie late war; John was killed in battle in 18 -^€^"»— — THOMAS A. STREET, Judge of the Probate Court of Marshall County, son of Oliver D. and Mary A. (Atkins) Street, natives of Winchester, Tenn., and Madison County, Ala., resjDectively, was born near Warrenton, this county, July 30, 1838. He was reared on his father's farm, attended the neighborhood schools, and in July, 1860, graduated from the Cumberland University, Ten- nessee. December, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Forty-ninth Alabama, and in the spring of 1863 was commissioned captain. He took part in the battles of Baton Rouge, Corinth, siege of Port Hudson, at which latter place he fell into the hands of the enemy. After the battle of Corinth he was promoted to major, and after becoming a prisoner he was confined on Johnson's Island until March, 1865. After leaving John- son's Island he went to Point Lookout, Maryland, where he was at the time of Lincoln's assassina- tion. He was held pi'isoner until June follow- ing. After the war he returned to Warrenton, and was engaged at farming until November, 1874, when he was elected Judge of Probate, the oflBce he has since continuously held. The Judge is an extensive land holder, and is largely inter- ested in the modern development of Marshall County. The proposed town of Manchester, designed as a manufacturing place, on the Tennes- see River, its site, as laid out covering over three thousand acres of ground, is upon land recently owned by the Judge and others, and by them sold to the Manchester Company. Judge Street was married December 6, 1865, to Julia A. Beard, daughter of A. C. and Jane (Moore) Beard, of ilarshall County, and has had born to him seven children: Oliver D., Jane M., Thomas A., Julia, Mary T., Edwin C. and Ernes- tine. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Judge is a prominent Mason. He lives on his farm some three miles west of Gnntersville, and near the proposed town of Manchester. Oliver D. Street was a minister in the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church. He came to ilarshall County in 1837, and died soon afterward. His widow, in isi-t, married the Hon. James L. Shef- field. Judge Street's grandfather, Thomas Atkins, native of Lawrence District, S. C, came to Madi- son County, Ala., in 1813; there met and mar- ried Rebecca Tate, a native of Fayette County. Ky. Mr. Atkins was a substantial farmer, and was a soldier in the War of 1813. GEORGE W. JONES, Attorney-at-law, Gnn- tersville, son of William B. and Martha J.(Erwin) Jones, was born in ^fadison County, this State, April 1(), 1850. He received his primary educa- tion at the common schools of Madison County, and was graduated from the law department of Cumberland LTuiygi-gi^y^ Tennessee, in 18T4. In January, 1875, he located at Gnntersville, formed a partnership with R. K. Boyd, then Secretary of State, and has since given his attention to the practice of law. The partnership referred to lasted six years, and after practicing alone for two years he was associated with J. G. Winston, and in March, 1885, with J. L. Burke. Mr. Jones is recognized as one of the leading lawyers in Northeastern Alabama, and as a crimi- nal lawyer he has but few, if any, superiors in the north part of the State. He married, December 24, 1829, Miss Lavina C. Jones, daughter of NORTHERN ALABAMA. 401 George W. Jones, Esq., of Jradison County, and lias hail born to him one child, Bessie (iay. • lie and his wife are divided in their denominational allegiance, the one being a member of the Cum- lierland Presbyterian Church, and tlieothera com- municant of the Episcopal Church. Jlr. Jones is a -Mason, having joined that fraternity in 1S71. at \ew .Market. Tiie senior .Mr. Jones was born in iladison County, this State, in 1812, and his wife was born in Tennessee, in July, 181 7. He was one of the most substantial farmers of the day. Prior to the war he cultivated over a thou.sand acres of land, and owned quite a number of slaves. He was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He was assistant quartermaster during the late war, and held the rank of colonel. His brother, (Jeorge \V. Jones, is known in history as chief quartermaster. Colonel Jones, after the war, re- turned to his farm. He was a man of limited edu- cation, but of great influence in the community where he resided. He reared a family of seven children, viz. : Rebecca, deceased; Eliza B., wife of .lames M. Walker: Nannie, wife of W, J. A\'alker; George W. ; John K., a physician; .James, deceased; and Henry L. The old gentleman and his wife both live in Madison County. His father was (ieorge T. Jones, a native of Scotland, who was brought by his grandmother to the United States when an infant. His name was really Tan- nehill, but being reared by his grandmother Jones, he took her name. He nuirried Rebecca Brown, and immediately afterward located in Madison County, where he was one of the first settlers. He represented that county several terms in the Leg- islature, and was known in his day as an active public spirited citizen. ROBERT N. BELL was born at (Jaylesvilie, Ala., on X('>vember 17. 180"i. He was educated at the State I'niversity at Tuscaloosa, graduating from the law school at that institution .lune 11, 188-1. Mr. Bell located at (iuntersville, October "iO, 1S.S4, having already been admitted to practice law the July previous. He at once began to build up a good practice, having entered into a partnership with Hon. Solomon Palmer. On January 4, lS8r. Lusk, the iniblishcrs present lierewilh a luuulsotne ])ortruit of jiim. -«« ««►► JAMES MONROE JACKSON. M. D., son of llarhard and .Martha (Gill) .lackson, was born at Cnlleoka, Maury County, Tenn., -Vpril 12, 1S2, when he returneil to Gun- tersville. Dr. Jackson was married in November, 18.50, to Eliza D., daughter of Dr. James and Martha (Berry) Wilkinson, of Somerville, both natives of Georgia. Tiie Doctor haci three children Ijorn to him, and has buried one. The living are Alice Lee (now wife of Robert McKinney, of Mem- phis), and James L., a farmer of Guntersville. The Doctor lost his wife in 188(;. He is a mem- l)er of the .Methodist Episcopal Church and the Masonic fraternity. Dr. .Jackson's father was born at Madison, Ga., and liis mother in Botetourt County, Va. The father, Harbard .Jackson, moved with his parents to Tennessee at a very early day and became a substantial farmer. They reared si.x children, viz. : Elizalieth, Susan, Priscilla, Floyd, Joseph, and •James Monroe, who was tlie third in order. Harb- ard Jackson died in Tennessee in 1842. His father, Mark .Jackson, a native of Georgia, came to Maury County, Tenn., in the early settlement of that State. He was a captain in the War of 1S12. WILLIAM L. THOMASON, M. D.. Physician and Surgeon, Guntersville, son of William B. and Sarah A. (Willcox'son) Thomason, both na- tives of Georgia, was born November 22, 184'.t, in Coweta County, Ga. He was reared on a farm, received an academic education, and. when eighteen years of age, began studying medicine with his father. He attended the Augusta Medi- cal School in 186!i and 187i», graduated in the medical course from Nashville University, Nash- ville, Tenn., in 1871, and immediately thereafter located at I'nion Springs, Ala. In 1874 he went to Lafayette, and, in 1875, again moved into Blount County, where he was engaged in mer- chandising, and conducted a farm. In December, 1882, he located at Guntersville, where he opened a drug store under the firm name of Thomason & Roden, in connection with his practice. lu August, 1887, Mr. Roden retired. During his residence in Blount County, Dr. Tiiomason was president of the County iledical Society, and was the organizer, and is the present secretary of the Marshall County Medical Society. The Doctor's present success in life is entirely the result of his individual effort and energy. He was married in May, 187"), to Miss Ida, daughter of Tilman I. and Nancy (Thomason) Pearce, of Columbus, (ia. Mr. Pearce was a mechanic and contractor, and owns a large amount of property. 404 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Dr. Thomason and wife have five children, viz.: William Pearce, Paul, Mary Irene, James and Lilian. Mrs. Thomason is a member of the Bap- tist Church, and the doctor is a prominent Meth- odist, and represented his church in the General Conference lield at Richmond, May, 1886. He is also a prominent Mason. He is a public-spirited and enterjirising citizen, and, as a physician and surgeon, ranks high in the profession. William B. Thomason, the doctor's father, was also a physician. He was educated at the Medical College of Georgia, from which institution he graduated in 1851. In 1855 he located in Henry County, Ala., thence to Calhoun County in 180ton are members of the Methodist Episcojial Church, South, and Mr. Tipton is of the Masonic fraternity. The senior Jlr. Tipton was born in 1800. He settled near Scottsboro, Jackson County, in 1818, and there spent the rest of liis life. (Jf the seven cJiildren born to him, five grew to maturity. His son John was drowned accidentally in Short Creek, 406 NORTHERN ALABAMA. near Guntersville: he, Benjamin and LaFayette— three brothers — were in the C'onfederate Army. Mrs. Nellie (Smitli) Tipton died in 1837, and Vance B. subsequently married Mrs. Thomas, nde Green, widow of Charles Thomas. She was the mother of four children by her first husband, and became the mother of two by Mr. Tipton. The two lat- ter. Jonathan and Thomas J., died in the army during the late war. Mrs. Theresa Tipton died in 1858, and her re- lict afterward intermarried with Lucinda HoUis, of Jackson County, and she bore him two children. The old gentleman, Vance B. Tipton, died in 1881, and his widow survived him until 1885. WILLIAM M. BAKER was born on the farm where he now resides, on the north bank of the Tennessee River, three miles northwest of Gun- ter's Landing, April 16, 1841, and is a son of William and Mary (Manning) Baker. He was reared at this place and educated at the common schools of the neighborhood, where he received a fair education. December 16, 1801, he enlisted as a 23rivate in Company E, Forty-ninth Alabama, and with that command participated in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Baton Rouge, Port Hudson (where he was captured), and the first fighting at Vicks- burg. After being paroled he returned to his home, where he was again taken jjrisoner and sent to Camp Chase, and there remained until 1865. From Camp Chase he was sent to Richmond, Va., paroled, and, in March of that year, reached home in time for the final surrender. He came to Guntersville where he took the oath of allegiance, and since tliat time has given his atten- tion to farming. He owns a magnificent farm ex- tending along the river, and in connection with it runs a cotton-gin, saw, grist and lumber-mill combined. In partnershij^ with his brother, he erected the first portable engine ever brought to that jjart of the country. Mr. Baker is recognized as one of the most suc- cessful farmers of Marshall County. He is well fixed in this world's goods, the result of his own enterprise; the close of the war found his ex- chequer entirely depleted. He was married in December, 1867, to Alabama McKee, daughter of William McKee, one of the pioneers of Marshall County. Mr. McKee came to the Tennessee Valley from Fast Tennessee in 181!t, and was one of the most successful farmers of his day. At the time of his death he owned a« large estate in lands and other property. Mrs. Baker died in 1880, and in September, 1881, Mr. Baker was married to Julia V. Burnett, daughter of John Burnett, of DeKalb County. Mr. Bur- nett was also a soldier in the late war, and died in prison on Rock Island. By his present wife Mr. Baker has four children, to-wit: James B., Julia E., Mary J. and Robbie May. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Baker is a Mason. JOHN D. TAYLOR, son of Theojihilus and Anna (Dykes) Taylor, natives of South Carolina and Georgia, respectively, was born in Habersham County, Ga., May 9, 18.30. He spent his younger days on a farm ; received his education at liome, and when twenty years of age began clerking in Jackson County, this State. In 1855, he came to Guntersville and for some time, sold goods. While in Jackson County, he began the study of law, and at Guntersville, in 1857, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law here two years. In 1860 he was employed by a wholesale house in Nashville, and in March. 1862, enlisted in the Confederate Army, in Companj'E, Forty-eighth Alabama Reg- iment of Infantry, as a private, and was soon after- ward promoted to ordnance sergeant. In Decem- ber, 1804, he returned to his home and to a clerk- ship in a store. In 1871 he entered the warehouse and commission business at the landing, and in the fall of 1885, erected a large warehouse in the town, and dealt in all sorts of produce. He has served as justice of the peace or notary since 1869. Mr. Taylor was first married June 4, 1861, to Mrs. Virginia Moore, daughter of William Patton, who came from Virginia, settled near lluntsville, and married a iliss Miller. Mr. Taylor was the father of three children by liis first marriage, viz.: Warren P., Clarence M. and Herbert Lee. His wife died August 9, 1869, and he was married the second time, October 10, 1870, to Catherine Black, daughter of George and ^Margaret (Phinizee) Bell, of Jackson County, A'a. Mr. Bell is a farmer and blacksmith. Mr. Taylor is a public-sjjirited citizen. He is a NORTHERN ALABAMA. 407 inember of the I. 0. 0. F. , and he and his wife be- lonfj to the Methodist Ei)iscopal Church, South. Theophihis Taylor was a hatter by trade, and was also a farmer. He was born in IT'.'O, and was a soldier in the War of 1S12. Ilec-ameto (ieorgia when but a boy, and died there in 185,3. Ilis father, Jerry Taylor, was born and reared in Vir- ginia and took part in the Kevoliitionary War, although but a boy. lie married Lea White, and raised a large family. He moved to South Caro- lina when a young man, and afterward to Georgia, where he remained until his death. The-Taylors and Whites are both of Knglisli origin. Mr. Taylor's maternal grandmother was twice married. Her first husband's name was John l)ykes; lier second husband was a \g\\ Moltke — he was Mr. Taylor's grandfather, and a relative of the famous (ieneral \'on .Moltke, of Germany. DAVID CARNES JORDAN was born in Blount (bounty, Ala., February :.'l, 182!!, and is a son of William Grant and Elizabeth G. (Carnes) Jordan. He was reared at Bristol Cove, where he received a common-school education. He was married in December, 1848, to Miss Sarah E. Ligon, daughter of .Tames and JIatilda (Burns) Ligon, of this city. .Mr. Jordan has been a farmer nearly all his life- time, and at present owns about fifteen hundred acres of land in this county. Before the war, he held the office of treasurer of the county, and he was again elected to that office during the war. In 18tlti he engaged in mercantile business at Gun- tersville, which he still contiiiues, under thetirm- name of .Jordan, .Manning & Co., and in addition thereto he is operating a cotton-gin and grist-mill. Mr. Jordan's first wife died in L"^.")."?, leaving two children, James L. and Elizabeth E. On June 20, 18.53, he was wedded to Martha ¥.. Rivers, daughter of Eldridge Rivers, one of the jjioneers of .Madison County, and the children born to this union are Sarah E., Mary A. (Mrs. .John Green- wood), William G., John, and David C. William fJ. .Jordan was born in Buncombe County, X. C, about 180O, and was taken by his parents to Franklin County, Tenn., when he was an infant, and there was reared and educated. .Vt the age of about twenty-three years he came to Blount County, Ala., married, entered lands from the Government, and, at Bristor Cove, that county, at the time of his death, which occurred in Marshall County, he owned ISoo acres of land. He was for many years Commissioner of Jlar- shall County, and at the time of his death was Postma.-.orthei-n Alabama, one is apt to inquire, why these advantages were not sooner discovered ; why the euterjirises now under way were not sooner undertaken ; why the riches now amassing were not sooner won ? The failure to furirish a satisfactory explanation might even be held sufficient to generate a doubt as to the genuineness of the ]iresent growth. In the case of Sheffield, it is peculiarly difficult to answer this pertinent question. Tuscumbia and Florence, both of which are among the oldest towns of the State, are situated witluTi three and five miles, respectively, and yet their citizens have never discovered (or else have failed to act on tiieir discovery to any practical result) the sujireme attractions that belong to the site of their younger rival. Few regions in Alabama have been more thoroughly known for years than the Tennessee ^'alley ; and yet it has only lately been declared, and a proof attempted, that in the very midst of it the future greatest iron city of the continent must be built. And yet there has been no lack of 2irophecy and prediction in connection with Sheffield. The opinion of Commodore Maury, as to the jiart which this region is destined to play in the indus- trial life of the nation, has been frequently quoted. The impression made upon Andrew .Jackson, when he visited the neighborliood three- quarters of a century ago (the place where he crossed the Tennessee, is still marked by the rougli roadway made for the passage of his army), is also frequently alluded to; and it would be im- possible to enumerate tiie private predictions that have only come into notice (if not into existence), since the last few years have given such striking indications of tlieir truth. It was not until the year 188.3, however, that there was made an impression that bore fruit. It was in this year, that Capt. Alfred II. Closes, senior member of the firm of Moses Bros., of ilontgomery, became interested in a railroad pro- ject which promised to result in substantial benefit to the town of Florence, and, on his return from the Louisville Exposition, visited that place with a view of investing in real estate. While there, he was persuaded to undertake an excursion to the mineral lands of Franklin County, on which journey he passed over the rolling plateau which lay across the river, almost directly opposite Flor- ence. He was struck with the beauty and adapt- ability of the site, and, on his return, entered into negotiations with Col. Walter 8. (Jordon, one of his companions on the trip, by which they be- came joint owners of a jirojierty, then estimated at a few thousands of dollars, but which it would now require millions to purchase. This was the beginning. The attention of vari- ous business men throughout the South, especially in the States of Georgia and Alabama, had already been tiioroughly aroused by the wonderful history of Birmingham, and had been for some time direct- ed to the Tennessee Valley. It was not a difficult task to make Sheffield the special object of their inquiries. This once accomplished, the natural attractions and advantages of the location did the rest. A body of these men, guided by Moses and Gordon, came together, organized, and made pur- chases. They secured 2,700 acres of land, to be. used as a site for the projected city, at a cost of >!50,000. At the same time, they acquired mineral rights on 30,000 acres of coal and iron lands in Franklin, Winston and Walker Counties, paying out, ill all, about *100,000. A corjjoration was then formed, under the name of '"The Sheffield Land, Iron and Coal Company," with a capital 409 410 NORTHERN ALABAMA. stock of |;500,000, afterward increased to SI, 000,- 000. Of this company, the directors were Alfred H. Moses, David Clojiton, 0. 0. Nelson, and W. S. Chambers, of Montgomery, Ala.; W. S. Gor- don, F. M. Coker, J. F. Burk, H. B. Tompkins, D. M. Bain, C. A. Collier, and W. A. Hemphill, of Atlanta, Ga. ; and E. C. Gordon, of Clarksville, Tenn. W. S. Gordon was made president, A. H. Moses vice-president and general manager, and F. M. Coker secretary and treasurer. The first act of the new corporation was the extensive advertisement of what it had done, and the announcement of a sale of lots to take place in May, 1884. The crowd which gathered on the 9th of that month, in the desolate field of which such great things were hoped and prophesied, tes- tified to the public interest in all that pertained to the material development, then so general throughout the South, to the Sheffield movement in particular. There was remarkable enthusiasm from the be- ginning. The bidding never lagged, but increased in eagerness from first to last. The first lot offered brought 81,000. The highest price paid was 88,900, which was bid by an Atlanta man for a lot at the intersection of Montgomery and Alabama avenues. In all, there were five hundred sales, making a transfer of about seventy-five acres, and aggre- gated about 835 Cullman and Anniston or (ladsden. to the Georgia State line. 'J'he jieople of Atlanta have recently successfully applied to the Alabama Legislature for certain rights to be granted to the Atlanta, ^[ississippi ii Atlantic Railroad, which, if completed, would extend from Shetlield to Atlanta, and thence to some sea- port in South Carolina or Georgia. Steps are now being taken for the construction of a railroad to I'aducah, and of one from Sheffield, in a north- easterly direction, to Somerset, Ky. A road to <;allatin, Tenn., via Pulaski, has been projected. The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad Company think of extending their line in the direction of Sheffield. The historian has j)urposely abandoned the order of time in s])eaking of the various as.sured and ))robablo railroad enterprises connected with Sheffield, in order that the entire view of this phase of the city's growth might be presented at once. He has also endeavored to be thoroughly candid, admitting that there is doubt and uncer- tainty in regard to the majority of the projects mentioned. However, he must not be understood as conveying the idea that the weight of proba- bility is not in favor of the oi)inion that they will be undertaken (where not idrcady begun) and suc- cessfully carried out. Again, it must not be for- gotten that those already secured are enough to establish Sheffield as a railway center, and that the river will always serve as a protection against their possible abuse of the power they unrpiestion- ably possess. But the making of iron was always the chief end of Sheffield. Accordingly the securing of furnaces, equally with the securing of railroads, was the object of its leading s])irits, and when consummated, has served to mark the successive steps in its growth. The beginning of recovery from the financial depression of the spring of lt84 was signalized by the organization of the first furnace company. It was in the summer of ISSO, and the style of the corporation is The Sheffield Furnace Company. It began with a capital of 8150,000, and closed a contract for a r2.5-ton blast furnace. The work began in September. In the following February (1887), a more im- posing triumph was scored. The Alabama and Tennessee Iron and Coal Company, with a capital of ?i2, •^'00,000, besides 7(),000 acres of increasingly valuable coal and iron lands, during that month decided to make Sheffield the center of its opera- tions. A contract was let for the erection of three furnaces, each of a capacity of l.'iO tons daily, to be completed, one in thirteen, one in fifteen and one ill seventeen months, for the sum of ^.">("4,000. Fifty teams and 100 men were put to work level- ing the ground, and making excavations for the foundations. Soon after, the Lady f]nsley Furnace Company let a contract for a l'^5-ton furnace, to be ready early in the year 1888. This completed the secur- ing of the five furnaces so often spoken of in the enumeration of the city's enterprises. These, when 416 NORTHERN ALABAMA. completed, will have an aggregate daily cajiacity of TOO tons of pig-iron. * The railroads and furnaces brought in their train a number of lesser industries, which will be noticed further on. A general brightening up, a firmer feel- ing that soon became an enthusiastic hojjef ulness, was the immediate result. The stock of the Sheffield Land, Iron and Coal Company, which by grants of land and other inducements had been very active in bringing in these enterprises, ran np from $30 to §"^00 a share, the par value being $100. The prices of real estate rose in jiroportion. In- vestors flocked in from all directions. The pros- perous state of things throughout the recently de- veloped South, in general, affected favorably the public attitude toward the youngest product of the new order of things in Alabama. Throughout the winter greatest activity and excitement pre- vailed. Fortunes were rapidly acquired ; popula- tion greatly increased ; houses were built and com- panies organized for the purj^oseof building more ; stores were set ujj ; two banks — The First National, C. D. Woodson, president ; and Bank of Sheffield, Alfred H. ]\Ioses, president ; each with a capital of 1100,000— were organized ; real estate agents came in swarms ; tents were necessary for the temporary accommodation of the workmen, pros- pectors and settlers. There could be no doubt that, for success or failure, wisely or unwisely, a vast amount of energy had been called into play. The fluctuations that so constantly and so strangely jirevail in the business world have not failed to show themselves throughout the history of the Sheffield undertaking. Stocks in the Shef- field Land, Iron and Coal Comjjany and in the vari- ous furnace and railroad comijanies have risen and fallen, and so have the prices of real estate. But the work on which all these things ultimately de- pend has gone steadily on. Pojjulation has stead- ily grown, and the only way in which the story could be told would be to chronicle the successive arrivals of enterprises and men. PARTIAL LIST OK ENTERPIilSES NOT AI.ItEADY MENTIONED. The Sheffield Pipe and Nail Works, capital $100,000; the Electric Light and Gas Fuel Works, .f2.5,000; the Sheffield Ice Company, .$'25,000; the Sheffield Manufacturing Com- pany, 130,000; the Sheffield Contracting Company, $60,000; the Alabama ifc Tennessee Construction Company, a branch of the St. Louis Planing Jlill Company, $500,000; the Eu- reka Brick and Lumber Company, $30,000; the Sheffield Furniture Manufactory; the Doud Brick Company; the Richmond Brick Company; the Sheffield Bakery and Bot- tling Works; the Sheffield Mineral Paint Company, capital .«i50,000; the Sheffield Agricultural Works, $40,000; the Sandstone Quarry Company; the Coleman Cotton Cleaner and Gin Company, capital $100,000; the Sheffield Cotton Compress Company, $60,000; Morris Brothers & Co., Steam Laundry and Dyeing AVorks; Floiu'ing Mills; EiiterpHse Publishing Company; AVater-AVorks ($30,000 already ex- pended); Sheffield Street Railway Company, capital $50,- 000; Sheffield & Tuscumbia Street Railway Company, $50,000, .Jo. H. Nathan it Co.'s Savings Bank; Cleveland Hotel Company, capital $50,000; Sheffield Hotel Company, $120,000; East Sheffield Land Company, $.500,000; East Sheffield Brick Company; East Sheffield Water-AVorks Company; Hull ct Keller's Fern Quarries; A'oorhees' Gal- vanized Iron Cornice Factory; Sheffield Marble and Phos- phate Company, capital $100,000; the Sheffield Quarries; Jlobile Real Estate Company, capital $50,000; Sheffield Real Estate Company. $50,000; Sheffield iz Jlobile Im- provement Company, $100,000; and the Sheffield Stone- AVorks. Reasonably certain to be secured in the near future are, a charcoal iron furnace and chemical plant; a rolling-mill and a large machine shop. Many of these enterprises have been inaugur- ated since the writers last and only visit to Shef- field — in July and August, 1 887 — and of those which were already resolved on many had not been started. The consolidation of the several corporations which now form the Sheffield and Birmingham Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, with a capital stock of -S7,5"-i."),000, took place at that time. None of the furnaces mentioned was then in blast; they now all approach completion. The jiopulation was between two and three thou- sand, although there were scarcely houses sufficient to accommodate one thousand comfortably. Everything indicated incompleteness. Even the attractions were such as pertain to change atid growth. Some of the streets were graded, while a few were only staked off, though all were named. Montgomery avenue, the central business street, running north and south, was well lined with buildings — business blocks toward the south, and dwellings, some of them quite handsome, toward the north and near the river. The other streets and avenues presented a somewhat curious appear- ance. On nearly every one of them there were buildings of some sort, but the distances between them, and the varied characters of the buildings themselves — here a block of stores standing alone in a grassy field; there a finely-constructed resi- dence touching a hut or tent, intended for tem- porary use — showed plainly the diflerence between a town that has taken years to form itself, such as the Old South abounds in, and a town which is springing up in fulfillment of a plan that was NORTHERN ALABAMA. 4ir matured before the first corner-stone was laid. The one is a growtli, tlie other is more properly a conscious creation. The one is a result of the unprompted, sometimes undiscerned, action of natural causes and possibilities, and the other is a result of the discovery, and bringing into play, of such causes and possibilities by the intelligence and power of men who seek their own ends in a broad and liberal way. It would be unfair as yet to express a preference for the one or the other of these two methods of city building, for the conscious evolution of such a town as Sheffield is a new phenomenon to which tliore is no parallel. Asyet, we have only the beginning of the process, and the beginning can scarcely be taken as a fair basis of opinion concerning the ap]iearance of the end — or rather of a later stage in the develop- ment, to which, let us hope, there will be no end. The first stages of this development do not present many features of beauty, but there are in- dications of a coming attractiveness. Industrialism is not altogether unlovely. Ke- pellant as are many of its characteristics, selfish as are its aims, doubtful as are the means it fre- quently uses, it does yet sometimes, perhaps al- ways, conduce to the accomplishment of worthier objects in better ways than those that fill the minds of its moving spirits. Great cities are built that money may be made; but great cities, when built, are the nurses of art and letters, the centers of enlightenment, the fields of charity. Sheffield has come into existence because certain capitalists thought that through the establishment of certain industries at this particular sitetheir wealth might be increased, and because in the interests of those few who are rich are bound up the interests of many who are poor. For the same reasons it will continue to grow. But the lower aims are united with higher purposes: and the iron city on the Tennessee, that will give wealth to hundreds and bread and homes to thousands, nuiy and shall con- tribute somewhat to the better riches that are the pro])erty of all men. Here, perhaps, lessons of civilization will be learned; the power of intellect, through machinery and contrivance, will be aug- 7nented; institutions of learning will be built; art will be cherished: philanthropy will be exercised; apjilied Christianity will show its inestimable value and receive its fitting lionor. Let us hope, at least, that from the co-operation of so many en- ergies something better and fairer than furnaces or mills can fashion may be contributed to the life of our country and of the world. ALFRED H. MOSES, distinguished citizen and capitalist, Sheffield, is a native of Charleston, S. C, and was born September IC, IS-io. After passing through the high schools of that city, he entered Charleston College, and was graduated therefrom with first honors in the class of ISGO. Immediately after graduating he entered the office of Watts, .Judge & Jackson, at Montgomery, this State, and began the study of law. Some time in ISCl he was appointed to a clerical jiosition in the Circuit Court of the .Middle District of Alabama, and was thereby precluded from taking any very conspicuous part in the war. It aj)pears, how- ever, that toward the close of hostilities he was made captain of a company, and saw some service in and around Pensacola and .Mobile. With the dawn of jieace Captain Moses, associ- ated with other gentlemen, embarked in the real estate business at Montgomery. This concern, which soon became one of the most extensive of its character in the State, still has an existence; and, though Captain Moses is a resident of Shef- field, his business interest is retained therein. In May, 18S-i, he accepted the position of Vice- President and General Manager of the Sheffield Land, Iron and Coal Company, and at once moved with his family to this place. From that time to the present, the history of Sheffield is the history of Cajitain Closes, and the reader is here referred to the incomparable chapter written by I'rofessor Brown especially for this work, ;uui entitled '•Sheffield." To undertake the creation and construction of a city upon a hitherto barren field, and somewhat isolated from the business world, required no small amount of nerve, to say nothing of an in- calculable outlay of money, and yet to do this, Ca[)tain Moses left a lucrative and well established business in one of the pleasantest cities in the world, and how well he lias succeeded in the ac- complishment of the gigantic undertaking, may be read in the liistory of Sheffield. Captain Jloses is a gentleman of polislied ad- dress, superior education, and makes a pleasant and agreeable impression upon all with whom he comes in contact. He is an excellent judge of men and things, forms his conclusions rapidly. 418 NORTHERN ALABAMA. and with remarkable correctness. He is noted for his courteousness, for his honesty, and sincerity of jjnrpose. He is liberal in his dealings with his fellow men, broad in liis ideas, far-seeing in spec- ulation, patriotic in his devotion to the State and her best interests, and enjoys the reputation of having done as much to advance the interests of all Northern Alabama as any other one man. From a recent publication we quote: "Mr. Moses, at the organization of Sheffield as a municij)ality, was appointed by Governor O'Xeal, Mayor, which office he still retains. He was elected president of the Bank of Sheffield in February last, and is a director in the Sheffield Furnace Company, Shef- field Pipe and Nail Works, and the Sheffield & Tuscumbia Street Railway Company. His resi- dence is located on the highest spot in Sheffield, overlooking the Tennessee, and would do credit to a city of 500,000 inhabitants. It is a marvel of taste, beauty and simplicity, and strangers are cordially welcomed by him and his charming family." Captain Moses was married November 8, 1871, to Miss Janett Nathan, of Louisville, Ky., and has had born to him five children: Sarah A., Alfred H., Adaline L., Lee J. and Joseph W. CHARLES D. WOODSON, President of the First National Bank of Sheffield, M'as born in Madison County, Ga., August 10, 1856, and is a son of William D. and Martha R. (Floyd) Woodson. He was educated at the common schools and at Emory College, Georgia, and at the age of seventeen years accepted a clerical position in the freight department of the Georgia Central Railroad. From here, at the end of one year, he transferred to Atlanta, where he was employed for the next succeeding eleven years in the State National Bank, being promoted from messenger to teller. In January, 1887, he located at Sheffield, organized the First National Bank, and became its i^resident. Though a young man, Mr. Woodson is regarded as one of the most skill- ful and successful bank managers in Northern Alabama. He is a director of the Sheffield Land and Coal Company and treasurer of the Sheffield and Birmingham Railway Coal and Iron Company. He is also secretary and treasurer of the East Sheffield Land Company, treasurer of the Lady Ensley Furnace Company, treasurer of the Shef- field Street Railway Company, treasurer of the W. B. Wood Furnace Company of Florence, and treasurer of the Southern Charcoal and Furnace Company of that city. [For particular informa- tion regarding these industries, see histories of Sheffield and Florence, this volume.] In consideration of the high esteem in which Mr. Woodson is held in Northern Alabama, the publishers take pleasure in illustrating thi.s work with his jjortrait. William D. Woodson, father of Charles D. Woodson, was born in Prince Edwards County, Va., in 1810, and at the age of twenty-one years, located at Thomaston, Ga., where he afterward became postmaster, and carried on a mercantile business. He landed at that place with but fifty cents in money, but before the outbreak of the late war he had accumulated a large fortune. He took part in the Florida Indian War, during which he held the rank of colonel. He died in 1865, at the age of fifty-five years. Colonel Woodson's wife was the daughter of the late Stewart Floyd, a prominent jurist of Georgia. WASHINGTON R. WESTON, a prominent business man of Sheffield, was born at Weston, Ga., March 24, 1847, and was the son of Joseph L. and Elizabeth (Rose) Weston. In December, 1861, he left school to enlist in the army, and was soon afterward made a lieutenant on the staff of Gen. W. H. T. Walker. He remained in this position about six months, when the command to which he was attached was disbanded, and he immediately Joined Cutts' Artillery as a private. He was the youngest man in that command, and, probably, in consideration of that fact, he was made mail-carrier between Richmond and Cutts' headquarters. On the last of the Seven Days' Fight in front of Richmond, he was run over by a caisson, and so seriously injured, as to lead to his discharge from the service. He was taken home by his father, who thereafter bitterly opposed his re-entering the service; notwith- standing this opposition, however, he rejoined the army as a private in the Sixty-Fourth Georgia Regiment, in which command he re- mained until July, 1864, when he was captured by some of General Grant's men, while in the act of trading tobacco for pork. He was sent to Washington, where he subsequently took the oath ^r^-^ ^.-^-^-^(^-zJ^ -ny^/^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 419 of allegiance, and remained at the North until the close of the war. From the cessation of hostili- ties until 1886, at which time he located at Shef- field, he was variously employed at railroading, attending school, farming, manufacturing, orange- growing, milling, merchandising, etc. After coming to this place, he engaged in the lumber business, and was one of the incorporators of the Sheffield Manufacturing Company, of which he became secretary, treasurer and business manager. He was also one of the incorporators, and is secre- tary, treasurer and business manager of the Sheffield Ice Company, aiul is variously interested with other important industriesof this place. He was the first City Treasurer of Slicffield. He is a member of the Methodist Episco])al Church and of the Young Men's Christian Association. Captain Weston is a wide-awake, public-spirited, present-day man, a member of the Masonic fra- ternity and of the Knights of Honor. DR. HUGH W. BLAIR was born in Savannah, Ga.. (lotobt-r '.'. isi;-.', and is the son of Hugh A. and Maggie A. (Howard) Blair. He received his primary education at Kno.wille. Tenn., and, in the spring of 1883, was graduated at Cumberland University as an A.B After an interval of a short time he entered \'anderbilt University, Med- ical Department, where he graduated as the val- edictorian of his class in 1885. He began the practice of medicine at Carthage, Tenn., soon after leaving college, where, in a short time, he built uj) for himself a good practice, and was honored by being made president of his County Board of Health, in which capacity he served until he came to Sheffield in March, 1R8T. He is a member of the State and County -Medical Societies and a member of the American Medical Association . As a practitioner Dr. Blair has met with re- markable success from the beginning, and, pos- sessed of a thorough education and a well-bal- anced mind, the future for him is altogether bright. J.O. H.NATHAN. Lawyer and Banker.Sheffield. was I'orii in Louisville, Ky., , January 7, ]s.">G, and at the age of thirteen years was employed in his father's dry goods establishment in that city. In 18?.") he located at Austin, Miss., in general mercantile business, and at the same time took up the study of law. He also about that time edited the Cotton Plant. In 188:5, after having suffered various reverses by flood and tire, he engaged in mercan- tile business at .Montgomery, and in 188'1 located at Shetiield. After practicing law a while at Tus- cumbia, he opened an office at Sheffield, and began business as a speculator. His returns in this busi- ness soon enabled him to meet all obligations and furnish him with ample capital with which to engage in the general brokerage and banking busi- ness. His investments have proved profitable, and he is at this time identified with the most prominent industries of the city. lie is one of the directors of the bank of Sheffield, and is treas- urer of the Sheffield & Tuscumbia Street Kail- way Company. He has recently formed a law co- partnership with Col. Thomas R. Roulhac, of Greensboro, Ala., and they are said to have a large and growing practice. THOMAS J. TURPIN. M. D.. son of Thomas J. and Eliza (Bobo) Turpin, was born November 29, 184'.>. in Claiborne County, Miss. He attended the common schools in his vicinity until 1850, when he entered the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, where he remained two years. He then returned to Louisiana, began the study of medicine, and was graduated from the University of Louisiana, at New Orleans (now known as the Medical Department of Tulare I'niversity). in the spring of 18T1. Dr. Turpin first located in Madison I'arish, Louisiana, and, one year later, went to Forkland, Ala. In 1883 he moved to Eutaw, (ireene County, this State, and in August, 1887, located at Shef- field, W'here he still remains. Dr. Turpin was married in April, 1S7:5, to Miss Anna Blocker, of Greene County, daughter of Col. John R. and Amanda (Watson) Blocker. They have three children, Anna, Fannie and Alice. Dr. Turpin is a member of the Medical Socie- ties of Greene County and of the State. He and his wife are communicants of the Episcopal Church. Dr. Turpin's father was born in Maryland; took his degree of .M. D. from the I'niversity of Penn- sylvania, and located in Claiborne County, Jliss. He afterward moved to Hindes County, that 420 NORTHERN ALABAMA. State, and subsequently settled on a plantation in Morehouse Parish, La., where he died in 18C3. His wife was born in Kentucky, and came to Mississippi with her father at a very early day. The3' reared two sons and four daughters, of whom but three are now living, viz. : Mrs. Fannie Amos, of Madison Parish, La.; Mrs. G. A. Peter- kin, of Bastrop, La., and the subject of our sketch. WILLIAM WARREN PRATER. M. D., was born in Loudon County, Tenn., and is a son of Hugli G. and Elizabeth J. (Warren) Prater. He received his primary education at the Loudon High School, and was graduated from Cumber- laud University, as A. B. in 1870. In 1880, he entered Vanderbilt University, Medical Depart- ment, and graduated therefrom in the class of 1882. He began the practice of medicine in Wilson County, Tenn., and located at Sheffield in October, 1880. From the beginning of his practice, Dr. V. has met with flattering success. He was a member of the International Medical Congress, which met in Washington City in September, 1887, and is at this writing, secretary of the Colbert County Medical Association. He was married, ilarcli 1, 1882, to Miss Maggie H. Blair, daughter of Dr. Hugh A. Blair. The Doctor is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and is prominently identi- fied with the advancement of the best morals of Sheffield. The Pi-ater family is one of the oldest in Ten- nessee. Hugh G. Prater was born in Loudon County in 1824 ; his father, Samuel Prater was born at the same place in 1800, and his grand- father, who was born in North Carolina in ITT'i, was one of the first settlers on the Tennessee River. W. S. WHITE was born in Barbour County, Ala., January 1.5, 1844, and at the common schools of his native village acquired a fair English educa- tion. June 17, 1801, he enlisted in the Confeder- ate Army, his company being the first one to leave the State, and remained in the service to the close of the war. With the First Alabama, he was at Pensacola one year, the term of his enlistment. At the end of that time he joined the Thirty-ninth Regiment, and with it served under General Bragg in his Kentucky campaign and was subsequently in every battle fought by the Western Army, from Shiloh in 1862 to Bentonville in 18Gi. He was four times wounded, and from the beginning to the end he never missed a day from actual service that was not the direct result of a gun-shot. From 1866 to 1876 Captain White was farming. He was elected Sheriff of his native county and enjoys the distinction of being the only man who ever filled the office without a rule having been in- stituted against him. At the end of his term as Sheriff, he was elected Tax Assessor, in which po- sition, the record shows, he exercised such energy and tact that the county revenue was not only doubled, but the rate of taxation was reduced one- half, the first year of his administration. With the exjjiration of his term as Tax Assessor Captain White retired from public life, and as the head of the firm of W. S. White & Co. he embarked in the cotton business at Eufaula and Clayton. In January, 1887, he was elected busi- ness manager of tlie East Sheffield Land Company, and immediately moved to this place. He was one of the incorporators of the First National Bank of Sheffield, and is a member of its board of directors. He was one of the projectors of the Sheffield Street Railway Company, and is now its Superintendent and General Manager. As a mem- ber of the Sheffield City Council he is consf)icuous as chairman of some of the most imj)ortant com- mittees. Cajitain White was first married December 26, 1870, to a Miss Richards, of Augusta, Ga. She died five years later; and in September, 1878, he married a sister of the Hon. Henry B. Tompkins, of Atlanta. GEORGE P. KEYES was born at Athens, this State. St'jiteniber S, JS20, and is a son of Gen. George and Nelly (Rutledge) Keyes. He gradu- ated at LaGrange College at the age of eighteen, and soon thereafter commenced the study of the law. He was admitted to the bar, but having lit- tle taste for the profession, became editor of the Athens Herald, which lie conducted for two years. He then located in Montgomerv, and for several NORTHERN ALABAMA. 421 years lield the office of Register and Master in Chancery. In 1S61 lie was among tlie volunteers at Fort -Morgan. In 18ii2 he entered " Hilliard's r.egion " (afterward " The Alabama Legion "), and served as sergeant-major. After the retreat from Kentucky, his liealtli being greatly impaired, he was discharged from the service. Jle returned to Montgomery and was in command of a regi- ment of home guards at the date of the surrender. After tiie war he was ajipointed. without solicita- tion on his part, again to the office of Register and blaster in Chancery, and was filling that office when ousted by the Reconstruction Act. Some- time thereafter he became associated editorially with the Jlontgomery Advertiser , a position he tilled for several years. In IsSO he established the Alnhama Progress, as the official organ of the department of education. After conducting this paper two years, he located at Florence, expecting that to be tiie principal Tennessee River town: but when it was determined to build the '■'new city" on the lovely site on which Sheffield is now lo- cated, he became an enthusiastic friend and advo- cate of the enterprise. It was he who induced the Moses Brothers, of ^Montgomery, to make an investigation, the result of which led to their be- coming such ini]iortant factors in the success of Sheffield. ^Ir. Keyes was a member of the first firm to start a business of any character in the in- fant city. He was the first man to declare him- self a citizen of Sheffield. After the land sale he had the first (frame) residence erected, and his present residence must be known as the first brick residence ever built in Sheffield. He is now offi- cially connected with several of Sheffield's impor- tant enterprises, and the increase in values has made him one of the prosperous men of the place. Before his connection with the leading Demo- cratic jiaper of the State, Mr. Keyes had already achieved reputation as a writer. Thereafter, he was counted one of the most forcible writers of Alabama. lie is also the author of a number of poems, several of which liave been read on Con- federate memorial occasions in Jlontgomery. Ilis longest, and perhaps best, poetical production, '• The Old Grave Digger," \ras once read before a select audience in Montgomery, and thofigh much admired, was never printed. Mr. Keyes is a member of tlic Methodist Epis- copal Cliurch, South, and has fci- many years heM official positions in the Church; he is also widely known as a most earnegt and able advocate of pro- hibition. His pen and his example and influence have alwiiys been in favor of education, temper- ance and religion. Mr. Keyes was married in August, 18.59, to Miss Fannie Gayle, of Montgomery, who died, leaving one child. His second wife, to whom he was mar- ried in 18TH, was a daughter of the Rev. R. II. Rivers, of Louisville. She died in 188-2, and in 18S7 Mr. Keyes was married to ^liss Jennie S. Rainey, of North Carolina. The senior Mr. Keyes was born in Washington County, Va., November 8, 1T9'2, and died at Athens, June l-"5, 1833. His wife was born in 17!)!), and died at Athens, October n, 1834. He came to Alabama when it was a territory; was a a captain in the Florida war, and afterward a brigadier-general of the militia. He was known as General Keys, and, though a young man, was very popular, and wielded much influence in pub- lic matters throughout the State. One of his sons. Wade Keyes, was a prominent attorney and j jurist: he was Assistant Attorney-General of the j Confederate States, and was the author of several , law publications. Another of his sons, John W., I was a lieutenant in Hilliard's l^egion until trans- ' f erred to the medical department, where he re- j mained till the close of the war. He now resides I in Florida. Hon. Hetiry C. Jones, of Florence, married a daughter of General Keyes, and another of his daughters was the first wife of Gen. John D. Rather, of Tuscumbia. QUINCY C. HUNTER was born in Chambers County, Ala., September •2(), 184L He was brought up on a plantation, and received his edu- cation at the common schools. He lost his father when but five years of age; his mother dieil in Feb- I ruary, 1880. In March, 18racticed his profession with success. In the latter named year he was elected Governor of the State and served one term, refusing to allow his name to be presented for a second term. Two months after his term expired he was stricken with jjaralysis, and has ever since been an invalid; but he has still retained his practice, although not as sictively as before. Since his retirement from the Gover- nor's office he has taken no part in jiolitics. Governor Lindsay was married, in 1854, to Miss Sarah Jliller Winston, the accomplished daughter of William Winston, and a sister of Gov. John Anthony Winston. She is also a sister-in-law to Governor Pettus, of Mississippi. This union has been blessed with numerous offspring, but only four daughters survive, the eldest being the wife of Robert II. Watkins, Esq., of the Birmingham Age. The family belongs to the Presbyterian Church, and the Governor is distinguished as being one of the oldest members of the I. 0. 0. F. of this State. JOSHUA BURNS MOORE, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch is a noted ex- ample of what can be achieved by industry and indomitable resolution. He is a leading and dis- tinguished lawyer of the Xorth Alabama bar, and as an advocate before juries has few equals in the State. Mr. Moore's grandfathers, Moses Moore and William Burgess, were South Carolinians, and emigrated to Alabama, locating in Franklin County, in the early history of the State. Each lived to an unusually old age; the former died at the age of eighty-six, and the latter at the age of ninety-six years. ^Ir. Moore's father, Willi;im Moore, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died in 1849. He was a poor man, and the subject of this sketch received only such education as could be picked up at the old-field schools, which he attended in the interim of working in the fields during crop season until he was fourteen years of age. At this time he quit scliool, undertook a course of study without a teacher, and a year aftcrwarils borrowed a copy of BIack.>!tone's Com- mentaries, commencing the study of law, which 432 NORTHERN ALABAMA. he diligently prosecuted until admitted to the bar at the early age of seventeen years. His first practice at the bar foreshadowed the marked success that has attended his professional career. As an advocate in criminal cases, Mr. Moore is eminently successful. Not only is he formidable in argument, but there is scarcely a passion of the human heart he can not play upon. In the man- agement of either civil or criminal causes he is so reticent of the points relied ujjon that among his contemiDoraries he is called the ''silent lawyer.'' His adversary can never anticipate when, where, or how he will be stricken. His impressive, earnest, and eloquent addresses to juries are well calculated to carry conviction home to them. Mr. Moore served as a senator in the Legislature of Alabama during the sessions of 1874—5 and 1875-(J, taking a leading j^art in all the measures of reform enacted during those important sessions. In 1858, Mr. Moore was married to Thomas Ella, youngest daughter of Edward and Parthenia Pearsall — a beautiful and accomj)lished woman. Their union was blessed with four daugliters, t^yo of whom are still living. In 1874, while Mr. Moore was at Montgomery, attending a session of the Legislature as a member of the senate, a tornado swept over the city of Tuscumbia, in which his wife and two youngest daughters were killed, his large brick residence being leveled with the ground. Mr. Moore, before the war, took no active part in politics, but confined himself exclusively to his profession. With a large majority of the people of the northern section of the State, he opposed the secession of Alabama from the Union, but when the war came, every sympathy he had was with the Southern people. From ill health he took no active part in the war, but in every other way contributed to the Confederate cause. After the surrender, when President Johnson's proclama- tion was issued, he urged the people to acquiesce in the inevitable course of events, and when a Con- stitutional Convention was called to meet in Mont- gomery in September, 18G5, to revise the Consti- tution of the State in conformity with the aboli- tion of slaves, he was elected a delegate from Eranklin County, and took a leading part in its proceedings. But the policy of the President was not acceptable to Congress, and the action of the Convention was not recognized. Reconstruction measures were enacted by which the intelligence of Alabama and other Southern States were dis- franchised, and illiteracy ruled the hour. It cul- minated finally in a great upheaval in Alabama, in which local government was the issue. Mr. Moore, like many others, abandoned his profession and took the stump for many months. It was the most memorable contest ever fought in the State, and there are many who will never for- get the grand appeals he made in favor of the supremacy of the white peojile over the ignorant negro race in the local government of the State. It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Moore is a Democrat in politics. -«" WILLIAM COOPER, was born in Brunswick County, Va., January 11, 1802, and died at Tus- cumbia, Ala., August 16, 1887. He was educated at Nashville, Tenn., there studied law and was admitted to the bar. He located first in the jiractice of his profession at Russellville, Ala., from which place, at the end of three years, he moved to Tuscumbia, where he spent the rest of his life. From an almost obscure youth, without the benefit of financial inheritance, he rose to be one of the most jirominent attorneys in the State and, prior to the war, one of the wealthiest men in the South. He continued the practice of his profession up to within a very few days of his death. He was a prominent member of the Ma- sonic and Odd Fellows fraternities. v^^ -♦- T. F. SIMPSON, Proprietor and Editor of the Weekly Dispatch, Tuscumbia, Ala., was born in this city, in September, 1865. He received a high-school education, and at the age of fourteen years entered the printing office of the Tuscum- bia Democrat, which paper was established in 1878. He remained in this office about one year, and then entered the North Atdbanuan office, where he spent two years. He then attended school for about two years, after which he was engaged in the office of his father (who was tax assessor) for a short time. He spent one year in a printing office at Entaw, Ala. ; returned to Tus- cumbia, and established the Weelly Dispatch, in October, 1886. From the very start Jlr. Simp- son has been its editor, and he has filled that tJ^^^t^^^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 433 position with marked ability. His brother, (!. Simpson, is connected with him ;is associate editor. The Weekly DispaicJt started with a circulation of about 350, but at the present writing it has a circulation of over 700, and does the largest adver- tising business of any paper in Northern Alabama. Mr. Simpson is a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias. — ^-^i^^- < ■ ■ ■ ARTHUR HENLEY KELLER, was born Feb- ruary 5, 183G, near Tuscumbia, and is a son of David and JIary Fairfax (Moore) Keller. lie was reared and educated in Tuscumbia, where he also received instructions from Governor Lindsay. At the age of nineteen years he entered the law department of the University of Virginia, and when twenty-two years of age received his license to practice from Gov. A. B. Moore, who was then circuit judge. In November, 1801, he en- listed as a private in the Confederate army. He was detailed as a quartermaster-sergeant under Dr. D. R. Lindsay, of the Twenty-seventh Ala- bama, stationed at Fort Henry. He had charge of the stores, and after they were destroyed at Florence, he was assigned temporarily to the staff of Gen. Sterling AVood. In July, 18G2, he joined General Roddy's cavalry as a private, and in September of that year rejoined his old regiment as quartermaster at Vicksburg, with which he remained until July, 1SG4, when he was made paymaster of General Roddy's division of cavalry, a position he held to the close of the war. When peace once more reigned supreme over the land. Captain Keller engaged in tlie receiving and forwarding business at Keller's Landiiig until the courts were opened, when he practiced law until 1874. In December of that year, he pur- chased the Xorfh Alafiriiniaii, and was its editor ten years. In .July ISS.'), he was appointed United States Marshal for the Northern District of Ala- bama, and in June, 188G, was confirmed by the Senate. Captain Keller was married November 12, 18G~, to Mrs. Sarah E. Rosscr, daughter of William Simpson, a well-known commission merchant at .Memphis. She died in March, 1877, leaving two sons. In July, 1S7S, Captain Keller led to the altar Kate Adams, daughter of General Charles W. Adams, of Memphis, and to this union have been born two children, Helen Adams and Mil- dred Campbell; the older lost her hearing and sight when but eighteen months old, and is now being educated by Miss Annie Sullivan, from Perkins Institute for Blind at Boston. Captain Keller and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is a member of the Knights of Honor and the A. 0. U. W. The Captain has never solicited political preferment, but represented his party as a delegate to the St. Louis Convention in 187G, and also as a delegate at large to the Cincinnati Convention in 1880. The father of our subject was born in Ilager- town, Md., in 1788, where he received a good edncation. He migrated to Kno.xville, Tenij., where he entered mercantile business, hauling his goods in wagons twice a year from Philadel- phia, generally making the trip on horseback. In 1820 he removed to Alabama, locating near Tus- cumbia, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1837. He was engaged at farming until one year before his death, when he became superintendent of the Tuscumbia & Decatur Railway. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics was a staunch Whig. He reared seven sons and three daughters. The Kellers came originally from Switzerland to America in the person of Caspar Keller, the grand- father of our subject. He came to this country during colonial days and settled in Maryland. He reared a large family, descendants of whom can be found priiicijiully in ^Maryland, Virginia, Missouri and North Alabama. The mother of our subject was born in Rock- bridge County, Va., in 17'JG. Her father. Col. Alexander Moore, was an aide to General LaFay- ette at the surrender of Yorktown, and she was a second cousin of General Robert E. Lee. The Moore family were wealthy planters of Virginia. They trace their lineage to Sir Thomas Moore of England, and were among the first settlers in Vir- ginia. They were communicants of the Episco- pal Church. SAMUEL JOHNSTON COOPER, M. D., was born September 4, 1845, and is a son of L. B. Cooper, of Tuscumbia. He received a common school education, and in ilarch, 1863, enlisted in Co. I., of W. A. Johnson's Cavalry Regiment. 434 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He participated in the battles of Harrisburg, Miss., Newnan, Ga., and was with Forrest at the surren- der of Athens, Ala. He was also in all the fights as far as Pulaski, Tenn., and at the battle of Selma. He surrendered at Pond Springs, Ala. Immediately after the close of the war he returned home and entered a mercantile establish- ment as clerk, and in 18G6, in connection with other gentlemen, entered mercantile business on liis own account, the firm name being Nelson, Wilson & Cooper. In 18(38 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Abernathy, and graduated from the Memphis Medical College in 1871. He remained in the hospital at Memphis for one year, then returned to Tuscumbia, where he has since been engaged in the practice, and has built np for himself the reputation of being one of the best and most skillful physicians of that city. In the winters of 1873 and 1874, Dr. Cooper spent some time in New York at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he received pri- vate instructions under Drs. Wyeth and Loomis. Dr. Cooper is a member of the Medical Associa- tion of Colbert County and of the Board of Cen- sors. He is also a member of the Presbyterian Church, and of the Orders of Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias. DR. ROBERT TOWNS ABERNATHY, son of John T. and Sarah (Ellitt) Abernathy, was born in Lawrence County, Ala, November 22, 1824. John T., the senior Mr. Abernathy, was born near Lunenburgh Court House, Va., about 1806, where he received a limited education. He was a farmer and mercliant in Virginia; removed to South Florence, Ala , and later on to Tuscumbia, before the Mexican War. From the latter place he went to New Orleans, where he was engaged up to the outbreak of the war, when he returned to Alabama and turned his entire attention to farming. He started in life comparatively a poor m.in, but succeeded in accumulating a handsome fortune. He reared a large family, and died a few years after the war. His father, David Aber- natliy, was of Scotch-Irish extraction. He was one of the early settlers of Virginia; served during the Revolutioiuiry War, and later on became one of the pioneers of Iluntsvillc, Ala. The mother of our subject was a daughter of Richard Ellitt, a native of Virginia, and also a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was of Scotch ancestry. The subject of this sketcli was reared on a farm and received an academic education from La Grange College, this State. He then began reading medicine, and graduated in March, 1849, from the L^niversity of New York. After liis graduation he located at New Orleans, from whence he removed to Macon, Miss., aiid in 1851 located at Tuscumbia. For some time prior to the war, and while in the practice of medicine, he edited the Tuscumbia Constitution. After the evacuation of Corinth, he enlisted in the Confederate service as surgeon of the Fifth Alabama Regiment, with which he remained until the surrender at Pond Springs, with Gen. P. D. Roddy's command. After the surrender he re- turned home and resumed the practice of his pro- fession. In connection with his lucrative practice he conducts an extensive farm. Doctor Abernathy was married March 12, 1856, to Caledonia Carrol, daughter of George W. and Lucy H. Carrol, and has had born to him five children — Lucy, Willie, Tracy, George and St. Elmo. The doctor is a Presbyterian, and his wife is a communicant of the Ejjiscopal Church. ►-»► DR. WILLIAM R. JOHNSTON was born at Tuscumbia, April 7, 1825, and is a son of Amos A. and Elizabeth R. (Ward) Johnston, natives of Bertie and Edgecombe Counties, N. C. Tlie senior Mr. Johnston was born in 179.5. He reared a family of seven children, viz.: Mar- tha A., deceased; William R., our subject; Lucy M. (Mrs. John L. Bunch); John Robert, steam- boatman; Patrick Henry, died in his youth; Sarah E. (Mrs. William Challen), and James W., adjutant of brigade, Cheatham's Division, and was killed at Franklin, Tenn. The senior John- ston located at Tuscumbia in 1824, where he became a very prominent man. He served as magistrate, and was colonel of the militia, and was also a member of the Masonic fraternity. He died in 1852. The Johnston family came originally from England, and it is from tliis same family that the famous Gen. Albert Sidney Johns- ton is a lineal descendant. Dr. William R. Johnston's father being a poor man, his education was somewhat limited, and at the age of sixteen years lie began work in a NORTHERN ALABAMA. 435 printing office. Tie began reading medicine, and graduiited from tlie University of Louisville (old school) in 1851. He practiced medicine for eight years, then drifted into dentistry, which profession lie lias followed with marked success. Dr. .Johnston was the first man to raise a company for the Confederate service in ^liddle Tennessee, which was known as the First Tennes- see Regiment. Tiiis regiment participated in the l)attle of Cheat Mountain under General Lee, and was later transferred to General Jackson's com- mand, uiuler whom they participated in the battles of Shiloh and Perryville. After these latter battles Dr. Johnston joined Forrest's Regiment, with which he remained until the close of the war. He was on hospital duty two months prior to the surrender. Before the war the Doctor accumulated con- siderable money, but when peace once more returned he found himself apparently a poor man. He immediately began the practice of his profession, and by his own perseverance and skill has again accumulated a handsome com- petenc}'. Dr. Johnston was married October 26, 1852, to Mrs. JIartha Franklin, nee Houston, daughter of James B. and Rebecca (Herndon) Houston, and niece of e.\-Gov. Sam Houston, of Tennessee, afterwards President of the Republic of Te.xas and United States Senator. The Doctor is a member of the F. & A. M. and the L 0. 0. F. RICHARD L. ROSS, Druggist, Tuscumbia, was Ijoru October 2(i, liS:i5, near Triana, Madison County, Ala. He received a good English edu- cation, having attended school five years at Tuscumbia. Leaving school at the age of eigh- teen years he entered a grocery store as salesman, where he remained until November, 184G, when he engaged in the drug business. With tlie ex- ception of two years during the war he has con- tinuously followed this latter business, and has been quite successful in building up a large trade. He entered the Confederate service in May, 1804, and W!is detailed to the medical department as cK-rk for the chief surgeon of General Roddy's (■ommand, where lie served until tlie war closed. In 1883 he was appointed county treasurer of Col- bert County, and was elected to that office in 1884 by a large majority. Mr. Ross had lost all of liis hard earnings by the results of the war, but by indomitable will and energy, and by close application to business, he has succeeded in recuperating his fortune. By his well-stocked shelves and pleasant home one would scarcely believe that he had ever met with any loss or reverse during his life. He is much respected by those who know him, and is regarded as one of Tuscumhia's best business men. He w:is married in October, 1871, to Martha E. Cooper, daughter of L. B. Cooper, of this city, and one bright, interesting and highly accom- plished daughter, Frances H., lives to cheer this happy union. Mr. Ross is a leading member of the I. 0. 0. F., Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, and Knights and Ladies of Honor. His wife is an active and devoted member of the Presbyterian Church. Our subject's father, Alexander Ross, was born in Spotsylvania County, Va., about 1783, and learned the trade of biickmaker. He married Elizabeth Cooper, of Virginia, and in 1810 migrated to Frankfort, Ky., where he followed brick-making and contracting until 1825 ; then located near Triana, Madison County, Ala , where he engaged in farming, and also at his trade to some extent. In 1834 he located at Decatur; moved to Tuscumbia in 1847; and finally located in Lawrence County, where he died in 1840. He reared an interesting family of eleven children: Ann, Elizabeth, Francis H., Mildred Ann, William J., Frederick A. (now postmaster at Tuscumbia), Mary B., Henry V., Richard L., Martha E. and Amanda M. The Ross family came originally from Italy, in the person of tlie grandfather of our subject, Vincent Ross, who came to America when but eighteen years of age and located in Virginia, where he married and reared a large family. From this family descended many of the leading citizens of Northern Alabama. JAMES JACKSON, Attorney-at-law, Tuscum- bia, was born July 20, 1848, in Franklin County, this State, and is a son of William M. Jackson. 436 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He received his education at Florence and Tuscumbia (Ala.), St. Mary (Ky.), and St. Louis (Mo.) University. After leaving school he farmed and clerked for about three years. In 1872 he began reading law with William Cooper, at Tus- cumbia, and was admitted to the bar at Frank- fort, this State. He returned to Tuscumbia and at once entered into the practice of his profession. From the very start he came into prominence, as an attorney of more than ordinary ability, and is now enjoying a large practice. Mr. Jackson takes a deep interest in politics. In 1877 he was elected county treasurer, and served in that office one term. In 1882 he was elected to the Senate, on the Republican ticket, and in 1886, made the race for Congress, as an Independent, against General AV heeler. Mr. Jackson is a member of the Free and Ac- cepted Masons. EDWARD BENTON ALMON, Attomey-at- law, Tuscumbia, was born April 18, 18G0, at Moulton, this State, and is a son of George W. and Nannie (Eubank) Almon. He was reared on a farm; attended a common school until about seventeen years of age, when he entered the State Normal School at Florence, from which institution he graduated, and in 1883 was grad- uated from the State University. He began the study of law with his brother, and was admitted to the bar at Bel Green, in 1884. He practiced there until 1885, when he located at Tuscumbia, where he has since continued his prac- tice with marked success. In May, 188G, Mr. Almon formed a partnership with James T. Kirk, and the firm is now known as Kirk & Almon. He is Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of Colbert County; is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Honor, and is also identified with the Methodist Ejiiscopal Church. Mr. Almon's father, George W. Almon, was born at Pulaski, Tenn., in 1817; came to Lawrence Coun- ty, Ala., with his parents in 1822, and here received a common-school education. He afterwards en- gaged at farming, in which he has been very suc- cessful. His wife. Miss Nannie Eubank, was a daughter of Thomas Eubank, a native of Vir- ginia. She was born in Huntsville, Ala., Decem- ber 28, 1822. Both the old people are still living. They had born to them seven sons, of whom six have grown to maturity, viz. : William M., farmer; Thomas N., farmer; George C, attorney and State Senator from the Twelfth District; Lorenzo Dow, farmer; Henry G., farmer; and the subject of this sketch. The Almon and Eubank families are descendants from English ancestry. Mr. Almon was married on December 13, 1887, to Miss Luie Clopper of Tuscumbia. - •* > -^^^- ■ ■: ♦• • ■ ROBERT CLOUD, born May 4, 1844, in Mar- shall County, Miss., is a son of Dr. Joseph F. and Mariali (Vaughan) Cloud. He was reared and edu- cated in his native county, and at the age of six- teen years, went to Arkansas, from which State, in 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Tenth Arkansas Regiment, and was afterwards taken out by his father on account of his youth. In 1862 he joined Company E, Thirty-fourth Mississippi, and partic- ipated in the battles of Farmington, Perryville and Lookout Mountain, at which latter place he was cajjtured in November, 1863. He was kept in prison at Rock Island eighteen months ; was ex- changed at Acklin's Landing, at the mouth of Red River in May, 1865, and returned to his native town, where he engaged in the confectionery busi- ness one year, and later on in the drug business. In 1869 he located at Tuscumbia, engaged in the drug business, and is now one of the most prosperous and influential business men. He is a wide-awake, f)ublic-spirited citizen ; always takes an active interest in the development of the coun- try and in the welfare of the community. He has served the people as alderman and as ma-yor two terms. Mr. Cloud was married in October, 1871, to Miss Francis E. L. Deprez, daughter of Dr. William and Susan (Giffney) Deprez. This union has been blessed with four children, namely: Susan D., Lillie Vaughan, Willoughby, Robert E. and Fan- nie J. B. The family are devoted members of the Roman Catholic Church. Dr. Joseph F. Cloud, the father of our subject, was a descendant of English ancestry. He was married at Whitesburg, Ala., from which jilace he moved to Mississippi, where he has continually been in the practice of medicine. He died in 1862, at the age of fifty-eight years. He reared eight children, namely: John B., deceased; William D., was killed while with Morgan on his raid in "^tM^^^ NORTHERN ALA Ji A MA. 43r Oliio. lie was a sergeant in Duke's Regiment, and was a gallant soldier; Jerry II., deceased; J. V., was a gallant soldieriuider Longstreet; Robert E. died in iMississippi, while serving in the Confed- erate Army; Robert, the subject of thissketcli; Lillie 0., deceased; and Henry C, who died in Texas. The mother of our subject was also of English lineage. In appreciation of the merits, and of the high esteem in which Mr. Cloud, the subject of this sketch is held, the publishers take pleasure in em- bellishing this volume with a liandsome steel plate engraving of that gentleman, which is a true like- ness of one of Northern Alabama's distinguished citizens. DAVID W. HICKS was born in Davidson County, 'I'cnu., July ol, 1830, and is a son of John C. and Ann JIaria (Waters) Ilicks. lie received a good education at Eureka College, Richland, Miss., and at the age of 18 years engaged as a salesman in a commission liouse at Yazoo City, that State. In 1853 he went to Gonzales, Tex., where he en- gaged in the dry goods business, and nine months later returned to Mississippi, and engaged in business for about seven years. In 1860 he came to Tuscumbia and married Miss Sarah A. Hobgood, daughter of John and Martha A. (Alsobrook) Hobgood, of that city. After his marriage, Mr. Hicks engaged at planting, and in 1802 he entered Captain Kum- pie's Company for six months, after which, said comj)any was re-organized and known as Com- pany K, Eleventh Alabama Regiment, and Mr. Ilicks was elected second lieutenant. lie par- ticipated in the first fight at Decatur, the battles of Fishing Creek, Sulphur Trestle, Tenn., Moul- ton and Selma, and was in Forrest's command at the time of the surrender. After the war he resumed farming and now owns a large plantation near Tuscumbia. Mr. Hicks and wife are communicants of the Episcopal Church, and he is a member of the I. 0. 0. F. They had eight children born to them, viz.: John C; Martha A., wife of W. T. Elam, of Mississippi ; David B., deceased ; Ann M., deceased; Lottie H., Sarah B., McReynolds, and Edgar W. The father of our subject was born near Rich- mond, Va.. and at the age of about 18 years located in Davidson County, Tenn. He was an aide, with the rank of major, to General Jackson, and had command of the post at Mobile while Jackson was at New Orleans. After his marriage he studied medicine, and in 1830 located iu Law- rence County, Ala., about twelve miles east of Tuscumbia, where he lived nine years, then removed to Sumter County, and thonce to Carroll County, Miss., where ho lived until his death, which occurred in August, 1865, at the age of 73 years. Ho was a planter, anH accumulated con- siderable property while in Jlississippi. He was Grand Master of Freemasons for many years while in Alabama, and was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He reared a family of six children, viz.: Sarah (Mrs. Judge Jas. J. Chewning, of Mississippi); B. M., physi- cian, now deceased; David W., our subject; Ma- rianne W. (Mrs. A. J. Tidwell, of Mississippi); John W., of Memphis; and Robert H., of Mis- sissijipi. The Ilicks family came originally from England, and the Waters are descendants of Scotch ancestry, ' "v*-*f^y^M* ^** * JAMES A. PATTERSON was born March 17, 1813, in Trumbull Cnunty, Ohio, and is a son of John ami Susan (Adams) Patterson. The senior Mr. Patterson was born in Fayette County, Ky., and was a saddler by trade. .He moved to Trumbull County, Ohio, where he was married; later on he removed to Mt. Vernon, and finally to Mansfield, where he died in 1820. He reared three children, viz.: James A., our subject; Margaret, wife of James Raymond; Augusta, wife of Elijah Worley, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Patterson family were originally from Ireland. The mother of our subject was a daughter of John Adams, a native of Trumbull County, Ohio, and a relative of John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts. After Mr. Pat- terson's death, his wife moved back to Trumbull County, where the subject of our sketch received his education in the common schools. James A. Patterson, at the age of nineteen years, came to Alabama, settled at Decatur, aiul immediately began teaching a private school. He taught about three months, when he en- tered a store as salesman, where he remained three years. Shortly after entering this store he was made postmaster of that city, which position he filled seventeen years. In June, 1830, ho removed to Tuscumbia, where ho has resided ever since. 438 NORTHERN ALABAMA. While at Decatur, Mr. Patterson built a large cotton factory, and was one of tlie stockhold- ers of the first railroad in Alabama. When he came to Tuscumbia he 25iirchased 2,200 acres of land, on a part of which the city of Sheffield is located. He farmed until the outbreak of the war, at which time he owned about 100 slaves. After the war he engaged in the cotton commission business in Cincinnati for about three years, when he again resumed farming. Mr. Patterson was married at Decatur, July 6, 1837, to Nancy C, daughter of Dabney A. Martin. They reared eight children, viz. : James A. ; Susan G., wife of John E. Young; Laura, wife of H. Carloss; Ida, widow of Hiram Crawford; Martin D.; A. A.; Ann E.; and A. W. Mrs. Patterson died in September, 1 853, and Mr. Patterson was married to Mrs. Malenia J. Lightfoot, daugh- ter of Archibald McKissach, of Pulaski, Tenn. She died in the fall of 1862. Before the war, Mr. Patterson had accumulated a large fortune, but sharing the fate of many others, he, at the end of the war, found that he had lost considerable of his fortune. He still owns 156 acres of land near Sheffield, which affords him a comfortable living. He has been a leading mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church for over forty-five years, and all his children are connected therewith. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. — «>-;€^' < ♦• • JAMES E. KEENAN, was born in Centre County, Pa., in 18-11, and is a son of Stephen and Ellen (Kiernan) Keenan. The senior Mr. Keenan was a native of County Cavan, Ireland. He came to the United States about 1824, settled in New York City, where he was engaged as a tailor seven years, and then located in Pennsylvania. He reared a family of four sons and tliree daughters. The subject of this sketch received an academic education, and at the age of fourteen years en- gaged in the printing business for a short time. In the fall of 1859 he came South, and in 1861 joined an independent company at luka. Miss., under P. D. Koddy, which company formed a part of Major Baskeville's battalion. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Ilarrisburg, Miss., Sul- phur Trestle, Tenn., and others in Northern Missis- sippi and Northern Alabama, and was in several skirmishes on the retreat to Selnia. He also par- ticipated in the battle of Selma and in all the engagements in which his command took pwt. In 1863 he was promoted to second lieutenant, and surrendered at Pond Springs, Ala. , May 5, 1865. After the war, Mr. Keenan came to Tuscumbia, and in 1870 engaged in general merchandise busi- ness, in which he has been very successful. He is an enterjirising, public-spirited man, and takes a great interest in the development of the public schools. Mr. Keenan was married in May, 1868, to Let- tie Warren, of Tuscumbia. She is a daughter of Mervyn and Mary (Sloss) Warren, natives of Ire- land and the State of Alabama, respectively. To this union were born nine children, viz. : Mervyn W., William S., Mary, Ellen, deceased, James E., Lettie, John, Margaret and Belle. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Keenan is a F. & A. M. SAMUEL HINDMAN was born March 22, 1818, in Chester County, Pa. .and is a son of Matthew and Sarah (Welsh) Ilindinan. The senior Mr. Hindman was born in Ireland; came to America when quite young, and settled in Chester County, Pa., where he lived the bal- ance of his life. He reared a family of eleven children, viz.: John 0., Samuel, Matthew, Rob- ert, Joseph P., Lucinda (Mrs. Wilson), Susan (Mrs. Elijah Gretchell), Sarah (deceased), Nancy A. (Mrs. Eobert Douglas), Martha J. (deceased), Elizabeth (Mrs. John Wright). The family were all members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Hindman died before the late war, at the age of sixty-three years. The subject of this sketch was reared in his native town, where he received a common-school education, and at the .ige of sixteen years was employed in a cotton factory. Five years later, he learned the trade of carjoenter and mill- wright, then removed to JetTerson County, Va., where he helped to build an iron works, and later on, moved to Loudon County, that State. Mr. Hindman was married in ] 846, to Barbara Hosttler, of Jefferson County, Va., and has had born to him seven children, five of whom grew to maturity, to-wit : Matthew J., Joseph W., John W., Sarah E. (Mrs. John E. Tribbey, of Vir- ginia), and Emma (Mrs. R. R. Guvaghmey.) XOA' T1IEK\ AJ.Ali. \MA. 43f) Mr. Iliiulmaii entereil the army in 1802, as (jiiiirtoniiiistor,iind was in tlie battles of Ball's Bluff, st'coml Manassas, and in many of the battles of the Shenandoah Valley. lie was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry, and in the spring of 1865, after the sui render, returned to his home. In 1871 ho migrated to Alabama, locating at Tus- cumbia, where he iias been engaged in the milling business ever since. LEWIS B. THORNTON, born May 28, 1815, in Spotsylvania County, ^ a., is a son of Philip and Sarah Taliaferro Thornton, (wee Miss Sarah Taliaferro Conway). His father, Mr. Philip Thornton, was born in Caroline County, Va., Ajjril 28, 1777. lie was a merchant for some years, and farmer most of his life time, and was the first man to introduce and run a cotton gin in Spotsylvania County. He represented his county in the State Legislature, lie had born to liim ten children, of whom five grew to maturity, viz. : Sarah T., wife of John C. Stanard, of Virginia; Rowland, died in Arkan- sas; F. Fitzhugh Conway, died in St. Louis; Lewis B., our subject; Philij), who went on a whaling expedition and was lost at sea in 1842, and Thomas J., died in Washington Territory. Mr. Philip Thornton died in September, 1829. The Thorn- ton family were originally from England. The mother of our subject was a daughter of Cajitain Francis Conway, a native of Virginia, and a soldier in the Kevolutionary War. The subject of this sketch received the best education that the common schools of his time afforded. Being ambitious to further advance his studies, he taught school and thus procured enough money to attend the University of Vir- ginia. At the age of eighteen years he began the study of law at llichmond, Va. In 1841 he migrated to Shelbyville, Iil., and in 1843 to North- ern Alabama, where he spent a few years teaching school, finally locating at Tuscumbia, where he taught school in connection with his law practice until 1850. In the latter year he turned his entire attention to the practice of law, which he has continued ever since. In 1855-C he rejiresent- ed his county in the Legislature, and in 1857 was appoiYited Register in Chancery which office he held twenty-eight consecutive years. He also served as mayor of Tuscumbia before the war. Mr. Thornton was married July 29, 1849, to Miss L. Virginia Nooe, of this State. She died about a year after their marriage, aiul on October 28, 1850, he was married to Miss M. Louii-e Meredith, daughter of Col. Sam Meredith, of Tuscumbia. Colonel Meredith served under Gen- eral Jackson in all his battles with the Indians. He came to Alabama when a young man, and died in 1853, at the age of sixty-seven years. Mr. Thornton had born to him eight children, viz: Jleredith, Bedford, Conway, Hunter (de- ceased), Sarah, Oola, Fitzhugh (deceased), and Laura. The family are members of the Presby- terian Church, in which ^\\\ Thornton is an elder, and has been for more than thirty years. -*-: -^^ JAMES T. KIRK was born April 7, 1858, in Frunklui County, Ala., and is a son of James I. and Louisa Cleerc Kirk. Mr. Kirk was left an orphan ai an early ago and dependent upon his own resources. He nuide the best of the advantages offered at the common schools, alternating his time with farming and teaching until he was about eighteen years of age, when he took a clerkship in Winston County. lu September, 1870, he began reading law with J. B. Moore, of Tuscumbia; was admitted to the bar in spring of 1880, and has since been in the practice at this place. In 188G lie formed a partnership with E. B. Almon under the firm name of Kirk & Almon. Sir. Kirk was married December, 1880, to Ella P. Rather, daughter of Gen. John D. Rather. James. M. Kirk, grandfather of Mr. K., was born in North Carolina in 1794; moved to Frank- lin County, Ala., in his early life, and is identi- fied with the oldest interests of said county. He fought through the Seminole War, and still lives on his old homestead near Russellville, Ala. His family consisted of three sons and three daugh- ters. James T. Kirk, father of J. T. Kirk, Jr., was born in Franklin County in 1828, and died April 7, 1858. He married Louisa, daughter of George D. Cleere, an extensive jjlanter and mer- chant in Lawrence County. — • — •••>— J^^3*-<»^ — •— LYDAL B. COOPER, born December 12, 1813, in Davidson County, Tenn., is a son of Edmund and JIartha (Jackson) Cooper. His fallier died 440 NORTHERN ALABAMA. when he was very young, and consequently his educational opportunities were limited. In 1833 he settled in Tuscumbia and began the study of law with his brother, William Cooper; was admitted to the bar in 1834, and on January 1, 1836, located in the practice at Courtland, Lawrence County, this State. In 1838 he returned to Tuscumbia, where he has lived ever since, and practiced law. Since the war, in connection with his law business, he has conducted a farm. Mr. Cooper was married January 3, 1839, to Frances M. Harrington, daughter of Burt Har- rington, who came to this county in 1827. They had born to them seven children, viz.: Martha E. Ross; Burt H., farmer; John P., farmer; Samuel J., physician; William W., physician, in Indian Territory; Harriet C. and Langston M. The fam- ily are members of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Cooper is an A. F. & A. M. Edmund Cooper, the father of our subject, was born at Petersburg, Va., April 18, 1760. When a young man he was a cabinet-maker by trade, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. About 1815 he migrated to Tennessee, settled in David- son County, and engaged in farming. Later on, he became an inspector of tobacco in Nashville, a position he held until his death in Janu- ary, 1822. He was a prosperous business man, and his main object in going to Nashville was to educate his children. His third wife, who was the mother of our subject, was born in Bruns- wick County, Ya. The Cooi^ers came originally from Great Britain, and the Jacksons from Ire- land. JAMES H. SIMPSON was born June 20, 1832, in Lincoln County, Tenn. and is a son of Sol. P. and Lucinda (Conway) Simpson. He was reared on a farm, where he received a good English edu- cation, and at the age of sixteen years began teach- ing school, at the same time advancing his own studies. He taught school for about fifteen years, then entered a store at Barton Station as salesman and book-keepefl'. In the spring of 1^62 he enlisted in Captain Julian's command, under Colonel Roddy; served as orderly sergeant one year in Capt. Julian's com- mand; was then transferred to Colonel Forrest's regiment, where he served three years in the ord- nance department, after which he was discharged from the service. He returned home, taught school, and in 1865 came to Tuscumbia, where he entered the wholesale and retail grocery business under the firm name of Inman, Simpson & Co. The firm changed hands several times, and in 1S75 Mr. Simpson sold out his interest. In 1876 he resumed teaching, which he fol- lowed for about one year, when he was elected tax assessor of Colbert County, which oflice he held seven years. In July, 1887, he was appointed clerk of the circuit court, to fill out an unexpired term. Mr. Simj)son was first married January 25, 1853, to Miss Ada White. She died in February, 1854, leaving one child. In October, 1800, Mr. Simpson was married to Sue E. Gibbs, daughter of John and Mary (Mason) Gibbs, and to this union six children were born. She died in Octo- ber, 1872, and his present wife was a Miss Sally C. Gibbs, who has born him four children. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Simpson is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and Knights of Honor. He has served as secretary of the board of aldermen of Tuscum- bia, and takes a wide-spread interest in the devel- opment of his city and that section of the country. Mr. Simpson's father was born in Union Dis- trict, S. C, in the year 1805. When a young man he moved to Lincoln County, Tenn., where he was engaged at farming. He served in the Florida War, and in 1850 located on a plantation about ten miles from Florence, Ala. He next moved to Lawrence County, Ala., where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1875. He was a son of Edwin Simiison, who was born in Ireland and migrated to America during colonial days, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The mother of our subject was bom in Lincoln County, Tenn., and was a daughter of Frederick and Winnie Conway, natives of Georgia. GUIDE LUEDDEMANN, of the firm of Lued- demann & Co., dealers in fancy dry goods, silks, etc., Tuscumbia, Ala., was born in Erfurt, Ger- many, and is a son of Frederick A. and Christiana (Linsdorff) Lueddemann. The senior Mr. L., an officer of the Prussian army, came to America in 1847, locating in Ohio, and later on at Milwaukee, AYis. The subject of this sketch engaged in mercan- tile business when a young man, and in lb64, loca- located in Nashville, Tenn. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 441 In the succeeding year, ' he came to Tus- cumbia, where lie formed a partnership witli II. Leiforth, and was engaged in tlie dry goods business until 18G8. In that year Mr. Leiforth withdrew, and was succeeded by James X. Sani])- son, of New York, under the style and firm name of Lueddemann & Co. This is now the oldest establishment of the kind in the city, and is the leading dry goods house of Colbert County. Their business has steadily increased from the very beginning, until it has assumed vast projiortions, and they have now erected a large building in order to facilitate their rajoidly increasing trade. They were the first merchants in that city to intro- duce lady clerks. Mr. Lucddeman was married to Johanna Chis- holm, of Nashville, and this union has been blessed with four children, viz.: Frederick, Max, Ernest, and Frieda. ^Mrs. Lueddeman is a mem- ber of the Christian Church, and Mr. Lueddemann is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and Knigiits of Pythias. JOHN A. McWILLIAMS was born March 5, 1841, in Colbert County, Ala., and is a son of Hugh and Elizabeth (Quillin) McWilliams, natives of Tennessee. The senior Mr. McWilliams was one of the early settlers of Alabama, and was an extensive planter. He was married in Franklin County, aiul had born to him six children, to-wit: James W., farmer, served in the Twenty-seventh Alabama, during the late war; William F., deceased; Mary C, deceased; John A., our subject ; Elizabeth Ann, wife of Stephen Aycock ; Virginia I., widow of Russell Askew. The elder McWilliams died in 184G, aiul his widow survived him until 187G. The McWilliams family came originally from Ireland, in the person of the great-grandfather of our sub- ject. Ue settled in Tennessee, and later on re- moved to Alabama. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and received a common-school education. In December, 18G2, he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-seventh Alabama, and participated in the battle of Perryville and several skirmishes around Corinth. In the spring of 1864, he returned home, thence went to Tennessee, where he was engaged at farming one year. lie returned to Alabama, where he resumed farming, and followed it until 1872, when he entered mercantile business near Tuscumbia. In 1880, he was elected sheriff of Colbert County, and located in the latter city, where he is still merchandizing, and has been very prosperous. In connection witii his store he conducts a farm, cotton-gin and grist-mill. In April, 1807, Mr. McWilliams was married to Lucinda B. Stockwell, of Colbert County, and has had born to him nine children, viz.: Hugh A., Will- iam E., Mary \\., MattieE., Adcle B., LucindaE., John W., James B., and Charlie A. The family are members of the Baptist Chureh, and Mr. Mc- Williams is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Knights of Pythias, and Knights of Honor. J. N. SAMPSON was born in Palmyra, N. Y., in 1843, where he received a common-school education. He served in Company A, One Hun- dred and Eleventh Xew York, from July, 18G:;i, to the close of the war. Immediately after the war he came south and located at Nashville, Tenn., where he worked for the Adams Express Co. In 18G0 he removed to Tuscumbia, and engaged in mercantile business. In 188.5, in connection with other parties, he purchased a brick 3'ard and planing mill, which they run one year, and in December, 188G, was merged into the Eureka Brick & Lumber Co. This company was organized with G. Lued- demann, as president, but shortly afterwards II. Ilabbeller was made its president. The other officers are Charles Beck, of Florence, Ala., secretary, and J. N. Sampson, treasurer. The above named officers, together with M. I. Moses and E. Tray, of Cincinnati, compose the board of directors. The capacity of the brick yard is twenty thousand brick per day. This company established the first planing mill in the town. Jlr. Sampson was married in his native State. ___ ^.^ J^^i — «► — — JOHN H. FISHER was born May 4, 1843, in Vanderburg County, Ind., and is a son of Philip and Catharine ((lottsclialk) Fisher. The senior Mr. Fisher was born in Darmstadt; his wife in Hesse. He located in Evansville. Ind. where he was married and reared one child, the subject of our sketch. John II. Fisher was reared in Evansville, Ind., and in 1852, moved with his grandfather to Mt. 443 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Vernon, Ind., where he received his education. In 1857 he began the tinner's trade but did not com- plete it on account of the war. In May, 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Twenty-fifth Indiana Vol- unteers, and particiijated in the battles of Donel- son and Shiloh and the siege of Corinth, where lie was wounded in the foot and sent to the hospital. In January, 1863, he was discharged from the hos- pital and came home, where he was engaged in a drug store for three months, after which he was employed in the postoffice eighteen months. In 1864 he located in Sedalia, Mo., and clerked in a dry goods store four months. He returned to Mt. Vernon, and shortly afterward started a tin shop of his own which he conducted for a short time, thence removing to Evansville, and accepting a position as traveling salesman, in which he was engaged for about twelve years. He then entered business for himself in Posey- ville, and in January. 1S84, located at Tus- cumbia, where he opened a hardware and queens- ware house and has since been doing a large business. He is a very enterjjrising and public spirited citizen and is always active in the interest of the town. He is now serving the people as alderman. Mr. Fisher was married, in June, 1866, to Miss Nettie Grant, of Evansville, Ind., and has had born to him four children, namely: Catherine E., Fan- nie G., Alice C, and Edward A. Mrs. Fisher died March 16, 1873, and on November 9, 1876, Mr. Fisher was married to Miss Liddie A. Mears, daughter of Benjamin F. Mears, of Daviess County, Ind. To this union four children have been born, of whom two are living, namely : Frank A. and William H. The family are members of the Meth- odist Church, and Mr. Fisher is a Knight of Honor and a Knight of Pythias. ORLANDO MERRILL was born April 27, 1828, at Tuscumbia, and is a son of Thomas B. and Ann E. (Rhea) Merrill, natives, respiectively, of Kentucky and Tennessee. He received a good education, and spent a short time at the University of Texas. During the war he was in the Ordinance Department at Jackson, Miss., in the capacity of clerk and inspector of arms. After the surrender of Vicksburg he went North and lived in St. Louis and Chicago, in which places he was engaged in the jewelry busi- ness. In 1871 he removed to Memphis, where he remained for a few years; thence came to Tus- cumbia, where he has since been engaged in the jewelry business. Mr. Merrill was first married in February, 1802, to Sue Dunham, of Newark, 0. She was a daughter of Asa and Susan (Whales) Dunham, natives of Connecticut. To this union two children were born: Louella and Clark. Mrs. Merrill died in Burlington, Iowa, while on a visit in 1867, and in May, 1871, Mr. Merrill was mar- ried to Miss Emily Shaw, daughter of James P. Shaw, of Rochester, N. Y. She bore him three children, of whom two are living: Ruth and Percy. The family are communicants of the Episcopal Church. The father of our subject, with his brother, B. Merrill, came to Alabama in 1832, and located in Tuscumbia, where they were engaged in merchan- dising. They did an extensive business, and in connection with their merchandise business they leased and operated the Tuscumbia, Courtland & Decatur Railroad, afterward known as the Ten- nessee Valley Railway. They also ran the line of steamers on the Tennessee River. Before the war Mr. Thomas H. Merrill moved to Memphis, where he speculated in real estate, and died in the fall of 1860. He reared a family of eight children: Angle, Orlando, Edwin, Ella, Emma, William, Thomas and Lulu. BENJAMIN F. LITTLE, born November 30, 1842, near Russell ville, Ala., is a son of Clai- borne and Sarah (Brviton) Little. The senior Mr. Little was born in Tennessee, and with his parents migrated to Russell's Val- ley, Ala., in early times. He was a merchant, and died in 1849. He reared a family of eight chil- dren, viz.: William M., Edwin (deceased), Fran- cis M., Rufus L., Coleman R. (deceased), John C. (deceased), Mollie (wife of Robert Martin), and the subject of this sketch. Coleman R. and John C. were members of the Tenth Mississipjii Regiment during the late war, and both died while in the service. The Little family came originally from Ireland. The subject of this sketch received a common- school education, and at the age of twelve years entered a store with his uncle, where he remained some time, and became a partner with J. 0. Jones NORTHERN ALABAMA. 443 at Riissenvillc and Florence. This partnersliij) was continued with niucli success until the break- ing out of the war. In 18(!1 Mr. Little enlisted in Conij)any II, Fourth Alabama Regiment, as second sergeant, and participated in the first bat- tle of Manassas, after which he was promoted to second lieutenant. In the winter of 1SG1-G2 he was transferred to the Army of Mississippi, where he served in the forage department of Bragg's army until that general started on his Kentucky raid. Prior to the battle of Munfordville he was as second lieutenant appointed to the command of a comiiany of sharpshooters, and was engaged at Bryantsville and Perryville. On the retreat from Kentucky lie was made aide-de-camp of Woods' brigade. ' After reaching Dalton, Ga., he was ap- pointed captain of the Fifth Alabama Cavalry, and was in that capacity at Moulton, Ala. He was then ap])ointed recorder of military court for tlie northern ilistrict of Alabama, where he served until the close of the war. lie was promoted to major, but did .not receive his commission until after tlie surrender. When peace once more reigned over the land, Mr. Little located at Tuscumbia, where he engaged in mercantile business. In 1871 he turned his .attention to farming, which he con- tinued until 1878, when he was engaged as gen- eral agent to procure tlie right of way for the Sheffield & Birmingham Railroad. Shortly after he was made paymaster of that road, which posi- tion he filled until the spring of 188G, when he engaged in the real estate business at Sheffield. Captain Little was married August 2, 18G4, to Miss Mattie Inman, only daughter of John D. In- man, Esq., an old and respected citizen of Tus- cumbia. This union was blessed with three chil- dren: John C, Mattie R. (^Irs. F. W. Ross), and Sac. • Mrs. Little died December 5, 1SC8, and the captain was married to ^liss Emma Jones, daughter of Daniel Jones, of Holly Springs, Miss. She bore him five children, viz. : Lulie W., Ed- ward, Laura F., Henry and Benjamin. The family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and the captain is a member of the Knights of Honor and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. The subject of this sketch is a great-grandson of Maj. William Russell, who passed through Al- abama with General Jackson on his way to fight the liattle of New Orleans, crossing the Tennes- see River at the now city of Sheffield. After par- ticipating in the battle of New Orleans as chief cf Jackson's staff, he returned and settled in Russell's Valley, and for him the valley and the beautiful and thriving city of Russellsville are named. There he lived and died, honored and loved by all who knew him. ' "> ' 't^^t^;' ■ < »• ■ — EDWARD P. RAND, M. D., was born November 7, 1848, in Lawrence County, Ala., and is a son of Dr. John W. and Catharine (Pearsall) Rand. The senior Dr. Rand was born at Raleigh, N. C, in 1822, came to Alabama with his parents in 1831, and settled near Leighton. He was graduat- ed from La Grange College, and also from Louis- ville, where he received his dijjloma as M. D. He practiced his profession at Leighton until 1859, when he engaged extensively in planting. From the disastrous results of the late war his fortune was considerably despoiled. He resumed farming after the war, but is now engaged in the practice of medicine at St. Joseph, Tenn. The subject of this sketch received his education at the Cumberland L'niversity; began the study of medicine at Stark ville, ^liss., when twenty years of age, and graduated in 1872 from the University of Louisiana. He located at Tuscumbia in 1878, where he has practiced his profession ever since. He is a ver)' successful physician and enjoys a large jiractice. He is a member of the North Alabama Medical Association and the County Medical Society. Dr. Rand was married January 1.5, 1880, to Miss Mattie White, daughter of the late ^[r. James M. White, of Jlemphi.s, Tenn. This union has blessed with two childreii: James and Edward. The doctor is a Presbyterian, and his wife is a com- municant of the Episcopal Church. JOHN ANTHONY STEELE, Probate Judge, Tuscumbia, Ala., was born at (iainesville, Sump- ter County, this State, July 2.">, 183."i, and is a son of William J. and Mary (Winston) Steele. The senior Mr, Steele was born in Woodford County, Ky., August 10, 1800; graduated at Dan- ville, that State; read law with John J. Critten- den at Frankfort, and was admitted to the bar; came to Alabama and at Gainesville practiced law. In lS.i2 he returned to Versailles. Kv., and there 444 NORTHERN ALABAMA. continued the joractice; was elected judge, and conducted extensive farming operations. He reared eight children: John A., Tliomas, Jane A., Mary P., Andrew F., William J., James "W., and Theopliilus, deceased. The Steeles originally came from Ireland. Thomas Steele, and his son John, grandfather of John Anthony Steele, were the first of that family to come to America, and they settled in Woodford County, Ky., where John Steele became a man of considerable local prominence. He was sheriff of the county a time or two, and a representa- tive to the Legislature two terms. He was an officer in the War of 1812; was a Whig in politics, and a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. Mary Winston was born in Franklin County, Ala., in 1819. Her father, Anthony Winston, a Virginian by birth, settled in Alabama in 1818, and was a member of the first Legislature held in this State. Judge Steele, the gentleman whose name stands at the liead of this article, was reared on a farm in Kentuky; graduated in classical course from Princeton (Xew Jersey) College, class of 1852; afterward read law at Transylvania L^niversity, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. Immediately after being admitted to the bar Mr. Steele came to Alabama, married and settled upon a farm in Colbert County. He was a mem- ber of the Secession Convention of 1861, and took a strong stand against that measure. However, when Alabama declared her withdrawal from the Federal Union, he at once espoused her cause, and in the early part of 1862, joined the army as a captain of a company in Forrest's Regiment. He was with the gallant Forrest through all his Bliss- issippi, Alabama and Tennessee campaigns, and surrendered finally at Selma in 1865. At once after the war he engaged in farming, and in 1870- 71-72, rejjresented his county in the Legisla- ture. He was again in the Legislature in 1878-9; was elected i)robate judge in 1880 and re-elected in 1886. Judge Steele was married in April, 1856, to Miss Martha B. Winston, and had born to him nine cliildren: William W., John A., Thomas W., Annie H., Mary B., Judith M., Sarah W., Andrew M. and Edmund W. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church, and the Judge is of the Masonic fraternity, tiie K. of H. and the K. of P. lUII RECORDS OF FOUNDING! OF TALLADEGA FOUND "Talladega Battle Ground" Turned Into Seat Of Justice T.\LL.\DEGA, .\la.. Dec. 15.— (Spe- cial.) — Kecorcls clatiiifi: back to the foundina of Talladesa and Us lo- cation a."! the county seat were ex- amined Tuesday by Judge M. N. Mannins in an effort to locate titles to certain . local property. The records were dated April 4, 1834. and were made between Wil- im H. Moore and others, owners of the land, and James H. McCann and others, representing the commis- sioners of Talladega, as appointed •by tlie county judge rndcr the act of December 13, 1833. "to per- manently locate tho seat of justice . In the county of Talladega." An election was held to locate the county seat and tho battle ground was de- cided on. This was certified -by tha sheriff to: the county judge and he designated the site- of the present city of Talladega. January 1?. lS3o. thev sheriff certified to the com.mis- sloners that the "Talla-dcga battle pround" be returned to the Judge of the county court as a alte duly elected for the ' seat of Justice of eaid. county. IX TALLADEGA By Otis NicKLEg [III iitt. I>il3— more than eighteen years before the founding of the town. '{"he iminbers ei)L'aL'clu»-ilaiicl iiit out by \\U pioneers, fortlie ri'liirii to Fort Stmther. ufUT the tmttle. Hotel stands. .Jackson's position was on the same hill, a little west of Roberts' brigade, but was af- terward changed to a j)oint on the eminence west of town, near the site of Mr. T. Ij. Isbell's residence. Hall's brigade was posted along the brow of Talladega-College Hill. The mounted riflemen took position on the slope where the Deaf and Dumb Institute buildings are located. The cavalry oceujiied the hills in the vicinity of South- wood, south of the cemetery. One thousand and eighty Creeks were ensconced among the reeds and willows that fringed the margin of the brooks to the southwest, or were encamped about the large spring which bursts from the base of the hill where the pump-rooms of the water-works stand, a few yards below Battle street. / The ninth of November had dawned, and they were awaiting the surrender of the fort, or the signal to take it by storm, either of wliich events meant the massacre of the besieged — a hundred and sixty friendly braves, with their wives and children. At eight o'clock, a heavy fire was jjonred into this encampment by .Jackson's advance under C'arroll, when the American lines closed up, and the battle (or rather carnage, for, owing to the nature of the Creeks, not one of whom begged for, or would receive, quarter, it was more of a carnage than a battle) became general. The In- dians first made a rush in the direction of Roberts' brigade, and fiercely attacked his position. Terri- fied by the diabolical screams and yells of their painted assailants, a few militia companies gave way at the onset. The breach was at once filled by the mounted reserve under Col. Dyer, who dis- mounted and sustained the charge. Seeing this, the Hying militia retui'iied and fought with much gallantry. After a brief but brave resistance, the Creeks began to retreat before the discipline and great odds of the Americans. Their flight was, of course, disorderly, as had been their mode of attack, and soon became a rout. Attempting to gain their Town House on Talladega Creek, most of them fled through tlie gap between Hall's and Alcorn's position, and were j)ursued and killed by Alcorn's cavalry. The Town House was on the lands now known as the Terrj'Mill place, and was called the Talla- dega (or Border Town) Town IIou.se, the word Talladega signifying, in its original dialect. Bor- der Town. I'pward of six tuindred Creeks ix'rislu'd '•' 'i>i- 448 NORTHERN ALABAMA. action. Two hundred and ninety-nine warriors were left dead on the field. Fully as many more were cut off in the flight, and the woods for sev- eral miles were strewn with the slain. They would listen to no terms, and utterly refused to surrender or be taken alive. Their implacable nature had taught .Jackson that they fled only in hopes of future revenge, and the single resource left him was to wage a war of extinction. Fifteen Americans were killed outright, and eighty-five wounded. Three of the latter, includ- ing Lieutenant Barton, died on the return march to Fort Strother, and were brought back to Tal- ladega for burial. A dismantled and dilapidated piece of stone-masonr}-, in a field southwest from town, marks the final resting place of these eigh- teen soldiers. —This small rock structure was once roofed over so as to shelter the burial-pit, but the roofing is gone, and the inclosure has fallen into almost complete decay. Five more desperate encounters took place be- fore the treaty of Fort Jackson, among them that of the Holy Ground, the scene of Weatherford's daring feat of horsemanship. It was there that the celebrated leader of the Creeks eluded capture by leaping his horse from the top of a high bluff into the Alabama River. With a mighty bound his powerful gray steed rose from the precipice and plunged into the river below. Both horse and rider sank out of sight beneath the waters, but presently re-appeared, and, as his pursuers did not care to imitate the deed, reached the opjjosite shore in safety, and escaped. The war was closed by the battle of Tohopeka, or the Horse Shoe of Tallapoosa Eiver, ilarch 27, 1814. The Muscogee braves were almost obliter- ated from existence. Of all that Tecumseh had stirred to arms, not more than two hundred war- riors remained, and most of these were so badly maimed and gashed with wounds, that they could not again go into battle. Some of them fled to Pensacola and the swamps of Florida, and were instrumental in bringing about the Seminole War. Their confederacy was crushed, their power was broken and they were compelled to sue for peace, which they proudly did, not for themselves, but for their women and children. The speech of Weatherford to General Jackson, and his conduct subsequent to the defeat at Toho- peka, have shed a brilliancy around his name that will not soon fade. Jackson had issued special orders that this chief should be captured, if pos- sible, and brought to him for punishment. Weatherford did not wait to be taken. 3Iounting the same noble animal which had borne him over the bluff and out of the reach of his pursuers at the Holy Ground, he rode into the American camp at sunset and went direct to the tent of Jackson. "•I am Weatherford," said he, confronting the General. '' I do not fear you General Jackson. I have nothing to ask for myself. I am come to ask peace for my people. If I had an army I would fight you. Once I could animate my war- riors to battle. I can not animate the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice. Their bones are at Talladega, Tallushatchee and Toho- jjeka. They are gone. I ask peace for my peo- ple, not for Weatherford." As he concluded, several who had come up ex- claimed " Kill him I Kill him I Kill him I " But Jackson commanded silence and said : "Any man who would kill as brave a man as that, would rob the dead ! ^ , The foregoing epitome of the Creek ^\'ar has been comjjiled from various sources. When the same thing is related by all the writers differently, the preference has been naturally given Pickett, the historian of Alabama, save in two or tkree instances, when he was manifestly in the wrong. He severely arraigns the biograjihers of Jackson for falsely re- porting Weatherford's speech, when the truth is, he is at fault himself.. They record it as it was remembered by Jackson's oflScers who were present and heard it delivered. He relates it as it was told bv Weatherford years afterward in conversation with friends, and in a colloquial manner. The substance in all the versions is virtually the same, and we have preferred to follow the biographers, who hand down a speech, the manly eloquence of which so much impressed them at the time. Pickett confutes himself immediately afterward, by presenting a specimen of Weatlierford's elo- quence, which is directly in keeping with his ad- dress to Jackson as quoted above. In 1820, an old gentleman was brutally murdered by two ruffians, at a sale near Weatherford's home. A justice of the peace in vain urged the by-stand- ers to seize the two men, who defied arrest. At this juncture, Weatherford stepjied forward and said : "These, I suppose, are white men's laws. You stand aside and see a man, an old man, killed, and lot one of you will avenge his blood. If he had NORTHERN ALABAMA. 449 one drop of Indian blood mixed with that which runs upon the grouiid there, I would instantlj' kill his murderers at the risk of my life."' The justice then besought him to take them, telling him that the white man's law would com- mend the act. Thus adjured, he drew from its sheath a long silver-handled butcher knife which he carried with him, and advanced toward the murderers, who stood brandishing their knives some thirty paces distant. Heing well ac<|uainted with the fearless nature and herculean strength of the man with whom they had to deal, they dropped their weajions at his approach, and sub- mitted without resistance. More than three centuries ago, however, if the Sjiaiiish and Portuguese historians are to be be- lieved, De Soto and his cavaliers entered the prov- ince of Coosa, and traversed the county and valley of Talladega (.Inly, l."i4r. and north of a straight line drawn from Wetun'ipka eastward), was ceded to the United States. The Creeks were confined totliese bounds in order to secure them against the in- triguesof the British and Spanish, and toseparate them from the Seminoles. To each head of a family was ajiportioned 330 acres, and to each chief a section. These lands were afterward 450 NORTHERN ALABAMA. bought in by the Government, and in 1834 were surveyed and offered for sale (July 1::^)'. At an election held the same year, Talladega was chosen county seat of Talladega County, over Mardisville, or Jumper's Spring, and Middleton, a hamlet at the ford where the Anniston & At- lantic railroad bridge spans Talladega Creek. The Presbyterian and Methodist Churches were estab- lished toward the close of that year, and in the spring of 1835, the Good Hope, since named the Talladega Baptist Church, was founded. The Episcopal Church did not obtain a firm footing until after tlie civil war. In 1830, the Creeks, at the instance of Osceola, the Seminole Chief, again rose to arms, but their forces were meager and they were soon quelled. Peace was restored during the summer, and the remnant of this ill-starred people was removed to their reservation beyond the borders of Arkansas. As foes, they were merciless to the utmost verge of cruelty, yet we can not dismiss them from this narrative without a tribute to their valor. Despite the military genius of Jackson, and the superiority of civilized over savage tactics, he would never go into battle against them without overwhelming odds in his favor. Whenever the ■ numbers were with them, as at Burnt Corn and Fort ]\Iims, they invariably came off conquerors, and then, woe to the conquered I They were taller than the Americans, and straight as their own arrows. Most of their braves were above six feet in height, but their wo- men were small, yet very pretty and exquisitely formed. They were exceedingly graceful in gesti- ' culation and movement, and "some of their chiefs pos.sessed an eloquence unexcelled by the orators of civilized nations. History records no finer il- lustration of the typical Indian warrior, now a thing of the past, than the Muscogee brave. The city of Talladega is at the gathering and radiating point of Talladega County, on a series of sloping hills, which swee;) in successive tiers or benches from the h-^ights north of town to the mountains south and east. The crests or which it is built and the green clad hills on eicher side add to its salubrity, and heighten the charms of its apjiearance. Mineral waters of various descriptions are plen- tiful and easily accessible. Chandler and Talla- dega Springs, watering places of celebrity, are within the confines of the county. At Shocco. two miles from town, are chalybeatB, sulphur and freestone springs. The city itself is noted as a health resort, and visitors are flocking hither more and more every summer to get the benefit of the pure air that comes down from the moun- tains, and of the superb scenery around. The area of Talladega is two by two miles at the maximum length and breadth, but until the past year the corporate lines were so circumscribed within these limits that the town was almost out of town; hence the census was given, and stands on the statistics, at about one-half the real popula- tion. The estimate at present is 3,800. There are some seventy-five business firms and establishments, including a wholesale grocery, a wholesale tobacco-house, three banks, three hotels, a first-class opera house, two livery and feed stables, three newspaper and printing offices, two land companies, two real estate agencies, an ice-factory, and the Eagle Works, comprising a flouring and grist mill, a steam ginnery, extensive planing-mills and cabinet shops, and an iron foundry. There are also six law firms and five physicians.l Our Muuntiiin Home, a weekly newspaper, John C. Williams, editor, was established in 1867. The Sun, J. W. Huston, editoi', is an enterprise of the current year. The Talladega Reporter, a weekly newspajier, T. J. Cross & Son, editors, was estab- lished in 18^ The Banking House of Isbell & Co., Captain li. H. Isbell, president, was founded by Major James Isbell in 1848. The Bank of Tal- ladega, Captain T. S. Plowman, president, was founded by William H. Skaggs in 1886. The Cit- izens' Bunk, William H. Skaggs, president, is just established. There are two fire companies, splendid gas and w-ater systems, reckoned among the best in the State, a military company (the Talladega Rifles), and five secret organizations, to-wit: Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias. Knights of the Gold- en Rule and Knights of Honor. The nearest marble quarry is at Cragdale. four miles distant; the Waldo gold mines are six miles; the nearest furnace in blast is at Ironaton, eight miles; the city furnace sites are at the western corporate limits of Talladega, on the East Ten- nessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. These furnaces are in active in-oeess of construction. The brick and tile works are at Lake View, close to the base of the heights that rise above North Talladega. Two railways, the Anniston & Atlantic and the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia, intersect the NORTHERN ALABAMA. town, and a third, the Talladega & Coosa Valley, liiis its eastern terminus at this point. This line has only twenty-five miles of track, but is by no means the least important of the three, connect- ing, as it does, with the Georgia Pacific and East & West roads at Pell City, tapping the Coosa coal fields, and leading througli diversified and attractive landscapes. Its trains run on the An- niston iV Atlantic track for two miles, and thence switch off 10 tlieir own lire, which skirts the base of the Sleeping Giant, extends througli the moun- tain i)assat Henfroe.and penetrates broad forests of long-leaf yellow i)ine. on its way to Pell City. The early trip over this road, through a section of the valley, and through the hills that border Coosa Kiver, is delightful. The beams of the morning sun slanting through the aisles of pines, tinging with yellow the rich grasses and cryptogamic growth beneath, give additional beauty to a picture wliich has a peculiar charm. esi)ecially fur those unused to such scenes. y^n intelligence, the people of Talladega are superior to those of any city of the same size in Alabama, and perhaps in the South. The town has been entitled the ''School of Alabama's In- tellect," and the number of distinguished men she lias sent forth to hel}) shape the destinies of the State and Nation, seem to verify the saying. The scenic and atmospheric conditions, and the narrow limits of Attica were no more favorable for im])arting brilliancy and intellectual vigor to the cultured Athenians than are the intluences of Talladega Valley. Among the noted men now dead who have nnvle this city their home in the past, were: Felix G. lloConnell, Franklin W. Bowden, Sr., Marcus II. Cruikshank, Taul Bradford. Alexander Bowie, A. J. Walker and William P. Chilton. The first four of these gifted men .served with ability in the halls of Congress (.Mr. Cruikshank in the Confederate Congress); the remaining three did honor to themselves and their State in the Judiciary De- partment of Alabama — Messrs. Chilton and Walker as Chief-Justices of the Supreme Bench, and Mr. Bowie as Chancellor of the Northern Division. Of the eminent men yet living, who belonged to the same school, are (ien. Jcdii^. T. Morgan, one of the most illustrious member.sj of the United States Senate; Hon. Alexander White, an effect- ive orator, and author of the wijely-knewn '• Bon- nie Blue Flag" si)eech; Uon. J. L. M. Curry, the present United States Minister to Spain; Gen. C. M. Shelley, ex-Congressman from the Selma Dis- trict; Judge Sam. F. Pice, formerly a Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court; Hon. George W. Stone, the Presiding Chief-Justice of that Court; athies and conspic- uous talents were enlisted in the cause, and to him is, in a great measure, due the rise of deaf- mute education in Alabama. In this correspondence it was determined to open a seminary for deaf-mutes in the town of Auburn, the ensuing April; but, on inspection, the building engaged proved entirely unsatisfactory, and this, together with other circumstances — chiefly the resignation of General Perry — delayed the undertaking until the 1st of October. On that day school was opened by Dr. Johnson in the sjjacious building still used for the purpose, and was conducted as a private work, or rather a work of private benevolence, for the income was very inadequate, until February 4, 1860. The rooms were furnished, and a large cistern — the first in the county, and still in use — was built at the principal's expense. William S. Johnson was the first student enrolled. Mr. Johnson afterward graduated at the National College for Deaf-^Iutes, in AVashiugton. and is now a professor in the Alabama institution. By an Act of the Legislature 1859-'00 to establish "the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Dumb," a board of commissioners was appointed to locate the site and take necessary steps for the perpetua- tion of the school. The Commissioners were: G«n. Jacob T. Bradford, Dr. William Taylor, Marcus H. Cruikshank, Esq., G. B. DuVal, Esq., and Gen. James B. Martin. Dr. William Taylor alone sur- vives, and is jiresident of the existing board. They at once entered into negotiations for the purchase of the property, at that time known as the Masonic Female Institute, and rented aild used by Dr. Johnson, for a deaf-mute school. A purchase was soon effected for sixteen thou- sand dollars. The sum was paid over to Gen. John T. Morgan (now United States Senator), as attorney for the judgment-creditors, and this ele- gant property passed into the hands of th.e State, dedicated to one of the noblest objects that can engage the benevolence of man. The buildings crown a slight eminence in East Talladega, "opened," says the Principal 'in his first report, "to every refreshing and purifying breeze, and commanding a most extensive, varied and animated prospect." The main structure is one of the most classical and substantial looking pieces of architecture in the State, albeit some others have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is built of dark-colored, pressed bric-k, consists of four stories, and is after the Corinthian style, with a row of massive and beautiful columns in front. Within the same inclosure are two other four-story brick buildings, which would be orna- ments to any city. A brick hospital, a much- needed convenience, has just been added. The grounds are spacious, and delightfully laid off and beautified with an elegance that would have charmed Shenstone. No one better understands the influence of local NORTHERN ALABAMA. 453 suiToumlingsou the physical ami intellectual facul- ties than the instructor of this class of unfortunates. In tiie report just c|uoteeaf and l)umb and the Hlind. Hy an Act of the last (ieneral Assembly the sum of *20,000 was appropriated for the erection of an academy for the blind. 'I'he building is receiving its finishing touches, and stands on a command- ing hill outside the eastern limits of the city. Its design is very attractive, and, when completed, the structure will be one of the handsomest and best equipped for school purposes in Alabama. The mode of instruction in the Deaf. Dumb and Bliiul Institute is the combined method — signs, the manual alphabet and oral speech are all used as seems best in each special case. The buildings are all lighted with gas, and the whole premises supplied with water by the water-works. All deaf-mute and blind children, so deaf or blind that they can not be taught at the common schools, are entitled to admission free of cost, save for clothing and traveling expenses. The pupils are kindly treated and faithfully taught. So admira- ble lias been the management of the institution as to attract the attention of foreign Governments. Only last year the Court of Spain wrote to Dr. Johnson, inquiring into his plan of instruction, with a view to improving their own methods. Very curious is this in light of the fact that Peter Ponce, a Spaniard who lived before Alabama was discovered, was the first instructor of deaf-mutes of whom we have any knowledge, and that John Paul Bonet, also a Spaniard, was the first to write a treatise on tlie subject. Scarcely inferior in appearance to the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute is Talladega College, for colored people, with its cluster of buildings on the brow of a hill west of town. The water tower is a conspicuous object from almost any part of the city, and the court-house, the several churches, and the Eagle Works are model structures. Talla- dega is also noted for the beauty of many of her private residences. Inviting shade trees and tasty flower yards ai)])ear on all sides. Lit up and sil- vered by the full moon of a June evening, the scene can not be excelled, even in Andalusia. The most fragrant flowers are there in bloom, and the mockingbird sings all night long. The city authorities, with William H. Skaggs as Mayor, are men of energy, and talent. Under their administration Talladega has put on new life, and is making jirogress unprecedented in her history. Her industrial forces are thoroughly vitalized, and the immense wealth immediately around her, sooner or later to be developed and turned into the channels of commerce, assures her a brilliant future. '«-5; REV. GEORGE AUGUSTUS LOFTON. D.D., distinguished .Minister of tiie liaptist Church at Talladega, was born in Pontotoc County, Miss., December 'Ih, 1839, and is a son of James B. and Olivia Ann (Settle) Lofton, natives of Edgefield District, S. C. He was educated at the common schools of Mississippi, at Starsville, Fayetteville, and Monticello, Ga., and was attending Mercer University at tlie outbreak of the late war. In June, 18en, and upright in the vast business life which occu- pied so much of his time. His life had an object in view, and his energies were spent in attain- ing that object. The object was the honest ac- cumulation of a fortune which should be useful to himself and others, useful to business and morals, nsefnl to society and religion. His life was a success in that it attained that object. Hi.s natural politeness, general kindness, and unobtru- sive suavity of manner, with his almost uniform habit of not speaking of a man at all, unless he could mention him kindly, were features in his character worthy of praise and imitation." When Alabama passed the Ordinance of Seces- sion, and by the terms of the Sequestration -Vet, creditors who owed Northern debts were required to pay them to the newly-established f;o.'-°rn- ment, Major Isbell owed several large debts to Xorthern creditors, which he paid over to the (iovernment, as required. After the surrender some of his creditors offered to share the losses with him, and accept a portion of the amount in settlement. He promptly declined the offer, and paid the debts dollar for dollar. Toward young men of steady habits he was always ready to lend a helping hand and give an encouraging word. As a master, he was kind, considerate and humane. As a citizen, he en- joyed the confidence and respect of the com- munity. REV. WILLIAM MABRY, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born in Cleveland County, X. C, ilay 2, 1837, and is the son of Dr. William H. and Margaret (Barr) Mabry, also na- tives of North Carolina. Dr. W. II. i[abry was born in Lincoln County, N. C., September 4, 18(i0: was early in life identi- fied with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for eight years was a member of the South Carolina Conference. He afterward studied medicine, and adopted that as a profession. His father, Thomas Mabry, was born in London, England, and came to the United States with his father when about twelve years of age. The elder Mabry, who came to this country to superintend the construction of the Stroup Iron Works, served a short time in the Colonial .\rmy in the Revalu- tionary War. The subject of this sketch came to Talladega County in 18."i."), here taught school some time, and later on engaged in the drug business. He V ■...>; "^ I 456 NORTHERN A LAB A iM A. afterward studied medicine, but he does not ap- pear to have given that any particular attention. He first joined the Alabama Conference in 1859, and his first charge was at Blue Springs. He spent five years on circuits, and was presiding elder seven years. He has been stationed variously at Meridian, Miss., Tuscaloosa, Decatur, Athens, Gadsden, Oxford, and Talladega, this State. He joined the North Alabama Conference in 1870. October -2.3, 18(i3, he married Miss Sarah R. De- (xrafenreid, and has had born to him seven chil- dren: Mary E., William E. H., Sarah L., Annie S., Xannie B., John ilaury and Tliomas A. Mr. Mabry is prominently identified with the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities. GEORGE KNOX MILLER, Judge of Probate, Talladega County, was born at the town of Talla\ dega, December 30, 183G, and is a son of George and Cynthia (Hamilton) Miller. His parents moved to Memphis, Teun., when he was quite young, and there he learned the painters trade. In 1857, he returned to Talladega, where he attended the Male High School one year, and from there entered the University of Virginia. From this institution he was graduated in the ■ -^^t^- ■ < '• ■ ■ JOSEPH H. JOHNSON, M. D., was born in Madison County, Ga., in 1832, and came with his father. Seaborn J. Johnson, to Floyd County, that State, in 18-34. He was reared on a farm, and at the earl V ,1 -jr ' ^'^venteen began teaching in the Georgia Institute for the Deaf, and at the same time prosecuting the study of medicine. He attended lectures in Charleston, S. C, in 1853 and 1854, and was graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., in 1856. He continued to teach in the Institute for the Deaf until 1858, at which time he was elected Princi- pal of the Georgia Institute for the Deaf, a posi- tion he declined. In September, 1858, he came to Talladega, under a contract with Gov. Andrew B. Moore and State Superintendent W. F. Perry, to undertake the founding of a State School for the Deaf. Here his life has been spent. The in- stitution which has grown up under his manage- ment, and the Alabama Academy for the Blind just now completed, stand as monuments to his life work. He is the principal of the latter school also. Dr. Johnson is an ardent Mason. He was the first master of Talladega Lodge, Xo. '^61, and is the only person who has ever been elected to pre- side over all of the Grand Masonic Bodies in Ala- bama. He is a member of the Methodist Church: is still in the prime of life, and actively engaged in his ofhcial capacity. He finds time to devote to the raising of thoroughbred Jerseys, in which busi- ness he is the pioneer in this section of the State. HARRY R. BOS WELL, M.D., isanative of Tal- ladega County, sun of John W . and Damaris (Cox) Boswell, and was born in December, 1849. In 1871 he began the study of medicine at Talladega, and in 1874 was graduated from the Louisville Medi- cal College as il. D. In the autumn of 1876 he returned to Talladega, entered at once upon the practice of his profession, in which he rajjidly rose to high rank, and has here contiuuoush', since that time, devoted himself thereto. He is the Secretary of the County Medical Society, a member of the State Medical Association, and was a delegate to the Xational Medical Convention in 1887. Dr. Boswell married Miss Celia Parsons, the accomijlished daughter of ex-Gov. Lewis E. Par- sons, and their only child, a daughter, is named for its mother. John AV. Boswell, Dr. BoswelFs father, was born in Jasper County, Ga., in 18"i6; and his wife MyT/U9^1pLlytj^, NORTHERN ALABAMA. 459 was born in Lee County, in that State, in 1830. Mr. Boswell, a planter bv occupation, located in Talladega County in 1850, and here spent the rest of his life, dying in 1881. His fathei', llarry Boswell, was a native of Maryland, from which State he migrated to Georgia in an early day, and there married Eliza Koby. The Boswells came originally from England. ■ . ■ . > . .'^^^tf^-^- PAUL GIST, M.D., is a native of Sevier County, Tennessee, and was born December 10, 1837. He was educated at the common schools and at Barrett College, Spencer, that State. At the age of si.x- teen years, he began the study of medicine at Knoxville, and in the winter of 1858-9, attended lectures at Nashville. In 18G0 he entered the At- lanta Medical College and was soon thereafter graduated. He at once located at Talladega, en- tered upon a successful practice, and soon rose to an eminent {position in the profession. He is a member of the Talladega Medical Society, and secretary of the Board of Censors. Doctor Cist was married September 4, 1800, to Miss Sallie J. McXally, daughter of James and Elizabetli (Henderson) McNally, natives of Ten- nessee, and the three children born to this union and now living, are Willie S., Fannie and Paul M. The Doctor and his wife are members of the Bap- tist Church, and he is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities. Lieut. S. C. Gist and Angloria Frances (Porter) Gist, the parents of the subject of this sketch, were native of Sevier County, Tenn. l^ieutenant Gist was educated at Annapolis; served twenty-one years in the United States Navy and died of yellow fever at Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1847. At the time of hisdeath he held the rank of Commander. His father, MordecaiGist, was one of the first settlers of Tennessee, and was military governor of the Terri- tory, preceding Governor Sevier. JOHN HARRINGTON VANDIVER, M.D.. is a descendant of .lolin X'andiver, a Pennsylvania planter, who migrated to South Carolina prior to the American Revolution, and there married into the Cannon family, of Carolina, one of the largest and staunchest families of that State, The an- cestors of both families were of Welch descent. John Harrington Vandiver, M.D., was born in S|)artanburg District. S. C, January 17, 1815. He was reared on a farm, received a common- school education, and, when nearing manhood, began the study of medicine in the city of Spar- tanburg, S. C. In 1844 he was selected by the Electoral College of South Carolina as the messenger to carry the presidential vote of that State to Washington, and immediately thereafter he entered .Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which insti- tution he graduated in March, 1845. In the autumn of that year he located in Cal- houn Cou7ity, Ala., where he practiced his profes- sion twelve years, removing to the city of Talla- dega in 1857. In 1847 he was married to Mary Eliza Emma ilcAfee, daughter of Hon. Green Taliaferro Mc- Afee, the first County Judge of Talladega County, and one of the earliest and most prominent set- tlers in this city. In 1858, in addition to his professional duties. Dr. Vandiver engaged in the drug business at Talladega, which he has continued uninterrupt- edly for thirty years. He is an active member of the ^lethodist Epis- copal Church, South, a Koyal Arch ^lasoii of forty years standing, and a conservative man in all things. — ««; D. W. ROGERS, President of the Talladega & Coosa Valley (Narrow Guage) Railroad, was born October 4, 1845, at Calhoun's Jlills, in Abbeville County, S. C, and is a son of Theophilus A. and Ann YA'uA (Brown) Rogers, natives, respectively, of South Carolina and Georgia. The senior 3Ir. Rogers was a merchant in Abbe- ville County for many years, and he died in April, 1883. The subject of this sketch, D. W. Rogers, at- tended the common schools of his native county from the age of ten up to seventeen years, and in 18G3 he entered the Confederate Army as a private in Company A (Capt. Benj. F. Johnson), Twenty- seventh Georgia Battalion, and remained in active service until his surrender at (ireensboro, N. C. After the war he returned penniless to his old home in South Carolina, and for two years was 460 NORTHERN ALABAMA. engaged in the merchant milling business with his father, Subsequently he went to Bartow County, Ga., where he was similarly engaged, in addition to farming, until 1870. In that year, he and liis brother, I). M. Kogers, engaged in the saw- mill and lumber business near Taylorsville, Ga. ; and in 1883 they projected and built the Etowah & Deatons Eailroad, from Deatons Station on the East & West Railroad to Seney on the East Ten- nessee, Virginia & (ieorgia. They built this road for their own use iu tlie transportation of lum- ber. In 1883 they moved their entire plant from the State of Georgia to Talladega County, and after rebuilding a muoh larger plant, and putting in improved nuichinery for handling the product of their mills, they named the place Renf roe. After the saw-mills were completed, they began building the railroad from Talladega to a connection with the Georgia Pacific and the East & West Railroads. This undertaking was completed in September, 1887, to a point known as Pell City, a junction of of the three roads, twenty-sis miles distant from Talladega. The company controlled by Messrs. Rogers employ, in the aggregate, in their mills and railroad, about 150 men. Through the enterprise, energj' and business tact of these gentlemen, this county is being rap- idly built up and developed in the vicinity of their railroad in a way that is astonishing, and the esti- mation in which they are held in the county is certainly to be envied. The Rogers Bros, are regarded as business men of the highest standard, and it may be safely pre- dicted that with a few such enterprising, wide awake, public-spirited men as they are, this county will rapidly come to the front in the race for pop- ular favor. D, W. Rogers was married in November, 187C, to Miss Laura A. Martin, niece of Judge G. M. Stokes, of Lee County, Ga., and to this union has been born one child, Edward A. Mr. Rogers is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and has for many years taken an active part in Sabbath-school work. ROBERT H. ISBELL, President of the Talla- dega Real Estate and lioau Association, is a son of the late Major James Isbell, and was born at this place. He received his primary education at the schools of Talladega ; was graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1857, and from the Law Department of Cumberland University, Le- banon, Tenn., in 1859. He began the practice of law at Talledega, and on March 1, 18G1, entered the army as captain of Company D, First Alabama. At Port Hudson he fell into the hands of the enemy iind was sent to Johnson's Island, and from there, iu April, 1865, to Fort Delaware, where he was de- tained to the close of the war. Returning to his native place he engaged in banking business in partnership with his father, the style of the firm being Isbell & Son. In 1871, this bank was changed to the banking house of Isbell & Co. Captain Isbell is connected with the City Na- tional Bank ; is a director in the Anniston & Atlantic Railway Co., and is treasurer of the Talladega & Coosa Valley Railroad Co. In addi- tion to these enterprises he has other important interests in North Alabama, and is Grand Treas- urer of the Grand Lodge of the I. O. 0. F. for the State, CHARLES CARSON WHITSON, Attorney-at- law, Talladega, son of Joseph McD. and Rachael R. (Carson) Whitson, was born at this place Nov- ember, 18G2. He received his primary education at the schools of Talladega, and at the age of nineteen years, iu the office of Governor Parsons, began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar October "26, 1884, and entered at once upon the practice. \\\ March, 1885, he formed a part- nership with John W. Bishop, and the firm of Bishop & Whitson is one of the most poj)ular and successful in Eastern Alabama. The senior Mr. Whitson was born in Bucking- ham County, N. C. ; came to Talladega in 1852, and here died November 7, 1885, at the age of about sixty-six years. During the late war he was a member of the Tenth Alabama Regiment as a private soldier. He reared a family of two sons and two daughters. His father, Joseph Whitson, also a North Carolinian, was a planter by occupation, and his grandfather was one of the first settlers of Buckingham County. He was a native of Virginia, and was a soldier in the Colonial Army during the Revolution- ary War. The Whitsons came originally from England. One of the ancestors of the subject NORTHERN ALABAMA. 461 of this sketcli married a Miss McDowell, the name whereof is retained yet in the family. The Carjions came from Ireland, and Samuel far- son, a rehitive of .Mr. Whitson'.s, was a member of Congress from North t'arolina. lie fought a duel with Dr. Vance some years ago, wliile drielingwas more popular than at present, lie afterward moved to Texas, where he rendered the State much valuable service, and was I'ewarded there- for by the donation by the State of an immense tract of land. OTIS NICKLES, one of tlie most talented and accomjilished y<)inig men of Talladega, was born at (auiter.sville, this State, July :i7, lfS.56, and is a son of IJiciimond and Sarah A. (Patton) Nickles. He was educated at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., and has given most of his life to literature. Since coming to this place he has been continuously identitieil witli the local press, aside from which he is correspondent for several of the leading periodicals of the country. He is the author of the history of Talladega as found in this volume, and the publishers take pleasure in com- mending it to the general reader as one of the most interesting and instructive chapters in the book. The senior Mr. Nickles is a native of Massachu- setts, and came to Alabama about fifty years ago. He located first at AVetumpka, going thence to (iuntersville where he was many years in mercan- tile business. Directly after the late war he came to Talladega. His wife is a native of Huntsville, this State. They reared a family of three chil- dren. Mr. -Nickles is a highly esteemed citizen of Talladega. HUGH L. McELDERRY, Attorney at-law, Tal- ladega, was born in this county June "-.".), 1850, and is the son of Thomas McElderry, of Leesburg, Va. He was graduated from Emory and Henry Col- lege, X'irginia, and in 18T!-i, returned to liis native place and engaged in farming and mercantile busi- ness. Having studied law in the meantime, he was admitted to the bar, and has since devoteil himself to tlie j)ractice thereof. He was m.irried • lanuary "i, 1887, to Miss Kuth Van Ausdal, of Katoii. Ohio. Mr. McElderry, though a young man, has for several years occupied an enviable i)osition at the bar, and it is no flattery to bespeak for him a fu- ture successful career. • ■' >" ?^{^" < «- • WILLIAM HUGHSON BURR, was born in Camden, S. ('., .May '11. Js37, and is a son of Aaron and Elizabeth K. (Hughson) Burr, natives, respectively, of Rhode Island and South Carolina. He was thirteen years of age when his father came to Alabama and located at Selma. His first employment was as a clerk in the store of P. J. Weaver, and he remained with AVcaver six years. In ISo'i, in partnership with Mr. Savage, he en- gaged in business for himself. The firm of Savage & lUirr continued until 1S50, at which time Mr. Hurr moved to a plantation on the Coosa River, some eighteen miles southwest of Talladega. In the spring of 18 ■;^{^'"»>— D. MORGAN ROGERS, General Manager of the Talladega it Coosa Valley Railroad, was born in January, 1850, in Abbeville District, S. C, at Calhoun's Mills, and is a son of Theophilus A. and Annie E. (Brown) Rogers, natives, resjjectively, of South Carolina and Georgia. Theophilus A. Rogers, many years a merchant in South Carolina, was a descendant of Huguenotish ancestry. Several years previous to his death, in 1881, he engaged at merchant milling, and D. Morgan Rogers, when the father had returned from the war, in which he had served four years with the Confederate Army, engaged with him in that business. This was at Calhoun's ilills, S. C.,. and at Stilesboro, Ga. Afterward, in connection with his brother, DeWitt Rogers, D. M. Rogers engaged in the lumber and saw-mill business near Stilesboro. They there did an extensive business for three years, and then moved to Floyd County, that State, where they remained until 1883. These brothers were projectors and builders of the Etowah Railroad from Deaton's Station on the East & West Railroad to Seney on the East Ten- nessee, Virginia & Georgia and the Talladega & Coosa Valley. The building of this latter road was originated by ilr. Rogers and was the means of facilitating their extensive lumber business in Ala- bama, besides developing a large section of the country and building up several prosjjerous towns, some of which have bright futures. D. M. Rogers has been the general managev of this road from the time the scheme was originated until the present date. He is vice-president of the Pell City Land Comiian}', a town that was organ- ized by him at the junction of the Georgia Pacific, East"& West, and Talladega & Coosa Valley Railroads. ilr. Rogers is full of energy and vim. He is a shrewd financier, a cultured gentleman, and a valuable acquisition to any community. He wa& married in June, 1873, to Mary E., daughter of Dr. William and Rebecca (Harris) Ware, of Lee County, Ga., and has had born to him one child: Kittle A. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, F. & A. M., and the Knights of Pythias. JAMES C. KNOX, M.D., was born in Jackson County. Ga.. ilareh 28, 1812. Dr. Knox stood in the front rank of those grand men who illustrated the early history of Talladega County; he adopted the medical profession as his vocation in life, graduating from Transylvania LTniversity, Lexington, Ky., in 1834. Endowed .^^t:^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 463 by nature witli a strong and vigorous mind, ener- getic, paiiistalving and tiiorough, lie soon rose to eminence, and for many years, and up to the time of his death, stood at the liead of his profession, and was regarded as tlie foremost surgeon in Northeast Ahibama. He possessed all the elements of a surgeon in a marked degree. lie was a thorough anatomist, well grounded in the i)rinciples of surgery, with mechanical skill to execute any work his ingenu- ity contrived, and nerve to perform the most im- portant operation. There was nothing within the domain of surgery, sanctioned by sound sense and the leaders of the profession, which he hesi- tated to undertake, and witli that measure of success, which would have made him world-fam- ous, had he located in a large city where his abili- ties could have been properly appreciated. But his success in his profession was, by no means, confined to the domain of surgery: he was a master of the science of medicine in all its braiu'hes; kept abreast with its progress, and was, liimself, bold and original in the treatment of dis- ease in whatever form it appeared. His extensive practice was not confined to his immediate com- munity, but extended through adjoining counties, and to other parts of the State. During the active portion of his life he was in the saddle almost constantly, requiring two horses to meet tlie strain of continuous service. Possessing fine business qualities, notwithstanding a large and expensive family, his wealth accumulated rapidly, and, but for the results of the war, would have made him a haiulsome fortune. Dr. Knox was of exalted and commanding char- acter, and no one could come into his presence without at once recognizing him as a man of ability atid great reserve power. In personal ap- pearance he presented a handsome and striking presence, being six feet in height: possessing an erect and well-proportioned figure, he spoke his cliaracter in his carriage and dignified bearing. He early connected himself with the Presby- terian Church, in which organization he soon be- came a ruling elder, and during his long life was one of the leading members and mainstays of the cliurch at Talladega. He was especially devoted to the educational interests of the church, and was one of the moving spirits in the establish- ment of the present Synodical Female Institute, finally succeeding, in connection with others, in placing the school upon a permanent and prosjier- ous basis. Soon after coming to Talladega he married ^[ary .7. Bowie, the accomplished daughter of Chancel- lor Alexander W. Bowie, wiio is well ren)embered by all who knew her as a gifted and beautiful woman. The fruit of this union was a large fam- ily of most interesting children. Doctor Knox died at his residence in Talladega, March 27, 18TT. He was three times married. His second wife was Mary E. Barnett. lie afterward married Mrs. Margaret E. Rice, nie Johnston, who sur- vived him. Alexanhkr B. Knox was the eldest son of Dr. .lames C. Knox. He was warm-hearted, brave and generous, and yielded up his life a sacrifice upon the altar of his country in the battle of Cor- inth. Miss. He was born .Tune 15, 1?<38, and died January "-i'.t, lSG:i. Samuel L. Kn'Ox, the second son of Dr. James C. Knox, was the pride of his father's heart. He was regarded by all who knew him, as the most promising young man in Talladega at the out- break of the war. He was a classmate, fellow- graduate and most intimate friend of the poet, Sydney Lanier, who cherished for him the warm- est affection, and whose estimate of his intellect- ual pre-eminence was of the most exalted char- acter. He graduated at Oglethorpe College, Georgia, sharing the first honors of his class with his inti- mate friend. After leaving college, he continued his studies under the direction of the Hon. J. L. M. Curry, his uncle by marriage, who took the greatest interest in stimulating his ambition and broadening his scope of usefulness. He had chosen the law for his vocation, but just before applying for admission to the bar he answered his country's call, and entered the Confederate Army as first sergeant of the Talladega Ritles, which composed a part of the First Alabama Kegiment. He was soon promoted to a lieutenancy, and, at the eiul of twelve months, on the re-organization of tlie regiment, he was elected major. He was afterward promoted for gallantry to lieutenant- colonel, and was killed leading a brigade storm- ing the breastworks in front of Franklin, Tenn. In personal appearance. Colonel Knox was tall and finely proportioned, being about six feet one inch in height. He had a magnificent carriage, and such was the admiration and affection of his men for him, that he seldom rode in their front 464 NORTHERN ALABAMA. without receiving cheers from the regiment. lie was fluent and eloquent in debate, and, during his service in the army made many stirring speeches, stimulating and encouraging his troops. He was mortally wounded at Franklin, and died before his friends could reach him, at the early age of twenty-four. He was born at Talladega, March 20, 1840, and died in Franklin, Tenn., December 21, 1804 John B. Knox, the youngest son of Dr. James C. Knox, was born February 16, 1857. He came to the bar uj)ou reaching his majority and formed a partnership with the late Frank AV. Bow- den, who had been admitted several years before. Although not yet thirty-two years old he is regard- ed as the equal at the bar of any lawyer in the State. While of delicate physique he is a diligent student and most persistent worker. He is now located at Talladega, and is engaged in the active practice of his profession. He is not only j)rominent as a lawyer, but stands high in the councils of the Democratic jiarty, which will, no doubt, be ready to crown him at no distant day with its much coveted honors. He married Miss Carrie McClure, the accom- plished daughter of Dr. IJobert G. McClure, of Lewisburg, Tenn. J. A. EDWARDS, Dealer in Real Estate, Talla- dega, was born in the Tallasahatchee Valley, No- vember 7, 1S5T, and is a son of William and Mary A. R. (Heacock) Edwards. He came to Talla- dega in 1878, as Deputy Sheriff, and in 1880, was elected Sheriff. In 1884 he moved to South Flor- ida for his health, and in 188T returned to Tal- ladega, and engaged in real estate business. He is a prominent stockholder in the Talladega Land and Iron Company, and president and general man- ager of the Talladega Ice Company. Aside from these corporate institutions he is interested in other important enterprises at this place. He was married, in October, 1883, to Miss Mary Mallory, daughter of Col. James Mallory, of this county. AVilliam Edwards, with his parents, came to Talladega in 1840. He was a member of the Thirty-first Alabama Infantry, during the war. He reared a family of two sons and three daugh- ters. His father, Zaehariah Edwards, was a na- I tive of North Carolina. His wife was a daughter of Dr. Joseph D. Heacock, a native of Pennsyl- vania. Dr. Heacock was a surgeon in the War of 1812, and afterward located in Tallasahatchee Valley. He came to Talladega in 18;5'J or 1840, and here practiced medicine many years. He died at the age of eighty-five. Some of his sons participated in the late war and acquitted themselves with much gallantry. WILLIAM NATHAN BOYNTON, merchant, Talladega, was born at New Haven, Addison County, A't., July 28, 1831, and is a son of Kev. Henry and Abigail (Barton) Boynton. He was graduated from Hamilton College, New York, in the classical course, in 1854, and from the law department of the New York University in 1857. He came to Alabama in 1854, taught school one year in Wilcox County, and in 1857, located at Cahaba, in the practice of law. In the summer of 1862, he joined the First Alabama Regiment, and remained' in the service till the close of the war. Soon after leaving the army he located at Selma, where, in jiartnership with Alex. White, he prac- ticed law until 1882. He came to Talladega in August, 1883, and engaged in mercantile business. As a lawyer, Mr. Boynton was ranked among the foremost in Central Alabama, and since enter- ing into mercantile business he has been remark- ably successful. Pie was married June 28, 1859, to Miss Fannie A. Isbell, daughter of Maj. James Isbell, late of Talladega, and the children born to this union are William H., a student in Cornell University, Theodore Dwight, and four others that are now dead. The senior Mr. Boynton, ». Presbyterian minis- ter by profession, was educated at Middlebury College, Vt., entered the ministry immediately after graduatitig, and remained in that profes- sion until the time of his death. He was born in 179:', and died at the age of eighty-three years. He reared a family of four sons and three daugh- ters, all of whom received collegiate educations. The Boyntons came oiiginally from Scotland, in the persons of three brothers, one of whom settled in Connecticut, another in Georgia, and the third in Ohio. The subject of this sketch is the lineal descendant of the one who settled in Connecticut. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 465 Ilia father, John Hoyiiton, migrated from Con- necticut to Vermont at an early day. and was a soldier in tlie Colonial Army during the Revolu- tionary War. — -«-^;^^- <" ■ CHARLES W. STRINGER, Merchant, Talla- dega, was born at Wetunipka. Ala., October 'l'-\, 1^54, and is a son of Philip (!. and llenrietta M. (Xelins) Stringer. He was reared and educated at Talladega, and in ls70, accepted a clerical po- sition in a mercantile establishment at tliis place. He was afterward associated with his father in mercantile business, and at the death of the latter, he associated with him one of his brothers, and tlie style of the firm became E. J. Stringer & Co. He was appointed County Treasurer in December, 1884, and has been several terms the Alderman from his ward. He was married in December, issd, to Mary E. Mayfield of this place, and has had born to him two children : Nettie and Ethel. Mr. Stringer is a popular and succes.sful mer- chant and is variously identified with other meri- torious enterprises, at this place. The senior Mr. Stringer, is a native of South Carolina, whence he moved into Georgia in 183<>, and from there to Wetumpka in 1848 or '49. He married in Kussell County, this State, in 1853. and came to Talladega in 1859. Here he was engaged in mercantile business until •the time of his death which occurred in 188.1. He was appointed Treasurer of this Company in 18T4. and held that office the rest of his life. In this office he was succeeded bv his son Charles W. ..^^ ?-<►- JERE. T. DUMAS. Wholesale Hoot and Shoe Merchant, Talladega, son of Joel and Mary Lucy Dumas, natives of North Carolina, was born in Wilcox County, this State. March Vi, 1847. He was reared on a farm, received an academic educa- tion, and was attending the State University in 18''>3, when called home by sickness. In the spring of 18G4, he joined Company E. Eighth Alabama Cavalry, and remained in the service un- til the close of the war. After the final surrender he engaged in mercantile and warehouse business at Clifton, in partnership with hi.s brother, Oba Dumas. They subsequently established a store at Arlington, and in March, 1886, entered into busi- ness at Talladega. All of these concerns are in full operation, and the one at Talladega was the first wholesale house established here. Mr. Dumas was married, September 7, 1809, to Miss KUa DeVan, who died in 188"^, leaving six children: Alice, Sallie, Lula, Ellie, Henry and Jerry. February G, 1884, Mr. Dumas married -Miss Lelia DeVan, sister of his first wife, and to this union have been born two children: William Lawrence and Annie Lu; the latter died in Mav, 1887. The family belong to tlie Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and !Mr. Dumas is a Mason and a Knight of I'ythias. The senior ilr. Dumas, prior to the war, was an extensive planter and slave owner in Wilcox County. He came into .\labama in 1836, and died in lsi;;j at the age of fifty-three years. He reared a family of five sons and three daughters, five of whom are living in this State, and one daughter, the wife of Judge C. D. Clark, in Chattanooga, Tenn. He was a son of Benjamin Dumas, a North Carolina planter, and his ances- tors came from France. — — '■^'^f^t^' <" ■ WILLIAM J. RHODES. Merchant, Talladega, was born at Mobile, November 9, 18:j-^, and was reared and educateil at Talladega. In early life he learned the carriage-maker's trade, and was engaged in that business at the outbreak of the late war. In April, 186-.i, he joined Company G, Thirty-first Alabama, was made orderly sergeant, and remained in the service until the close of the war. He was at the battle of Chattanooga and the siege of Vicksburg; at Kingston, N. C, and in General Smith's Kentui-ky campaign. He was promoted to first lieutenant, and was a captain at the close of the war. He surrendered at Salis- burv, N. C. ; returned to Talladega, and from there to Calhoun County, where he followed farming four years. In 187'2 he again came to Talladega, and engaged in tlie mercantile busi- ness, which he has since followed, with much suc- cess. He was appointed Tax Collector of this county in 18.6, and held the office one year. He was married March 2"2, is.i."), to Miss Sarah A. McLean, daughter of William Mcl^ean, Esq., one of the early settlers of this place. M. G. and .Mary A. J. (.\rrington) Rhodes, the 466 NORTHERN ALABAMA. parents of William J. Rhodes, were natives of the States of Georgia and Xorth Carolina, respectively. Mr. Rhodes was a carriage-maker by trade. He came to Alabama and settled in Clark County in 1831. He shortly afterward moved to ^[obile, where he was in the carriage business nntil 183G. From there he moved to Morgan County, and in 1839 to Talladega County. He came into Talla- dega City in 1841, and was here in the carriage business until 1855, when he engaged with the Southern Express Company, and remained with them until his death, which occurred September 30, 1885. He reared five sons, four of whom were soldiers in the Confederate Army during the late war. JOHN T. ADAMS was born in Winchester, Frank- lin County, Tenu., May 25, 1833; moved to Tal- ladega, Ala., Xovember 1833; married Miss Char- lotte Miller, .June 7, 1855; served through the late war as a member of Comjiany G, Thirty-first Ala- bama Infantry, and is now the oldest citizen of the city of Talladega, Ala. W. K. McCONNELL was born in Talladega County, Marcli 'Ih, 1841, and was reared from the time he was eight years of age by an uncle in Teur nessee. At the outbreak of the late war he was a student at LaGrange College, and from there, in May, 1861, joined Company B, Sixteenth Alabama Regiment, as a private. He was soon afterward made color-bearer of his company, and was subsequently detailed as drill master of volun- teers. He participated in the battles of Wild Cat (Ky.), Mill Springs or Fishing Creek, Shiloh. Farmington, Corinth, Boonsville, etc. He was promoted to lieutenant of engineers after the battle of Fishing Creek, and later on given com- mand of his company. Before the final surrender, he was made adjutant, and held that position until the close. He also took jjart in the battles of Chattanooga, Munfordville, Perryville, and at Vicksburg was transferred to the Thirtieth Ala- bama. With this regiment he was at Chickasaw Bayou, Warrenton, Baker's Creek — where he was placed in command of his company by order "of Gen. Stephen D. Lee— Big Black River Bridge, and afterward at Lookout Jlountain, Atlanta and Jonesboro. At Jonesboro he was made adjutant- general of Shelley's Brigade, and was afterward at Dalton, Franklin and Xashville. After the war he returned home and proceeded at once to Mexico, where he remained two years. From Mexico he came back to Alabama, located at Selma, and was there when appointed Command- ant of the State University. He remained at the University something over a year, and in ISTl en- gaged in railroad business. He was subsequently appointed tax collector of Dallas C'ounty, and held that office seven years. In August, 1884, he came to Talladega, where he has been since em- ployed as railroad and express agent. He was married May 7, 1868, to Miss Ellen Smith, of Columbia, Tenn., and has had born to him four children. He is a member of the Masonic fratern- ity and the Knights of Honor. • •♦ > ■. f^I^«^^^ GEORGE W. CHAMBERS, an active and enterprising business man of Talladega, was reared and educated at this place, and in the fall of 1861, joined the Talladega Artillery, and served with that command one year. In 1863 he entered Captain Bowie's Company, which, within six months, was transferred to the Thirty-first Ala- bama Infantry. With this command, betook part in the battles of Tazewell and Cumberland Gap, was with Bragg's army 07i its famous raid into Kentucky, and at the battles of Perryville, Port Gibson, Baker's Creek, Vicksburg, Murfreesboro (Tenn.), Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Dal- ton campaign, New Hope Church, Franklin, Xashville, and helped to bring up the retreat of the army from Nashville, Resaca (Ga.) and At- lanta. He surrendered with his regiment at Sal- isbury, N. C. From first to last he was in all the engagements in which his regiment took part. After the war he engaged in the grocery business at Talladega, and here has since made his home. Mr. Chambers has the rejiutation of being one of the most sterling business men in this part of the country. He is wide-awake, public-spirited, and takes an active interest in any and everything that tends to develop Alabama. In 1887 he erected the Chambers Opera House, and since 1880 has been particularly active in real estate transactions. Over half a million dollars' worth of lands have NORTHERN ALABAMA. 467 passed through his hands since tlie beginning of the Nortli Alabama boom, and he now owns sev- eral thousand acres of the most valuable timber and mineral lands in the State. He was married, on January :i. 18T^. to Miss Emma S. Hopkins, native of Wrmingham, England, and has had born to him six children : Joseph Sheritf, Maud Helen, Dollie Ida. George Oscar, Bennett [.ester and Jilmma Fannie. The family are communicants of the Ejiiscopal Church. Mr. Chambers was tlie originator of the orga?u- zation of an English company with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars, which is now erect- ing two 100-ton coke furnaces at Talladega. This will cause other manufactories to be built here. In fact, Mr. Chambers proposes to have an English colony located at or near Talladega. — — -"S"— S^j^— ^^^ — — GEORGE A. JOINER was b,.in in Talladega, October •l'.\, 1843, and is a son of James H. and Rachel (Williamson) Joiner. At the age of 18 years he entered the Confederate Naval Academy, near liiohmond Va., and was graduated in 18(!-i. He was for a short time in the service as an officer on the '■• Huntsville,"' and was wounded at Fort Blakley, Mobile Bay. He held the rank of past midshipman, and was recommended for promo- tion a short time before the final surrender. After Fort Blakley was stormed and taken, he was transferred to the " Xasiiville,"' and surrendered ■with that vessel. Soon after the war, he became associated with iiis father in the publication of a newspaper, and remained in that business until 1S73, since which time he has been engaged in mercantile pursuits. He is at present an alderman of Talladega, and is secretary of the City lioard of Education. He is also one of the trustees of the Alabama Institution for the Deaf and Alabama Academy for the Blind, having been appointed to tliat position in October, ISSii, by Governor 0"Xeal. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, worshipful master of his Lodge, and has for a number of years been reporterfor the Knights of Honor, and an active member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Joiner was married May 14, 1874, to Miss Jennie Sinon, who died August 4, 1880, leaving two children, Enfield and Harvey. The present Mrs. Joiner was ^liss Mary F. Broadstreet. To this union has been born one child, Jeannette. The senior Mr Joiner was a native of Abbeville District, 8. C, and at theage of twelve years came with his parents to St. Clair County, Ala. \\^ located at Talladega in the spring of 18:37, engaged in the grocery business for a short time, and in 1838 entered a printing office, in which business he continued, as editor and publisher, up to about 1808. He died in 1881. He published the Talladega Watr/ifower, and was for nearly three years Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of the State of Alabama, and for eleven years a member of the Committee on AVork in the Grand Lodge of Alabama. He was forty-five years prominent in the Baptist Church, and twenty years sujierintendent of Sunday-school. THOMAS LIVINGSTONE ISBELL, son of the late Jlujor Isbell. was rLurtd and educated at Tal- ladega and when a boy entered the mercantile establishment of his father as a clerk. In ]8C"2 he joined the First Alabama Regiment, and partici- pated therewith in the battle of Corinth and siege of Port Hudson, and remained with the army nntil the close of the war. He was captured at Port Hudson, and was afterward in the service as a ma- chinist, doing detail work at Selma, Ala., where he was when that place surrendered to(ieneral Wilson. After the war he again engaged in business at Tal- ladega and was here several years, when he turned his attention to farming. He was married Janu- ary 8, 1868, to Jliss Mattie J. Xorris at Selma. Mr. and ilrs. Isbell and children are members of the Presbyterian Church. MARCUS McELDERRY was born in this county, .January 18, is.'is. He was reared on a farm, and educated at the schools of Talladega and at La(i range College. Hi the spring of 1861, he joined Company A. Eighth Confederate Cavalry, ajid jiarticipated in the battles of Shiloh, Murfrees- boro, Perryville. Chickamauga, Chattanooga, At- lanta, etc., and in fact he never missed an oppor- tunity for a battle from the beginning to the final close, at Beutonville, X. C. After the war he came home and for a short time followed farming. For several years prior to 188t!, he was employed 468 NORTHERN ALABAMA. as a book-keeper ; since that time he has been in mercantile business for himself. He was married in September, 1808, to Miss Georgia Bowdou. To this union have been born three children : Fan- nie C, Elbert J. and Horace T. BENJAMIN F. WILSON, Attorney-at-law, is a native of Montevallo, this State, son of Dr. John B. and Mar}' A. (Bandie) AVilson, and was born in 1854. After receiving an academic education, he took uj] the study of law, and in 18TT. was ad- mitted to the bar. He located at Talladega in 1885, where he is now prosecuting the pleas of the State. He was married in November, 1883, at Selma, to Miss Allie Smith, a daughter of Mr. Washington M. Smith, and has had born to him two children: Susie Parker and Frank M. Mr. Wilson and wife are members of the Bap- tist Church, and he is a Mason and master of his lodge at Talladega. He has also held several State positions in the Masonic fraternity. Dr. John B. Wilson is a native of Sevier County, Tenn. His father, Benjamin Wilson, was born in Xortli Carolina, whence he migrated to Tennessee and later to Alabama. He lived some years at Huntsville, and moved from there to Montevallo, Shelby County. THOMAS J. CROSS. Sr., was born in Hunts- ville, Ala., the •2, he married Miss Josie Ware. X. ANNISTON. By Edward A. Oldham. During the year 1872, Daniel, Alfred L. and E. L. Tyler, and James, Jolm, Samuel and Will- iam Noble, organized the AVoodstock Iron Com- pany. The history of Anniston may be said to date from this event, as this company and the fur- naces subsequently built by it formed the nucleus around which has clustered an industrial commu- nity whose fame has gone abroad throughout the land and beyond the sea. At Oxford, contiguous to the jjresent site of Anniston, the Confederate Government during the war had built a furnace, which had been de- stroyed by a raiding party under the command of ■General Croxton, whose brigade had been separated from the command of General Wilson in the neigh- borhood of Selma. The reputation of this old plant, and the exceptional quality of its former outjiut, reached the ears of the Nobles, then pros- perous ii-onmongers at Home, Ga., and Samuel Noble, imbued with a desire to become better acquainted with the mineral resources of this sec- tion, sallied forth, five years prior to the formation of the company, and visited the ruins of the old furnace and explored the red hills north of the quaint little, old-fashioned village of Oxford, where the city of Anniston now stands. He was ■quick to perceive the enormous quantities of ore, and his iron sense, for which he is so justly dis- tinguished, took in at a glance the richness of the deposits. Before his English eye, accustomed to the beauty of landscape and sky, there lay spread out a lovely valley, gracefully undulating, through which, in serpentine course, wound a little stream whose waters sparkled and sang as they frolicked over rocks and pebbles. To the north rose Blue Mountain, rich in a vestment of green, while grouped around the valley ranged lesser heights, children of the Blue Kidge wandered away from. their mighty parent. Mr. N^oble was impressed with the natural beauty of the situation, and its fitness for the location of a great city presented itself to him, and the desire to become one of its founders filled his bosom with a proud ambition. Through the assistance of the Quintards of New York, old friends, he jjurchased the largest and main ore deposits, and continued adding to the property until the formation of the company, which also added, by judicious purchases, from time to time, until the projjerty became a vast territory of mineral lands, aggregating one hun- dred thousand acres. The romantic manner in which Mr. Noble and General Tyler became interested in their subse- quent enterprise, is concisely narrated in the fol- lowing letter, written by Mr.s Noble to Alfred L. Tyler, soon after the death of the latter's father in 1883. Mr. Noble writes: "The death of the General recalls as vividly as if it were but yesterday my first meeting with him. In the spring of 18T2, when you were acting vice-2iresident of the South Carolina Eailroad, I visited you at your ofSce in Charleston on busi- ness, bearing a letter of introduction from J. M. Selkirk, superintendent of the Rome (Ga.) Rail- road. While at your desk talking to you, I noticed an aged gentleman whose whole attention was fixed on the morning paper. Presently he laid it down, and went to one corner of your office and consulted a map on the wall. A few moments after he came to the desk were you and I were talking, and said to me: 'When I was building the Macon & Western Eailroad some thirty years ago, I heard from men who were at work for me, of large bodies of iron ore in your part of the State. Do you know anything about it?' His earnest manner, and the interest he 470 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 471 manifested in putting the question, impressed me at once. I said to liim he could not have ques- tioned ine on a subject with which I was more familiar; that there was hardly an iron property in Georgia or Alabama I did not know, lie then said: " W'iieii I was a youiii; man I went into the iron business in Pennsylvania, and made one of the first attempts to make iron with anthracite coal. I went over to Wales, and brought over a founder to run the furnace, as at that time it was not supposed that there was any founder in the United States who could blow an anthracite furnace. We had trouble from the start with the fdunder, who dictated, and the furnace, which chilled up every time we started. The difficulties wo encountered, and the disadvantages we con- tended against, were so great, that I resolved never to touch or become interested in any iron property that lacked a single advantage — that had not on it everything in abundance, and accessible for the cheap production of good iron. I have had the iron business burned into me, and have not forgotten my first experience; but if I can find a [irojierty that has on it every thing for making iron without buying any raw material, or bring- ing any to it, I might be tempted to go into the business again." " I said I had been in the iron business myself, and then owned a property that combined in it- -self advantages over every other property I knew. \ told him I believed there was no jilace in the .•^outh then accessible to equal it for making good and cheap iron. Nature could hardly have done more for it, and it would be real pleasure to me, I continued, if he would come to see it, as I was sure it would interest him greatly. Hesitating a moment, he said: '1 will try and come up and look at it within the ne.xt two weeks.' •'I had but little idea thataman of hisage would, on a second thought, take such a long and un- comfortable journey, and was surprised at his com- ing to Home some ten days afterward for a visit of inspection. At that time there was no railroad station, and only three old, unfinished houses at what is now the town of Anniston. So we stopped at Oxford, two miles below, where we fouml horses. He rode with me over the country, exploring every hill and valley, gathering in- formation from everybody he met. and from the inmates of every house he passed, about the tim- ber lands, limestone and rock quarries — their lo- cation and extent — and then going to the places indicated and examining them himself. Familiar as I thought I was with the whole country, I found while with him how much there was I had not looked into or thought of investi- gating. Nothing escaped his observation. In iiis company I made the mo.st thorough and exhaust- ive exploration of the country I ever made before or since. I was surprised at his knowledge and practical ideas concerning the requisites for iron manufacture. We rode for three days in suc- cession, returning to the hotel in Oxford after dark, I thoroughly tired out, but the General fresh as ever. He would go down from his room, and with some choice tea — a present from an English sea captain, make a hot cup for both; the hotel people did not know how tea was 'cooked.' Sipping our Hyson, we talked over what had been seen during the day, and planned for the next. The General, I knew, was sur- prised and pleased with theproperty, although he said but little. After enquiring about the market for and price of iron, and the probable consump- tion at Ivome, he said: 'I will go back and bring up Alfred to look at it.' "The rest you know. The visit led to the or- ganization of the AVoodstock Iron Company, and shortly after the foundation of the town of An- niston. Then came the building up of a business of such magnitude and prosperity as led to a great increase of wealth and population in this section of the State. " I never think of my first meeting with the Gen- eral without being deeply impressed with its bene- ficial results to this portion of the country, a meeting which, at the time, was apparently a mere accident. From that time to my last inter- view with him in New York, two months before his death, his clear and active mind was always planning and suggesting something for the benefit of Anniston and its people. Plans and suggest- ions that to us seemed impracticable and prema- ture, we found, from his clear reasoning and hearty co-operation, not only could be carried out, but were needed. In acting on his suggestions and plans, we found how wuse he was in fore- thought, and wondered why we had not thought of the plans ourselves. To his earnest exertions and liberality we are indebted for the water works, the cotton factory and the car works, the promo- tion of immigration, the succesf^ful cultivation of the grasses, the introduction of blooded cattle and 472 NORTHERN ALABAMA. improved stock, large and more comfortable dwell- ings for the workingmen, the building of churches and schools for them, and facilities for the educa- tion of their children. He was a grand old man — one of the most generous and unselfish I ever knew, always interested in and planning for the welfare of others, and never so happy as when those he aided profited by his advice and assist- ance. I hoped he would have lived for years to come, and enjoyed the proud satisfaction of see- ing the plans he had so generously and prudently formed for the welfare of the people of the town he had founded, grown to perfection. We shall miss him greatly. Who will impress us with the feeling of confidence in every new plan and un- dertaking that he was wont to give? To whom shall we look for the sound advice his age, experi- ence and clear mind alone could impart? We miss him daily. We will always miss him." In April, 1873, the first furnace of the company, at a cost of $100,00(>-, was completed and went into blast. This furnace, from that time, has run without intermission, day and night (Sundays in- cluded), without stopping, except for enlargement or repairs, turning out an annual product of 10,000 tons of iron. Not even the protracted depression which accompanied the great panic of 1873 was sufficient cause to bank the fires of their furnace, the demand for whose output being so much in excess of its capacity that another furnace was called into being, and in August, 1879, it was completed and put into operation. The follow- ing year witnessed the re-building and enlarge- ment of the first furnace and the organization, by Mr. Noble and his associates, of a new company, known as the Clifton Iron Company, which ab- sorbed the Alabama Furnace at Jenifer, together with 12,000 acres of land environing it. This company, in 1884, erected its second furnace at Ironaton, twenty miles from Anniston, which was blown in April 6, 188.5, and has an annual output of 13,000 tons. On the 12th day of July, in 1873, an election was held among the voters of the community to decide the question of ineorijoratiou, and a major- ity having favored this step, the place was incor- jiorated as the Town of Anniston by order of the County Judge of Probate, and named, in honor of Annie, the wife of Alfred L. Tyler. On Febru- ary 4, 1879, Anniston received a charter from the State Legislature, and Charles O'Rouke was chosen first Intendant. This charter was amended and amplified by the Legislature of 1887, and Anniston then received its baptism as a city. Dr. R. P. Huger becoming the first Mayor, followed the succeeding year by F. W. Foster, both of whom were faithful and efficient officers. To provide profitable emploTment for tlie wives and children of the ojieratives em])loyed in the fur- naces and other manufacturing establishments, a cotton factory with twelve thousand spindles, was erected in 1881, and the following year the ear- wheel workers of Noble Brothers, were moved from Rome to Anniston. During the same year (1882) the construction of the water- works was be- gun by the sinking of a well ten feet in diameter and eighty feet deep, the whole lined with a heavy cast-iron curbing put in in segments all bolted securely together. A 150 horse-power beam engine was brought into requisition to pump the water from the well and force it to the reser- voir at an elevation of two hundred and thirty-six feet, on one of the hills east of the city one and one- half miles distant. Water-pipes were laid through the princijial streets, forty-five hydrants located at points where property was most exposed, and an ample supjily of jiure water was distributed over the town at a pressure of one hundred pounds to the inch, being great enough to dispense with the use of fire engines, and only requiring the employ- ment of hose carriages to afford the town ample fire protection. In the meanwhile an ideal city had been laid out, a perfect system of drainage designed, the streets macadamized, waterworks, stores, churches and schools built, and railroad connections secured. The entire business of the place was carrfed on by the company, who owned the furnaces, machine shoj)s, saw-mills, stores, etc. The real estate which composed the town was not in the market, and the Woodstock Company owned the whole of it. Their policy was not one of exclusiveness by anv means; the proprietor simply desired to lay, undisturbed, the basis of a model city, to carefully arrange the drainage, to systematically lay ofE and macadamize the streets, and perfect such embel- lishments and establish such industries as would have been impossible in a heterogeneous popula- tion. By 1883 the germ of a great city had been deposited, and Anniston was then formally oj^ened to the public; having better streets, sidewalks, parks, shade-trees, water-works, schools, churches, hotels, etc., than many older cities with thou- sands of inhabitants. The streets run north and NORTHERN ALABAMA. 473 south, east and west, and are niucailaiiiizL'd with the hiva-like slag from tlie furnaces, making a roadway which will last for ages. The side- walks of many of the streets are laid with hard cement pavements and granite curbings, while long rows of beautiful shade-trees of the water oak variety are an attractive embellishment to a number of thoroughfares. At this time, the company had secured for An- niston the Oeorgia Pacilic and the East Tennessee, ^'irginia & Georgia Railroads, and with their own capital had built the Anniston & Atlantic, and projected the Anniston & Cincinnati. The con- struction of these railroads and all of the local improvements did not entail a dollar of expense ujion the town, which at that time contained about four thousand people. Systematic endeavor has characterized the founders of Anniston from the very inception of the undertaking, and in order to insure the per- fection of every detail, three organizations were effected — the Woodstock, the Clifton, with its quartette of charcoal furnaces and its bee-hives of industrious inhabitants, known to the world by the musical names of Ironaton and Jenifer, and the Anniston Land and Improvement Company. This latter body expended vigorous efforts to«-ard the building up of the city, and held out liberal inducements to new industries and additional population. The different religions denomina- tions were aided by the donation of building lots, and to this generous policy may be attributed the prosperous growth of the churches of Anniston. In 1883, Murray & Stevenson were induced to move their foundry from Cartersville, Ga., to Anniston, and. about the same time, an ice manu- facturing comjtany was organized with W. J, Iiushton as president, W. J. Cameron as secretary and treasurer, and F. AV. Dixon as manager. In 1884 a Brush electric plant to light the town was establisiied, using arc lamps of two thousand candle-power. The same year was made notable for the commencement of the work of erecting the Inn, a graceful specimen of Queen Anne architecture, and a hostelry whose luxurious ap- j)ointments and external attractions have won for it the title of "the famous Anniston Inn." It occupies an elevated position in the centre of a twenty-acre lawn, and commands a splendid view of the city. A few years later the Parker House, now known as tlie Anniston Tavern, was built, iuid during 1888 the Hotel Wilmer will be com- pleted. There are other houses of accommodation ill the city. Ill November, 1880, a company, with a capital of I'.'iCnOd, was organized to erect and operate the Alabama Car Works. John W. Noble was chosen president, and E. E. (i. Roberts becaine secretary and treasurer. The capacity of the works, at that time, was atiout ten cars a day, giving emjjloy- ment to over two hundred men. So quietly have the projectors of Anniston la- bored, that, when the city was thrown open to the world in 188o, those visiting it were not prepared to see a model city in embryo. The ihnoncment was complete, and the fame of Anniston spread rapidly throughout the couiitr}', drawing hither a steady stream of people. The handful of enthusiastic founders who com- posed the trio of companies before alluded to began to be oppressed by a sense of responsibility, as they saw their cherished undertaking assume such rapidly enlarging proportions. 'J'heir prop- erties had become too cumbersome for individual management, when outside capital stejiped for- ward with proposals for the purchase of a portion of the holdings. The Woodstock and the Land Companies were each capitalized at f'3,000,000, this valuation having been fixed by the prospec- tive purchasers, and was accepted by their owners as a basis for the sale of one-third of the former company and one-half of the latter, consequently on January 'I'l, 1887, the transfer was made to the new organization, since which time the original owners of the i)roperty have owned two-thirds, or §2,000,000 in the Woodstock Iron Comjiany and one-half, or 81,500,000 of the stock of the Annis- ton City Land Company. Of the latter company. Col. John il. McKleroy, of Eufaula, is president, and Duncan T. Parker, president of the First National Hank, is treasurer. On Monday, January ■•i4th, following the date of organization a land sale was held, lasting half the day, during which nearly half a million dollars" worth of property was sold. The growth of Anniston from this time forward was remark- ably rapid, and by the spring of that year thepoji- ulation had increased to over 7,000. In addition to the Anniston City Land Company there were organized the Mechanicsville, AVest Anniston, South Anniston and the Draper-Riddle Land Companies, and the Ledbetter Land and Loan Association, all of which have exerted a healthful influence in building uj) the city. 474 NORTHERN ALABAMA. The reorganization of the land company and the inauguration of a vigorous policy on the part of Colonel McKleroy, the president, was produc- tive of much benefit to the young city, and a number of new enterprises was set on foot. The Anaiston Pipe Woriis Company was organized in February, 188T, with D. T. Parker as president^. L. H. Smith as secretary and treasurer, and Kobert T. Carter as superintendent. This company was formed with a cash capital of 8300,000, and owns 120 acres of valuable laud adjoining the city limits. These works, which are in process of erection, will, when completed, have the distinction of be- ing the most extensive gas-and-water pipe foundry in the world. This plant, including the yards, cover an area of twenty acres, the main building being 504x130 feet, with two wings, each 275x30 feet. Over 300 men will be emjiloyed, working up 300 tons of iron per day. The construction of this huge plant called into existence additional furnaces to supply it with the crude material; therefore, simultaneous with the commencement of the pipe works, construc- tion began on two new coke furnaces, projected by the Woodstock Company, and located in con- venient proximity to the great plant, which alone will consume nearly the entire output of the new furnaces. The latter are being built throughout by Anniston workmen, including the five large engines, thirty-six boilers, furnace stacks, hot blast ovens, and other general iron work. When completed these furnaces are to have a capacity of 100,000 tons per annum. To provide an inex- haustible supply of fuel for this immense filant, the Woodstock Company secured a controlling interest in valuable coal mining properties lying in Bibb, Shelby and Jefferson Counties, consisting of 30,000 acres, and composing the richest portion of the Cahaba Coal Field. Close in the wake of the foregoing enterprises came the steel bloomary, the extensive fire-brick works of Taylor & Sons, planing-mills and numer- ous brick yards, the Barbour Machine Works, transplanted from Eufaula, the cotton compress, and a number of lesser industries; but the greatest industrial event of 18S7 was the coming to An- niston of the United States Kolling Stock Com- pany, a New York corporation, rejiresenting im- mense capital. This concern absorbed the car works, and at the time of this writing, are enlarg- ing that plant to a capacity of twenty-five freight cars per day and six passenger coaches a month, giving employment to over a thousand skilled workmen, and adding to the population of the city several thousand souls. Wlien the original plans of Anniston were for- mulated, it was intended by her founders that this should not only be a model city in perfect streets and attractive architecture, but that it should be a model city in point of morality and religious observances ; Anniston has, therefore, become noted for her handsome churches, and from its earliest inception, the town has enjoyed the whole- some benefits of a prohibitory liquor law. The founders of Anniston being Episcoi:)alians, a church of this denomination was the first to be built here. The parish was organized in Febru- ary, 1881, the town having previously been a mis- sionary station under the charge of Rev. J. F. Smith. When the parish was organized, Eev. Wallace Caruahan, of San Antonio, Texas, was called to the rectorship, and, during his incum- bency, Grace Church was built, the means being furnished by the families of Alfred L. Tyler and Samuel Noble. It is built of cut sandstone from quarries within the city, and the interior is fin- ished throughout in red cedar, higlily polished, and the windows are of stained glass. The build- ing cost 835,000. Rev. Mr. Caruahan was suc- ceeded in 188(; by Rev. Philip A. Fitts, of Clarksville, Tenn. The Episcopalians have several successful missions in other parts of the city. The next denomination " to build an altar to the Lord " in Anniston were the Methodists. In 1883-4 they erected a house of worship and placed Rev. T. H. Davenport in charge. He was fol- lowed in 1885 by Rev. F. T. J. Brandon, and the next two years by Rev. J. T. JEorris, who was succeeded in 1888 by Rev. Alonzo Monk, D.D. The Methodist Episcopal Church, with Rev. Dr. J. T. Mann, jjastor, are erecting a costly and beau- tiful stone edifice on Leighton avenue. There are several Methodist missions elsewhere in the city. The Baptists have two congregations. Rev. E. T. Smyth has been the pastor of the First Church since its formation in Ajiril, 1883. The increase of the denomination necessitated the organization of another church, and in July, 1887, the Twelfth Street Church was formed. Rev. G. A. Nun- nally, D.D., was chosen pastor. This congrega- tion will erect a handsome structure during 1888. In 1884 the Presbyterians organized a congre- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 475 gation. Rev. James D. McLean becoming stated supply. A building comniittee was ajuiointed. who secured plans for an imposing house of worsliip from \'alk. the celebrated Xew York architect. liy April, ISiSl, the chapel, with capacity for three hundred, was completed. It is a model of taste and elegance, finished in natural woods, with most improved seatings, large stained glass windows, and both arc and incandescent electric lights. Upon the resignation of ]\*ev. Mr. McLean, in April, 1887, l!ev. Jv. iL DuBose, of Fayetteville, Tenn., became pastor. The Presby- terians also have successful missions in other parts of the city. The Cumberland Presbyterians, Christians anrl Catholics have comfortable houses of worship, and the Hebrews contemplate the erection of a handsome synagogue during the present year. The colored people are well provided with churches, the Congregational having a large mem- bership and a handsome building. The Young Men's Christian Association was organized in 188t, and is in comfortable quarters. This body intend erecting a fine building shortly. Penetrated with a desire for the benefit of the rising and coming generations, schools of the best kind have been established in Anniston. By an Act of the Legislature, this city is made a separate school district, the schools being controlled by the Mayor and Council and School Superintendent. A handsome public school building lias just been completed in the western part of town, and an- other in the eastern portion. Beside these are the Noble Listitute for Girls and the Noble Listitnte for Boys, both occupying beautiful buildings, erected through the munificence of Samuel Noble. There are several schools for the colored popu- lation. In August, 1883, the first newspaper of Annis- ton, The Weclily Hot BJant, was issued, with C. II. Williams as editor. He was succeeded a few years later in the editorship by Walter M. Ryals, and afterward by J. H. Kinnebrew, W. 0. Bntler, S. E. Noble and W. H. McKella. In March, 1887, a stock company was formed, and the pajjcr was changed to a morning daily, taking the Associated Press dispatches. James R. Randall, author of the famous war lyric, "My JIaryland," and at that time principal editorial writer of the Augusta {(i&.)('/iroiiicle, was called to the editorship of the Hot Blast, and Edward A. Oldham, editor and proprietor of the Winston (N. C.) Sentinel, became the manager. At the close of l)S,s; W. II. Ed- monds, of Baltimore, purchased the paper from the company, and it has since been conducted under his proprietorship. In 1885 the En-nituj Watchimtn made its ap- pearance, with Milton A. Smith, of Gainesville, Ga., iis editor and publisher, and who has con- tinued its jjublication to the present writing. Both the //(// Blast and the Watchman i)ublish weekly editions. In February of the present year, W. 0. Butler, previously city editor of the Hot Blast, began the publication of a small but neat afternoon paper called the Dailji Picayune. In the latter part of the year of 18».'5, after the city had been thrown open to the public, the First National Bank began business with a paid up capital of *100,0()0. The business of this institu- tion has enjoyed a steady increase, until within a period of less than five years, it has attracted de- posits amounting to over §1,000,000, and it has paid regular semi-annual dividends of four per cent., and accumulated a surplus of nearly *i200,- 000. The officers of the First National iirc: D. T. Parker, president: Samuel Noble, vice-president: O. E. Smith, cashier. In March, 1887, with a capital stock of |!50,000, the Anniston Savings Bank and Safe Deposit Company was organized, with John B. Rees as president, W. S. Earned as vice-president, T. C. Stephens as cashier, and, in the following June, the Bank of Anniston, with 8100,000 capital stock, began its career, with J. R. Draper as president, W. G. Ledbetter as vice-president, and C. D. Woodruff as cashier. The fraternal order, have a large membership in Anniston. The JIasons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Red Men, Knights of Honor, and the L'nited Workmen have lodges, and the Knights of Labor have two assemblies. The fire department consists of three organizations, excellently equipped: the Glen Addie, Dan Tyler, and Annis- ton City Hose Reels. The Anniston Rifles was organized in 18T7, and is a prosperous military company. John B. Rees is the present captain. There is at this time in course of erection a handsome city building, and, being completed, is a commodious Union Passenger Depot, constructed of native sandstone and ornamental brick. There is also an opera-house, the interior of which is being rearranged and furnished in an elegant man- ner with all modern improvements. These are Anniston 's only ])ublic buildings aside from the 476 NORTHERN ALABAMA. churches, but when the city is okler she hojies to induce a Goverument approjjriation for a postoffice building, commensurate with her growth and the business necessities of the place. Anniston further calmly contemplates the day when she will be a county seat, and when this dream is realized, there will ascend toward the blue sky above her an imposing temple of justice, which will be a triumph of the combined genius of the architect and the contractor. Among the business houses of the city are many commodious brick structures, some with handsome iron fronts and large plate-glass show windows, and others with fronts of terra eotta, ornamental brick and blue sandstone trimmings. The magnificent Constantine building, on the northwest corner of Tenth and Noble streets, is an enduring monument to the public spirit and farsightedness of its owner, Mr. D. F. Constan- tine. Some one has said, "show me the architecture of a city and I will tell you what kind of people live there." If beautiful architecture is any indi- cation of the intelligence and culture of a commu- nity, then Anniston will leave a pleasurable and highly favorable impression upon the mind of the visitor within her gates. The elegant mansions of the wealthy and the picturesque cottages of the humble toilers all bear the impress of the archi- tect. As a place of residence and resort Anniston possesses the advantages of pure air, good water, and a salubrious, even-tempered climate. The site of the town has every feature that an exper- ienced engineer would desire in selecting a perfect location for a city. The valley in which it is sit- uated is eight hundred feet above the sea, sloping from the east and west to the center, with a gentle fall toward the south, affording a perfect natural drainage. One thousand feet above the valley towers the Blue Mountain range, and the pictur- esque slopes present attractive building sites, from which the eye is charmed by a panorama of beau- tiful views, extending to a distance of thirty miles or more. Enjoying the facilities afforded it by four rail- roads, and the probability of still another, the East Alabama being extended from Eoanoke, Anniston has already become a jobbing centre of considerable importance. Messrs. Comer & Trapp, wholesale grocers, do a million dollars' worth of business annually. Draper, Mathis & Co., and a new corporation known as the ifercantile Com- pany, enjoy a tremendous trade with the surround- ing country. Coming years will witness the exten- sion of Anniston's commerce into other lines of the jobbing trade. The Electric Street Railway is the only street rail- road whose track is laid in Anniston, but the present line which runs between Oxford and Anniston were given j)ermission by the city coun- cil, a few months ago, to enter the city and extend its tracks through a number of streets. . In preparing a chronicle of the early history, initial influences, its government and growth, and the industrial, social and religious life of an old set- tled town, the writer has a comparatively easy task; to leisurely record the important events in their chronological order, easily obtainable from num- erous authentic sources; to describe the social warp and religious woof, the legal acumen and medi- cal lore, interspersed with picturesque traditions — treasured creations of the old civilization, which still flourished in grey hairs, behind gold rimmed glasses, old-fashioned stocks, an impenetrable dignity, under the outstretching arms of umbra- geous oaks. To depict this repose and portray the characteristics, born of an elegant leisure, is a pleasurable undertaking because of its comparative freedom from retarding obstacles; but to write of the vigorous young life of a town like Anniston, the embodiment of the energizing influences of a rejuvenated South, is quite a different thing. The young town, though a full-fledged citj', is yet in its formative state and dissimilar in every particular to the older community. While the historian wasn't looking Anniston attained its magical growth, and, like the traditional Irishman's flea, keeps moving so rapidly that the Argus eyes of the chronicler can scarce count the towers thereof, consider the palaces, or mark well her bulwarks. The industrial activity of the place is so great that it is difficult for even the jiress of the place to keep accurate pace with the develo'ijments con- tinually being consummated. Among the new enterj)rises now building, or whose early establish- ment in Anniston is fully assured, are a grist- mill, a model gas plant, another ice factory; an extensive stove works, projected by Samuel Xoble and his asssociates in the Woodstock Company; a locomotive works, being an enlargement of the machine shops of Pindar & Co. ; and the Universal Horseshoe Works, which has a cash capital of |!yO0,OOO. During the first year the number of NORTHERN ALABAMA. 477 inhabitants lias swelled' from T.OOO up to fully 1",'. 0(111, and the industries alreaily projected, to- gether with tliose certain of establishment, will give employment to a sufficient number of opera- tives to make, with their families, a i)opulation of fully -^li, I by l!SS9. In the language of James If. Kandalj. the poet- editor, •• Here, then, at Anniston, we have all the material and natural advantages of any favored spot the world over. Here we have much the larger part of all the demands of industry, civili- zation and wealth-i)roduction. Here we have en- trancing beauty, cultivated associations, and all that makes opulence, happiness and reput;Uion. The foundations of our city have been laid soundly, deeply, securely. Its growth will be serene, safe and unshakeable. In no place in the wonderful mineral region of Alabama can be seen a better or an equal illustration of the maxim that it is with the life of a town as the life of a man — that ' he who builds solidly labors long under ground.'" FELIX W. FOSTER, flavor of the city of AnnistiMi. .5 he entered the ministry. In connec- tion with the discharge of his duties as minister he was teaching until 18^il. At that time he ac- cepted the pastorate of the church at Rome, and since that date has devoted his entire time to the ministry. In 18S"> he received a call to Eufaula, Ala., wliere he remained two years, and had the satisfaction of seeing the congregation over which he presided greatly augmented by the addition of many new converts to the cause of the Master. In .luly. 188T. he came to Anniston, in response 478 NORTHERN ALABAMA. to the urgent call of a newly organized church. Here his efforts have been amijly rewarded, and he is held in the highest esteem, not alone by the members of his congregation, but by all who know him. Dr. Nunnally is a profound scholar, and a man of fine literary tastes. Since he was sixteen years of age he has been connected variously with dif- ferent publications. He was for some time editor of the Christian Index, a denominational paper, published at Atlanta, Ga., and is still indirectly connected with it. He is devoted to the cause of temperance, and has been for many years promi- nently identified with that movement. While in Georgia he was one of the prime movers of the temperance legislation that has since brought that State so conspicuously before the eyes of the world as a stronghold of prohibition. November, 1859, Dr. Nunnally was married to Miss Mary Briscoe, the accomplished daughter of Ealph and Sarah (Dougherty) Briscoe, of Georgia, and his children are named, respectively, Alonzo H.. William .J., Lucius M., Sarah and Kate. REV. ROBERT MEANS DU BOSE, of the Presbyterian Church, Anniston, was born at Lib- erty Hill, S. C, in July, 1849, and is a son of the Rev. Julius J. and Margaret (Thompson) Du Bose. The elder Du Bose, also a minister of the Pres- byterian Church, attained prominence as a preacher and as editor of the South Carolina Temj)erance Advocate. He was also at one time Treasurer of the State of South Carolina. He died on the eve of his removal to Alabama, in ' 1S52. After his death, instead of coming direct to Alabama, as was previously jjurposed, the fam- ily remained many years in South Carolina.' Of his three sons, Dr. W. S. Du Bose, now of Shelby County, this State, was a surgeon in the Army of Northern Virginia, during the late war ; Rev. Hampden C. Du Bose (of the Presbyterian Church) also served through the late war as a member of the State Cadet Corps of South Car- olina. He married a Miss McAlpine, of Tallade- '^ga, Ala., and has been for fifteen years a mission- ary in China. The subject of this sketch, was reared at Dar- lington, S. C, and was graduated from the Fni- versity of that State, in 1871. Subsequently, in the spring of 1874, he was graduated from the Theological Seminary at Columbia, S. C and came at once to Alabama. From here, within a short time, he removed to Tennessee, where he remained about two years. From there he re- turned to Lawrence County, Ala., and spent five years in evangelistic work. In January, 1883, he accepted a call from the Fourth Presbyterian Church, at Louisville. From there, in the spring of 1884, he was called to Fayetteville, Tenn.,and in September, 1887, he came to Anniston. He was married. July 4, 1876, to Miss Kate G. Garth, daughter of George M. and Kate (Gilchrist) Garth, and the three children born to this union are named, respectively, Nannie, Margaret and Katharine. REV. ALONZO MONK, D.D., Pastor in charge of the First ^[cthodist Episcopal Church, South, at Anniston, son of tlie llev. Francis M. and Mar- garet (Henderson) Monk, natives, respectively, of the States of Georgia and South Carolina, was edu- cated at DeWitt College and Vanderbilt Universi- ty. In 1872, at Pine Bluff, Ark. , he joined Confer- ence, having been on the 12th of October of that year duly licensed to preach. The following three years he was on circuit work, stationed four years in Little Rock, Ark, and four years in Camden. He was ordained Deacon by Bishop Kavanagh, and Elder by Bishop Keener, of New Orleans. Coming to Alabama he spent four years at Tuscaloosa, and in December, 1887, came to his present charge. He is now only tliirty-four years old. The State Uni- versity of Alabama conferred upon him the degree of D.D., June 22, 1877. November 14, 1887. he was married to Miss Betty Carl, of Somerville, Tenn., the accomplished daughter of Jacob E. (Cart Wright) Carl, and the four children born to this union are named, respectively, Carl, Era, Alonzo and Marion. The senior Mr. Monk was born in 1829, and gave his lifetime to the ministry. He died in Little Rock, Ark., December, 1880. He was considered one of the bright lights of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, ij^outh, and was a distin- guished Mason. He was chaplain of the Fifty- sixth Alabama Cavalry during the war, and com- manded that regiment a short time toward the close of hostilities. He reared a family of six sons NORTHERN ALABAMA. 479 and one (laughtor, viz. : Walter, deceased; Camilla, wife of G. A. Harris (she was first married to W. II. Ilagan, of Little Rock): Alonzo, subject of this skctcli; Basi'oni, Methodist Episcopal minister, in Arkansas; Frank, deceased; Harry, a fanner, in Arkansas and Simeon a teacher. Simeon Monk was the name of the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was born in Ala- bama in 1?'.>2, and died in 1S7G. He was a soldier in the War of \t>Vl, and also in the war with Mex- ico. He reared a family of three sons and six dauglitcrs. The Monks came originally from Scotland. — ^«— ^^•■ < *- • REV. SAMUEL P. WEST, Pastor of the Glen Addie Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Annis- ton, was born at Montevallo, Shelby County, this State, October 30, ]!S.">S, and is a son of John P. and Mariah (Mills) West. He received his ed- ucation at the schools of his native county, and afterward taught for a period of two years. He was licensed to preach in November, 1881, and as- signed as his first charge to Cullman. From Cull- man he was sent to St. Clair County, where he re- mained two years. He was ordained Deacon in November, 188:!, and Elder in tlie fall of 1885. In the autumn of 188-i, he was assigned to Talla- dega, remained there three years, and in Decem- ber, 1887, came to his present ciiarge. Mr. West is a successful and popular minister of the gospel. All the churches that have been under his charge have prospered. He was married July 5, 18811, to Miss Ava Cowen. the accomplished daughter of Elijah and Kuth Cowen. of 'J'aliadega. lie is a member of both the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities. The senior Mr. West, now a farmer in Shelby County, entered the Confederate Army at the out- break of the late war as captain of a comj^any ; was soon afterward jiromoted to the rank of col- onel, and assigned to the Tenth Alabama Cavalry. He commanded that regiment four years. Prior to the war he had served his county as sheriff, and liad represented it in the lower house of the Legislature. His father, Joshua West, migrated from Kockingham County, Ya. to East Tennessee at an early day, and in 181G, came from the latter place to Slielby County, He was a physician and a minister of the gosj>ei. The Wests came originally from England. JOHN MARTIN McKLEROY, prominent Attor- ney and Counselor-at-law. Anniston, son of Will- iam H. and Martini Gill (Siiorter) McKleroy, was born at Eufaula, this State, May l.'J, 1843. He was graduated from Howard College in 18')(1, and the following year migrated to Texas. After a few months' service with a Texas frontier comjiany in Indian Territory, he, in May, ]8iil, enlisted as a private soldier in the Third Texas Cavalry, and with that command served one year in the West. In ]8ii2 he was appointed adjutant of Hilliard's •• Legion," with the rank of first lieutenant. With the "Legion" he saw service in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and the Carolinas. At the formation of the Tenth Confederate Cavalry, of which Hilliard's command formed a part, McKleroy was elected third lieutenant of Company A. He was afterward made captain of that company, and later on, his superior officers having fallen into the hands of the enemy, com- manded the regiment for a time. He was wounded, March 10, 18G.5, near Fayettevilie, X. ('.. and returned to Eufaula soon after the final sur- render. Immediately upon reaching home, Captain McKleroy began the study of law, and in Novem- ber, 1805, he was admitted to the bar. Entering at once upon the practice, he rose rapidly to a conspicuous position in the profession. He was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1874, held the office one term, and declined re-election. In 187'J he was a member of the State Legislature, acquitted himself with dis- tinguished credit, declined re-election, and in 188"2 was a formidable candidate for gubernatorial honors. He was chairman of the State Demo- cratic Executive Committee in 188G, and exhibited therein eminent executive ability. January, 1887, Captain McKleroy was made president of the Anniston City Land Compajiy, and soon thereafter located in this city. He is a director in the Woodstock Iron Com- pany, and in the Anniston & Cincinnati Railway Company besides being financially interested in various other important corporations. Captain McKleroy is regarded as one of the very brilliant attorneys of Alabama, and in the management and direction of the .\nniston City Land Company has jjroved himself a financier of < far more than ordinary ability. He was married February 28, 18G7. to Miss Martha I. Wood.s, daughter of Clayton R. Woods, of Eufaula, and 480 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the two children born to this union are named, respectively, William H. and Hattie H. WILLIAM FRANCIS JOHNSTON. Attorney- at-liiw, was born in Pickens County, this State, July 10, 1853, and is a son of Robert T. and Mildred C. (Terry) Johnston, natives of South Carolina. lie was reared and educated in his native county, and was admitted to the bar in 1873. In November of that year he was elected County Solicitor of Pickens; held the office one term, and in 1887 came to Anniston, where he formed a partnership with John M. Caldwell. Mr. Johnston is considered a brilliant lawyer, and one of Anniston's most enterprising and popular citizens. He was married^ October 13, 1880, to Miss Elizabeth B. Weir, the accomplished daughter of Gen. Andrew Weir, of Pickens County, and the names of the children born to this union are William Frank, Walter Weir and Edith A. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston are mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church. The senior Mr. Johnston, a lawyer by profession, came with his j^arents to this State in 1818. He was graduated from Danville (Ky.) College in 1837, and subsequently received the degree of A. M. from the Alabama University. He located in Pickens County, in the practice of the law, and there spent the rest of his life. In 1841 he edited the Pickens Register. He was twice a member of the Legislature, the last time while the cajsital was at Tuscaloosa. From 1858 to 1861 he was in charge of Pickensville Female Institute, and from 18C1 to 18G4 was in the employ of the Govern- ment as Tax Assessor, and was a colonel in the militia. From the close of the war until 1868 he had charge of the Pickensville Institute, and from 1868 to 1870 was in charge of a school at Mayfield, Ky. In the latter year he returned to Pickens County and resumed the practice of law. He died in February, 1877, at the age of sixty years. Of the five sons and three daughters reared by Col. R. T. Johnston, we have the following brief data: John D. (deceased) was a physician and soldier in an Alabama regiment during the late war; Kobert T. J. (deceased) was captain of Company I, Seventh Alabama Cavalry. He studied law after the war; was an O'Connor Elector in 1873, and died at Mayfield, Ky., in 1874; Job C, now an attorney-at-law in Pickens County, was also a member of the Seventh Ala- bama; William F., the subject of this sketch, and Samuel T., a farmer in Texas. David Johnston, grandfather of tlie subject of tills sketch, was a native of Scotland; came to America in WM), and was a planter in South Car- olina. JOHN M. CALDWELL, Attorney and Counselor- at-law, Auniston, son of John H. Caldwell, Esq., was born at Jacksonville, this State, July 6, 1851. He was educated at the schools of his native town, and from the age of seventeen to nineteen years gave his time to teaching. He studied law under his father, and in February, 1873, was admitted to the bar. He came to Anniston in 1883, and was the first City Attorney authorized by this cor- poration. He is the present representative of Cal- houn County in the Legislature. Though a young man, Mr. Caldwell is recognized as one of the foremost, if not the leading lawyer of Calhoun County. He was married in November, 1881, to Miss Carrie L. Randall, the accomplished daughter of Mr. E. 0. Randall, of Gadsden, and has had born to liim two children: Mary J. and Edith. In the Jjegislature Mr. Caldwell takes a con- spicuous and active part and performs much ardu- ous duty. He is chairman of the Committee ou Corporations, and a member of the Committees on Judiciary and on Public Roads and Highways. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and of the Masonic fraternity. JOSEPH J. WILLETT, Attorney-at-law, An- niston. is a native of Carrolton, Pickens County, this State, where he was born Sejotember 29, 1861, and is a son of Elbert D. and Candace (Bostick) Willett. He is a graduate of the State University, and received from that institution the degree of A. M., in 1880. He was admitted to the bar in 1882, and in 18S3 located at Anniston, where he is recognized as one of the brightest young attorneys of the Calhoun bar. The senior Mr. Willett is a native of Tennessee, and a graduate of Emory and Henry College, Vir- ginia. He came into Alabama in 1854. located at Carrolton,inthe practice of law, and there, withthe NORTHERN ALABAMA. 481 exception of the time spent in the army, lias con- tinuously remained. Huring the Wiir he was major of the Fortieth Alabama. lie was a mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention of 1875, and of the Legislature, session of 18IS-9. He is tlie father of five sons: Frank, Elbert, Joseph, George, anil Archil)ald. Ilis father was named .Iose])h Willett. also a native of Tennessee, and his grand- father was Zadok Willett, a native of ifaryland. Zadok Willett was a soldier in the Kevolutionary War. and helped to fight the battle of King's Jloimtain under General Sevier. His father was also )nuned Zadok. whose grandfather came from England with Lord Baltimore. The IJosticks came from England, and settled in South Caro- lina in the colonial days, and many of them have been prominent in various Southern States, in politics and at the bar. -«" .-^> GORDON MAC DONALD, Attorney-at-law. Aiiniston, son of Dr. Alfred and Olivia (Cooper) JIacUonald, natives, respectively, of South Caro- lina and Pennsylvania, was born at Mount Meigs, Montgomery C'onnty, this State, October 10, ISS-I. lie received his primary education at home under private instructors. At the age of eighteen, in the office of Fitzpatrick, Williamson & Goldthwaite, he began the study of law at Montgomery, and in April, 1S74, was admitted to the bar. He prac- ticed his profession in .Montgomery until April, 1887, when he located at Aiiniston, and formed a partnership with Howard AYillianis, Esq. In April, 188"i, he was married to iliss Belle Cary, of Iiichmond, Va. She is the accomplished daughter of the late gallant Capt. G. .\. Cary, of X'irginia. To this union has been born one child, Olivia. Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald are communicants of the Episcopal Church. Dr. .\lfred MacDonald was educiited in I'hila- delpliia, came to .\labama in 1840, and in 18.1.") was killed by one of his slaves. It appears that the negro had applied to the Doctor for permis- sion to visit his, the negro's wife, and having been refused, he attacked the Doctor with a rail and killed him. The negro was burned to death for the crime. Of the r)octor's three sons, Alfred was killed during the war, Kobert T. is chief engineer of the Mexican National Railway, and Gordon forms the caption of this sketch. His only daughter, Louisa, is now the wife of Dr. Hallonquist. Dr. ilacDonald's grandfather was born in Scotlaiul, and came to this country with Alfred JlacDonald's father after the Scotch rebel- tion in 174."). The Doctor's wife was a descendant of the cele- liratcd tragedian. Thomas Cooper. N. DUNHAM VAN SYCKEL, IVin.ipal of the Noble Institute for Boys, Aiiniston, was born at Bound Brook, N. ,L, October 30, 18G1. He is a graduate of Kutgers (N. .T.) College, and an e.x- ]ierienced educator. After leaving college, he taught some time on Long Island, and was subse- ((uently employed by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. In 18ol,his health being some- what impaired, lie removed to Southwestern Vir- ginia. In 1885 he came to Alabama, and at Birmingham was made principal of Paul Hayne Grammar School. He remained in that position one year, when he was promoted to principal of the Birmingham High School. This position he resigned in 1887 to accept the principalship of the Noble Institute. It is not the province of this work to state con- clusions in writing of current men, but it is only justice to say in this connection that Prof. Van Syckel meets in an eminent degree, as professional educator, the highest expectations of his patrons. The Professor is a son of Elbridge and Bethany (^Dunham) Van Syckel, natives of New Jersey. Elbridge Van Syckel was a son of Daniel Van Syckel, and in his diiy was a wealthy merchant of New York City. Daniel was a son of Aaron Van Syckel, a native of New Jersey. Aaron was the son of Rynier Van Syckel, whose father was also named Kynier, and whose grandfather, Ferenan- dus, came to this country from Holland in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and settled on Long Island. The \-m\ Syckels are quite nu- merous in the Middle .States, and many of them have filled high public jiositions. Both the Van Syckels and the Dunhams are among the oldest families of Hunterdon Countv, N. J. Bethany (Dunham) Van Syckel is a daughter of Nehemiah Dunham, a son of .Tames Dunham, who was a son of Nehemiah Dunham, of Clinton, N. J. The latter Nehemiah Dunham distinguished him- 482 NORTHERN ALABAMA. self as an officer in charge of commissary during the Kevohitionary War, and his children were all ardent patriots. The Dunhams, also, are numerous, partic- ulary in New Jersey, and many of them figure ■prominently in the history of Church and State. Neheniiah Dunham, last referred to, was a grandson of Eev. Edmond Dunham, who was horn in Xew England in 1(J60, and Edmond was a son of Benajah Danham, whose father, John Dunham, came to Massachusetts from Lincoln- shire, England, in 1G;5(), and was among the first settlers of Dartmouth. WILLIAM H. EDWARDS, Editor and Proprietor of the Anniston Hid Blasf, one of the most pojiu- lar newsjjajjers published in North Alabama, and one whose opinions receives more attention and favorable comment at the hands of the metropoli- tan journals of the United States than probably any other paper in the State, barring the Mont- gomery Adrei-tiser, is a native of Norfolk, Va. lie was born in September, 1853, and is a grad- uate of the University of his native State. For some years prior to his coming to Anniston he was connected with the Baltimore 3Ianufac- turer's Record, an antecedent of eminent degree; and that he brings with him the highest endorse- ment of that great paper would be sufficient guar- anty of his merit, were it needed, and were it not true that he is a man possessed of the happy fac- ulty of establishing himself at once in the good graces of a community, nolens volens. Mr. Edwards took charge of the Hot Blast in June of the present year. — "— ■^•^ij^^- < ' ■ • CHARLES C. McCARTEY, President of the Anniston Bloomary, is a native of Lewis County, N. Y. ; son of Francis and Loxina (Dorwin) McCartey, respectively of the States of Massachu- setts and New York; was born May 14, 18'28. When eight years old, he, with his parents, emi- grated to Green Bay, Wis. While there he learned the arts of the different tribes of Indians, to speak seven different languages (the French as fluently as his own), to excel in the use of the gun and the bow and arrow, and to paddle a canoe to the admiration of the red men. When eleven years old, he was pursued by hostile Indians, and ran ten miles to save his life, on a very hot day. For some time the white set- tlers lived in constant fear of being scalped. All retired at night with their clothes on, to be ready for the signal (which was the ringing of a bell) to flee to Fort Howard, Soon after this reign of terror, old Zack Taylor removed the hostile In- dians to the Rocky Mountains. Mr. McCartey moved to Fon du Lac in 184'2. While living there he engaged in different branches of business. He went to Glen Arbor, Mich., in 1855, and engaged in lumbering, wood- ing and milling; working between 300 and 500 men. At that point he built one of the largest and finest piers on the chain of lakes; it is known as Mack's Dock. He was also agent for the Northern Transportation Company of Ohio, run- ning a daily line of steamers from Ogdensburg to Chicago. From Glen Arbor Mr. McCartey moved to Pontiac, Mich., and engaged in the hardware business and farming. He went to Knoxville, Tenn., in 1876 for his health, and there embarked in the wholesale drug trade, and in 1887 came to Anniston. While in partnershiji with Morrison Bros., he organized what is now known as the Anniston Bloomary, an incorporated concern, with a capital stock of S50,000. Mr. McCartey started in the world without money, but he was a genius, and in many things an expert. The results of his undertakings attest these facts. He was married in January, 1850, to Miss Eliza- beth Darwin, of New York, daughter of Hubby and Elizabetli (Jones) Darwin. He and wife are Episcopalians, and Jlr. McCartey is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities. This branch of the McCartey family sprang from an Earl of Scotland. Francis ilcCartey was a soldier in the War of 18r2, and drew the first pay-roll at Sackets' Har- bor. He was the son of Clark ^IcCartey, who was an officer under General Washington, and who was with that General in his historical crossing of the Delaware in December, 1776. Tradition says that Washington asked who was in charge of the crossing, and when told " McCartey," exclaimed, " Thank God! it is in safe hands." The McCarteys were all a large, brave and pow- erful race. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 483 HUGH STEVENSON is a native of Scotland, iiiiil was horn in ls:;'.i. He was educated in liis native town of Jolmston, and there learned the moulder's trade. He came to the United States in is;i, worked some years at his trade in Brooklyn, \. ^' , and came to Home, (ia., in 1881, as fore- man in the foundry of Xohle Hros. From ]{ome lie went to Cartersville. that State, where he began business for himself, and in ISS-'J came to Annis- ton, where, in partnership with Edward JFurvcy, he established the foundry works, which he has, since the death of his jiartner in 1885, continued to manage. lie manufactures engines, general machinery, and everything in that line. lie was without means when lie came to'this country, but his industry has been rewarded until at this writ- ing he is side proprietoi-of a manufacturing estab- lishment valued at 8-10. OUO. Mr. Stevenson was married in Scothind to .Miss Annie Johnston: she died prior to his leaving that country. In 1878 he nnirried Miss Annie Wilson, a native of England. Jlr. Stevenson is a member of the city council, and is fully identified with the best interests of tiie progressive city of Anniston. — — -^—JSj^; *-•<►■ — — WILLIAM S. LARNED, \ ice-President of the Aiinistiiii Savings liank and Safe Dejjosit Co., and Treasurer of the Oxanna Building Association, was born at Fishkill. N. V.. .June :{0, 1854. and is a son of Samuel and Sarah (Newell) Larned, na- tives, respectively, of Michigan and New York. He was an only son, and was given a classical edu- cation at Cornell University, after which he attended oneyear at an architectural school in Bos- ton. From 1877 up to his coming to Anniston, in 1885. he was cashier of the Buffjilo Courier Com- pany. He came South in search of health, and, taking a fancy to the •' ^lodel City," located here. He was one of the prime movers in the organiza- tion of the Anniston. Oxford & Oxanna Street Kail way Company, of which corporation he has from its i>egiuning. l)een secretary and treasurer. Associated with his father, he established the South Anniston Hardware Company, and he was one of the organizers of the Anniston Savings Bank and Safe Deposit Co. and of the Oxanna Building Association. In addition to the above-named enterprise, she is more or less identified with and interested in various other incorporated and pri- vate concerns. He was married August 20, 1878, to Miss N. I*. Livingston of Carlyle, I'enn., and has one son, Samuel W. Mr. and Mrs. Larned are communicants of the Episcopal Church. — ■ — ••^•-J^^;— ^' — •— WILEY A. PATRICK, Doctor of Dental Sur- gery, Anniston. native of Monroeville, this State, son of Miiigan and JIartha (Salter) Patrick, was born January 1, 1855. After receiving an acad- emic education in his mitive town he spent a few years in a clerical position, and in 1SS4 took up dentistry. He Avas graduated from ^'anderbilt I'niversity, with the degree of D.D.S., in 188<>, and has since that time devoted himself, with marked success and manifest skill, to his chosen profes- sion. He located at Anniston in 1888, and is at this writing in the enjoyment of a lucrative and aristocrat ii; patronage. • •♦> •^^^— »— — SAMUEL BLOUNT BREWER, Dealer in lical Estate and Insurance, Anniston, is a native of Covington, Ga., son of the Kev. Aaron (L and Martha (Taylor) Brewer, and was born November i, 1834. Prior to eighteen years of age he had devoted his time to such duties as v/ere incident to rural life and to the acquisition of such educa- tion as was practicable at the common schools. His father located in .Vtlanta, Ga., about 1852, and was there in charge of the Christian Tdc- (jriiph. subsefjuently the Sniithern Olive Tree, and Samuel was his assistant editor for two years. In 1854, he returned to Montgomery, this State, whence the family had moved to Atlanta, and taught school until 185!i. In the latter year he was elected Assistant Clerk of the House of Representatives, and in ISfil joined the Third Alabama State 'I'roops in their expedition to the Pensacola Navy Yard. He was called home by the Legislature to resume the duties of Assistant Secretary. Subsequently he acted as one of the secretaries of the Secession Convention. Some time later he was nuide Chief Clerk of the Com- missary Department, and in IHfT:! he was com- missioned major in the Confederate Army and placed in charge of the records of the Commissary 484 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Department at Richmond. He left the Confeder- ate capital in company with Mr. Davis, and was acting Commissary when they reached Greens- boro, N. C. After the war Major Brewer returned to Mont- gomery, and in ISGo was elected Jourii^l Clerk of the Provisional Legislature in the permanent State Government, a position he held until ousted by Reconstruction in 18T0. In 1874 he was elected Secretary of the State Senate, and in ISTf he returned to Atlanta, where he was in business until 1883. In July of that year he came to An- niston, where he has since been actively engaged in real estate and insurance business. He was married, October 1, LS61, to Miss Marion (t. McFarland, of Richmond, Va., and has had born to him eight children : Maggie G., Daisy, Walter, Annie T., Charley B., Alpine G., Mary H., and Irving K. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Rev. Aaron G. Brewer was born near Trenton, N. J., in 1795; was ordained as a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Cliureh by presiding Elder Soule, afterward the distinguished Bishop Soule, and became a prominent minister in Kew York City. He severed his connection with the Metho- dist Episcopal Church in 1831, and, associated with four others, organized the Methodist Protes- tant Church, in New York City, in 1820. He was sent South by the new denomination in 1830, and organized stations therein at many places in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. He died at Opelika, in 1877. At the time of his death he was President of the Methodist Protestant Con- ference of this State. C. H. CANFIELD, President of the Anniston (Jranite Company, was born at Augusta, Ga., July 15, 1834, and is a son of Joseph G. and Emily Canfield, tlie former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Georgia. The senior Mr. Canfield, in early life, located in Georgia and there died of yellow fever in 183ii. His widow survived liim but two years, and his son was reared principally by his grandparents, who educated him at the common schools. April 28, 18()1, C. H. Canfield joined Company H, Fourth Georgia Regiment, Confederate States Armv, from which he was transferred the follow- ing September, at Yorktown, A'a., to Cobb's Cavalry. In December, 1801, he was promoted to Junior second lieutenant, and in Sei^tember, 1802, "for distinguished gallantry in action," he was pro- moted to the rank of major. In a cavalry charge between Buckstown and Middleton, Md., Septem- ber 13, 1802, he Avas seriously wounded. Major Canfield remained in the army to the close of the war, when he returned to Georgia and embarked in mercantile business. In 1887 he came to Anniston and engaged in real estate business. He was one of the organizers of the Granite Company, and has been its president from the first. He is a director in the Anniston Sav- ings Bank, and is variously interested in other popular enterprises. In December, 1855, ilajor Canfield was married in Stewart County, Ga., to Miss Sarah M. Talbot. She died November 4, 1884, leaving one daughter. The present Mrs. Canfield, to whom the major was married in August, 188*!, was Mrs. J. F. Alston, of Columbus, Miss. -«-i JOHN J. Mcpherson, Dealer in Real Es- tate, Anniston, son of Neill and Eliza Mc- Nair McPherson, natives of Richmond County, State of North Carolina, was born in Walton County, Fla., August 17, 1847. The senior Mr. ilcPherson, after his marriage in North Carolina in 1829, migrated to Florida, where he jiracticed law for several years, and held various official positions up to 1862. During the Creek and Seminole War he held the rank of adju- tant in the regiment commanded by Col. Levin Brown, and was, altogether, a man of consider- able prominence and influence. He held a United States office during the administration of Presi- dents Pierce and Buchanan, and up to the com- mencement of the civil war in 1861. He alsa held various minor civil offices in Walton County; and was elected, six years in succession, Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk in the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, a7id was elected Sec- retary of the Senate of the State of Florida. In 1863, he came into Alabama, located at Haw Ridge, and from there, in 1806, moved to Union Springs. In 1884 he came to Anniston, where he yet resides. He is now in the eighty-first year of NORTHERN ALABAMA. 485 his age, and his wife, who died on tlie 20th day of April last, was in her seventy-eighth year. They reared a family of three sons aiul two daughters, of whom we have the following brief information : William was a member of the Third Florida Kegiment during the war, entering the army as a private, and coming out with the rank of captain. After the war he moved to Los An- geles, Cal., and there practiced law until the day of his death. His only son, William B. McPher- son, is now a resident of raducah, Ky. Sally ('., deceased, was the wife of Mr. (ieorge Shack- elford. Annie Bell is the wife of Robert \V. Allen, a teacher at Palestine, Tex. Malcom is a mer- chant in Anniston ; he was a member of theSi.xth Florida Kegiment. The grandfathers, ilcPherson and McXair, came originally from Scotland. John J. McPher- son. and his sisters and brothers, acquired the principal part of their education at a school taught by the Rev. John Newton, a Presbyterian })rcacher, at Kno.xhill, in Walton County, Fla. At the age of sixteen years he entered the drug business as a clerk and a student of pharmacy, and was thus emloyed for a period of twelve years. In 1873 he established a pharmacy of his own at I'nion Springs. He came to Annis- ton .luly 1, 1884, and was engaged in the drug business here until July 1, 1887. He was in real estate business until January 1, 1888. He was married, Xovember (i, 18;<>, to Miss Fannie A. McCarty, daughter of Rev. W. A. McCarty, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Midway, Bul- lock Countv. Ala. WILLIAM HOWARD WILLIAMS. Healer in IJeul Estate, Anniston, i< a n;itivc of W'illiamsport, Maury County, Tenn.: was born .March C, 184(1, and reared and educated at Columbia, tiiat State. In 1S(U he joined the First Tennessee Cavalry, and remained in the service until the close of the war. He began business in Columbia in 18G5 as a druggist, and was afterward dealing in cloth- ing, lie came to Anniston in 18S3, and was here iti the clothing business three years. Since 1886 he has been giving his entire attention to real estate, although he is now much interested in numufactures. Mr. Williams is regarded as one of Auuiston's most enterprising and successful business men. His wife, before marriage, was Jiary E. Sarven, daughter of Mr. John Sarven, a large carriage manufacturer of Columbia, Tenn. They were married in June, 1873, and there has been born to this union the following named children: Nellie, Sadie, Howard S., .lames E., Mary and Edith. Mr. AVilliams is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and is a Knight Templar Mason. Edward and P^lizabeth (Dedman) Williams, par- ents of the subject of this sketch, were married in Tennessee. The Williams family were North Carolinians. They came early into Tennessee, and the town of Williamsport was named in honor of them. Edward Williams is now about seventy yearsof age. He has long been an active business man; was a merchant at Columbia, and was the president of the Dutch River Valley Rai-lroad. He was largely interested in building that road, and has been officially connected with it from its inception. BRAXTON B. COMER, extensive Planter aud Wholesale Dealer in Merchandise, Anniston, is a native of Barbour County, this State, son of John F. and Catherine (Drewry) Comer, and was born November 7, 1843. He was educated in his native village, at the State University, and at Emory and Henry College, Virginia, graduating from the latter institution in 1869. He is now one of the largest farmers in the State; runs a retail store at Spring Hall; is the owner of extensive orange groves, pineapple orchards, etc., in the South, and is interested in milling and various other enterprises. He came to Anniston in 1886, and, in partnership with S. B. 'J'rapp, established the present wholesale concern with which he is identified. His wife, before marriage, was Miss Eva J. Harris, of Cuthbert, Ga., and his children are named, respectively: Sallie B., J. Fletcher, ilacDonald, !Mignon, Catherine, Beverly and Eva. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the Masonic fraternity. The senior Mr. Comer came from Georgia to Alabama in 1840, located at Spring Hill, and there erected the first steam mill of that county. Before leaving (leorgia he had been Judge of a nisi prius court, and after coming to Alabama he servecl in the Legislature. He died at the age of forty-seven years. He reared a family of six sons. 486 NORTHERN ALABAMA. His father, H. M. Comer, was a native of Vir- ginia, and of English descent. He migrated to Georgia at an earl\- day, and there became an ex- tensive planter. M. F. McCARTY, is a native of Bullock County. Ala., son of Dr. W. A. and Belinda (Connor) McCarty, and was born July 4, 1846. Mr. McCarty was educated at the East Alabama Male College— now known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College— and at the outbreak of the late war was attending the Military Institute at Crlenville. In the spring of 18G3 he enlisted in Company A, Sixty-first Alabama, and remained until the close of the war, participating in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, around Petersburg; etc. He was captured at Spotsylvania, but paroled in time to take part in the last battles about Petersburg. He surrendered with fieneral Lee at Appomattox, returned immediately home, and for several years devoted his time to planting. So soon as he had accumulated means sufficient, he entered college. While in the senior class, he met and married Miss Sal lie Judkins, of Montgomery, and soon thereafter, in his native county, resumed farming. In 1880 he engaged in the drug busi- ness at Auburn, and in 1883 located at Anniston. Here he es.tablished the second furniture house started in this place. He sold out his furniture business in 188T. Dr. W. A. McCarty came from South Carolina and settled in Bullock County when a young man, and preached regularly as a Methodist minister for about thirty-five years. Of his two sons, M. E. only is living. William E. was a member of the Sixth Alabama Regiment during the late war, after which he moved to Texas, and there died. The Doctor's four daughters are all married; two living in Florida and two in Alabama. Before entering the ministry the Doctor was a lawyer by profession. BENJAMIN F. SAWYER, Mayor of the city of Oxanua, a suburb of Anniston, is a native of Talla- dega County, son of Ansel and Sarah (Xorris) Sawyer, and was born May 18, 1833, at Jumper's Springs, now the town of Mardisville. He was reared to manhood on a farm ; is self-educated. and from the age of 18 to iZ superintended the business of his mother. He began business as a merchant at Columbiana, continued there four years, and was farming when the war broke out. In June, 1801, he enlisted as a private in Com- pany K, Tenth Alabama, and in July following was commissioned to raise a company. This he proceeded to do ; and he armed and equipped them at his own expense. At the head of this company, then an independent command, he par- ticipated in the battles of Belmont and Columbus, and was shortly afterward assigned to heavy artillery. In the fall of 1861, he joined a Missis- sippi regiment, and at the battle of Shiloh was wounded. This retired him from active service for a short time, but he rejoined the army in Sep- tember, 18G-2, and was at the battle of i\Iumfords- ville, from which place, on account of his wound, he was assigned to post duty at Chattanooga. He re-joined his command at Shelbyville, where his company was transferred to the Twenty-fourth Alabama in the spring of '63. At Murfreesboro he was again wounded, but slightly. About this time Captain Sawyer was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and as such he participated in the battle of Chickamauga, the Atlanta cam- paign, and in Hood's Tennessee campaign. After the battle of Franklin he was promoted colonel, and for some time before the close to the final sur- render he commanded a brigade. For a few years succeeding the war he was variously employed in farming and mercantile business, and in 186'J he established the Mountain Home at Talladega. He edited this paper about a year, and in 1870 took charge of the Rome (Georgia) Daily. From the Daily, within a short time, he transferred to the Rome Coiirier, which paper he edited about five years. He then established the Rome Tribune, and conducted it about two years. In 1874 he edited the Atlanta Evening Commonirealth, and in 18T9, he was at Newark, X. J., in the interest of an in- vention of his for the manufacture of paper bags. Colonel Sawyer came to Anniston in 1883, and soon afterward established the Oxanna Tribune. At this time his literary work is confined princi- pally to correspondence, and he contributes vari- ously to the Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York papers. In 1887, associated with S. and W. S. Earned, he established the South Annis- ton Hardware Company. September 7, 1857, Colonel Sawyer was married to Miss Charlotte Ambrester, of Talladega County. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 487 JOHN CLARK LE GRAND, M.D., prominent I'hysiciiin and Surgeon, Anniston, is a native of Calhoun Count}', this State, son of J. C. and Martha A. (Watson) r^eGrand, and was born De- cember (i, 1854, at llie town of White IMains. lie spent tlie first eigliteen years of his life on liis father's plantation, and in attendance at the com- mon schools. He subsequently attended a higii school in Cieorgia, read medicine and graduated from Atlanta Medical College in the spring of 1880. lie began the practice of his profession in his native county, and was located at Weaver's three years. In autumn of 1883 he located at Anniston, and here readily took rank among the foremost of his profession. He was one of the charter members of the t'allioun Medical Society, organized April ."}0, 1880, and has been its secre- tary ever since. He is at present .\ssistant Health Officer for Calhoun County at Anniston, and the representative of tlie county society to the State Medical Association. He is a member of various fraternities and societies, and is altogether one of the most promising young professional men of East Alabama. He was married December 2, 1880, to Miss Jennie Lee Avers, of Carncsville, Ga., and his three children are named, respectively, JIary Ruth, Bessie and Annie Forney. The Doctor and his wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Doctor is prominent as a Mason, Odd Fellow, Knight of Honor and United Workman. Since coming to Anniston the Doctor has been not only successful in the practice of medicine, but it appears from the records tliat his invest- ments in real estate have been highly profitable. The senior Mr. LeGrand came from Georgia to this State, settled near White Plains, followed teaching several years, entered the Confederate Army in 18;^rL,. ,._ XI. JACKSONVILLE. The town of Jacksonville is situated on the lEast Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Eailroarl, and has a poj)ulation of from twelve to fifteen hun- dred people. It was settled in the very earliest history of the county, and while the Indians were still resident here. The county records were destroyed in 1864 by the raid of Federal troops that came through on their way South, and only left one book, which has in it the map of the old town. This book shows the town was laid off in 1833. The county was then named Benton; the earliest settlers were composed of emigrants from the States of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, the lineal descendants of whom comprise a large jiart of its present popu- lation. Its early settlers were, some of them, men of large means and lived in elegance and ease, and gave to the town, in its former days, its wide distinction for social hospitality, benevolence and Christian charity which it still holds. The town is situated on the foothills of the Blue Ridge, and is surrounded by beautiful valleys on all sides; the scenery is lovely, and the vision never tires in looking on the mountains and the undulating valleys that go out in all directions. It has a jierfect system of natural drainage, all water flowing rapidly into large streams that run along near the town. There is a large and bold limestone spring that flows from the foot of the hill on which the town is situated, and affords more than a million gallons of pure, fresh water per day. In addition to this there is a system of water works, owned and controlled by the town, which cost several thousand dollars, and brings, through large iron pipes a great quantity of water from a freestone spring that rises in the mountain some two miles east of the city. The natural pressure of this water in the pipes, from its eleva- tion above the town, will throw the water over the highest buildings, and is an excellent jirotection against fire. Jacksonville was the county seat of Benton County, and was established as such on the organ- ization of the county. AVlien the name of the county was changed to Calhoun, which it now bears, it still remained the county seat, and is to this day the capital of one of the wealthiest and most progressive counties in the State. Its first court house was built of brick, in 1838, and has stood in the middle of the public square for fifty years until a few days ago, when it was torn down, the county having erected, two years ago, a large and more modern and convenient structure, and one more in keeping with the needs and progress of the county. The East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Rail- road passes within the corijorate limits of the town. The East & West Railroad of Alabama, which is at present a narrow-gauge railroad, leading from Oedartown, Ga. to the coal fields of St. Clair County, passes within about one mile of the cor- porate limits, and negotiations have been pending for the introduction of the road into the town. There is a road partly graded between this place and Gadsden, Ala., and known as the Jackson- ville, Gadsden & Atalla Railroad. There has been a road surveyed by the Georgia Central re- cently, through the town, contemplating the construction of a road from Carrollton, Ga., via Jacksonville, to Decatur, Ala. There is also a mineral railroad from this place to Anniston, twelve miles south, in contemplation. For many years the bar at Jacksonville ranked along with the highest in the State, and has fur- nished a number of very prominent judges, chan- cellors, legislators and members of Congress; one of whom, A. J. Walker, was a member of the Supreme Court of Alabama, and was at one time Chief-Justice. The medical profession have had a number who were distinguished in their line. The most of the older members of this pro- fession have recently passed away, and their places have been filled by younger men, who are achieving distinction in their calling. The .Jacksonville Republican is a staunch Dem- ocratic journal, and was established here fifty-one 488 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 489 years ago. It has always been one of the leading weekly papers in the State. Almost from its foiUHiation it was edited by the late J. F. Grant, wlio was at one time Treasurer of the State, and after his death tlieeditoria! management fell upon Hon. r,. W. Grant, wiio is liis son and who has given much character to it throughout tlie State for its sound principles and its able editorials. It is held in liigh esteem by tlie people of the county, and is a familiar visitant to almost every fireside. Tiiere are Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Bai)tist and Episcopal chnrclies in the town, and tliere are Lutheran and Catholic congregations in the place that are visited regularly by ministers of tlieir faith, but tliey have no organized chnrclies as yet. Tlie chief pride of the town is tlie State Normal School, situated here, which is doing a valuable work in turning out enthusiastic teachers, whose intluence will soon be felt throughout this entire section of the State. It has the aid and encour- agement of the entire community, and connected with it is a high-school of the very first class, which has an attendance of from two to three hundred pupils. The disasters of the war left the people of the town impoverished, and quite a number of its dis- tinguished and public spirited citizens fell vic- tims to what they deemed the cause of their coun- try in the late contest — some on the field of battle, and some succumbed to the fatal maladies that are incident to a soldier's life. On account of these depressing influences the town has not stepped forth in the nnirch of industrial progress as rap- idly as has been the wish of its public-spirited citi- zens. With the recent outburst of improvement, and the ui)heaval of the industrial energy through- out the mineral district of North Alabama, Jack- sonville has kept pace, and has put on the garb of imi)rovement, and taking advantage of the rich and exhaustless mineral wealth that lies imbedded in the hills in the town and in the immediate vicinity, a number of men from other cities, who have abundant faith in the final outcome of this entire section, and a number of resident citizens here, about a year ago organized a corporation known as the Jacksonville Land Company. This company acquired by purchase about twelve thousand acres of valualjle land lying in the cor- porate limits, suitable for business lots and for j)laces for dwellings, and of valuable iron and timber lands adjacent to the town. Some months ago tlie entire property of the Jacksonville Land Company was sold to the Jacksonville Mining and Manufacturing Company, another corpor- ation, with a capital stock of *l,5(iO,0(iO. This new company has recently purchased about one thousand acres of valuable land in the corporate limits of the town, for which they paid a large sum, and now have a corps of engineers in the field laying off their property into town lots, with a view of putting a limited amount of them on the market. It is the purpose of the company to build up a model and thriving industrial and man- ufacturing town, and to do it they have abundant means in the nnignificent resources of their prop- erty. Negotiations are now pending, with every prospect of a speedy settlement, for the establish- ment here of two or three industries that are new for the South, and will be of the greatest im- portance to the upbuilding of the county* and town. On account of its elevation above the sea, Jack- sonville is a place of refuge in the hot summer months for the j^eople in the cities south of us, and its mild winters are a temptation to the i)eople of more arctic regions to come and dwell with us. To accommodate this class of people a large hotel, with all modern conveniences, which is to be ele- gantly furnished, is now in process of erection, and will cost from twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars. The spirit of progress is among our people, and all things point to the coming future, which is near at hand, when .Jacksonville will be known and called " TlieC^ueen of the South," * THOMAS A. WALKER, whose portrait embel- lishes this chapter, was born in Jasper County, (ia., January 5, 1811, and his parents were Thomas F. and Feribee (Smith) Walker. The family came to Alabama in 1810, and here afterward made their homes. Thomas A., familiarly known as Judge Walker, was educated at the State University; began the study of law wlien twenty years of age, and was admitted to the bar two years later. He located first in the practice at Elyton, and remained there until 1830. He had been elected Solicitor for the Ninth Judicial Circuit in 1835, and it was the 490 NORTHERN ALABAMA. year following that he moved to Jacksonville. He is now the only man living at this place who was here at that time. At the outbreak of the Creek Indian War, he was holding the office of brigadier-general, and by order of Governor Clay, he raised a battalion of troops for the service, and led them to Colum- bus, Ga., where they were mustered into the com- mand of General Jessuji. Judge Walker has served three terms in the Kepresentative brancli of the State Legislature and six years in the Senate. At the time of his first election to the lower house (1839), he was holding the office of Solicitor, which disqualified him as a legislator. However, a new election was at once held in his county, and he was again chosen, and took his seat two days before adjourn- ment of the session. He was first elected to the Senate in 184"2, for a term of three years; and he was the president of that body at the close of the late war. Under the Reconstruction Act he was for a time disfran- chised. The negroes that blacked his boots and groomed his horses could vote and hold office, but the Judge, having had intelligence enough to en- tertain opinions of his own, and courage enough to exj^ress them, was not the sort of man a car- pet-bag and blatherskite Congress deemed fit to exercise the right of franchise in the South. Un- der the domination of that scum of Northern society that settled down upon the Southern States like a pestilence, in the wake of the tri- umphant army, the servant was to become the master, ignorance and crime should wield the lash, and intelligence and virtue should tread the wine press. But it is God that directs the destinies of Nations, and in the fullness of His own good time all things are righted. While Judge Walker has survived many of the evils that beset him in those days and seen many of his unofficial opinions verified by the highest tribunal of the land, he has not held or sought to hold any office since his re-enfranchisement. Prior to 1858, he was nine years a Circuit Court Judge. From 1858 to the close of the war between the States he was president of the Alabama & Tennessee Railroad Company and that road was built under his administration from Columbiana to Blue Moutain station in Calhoun county. The road was afterwards completed to Dalton, Georgia, by New York parties, and later on went into bank- ruptcy and the Judge was made one of its receivers. Judge Walker was married August 30, 1836, to Sarah MeGehee. She died in April, 1880. Thomas T. Walker, Judge Walker's father, was a native of Hancock County, Ga. He came to Bibb County, Ala., in 1819, and in 1820 moved to Montevallo, in Shelby County, where he remained until his death. The father of Thomas T. Walker was named David Walker, a native of Buckingham County, Va. He was a soldier under Washington in the Revolutionary War. The family originally came from England. Feribee Smith, the wife of Thomas T. Walker, was a daughter of Ezekiel Smith, a native of South Carolina. He was also a Revolutionary soldier, and was descended from English parentage. REV. MARSHALL HALL LANE, D.D., of the Baptist Church, Jacksonville, was born at Wash- ington, Wilkes County, Ga., July 9, 1845, and is a son of Dr. James H. and Mary C. (Simpson) Lane, natives of the same county. Dr. J. H. Lane was educated at Mercer Uni- versity in classical course, and was a graduate from the medical department of the State Uni- versity. He is devoted to his jjrofession, and has been a remarkably successful physician. He reared three sons and two daughters. He is a member of the Bajjtist Church and of the Masonic fraternity. His wife is a daughter of William Simpson, one of the original settlers of Wilkes County. Mr. Simpson was a native of Virginia, and of Scotch- Irish ancestry. The Simpson family are among the oldest and best known families in the State of Georgia. Dr. Lane's father, Rev. Micajah A. Lane, of the Baptist Church, came from Virginia to Georgia when he was but six years of age. After a long and popular service in the ministry, he died in 1887, at the great age of ninety-seven years. The subject of this sketch was reared in his na- tive county; educated at Wright and Hoyt High School, and at the age of seventeen years entered the army as a member of Wingfield's Battery of Cutt's Battalion (A. P. Hill's Corps), Army of Virginia. He was at the battles of Gettysburg and Petersburg, and all the engagements from Get- tysburg to the close of the war; but was at home NORTHERN ALABAMA. 491 on a furlough at the time of the final sur- render. Immediately after the war he attended IJockhy Institute, Georgia, taught hy Col. Ii. JI. Johnson, a i)rominent Southern author. From this insti- tution he entered the University of Virginia, and studied law two j'ears. Returning home he formed a partnership with (Jenerals Toombs & Du Rose, and practiced law three years. Since then he has given his whole attention to the min- istry and the cause of education. He has been pastor of several churches in (ieorgia; of the Cen- tral Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., from which place he returned home on account of ill health; traveled two years as an evangelist in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, and for six years prior to his coming to Alabama had charge of llern In- stitute, Cave Springs, Ga. He came to Jacksonville to live in December, IXiT; he had been pastor of the church here five years while living at Cave Springs, Ga. It may be said that during his pastorate at this place the membership of the church grew most wonder- fully, having increased from a roll of twenty-one to one hundred and thirty-seven. He has also been pastor of Alpine Church, in Talladega County, for two years, and during the two years the membership of that church has been more than doubled. The honorary degree of D.D. was con- ferred upon him by the Alabama State University at the commencement exercises of 188(5. Dr. Lane was married October <>, 18G8, to Un- dine Brown, of Hancock County, Ga. She is a daughter of the celebrated Dr. Algeron S. Brown, one of the most celebrated ])hysicians who ever lived in Georgia. To this happy union were born twelve children, viz. : John S., Edward Mcintosh, Mary Undine, Louise E., Sidney B., Eugene C, Mluebell C, James A., Marshall H., Jr., Margue- rite T. and Reynolds. One boy died in infancy. Dr. Lane is one of the most brilliant pulpit ora- tors in the State. CARLETON BARTLETT GIBSON, President of the State Xornia! Colli't'f. was l)orn at Mobile, Ala., Septemljer IS, 1804, and is a son of James S. and Antoinette Julia (Powers) Ciibson.' The senior Mr. Gibson was born in South Dum- fries, Scotland, in 1824, and at the age of eighteen years came to the United States. Ife settled in New York City, and in 184G moved to Mobile, where he was engaged in the commission business, lie was a first lieuteiumt in the British Guards under Capt. Daniel Wheeler during the late war. After- wards he moved to Clarke County, Miss., where he conducted a large cottoTi farm. He was married in New York, and reared a family of eight sons, viz.: James S., a sea captain; Francis S., wholesale and retail grocer of Mobile; Wallace W., clerk in Mobile; Jefferson Davis, deceased: Frederick P., teacher in Clark County, Ala.: Eniile L., student; and Alex J., student in the State Normal College. The senior Mr. Gibsoii was a member of the Pres- byterian Church and died in X'AI'l. His wife was a native of New York, and of English extraction. The subject of this sketch was reared in Mobile. He was graduated from the University of Ala- bama as A. B. in the class of 1884, and received from the same institution the next year the hon- orary degree of A. M. After having taught school at Mulberry, Autauga County, this State, about one year, he was elected a member of the Faculty of the State Normal College (through the influence of Colonel Lewis, of the State University), and after the resignation of J, II. Chappell. he was elected president of the College, which position he is now filling. Professor (iibson has certainly won for himself much distinction, having worked his way up to the present position by his own energy and hard study. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant educators of the State. He is an eloquent speaker, a ready debater, and a man capable in all respects of filling the high position to which he has been called. He is a member of the Baptist Church. JOHN D. HAMMOND was born in St. Clair County, Ala., Oetolier I'^t, 1838, and is a son of Richmond and Mary (Ash) Hanunond. The senior Jlr. Hammond was born in Law- rence District, S. C, in August, 1801. He came to Alabama with his parents in 181G, and settled on the west bank of the Coosa River, near (!reens- port; there entered lands, and remained until his death, which occurred in July, 1861. lie was an active farmer, and succeeded in accumulating a large fortune. At his death lie owned about six thousand acres of land. He was in the Legisla- 492 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ture at different times from 1835 to 1848, and assisted in the organization of many of the earlier counties and did much toward shaping the devel- opment of the State. He reared six children, as follows: Mary E., wife of Isaac Looney; Jane C, wife of William Cross, of Shelby County; William C, of St. Clair County; Kichmond F., deceased; Peter LaFayette, physician, was killed at Shiloh; and the subject of this sketch. The grandfather of our subject was a native of South Carolina, and was a descendant of English ancestr3\ The mother of our subject was a native of Frank- lin County, Ga. She was a daughter of Colonel John Ash, who was a soldier in the war of 1812. The Ash family came originally from Ireland. The subject of this sketch was reared and edu- cated in his native county. He was married May 18, 1858, to Fannie A. Whisenant, daughter of William J. Whisenant, of Calhoun County, this State. To this union were born seven children, viz.: Walter E., Willie B., Anna L., Peter L., Mary A. E., Fannie W. and Katie. Mrs. Ham- mond died in 1884. Mr. Hammond entered the army in the fall of 1863, as a member of a cavalry company of State troops. He served until the close of the war, when he resumed farming. He was engaged at farming until coming to Jacksonville in 1867; here he run a hotel about ten years. Mr. Hammond was elected to the Legislature from Calhoun County, in 1880, and served two terms, taking an active part in the passage of the Railroad Commission Bill and in the law regulat- ing the convict system of the State. He was in- defatigable in the interest of education, and was conspicuous in the establishment of normal schools at Jacksonville and Livingston, and in aiding the State University, the A. and M. College, and the common schools. His politics, like those of his father's, have always been Democratic. He is a member of the Methodist Ef)iscopal Church, South, and of the Masonic and Knights of Honor fraternities. WILLIAM MARK HAMES, Attorney-at-law, Jacksonville, was born in Hancock County, 6a., and is a son of William and Rizpah Z. (Moore) Hames, natives of Virginia and North Carolina, resi^ectively. Mr. Hames' parents were married in Hancock County, Ga. , and there reared five sons and two daughters. The elder Mr. Hames died in Decem- ber, 1857. He was many years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was much beloved by those who knew him. His wife was a daughter of Jeremiah iloore, a native of Scotland. The subject of this sketch was reared and edu- cated at LaGrange, Ga. In 1844 he came to Macon County, Ala, where he taught school four years, removing thence to Oxford, where he taught two years. He read law under A. J. Walker, and was admitted to the bar at .Jacksonville in September, 1855. He has been in the practice ever since and has built up for himself a reputation as a brilliant and successful attorney. Early in 1861, Mr. Hames entered the Second Alabama State Troojis as a first lieutenant, and later became captain of Company A, Second Ala- bama Regiment. This command was disbanded at Fort Pillow, and he returned home, reorganized his comjDany, and joined the Fifty-first Alabama Cavalry as captain. He was out but a short time, when, on account of his ill-health, he was compelled to resign and return home. In 1857-8, he was Assistant Clerk of the State Legislatiwe, and in 1863-4, was elected member of that body. In 1875 he was a delegate to the Con- stitutional Convention, and took an active part in its deliberations. In January, 1866, he was married to Mar}- E. Jones, daughter of James Jones, of Tennessee. The children born to this union are: Leonidas G., Lizzie R., James (}., John N., Ezra and Will- iam. The family are members of the Old School Presbyterian Church. SAMUEL D. G. BROTHERS, Attorney-at-law, Jacksonville, was born in C'alhoun County, this State, June, 19, 1858, and is a son of Dr. Philip H. and Jennie (Downing) Brothers, natives, re- spectively, of St. Clair and Calhoun Counties, this State. Doctor Brothers has been a jn-aeticing physician in Calhoun Count}', nearly jill his jn-ofessional life; he spent five years in Texas and Louisiana. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Pres- byterian Church. They reared eight children. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 493 viz.: Samuel D. G. ; William P., now deceased; was a gi'adiiate of the University of Alabama and (.'ollcgo of Physicians and Surgeons, IJaltimorc, Md. ; Hlizabeth F., Mary Emma, (leorge A., Philij) II., Zulah Zarah and Thomas J. The Brothers family were originally from England. Mrs. Doctor Brother.-; is a daughter of Thomas J. Downing, an early pioneer of St. Clair County. He was a descendant of Irish parentage, and was horn in Tennessee, or Xorth Carolina. He located in Calhoun County in 18:5.5, where he died in 1800. The subject of this sketch was reared in his na- tive county; was graduated from the Fniversity of Alabama in the class of 1880, and from the law department in 1881. After leaving college he located at .Jacksonville and formed a partnership with Willett A AViliett, of Anniston, the style of the firm being Brothers, Willett & Willett. Mr. Brothers was married October 21, 1885, to Ella Wyly, of Jacksonville. She is a daughter of Benjamin C. and Elsie (Snow) Wyly, natives of Georgia and Alabama, respectively. Mr. Broth- ers and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. JOHN HENRY CALDWELL, Attorney-at-law, Jacksonville, son of John M. and Emily (i. (Bell) Caldwell, natives, respectively, of the States of Kentucky and ^'irginia, was born at llunts- ville, this State, April -1, \'6'IV). He was educated in his native town, and at Bacon College, Ilarrods- burg, Ky. At the age of seventeen, he began teaching school, and continued at that vocation four yeai's in Limestone County. He came to Jacksonville in 1848, and for four years had charge of the Jacksonville Female Academy; the suc- ceeding four years he was in charge of the Male School at Jacksonville, and in 1851 and 1852 edited the Jacksonville liepnblicau. In 1855 he assumed the editorshij> of the Sunny South, and was conducting this paper in 1857, when he was elected to ihe Legislature. In 185'.l he was elected Solicitor of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, was re- elected in 18C:i, and in 18G5 was removed for po- litical reasons by Governor Parsons. He was im- mediately re-elected to the Legislature, but for similar reasons was removed by the military in ISiiT. Having been admitted to the bar in 1850, he at once entered the practice of his ])rofession. He was elected to Congress in 1882, and re-elected in 1884. Mr. Caldwell is a talented gentleman of easy address, an agreeable and fluent speaker, and in all of his official trusts has acquitted himself with dignity and credit. He was married in No- vember, 1840, to Miss Mary 1). Greer, of Fayette- ville, Tenn. — • ' > •^g^"^— — LEONIDAS W. GRANT. Editor and Proprietor of the .lacksonvilie lltpiihUcan, was born August 8, 1843, in this city, and is a son of J. F. and Elizabeth (Riley) Grant, natives of Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively. The senior Mr. Grant came to Calhoun County, Ala., in 1834, to take charge of a Baptist paper. In 1837, he became proprietor of the jiaper, changed its name to the Jacksonville Repuhlican, and published it until the day of his death. In 1870 he was elected State Treasurer, and in 1872 was renominated for that office, but in common with the Democratic State ticket, was defeated. He was a prominent Mason, and an active mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He reared one son and four daughters. The subject of this sketch was reared and edu- cated at Jacksonville. He attended the Wesleyan University at Florence, and was about to enter upon the junior year when the war broke out. In June, 1861, he enlisted in the service as a private in Company G, Tenth Alabama Regiment, and in 18(;2 was promoted to sergeant-major. In 1803 he was promoted to adjutant of the regi- ment. He participated in the battle of Dranes- ville, and in all the engagements in wiiich his regiment took part, except the battles of Cold Harbor and the Wilderness. He surrendered with General Lee. In 1807, ^lajor Grant founded the (Jadsden Times, remained with that paper until his father was elected State Treasurer, when he returned to Jacksonville and purchased a half-interest in the Rcpublirtin. In 1874 he was elected to the lower house of the State Legislature, and in 1880, was elected to the State Senate, in which body he served with distinction four years. At this writing (1888), he is the Democratic nominee for State Senator from the Seventh District. He is a brilliant speaker, a terse and vigorous writer, and one of the most enterprising men of Xorth Alabama. He is prominently identified with the Masonic and Knights of Pythias fra- 494 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ternities, and is a consistent member of the Metliodist Episcojial Churcli, South. ilaj or Grant's wife was Miss Annie Foster, tlie aeeomplished daughter of Chancellor Jolin Foster, of this citv. JOHN M. CROOK, M.D., Physician and Sur- geon, Jacksonville, was born August 4, 184T, at Alexandria, Calhoun Count}-, this State. He was reared in his native village, received a common school education, and, at the age of fifteen }-ears, entered the University of Alabama, where be re- mained until he reached the senior class, when he enlisted as first lieutenant in the Army of the Con- federate States. After his father's death he took charge of his plantations, and subsequently, in 18T2, at Alexandria, engaged in mercantile busi- ness, and continued thereat until 1ST8. In the last named year he moved to Jacksonville, and re- mained there four years, engaged, in the meantime, at farming. In 1883 he began the study of medi- cine, and in 1885 was graduated from Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons. Immediately after graduating he was appointed resident physi- cian of the Maryland Woman's Hospital: remained there one year; spent six months at Bay View, and returned to Jacksonville, where he has since devoted his time to the practice of his profession. Dr. Crook is one of the most accomplished physicians in Northeastern Alabama, and is held in highest esteem by the jjeople and the profession generally. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and is always identified with every movement tending to advance the best interests of the com- munity in which he i-esides. He served the city of Jacksonville from 1880 to 1883, inclusive, as Mayor. In April, IbTtJ, the Doctor was married to Miss Annie Whateley, the accomplished daughter of the gallant Col. Ceorge C. Whateley, who fell at the head of his regiment, the Tenth Alabama, at the battle of Sharpsburg, Md. Mrs. Crook died in January, 1878. CHARLES H. MONTGOMERY, M. D., of Jacksonville, was born at La Grange, Troup County, Ga., January 2, 1845. He was reared in his native town, where he received a good edu- cation and was prepared to enter the senior class of the Southern University at Greensboro, this State. On the announcement of the secession of Ala- bama, his heart beat in unison with the people of his adopted State, and in A])ril, 1801, he enlisted in an artillery company made up at Selma, and commanded by his father. The first year of his service was in Virginia; after which he served in artillery with Forrest's Cavalry, in whose command his company saw much active service. At Selma, for •'courage and bravery," he was recommended for promotion to a lieutenantcy. His last engage- ment was at West Point, Ga., in April, ISOo. Immediately after the war, he settled at Ever- green, Conecuh County, Ala., where he began the study of medicine, and inl8U8 was graduated as M. D. from the Washington University, ]\Iedical Department, Baltimore. He attended lectures also at Atlanta, where he afterwards practiced his profession for a long time. For the past fourteen years he has been located near and at Jackson- ville, where he has met with much success, and is regarded as one of the best and most skillful phy- sicians of Xorth Alabama. Dr. Montgomery was married, January fi, 1870, to Jennie Chamberlain, whose father was a nephew of General Warren, of Revolutionary fame. Two children, Paul and Julia, bless this union. The Doctor is a member of the Presbyte- rian church, of the Masonic and I. 0. 0. F. fra- ternities, and of the Knights of Honor and Im- proved Order of Red Men. The father of Dr. Montgomery, Col. Joseph T. Montgomery, was born in the Waxhaw Settlement, X. C, and when a boy came with his parents to DeKalb County, Ga., where he was reared. He was the founder of LaGrange Female College, and was widely known as a most thorough educator. He moved to Summerfield, Ala., in 185 T, and there presided over Centenary Institute. From the latter city he entered the army as captain of the Jeff. Davis Artillery, and later on he was advanced to lieutenant-colonel of the Fourteenth Georgia Artillery, in General Bragg's army. Impaired health compelled him to resign before the close of the war, and in 1870 he moved to ^larshall, Tex., where he founded the Marshall Female College, and where he remained until his death, which occurred in July, 1872. He was an active and leading member of the .-^: ':%(^. '*•=> NORTHERN ALABAMA. 495 Methodist Plpiscopal Church, South, and was a man of superior mental ability. He was regarded as one of the most popular educators of the South, and was highly respected and beloved as a fitizeii and Christian. He married Julia A. F. Cameron, of Troup County, Ca. They reared three children, viz.: Charles II. (our subject), Walter \ . and .Mamie E., wlio died at Jacksonville in 18S5. Sjie was an eminent teacher, and at the time of her death was a member of the Normal School faculty, at Jacksonville. Walter V. Mont- gomery is a member of the Doctor's family, and is at jiresent studying medicine with him. JAMES CROOK, Jr., was born at Alexandria, Caliimin Ccjuiity. Ala., October l"^', 1841, and is a son of John M. Crook, Sr., and Margaret (.Miller) Crook, natives of Spartanburg District, S. C. John JI. Crook, Sr., was born in 1810, and came to Alabama in 18134. lie was a lawyer and farmer by profession and occupation, and took an active part in politics, though declining all official position for himself. He was a delegate to the Secession Convention of ISCO, and took a prominent part in the deliberation of that body. The Crook family came originally from Wales, settling first in Virginia, and moving from there into South Carolinia. James Crook, Sr., the pa- ternal grandfather of JIaj. James Crook, Jr., was reared and educated in South Carolina, and had the honor of representing the county (then dis- trict) of Spartanburg, at different times in both branches of the State Legislature. He married a Miss Owen, a lady of Scotch-Irish descent, and, in ls;i4, came to Alabama. Here he purchased large tracts of fertile lands and devoted himself to agriculture. Samuel Miller (the maternal grand- father of JIaj. James Crook, Jr.) and his wife, who was a -Miss Dean, were of Scotch-Irish ex- traction, and Samuel Miller was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. A few years prior to the War for Indci)endence, a large number of Scotch-Irish settled along the foothills of the Blue I>idge in Pennsylvania, \'irginia. North and South Caro- lina, when their farther j)ilgrimage was arrested by the beautiful scenery, fertile lands, and salubri- ous climate of upper South Carolina. Here they built their cabins near springs of cool and delicious water, erected school-iiouses and churches, and were soon living in peace and plenty, such as they had never known in the Mother Country. There both had been denied them by the cruelties of religious persecution. No grander specimens of humanity have been produced anywhere on earth than those who were born and reared in thi.s '■ I'iedmont Region," and should we take their achievements from American history, it would be robbed of some of its grandest success in war, in statesmanship and religion. Not long were those noble pioneers left in the enjoyment of tlie blessings wiiich Providence had so bountifully bestowed upon them. When the oppressions of tiie JEother Country began, some of those same Scotch-Irish were the first at Meck- lenburg to declare their independence of a govern- ment which they had learned to distrust before crossing the ocean. Among the first to take up arms, were Crook, Owens, Dean and John Miller, of the Tiger River s(j;ttlement, in wliat is now called Spartanburg County, S. C. All four of those men were great-grandfathers of Maj. James Crook, Jr., the subject of this sketch. The three first named served gallantly throughout the War for Independence in the American Army. The last named, John Miller, was killed by Tories and Indians during the year 17T5. The assassins were hidden under a bridge over which he had to pass on his way from Fort Nicholas to his home. Fort Nicholas was situated a short distance from the scene of the occurrence, on North Tiger River, and Miller was going for supplies for liis own and other families then being protected at the Fort. A thrilling account of his death is recorded in Howe's History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina. He left one son, Samuel Miller, who, seven years later, took part in the battle of Cowpens. Tiie last named was the maternal grandfather of Major Crook, who thus had four great-grandfathers and a grand father in the Revo- lutionary War — an lionor of ancestry which can be claimed by but few living men. Samuel Miller was subsefpiently sheriff of Spartanburg County, at a time when that office combined the duties of the present clerk and probate judge. Major Crook was educated at the Universities of Alabama and Virginia. From tiie latter institu- tion he took his departure a short time before the end of his last term, and in June, lS(;i, enlisted in Company D, Tenth Alabama Regiment, as a private soldier. In 18C'2 he was promoted to first- lieutenant; in 1804 he was made captain, and 496 NORTHERN ALABAMA. later ou was promoted to the rank of major of Cavalry. Soou after his transfer to the Cavalry service, lie was captured, and was imprisoned on Johnson's Island until the close of the war. Prior to his capture he had jiarticipated in many hotly- contested battles. After the cessation of hostilities, he returned to Alexandria, and during the following year, at Jacksonville, began the study of law in the office of Hon. W. H. Forney. He was admitted to the bar in 1867 and at once entered upon success- ful practice of his profession. In that year he was made chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of liis county, in which capacity he served for six years, and was contemporaneously a member of the State Democratic Executive Com- mittee. In 1868 he was a Seymour and Blair elec- tor, and made a very thorough and active canvass of his district. In 1861) he was elected as the nominee of the Democratic Party to the lower House of the General Assembly. In 1876 he was ajjpointed by Governor Houston to the highly honor- able and responsible position of a trustee of the State University, and in 1883 he was made, by statute, a director in the Normal School at Jack- sonville, in botli of which capacities he is still act- ing. He continued to give his attention to the practice of his profession until 1881, when he was elected Eailroad Commissioner, with Hon. Walter L. Bragg as president and Hon. Charles P. Ball, associate. He continued in this position four years, since which time he has been giving his attention to his private business — principally man- ufacturing, farming, and the breeding of blooded stock. Major Crook was married to Miss Annie E. Ponder, of Montgomery, Ala., in 1868, by wliich marriage he has a son, James Flournoy Crook. Mrs. Crook died in 1869, and in 1871, Major Crook was married to Miss Reynolds, a daughter of Major "Walker Reynolds, an influential citizen of Talladega County. To this union four children have been born : Hannah, Walker R., Martin and Ei^pie, the latter now deceased. — ^-^S^^- < '• • ISAAC LEONID AS SWAN, Clerk of the Pro- bate Court, Jacksonville, was born September 24, 1832, in McMinn County, Tenn., and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Woods) Swan. Tlie senior Mr. Swan was born in Knox Countv, Tenn., in 1798; was a captain in the Seminole War in 1836; died in Bradley County, Tenn., to which he moved, about 1840; left living seven chil- dren, of whom three were sons, viz.: Isaac L., our subject, Samuel Jones, a farmer of Tennessee, who served in the Southern Army from that State, and William Alexander, who died in Arkansas. His father married a Miss Gamble, and was one of the pioneers of Knox County, Tenn., where he lived until his death. He reared a large family. The Swan family catne originally from England, and the Woods family are of Scotch origin. Isaac Leonidas Swan was reared and educated in Tennessee, and in September, 1853, came to Jacksonville, where he was soon afterward ap- pointed Clerk of the Probate Court. He filled this office six years, and then accepted a position as book-keeper for J. B. & G. H. Forney. In the sjiring of 1861 he entered the army as a member of Company G, Tenth Alabama, and participated in the battles of the second Manassas, Wilderness, Petersburg, a short siege below Richmond, and other minor contests. At the close of the war he returned to Jackson- ville, and shortly removed to Selma, where he was employed as book-keeper until 1870. From Selma he returned to Jacksonville, and in 1874 was ap- pointed to the position he has since continuously filled: Clerk of the Probate Court. He is identi- fied with the leading industries of Jacksonville, and is a member of the Knights of Honor. Mr. Swan was appointed County Treasurer in 1875, and having been elected to that office in 1877, held it until 1880. He was married June 6, 1866, to Miss Mary F. Cannon, of this city. Her father. Judge L. W. Cannon, a native of South Carolina, was among the early settlers of Calhoun County. The children born to ilr. and Mrs. Swan are named, respectively: Mary E., William Gordon, Mattie P., Fannie Lee, Emma A. J., Samuel L., John R., Flora Alabama, Hannah Cleveland, and James Hugh. «"J^^-^— — JOHN P. WEAVER, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Jacksonville, was born near Weaver's Station, Calhoun County, February 26, 1860, and is a son of Lindsey and Lucinda (Pace) Weaver, natives of Putnam County, Ga. The senior Mr. Weaver came to Callioun County NORTHERN ALABAMA. 497 about 183ii, and liere followed farming the rest of his life. He and his wife were members of the Haptist Church, of which he was a deacon, lie died in 1801, at the age of fifty-seven years, and she in 187'.), iit tlie age of sixty-four years. They reared nine children, viz. : Richard. David F., Thomas L., John I'., Lizzie (Mrs. Woodrutf); Louisa, wife of Judge James -Viken. of (fadsden; Fannie, wife of P. M. Watson; Ilattie, wife of A. Scarbrough; and Arcadia, wife of W. J. Allen, of Bessemer, Ala. Kichard, Havid F. and Thomas L. are farmers by occupation; the two first named were soldiers in the .Southern army during the war between the States. The Weavers came originally from (Jermany, and Lindsey Weaver's father was one of the pio- neers of Putnam County, Ga. Richard Pace, Mrs. Weaver's father, was one of the early settlers of C^alhoun County. He was a Baptist minister, and as such was held in highest esteem. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm in his native county, and at the age of fifteen years engaged as clerk for the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway, at Weaver's Station, a position he hehl until 1886. In August of that year he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court. Mr. Weaver is a member of the Baptist Church, and a pojiular citizen of .Tncksonville. HENRY FLOYD MONTGOMERY, United States Commissioner, was honi near Atlanta, Ga., in Ni)vember, 18rKi, and is a son of James F. and Elizabetii (Young) Montgomery, natives of South Carolina. He was reared on a farm, and educated at the common school. February, 18(!4, he enteretl Ferrel's Battery (General Forrest's command), and subsequently took part in the battles of Decatur, Florence, Selma, etc. He was paroled at or near Atlanta ^lay 14, 18(15. After the final surrender he returned to Georgia, and from there later on moved to Te.xas, where lie remained until 18, and is a son of 498 NORTHERN ALABAMA. James and Sarah Rowan, natives of the same place. The senior Mr. Rowan was a planter by occuj^a- tion. and reared five sons and three daughters. In about 1820 he came to Jefferson County, near where Birmingham is now situated, and in 1824 removed to St. Clair County, where he spent the rest of his life. lie died in September, 1880, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. His wife died about 1802. The grandfather of our subject was a native of Spartanburg District, S. C, and of Irish extraction. The mother of Peyton Rowan was a daughter of William Pullen, a native of Virginia. He took part in the Revolutionary War, and soon afterward moved to South Carolina, whence, in 1820 he came to this State and settled Hear Birming- ham, where he died at the age of ninety-six years. The subject of this sketcli was reared and edu- cated in this State. At the age of eighteen years he entered a store as salesman at Ashville, and in 1842 became a partner, which partnership lasted until 1805. In 1866 he came to Jacksonville, where he engaged in the mercantile business, and in January, 18T1, took in as partners W. H. and Walter Dean; the firm name being Rowan, Dean & Co. This firm has done, and is at the present writing doing, the largest business of any house of the kind in Calhoun County. Mr. Rowan was married April 10, 1856, to Miss Ann Forney, sister of General Forney, of Confed- erate fame. This Union has been blessed with four children, viz: Dr. John F., of Xew York City; Sallie L. ; Emma M., wife of Bernard Gas- ton, of Montgomery; and George H. The family are communicants of the Ejiiscopa- lian Church, and ilr. Rowan is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Gated in his native county, and at the age of seventeen years entered a store as salesman. In 1874 he engaged in general merchandising at Alexandria, and he continued thereat until 1883. In 1880 he was elected Probate Judge. He has always been active in politics, has taken part in all the State conventions since 1870, and was chairman of the county conventions of 1882 and 1884. ilr. Crook was married December lit, isr^, to ^liss Sallie Walker, daughter of Whitfield and jMary (Mangum) Walker, natives of South Caro- lina. Mr. Walker was colonel of an Alabama regiment during the war. He is now Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Florida. Mr. Crook has had born to him four children, viz.: Maud, Ida, Whitfield Walker and John M. The family are members of the Baptist Church, and j\Ir. Crook is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity and of the Knights of Honor. WILLIAM H. DEAN was born in St. Clair County, this State, October 6, 184.5. He was reared and educated in his native county, and from there, in 1861, entered the Southern Army, as a member of I Company A, Tenth Alabama Infantry. He was with his command in its many engagements up to and including Gettysburg. On the retreat from the latter place he fell into the hands of the enemy and was imprisoned at Point Lookout and Fort Delaware for several months. He located at Jacksonville in 1867, where he has since been actively engaged in business. Mr. Dean was married July 24, 1884, to Miss Ida M. Steel. Mrs. Dean died in 1885. EMMETT F. CROOK was born at Alexandria, Calhoun County, this State, July 27, 1851, and is a son of John M. aod Narmeza (Woodruff) Crook. Mrs. Crook is a daughter of Caleb Woodruff, a native of Spartanburg, S. C, who came to Cal- houn County in 1834. His father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was of English ancestry. The subject of this sketch was reared and edu- GIDEON C. ELLIS, Attorney-at-law. was born in Blount County, this State, November 7, 1825. He was reared in his native county and received his primary education at the common schools. He came to Jacksonville in 1851, and in the office of Mr. Geo. C. Whately began the study of law. In 1852 he was admitted to the bar, and at once formed a partnership with his preceptor. This partnership continued until April, 1861, at which time Mr. Ellis enlisted in defense of the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 499 South as a member of the First Alabama Regi- ment. He liad been but a few montlis in the ser- vice, however, when liis protracted ill-health necessitated liis discharge. Soon after returning home he resumed the practice of law, and has since devoted his time and talents thereto. In 1S55 ilr. Ellis represented Calhoun County in the Legislature: during the period of the war he held theofKceof Register in Chancery, and in ISfJo he was returned to the Legislature and kept there two terms. This seems to constitute the sum of his office holding. As a legislator he was faithful, active and efficient, in fact it is doubtful if Cal- houn — somewhat prolific in the production of tal- ented men — has ever been better represented in the General Assembly than during the period of Mr. Ellis' incumbency. A lawyer of rare attain- ments, he not only knew the needs of his people, but he had the ability to present them, and, if need be, the courage to defend them. As an attorney and counselor-at-law, he is ranked among the foremost of the Calhoun bar, and as an advocate his reputation is by no means local. He is recognized by all who know him as a gentleman and a scholar; and as a citizen of Jacksonville he is held in high esteem. Mr. Ellis was married in January, 18Gfi, to Miss Mary Turney, the accomplished daughter of the Hon. Hopkins L. Turney, late United States Sen- ator from Tennessee. She died in 1S83. The present wife of Mr. Ellis was a Miss Combs before her marriage to Mr. Kins, her first husband. JOSEPH A. GABOURY. distinguished as hav- ing, as civil engineer, constructed the first jirac- tical and successful Electric Street Railway sys- tem in the United States — viz., that of Jlont- gomery, Ala. — is a native of Montreal, Canada, and was born in April, 185"^. After a thorough Ijreparatory training in his native city, graduating from St. Hyacinthe College, he visited Paris, France, and there completeil his study of mining and civil engineering. Returning to Canada in 1871, he followed his profession until 1874. In that year he came South, where his eminent ability as civil engineer found ready recognition. In the practical pursuit of his profession he visited the principal cities of the Gulf and South Atlantic States, and in 188.3 located at Montgomery, where, as before noted, he constructed the Electric Street Railway system of that city. Mr. Gaboury came to Jacksonville in Septem- ber, 1887, and in February, 1888, associated with others, perfected the organization of the .Tackson- sonville Mining and Manufacturing Company, a gigantic joint-stock concern with »»500,OOU capital. It is to Mr. Gaboury that the people of this vicinity are indebted for the discovery near here of the immense beds of kaolin, which chemists and porcelain men pronounce equal to any found in the world. Under his direction and manage- ment this kaolin is to be developed, and as its virtue ana quantity is unquestioned. Jacksonville may be looked to at an early day as the seat of one of the most important industries of the South. Xll. ATALLA. This enterprising and thriving town is situated on the Ahxbama Great Southern Kailroad, and not far from the center of Etowah County. It was founded in the year 1870, and was the outgrowth of the railroads that were being constructed about tliat period. Its beginning was marked by the usual cliaracteristics of new towns — a few rude buildings thrown together by the pioneer carpen- ter, a store, a blacksmith shop, dwelling, tavern, etc. A part of the plantation of W. C. Ham- mond, donated by him for the purpose, was selected as the site of the town. Upon the con- struction of the railroad, a station was established here, which gave impetus to the growth and develo])ment of the place. Subsequently the town was incorporated, and new additions were made to accommodate and meet the wants of the population, which now numbers about one thou- sand souls, and is rapidly increasing. Some of the oldest families settled in and about the country now known as Atalla and its vicinity, and many of them and their descendants yet dwell here and occuj)}- jirominent positions in soci- ety and in the professions. The chapters on Eto- wah County and the city of Gadsden, found else- where in this volume are replete with historical and biographical matter that will be found of much interest to the peojile of Atalla. The word Atalla is of Indian origin, and was used by the Cherokees to express the two words that in all languages seem most to thrill the ten- derest chords of the heart: " My Home." The town was laid out with a good deal of care, taste and judgment; its streets and avenues hav- ing been run at right angles with each other, greatly facilitate improvements and add much to the symmetry and mechanical or artificial beauty of the place. The town was incorporated as a city in 1872. In that year a destructive fire swept over it — in fact, very nearly the whole place was reduced to ashes. The people, undismayed, went to work with renewed energy to replace what the fire had taken away, and it was not long before all eviden- ces of the conflagration had disappeared. The first move made toward the establishment of a school and church at this place w-as in 1872 by Judge Henry Pickens. He inirchased ihe site, and gave it to the town on the condition that it should be used for school and church purposes only. These institutions, churches and schools, have since become prominent among the attrac- tions of the city. The first newspaper established at Atalla was by P. J. Smith, during the days of Keconstruction. It was called the Republican- Union. Being rad- ical in politics it was necessarily short-lived. However, it prospered for a time, and finally went down with flag at full mast. After the Kejruhlican- Union had ceased to cast its effulgent beams ujjon the unfortunate, the people of Atalla were mimis an organ wherewith their jiraises might be sounded, until 1885. That year saw the birth of the Pick afld Shovel. The name at least was the embodiment of industry. But whether its founders were un- used to these tools, or had no affiliation with the labor they sought to represent, or an unsympa- thetic and unappreciative juiblic met its smiling face with a cold and stony glare, is not known. Certain it is, however, that Pick and Shovel did not stimulate the authors of its being to that exer- tion necessary to perpetuate its existence, and it followed the fate of its predecessor, to be suc- ceeded in due time by the Crescent. Atalla was prosperous for several years, and until the railroads upon which it depended went into bankruptcy. After that it had a precarious existence for almost a decade of years. The resuscitation of the railroads subsequently, did not benefit Atalla, at least for some time, for trafle went to other places and through other channels; and some of its most prominent busi- ness men located elsewhere, thus dejiriving it of a very important auxilliary to its jjrogress. 500 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 501 In a stagnant, listless condition the town re- mained until the opening of tlie iron mines in the mountains surrounding it. The development of this new industry, with all of its various ac- companiments, put new life and vigor into the place and started it on a safe and solid road to prosperity. Atalla is advantageously and picturesquely lo- cated — resting whore the two valleys seem to blend together, and looking up to the beautiful ranges of mountains towering above. Its adja- cent lands are fertile, capable of producing liber- ally any of the cereals, vegetables and grasses familiar to Tennessee. Added to this is a climate that for sahibrity and liealthfulness, is unsurpassed by Soutfiern Italy. All these things considered, there can be no doubt of the future prosperity of Atalla — and of all Xorthcrn Alabama as well. HENRY W. PICKENS, Mayor of Atalla, was born near lluntsville, this State, April 1, 18'i4r. He was reared on a farm, received a liberal educa- tion, and at the age of sixteen years began the study of law. Not finding the legal profession suited to his taste, he abandoned it, and turned his attention to school-teaching, which he followed for sixteen successive years. About lS5'-i he lovated at Gadsden, and engaged in real estate business. In 1802 he entered the army as third lieutenant in the Thirty-first Alabama, and in August following was promoted to captain. In November, 18<'i2, on account of ill-health, lie was detailed to the supply department of the army. Prior to secession he was a strong Union man, and advocated that doctrine publicly from the stump, and with much force. After the war he engaged in farming, and in 1870 located at Atalla, where he gave his attention principally to real estate business. In ISTO he was Superintendent of Education for the county of Etowali. He was married October 7, 1845, toiliss Lucy W. Xowlin, of Madison (bounty. To this union thirteen cliil- dren iiave been born, three of whom died young: William K., Sarah E. (Mrs. J. C. Nobles). Susan (Mrs. W. T. Wimpee), Cornelia (Mrs. J. B. Rog- ers), Katie (deceased), David W., t'laudie "(de- ceased), Henry W., George B. and Jennie. Mr. and Mrs. Pickens are consistent members of the Cumberland I'resbvterian Church. Joseph and Selina (Brazelton) Pickens, were the parents of Henry W., whose name heads this sketch. .Joseph was born in Pickens District, S. C, and, liis father having died, he came with his mother and four sisters to Alabama at an early day, and settled near Huntsville. He became .a prominent farmer of .Madison County, and owned a place seven miles east of Huntsville, where for many years he maintained an extensive camp- meeting ground. He was a prominent member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He reared a family of eleven children, viz.: Hypasia, wife of Uev. W. G. Milligan; Dr. A. V%. Pickens, deceased; Henry W., the subject of this sketch; Catherine, deceased, was the wife of Leonard Lamberson; Elizabeth, deceased, was the wife of Preston Mills, who died in the Confederate Army; Jane, deceased, was the wife of John H. Iladen, and was the mother of Charles J. Haden, known to the newspaper world by the name " C. Aytch"; Margaret, now w-ife of Mr. Trice, of Ocolona, Miss.; Joseph William; James C.:JohnM; and Lydia, deceased: she was the wife of Mr. Barnett. The old gentleman died in 1870. His widow still survives liini at the age of about eighty-six years. His father was Andrew Pickens, a native of South Carolina. The family came originally from Ire- land, and all the Pickenses in this country sprung from the satne stock. The history of the I'ickens family is identified prominently with tiuit of South Carolina. WILLIAM P. SHAHAN was born near Atalla October :}, 1S4."), and is :t sou of John and Editha (Chandler) Shahan. He was reared on a farm and educated at the common schools and at At- lanta College. When a young man he taught school some five or six years, and at the age of 2.") turned mill-wriglit. In 1878 he engaged in mer- cantile business in the country seven miles west of Atalla, in partnership with J. Shahan, now a wholesale grocer at Birmingham; in 1881. associa- ted with M. L. Foster, he engaged in business at Gadsden, and was there for two years. In April, 188(i, he started in business at Atalla. Mr. Shahan began life when a young man with- out money, but at this time he is rated all the waj' from ^."in.OOO to *!75,0(iO, and is recognized as one of the most successful business men in Northeast- ern Alabannv. He was married February 28, 1S7G, 502 NORTHERN ALABAMA. to Miss Minnie Ewing, of Gadsden, and the five children born to this union are named, respectively: Willie, Whitley, Arthur, Flora and Charley. John Shahan moved from Georgia to Alabama in 1836, and spent the rest of his life at Chandler, this State He reared a family of four sons and five dauorhters. lie died in 185G. -«•- DANIEL T. HAMNER was born in Marion County, Ga., June 3, 1S38, and is a son of Wesley and Mary M. (James) Hamner, natives, respect- ively, of the States of Georgia and North Carolina. In his early life he attended the common schools, and afterward an accademy in Bullock's County, this State. At the age of twenty years he was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He afterward taught school a few years in ad- dition to preaching, as opportunity afforded. He entered the Alabama Conference in 1802, and was ordained elder. At the end of three years his health having failed, he returned to farming, and later on to teaching. In 1800 he engaged in mer- cantile business at Echo, Dale County, Ala., and in 1877 he moved to Wynnville, where he remained until January, 1880, at which time he came to Atalla. Here he engaged in mercantile business in addition to looking after his farming interests in Blount County. He was married in February, 1861, to Miss D. M. Miller. One of his sons, George W., is clerk in the United States Treas- ury Department; another son, Charles AV., is at school; Edward D. is in the United States Pension Office. The others are Homer H., a student; John M., Ida E. and Lois. The eldest three are all college graduates, and the others are in school. Wesley Hamner was born in 1812, in Putnam County, Ga., and moved into Marion County when t'young man; being a cripple — from accident — he learned the shoe-making trade, which he followed F a good many years. He was an independent *• soldier in the War of 1836; came to Alabama in 1843, and returned to Georgia in 1847. In 1856 he returned to Alabama and located in Pike County. After the war he moved into Butler County, where he died in 1886. He was an earn- est Christian gentleman, and much devoted to his family. He reared two sons and seven daughters: Sarah J., wife of N. Cowart, of Georgia; Daniel "T., the subject of this sketch; Martha, wife of Benjamin Hudson; Mary E., wife of Augustus Parker; Julia S., wife of R. H. J. Hilldreth; Frances (deceased) was the wife of William McKinney and the mother of five children, all of whom were drowned in attempting to cross a stream of water in 1876; Ellen, wife of N. D. Hathorn; Susan W., wife of Sidney Williams; John W.T., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. JAMES HARDEN WOOD, M. D.. was born in ilacon County, Ga., March 30, 1857, and is a son of William II. and Susan (Harden) Wood, natives of Monroe County, Ga. He was reared on a farm and received his primary education at the North Georgia Agricultural College. At the age of twenty-one years he began the study of medicine at home, and in the spring of 1882 was graduated from Vanderbilt University. Immediately after leaving the university he located at Atalla, where he entered at once upon a most flattering practice. He was married, March 22, 1883, to Miss Ida Lester, daughter of Dr. J. H. and Elizabeth (Cox) Lester, of Atalla. Dr. Lester, a surgeon in the late war, was one of the pioneers of Atalla, William H. Wood, the father of Dr. James H. Wood, was born in 1828, and his wife in 1831. He was a substantial planter, and owned abont seventy-five slaves. He tendered his services to the United States in the War with Mexico, but it ajipears they were not particularly needed. He moved into Alabama in 1870, and lo- cated in DeKalb County, where he died in De- cember, 1886. He reared eleven children, as fol-. , lows: Dr. .James H., Leola (wife of Lemuel M. Small), Su.san (wife of James M. Tidmore), Tom- mie, AVilliam H., Hattie (wife of John Monroe), Ernest, Lena, Beulah, Pearl, and Claud. Allen AVood was the father of AA'illiam H. He was a native of Monroe County, Ga., and was a soldier under General Jackson in the war of 1812. He reared six sons and five daughters, all of whom grew to be men and women, and the sons were all Confederate soldiers during the late war. Two of them, Henry and Cleveland, were killed in A^irginia, and the other at Chickamauga. AVill- iam H. was a member of the Twenty-ninth Georgia Regiment during the late war, and held the rank of lieutenant. XORTIIERN ALABAMA. 503 The Wood family came originally from England, and settled in South Carolina. Fernando Wood, of New York, was of the same stock. The Harden family were numerous in Georgia. Dr. Wood's maternal grandfather, .Tames Harden, owned aliout ;5(i<< slaves ]irior to l.sdl. DR. DUFF CHILD, prominent citizen and a retired Physician and Surgeon, of Atalla, was born in Pickens County, this State, November 7, 1833, and is the son of George G. and Lucinda 0. (Mit- chell) Cliild, natives respectively of Connecticut and South Carolina. Ilis primary education was acquired at a common school, at the age of eighteen he entered the Military Institute of Ken- tucky, where he remained one year. In 18.i.i he began the study of medicine in Jlobile. Gradua- ting from the University of Pennsylvania, Phila- delphia, in 18.iT, he returned to Mobile, to which ])lace his parents had moved when he was seven years of age, and was there in the practiceof medi- cine at the time the civil war broke out. Early in Aj^ril, 18'il, he joined the Third Alabama Regiment as a private in Company K. lie was soon afterward made junior second lieutenant, and again, subsequently, appointed assistant- surgeon, and transferred to the Army of the Ten- nessee. From assistant-surgeon he was in diie time promoted to the rank of full surgeon, and was in the Army of Tennessee to the close of the war. As army surgeon he was noted for his impartiality in the treatment of the sick and wounded. It mattered not to him to which army a man belonged when once he was assured that he was in need of medical treatment. After tlie war he spent some years in practice in different parts of the country, including Louisville, Nashville, and some of the western cities. He gave up the practice of medicine in 1875, and retired to a farm near Hirmingham, where he remained until 188"), when he moved to Atalla, where he now resides. JAMES S. STEWART was born at Falcon, Ark.. .May 'l'.\, ls."i."), and is a son of 0. W. and Mary A. (Pope) Stewart, natives of North Caro- lina and Alabama, respectively. He received an academic education, and after his father's death, spent three years at farming. He afterward en- gaged in the drug business at Gadsden and fol- lowed it two years. In August, 187<), he mar- ried Miss Lula Coker, of Cherokee County, Ala., and has had born to him two children: Vivian and Estella. Some time after his marriage, Mr. Stewart moved to Atalla, where he has since been engaged in business. He is largely interested in mining and shipping iron ore, and is a stockholder in the Gadsden Furnace Company. He began life with little money, but l)y jjcrsistent industry and skillful management, he has succeeded in the acquisition of a reasonable competency. The senior Mr. Stewart, moved from Winches- ter, Tenn., in 1852, to Falcon, Ark., and was there some time oigaged in the mercantile busi- ness. After his marriage he returned to Winches- ter, and was there merchandising some time. Having taken up the study of medicine, he en- tered Transylvania Medical College, Lexington, Ky., and was graduated in 1858. He entered the army in 18(il, and was appointed resident surgeon at Cooper Iron Works, near Cartersville, Ga. He was there when the army fell back to Dalton, when he was transferred to Montgomery, where he remained until nearly the close of the war. After the war he embarked in mercantile business at Auburn, Ala., and in 1870 sold out and moved to Gadsden. Here he devoted himself to farming and the practice of medicine. Dr., Stewart was one of the most successfnl practitioners in this part of the country. In 1873 he went to Memphis, where he some time after- ward died with yellow fever. He left a family of seven children, namely : Ale.xander 11. , a farmer; James S., the subject of this sketch; John P., a physician at Atalla; flattie B. wife of A. J. Coats; Benjamin L., a merchant; Willie May, wife of 1). H. Coats; and Edwai^d K. ROBERT HUSTON DUNCAN was born at Kingston, Tenn., October I'.i, 1853, and is a son of Robert and Nancy K (Liggett) Duncan. Mr. Duncan spent the first thirteen years of his life at his native place, and came with his parents to DeKalb County in 1866. From there the family moved to Dade County, Ga., whence 504 NORTHERN ALABAMA. they returned to Alabama ten years later and lo- cated at Fort Payne. In 1870 young Duncan was emjjloyed as a clerk in a mercantile establishment, and later on he was with the Roane Iron Com- pany, at Chattanooga, Tenn. He next returned to Fort Payne, and was engaged in the book busi- ness, which he pursued for some years, and which he continued afterward at Gadsden. He located at Gadsden in 1874, and was afterward on the road as a drummer for an Atlanta copying house. His father having died in 1885 he took charge of his business, which required his attention there- after for some time. He was married December 7, 1885, to Miss Anna Vincent, of Etowah County. Mr. Duncan comes from one of the old and respected families of the South. As a citizen and a business man he has always held the esteem and confidence of the ])eople. M. K. CLEMENTS was born on the ISth of March, 1856, in Talledaga County, Ala. His ancestors came from Europe and settled in Virginia about the close of the seventeenth century. His great-grandfather, James Clements, moved from Virginia to Georgia just before the Revolutionary War. There a son, William, was born, and about the close of the last century the family moved to Alabama and settled in Randolph County. Here William married Miss Winnie Hortou, and on the 10th day of April. 1820, Benjamin N. was born; he married Miss Tempa Forrel. To this couple, the subject of this sketch was born. Ben- jamin N. Clements is a farmer, and M. K. Clements was reared on the farm amid the romantic scenery of the Hillobee part of Talladega County. He taught school in 1873-3, and in the fall of the latter year entered the A. and M. College at Auburn, where he was graduated with distinc- tion in 1876. Soon after leaving college he married Miss Sophia Thomas. He taught school in Clay County in 1877, in Tallapoosa County in 1878, and in the fall of that year joined the North Alabama Conference and was appointed to the Val- ley Head Circuit in Wills Valley, DeKalb County, Ala., which he traveled until the session of the Conference in 1879, when he was appointed prin- cipal of the Guntersville District High School, located at CoUinsville. He continued in charge of this school for seven years, and succeeded in building up one of the best institutions of learning in that part of the State. In the fall of 1886 he moved to Atalla, and established the Atalla High School, which is one of the best of the kind in North Alabama. He has three children: Edna, Earl, Victor Hugo and Merit DeWitt. EDWARD W. COX is a native of this county and was born December 13, 1841. He was reared on a farm and educated at the common schools. He entered the army in the spring of 1861, as a mem- ber of the Thirty-first Alabama and served a short time, when he was discharged on account of ill health. In the fall of the same year he joined Cap- tain Webb's Battalion, and served with it through the war. In the Thirty-first Regiment he held the rank of first lieutenant; in the Twelfth Battalion he was tendered a captaincy, but declined it. He took part in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, the Dalton Campaign, and in all the engagements from Chatanooga to Atlanta. After the war he returned home and engaged at farming, to which he has since given much of his attention. He was in mercantile business from 1881 to 1887, and for the past year has been milling. He was married February 1, 1865, to Jliss Elizabeth Hughes, and has had born to him three children: Miles E., Oscar and Lester. Mr. and Mrs. Cox are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Thomas J. and Elizabeth Cox, parents of the subject of this sketch, were natives of Tennessee and Alabama respectively, the former being born in 181-2 and the latter in 1818. The family, when Thomas J. was but five years of age, settled at Gun- tersville, this State, and the senior Mr. Cox, was there in the hotel business for some years. He con- structed the first turnpike that crossed Sand ^loun- tain. Thomas J. Cox lived at Fisher's Gap a great many years, and there died in the summer of 1880. Elizabeth (Boyd) Cox, his wife, died in 1850. His second wife was a Miss Walker. By his first wife he reared four sons and one daughter; by his second, five sons and two daughters. Mr. Cox was an extensive planter and slave- holder, and a citizen of considerable influence in the community where he resided. His widow yet survives him. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 505 JOHN B. MORAGNE was born at Gadsden, this State, October "•.".i, \^'A\ received a ooinmon- school education, and, since 18iS'.?, has been in mercantile business. His grandfather, John ^[oraofne, a silver-sniitli by occiqiation, came from France, settled in Soutii Carolina, where he be- came a wealthy planter, and in IS.'Jo, moved to Alabama. John .S. and Sarah (Kevel) .Moragne, parents of John B., were natives of Abbeville District, S. C. Mr, Moragne came with his father and set- tled in Cherokee County, this State, in 1830. lie was a farmer by occupation, and much interested in the mineral deposits of his part of the country. He sunk, probably, the first shaft in search of minerals that was put down in Northeastern Alabama. In 18-J9 he purchased a large tract of mineral lands near Atalla, and in IbTl shipped to Wheeling, Va,, the first ore leaving this State. He subsequently leased the mines, from which the family have since received a handsome royalty. He died in .March, 188-^, leaving a family of six sons and three daughters. ■ • ■' > •^g^"»— THOMAS A. WATKINS was born in Calhoun County, this State, Dijcember 25, 185(3, and is a son of James P, and Mary (Walker) Watkins, He was reared on a farm and educated at Cal- houn College, (ieorgia, and at Jacksonville, this State. In early life he moved to Te.xas,but soon afterward returned and engaged in business at Jacksonville, from which place he came to Etowah County. Here he engaged some years in farming, and for the last four years has given his attention princi- pally to real estate. He has bought and sold over 100,000 acres of mineral land since engaging in the busi- ness, and now owns several fine farms in this part of the country. In 1888 he established the Atalla Herald, a sprightly newspajjcr of much local popularity. Mr. Watkins is public spirited, and one of the progressive men of the county. He was married in October, 1879, to Mrs. Lizzie E. Coleman, the daughter of Rev. Enoch Ellis, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Coleman was a native of Soutli Carolina, moving thence into Georgia before the war, and later on into Alabama. Mr. and Mrs. Watkins are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Mr. Watkins is a Mason. Xlll. TUSCALOOSA. By W. C. Richardson, Ph. D. Black Warrior Town. — On the IStli day of October, a.d. 1540, Hernando de Soto, a distin- guised Spanish cavalier, whose name is associated with perhaps the most romantic expedition recorded in the annals of the Western Continent, fought, as Spanish chronicles relate, the battle of Manvilla with the natives, headed by their re- nowned Chief Tuscaloosa. This ajjpellation gave name directly to the river, and remotely to the Creek Settlement — Black AVarrior Town, which ultimately developed into the town of Tuscaloosa. The Indian Village at that time occupied a site on the banks of the Warrior just below what is now known as Newtown. A strip of land several miles in width, skirting both sides of the river, and extending from the falls of the Warrior to its junction with the Big- bee, had been left by mutual consent as neutral, or at least as disputed ground between the Creeks and Choctaws. When trading posts were established by the Government at Washington, throughout Missis- sippi Territory, which included the present domain of Alabama, at which goods were to be furnished to the Indians "atcost for their furs and peltries," a Creek Chief, by name Ocechemotla, obtained consent of the Choctaws (in 1809) to locate a settlement known as Black Warrior Town at the falls of the Warrior, to be held as a general ren- dezvous for the hunters and traders of his tribe. When the Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh, was re- turning from "the Alabama towns" to his lodge on the banks of the Wabash, after his famous ex- pedition in 1812, undertaken with a view to enlist the Southern Indians in a general uprising against " the pale faces," he passed through the settle- ment, which had already grown to be a consider- able village. In the fall of 1812, a party of jMuscogees, re- turning from a foray through Tennessee, after brutally murdering two of her children, bore off into captivity a white woman, by the name of Mrs. Crawley. She was brought to the ''Falls of the Warrior," and there inhumanly treated. Finally, after great suffering, she was ransomed by the noble efforts of a trader and interpreter at St. Stephens, known as Tandy Walker, and restored to her home — an act which was publicly recog- nized and rewarded by the Legislature of Ten- nessee. Mrs. Crawley was thus, much against her will probably, the first white inhabitant of this locality. Soon after the occurrence narrated above, the Black Warriors trading at the St. Stejjhens fac- tory, while under the influence of "fire-water," betrayed their jjurpose of siding with the British in the war then impending — a design which, in the near future, provoked the battle of Burnt Corn, and led to the massacre at Fort Mims. Only the promptitude of the superintendent, George S. Gaines, who sent a runner to (Jovernor Blount, of Tennessee, and secured the aid of General Jack- son's mounted volunteers, enabled the whites to cripple the plans of the Creeks, and save the other defenceless white settlements from exter- mination. In the sanguinary events that followed, the treachery of the inhabitants of Warrior Town was not overlooked. Enticed from the shelter of their stronghold, known as Seminole Fort, by a feint of their wily foe, the garrison was captured and the settlement destroyed. The savage occu- pants were killed, except a few who sought refuge in the swamps below the town. Davy Crockett, who was in General Coffee's Tennessee command, states in his autobiograjihy. 506 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 507 that when they reached the "Falls of the War- rior," the Indian town, which was " a large one," had been abandoned, and that the soldiers after pos- sessing themselves of the "corn and dried beans" which the)' found in ((uantities in the cribs and adjacent fields, reduced the town to ashes. In 1818, Crockett again visited the spot, hut found it only a place of skulls and desolation. Isaac Cannon, who moved to Alabama in 181.'), informed Captain McEaeliin, from whose frag- mentary "History of Tuscaloosa," this incident is derived, that he a!id John AVilson came to War- rior Town in 18IG, and selected an Indian old field, near Seminole Fort as a place of settlement. The fort at that time was in ruins, and Mr. Can- non counted " more tlian twenty human skeletons, supjtosed to be of Indians, bleaching in a place hard by." He stated that a large mound or cir- cular fortification occupied the site of the park, now in front of the Tuscaloosa Female College, and that all along the bluff below were "the charred remains of Indian huts, indicating the recent destruction of an Indian town by fire." Who built Seminole Fort? Who reared the for- tification at Hill's Park? I>id C'ol. John McKee, as held by Meek and others, with a band of Chick- asaws, aided by Pushmataka, and his friendly Choctaws, destroy Hlack Warrior Town, or did Major Hinds, with his Mississippi dragoons, as conjectured by McEachin, perform the redoubta- ble deed? All we know is the town was sacked, its inhabitants killed or driven off, and that it was subse(|uently laid in ashes by Coffee's men. A few years ago, on its site traces of the old stone corn-mills and arrow-heads were still to be found. It now sleeps, however, unciuestioned and un- trodden. The spot where Tuscaloosa stands was, at that period, surrounded by a dense and impene- trable forest. Immense cane-brakes lined the banks of the Warrior, and even invaded the up- lands. Game, including bear and panther, was everywhere abundant. The early inhabitants of this immediate section were principally inhabitants of the upper districts of the Carolinas and Georgia, who had at first immigrated to the fabled Kdens of the Tennessee Valley, and afterward allured by the glowing ac- counts of Coffee's returning soldiers, sought an El- dorado in Jones' Valley, along the trails and mil- itary roiuls opened by Jackson and Coffee in their descent upon the Alabama towns. As a wild beast steals from its lair, so emerged Tuscaloosa from the surrounding wilderness. Timid and shrinking, she did not come forth at one fiery bound. Her posture was drooped and crouching, her pace was slow and stealthy. She waited for the burial of the tomahawk, for the husliingof the ringing war-wh()0]i. She stayed for the fires of Seminole Fort to die out, for the bones of tiie painted denizens of old Warrior Town to bleach beside its charred and blackened ruins, and then gently parting the rank growth of cane that cov- ered the spot, she stealthily crept forth. Her growth was at first slow and tedious. Im- penetnvble forests hedged in her ste])S. Pathless solitudes and trackless defiles everywhere bounded her view. From Jones' Valley to the Falls of the Warrior, the cry of the panther alone broke the awful stillness. The Mudtown trail and the St. Stephens Iload alike led through a howling wilder- ness. 1 he rude settler had exj)elled the savage, but the famishing "wolf" was at his "door." Constructing a hut of pine saplings with a clap- board roof which, in some sort, shielded him from the asperity of the weather, the deadly struggle for food began. Game was abundant, but bread had to be wrung from the " unwilling glebe." Often planted with the a.xe, nest to the rifie the frontiersman's chief possession, the tardy harvest was welcomed with general rejoicing. Through toil, through suffering, through drouth, through famine, the infant city grew. Xo savage longer threatened its rising towers, but through many a vicissitude, it very slowly, very painfully advanced. It is narrated that pioneers venturing into the wilderness west of Tuscaloosa were com- pelled to pack their corn on horses from east of the Warrior. The i)opulation of that period was very rude. It was, in })art. made up of adventurers and land-sharks whom the recent wars had de- moralized or rendered desperate — men who chafed under civil yokes, and who flocked to these inhos- pitable wilds because they were fiavored with peril. They came and squatted upon the reserved section at the Falls of the Warrior, till they were dis- lodged by the land sales in 1821. The lands then passed into the hands of bona-fule settlers, men of a better type, who in time built homes that wore the air of comfort if not of refinement. As stated, the present site of Tuscaloosa, being at the Falls of the Warrior, or head of navigation, had been reserved from entry and sale by the Gen- eral Government. The fine expanse west of the 508 NORTHERN ALABAMA. city had been included in a grant to the Hartford Deal and Dumb Asylum. Seeing its advanta- geous location, a company composed of ^[arr, Perkins, Lewin, and others, purchased it. They knew it would one day be a city, or at any rate a valuable suburb, whenever the United States should throw open to buyers the reserved section. They proceeded to lay off the village of Newtown, selling alternate lots to purchasers, burdened with the condition that they should build upon them in a specified time. As our people had but just whipped the British and expelled the Indians, they were in no mood to listen to conditions, so they petitioned the General Government to lay off the present site of Tuscaloosa in lots and sell them without reserve. Much against the interests of the Newtownites, this was done by the Govern- mental Surveyor, Coffee, in 1821. Uence arose a jealous rivalry between the two factions, that was protracted for many years. Newtown had a court-house, a jail, and a ferry. It had a hotel, a steam mill, a cigar factory, a market-house and numerous stores, offices and dwellings. As population, however, like every- thing else movable, takes the Hue of least resist- ance, it naturally distributed away from monop- oly and restriction. It spread along the bluU between the present Broad and Spring streets, where they could overlook, beyond the Warrior, the expanse later known as "New Kentuck," and where it could draw its supplies of water from the bold and sparkling springs that gurgled in the grassy coves below. In time Newtown began to pale its "ineffectual fires "before the rising sun of Tuscaloosa. Her abandoned tenements were either torn down or wheeled into the rival village, until finally, in 1827, she was deprived, by the popular vote, of the court-house and jail, so that, to use the expressive language af another, "when Newtown was visited by the tornado, in 184-2, it found little to de- stroy." On the establishment of peace in 181.5, among those who repaired to the land of promise' were Patrick Scott, Jonathan York, John Barton, Jo- siah Tilley and William Wilson. It is stated that this last worthy built the first log-hut near where the old State capitol now stands, and that Jona- than York erected the first board shanty in the county of Tuscaloosa. An old log tavern arose on the south side of what is now Mr. Ed. Snow's lot. In time this was demolished, and what was afterward known as the " Yellow Tavern," a weather-boarded structure, was built by Colonel Holbert on the southeast corner of the same lot, and facing the present Bai^tist Church. The first frame residence of consequence was erected by William R. Colgin, on Pine street near the " Big Gully." This was occupied for many years by Constantine Perkins. The second was the Chil- dress place, now owned and occupied by Dr. John B. Read. The first brick residence in Tuscaloosa was built by Dr. James Guild. It is still a part of the "old Guild place," on Broad street, and occupied by Dr. Pearson. John Barton was a blacksmith, and a brother- in-law of Jonathan York, both having married daughters of Patrick Scott. Josiah Tilly also re- sided in Tuscaloosa, and married a daughter of Patrick Scott. John G. Ring, a Kentuckian, was also joined in wedlock to one of the irresist- ible daughters of Patrick Scott, who seems to have been expressly raised up by providence to furnish helpmates to the early settlers of our ris- ing city. . lie should be canonized as the Patron Saint of Tuscaloosa. Hiram P. Cochran, father of our respected fel- low-citizen, Dr. William A. Cochran, came to Tuscaloosa on Christmas day, 1816. The Doctor did not enter the village until the fall of 1817. The population at that period numbered about 300 souls. At the time of the land sales in 1821 the pofiulation had increased to 600. The first white child born in the city was, probably, Lucius Holbert, whose father was the proin-ietor of the " Yellow Tavern." According to Hon. Washington Moody, who wrote a manuscript history of Tuscaloosa, Wm. L. Adams was the first lawyer that came to the county, John L. Tindall the first physician, John Click the first mercl\ant, Richmond Car- roll the first blacksmith, and Nathan Roberts the first printer. Tuscaloosa is situated on a fine plateau at the falls of the Warrior, 202 feet above the level of the sea. The Alabama Great Southern Railroad touches its southern margin. It is 108 miles from Chattanooga, 55 miles from Birmingham, and 07 from ileridian. Miss. On the west lies the fruit- ful corn belt, next the river, where stock-raising is easy and remunerative. South of it the white fields of cotton cross the State, while above it lies the mineral district, which stretches far up through Jones' Valley. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 509 The climate of Tuscaloosa is e(|uable and salu- brious. It is alike exempt from the rigors of northern latitmles, and the scorching heats of the torrid zone. From observations taken by Mr. J. C Perkins, of the Alabama weather service, we learn that for the year beginning Sei>tember 1. 1880, and ending August :il, 1887, the following results were obtained: The lowest temperature, in the early part of .January, was (J degrees above zero, and the highest, about the middle of July, 9-t degrees — a range of only 88 degrees. The mean temperature for the year was 05.9'^. There were only four days in the year when the mercury did not rise above the freezing point, and only fifty-six days when the temperature was at or below ;52". The mean relative humidity for the year was 97.."). which shows a comparatively uniform condition, neither too wet nor too dry. Only three inches of snow fell in all during the winter. The rainfall during the year was 30. 1 inches. The dry season was during the fall and winter, when the farmer was gathering his crops. , The town of Tuscaloosa was first incorporated by an Act of the General Assembly of Alabama, approved December \'.\, 1819, and only compre- hended the fraction of land known as tlie south fraction of Section 3"J. Township til. Range 10 west. By an Act of the session of 18'-i5-G, establishing and permanently locating the seat of government for the State of Alabama, the corporate limits of Tuscaloosa were extended so as to include frac- tional sections "^1 and 2"-i, and sections 23, 20, 2T and 28 of the same township and range. The charter of January 12, 1828, and all subse- quent charters confine its limits to fractional sections 21 and 22 south of the Warrior Kiver. It would seem that a title of a city established as early as Tuscaloosa, and which had once been the capital of the State, would have been beyond dispute. Yet in June, 1887. certain jiarties pre- sented themselves at the United States Land Office at Jlontgomery, and regularly ap|ilied to enter the entire city under the homestead law. Their applications were rejected, ami on apjjcal to the (Jencral Land Otliceat Washington, the action of the Kegister was sustained by an able decision rendered November 29, 18,s7. The parties who proposed to enter the city fell into error, by find- ing no note of entry upon the tract book. The facts were that the town was originally laid off by the Surveyor-(teneral of the L'^nited States, and sold by lots from 1 to 511, and patented to each purchaser — the proclamation for such sale being issued by I'residcTit Monroe, August 23, 1823. The following is a list of the Mayors of the city, as far as they can be ascertained: William K. Boiling, Harvey AV. Ellis, Dr. John Owen, Geo. N. Stewart. Wm. W. Smith, Hobt. S. Inge, D. Henry Robinson, Robert Blair, James L. Ciiil- dress, Joseph C. Cniild, David A\'oodrufF, L. S. Skinner, Itobt. Blair, Robert Lacey, Jesse E. Adams, Obadiah Berry, Joseph C. Guild, S. B. Smith, Jno. S. (iarvin, Josiah J. Pegues, T. F. Samuel, Robert Blair, Obadiah Berry, John J. Harris, Obadiah Berry, William C Jemison. A new code has lately been prepared by Wood & Wood, attorneys of the city, from which these r/«/« are derived. Alabama was admitted into the Federal L'nion in 1.S19. Tuscaloosa County has sent no Senator to the Congress of the United States. The h'epresentatives from this county, in the lower house have been as follows: 1829 to 1831, Robert E. B. Baylor; 1838 to 1844, George W. Crabb; 1823 to 1839, John McKee; 1851 to 18.57, William R. Smith. In 1874 Burwell B. Lewis was elected to Congress from the State-at-large. He was elected again in 1878, and again in 188\ the Constitution of 18;.">, they were again made biennial. The State Convention in 1819 provided for the taking of the census and for the apportionment of State Senators. L'nder the first apportionment, Tuscaloosa and Pickens (then including Fayette), was constituted one senatorial district, and was entitled to one Senator and three Representatives. The following is a list of the Senators: 1819, Thomas Hogg: 1822 to 1832, Levin Powell: 1833, Dr. James Guild; 1834, Constantine Perkins; 1830, Samuel Johnson; 1837, George W. Crabb; 510 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 1838 to 1849, Dennis Dent; 1851 to 1862, Eobert Jamison; 18C3 to 1865, E. A. Powell; 1807 (no election), John M. Martin; 1S76 to 1884, A. C. Hargrove. Levin Powell came from Huntsville in 1816. He was a Virginian by birth, and fought with General Jackson in the War of 1812. He was the first Judge of Probate and the first Post- master of Tuscaloosa. He was elected President of the Senate in 1828, and again in 1832. He died while in office in 1833, and his unexpired term was filled out by Dr. James Guild. Constantine Perkins came to Tuscaloosa in 1819. In the same year he was elected District Solicitor, and in 1825 he became Attorney-General. He died September IT, 183i:. General Crabb was a Virginian. He was elected Comptroller in 1829. In 1836 he served in the Florida War, as lieutenant-colonel of the Alabama troo25s. He represented Tuscaloosa County in the Legislature in 1837. In 1838, he was sent to Congress to fill out an unexpired term, and was elected to the same position in 1839. Later, he removed to Mobile, where he was elected Judge of the Criminal Court in 1845. His death occurred August lo, 1846. Dennis Dent was a Georgian. He came to Tuscaloosa in 1820. He served in the Legislature in 1834, and was twice re-elected. He was a mem- ber of the State Senate for thirteen years, and was elected President of that body in 1849, by one vote. He was a captain in the Creek War in 1830. Eobert Jemison was born in Georgia in 1802. He came to Alabama in 1821. He moved to Pick- ens County in 1826, wliere he was a cotton planter for ten years. Returning to Tuscaloosa, he rep- resented the county in the lower house for eight years. In 1851 he was advanced to the Senate, ■where he remained twelve years. In 1862 he was elected President of the Senate. The following year he was called to the Confederate State Sen- ate, to succeed the Hon. Wm. L. Yancey. In 1861 he represented Tuscaloosa in the Constitu- tional Convention. He died in the city of his adoption, October 17, 1871. Mr. Jemison was noted for his great force of character, his enter- prise and his public spirit. Brewer has well said of him, that ''Among the citizens of Tuscaloosa Eobert Jemison stood like Saul among the chil- dren of Kish, a head and shoulders above his brethren." E. A. Powell is a South Carolinian. He en- tered public life in 1835. For many years he was a member of the lower house. In 1863 he was elected to the Senate. His recollection of public men and measures is marvelous, and he is at present engaged in publishing his fifty years' rem- iniscences of Tuscaloosa, Fayette and Walker Counties. Colonel Powell is a lawyer in good standing at tiie bar, and is a deacon in the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South. There have been three Presidents of the Senate from Tuscaloosa County, viz. : Levin Powell, Dennis Dent and Eobert Jemison. Eobert Jemi- son and Wm. E. Smith represented Tuscaloosa in the "Secession," and Moses McGuire and John C. Foster in the ''Eeconstruction " Convention. Tuscaloosa has furnished three State Treasurers, as follows: 1829 to 1834, Hardin Perkins; 1834 to 1840, William Hawn; 1840 to 1840, S. G. Frier- son. Also two Comptrollers or Auditors, viz.: 1829 to 1830, Geo. W. Crabb; 1848 to 1855, Joel Eiggs. BENCH AND BAR. Prior to 1820, the Courts of Tuscaloosa had ju- risdiction over all the Alabama territory west of her. What was then known as the County Court consisted of five judges elected by the Legislature, with power to choose one of their own members Chief-Justice. This Court was competent to try civil cases, to sit as a Court of Probate, and to perform the duties afterward assigned to the Commissioners of Eoads and Eevenues. Till 1832 the Sujjreme Court was comjjosed of the Judges of the Circuit Court sitting en banc. Between 1832 and 1852 it consisted of three Jus- tices; it was then increased to five, but on the repeal of this law,' in 1854, it reverted to three as before. The Judges of this Court from Tuscaloosa were as follows: 1828 to 1832, Siou L. Perry; 1828, Eli Shortridge; 1828 to 1832, Henry W. Collier; 1836 and 1837, Henry W. Collier. Collier was Chief Justice from 1837 to 1849; 1837 to 1847, John J. Ormand; 1868 to 1873; Elisha W. Peck. Judge Peck was elected in 1868, and took his seat by virtue of the Eeconstruction measures. 1880 to the present time, H. M. Somer- ville. Judge Somerville has worn his honors so worthily that Tuscaloosa would feel a just pride in seeing him seated on the Supreme Court Bench of the United States. Separate Supreme and Circuit Courts were es- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 511 tablished in 18."5"-i; tlie Judges were elected by the Legislature till 185(1, they are now elected by the people and hold tlieir office six years. Tuscaloosa has furnished the following Circuit Judges: l.s:3t> to 18:ifi, H. ('. Collier; l.s;W to 1834, Sion L. Terry; 18.W to 184:S, Peter Martin; 1830 and 1840, Henj. F. Porter; 1841 to 18")2, John D. IMiehin: 1845, Lincoln Clark: 1850 and 1851, Wm. i;. Smith. .Matthew Click was the first Clerk of the Circuit Court. Thomas Owen was one of the earliest Judge.* of the County Court. He was succeeded by .Marma- duke Williams, who held office till he was dis- qualified by the age limitation. Alexander B. Meek was appointed to fill his unexpired term. S. D. J. Moore held the office for some years and resigned. Washington Moody was appointed to fill his unexpired term. Arthur Foster was the last Judge of the Connty Court. The Judges of the Court of Probate have been: 1852 to 18G8, iMoses McCuiire: 18G8 to 1877, Will- iam Miller ; 1874 till present time, Newborn H. Urown. Separate Courts of Chancery were established in 183'j. The Chancellors from Tuscaloosa were: 1839, E. W. Peck; 1841, Joshua L. Martin. . From 1819 to 18(i5 the Attorney-General was Solicitor for the Judicial District in wliich the cap- ital was situated. Since that time the two offices have been separated. Until 18(;8 t'ley were chosen by the Legislature. The Attorney-Generals from Tuscaloosa were: 1825 to 1832, Constantino Perkins: 1836, Alexander B. Meek; 1838 and 1839, Lincoln Clark; 1847, William H. Martin. TWY. MEDICAL PROFESSION. in ISl'.i to 1820 several hundred persons lived in Tuscaloosa and its environs. The medical profession at this early day was represented by Drs. Inge, Hunter, Purnell and Isbell, names almost unknown to the present generation. Dr. John L. Tindall was a native of Kentucky. He came to this place about 1820. He was at one time president of the State Bank. He left Tusca- loosa about the year ls39, and settled in Aber- deen, Miss. Dr. John P. Drish arrived in Tuscaloosa from Loudon County, Va., about 1820. Being a man of handsome fortune, he retired from the prac- tice in 1837. He cotitinued to live in Tusca- loosa till his death, which occurred soon after the late war. Dr. Samuel .M. Meek came to this place about 1820, and was a practitioner of medicine till his death, which occurred about 1845. The name of his oldest son, Alexander B. Meek, as a man of letters and as an orator, will long shed lustre on the State of Alabama. Only two of Dr. ileek's children are living, Col. Sam Meek, a prominent criminal lawyer in Columbus, Miss., and B. F. Meek, LL.D.,now Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Alabama. Dr. James Hullum was the son of a -Methodist preacher. lie came from Georgia to this place in 1824. He retired to the country in 1860, and died soon after the war at a ripe old age. Dr. James Somerville came from near Freder- icksburg, Va., in 1837. lie died suddenly of ap- oplexy in 1842. One of his sons, H. il. Somer- ville, is a distinguished lawyer, and is at present one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Dr. Wm. A. Leland came to this State from Virginia about the year 1836, and in 1843 entered on the practice of medicine. He was a graduate from the ^ledical College at Philadelphia. Dr. D. S. Ball arrived in Tuscaloosa in 1830. He was a Georgian. He married Miss Henrietta Jemison, an accomplished sister of the late Robert Jemison. He was a planter as well as a physician. He removed to New Orleans in 1840, at which place he died. He left a widow and three children. Dr. Rufus Haywood, a descendant of one of the most distinguished families of Raleigh, X. C.. came to this place from (Jreensboro, Ala. He was a skillful physician and good surgeon. He retired from the practice in 1856, in consequence of an attack of paralysis from which he never entirely recovered. He died a few years ago, at the resi- dence of his relative, ilrs. Anna Prince, at the advanced age of eighty years. Dr. Haywood was never married. Dr. W. I. Hays was a graduate of the Medical School at Lexington, Ky. He began the practice of medicine here in 1840. He was a consistent meml^er of the Baptist Church till about 1882, when he died at the age of seventy-three. Dr. James Guild, Sr., came to Tuscaloosa in 1821. He married a daughter of Hon. Marma- duke Williams. He was a tine surgeon as well as physician. In 1833, he was elected Senator to fill 512 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the unexpired term of Levin Powell, who died in office. He was also a member of the lower house as late 18-1:5. He died, leaving several children, one of whom Dr. Fayette Guild, was a surgeon on General Lee's staff, and another. Dr. James Guild, a popular physician of this city. He was a mem- ber of the Methodist Church, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of the entire community. Dr. Reuben Searcy was one of the pioneer physi- cians in Tuscaloosa. He was a member of the Legislature in 1838-9. He had much to do with the founding of the Alabama Lisane Hospital, of which he was an honored trustee to the time of his death. He left several children, one of whom. Dr. James Searcj', is a prominent ishysician, and an- other, George Searcy, who is now president of the Merchants National Bank of this city. In 1826 the State capital was removed from Cahaba to Tuscaloosa. The first session of the Legislature was held in November, 1826, in what was then known as the Bell Tavern. Work began on the new capitol in 1827. In the interim, the sessions of 1827 and 1828 were held in a two-story frame building erected for the purjjose. The Legislature held its first session in the new build- ing in 1829, and continued to occupy it till the removal to Montgomery in 1845. In the wake of the removal, judges, lawyers, politicians, lobbyists, and men of desperate for- tunes flocked to the place. The great crowd had to be transported, clothed, fed, wined and amused. Hence hotels, saloons, restaurants, gaming hells and theatres sprang up. Ladies, the wives and daughters of senators and repre- sentatives, as well as the mere pleasure-seekers and votaries of fashion, assembled from all parts of Alabama. Imperial citizens vied with each other in fetes, that ''inebriated" if they did not "cheer." Each session brought its lobbyings, its junketings, its "Sol Smith" carousals, its "Fougera" balls. The circus was attended by day, the "tiger" was vigorously fought by night. It was a season of carnival, of dissipation; mad gayety was in the ascendant. For twenty long years this inebriety grew, till one unlucky morn, in 18-15, the capital was removed from Tuscaloosa, and you may imagine the stampede and the city's awful shrinkage. Tuscaloosa suddenly collapsed — like a dream, "like a vision in the night," like the host of Roderick Dhu: "Along Ben Ledi's living side" the whole gorgeous show and spectacle fled. Poor Tuscaloosal Now came vows of penitence and acts of retrenchment. She had been living too fast; the costly mansion had to be given up, the carriage and horses sold, and the expensive furni- ture carted to auction. A sudden fit of enforced economy invaded every household. Improvement came to a .dead lialt. Paint and whitewash, mop and broom, were things of the past. Neglect was followed by decay. Old signs creaked over the doors of deserted offices, old fences reeled, old tenements tottered. There was no annual meet- ing, in fact — no meeting at all — that would bring back again the whole wealth and glitter of the State to our doors, to fill once more every tavern, saloon and theatre with the clatter of life and vivacity. The old rookery was abandoned. One by one the State officials moved away, following the fortunes of the fair Montgomery, "the rise and expectancy of the fair State followed in their wake, the butterflj' belles followed after them, and the old town was left to i^lod on in darkness as before." What nest? How repair her shattered, her seemingly irreparable fortunes? Should she look to the soil? Evidently, the further growth of the city must be maintained from other sources than from agriculture alone. The lands on the west of the city were deltas of fertility, but those in the east were comparatively sterile. No coal nor iron had yet been unearthed in quantity to suggest, by anticipation, that the town might some day rival a Pittsburgh or a Msnchester. Providence, however, came to the rescue. Though the capital had come and gone, the University still stood flrm. The old capitol build- ing was not to be delivered over to the bats and } owls. Its fretted arches should ring again. The School should take the place of the Senate, and education should succeed jobbery. In the mean- time the University, which had been a success from the first, advanced in popular favor. The " Tuscaloosa Institute" and the old " Atheneum " had already taken the field. Woodrufl', the great pioneer bookseller, kept reminding the people that he "sold books ojijiosite Donaldson's tavern." Price's "Thrashing Machine " had not been idle. Everything began to point to Tuscaloosa as an educational centre. Its health, its fine water, even its inaccessibility were quoted in its favor. Schools and boarding-houses sprang up, and boys and girls repaired from all i)arts of Alabama to this " Auburn, loveliest village of the plain." NORTHERN ALABAMA. 513 SCHOOLS. Tliere liave been a great many private male schools in this city, but few of them have been prominent or of long duration. Of the earlier schools, i)erhaps. that of William Price \va.< the most noted, lie opened his school for boys in 1820. calling it in his advertisement " The Thrash- ing .Machine." and every trembling urchin whose luckless fate it was to enter its portals knew to his cost that this was no misnomer. Sims' Female Academy was opened in what is now the iieach dwelling in IS'i'.i. Jvinety pupils were enrolled the first session. There were five teachers. Annand 1'. Pfi.stcr, the author of the "University JIarch." and (irand Secretary of all the Masonic orders in .Miiliuina, w;is instructor in music. The Tuscaloosa Female Academy was organized August 1. 18;51. It was presided over by the gifted and aceomplislied wife of A. M. Hobinson, Esq., in the building known in Tuscaloosa as the Eddins place, it was well patronized, and no doubt did good work for tiiat day. The building, afterward known as the Athen- eum, was erected by Dr. Drish for his private residence about 18o(i. In 183.") it had been en- larged by the addition of wings and opened as a female school. It was placed in charge of Rev. John Dagg, an eminent divine and theological writer of the Baptist Church. After 183T it un- derwent many vicissitudes. It was conducted during the war by Professor Saunders and his accomplished wife, who afterward spent many years in Berlin. At one time the building was used as a school for boys by Dr. .J. II. Foster and Eldred B. Teague. Again it was purchased and occupied as a private residence by Dr. Landon C. Garland, now Chancellor of Vanderbilt. Then it passed into the hands of the Xorth Alabama Con- ference, which for several years maintained a Con- ference school there. It then acquired the name of •' Methodist College," by which it was popu- larly known. It was subsequently purchased from the Conference by Prof. B. F. Larrabee, who added a concert hall and a suite of rooms. Prof. Alonzo Hill, the present incumbent, next became the proprietor. He has enlarged and beauti- fied it to meet the demands of his popular institu- tion. The imposing building, now two stories in height, is surmounted by a mansard roof, and tower which commands a wide jirospect of the city audits environs. A beautiful park with its tasteful summer house and alleyed walks charms the eye of the visitor. ' The school has 18 ofKcers and 'Vlh matriculates, of which about 100 are boarders. When the State capital was rcmovcdfrom Tusca- loosa, the capitol building was donated by the Legislature to the University. As that institu- tion found it impossible to derive an income from it sufficient to defray the expense of repairs, it was leased by the State to a stock company for ninety-nine years, on condition that it should be kept open for a school. It was organized by the Baptists, who owned a controlling interest in tha tlic stock, and it is now widely and favorably known as the Alabama Central Female College. At different periods, it was presided over by Bacon, Brown, Lanneau, Yancey and others. It isnow under the able management of Prof. Sum- ner B. Foster. During the war, ^Irs. Tuomey, relict of the distinguished Michael Tuomey, kept the "Home " School in Tuscaloosa, in the building now occu- pied as a residence by Mr. K. X. C. Snow. She was assisted by her two accomplished daughters. We should be recreanc to the highest interests of education, and to worth which is as rare as it is estimable, should we fail to record that private schools were long kept by Mrs. Dr. Little and iliss JIary Irving. Their sacred memories are embalmed in the hearts of huiulreds of their grateful pupils. The Alabama Female Institute was chartered in 18"24. At that period, it was jjerhai^s "the only star that flung its beams over a State lying in ignorance. "' There was one contemporary school at Huntsville, of similar rank, presided over by blisses Southmayd, Smith and Stone. The first principal of the school was Hev. W. H. Williams; with him Miss Maria Belle Brooks, afterward Mrs. Stafford, was honorably associated. Miss Abby Fitch, afterward the venerated ilrs. B. Searcy, was also connected with the school. Later it passed into the hands of Professor Hentz and his accom- plishefi wife, Jlrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, a distin- guished authoress. In ISoO, Professor Stafford and lady assumed direction of the school. With them, at a later date, Mrs. W. C. Bichardson and Mrs. B. F. Rodes were associated. Tiie University High School, under the propri- etorship of Prof. W. II. Verner, was incorporated in 1887. The number of officers are three. In- struction is given in military tactics for the jnir- S14 NORTHERN ALABAMA. pose of discipline, and the pupils have been pro- vided by tlie State with a stand of arms. About one hundred have matriculated the current session. The building is large and imposing, having a capacity for sixty boarders. It was formerly known as the Ursuline Convent, and is one of the handsomest places in the city. The Univerdty of Alabama was established by an Act of the Legislature, approved December 18, 1819. It was opened for the reception of students April 17, 1831. The first president was Rev. Alva Woods, D.D.,who was assisted by three professors. In 1805, the original buildings, exce^jt the astro- nomical observatory, were burnt by a brigade of United States Cavalry under General Croxton. The new building, or University Hall, was erected in 1808. In 1800 the military system was adopted, and for many years has been under the able man- agement of Commandant T. C. McCorvey. The library has about 10,000 volumes. The buildings have lately been increased by the addition of Manly and Clark Halls. Garland Hall is also in process of erection. Two new residences, one for the Quartermaster and one for the Commandant, are now going up. The number of cadets during the current year is about 900. The University is under the management of a Board of Trustees, who hold office for the term of six years. The Governor of the State is ex officio president of the Board. The University Fund, from the interest of which the University is mainly supported, consists of $300,000, the proceeds of the original land grant of Congress. The recent land grant by Congress to the State of Alabama for the benefit of the University, was 40,080 acres. The land selected by the commis- sioners were coal and timbered lands. Ujj to Jan- uary 25, 1888, about 11,000 acres of these had been sold for the sum of $130,000. Gen. H. D. Clayton, of Barbour County, has been president sinoe the fall of 1880. Public ScJkkiJs. An Act approved February 17, lb 85, constituted the city of Tuscaloosa j, sepa- rate school district. This Act provided for a suffi- cient number of schools to meet the wants of the district. The schools are under the care of a Board of Education, composed of the Mayor of Tuscaloosa, who is j^resident e.r officio, and four other residents of said district. The first mem- bers of this board were : Mayor Jemison, presi- dent, ex officio; E. N. C. Snow, Capt. Festus Fitts, Dr. E. C. Chisholm, and Capt. H. P. Wal- ker. The white school is divided into ten grades, the colored into seven. Only the children and wards of actual residents of the school district, from seven to nineteen years of age are eligible to matriculation. For two successive years, the school received a donation of S300 from the Peabody fund. By a special Act of the Legislature, the city was authorized to issue bonds to the amount of $18,- 000 for the erection of suitable buildings. In pursuance of this Act, the large and commodious structure known as the Tuscaloosa Female Insti- tute, with its spacious and beautiful grounds, was purchased for the sum of $10,000. On the east side of this building, and connected with it, a very imposing and tasteful edifice is now rapidly nearing completion. When finished it will comfortably accommodate 500 pupils. Number of teachers at present employed in the white school, nine ; in the colored, five. Number of pupils enrolled during the present session : white school, 370 ; colored school, 200. The school was organized in the summer of 18-5. Superintendent Mitchell is comparatively a young man, but he has thus far shown himself to be " the right man in the right place." CHURCHES. 1'lie fii'st church in Tuscaloosa was built of clapboards, by the Bajitists, in 1817, near where the Star stable recently stood. This denomination afterward built a brick c'lurch on a corner of Washington and Union streets, and worshiped there until 1885. In that year the jjresent elegant structure on Market and Pike was completed, largely through the liberality of j\Iiss Sallie Moody, now Mrs. D. T. Purser, of Birmingham. Tlie Methodists first worshiped in a church that stood on a corner of Pike and Washington streets. It was a frame structure, and was de- stroyed by fire many years ago. The present building on Market is a grand old relic. Its walls have echoed the utterances of Bishops Keenan, Robert Kennon, Thomas Summers, Dr. Hamilton, Robert Xabors. and other distinguished divines. It was repaired and modernized during the recent pastorate of Rev. Alonzo Monk. The Presbyterian Church, also on Market street, is a time-honored structure. Among its early pastors, we record the names of the eccen- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 515 trie Daniel Baker and the learned and eloquent Dr. William A. Scott, of San Francisco memory. It was (luring his pastorate, that it became neces- sa.i_v to add the western wing. For many years it has been in charge of Dr. A. C. Stillman. Christ Church was organized in January, 182.S. The church building was erected in 182'.l-3(l. It was regularly consecrated in April, 183."), by the lit. Rev. Tliomas f'hurch lirownell. Bishop of Connecticut. About six years ago (1882) the church building was remodeled and modernized. The first Hector of the church was the Rev. .Tudd. He was elected in 1820, but on account of ill-health, served only a few months. He died of consumption in J[ol)ilc, Ala. The Hev. .1. H. Strinufellmv is the present Rector. The Catholics of this city held their meetings in the basement of the JIasonic Hall, until the CountyCommissioners purchased that building for a court-house. This necessitated a removal, and. for some months, they occupied the upper story of Mr. Harghey's house asa place of worshij). In 1845their pastor, the Rev. P. R. Uackett, procured over $2,000 in subscriptions for the purpose of erecting a suit- able church building. In the same year a lot was purchased of Joel White, on a corner of Pike and Washington streets, and the contract let to Gran- ger and Doncho to build "a church of brick." On the 25tli of January, 184ii, the church, being finished, was dedicated with impressive ceremonies by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Portier, of Mobile. Prominent among tlie former pastor.s was Father F. M. McDonough. He was long a citizen of Tuscaloosa, and was noted for his fine intelli- gence and large charity. The present pastor, the Rev. J. M. Cassidy, is unobtrusive and scholarly, and seems to be very acceptable to his Hock. The Ursuline Convent was founded September 2(», 1800. It flourished for many years under the management of the indefatigable McDonough, and the good religiouses, Charles, Josejjhine and Teresa. The diocese was not able to sustain it, however, and, as the postulants for admission grew fewer from year to year, the school was final- ly closed out in 1885. THE PKK8S. The first newspaper published in Tuscaloosa was the Amen'ran Mirror. This was commenced in 1820. It was issued weekly by Thomas M. Daven- ])ort. It was small, containing only four columns to the page, and was printed in long primer and brevier. In 1826 the Ahibama Sentinel was j)ublished by Thomas Grantland. The sheet was small and the j)aper inferior. It was edited by Washington Moody, and contained the proceedings of the first sessions of the Legislature held in Tuscaloosa. In 1X27 the American Mirror was merged into the Tuscaloosa Chronicle, and published by Dugald McFarlane, who married Kliza, one of the daugh- ters of Thomas Davenport. This paper had five j3olumns to the page, and was an improvement on the Mirror. In 1829 A. M. Robinson, Esq., established in Tuscaloosa the Spirit of the Aye, a weekly journal. This was conducted for several years with marked ability. Mainly political, it was very largely lit- erary. Its columns contained many educational articles and teemed with poetry; the paucity of locals, however, shows how flat and uneventful were those Arcadian days. 'The Alaliania Stale Itifellif/eucfr waa published by the Bradfords from 1827, and edited by R. T. Brumly until about 1835, when Brumly resigned to accept the position of Professor of Chemistry in the University of Alabama. The Independent Monitor was started in 1836 by M. D. ,T. Slade, with A. .M. Robinson as editor. This sheet afterward enjoyed the dis- tinction of being presided over by Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, a man of profound scholarship and of acknowledged versatility and genius. In 1843 the State Journal and Flag was pub- lished in Tuscaloosa. It was owned and edited by John McCormick, who was also State printer. After tiie removal of the capital from Tusca- loosa in 1845, the i)aper was purchased of ^IcCor- mick by James W. Warren, who changed the name to the Tuscaloosa Observer, and as editor and proprietor he continued its publication till 1865. It was then purchased by his son, John F. Warren, who continued its publication until 1870. At tjiis period the Mnnitor was bought from Mr. Ryland Randolph, and merged with the Observer into the Tuscaloosa Times, published by John F. Warren, and edited by .1. W. Tay- lor. In 1875 a dissolution of the firm of Tay- lor & Warren was declared, and the jiaper was afterward published by J. F. Warren and II. II. Brown, Mr. Brown purcha-sing a half-interest, and assuming the editorial control. 516 NORTHERN ALABAMA. While Randolph had control of the Monitor,' Tuscaloosa saw her darkest days. In that trying crisis he was the fearless exponent of Southern feeling, and often suffered for what others felt. It is no exaggeration to say that he bared his breast to receive the thrusts that were leveled at his section and his party, and flung himself into the breach with a gallantry which sometimes bor- dered on recklessness. In July, 18.55, the Times was purchased from Warren & Brown by the Times Publishing Com- pany, which has recently sold the pajierto ^Messrs. . W. C. Jemison and t'arl Gantzhorn, with the latter gentleman as editor and business manager. In 1871 Eyland Randolph started a sheet called the Blade. This was no misnomer, for it was as trenchant as the scimeter of Saladin. In 187C Mr. if. I. Burton bought out the Blade and merged it into the Gazette. This he con- veyed to the Nunnelys in 1878, who continued its publication till 1888. The Daily Gazette began its career in March, 1887. Mr. Burton also started the Clarion in the fall of 1879, and discontinued its publication in 1881. In about the year 1840, a literary magazine, entitled the Sovtliron, was published. It sur- vived only a few months. Its columns were graced by the effusions of such able writers as Alexander B. Meek, William R. Smith and F. A. P. Barnard. It brought to light a great deal of native talent. In its jDages first appeared B. W. Huntington's "Bacon and Greens" and a very pretty song by Thomas A. Maxwell, beginning " Lady, Sing that Song Again." It was after- ward set to music, and was quite popular. SOCIETIES. Tuscaloosa has boasted at different periods many clubs and literary societies. We can only glance at the more prominent. The Franklin InMitute was set on foot in 1830. It numbered among its members such distin- guished names as Washington Moody, A. M. Rob- inson, Geo. D. Shortridge, Robert Inge and others. The object was imjjrovenient in debate. Tlie Lyceitm was organized in May, ISIil. It contained a galaxy of talent. We find among its managers the names of Dr. Alva Wood, President of the University; Judge Minor, George AV. Crabb, H. W. Ellis, H. Tutwiler and A. U. Rob- inson. Its programme called for discussions and scientific essays. The Ciceronian Club sprang into existence about 1838, and comprised the best literary and forensic talent of the city. This will be apparent when Ave recall among its members, A. B. Mead, Wm. R. Smith, Thomas Burke, F. A. Barnard, Newton L. Whitfield, Washington Moody, Alex- ander M. Robinson and A. W. Richardson. The Druid City Club held its first meeting in . It included both sexes in its member- ship: anil the learned lectures, the stirring de- bates, the witty sallies and spicy rejoinders which enlivened those Attic nights can never be for- gotten. It was ably presided over for many years by Dr. B. F. Meek of the State University. Tlie Historical Society held its first annual meeting at the University of Alabama, July 14, 1851. Its officers were: Alexander Bowie, of Talladega, President; Albert J. Pickett, of Montgomery, First Vice-President; Washington Moody, Tuscaloosa, Treasurer; Joshua 11. Foster, Secretary. Its Executive Committee consisted of r John J. Ormond, Basil Manly, D. D., Rt. Rev. N. H. Cobbs, Landon C. Garland and Michael Tuomey, all of Tuscaloosa. An oration was delivered on this occasion by the president of the society, the Hon. Alexander Bowie, of Talladega, which oration was afterward printed in the first volume of the Transactions of the So- ciety, in 1852. At the last session Dr. AV. S. AVyman, of the State University, was requested to jDrepare a his- tory of the State of Alabama. His learning, his extensive knowledge of the aborigines, and his fine literary tastes eminently fit him for such a work, and it is to be hoped that he will not permit the stores that he has amassed to die with him. ALABAMA INSAXE HOSPITAL. The Hospital was established by an Act of the Legislatui-e, ajiproved February G, 1852. It wa& opened to the public in 1860. Trustees, appointed by the Governor, have control of the institution. This colossal establishment covers an immense area. As you come upon it suddenly it looks, as some one has well remarked, "like a spur of the- AUeghanies." The grounds, about one hundred acres in extent, are beautifully laid out. Conserv- atories, summer-houses, fountains, arrest the eye, and eVery device is employed to cultivate the tastes and direct the minds of the patients. It is th& theory of Dr. Peter Bryce, who is the able super- intendent, that "kindness should be substituted NORTHERN ALABAMA. 517 for force in the treatment of the insane." The novel anil humane mode of troatniont has attract- ed the attention of even foreign institutions and has given the Hospital a wide celebrity. Then the war came. Ah, how chopfallen! The •old town put on "sackcloth and ashes." !She mourned like Rachel for her children, and refused to be comforted. Siie no longer aspired to wealth, l)ut was content to struggle for a bare subsistence. She delved, she wove, she spun. Her daughters put on calico, her sons wore jeans. She no longer sung the old refrain, '•Cotton is King," for she knew it was a hollow mockery. She abased herself. Her people did not disdain the plough, the wash- tub or any menial occupation. She counted the bead-roll of her heroes, she embroidered the ban- ner, she placed the flag in the hands of her depart- ing sons, and turned aside to weep through the long, long nights that awaited her. She gave lier jewels to cover the naked, bleeding feet of her soldiery. With blinding tears she scattered flow- ers over fresh made graves, and enshrined in her heart of hearts the names of Rodes, of Eddins, of Burton and other of her heroes. Detested era I Blessed era I Era of darkness and gloom I Kra of light and splendor I Era, baptized in l)lood — how we deplore, abhor, honor thee I But Peace came, and with it a brighter day. Blood and tears cemented all hearts. She had had her gala day, and also her day of despair. Seasoned by adversity she comes forth from the fiery furnace more sober, more earnest, more trustful than before. On honest toil, on prudent thrift, on careful and painstaking economy, she grounded lier hope of prosperity. Like a widow in her weeds, by her unattractiveness she hoped to win her way to place and approbation. For three decades after the war she " made haste slowly." She became an easy-going old town, with good social and educational advan- tages, a place to live in, but not to make a living. Her sons went abroad to work, her daughters to teach. By dint of furbishing she managed to maintain a dingy respectability. She was re- marked ui>on for her culture, and merited and attained the appellation of the "Athens of Ala- bama."' In time her trade grew, her shops multi- plied, her financial record was of the best. By indu.artinent at Wasliingtou, and in 184T-M was I'nitod States District Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. lie had served as Attor- ney-deneral in le;!'), being appointed thereto by (Jovernor Clay. From 1S40 to 1853 he was editor of the Mobile Register, but he is better known to the literary world as the author of " Red Eagle,"' " ]?omantic Passages in South-Western History," and " Songs and Poems of the South.'' He died at Columbus, Miss., November 1. ISiIS. .fohii William Meek, M. D., another brother, was a prominent practitioner of medicine. He died in 1S50. Samuel M. Meek, now of Colum- Inis, Miss., a noted criminal lawyer, was lieuten- ant-colonel of the Thirty-fifth Jlississippi Regi- ment during the war. Henry F. Meek, a profes- sional teacher, died at Lauderdale Springs, iliss., while yet a young man. Benjamin F. Meek, whose name heads this .-sketch, was the youngest of the family of five sons. He, as were his four brothers, was graduated from the State University, taking his degree in July. 1854. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of Mississippi in 18T!t. He has spent the greater part of his life as an educa- tor, and is recognized by the brightest minds in tiie State as standing at the head of his profession. He was connected with the State University as assistant professor of Ancient Languages from 1803 to 18 ■ ;^^. ' ■ ROBERT A. HARDAWAY, Professor of Civil Kngineering, rniversitv <>f Alabannx, is a native of Morgan County, Ga., where he was born February 2, 1829. Hisfather was the Hon. Robert S. Hardaway, native of Virginia, and many years member of the Alabanui State Senate. Robert A. Hardaway was educated at the Jesuit College (St. Joseph), Mobile, and Emory College, Georgia, graduating from the latter institution in 184T. Of him, Mr. Brewer, in his "Alabama," says : '*He went to Mexico as an otticerof Seibe's Battalion, and distinguished himself as an officerof artillery in Virginia during the late war, rising to the rank of colonel. From the first Manassas, where he was not actively engaged, to his sur- render at Appomattox, he was a participant in, or was present at, forty-one engagement.s, in- cluding all the great battles of tlie Army of North Virginia. And the guns of the Third Richmond Howitzers, a company of his artillery regiment, tired the last shot of that immortal army at Appomatto.x." During the war with Mexico, he held the rank of adjutant of Alabama \'olunteers; and he was chief civil engineer and superintendent of the Mobile & Girard Railroad from 185U to 1857. At the outbreak of the war between the States, he left his plantation to become captain of artillery from Alabama, and on December 5, l.si;2, was promoted, for distinguished service, to the rank of major, in the Confederate States Army, and as- signed to the First Regiment of Virginia Artillery, Second Corps A. X. V. The colonel and major of his regiment having been killed during the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, he was assigned to the permanent command as lieu- tenant-colonel; he had, however, been for some time, and up to the date of his promotion, in command of the regiment. After the " Wilder- ness" the regiment was reorganized, and became " Hardaway's Battalion," by which name it was known thereafter to the close of the war. As de- tailed by Mr. Brewer, a part of this command fired the last shot at Appomattox, aiul it still retains its organization as the Howitzer Battalion of Richmond, ^'a. Immediately after the close of the war, he was appointed chief engineer and superintendent of the East Alabama Railroad, and held that posi- tion four years. From 1S72 to 1881, he was com- mandant and professor of engineering of the State College, at Auburn, and from there took a posi- tion in the engineering department of the 'i'am- pico Division of the Mexican Central Railroad, 526 NORTHERN ALABAMA. where he remained until he came to his present position with the State University, October 1, 1882. As civil engineer and professional educator, no man in the South, if indeed in the United States, ranks higher than Colonel Hardaway. Of the hundreds of young men educated under and by him, many of them are now filling successfully high and important positions in various parts of the world. As a soldier, lie was brave, chivalrous and efficient, and a complete history of his life would make a volume of entertaining and instruct- ive literature. Colonel Hardaway was married June, 1857, at Columbus, Ga., to Miss Hurt. She died in 1887. The Colonel's two sons, R. E. and Benjamin H. Hardway, are both professional civil engineers, and the latter is now chief engineer of the East Alabama Railroad. SUMNER B. FOSTER, the son of the Rev. Joshua Hill Foster, a distinguished professor of Natural Pliilosophy and Astronomy in the Univer- sity of Alabama, was born at Tuscaloosa, October 15, 1854. His mother was Frances C. Bacon. Professor Foster's ancestors were English, and among the earliest settlers in Tuscaloosa County. He was prepared for college under the instruction of Dr. Meek and the Rev. J. T. Yerby. He at- tended Howard College in 1871-72, and entered the University of Alabama, from which he was graduated in 1876 with the degree of A.M. in the literary and LL.B. in the law department. After graduation, he taught, in connection with Professor Dill, a high school- for boys, subsequently becom- ing its principal. After this, he took charge of the Institute at Union Springs, Alabama, with Professor Dill. He assumed the presidency and the chair of Mathematics and Xatural Sciences of the Alabama Central Female College, with Dr. G. W. Thomas, vice-principal, in 1885. Professor Foster is endowed with rare mental culture, and has proven equal to the task of con- ducting the celebrated institution of which he is president. As an educator, few young men of the South are more justly celebrated, and he is destined to take high rank in the list of those who have given their lives to the cause of knowledge and its proper dissemination in the minds of youth. The curriculum of the College is thorough, and Professor Foster is ably assisted in his duties by a corps of competent teachers for the various depart- ments involved in a young lady's thorough educa- tion. W. C. RICHARDSON was born in Maysville, Ky., June "'3, ls-— ?^^- < » ■ ■ STERLING ALEXANDER MARTIN WOOD, son of Alexander H. Wood, of Kichniond, Va., and Mary E. (Evans) Wood, a native of Wolver- hampton, England, was born at Florence, Lauder- dale County, Ala., on March 17, 18^3. His jiaternal ancestry was English and his maternal origin Welsh. His maternal grandfather was a major in the English Army, who served in Am- erica during the devolution, and who was placed in charge of the military stores belonging to the British Government in New York at the close of hostilities, afterward returning to England. He died at sea on his voyage to this country, whither he was proceeding to settle. The paternal grand- father, Leigh ton W'ood, an early resident of Philadelphia, became a citizen of Richmond, Va., in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and engaged in literary pursuits, assisting Chief-Jus- tice ilarshall in the preparation and revision of the '• Life of Washington." The father, Alex- ander H. Wood, was born in tlie historic city of Richmond, Va., in 1795, and was a member of the noted Richmond Artillery, one of the more promi- nent military organizations participating in the war with (ireat Britain in 181'^. At the close of the conflict he removed to Xashville, Tenn., where he married Miss JIary E. Evans, as has been stated, subsequently locating at Florence, Ala., with .Tames Jackson, James and Thomas Kirkman and Gen. John Coffee, all of whom had been induced, by the advice of the celebrated Gen. .\ndrew Jackson, to cast their fortunes with that auspicious settlement. When, in 18:S0. (General Jackson visited the infant town, since grown into prominence, and now taking conspicuous posi- tion among the rising cities and towns of Xortli Alabama, xMexander II. Wood, although ac- counted one of the staunchest Whigs of that sec- tion, was appointed chairman of one of the recep- tion committees, and made such strenuous exer- tions toward the proper entertainment of the dis- tinguished guest, as to have incurred the strong- est and most enduring approbation and acknowl- edgments of the Democratic party. This useful 530 NORTHERN ALABAMA. citizen and liberal-minded partisan for many years conducted a large furniture manufactory at Florence, and was afterward largely interested in mercantile ventures. S. A. M. Wood, the subject of this sketch, re- ceived instruction at various schools in Florence, and was prepared for college by the Eev. James L. Sloss, a distinguished Presbyterian divine, en- tering St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ky., in 1839, from which institution he was graduated with high honors in Jnl.y, 1841. He began the study of the law under the Hon. Edmund Dille- hunty, at Columbia, Tenn., and was admitted to the bar of Lebanon, Tenn., as an associate of the Hon. Charles Ready, a memorable and talented jurist of Murfreesboro, in 1844. On account of failing health, consequent ujjon the arduous duties of his profession, he returned to his father's home at Florence in 1847, where he continued in the practice of his jirofession until the outbreak of hostilities between the States, in 1861. He M'as an active particii^ant in the canvass for Breckinridge and Lane in 1860, as editor of the Florence LiazeUe, and had represented through his numerous and stirring speeches in the jiopular cause, a vigorous enthusiasm and a ready fund of approjiriate knowledge, which stamped him as a leader and as the vigilant and gallant military commander he afterward became. He was elected captain of the "Florence Guards," the first com- pany organized in Lauderdale County, which was incorporated with the Seventh Alabama Regiment, to the command of which he was speedily called, and afterward rose to the rank of brigadier-general. General Wood saw very active service with Bragg during the bloody campaigns of that veteran commander, and won the plaudits of his superior officers through his sj)lendid courage in many a hotly-contested battle. At Shiloh, Murfeesboro, Chickamauga, and Perryville, his troops covered themselves with glory. At Chickamauga, the prominent and decisive part played by his brigade, is made the subject of laudation by Gen. D. H. Hill in his paper in the April (1887) Centnrn, in the following extracts: "Wood's [Confederate] brigade on the left had almost reached Poe's house [the burning house] on the Chattanooga road, when he was subjected to a heavy enfilading and direct fire and driven back with great loss. [The plan of successive at- tacks, of course, subject the troops which drive the enemy from any position of the line to a cross fire from those who remain in the line.] Cleburne withdrew his division four hundred yards behind the crest of a hill. The gallant young brigadier Deshler was killed while executing the movement. It was an unequal contest of two small divisions against four full ones behind fortifications. It was a struggle of weakness against strength, of bare bosoms against breastworks. Surely, there were never nobler leaders than Beckinridge and Cleburne, and surely, never were troops led on a more desjjerate 'forlorn hope' — against odds in numbers and superiority in jiosition and equipment. But their unsurpassed and unsurpassal.)le valor was not thrown away." Of this famous charge, in which (ieneral Wood's brigade bore so distinguished a part. General Stew- art says: '' For several hundred yards both lines l^ressed on under the most terrible fire it has ever been my fortune to witness. The enemy retired, and our men, though mowed down at every step, rushed on at double-quick, until at length the bri- gade on the right of Brown broke in confusion, exposing him to an enfilading fire. He continued on, however, some fifty to seventy-five yards far- ther, when his two rigiit regiments gave way in disorder, and i-etired to their original position. His center and left, however, followed by the gal- lant Clayton and the indomitable Bate, pressed on, passing the cornfield in front of the burnt house, and to a distance of two to three hundred yards beyond the Chattanooga road, driving the enemy within his line of intrenchments and passing a battery of four guns. Here new batteries being opened by the enemy on our front and flank, heav- ily sujiported by infantry, it became necessary to retire, the command re-forming on the ground occupied before the advance." " This" says (ieneral Hill, " was the celebrated attack upon Reynolds and Brannau, which led directly to the Federal disaster."' General AVood received a severe wound in the head from a fragment of shell at Perryville, and was in consequence retired from service for some time. General W^ood was married in 184'j to Miss Lelia Leftwich, the daughter of ]\Iaj. Jesse Left- wich, a Virginian of distinguished parentage, and has had eight children — three sons and five daugh- ters. Of the sons, William J. Wood is a promi- nent lawyer, of Evansville, Ind.; Sterling A., his father's associate in the practice of the law at Tus- caloosa, and a secretary to the Chief-.lustice of the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 531 Supreme Court of Alabama; and Bernard A., a civil engineer, now engaged in building the exten- sion of the Louisville iS: Nashville Knilroad to Florence. The daughters are Rosa, tlie wife of Alfred l>. Beall, of W'lu'eiing, JetTerson County, Ala. ; r^ily Iv, the wife of Walter C. Harris, a prominent merchant of Tuscaloosa; Leiia B.. Beulah K. and Mary \'., wlio are unmarried. The General has since his residence iu Tuscaloosa had a large and lucrative law practice, which embraces the County. State and Federal courts. He represented Lauderdale County, Ala., in the Legislature of 185T-S, and Tuscaloosa County in 188"-i-:i. He had, prior to his removal to Tuscaloosa, been Solicitor for the Fourth .ludicial Circuit of North Alabama for six years. General Wood has never offered for any office to which he has not been elected. He he has made his home in Tuscaloosa since 1865, where he has won not only the most eminent distinc- tion in his profession, but secured the confidence and esteem of all who have been brought into contact with him. He still retains in his sixty- fifth year all of the grace and dignity of his younger years, which signalized him as one of the most splendid specimens of physical manhood in the military service of the Confederacy. The court record of General Wood is quite remarkable, especially as regards his career in crim- inal practice. He is known to have successfully defended fifteen cases in which indictments have been found for murder. It is, perhaps, Acting that in his son Sterling A. Wood the father may continue his legal celebrity, as the young attorney already gives promise of great talent, which, com- bined with his indomitable energy, must make him, if not the superior, at least the peer, of his illus- trious sire. Surrounded by his children and grandcliildren, amid the lights and blessings of his charming home in Tuscaloosa, General Wood will continue to the end of his days to find sur- cease from the stormy period of war and the arduous duties, self-imposed, which have linked his name with the great chain of events belonging to his history. ANDREW COLEMAN HARGROVE, the son of John Hargrove and .Martha (Hinton) Hargrove, was born in Tuscaloosa Countv, Ala., December 18, 18;J7. His father wag a native of Georgia and his mother of North Carolina. The ancestry of the family is Knglish. His paterjial grandfather, the Rev. Dudley Hargrove, was an early settler in I'ickens, and also in Tuscaloosa County, Ala. His father was a prosperous planter. Young Hargrove left home at the age of twelve to enter the academy of .Jacob Baker, at old Jonesboro, in Jef- ferson County, Ala., near the site of the present flourishing town of Hessemer. Here he continued his studies until October, lis.")2, when he became a student in the University of Alabama, from which he was graduated in the class of IS.iifi. He taught a school in Tuscaloosa for three months in the fall of 185(j. During the following year he read law in the office of Judge E. W. Peck, In .lanuary, 1858, he entered the Cumberland Law School, at Lebanon, Tenn., remaining one session, and from there going to the Harvard Law School, at Cambridge, JIass., from Avhich he was graduated with the degree of LL. D. in 1859. lie began the practice of law at Tuscaloosa in the latter part of 18(i0, which was interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities between the States and his departure for the seat of war as a private soldier of the War- rior Guards, under the command of the gallant Captain, afterward General, I{. E. Uodes. in 18G1. After service with the army in Virginia for twelve months, he was commissioned a lieutenant in Lumsden's Battery of Light Artillery from Tnsca- loo-sa, which belonged to the Western Division of the Confederate Army, and with which he, as lieutenant, continued until the close of the war. During his military career he participated in the battles at Farmington, I'erryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Hesaca, I'eacli Tree Creek. Frank- lin. Nashville, and numerous other minor engage- ments during (Jen. Joseph E. Johnson's (Jeorgia campaign. In fact. Lieutenant Hargrove fol- lowed the fortunes of the Western Army under Bragg, Johnson, Hardee and Hood through Mis- sissippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, (icorgia and Ala- bama. He was twice dangerously wounded — once in front of Atlanta in ISOi, being struck upon the forehead by a fragment of wood from a tree which had been shattered by a bursting shell, and the second tin»e at .Spanish Fort, near Mobile, in April, 1805, where he received a minie ball in the head, which, from the fact that it lodged beyond reach of probe or knife, he still carries, though with but little inconvenience or pain. 632 NORTHERN ALABAMA. No one of the many gallant sons of Alabama who shared in the conflict is entitled to a braver or a better record tlian Lieutenant Hargrove, of whom his comrades relate prodigies of valor. His fame as a soldier was as marked as has since been his career as a lawyer and a legislator. December 5, 18G5. Lieutenant Hargrove was united in marriage to Miss Cherokee M. Jemison, the daughter and only child of the Hon. Kobert Jemison, Jr.. distinguished in Alabama history as a legislator and as a member of the Confederate States Senate. ^Ir. Hargrove resumed the prac- tice of law in Tuscaloosa in the spring of 18(50, as a juirtner of the law firm of Hargrove & Fitt.s, the members of which were himself and Philip A. Fitts, now the llev. I'liilip A. Fitts, of Annis- ton, Ala. In ISTl Jlr. Hargrove became associa- ted with the Hon. \\. \\. Lewis in the practice of law, under the tirm name of Hargrove & Lewis, a l>artnership continued until the election of Colo- nel Lewis as president of the University of Ala- bama in 188L Mr. Hargrove has well and worthily filled many high jniblic j)ositions. He was elected and served as a member of the Consti- stitutional Convention of Alabama in August, L'^Td. He was elected to the State Senate from the district composed of Tuscaloosa and Bibb Counties, in 187(;, and again in 1880. His period of service as .Senator lasted for eight years. In 1884 he was a member of the House of Represen- tatives of Alabama. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee and chairman of the Committee on Finance, while he was a member of the Judiciary Committee and chairman of the Committee on Corpora- tions. In July, 1884, Colonel Hargrove was appointed by Governor O'Xeal, together with Dr. E. A. Smith and Hon. I. Burns iloore, to select the 4i!,080 acres of tlie i>ul>lic huids granted by the Act of Congress of April 24, 1884, for the benefit of the I'niversity of Alabama. He is land com- missioner of the University of .\labama. Colonel Hargrove is still engaged in the practice of his profession as a member of the firm of Hargrove & ^'an de (iraaf. Colonel Hargrove is a genial, cul- tivated and hospitable gentleman, and impresses at first sight by his splendid physique and diatinfjuf manner, lie has acquired great suc- cess in his profession, and is possessed of a charm- ing home and an accomplished wife. His two children. Miss Jlinnie Cherokee, vet in her teens. and Robert Jemison, a student at University High School, in Tuscaloosa, go to make up the sum- iiiiiin bonnm of a happy family. DR. PETER BRYCE was horn in Coliimliia. S. C., on the 4th day of March, 1834. His father came from Scotland when quite young and settled in South Carolina, where he accumulated a for- tune sutJicient to give his children a liberal educa- tion and a respectable start on the journey of life. At tlie age of seventeen he entered the South Carolina Military Institute, and after re- maining four years was graduated with distinction. This famous institution of learning was closed by the war, and the building was occupied as barracks by the United States soldiery. It has recently been opened, however, and promises to regain its in- fluence and popularity. The high and important jiositions occupied by the graduates of this col- lege during the war, and since then in the re- organization of the State (iovernment. is very remarkable, and has done more to impress the Carolinas with the value of a purely scientific edu- cation than all the theories of Herbert Spencer and his school. Having decided to make medi- cine his profession, he entered the University of New York in 1857, and was graduated there in the spring of 18.")!t. After graduating he spent some time abroad, i)rincij)ally in the hospitals of the city of I'aris. He became deeply impressed very early in his career with the importance as well as tlie difficulties attached to a correct knowledge of diseases of the nervous system, and at once conceived the idea, and concluded to devote him- self to that exclusively, as a specialty. He jirose- cuted his studies in the State Asylums of South Carolina and New Jersey, and in July, ISiiO, at the age of twenty-six, he was rewarded by being called to the superinteiulancy of the Alabama In- sane Hospital, which position he has held con- tinuously up to the present time. It might not be amiss to add that he is. perhaps, the youngest man ever called to such a responsible position in this country. Dr. Bryce is a man of commatuliug appearance and untiring energy. His pleasant and social disposition wins all hearts, and although he is always in a hurry, he has time for a pleasant smile and a kiml word for evervone. He has NORTHERN ALABAMA. 80 mnch on his mind that he \*. compelled to move and think rapidly. lie in a fine writer, a graceful speaker and an accomplished gentle- man anrl scholar of many and rare attainments. I)r. Bryce held has many positions of lionore. among which was {(rei^ident of the State Historical .Soci- ety, president of the State .Medical Association, and is a member of the State Board of Health, lie was summoned as an expert in the trial of Charles J. Guiteau for the killing of President Garfield, but declined to serve, not Ijcing able to leave his duties by reason of the absence of his assistants during the time he would have to be in Washington. The degree of LL. D. was con- ferred upon him by the University of Alabama, a distinction truly deserved. Dr. Bryce married Miss Ellen riarkson, a lineal descendant of the great Thomas Boston on her father's side and of George Ilerriott, who built the celebrated George Herriot Hospital, on her mother's side. ifrs. Bryce is a charming la:!4. He taught a school for the two succeeding years, and entered Transylvania University, at f^exington, Ky., where he received a course of lectures on medicine. He was graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in \x'-\'.K Returning to Tuscaloosa he began the practice of his profession, which he has con- tinued to the present time. Dr. Cochrane has perpetuated the hardy and multiform good quali- ties of his Irish, Scotch and Welsh ancestors, and has been ever a consistent and upright man. He is a meml>er of the Tus^.-aloosa .Medical Society, and has been health officer of 'i'u.scaloosa County since 1HH.">. For the past ten years he has been Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Univer- sity of Alabama. Dr. Co<;hrane was married in 1862 to Miss .\nnie E. Coleman, of I^wrence County, Ala., and has four children. William C. Cochrane, his son, is an extensive manufacturer of carriages and baggies in Birmingham, and a daughter, Lucy, is the wife of F. IJ. .Maxwell, of the wholesale grocery house of Maxwell Brothers, Tuscaloosa. The other children are yet under age. Dr. Cochrane is a Knight Templar, a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church, and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of the University of AJ^bama. He has been for the jtast eight years the Tax Assessor of the city of Tuscaloosa, and had previously held that office for several years. Dr. Cochrane still retains in his declining years vivid remembrances of past events, and is pos- sessed of more information about Tuscaloosa than perhaps any one in it now living. In all of the varied relations of life he may truly be cited as a fitting exemplar, and the evening of his days will reflect the halo that crowned his youth with hon- or's wreath. • ■« > • ■ Yii ' 3A • ■ <" ■ DR. WILLIAM C. CROSS. The history of the < arolinas involves that of numerous exiles who found an asylum within their borders. The pro- genitors of the subject of this sketch, by reason of their attachment to the cause of Oliver Cromwell, were expatriated by Charles II., and. settling in North Carolina, became large landed proprietors. There were nine brothers of this family, and they located in Northampton and Gates Counties, N*. C. William C. Cross, the son of Dr. William C. Cross, and Mary (Harris) Cross, was born in Colbert County, Ala., July M, 18.>C. _ His father was an eminent physician in his day. Of five brothers, four were iihy?icians. Wm. C. Cross 534 NORTHERN ALABAMA. was educated in Virginia, at Norwood and Ran- doljih Macon College, and was graduated with the degree of A.M. from the University of Alabama, and M. D. from Vanderbilt University, Xashville. Tenn. lie began the practice of his profession in Bibb County, where he continued for two years, coming to Tuscaloosa in 188?. Dr. Cross is an able physician and has been successful in his practice, lie is the Surgeon- General of the Alabama State Troops, and ranks as senior colonel; is a senior counselor of the Alabama Medical Association, member of the American Microscopical Association, and a mem- ber of the Tuscaloosa Gun Club. Dr. Cross rep- resented Tuscaloosa and Bibb Counties in the Alabama Senate in LSSti and 1887. Of Dr. Cross it may truly be said that not only is he destined to attain the acme of his profession, but to render himself distinguished for the talents and qualities of which great men are made. DR. EDMUND S. CHISHOLM. The profession of dentistry has of recent years exhibited very great advancement, and its zealous advocates have ac- •complished many and highly important adjuncts. Among these, the subject of this sketch is pre- eminently deserving of notice. Dr. Edmund S. Chisholm was born in Franklin County, Ala., May 'l\\ 1840. His father was c;illington Chisholm, and his mother Cynthia Hill. His father was a mechanic. His paternal ancestors were Scotch; matei'nal, English. He attended school in Franklin County, Ala. His father was among the earliest settlers of Tuscum- bia, settling there after the AVar of 1812. He had been a soldier under (Joneral Andrew Jackson. The subsequent education of Dr. Chisholm was received at LaCirange College, in Franklin County, Ala., and he was perfected in dental science by •competent instructors and through his enthusi- astic and laborious studies and a large practice. He married Miss Mary Hall, a teacher at the time in the Alabama Centi'al Female C'ollege, of Tusca- loosa. He has practiced his profession in Tusca- loosa since 1873. He has had a large and lucra- tive practice and is generally acknowledged the leading dentist in the State of Alabama. His library of standard works on dentistry is one of the best in the country, and is very select and complete. For five years past Dr. Chisholm has been the secretary of the Southern Dental Asso- ciation, and has been once its president, once its vice-president, and presided over it as vice- president once. He was one of the organizers of the State Dental Association, and has since been chaii'man of the Board of Dental Examiners for the State. He was a member of the Council of the Section on Dental and Oral Surgery at the Xinth International Dental Congress, held at A\'asliington. D. C, September .5, 1887, when he submitted a very able paper on "The Influence of Weather Changes on the Human Organism." Dr. Chisholm has contributed largely to various peri- odicals on subjects involved in the consideration of dentistry, and was the first to treat of the subject of weather changes and meteorological influences. He has given fifteen years to a consideration of and investigation into thesesalient points, and has done more to bring them to public notice than any other individual. He has been connected in vari- ous ways with the constitution of the Dental As- sociation of the United States, and is a correspond- ing secretary of that bodv', and through it is brought into relation with all of the more noted dental surgeons of the world. Dr. Chisholm has, unquestionably, done more for the cause of dentistry than any one at the South, perhaps in the country, and remains a living monument to his great acts. -«5- DR. ROBERT AUSTIN ELLIS, the son of Richard !•". Ellis and Nancy C. Lee, is of Scotch- Irish extraction, and was born April 17, 1848. His progenitors were among the earliest settlers in Pickens County, Ala., and were prosperous planters. None of them were in iniblic life. Dr. Ellis was prepared for college in the schools of Tuscaloosa, and was graduated with the degree of M. D. from Tulain University, New Orleans, in 1871. He began the practice of his profession in Tuscaloosa, but continued it afterward in Greene and Pickens Counties until January, 1887, when he returned to Tuscaloosa. Dr. Ellis is reckoned among the leading physicians of Tuscaloosa and is a refined and affable gentleman. He was mar- ried February L'i, 1873, to Miss Jennie C. Sanders, daughter of Dr. William Sanders, of Newnan, {Ja., and has five children. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 535 JOSIAH JAMES PEGUES belongs to one of the lujinv Huguenot fuinilies wliicli, at au early period of South Caroliua's history, found an asylum in that State, and which have since exer- cised great influence in the affairs of tlie American Republic. The great-grandfather of tlie subject of this sketch settled in South Carolina before the Revolution. The father of Josiah James Pegnes was Christoplier B., whose wife was Eliza- beth II. Evans and the mother of the subject of this sketch. It was in Soutli Carolina that this son resided until his fifteenth year. It was his birth- place — the date of his birth being July 19, 1825. In 1839, lie removed with his parents to Dallas Connty, Ala. He received his principal education at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Md., graduating from that institution in lS4.i. Return- ing to the parental home, he devoted his attention to farming pursuits until 1801, when he came to Tuscaloosa. It was from this famous town that he marched with the first troops that left the county — the famous "Warrior Guards," com- manded by the gallant captain, afterward (Jen. R. E. Rodes, who fell at Winchester, Va., as General Early grandly remarks, '■ in the very moment of triumph, and while conducting the attack with great gallantry and skill." This company was at- tached to the Fifth Alabama Regiment, and won nndying fame on many an ensanguined field. Its fortunes and its perils were alike shared by the valiant Pegues, who subsequently became a cap- tain of a company of cavalry in the Second Ala- bama Regiment, wiiich he, later on, as its colonel, commanded. The military history of Colonel Pegues in- volves the record of the Alabama troops who followed Bragg and Johnston through the num- erous engagements in which valor brightly shone, but which, though disastroirs in the end to the Confederate arms, must ever adorn the his- toric page, as exemplifying the noblest heroism and the most devoted patriotism displayed by any people in any age. On his return to Tuscaloosa Colonel Pegues be- gan to investigate the various systems of civic- progress, and in 1806 received the appointment of Sheriff of tlie county, pending Reconstruction, and filled the ofJice very satisfactorily for two years. In 188-2 he was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa County, and in ISOil elected to the same position, which he has •creditably filled, and which he still retains to the general satisfaction. Colonel Pegues was married in 1848 to Miss Cornelia C. Alston, by whom he had two children, both of whom died in infancy, an afflic- tion augumented by the loss of his wife, soon after. In I8"i4 he married his second wife, Miss Caroline M. Fitts, by whom he has had three children: Joe E., Samuel F. and Ida, who is Mrs. Eugene Eaton, of Gadsden, Ala. Colonel Pegues is a courteous and affable gentleman, and exhibits in manner and conversation the true essentials of his illustrious ])rogenitors, whose impress has been so indelibly stamped ujion the destinies of the Carolinas and of Alabama. Colonel Pegues is a member of the Episcopal Church, and is a Mason of high standing. He, although in liis sixty-third year, is hale and strong, and gives promise of adding many more years to liis sum of life. ►^^ NEWBERN HOBBS BROWNE, Judge of Pro- bate, Tu.scaloosa, was born I>fc -?^^- < »- • - JAMES OSCAR PRUDE. The history of the Prude family, from which was descended the sub- ject of this sketch, is invested with peculiar in- terest as involving to some extent a consideration of the earliest settlers in the Soutliern .States. The family of Prude was among the first English settlers in South Carolina, .Fohn Prude, a native of London, coming to America and locating in Lauiens District of that State in ITTi. John Prude. Jr.. the eldest son, was liorn in London, England, in ITG'.t. Jind came with his parents to South Carolina, and William Prude, the second son, was born there October 1.5. ITT-I-. John Prude, Jr.. married Margaret Whitmore, of South Carolina, by whom he had eleven children, nota- l)le in the early history of that State. William Prude married Sarah Garrett, a native of Charles- ton. S. C, but settled at Abbeville. S. C. To this marriage eight children were born, who bore the distinction of promiiu'iice and importance in that State during their lives. William Prude was mar- ried a second time to .Mrs. Celia ^[cAdory, nie McShan, of Jefferson County, Ala. Of this union was born William Wellington Prude, January 31, 1S24. the only child, and the father of James Oscar Prude, the subject of this sketch, whose mother was Lucretia El.za Owen, of a noted Vii-ginia family of the county of Prince George, who re- moved to Franklin County, Ala., and subsequently to Okolona, .Miss., where she was married. The parents of James Oscar Prude settled in Jefferson County, Ala., near Jonesboro, and in 184.5 came to Tuscaloosa County, locating about six miles east of the city. Here was born. September "^3, 1S.5G, .Tames Oscar, one of five children, and the youngest. Here he grew up and was trained for college in various private schools. lie was graduated from the University of Alabama at the age of nineteen with the degree of A. M., and taught school for two years following. He was appointed, at the age of twenty-one. Clerk of the Probate Court of Tusca- loosa County and filled that position with honor and credit. In 1S84, he was elected Sheriff of Tuscaloosa County, and still continues in the office, the duties of which he discharges with signal ability. Mr. Prude was married December "20, ]8S"-i, to Miss Lucy A. Browne, the daughter of Alonzo L. Browne, a large merchant and planter of Raymond. Miss. The maternal ancestors of Mrs. Prude were Richard and Elizabeth Hainsworth, natives of Switzerland, who settled in Sumter District, S. C , about the year 1T33. From this family were descended the Hainsworths, Greenings, Brumbys and (Jastons. Both Dr. liicliard Urumby and Dr. .\rnoldus Brumby were distinguished professors in the Uni- versity of Alabama, and were connected with edu- cational institutions in South Carolina. Some of the more noted people of South Carolina, Ala- bama. Georgia and Louisiana were sprung from the branches planted by the Swiss progenitors of Mrs. Prude in .South Caroliini. Mrs. Prude unites in a rennirkable degree the many noble qualities of her distinguished family, and is a shining ornament of the social circle. Mr. and Mrs. Prude have three children: Agnes Emily. James Oscar, Jr., and William W. .Sheriff Prude is a jjrudent and active officer, and enjoys the highest respect and confidence of all who know him. 538 NORTHERN ALABAMA. SEWALL JONES LEACH, the eldest son of Epliraiiii Ia'uc-1i and So]>l>ia (Jones) Leacli, was born in the city of New York, November 14, 18r^. When Sewall was eight years old his father removed to Owego, X. Y. Here wasac<|uired the ruling motive in the life of Sewall Jones Leach, whose subsequent career exemplified the rarest mechanical ability, which raised him to the acme of his profession as a machinist. His educational advantages were very limited — four months in any one year comprising the greatest length of time he ever attended school. His studious appli- cation and indomitable energy, however, coupled with his facility to acquire knowledge, had, at the age of eighteen [U'ei)ared him as a teacher, and for two years he successfully and satisfactorily con- ducted a school in the State of New Y'ork. But the bent of his mind and the inclination of his studies were ever in the direction of mechanics. He studied dentistry at Utica, N. Y., and in 1837, having decided to locate in the South, he went to Mobile, Ala., where he engaged in the practice of his profession with the eminent Dr. Palmer. It is related of Dr. Leach that, he reached Mobile with but nine iMUirs in his pocket, a fund which had increased to as many hundred one year later. In 18138, he removed to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and was for some time engaged in the jewelry business with a younger brother. Their place of business will be remembered by the older citizens of -Tuscaloosa, as the book-store of Joel White, now of Mont- gomery. Dr. Leach was married. Octobei' lu, l.^li'.t. to Miss Elizabeth F. Fitts, of Tuscaloosa, and in 1840 was confirmed as a meniber of the Ejiisco- pal Church by Bishop Scott. For several years he continued the practice of dentistry in connection with his jewelry business. In liS44-4."), he, with the learned Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, very success- fully conducted a series of experiments in produc- ing sun pictures, antedating the promulgation of the discovery by the distinguished Frenchman, Daguerre, whose name was given to tlie art. Had Dr. Leach prosecuted his researches in this direction, he doubtless would have advanced the process beyond the jioint gained by his famous contemporary. But his love of machinery and the labors connccied with its intelligent utiliza- tion were more to his liking, and he was selected to purchase the machinery and outfit for the cot- ton mills erected in Tuscaloosa in 1.S40, and which wiTi' iiuistniitid nmliT lijs personal super- vision and direction in Philadelphia. To the operation of this enterprise. Dr. Leach devoted the most unremitting attention and his valuable services were continued for many years. The mills were destroyed by fire during the war. In 185"..', Dr. Leach established at Tuscaloosa an iron foundry and plow factory, which was car- ried on for many years through his able adminis- tration, under the firm name of F^each & Avery. The enterprise proved one of great profit, while it was one of the most useful industries in Alabama. It was destroyed by fire in 185!i: rebuilt, and dur- ing the war, employed in casting cannon for the Confederate Government, and was burned down by the Federals in 18fI4. It was rebuilt after the war and used as a plow manufactory by Leach, Avery & Co., and later by Leach & Co., in the additional manufacture of sorghum mills, castings, etc. On account of declining health Dr. Leach sold out his interest and accepted a less arduous position with the Tuscaloosa Cotton Mills. He was a devoted hiborer, neglecting nothing that could insure satisfaction, and equally inter- ested in music after his hours of labor. In both relations he e.xhibited the strongest and most marked characteristics, performing both purely and simply from the love of them. He could do nothing except in the most thorough and satisfac- tory manner, and his fame as a musician attracted to him many discijiles of the art. Aniong the companions of Dr. Leach at that time was the venerable Langdon C. (iarland. tiien a I'rofes- sor in the University of Alaljama. and now Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, who was never so happy as when listening to, or play- ing witii his musical friend. Although of North- ern birth. Dr. Leach was a man of strong South- ern feeling and an advocate of the Confederate cause. Two of his sons served with honor with the Alabama troojis. Dr. Leach was of uniform temjieranient and habitually cheerful. He was a mail of great humility ; wholly incorruptible and honest. Few men bear so blameless and so honorable a name among their fellows. He was both an Odd Fellow and a .Mason. He died August U, liSiS,"), and never was a man more regretteil by the people among whom he lived. He left to mourn her irreparable loss, a devoted widow, who is, however, consoled and comforted in her grief by the knowledge of her husband's stfiiiiless e;irtlilv (•iir<<-r. His six children, three NORTHERN ALABAMA. 539 sons ami three daughters, iiri' wortliy and highly respected citizens. ■ ■' > -^€^'- < »- • THOMAS B. ALLEN, son of Saimiel V>. and Lucy M. ( • • WILLIAM GILBERT COCHRANE, son of Will- iam Cochrane, a native of New York, and a lawyer by profession, was born in Tuscaloosa March 29, 1S48. His mother was Miss S. S. Louisa Perkins, daughter of Major Harden Per- kins, a native of Tennessee and one of the early settlers in Tuscaloosa. His father began the prac- tice of the law in New York City, but by reason of failing health removed to 'j'uscaloosa, and be- came associated with the gallant General Crabb, 540 NORTHERX ALABAMA. of Mexican War fame, with whom he resumed his professional career. Williiim (iilltert Cochrane received liis early ed- ucation at preparatory schools, and entered the University of Alabama, wliere he was still a stu- dent wiien Croxton's raiders invaded the city of 'I'uscaloosa and burned the buildings of that in- stitution. As a member of the Corps of Cadets, he, in May, ISf 15. assisted in repelling the raiders. He was subsequently for two years a student at Washington College, Lexington, Va., under the presidency of Gen. IJobert E. Lee. Returning to Tuscaloosa, he read law in the office of Hargrove & Fitts, and was admitted to the bar in 18T0. He has since been actively engaged in the practice of his i)rofession. During tlie period of the "Ku- Klux " excitement he was County Solicitor, and Assistant County Solicitor, and so faithfully and fearlessly did hedischarge incumbent duties that he won the gratitude and regard of his fellow-cit- zens. Perhaps no young man was ever placed in a position more trying, and one demanding the exercise of that calm, cool and inflexible courage, which it is greatly to the credit and honor of Mr. Cochrane that he exhibited. Mr. Cochrane was a member of the State Legislature during the session of 1S78-79, and served with that rare ability which has been characteristic of his public life. He is chair- man of the Democratic Executive Committee of Tuscaloosa County, and is a staunch adherent of his party's platform. He is a liberal advocate of Tuscaloosa's industrial progress: was one of the originators and organizers of the Tuscaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company, and is a director and one of its legal advisers. Mr. Cochrane asso- ciati d with him in his law practice in October, 1S8"!. Mr. William C. Fitts, his nephew, and a jjroniising young attorney. Mr. Cochrane married August Vi.. IST'-i, Miss Lily E, Taylor, daughter of the late JohnT. Tay- lor, of Mobile, one of Alabama's most eminent jurists. One child, John Taylor, named for his illustrious grandfather, has been born to this marriage. Mr. Cochrane is a member of the Episcopal Church and a Knight Templar. For twelve years he was master of the Blue Lodge, and is a grand junior warden of the Grand (.'ommandery of Knights Templar of Alabanui, and the eminent commander of Tuscaloosa I'ommandery, No. 13, of Knights Templar. He is a fine specimen of physical manhood, of pleasing and engaging manner, and a graceful dignity. Devoted to his chosen pro- fession, he seems careless of the high legisla- tive and congressional honors his constitu- ents are ready to Ijcstow upon him, and for which he is eminently qualified. The world is before him. and he will win its surest favors through his stern allegiance to duty and to justice. WILLIAM C. JEMISON. .Mayor of Tuscaloosa, was born in tliis city December ti, IS.iO, and is a son of William H. and Elizabeth (Patrick) Jemi- son, natives of Alaljama. and descendants from Irish ancestry, Wm. II. Jemison, before the war a successful planter, was one of those who at its close found themselves with fortunes destroyed, and as a consequence his sons had their own ways to make in the world, from the bottom round of the ladder. It being impossible to begin the course of study to which he had looked forward, W, C. Jemison turned his attention to agriculture, but being forced by a combination of adverse circumstances, he left the plantation and accepted the situation of master of .St. John's Parochial School near Baltimore. While teaching he studied under juivate tutors, and after a time entered the law class of the University of Alabama, where he was graduated in 1ST4. He practiced his profession until the spring of 1S8T. when he left the bar to assume the presidency of the Tuscaloosa Coal. Iron and Land Company, a position he now fills. In 1879 Mr. Jemison was elected to the office of Mayor of the city of Tuscaloosa, which position he has since held, having been elected and re-elected five successive times. He, like all self-made men, being a man of enterprise and public sjiirit. the city quickly caught the contagion of his uutiring energy, and under his administration has made many and striking improvements. Mr. Jemison is a man of undoubted executive ability; in his private business he has been suc- cessful, and in conducting the affairs of the city, as well as of the large corporation of which he is the leading officer, he has pursued a straightfor- ward, conservative course that has been attended with the happiest results. More than any other man of his section of coun- try, Mr. Jemison deserves the credit of inaugurat- XOR rilKRiX A I. A J! AM A. 541 ing and conducting tlie series: of iniprovi-nieiits and dcvclo|>nients thiit have marked tlie recent history of the city of Tuscaloosa and l)routjht it into prominence. To his efforts was due the iioh!- iiig of the IJiver and ITarbor Convention which sat ill Tuscaloosa in ISS'i. and wliich was the lieginning of the work of improvement in the Warrior IJiver (as well as of other Alabama water- ways) Tiow being prosecuted by the (Jeiieral (iov- eriimenl. lie will, perhaps, be longest and most gratefully remembered in his native city as the nnui to whom that city is indebted for its tine sys- tem (if graded public schools. To him also, in the greater j)art. is du" the organization of the Tuscaloosa Coal, Iron and [iand Company, a powerful corporation who.se ob- ject and intention is to develop the wonderful mineral and timber resources of the adjoining re- gion: to establish barge communication with Mo- bile, New Orleans and the entire Gulf coast, and to make of Tuscaloosa the great manufacturing center whicji nature has fitted it to be. thus giving it that high rank among commercial centers which he wisely foresaw iuid has since earnestly striven to have it attain. Mr. .lemison was married at Ocean Springs. Miss.. Feljruary •24, 187'.i. to Miss Eliska Leftwich, daughter of J. (i. \V. Leftwich. at one time a wealthy planter of that ]>lace. She died August 14. lsS-2, leaving two children, a daughter and a son. HARVEY H. CRIBBS. the .son of Uaniel and Amy (La \'ergy) Cribbs, was born in Tu.scaloosa, June 17, 18132. He received his early education at the best schools of the day. embarked in busi- ness as clerk in a store in Tust-aloosa at the age of fourteen, and continued in the same occupation nntil his twenty-eighth year, wlien he wa.s elected Sheriff of Tuscaloosa County by a larger vote than had ever j)reviously been cast in the county. This position he resigned in the spring of 18ti2, to assist in the organization of Lumsden's Bat- tery, of which he was elected first lieutenant. He saw very active service, and achieved distinction for courage and soldierly rpialities. In 18(U he resigned his commission, to take the post of scout by detail, .serving under Lieutenant Wright, of the Second Alabama Cavalry, and in this relation performed important and valuable service. He had the misfortune to be captured on the eve of the surrender, near Charleston, S. C., and was for some time confineil in that city. Restored to liberty, he returned home and secured a clerkship, first ill Tiiscaloo.sa, and a month later in a whole- sale grocery in Mobile, and subsef|uently purchas- ing the business afterward conducted by the firm of Cribbs, David.soii & Co. He continued a thriving merchant of .Mobile for twelve years, when he sold out his interest and returned to Tuscaloosa, where he has since been engaged in business as a broker and insurance agent. In 1870 he married Miss (!arrie Hoper, who has had seven children. He is a member of the Episcopal Church and is a Mason. Ill adilitiou to his brokerage and insurance busi- ness, Mr. Cribbs manages a large and valuable estate near Tuscaloosa. His lands contain de- posits of iron, coal and several varieties of kaolin and fire-brick clay. Mr. Cribbs is a man of rare liusiness experience, and a cultivated and highly respected citizen. • ->-!^^-<- • DANIEL CRIBBS, the son of Teter Criiibs and Christina (Williams) Cribbs. was born May 8, 18(111, at (ireensboro, Westmoreland County, Pa., and Came to Tuscaloosa in 1828. He removed from Pennsylvaniu in ISO9 he entered the Cumberland I'niversity at Lebanon, Tenn., and was graduated in the Law Department in 187i>. In I.s?l he married Jliss •Jodie McLester, the daughter of K, C. and Mary T. McLester, of Tuscaloosa, Mr. McLester during liis lifetime being one of the most prominent and prosperous merchants of his county. Mr. Kennedy did not long pursue his practice of law, preferring the more active life of farming and other interests he has engaged in. He is sec- retary and treasurer of the Tuscaloosa Land and Loan Cnniiany, also of the Tuscaloosa Huilding and Loan Association, and upon the organization of the Tuscaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company was elected one of its directors. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episi'oi)al Church. South. IFeis a meini)er of the Knights of Honor ami the .Vlphu Tau Omega fraternity. ISAAC OLIVER, tiie son of Isaac Oliver and Julia Oliver, was born at Pleasant Kidge, Creene County, Ala., .March 22, 18<;i, and is of English and Scotch e.xti-action. His father came from \'irginia to Alabama, settling in Eutaw, about lS4 and 1884 he taught in a public school at Gailsilen. Ala. He received the nomination by tiie Democratic party for the State Legislature in 1880. but was defeated by eleven votes. He was, at the time of his nomina- tion, but twenty-three years old, and the high compliment thus paiil him by his party augurs well for his political future. Mr. Foster inherits, in a remarkable degree, the literary abilities of his father, and has exhibited in his legal practice the surest evidences of culture and proficiency. He is associated with the celebrated jurists, the Hon. Jolm M. Martin, e.x-Congressman from this dis- trict, and Capt. A. B. McEachin, one of the great lights of the Tuscaloosa bar, under the firm name of McEachin, Martin I't Foster. As the resident partner, Mr. Foster conducts the Tuscaloosa busi- ness of the firm, Messrs. Martin and McEachin liaviug their otlice and residences in Birmingham, ilr. Foster is the .'solicitor for Tuscaloosa County, and discharges the incumbent duties in a manner generally acceptable. He is the captain of tlie noted " Warrior (Juards," which derive peculiar distinction from having been the coujpany wliicli the gallant Capt. (afterward General) K. E. Rodes led to the field in 18ii. 'J"he father of the sub- ject of this sketch was a nephew of the distin- guished statesman and vice-president, John Cald- well Calhoun, of South Carolina, and his mother was a sister of Governor F. W. Pickens, daughter of Governor Andrew Pickens, and granddaughter of General .\ndrew Pickens, of South Carolina. .\fter the usual ])reliniiiuiry trainingin vogueat that day. young Calhoun was preparei! for college by Professor T. J. Dill, now of Howard College, Birminghan). Ala., and entered Washington Col- lege (since Washington and Lee University), under the presiilency of (ien. Robert E. Lee. From this institution he was graduated with the de- grees of C. E. and B. S., in June. I8T'2. and .M. A. in June, 187:5, and was appointed a resident master, a position he thought proper to decline. He taught with Frank H. .\lfriend in Cai)e Fear Academy, Wilmington, N. C, subse<|uently suc- ceeding to the principalship, which he held for two years. In 1870 he attended a course of in- struction in Heidelberg L^niversity, (iermany. and spent some time in Paris. On his return in 1S7T to Alabama, he was elected professor of (ireek in the University of Alabama, the chair which he still holds and creditably fills. Professor Calhoun is well adapted to his profession, having been thoroughly inducted into the best systems of teaching that obtain in this country and in Eurojie. He has taught mathematics, Latin and Spanish. He was married July II, 1S78, to Miss Mary R. (Jraham. of Selma, Ala. Professor Calhoun is a member of the Presby- terian Church and a deacon, and has taken much interest in the Young Men's Christian .Association and Sunday-school work. A plain, unostentatious gentleman, Professor Calhoun commands the highest respect, and. as a professor, the affection of his pupils and the approbation of their custodians. WALLACE B. EDMUNDSON was Iwru near Xashville. Tenn., March 2, ISoi). His father was John K. Kdmundson and his mother >Litilda (J. Wilson. He was educated in Xashville and at Franklin College, Tenn. Conducted a farm until the age of twenty-seven, when he embarked in the cotton business, and continued in that line until 188G in Tuscaloosa, to which place he re- moved in 1878. In 1837 he engaged in the real- estate business as a necessary measure to manage his large property in and around Tuscaloosa. Mr. Edmundson has become rapidly identified with leading interests and was one of the incor|)orators of the electric light system, the ice refrigerating process, and various other movements directed to the development of the rising fortunes of 'I'usca- loosa. Mr. Edmundson is vigilant and enterpris- ing, and exhibits the most unmistakable evidences of business capacity in the directions in which he is interested. He belongs to the advancing men of tlie period, and will make his mark on the pages of Tuscaloosa's history in the years to come. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 545 lie is a gentleman of lipnor and integrity, and en- joys the respect of all who know him. Mr. Edmundson married Miss Teunie Venable, of Tuscaloosa, on January 13, 1HT9, and lias two children. CHARLES C. SEED, the son of Dr. Frederick C. Seed and (iertnule (Lazon) Seed, was born at Louisville, Ky., January, .'Sd, lS3o, is still in their possession, and four generations lie buried in the district where they had lived. Mr. Seed enlisted in the Shelby (Jrays. but saw no active service, giving his attention to liis ex- tensive business interests, wliich he liad the mis- fortune to lose, as a consequence of the war. In 18*i"2 he removed to Tuscaloosa, and became a member of the firm of Kirkman, Hays & Co., engaged in the manufacture of cotton goo[as:s.) in the early part of tiie seventeenth century, traced his family back, through the peerage of England, to about the year l:iOO: the (M)nnections of this family are the Al- den and Bass families of New England. Charles and Henry Adams and Z B. Snow settled in 'J'usealoosa County about the year 18".il. Charles Adams was a physician by education, but prac- ticed his profession very little. The three broth- ers became interested together in merchandising. Z. B. Snow died about the year 1840. Charles soon after retired from business, and Henry A. continued it until his death in 18ti5. He lived antl died loving the State and city of liis choice, and was identified with Tuscaloosa in every enter- prise of any moment occurring in its history dur- ing his long residence. Charles died in 188."). E. N. C. Snow, the son of Henry A. Snow and Abby Hazard, was born in Tuscaloosa in 1S45. He served in the Confederate Army a short time, having been discharged by reason of severe illness. He took the degree of A.B. in the University of Alabama in 18().t. after which he served four years as clerk for R. iS: .1. McLester. He began business as a dry goods merchant in 18Tr. Chark's and N'irginia (Penn) Snow, natives, respectively, of Massachusetts and Virginia, was born May '^4, 184.J, on his father's farm, about one mile north of Tuscaloosa, where his early youth was spent. He went to school until about eighteen years old. when the war broke out and he enlisted in liUmsdcn's Battery, with which he remained about four years, or until the sur- render. Though much broken in health he began merchandising in a small way, and he has been in the mercantile business since. He first sold gro- ceries, then kept a general store, but having a fondness for the hardware trade, he eventually converted his business into this line, and for many years his house has done most of the business in that line in West Alabanui. There have been sev- eral changes in the firm, but at present it is known as John T. Snow's Hardware Company, of which he is president. They deal largely in machinery of all kinds, and have done the people a good service by introducing improved agricultural implements. His firm is noted for its fair dealing, and has always enjoyed the confidence of its customers to the fullest extent. He was married August 28, 18i!8. to Norma, daughter of Dr. S. J. Leach, and has had born to him fourchildren: Lizzie P.. \'irginiaC.. Charles Henry Boylston, and John Adams. All are liv- ing e.vcept Charles, who was accidentally killed by machinery on October IT, 1884. Since the surrender he has lived in Tuscaloosa, e.xcept during the summers, which he has usually spent on his farm '• Hurricane."' on Hurricane Biver. six miles wist of Tuscaloosa. It is a beau- tiful place, with about .ii«' acres attached, and he has recently made it his permanent home. Mr. Snow is a member of the Episcopal Church, and was a vestryman and treasurer many years. He is inclined to a literary taste, and has one of the largest libraries in the ))lace, and though he hai! always l)ei'n dee]ily immersed in bu.siness, is NORTHERN ALABAMA. 547 never so liiippj' as when he can steal a half hour to spend with a favorite book. He is an enthusi- astic Mason, and has, at different times, been presiding otticer of the I.odge, Chapter and Com- niandcrv. WILLIAM E. MAGEE. the son of Whiting Magee and Elizal>eth (Bass) Magee, was born in Lawrence County, Miss., December i'-\, ISo.'i. He received a good training in the schools of his native State, and adopted photograpiiy as a pro- fession in 1879. He came to Tuscaloosa in 1884, and has since won an enviable reputation as an artist. He has succeeded in making a large nnm- ' ber of very handsome views of Tuscaloosa and j vicinity, which are considered great artistic tri- umphs. In 1880 ifr. ^lagee was married to Miss Laura E. Butler, and has two children. Mr. Magee is a reputable citizen and thoroughly in earnest in his profession, which he is destined to more thoroughly adorn, while keeping pace with advances in photograjihy. BERNHARD FRIEDMAN. Ameiican history involves the consideration of many nations and manv peoples, who have found in the freedom of the Republic a proper exercise of the talents com- mitted to them; and to none of them can be as- cribed more fortitude and more facility in secur- ing great ends than the German element of its jiopulation. Bernhard Friedman, the son of Simon and Rosa Friedman, was born in Hungary, and, coming to America in 1850, settled in the State of ^lississippi and sub-sequently removed to Geor- gia. The date of his advent in Tuscaloosa was IsCd. His early education was received in Hun- gary. His .\merican history begins with his first entrance into the mercantile business. The pur- chase of the cotton mill at t'ottondale, near Tusca- loosa, represented his power to engineer and man- age successfully great industrial enterprises, which has since been amply demonstrated and which has placed liim in the front rank of the many prime movers in forwarding the natural interests of Xorthern Alabama. Not alone has he shown his ability in the conduct of great manufacturing enterprises, but has exhibited that conservative and cautions management of mercantile affairs which clearly indicates his financial power and in- tegrity. Upon the organization of the Tuscaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company, in January, 1XH7, he was elected its vice-president. He sold to this company 4:5,000 acres of his vast landed possessions in this section. Mr. Friedman has contributed in large measure to the varied industrial enterprises of Tuscaloosa, and has projected a large iron fur- nace, now rapidly nearing completion, and which will materially assist the progressive tciulencies of liis remarkable section. Mr. Friedman married Miss Linka Loveman, of Dalton, Ga., and has three children. He is yet in the prime of life and will worthily bear the enviable distinction of having largely assisted in securing Tuscaloosa's great iiuhistrial future. WILLIAM H. WILDS. The subject of this sketch was born at Sparta, (ia. His father was W. W. Wilds, and his mother Sarah E. Farmer. He received scholastic training in Tuscaloosa. At the outbreak of hostilities between' the States, in 18i;i, he enlisted in the Twentieth .Vlabama Regiment, and served until wounded in dune, 1864, in the engagement at Smyrna Church, near Marietta, Ga., where he lost his right forearm. This disabled him for future military service, and he returned to Tuscaloosa and taught school for seven years succeeding. After this he was ap- pointed Tax Collector, a poiition which he very satisfactorily filled for ten years. July 1, 1885, he was appointed postmaster of Tuscaloosa, and is the present incumbent. Mr. Wilds thoroughly enjoys llie respect and esteem of his townsmen, and is a faithful and zealous officer. Duty is his watchword, and he ever heeds it. Mr. Wilds was married in 1870 to Miss Fannie Y.. Hamner, of Tuscaloosa, and is the father of seven children. He is a member of the Baptist Church. " 'V' 'f3s^!^* '»• * "* REV. JAMES H. STRINGFELLOW, Hector of Christ Church, Tuscaloosa, was born in Alexan- dria, Va., December 14, 1850. He is the eldest son of Rev. H. Stringfellow. D.I)., rector of St. John's Church, Montgomery, Ala. He was pre- pared for college in the public schools of Indian- 548 NORTHERN ALABAMA. apolis, Ind., and is an ahinutusot the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., and of Berkeley Di- vinity School, Middletowii. Conn. He was or- dained deacon in St. John's Church, Montgomery, Ala., May Vi, IST^, by Kt. Rev. R. II. Wilnier, I). I)., Bishop of Alabama, and Priest in Trinity Church, Columbia, S. C, December 15, lf<74, by Kt. Rev. W. B. W. Howe, D. D. In his early ministry lie served as assistant minister in St. John's Cijurch. Montgomery, Ala.. Trinity Church. Xi'W Orleans, La., and Trinity Church, Columbia, S. C, ami subsequently as rector of Meade Memorial Church, Manchester, Va., and Church of Our Saviour. Baltimore, Md., from which he was called to his present charge. In IsT'.t. Mr. Springfellow married Lula Brocken- borough, daughter of 1'. J. and Lucy W. lluskins, of Powhatan County. Va.. by whom he has had four children, named Mary Muir, Horace, Lucy Haskins and Ethel Grey, respectively. Both on his paternal and maternal side he is of Englisli- Scotcii descent, while his wife is descended from the good old English stock that has made Virginia famous through the Greys, the Meades, Brocken- borougiis, Haskins, and many others, noted in the military and civil life of the Old Dominion, among whom was the great lawyer and jurist. Wa'kins Leigh, who was her mother's double tir^;t cuisin. — ^ — ■^^i^^.- < *- ' REUBEN SEARCY, son of Thomas and Ann Marl in Scarry, was born at Chapel Hill, X. ('., December 'UK 1IS05. Mr. Searcy moved to near Madison, that State, and there received snch education as the country afforded. In It^'id he came to Tuscaloosa, his brother-in-law and wife having preceded him. His father's family failed to follow him as expected, and he decided to remain anyway. He at once applied for and procured employment on a steamboat on the Warrior River, first as a clerk, and subsequently as an engineer. About that time he began the study of medicine under Dr. James Guild, the most prominent physician of Tusca- loosa. So reduced was he in financial circumstan- ces that he was, as he has been heard to relate, driven to the necessity of i>icking up from the street stray pieces of cloth with which to mend his wearing apparel. After teaching school a short time, he raised a small amount of money, suHicient to enable him to take a winter course of lectures at the Le.xington (Ky.) Medical College. He subsequently, after finishing his course of lec- tures, returned to Tuscaloosa, and again taught school — continuing his medical studies. The fol- lowing winter he attended another course of lec- tures ami received his diploma. Immediately thereafter he settled at Carthage, Ala., where he built up a successful practice. After paying up his small indebtedness he. returned to Tuscaloosa, and formed a partnership with his old preceptor. Dr. Guild. His practice soon became very exten- sive in this and adjoining counties. The partner- ship was mutually dissolved. B'or nearly thirty years he was president of the Board of Trustees for the Insane Asylum. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church for upward of fifty years, and during his long life filled many l)laces of trust and resjioiisibility. He was mar- ried in October 1834 to 3Iiss Enieline S. Nore. She died in 18.3t!. leaving an infant daughter, who survived but a few months. The Doctor's second wife was Miss -M. .\. Fitch, and they lived together as man and wife for nearly half a century. To them were born three sons and two daughters. One of his sons died from wounds received at the battle of JIurfreesboro. Dr. Searcy was a most kind and affectionate husband, father and grandfather. He died at Tuscaloosa March lu. ISsT, regretted by all who I knew him. XIV. GREENSBORO. Bv W.M. !•:. \V. Ykrijv. Ill the befriimiiiir of the year 181ii. the first set- tlements were made in the vicinity of (ireensboro by some half dozen or more families from Tennes- see, (ieorgia and North Carolina. Of the num- ber may be mentioned M. Kinnard, his two sons- in-law, Met'onnico and C'orzine ; T. A. Kinnard, Mr. Davis and Mr. IJennett. A large family of IJiissells also resided in the neighborhood at that rime, and for several years the country in a radius of four or five miles was known as the " Kiissell Settlement."' These hardy pioneers, upon their arrival, found nothing here except an unbroken forest, wliich they at once began to clear away, and to build rude cabins, which they furnished in primitive simplicity. Their bedsteads were made by bor- ing holes in the logs of the houses, into which pieces of wood were driven and boards laid upon them; a three-legged stool for each member of the family and a high bench for a table consti- tuted the household furniture. The country around Greensboro, in these early times, is said to have been indescribably beautiful. Tiie primeval forests, consisting of hickory, oak, chestnut and pine, were unbroken, (iame of all kinds was very plentiful. Large number of deer were frequently killed by the settlers only a short distance from the cabins. The low places to be seen around the town of to-day were then exten- sive reed-brakes, into which cattle fre(|uently went never to come oAt alive, on account of the boggy nature of the soil. The year ISIT brought new-comers into the • Uussell Settlement.'' Of the number C'apt. James Veates, Louis 8tei)hens. Benjamin Baldwin. Fred- erick Peck, William Lovell and others. They erected houses near the present site of the South- ern University, and gave the place the name of Trov. under wliiili name it soon became a thriv- ing little village. Jlost of the inhabitants culti- vated the soil for a livelihood, and were contented and happy. The first L'nited States mail ever received in Troy was brought from Cahaba on horseback, by S. (r. Briggs, and opened in the store of Frederick Peck, the first Postmaster, on the 3il day of Sep- tember, 1818. This mail had been carried to Cahaba on a barge coming from Blakely. The first house built in Greensboro proper was in the year 1818 — a one-room log structure — by .John Nelson. It was located on the southeast corner of the square on which Dr. Thomas R. Ward's residence now stands. In this hut Mr. Nelson kept a small stock of powder, shot, whis- ky, tobacco, etc. ; but he soon tired of merchandis- ing, and in 181H sold out, and settled upon forty acres of land on the ]>lantation now known as '• Midway," and engiiged at farming. He died in 1858 or 18.59, leaving a fortune of some 8250,000, all of which he had accnnuilated by tilling the soil. The second house built in the town was in 1819, by Silas Baggett, who used it as a wheelwright shop. This building was situated on the present Presbyterian Clnircli lot. In 1819 .Mabama was admitted into the Union, and Troy being situated ujjon tlie sixteenth sec- tion, which is by an Act of Congress reserved to every State for the benefit of public schools, was broken up, and the inhabitants moved to the present site of Greensboro. In 1820, James Veates erected a frame building on the east corner of the lot on which Governor Searcy's residence now stands, and used it as a boot and shoe shop. Samuel G. Briggs located in the town the same year and opened a hotel on the lot now owne per annum. From this it will be seen that the income of the town was small, but the expenditures were e<|ually so. The oHicers received no salaries. The In- tendant was allowed a small fee for the trial of criminal offenses, and the Constable also, but rarely was a case reported to the Intendant. Cases for breaches of the peace, if noted at all, came up before the Justices of the Peace. For breaches of by-laws, the limit of fines was *10, with right of appeal if over ?i. The limits of the town were the quarter section. An Act was passed on January VI, 18^3, extending the limits to embrace the residence and lot of John Morrast — now occupied by Thomas H. Iioiilhac. The object was to relieve Dr. Morrast from lia- bility to work on roads outside of the town. On January '27, 1845, an Act was passed "to alter and amend the several Acts in incorporating the town of Greensboro." It enlarged the powers of the Intendant and Constable somewhat. On February 1"^'. IS.iO, another Act to amend was piissed, authorizing the erection of a jail, or cala- boose, for the detention of .sltircs. . Sections four, five and six of the Act of Jan- uary 'io. 18.">r., incorporating the Southern L'ni- versity forbids the sale of liquors in Greensboro, except by druggists. It was not until 18o8that the limit.-; of the town were extended beyond the original quarter section and the Morrast lot. There under the provisions of the general statutes, sections I'i'iO to Vi'io, in- clusive, a petition was filed in the Probate Court of (ireene County for an extension, so as to embrace in all the northeast, the sontheiU*. the southwest quarters of section seventeen, and the southwest (|iiarter of section sixteen. The question was sub- mitted to the ]ieo]ile. The vote stood sixty for and forty-two against the extension. The exten- sion took effect in April, 18.iM. In 185'.t the char- ter was further amended, so as to authorize the imprisonment of white persons, etc., and the In- tendant made eligible I'V the i)eoi)le instead of the XORTIIERN ALABAMA. 001 Council, aif heretofore. Tlie ottii'e of .Marsluil was also created. Originally, the jurisdiction of a Justice of the Peace was confined to liis own beat; but prior to 18.30, by Act of the Legislature, the Justices for (ireensboro Beat could issue process to any part of the county, returnable at (ireensboro. Later, by Act of December, 18:iG, any Justice in the county might issue process returnable li> any place in the county he might think proper. In 1841 or 1843 an Act was passed allowing real estate and slaves levied upon by the .Sheriff or Constable on the east side of the river to be sold at (ireensboro instead of at the court-house in Eutaw. The cliarter was again amended, in some particulars, in 187n and in 1884-8."). The charter of the Southern University was also amended by the Legislature of 1884-8.5, so as to prohibit even druggists, or anyone else, from selling or giving awav spirituous, vinous or malt liquors in Greens- boro or within five miles of the corporate limits of the town. It is a fact worthy of historical note that (ireensboro has, since that time, enjoyed a prahUiition Jaw which does prnhihit. In the early times, the village was divided into three imaginary wards. From the eastern end of Main street (by the court-house), extending to the street east of the present Corwin House, was called the *• White settlement." Thence to the street at Scarff's corner, (T'uscaloosa street) was the •' Hlack settlement." Thence to the western line, near Boardman's, was •' Dogsboro." The wet, swampy hollow in front of Colonel Tunstall's. was then much deeper that) now. In the " White settlement " was a fnime, paint- ed white, two-story hotel, where now stands 'he court-house. (>pposite. was a fine-looking white frame house, with a portico, the residence of Dr. Hunter. Farther on, on eitlier side of the street, were buildings variously occupied — two dry goods stores (in one of which was kept the jiost-cttice), a tinner's office, a tailor shoj). a lawyer's office, a printing office and two dwellings. In the " Bhick settlement." on the upper block, were four or five dry goods houses, two liquor saloons — then called "doggeries" — two lawyers' offices antl three tlwellings. On Bowers' corner was a one-story double log cabin, ke)it as a hotel, its swinging sign a " stag." ScarfT's cabinet shop and residence stood on tiie western corner of this block, opposite which was a red frame house, a hotel, ki-pt in IS.'id by Maj. \. L. Descourt, a French refugee, who had served under Napoleon, and was at the battle of Waterloo; farther up was a store and a tailor's shop. In " Dogsboro," the village blacksmith's shop (Coleman W. (Jarrett, proprietor) stood near the west corner of the present Methodist Church, about as far back from the street as the church now stands. On the corner, was a two-story frame store which was used, at the times of the races, as an open gambling house, tilled with faro tables and bystanders. Subsequently, for a short while, it was occupied by Levin Gayse as a dry goods store. Below this, with the e.xeejition of a cabinet shop (that now occupie was felt in Alabama, and from 18"^ti to 1828 were many bankruptcies and much business for the lawyers, who then prospered. This over, came a dull time — till the crisis of 183T, when the whole Union nearly be- came bankru]>t, and the effects of which continued NORTHERN ALABAMA. to 1S4>' and 1S4:{, at which hitter date (ireene County had about recovered from it. During this period the lawyers, clerks of court, sheriffs, and all judicial officers, flourished. There are a number of scattered graves in Greensboro, of which but few of the present popu- lation have any knowledge. In the corner of the woods in the rear of ]). F. McCrary's. are many — the dead of Troy, as the first settlement was i-alled, were buried there. Two graves, now so obliterated as not to be recognizable, were near the door, by the side of the (-nioke-house of the residence of Jolin Erwin, on •• Strawberry Hill.'' There is one in the middle of the lot in the lear of L. J. Lawson's garden, and one outside the north rt-est corner of the same lot. So in many other places. Tiie .McAlpine graves are yet visible. The burials made at the Stokes cemetery weie on private ground. When the question came up for the purchase of land for a public graveyard, this was, of course, under consideration, T'he land was poor and uneven, unfit for cultivation, and of little value. The owners, knowing the interest the public and the relatives and friends of those buried there felt in the matter, asked an exorbitant price for the land, which engendered bad feelings, and the result was that the present site was bought. The fall of 18:i:i was very sickly. Congestion and fevers carried off a great number, and among the rest some five or six very promising young men, whose loss was mentioned and mourned for years afterward. The fall of ls:{7, purchased from the Alabama Baptist State Convention the middle building of the present court-house, then known as "Salem Baptist Church," for the sum of *8,0(Mi. The deed to this property is signed by J. L. M. Curry and Charles .Manly, for the Baptists, and witnessed by James I). .Spiller and U. P. Walker. On the 5th day of April. l.SOS, the '• lutciulant and Council of the town of Greensboro" conveyed the property to Hale County, on the following conditions: " The use and right of juojlerty to the premises conveyed shall he and remain in the county of Hale so long as (ireensboro shall remain the county seat; but if at any time or in any event the said Greensboro should cease to be the county seat of said county, and the purposes for which the the deed is given should fail, then all right, title and interest in and to the said land and buildings conveye5. JoHX Gayle was at on« time a resident of Greensboro. He was born in South Carolina in 179-^, but came to Alabama when quite a young man. He represented Monroe County in the Legislature in 18'-J'.J-"-i3. In the latter year he was elected by the General Assembly to the Supreme bench, in place of Judge Webb, deceased, which position he lield for five years, and then resigned. In 1829-:i0 he represented Greene County in the Legislature, and in 1831 he was elected Governor, and served two terms. At the exjjiration of his second term as Governor he settled in Mobile, and practiced law until elected as Congressman in 1847. In 1849 he was appointed Federal District Judge, vice Judge Crawford, which office he held until his death, in 1858. His daughter, Mrs. James W. Locke, now resides in Greensboro. Israel Pickens was born in North Carolina in 1780, and came to Alabama in 1817, and settled at St. Stephen's. He soon afterward moved to Greene County, and located near Greensboro. In 1821 he was elected Governor, and again in 1823. In 1826 he was appointed by Governor Murphey to fill the vacancy in the Federal Senate occasioned bv the death of Dr. Chambers, a position he held for only a short while, on account of his health. Hoping to be benefited, he went to Cuba in 1827, but died there a few months after his arrival. His remains were brought to Alabama, and interred near his home, three miles south of Greensboro. James D. Wehb was a North Carolinian by birth. He was born in Lincoln County in 1818, but came to Alabama soon afterward with his parents. He opened a law office in Gieensboro in 1838, and made a most enviable reputation as a practitioner. He represented Greene County in the lower house of the Legislature in 1843 and 1S51. Ho was a gallant Confederate soldier, and was mortally wounded at Chattanooga. Tenn., on the 2d of July, 1863. and died on the 9th of the same month. His widow, Mrs. J. S. Webb, is now living at Forkland, Ala. R. B. Waller. One among the most polished gentlemen and eminent lawyers that ever graced the Greensboro bar, was Robert B. Waller, a Vir- ginian by birth. He moved to this place in 1832, and practiced his profession with marked success for many years. He represented Greene County in the Legislature in 1866-67, and was the author of the bill creating Hale County. Mr. Waller spent about twenty-five years in collecting a cabi- net of minerals, which is one of the finest to be found in the United States. This cabinet is now in possession of his children in (ireensboro. He died in 1877, leaving a bright and honored name as a heritage to his children. AiousTis Benxers was a modest, retiring man, but an able lawyer. He was born in New Berne, N. C, in 1818. and came to Greensboro when but twenty-two years of age. He repre- sented the county in the Legislature in 1853, and was twice afterward honored with the same posi- tion. He enjoj'ed the utmost confidence and esteem of all with whom he came in contact. He died in Greensboro in 1885, leaving a name with- out spot or blemish. Hexky Watsox is a native of Connecticut. He came to Alabama in 1833. and settled at Erie, then the county site of Greene, where he taught school for some months, after which he located in Greens- boro and associated himself in the practice of law with Col. .John Erwin, a copartnership which ex- isted for a number of years. He was a hard stu- dent, an untiring worker, and gave the business of his office the strictest attention. He accumulated a considerable fortune during his practice of about twenty years in Greensboro. As a speaker he was not considered brilliant, but as an office lawyer he did not have a peer in the State. The war between the States breaking out in 1861. amf Mr. Watson, being a Northern man (though his sympathies were deeply allied with the Southern cause), found it unpleasant to reside in Greensboro, and moved, in consequence, to Massachusetts,: but the peo/le there manifested toward him a spirit of intolerance because of his sympathy with the South, so he took his family to the old world, spending about four years in (Jer- manv and France. After the conflict at arms had NORTHERN ALABAMA. ceased, he returned to the l'niter. Tlios. R. Ward is now the only Baptist left in Greensboro, of what was once the most popular and prosperous denomination in the vicinitv. 558 NORTHERN ALABAMA. SCHOOLS. The Southern University is located at Greensboro. It was establisheil by the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. South, and cksigiied to be an institution of high grade and general cliaracter for the promotion of literature, science, morality and religion within the limits of said Conference. The University was incorporated January, IS.iil. Rev. Robert Paine. Kev. .James 0. Andrew, Rev. Edward Wadsworth. Rev. Jefferson Hamilton, Rev. Tiiomas 0. Summers. Rev. Archelaus II. Mit- chell, Rev. Thomas J. Koger, Rev. Christopher C. Callaway, Rev. .loseph J. Hutchinson, Rev. Joshua T. Heard. Rev, Philip P, Neely, Rev. Lucius Q. C. DeYampert, Rev. Henry W. Hilliard, Rev. Thomas Y. Ramsey, John Erwin, Gideon E. Nelson, Robert A. Raker, John W. Walton, Thomas .M. Joiinston, Gaston Drake, Thomas W. Webb, Augustus A. Coleman and Duke W. (Jood- man are named in the Act of Incorporation as " Trustees." The first regular meeting of the Trustees was held in Greensboro, on the 17th of March, 185<;, Rev. Bishop Paine was elected president and Hon. John Erwin vice-president of the Board. Steps were taken promptly to carry out the pro- visions of the charter. On the 11th of June, 1857, the corner-stone was laid; on the 3d of October. 1851t, the halls of the University were opened for the admission of students. From that time until the present, except during the session of 18<>4-().i, its halls have remained open and the institution has been meeting the ends of its estab- lishment. The following composed the first faculty: Rev. W. M. Wightman, DD., LL.D., Chancellor and I'rofessor of Biblical Literature: Rev. Edward Wadsworth, .\.M.. DD., Professor of Moral Physi- ology: Oscar F, Casey, A.^L. Profest.tr of Ancient Languages; Rev. J. .C. Wills. .V.M.. Professor of Mathematics; N. T. Lupton, A..M., Professor of Chemistry; Rev. J. A. Reubelt. A.M., Professor of .Modern Languages and Hebrew; J. A. Gatcli, A.M., Adjunct Professor of Mathematics. Tiie Rev. C. C- Callaway had been appointed Financial and Endowment Agent. During his agency the excellent building, which now stands, was erected, and the University com- menced operations with a productive endowment of more tlum *-2:i8.(i(iU. It suffered, however, in common with the whole South, from the civil war. The endowment was lost, patronage was limited, and the institution soon became financial- ly embarassed. Succeeding Rev. C. C. Callaway, Rev. R. K. Hargrove, Rev. J. T. Heard, Rev. Jefferson Hamilton were endowment agents. The hand of a kind Providence was guiding the University through those dark and stormy peri- ods. Its history is a record of heroic struggles, of discouraging failures, of renewed efforts, of final triumph. In 18CG, Dr. Wightman was called to the office and work of bishop. He retained his connection with the University until July, 1807. From that time until 1871 there was no president, one of the faculty acting as ciiairman. In July, 1871, the following faculty Wiis elected: Rev. A. S. An- drews, .\..M., D.D., Chancellor and Professor of Moral Philosophy; 0. F. Casey, A.M., Professor of Ancient Languages; Rev. John S. Moore, A.M., Professor of Mathematics; Rev. T. 0. Summers, A.M.. M.D., Professor of Chemistry. Subse- cpiently. Rev. D. M. Rush. A.M., and Rev. R. T. Nabors, A.M , were added to the faculty. The administration of Dr. Andrews was suc- cessful, the enrollment during 1872-73 being larger than during any previous session. He organized the College of Medicine, which continued in operation during three sessions, and graduated five students Doctors of Medicine. His connection with the institution ended in 1874. In July, 1875, Rev. L. M. Smith was elected Chancellor. He associated with himself: Rev. I. F. Hopkins, A.M., M.D., Professor of Chemistry: Rev. J. Lewis, .\.M., D.D., Professor of English Literature and History; 0. F. Casey, A.M., Professor of Ancient Languages; Rev. J. S. Moore, A.M., Professor of Mathematics; C. A. Grote, A.M., Professor of Modern Languages; Charles Lane, A.B., Principal of Preparatory De- partment. Professors Casey and Lane renuiined only dur- ing the session of 187-">-7ii, and were succeeded, ' respectively, by C. M, Verde) and A. W. Smith. Rev. W. I. Powers was endowment agent. He labored zealously and faithfully, and with some measure of success, but did not ]irocure any per- manent endowment. The laborsof Dr. Smith ended witli his death in July, 187!'. At the ensuing commencement. Rev. J. Lewis was elected Chancellor. His co-lal)orers I were Rev. J. S. Moore. A.M.. D.D.. Profcs.-ld much to the appearance of the street. The corporate limits of Greensboro embrace the west half of northwest (piarter of southwest (piar- ter, and west half of southeast quarter of section sixteen, township twenty, range five east: also east half and southwest quarter of section seventeen, township twenty, range five east; and north half of northwest quarter, northwest quarter of north- east quarter of .section twenty, townshi]) twenty, range five east. Its present population is about two thousand. The surrounding countrv is composed of very fine agricultural lands. Indeed, Bishop Keener, who has traveled over the greater portion of the globe, asserted a few years ago that in all of his journeyings he had never seen a section better adapted to farming than this portion of Alabama. A few miles south and west of the town begin the famous black or prairie lands, which will pro- duce crops of corn, cotton, oats, grasses, etc., equal to those of any State in the Union, when properly cultivated. Before the war these lands, sold readily at thirty to forty dollars per acre, but can now be bought for a much less sum. Xorth and east of the town the soil is what is termed " sandy " and "hill-lands." Good crops are uniformly grown on these farms — in some instances, as fine as those produced in the cane- brake region. The health of Greensboro and surrounding coun- trv will compare favorably with that of any portion of Alabama, while the social, religious and edu- cational advantages of the place are unsurpassed. It is truly a patrician town. Its homes are stamped with old-time comfort and hospitality. It is, too. a picturesque place, with wide, undu- lating straets, canopied with rich foliage, and spa- cious yards filled with beautiful trees and fiowers. It is a place to which its citizens return, after trying the e.xperinient of residing elsewhere, con- tented to remain. AcKXowLEDtiMEXTs. — The author is greatly indebted to Mr. Henry Watson. Dr. John H. Par- rish, Mr. Samuel G. Briggs, Rev. W. C. Clark, Prof. F. M. Peterson, Mr. S. W. Chadwick and Rev. Dr. 1{. II. Cobbs, for much of the data con- tained in the foregoing history of (Jreens- boro. 562 NORTHERN ALABAMA. AUGUSTUS A. COLEMAN, prominent Attor- ney and ( ouiisilor-at-law. was born in South Carolina. His father, James B. Coleman, also a native of South Carolina, was a physician by pro- fession, although, in Dallas County, this State, where he lived many years, he was known best as an extensive cotton planter. While on a visit to Louisville, Ky., he died suddenly in that city. A. A. Coleman, an only son. was schooled, pri- marily, at Sunimerfield. this State, and graduated sul>seqnently from Yale College. He read law at Cahaba with Charles 0. Edwards, and was ad- mitted to the bar in Dallas County, where he be- gan the practice of his chosen profession. From Dallas he removed to Sumter County, and was practicing law at Livingston when the then (iov- ernor, A. H. Moore, ap])ointed him Judge of the Seventh Judicial District. Coleman was then but twenty-seven years of age. He was subsequently twice elected to the Circuit Judgeship, and held that office, in all, nine years. He came to Creens- boro in 18'i7 and is here, at this writing, the recognized " Nestor of the Bar." Judge Coleman was a conspicuous member of the Secession Convention of IStil. It was he that drew and presented to that memorable assembly, the resolution of withdrawal from the Federal Union by separate State action, asserting the doc- trine of State sovereignty and the right and duty of each State to juilge for itself whether or not the Federal compact had been broken. [The question whethereach State should act alone in withdrawing from the Federal Union, or whether or not there should be a co-operation of sevenil or all the South- ern States, was of deepest moment to the people. ] This fact, Jiot having hitherto been given publica- tion, coupled with the furtlicr fact that the Honor- able W. L. Yancey was chairman of the Ordinance Committee, it may occur to the casual reader that the preceding statement lacks authority; but when it is remembered that Judge Coleman was then, as he is now, recognized as one of tiie most accom- plished scholars in the State; was noted for his impartial fairmindodness upon all questions com- ing before him, and that he was, in consequence thereof, the accei)ted representative of all parties from his district to the Secession Convention, and that he was a member of Yancey's committee, the probabilities are not wanting, even if it were not an ascertainable truth entitled to a place in history. The .Judge represented Hale County in the Leg- islature, session of 1884, and as chairman of the Committee on Convict System, drew, presented and had passed the present higlily popular con- vict law of the State. When war between the .States was no longer a matter of high-sounding rhetoric and fascinating theory, but had retolved itself into a real tragedy, where the lurid lights from actual fields of carnage illumined the half of a continent like Greek fire the play-house stage. Judge Coleman was presiding over his Circuit Court. Feeling that he could better serve his country as a soldier than as an officer of peace, he tendered his resignation as Judge and proceeded to organize a regiment for the army. His regiment was known as the For- tieth Alabama, and he commanded it twelve months. In the meantime. Governor Shorter having declined his resignation from tiie Judici- ary, the people of his circuit were without recourse or remedy at law. He therefore resumed his seat on the bench an(f continued to hold court until the close of the war. It may be remarked, however, that the fact of his having left the bench to fight tlie enemy went no further toward recom- mending him to the "military successors" for a continuation in office than did the further fact of his refusal to draw, and allowing to remain in the treasury for the benefit of her soldiery, several years of his salary as 'nisi priiic judge; for no sooner had the victorious army taken control of affairs than Coleman was notified that his "time was out." The matter of payment of his salary justly due him for years of judicial service, amounting to thousands of dollars, after the close of the war, became a question before the .State Su- preme Court, and that august body held that "on account of his disloyalty, A. A. Coleman was disqualified for office," and gravely decided that " /te had served the rebel State nf Alabama, and must look to the said rebel State for his pail ! " The Judge was probably the first man ejected from office in this State by military authority; and it should be written that the great State of Alabama has never re-imbursed him in the amount of his salary appropriated to her use in the wag- ing of war. Of the original founders of the Southern I'niversity. Judge Coleman and Dr. A. II. Mit- chell are, at this writing (March, IS.ss), the onlv survivors within the State. Alwavs inter- ^^-^^oe^' <5^<^ CCCC^&^Sl.r^' NORTHERN ALABAMA. 563 ested in the advancement of education, the University has, from its inception, never ceased to be an object of the Judge's affection; and it is to him as much as to any other one man, that this great institution of learning is indebted for its success. Judge Coleman was married in Sumter County, this State, to tlie accomplished daugliter of John C. Phares, a successful planter and merchant; and of the three sons born to them, one is a merchant, another a physician, and the third a lawyer. The subject of this sketch is a Freemason, an Odd Fellow, and a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a profound scholar, a polished gentleman, a superior lawyer, a graceful orator, an entertaining conversationalist, and, above all, a man in whom there is no guile, and a citizen of Greensboro against whose character and good name there never has been a mark. Such is Augustus A. Coleman, and such does the biographer delight to portray him in this volume. JAMES M. HOBSON. Probate Judge of Hale County, was born in liockingham County, >,'. C, April ■•i'.i, 184, since which time he has been in the practice in this and adjoining counties. He has been ten years Assistant Solici- tor of the county — four years under J. N. ."^uttle and six years under P. H. Pitts. He was a mem- ber of the lower house of the Leg slature, session of 1878-9, and again in 1880-1. In the ses.sion of 1878, he was of the Committee on Corporations, and was a member of the Judiciary Committee in the session of 188[ethodi8t Ei)iscopal Churcli at Evergreen, Ala. A tiiird son. Prof. Francis M. Peterson, Chair of Ancient Languages Southern University, is also a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Doctor Peterson's second marriage, also at Greensboro, occurred in. June, 1801, to a daughter of Alexander Sledge. Esq. To this union have been born three daughters, the eldest of whom is now the wife of Dr. H. T. Inge, of Mobile. The family are all members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Doctor says •' his sons took to preaching as naturally as a duck takes to the water." He has never been in polities, his highest ambition having been to be a good doctor, and in this, according to the testimony of those wlio have known him longest and l)est. and of the members of his profession througliout the State, he has been eminently successful. _ — .^.-.t^i^,^. — _ ELISH A YOUNG » as born in 1 TOU. The writer knows little of his early history, but he was a professor in the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, and came from Virginia to Alabama in 18-.>4. He was the Whig candidate for Congress in the Tuscaloosa district in 18.3T. In 1840, Mr. Young was elected to the Legis- lature, and was among the most prominent mem- bers of the House. He was thoroughly versed in classical literature, and in this respect far in advance of his fellow-members. His diction was pure, and his arguments were often adorned by apt f|uotations from the standard authors of antiquity and from the traditions of mythology. His voice was soft, pleasant and highly cultured, and his delivery most pleasing to his listeners. His person was well proportioned, erect and com- manding, and he had a natural dignity, which completed the physical man. With these supe- rior qualifications he never failed to command the attention of the House. When called to preside temporarily, as he often was. Mr. Young displayed his superior skill in the forms of proceeding, and left the impression on the majority, which all must have shared, that whatever was gained for his opjwnents by party tactics and for party objects, was dispelled by him, when filling the chair, by administrative force. In 1841, when Governor Bagby convened a special session of the Legislature, an unfriendly attack svas made on Mr. W^ebster, the Secretary of State, as hostile to the institutions of the South. Mr. Young took the floor in defense of that eminent statesman. His speech wa.s a beautiful specimen of parliamentary eloquence, and was much admired by the public. In 1843 Mr. Young was again the Whig candi- date for Congress, but was defeated by Mr. Payne, and soon thereafter removed to Marengo County, where he sought hajipiness in the society of his large family connection, and in the planting in- terests in which he was concerned. His wife was Martha L. M. Strudwick. He died in Marengo County, in 185"^. He was a gifted and talented gentleman, and, if he had been with the political majority, his laudable ambition would undoubt- edly have been fully gratified. ELISHA YOUNG. M. D.. son of the late Elisha Young. lawyiT. planter and politician, was born in Hale County. Ala.. April i, 1837, and was educated at Greene Springs. He began the study of medicine at Deniopolis. in is.iT. with Drs. Ashe and Ruffin, and was graduated from the .TefTerson Medical College of Philadelphia in 18")!'. He began practice in Washington County. Miss., whence he came into Hale County at the end of about one year thereafter. Here he was married, February 'li, 18G1, to Miss Anna Eliza Tutwiler. second daughter of Prof. Henry Tutwiler, the distin- guished educator of Greene Springs. The Doctor first established himself near New- bern. this county. In lsCi->. he entered the army at Fort Morgan as surgeon, and remained in that position until the capture of the Fort. After re- e - -j'T'^-n^'c^t^^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 567 lease from the enemy's prison he was assigned to hospital duty at Mobile, where he remained about six months. After leaving tlie service he moved to (Jreensboro, where he lias since enjoyed a lucra- tive practice in his profession. He is a member of the State and County Medi- cal Societies, and is recognized as a physician of the first rank. His wife died at Greensboro, August 'II, 1SS7. The children born to them were eight, of whom are living four daughters and two sons. The family belong to the Presbyterian Ohurch, and the Doctor is a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity. RICHARD INGE. M. D., Physician and Sur- geon. (Ireensboro. was born in Greene County, this State, January 18, 1851. He was educated at the Southern University; studied medicine at, and was graduated from the University of Virginia, July, 1870; also was graduated in medicine from the University of New York in February, 1871. March, 187;5, he began the practice of medicine at Greensboro, the time between his graduation and the date of his locating at (ireensboro having been spent in the New York City IIosp tal. He devotes his time to the practice and is regarded as one of the brightest and most successful young men in the profession. lie is a member of the State and County Medical Societies; is an industrious student, and fully abreast with the most ad- vanced theories of the science of medicine. The Inge family came from North Carolina to Alabama away back in the early history of the State. Dr. Inge is a son of Wm. B. Inge, a planter during his lifetime. Wm. H. Inge married an Alabama lady, reared four sons and two daughters, and died at Greensboro in January. 1873, at the age of tifty-five years. Two of his sons are doctors and the other a lawyer. His eldest son, the Hon. Wm.H. Inge, is the present State Senator from this district. Dr. Richard Inge was married at Mobile in November. 187'.t, to Miss Caroline Herndon, daughter of the late Col. 'i'homas H. Herndon, a distinguished member of the United States House of Representatives. Dr. Inge is a prominent Mason, member of the Knights of Pythias, and meini)erof the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. THOMAS R. WARD, M.D., a successful Practi- tioner of Mpiiiiinc anil Surgery, (ireensboro, is a native of Chatiiam County, N. C, son of Edward H. and Cintha Ward, also of North Carolina, and was born in 18x*r. Andrews came to Greensboro, Ala., first, in ISTI, as president of the Southern University: held that position four years, and resigned to ac- cept the pastorate of Court Street Methodist Epis- copal Church, South. Montgomery. The nine vears preceding his coming to the presidency of the Southern University (1882), were spent by him at Montgomery, Opelika and Selma — four years in Montgomery, four years in Opelika, and one in Selma. While in Ojielika, the Methodist F]pisco- pal people, under his supervision, and mainly through his efforts, erected a new and elegant church edifice. Since coming to Greensboro, tlie University has claimed and received, approximate- ly, his entire attention. Intellectually. I>r. .\ndrews is a man of supe- rior cast, and as an educator he has but few, if any, equals in the South. As president of the University lie has made that institution one of the most popular and successful in Alabama. Ue is a man of profo.md learning, a powerful and effective preacher, a ready debater, and a pungent, forcible writer. 'L'he Alnhamn Cliristinn Advocate was estab- lished in 1881, with publication office in Bir- mingham, and with Dr. .\ndrews, then located at Opelika. a-s its first editor. During that year he represented the Methodist Fpiscoi>al Church. South, at the Ecumenical Conference, London, England. In 18.i0, at Trinity, N. C Dr. Andrews was married to Miss Margaret C. Leach. She became the mother of two children, and. in 18.').'(. died at (ilenville, in this State. Their son. Julian L., a bright and promising youth, dieil at the age of sixteen years, in Mobile. Ala. The daughter. Lizzie M., married the Hev. R. T. Xabors. now- deceased. Mr. Xabors was one of the most brilliant young men of his day. He was born in Shelby County, Ala., on the 13th day of July, 18.")ti, and died at the Vanderbilt University, April 1, 1884. A beautiful biographical sketch of him, written by Dr. Andrews, is jiublished in a volume of his sermons and lectures, b' the Southern Methodist Publishing House. Nashville, TVnu. A second edition of the work is now in course of prepara- tion. While in Mobile (1801) the Doctor was married to Miss Virginia F. Hudson, daughter of Llew- ellyn Hudson, Esq.. and of the five children born to them we make the following mention: Willie F. was gra. E. in 1883, and from the Southern University in 188(i received the degree of A. M. He is now a nvinister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the North Alabama Conference; Allen L., A. il.. also a preacher in the North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was graduated at the Southern I'niversity in 1887: Lila L., Leigh K and John H. comprise the home members of the family. Doctor An- drews received the degree of D.D. from the South- ern University in 1870, and the degree of LL.D., in 1888. from the Southern University and from the A. and M. College at Auburn, Ala. — ' — -*~f^?^:- -^ JOHN C. HARVEY. Kditor and Proprietor of of the Ahtbitma Beacon, was born in Beaufort, County. N. C, March 1."), 180^. His father, John Harvey, also a native of North Carolina, was a farmer, and died in that State at a ripe old age. Colonel Harvey, the subject of this sketch, was educated at West Point .\cademy, from which in- stitution he graduated in July, 18.'{1, as second lieutenant in the regular «rmy of the L'nited States. He was in the army one year and eight months, ten months of the time in Northeastern Maine, near the Province of New Brunswick. His wife's health became such that it necessitated his coining South on furlougii. and finally led to his resignation from the army. After about two years residence in Eastern North Carolina he came to .\labania. and in June, 1835, settled at NORTHERN ALABAMA. 569 (Jreensboro as a merchant. After a residence in (ireeiisboro of near six years, he moved to New York, where he resided about eigliteen montlis, and then, owing to liis wife's poor health, he returned to (Jrtensboro, where he has resided ever sinoe. On his return from New York he read law, but, soon after obtaining license to practice, he en- I gaged in the publication of the Ahihiima Bea- con, and with the excejition of a few months at 1 the outbreak of the late war, has continued in j tliat business down to the present time. j 'riioujrii an ardent lover of the South, Colonel llarvey opposed secession from tlie beginning. He opposed it from principle and from a firm con- viction that such a movement would lead to the utter destruction of the very institution it was designed to perpetuate. As to wliether he was right need not here be discussed. Colonel llarvey has always been an active, earnest supporter of the Democratic party, and, as editor and speaker, has wielded an influence for much good in the community where he has so long resided. At no time in life has he sought nor wanted oftice, preferring to act his own jiart in the quiet unostentatious way that has so well become him. His first wife, Miss Xelms, to whom he was married in Halifax County, X. C, when twenty- four years of age, died at Greensboro, June, 1871. The present Mrs. Harvey was Mrs. Evarlyn Bon- durant, nvc DuBose. Colonel Harvey has been at all times an active advocate of and participant in every measure look- ing to the interest and ))romotion of his section and county. His private life has afforded a shin- ing example of i)robity, courage and lofty character. His has been truly a godly, righteous and sober life. Of a delicate constitution, his chaste and temperate living has preserved him to a venerable age; and now when he has passed the usual span of man's days he can look back with the satisfac- tion that he has injured no one nor treated any man unjustly. A friend who knew him well remarked, tlmt if he was required on penalty of his own life to find an honest man, when he found Colonel Harvey he would stop the searcli. ern University, Greensboro, son of Dr. F. JI. Peter- son (whose biograpliy appears in this volume), was born at (ireensboro, October 2!), 18.')4. He was educated at the Southern I'niversity, from which institution he was graduated as A. M. in July, 18T.'5, and as B.I), one year later. He was licensed to preach .July 2, 1873, and admitted on trial into the Alabama Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in December, 1874. In 187.5 he was appointed to the Citronelle Circuit, Mobile District; in 1876 he took charge of the Mobile City Mission, and in 1877. was made Assist- ant Pastor of Franklin Street Ciiurch, that city. In October of the latter year he was called to the preparatory dei)artment of the Southern Univer- sity at Greensboro, and in July, 1878, was elected to the Chair of Ancient Languages. Professor Peterson preaches at various places throughout the county as occasion requires. He is devoted to the ministry by natural inclination, but his health is such that it will notpermitof his applying himself steadily to the pulpit, therefore we find him in the Southern University, where he is recognized as an educator of superior ability. He was married in Sumter County, Ala., De- cembers, 1880, to Helen Amanda Winston, daugh- ter of William 0. Winston, Esq. FRANCIS MARION PETERSON. Jr., A. M., B.D.. I'riifco.sorof .\ncient Languages in the South- JOEL FLETCHER STURDIVANT. A.B., A.M., Professor of English Literature in the Southern University, Greensboro, son of the Eev. AVilliam ^I. Sturdivant, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born at Alexander City, Tallapoosa County, Ala., May 11, 1859. The senior Mr. Sturdivant retired from active ministry about 18IJ1, since which time he has been a local preacher. His family resides at Kellyton, this State. The subject of this sketch was educated at Iliawassee College, Tenn., from which institution he was graduated in 1881. He subsequently taught Greek in that school for three years. He began preaching when about twenty years of age, and joined the North Alabama Conference at Talla- dega, in 1884. He was ordained at Talladega by Bishop J. C. Keener, and sent at once to the Southern University, where he assumed the chair of English Literature. He preaches now regularly at Mount Hermon and Union Chapel, in Hale Countv. 570 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He was married at Greensboro, December 22, 1887, to .\[iss Sadie E. Lawsoii, daughter of Louis Livwson, late a mercliaiit at Greensboro. Professor Sturdivant is a member of the His- torical Society of the State of Alabama, and a life member of Monteagle Sunday-sfliool Assembly and Southern School — the Southern Chautauqua. He is an ardent student, and is devoted to the ministry and the promotion of education. WILLIAM NEWTON KNIGHT, present member of the Statu Lcgiihiture froni Hale County, is a , native of Kussell County, this State, where he was 1 born February 18, 1810. His father, Epbraim Knight, Esq., came to Alabama from Laurens District, S. C, in 183'J, and resides now (.March, 1888) at Uniontown, Perry County, at the ad- i vanced age of seventy-eight years. Mrs. Knight, the subject's mother, and to whom the senior Mr. Knight was married in South Carolina, was a Miss Medley, of one of the oldest families of the old "South State." She died in 1883, having lived ! sixty-six years. They reared three sons, all plant- I ers, as was the father when in active life, and all honored and honorable men. Wdliam N. Knight, familiarly known as Cap- tain Knight (a title fully earned, as will be seen further on), was the first-born son of this family. The common schools of the neighborhood supiilied the source of his early education, while an inquir- ing mind, a well-balanced head and a retentive memory, served well their purposes in after life. Early in 1861 he entered the army as orderly- sergeant of Company C, Thirty-sixth Alabama Regiment, served to the close of the war, and re- t- ' with the well-merited rank of captain. His 11. ou promotion occurred at Chattanooga, after the retreat of the Tennessee Army from Tulla- homa; and at Dalton, Ga., early in 18G;{, his worth as a soldier was further recognized by making him captain of his company. From first to last he saw and, in fact, partici- pated in a score or more of battles. He was at Manassas, Hoover's Gap, llockyface Mountain, Ilesaca, New Hope Church, Missionary IJidge, Lookout Mountain, Chickamanga, the Atlanta campaign, .lonesboro and Spanish Fort, to say nothing of the minor engagements not dignified in history as battles. Leaving the army, he returned to Greensboro, and here on December 27, 180."), married Miss Eva Happel, daughter of Philip Happel, Esq., and has now a family of three children. Captain Knight's first civil ortice was that of Sheriff of the county, to which he was elected in 1877, He has been twice County Commis- sioner, ajid, in 18Sfi, as elected to the State Legis- lature, where, as member of several important committees, he proved one of the most useful factors. Though at all times an active worker in the Democratic party. Captain Knight is more the farmer than the politician, and his large agri- cultural interests receive his personal attention. His appointment by Governor Seay as the State's representative to the Farmers' National Congress which met in Chicago in Xovembcr, 1887, is con- clusive as to his rank as an agriculturalist. Captain Knight is truly a modern broad-gauge man. In him public enterprise at all times tinds a friend and substantial supjiorter. He believes in the upbuilding of Central Ala))ama by united effort upon the part of the people, and heartily advocates the encouragement of immigration. Recognizing the fact that Northern Alabama is to become the great manufacturing center of the South, he believes with equally as much reason that Central Alabama must be the home of the higher order of agriculturalists, and to this end he is straining his efforts. ^1 ^ - CHARLES A. GROTE, A.M., of the Chair of Modern [languages, Sciutlifrn University, and the present County Superintendent of Hale, was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, 5Iay 29, 1851. His father was the Rev. Charles A. Grote, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was a native of (iermany. He came to America in 1845, and settled at Galveston, Texas. He was at that time a Lutheran, but subsequently joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was ad- mitted into the Texas Conference in 1848. In 1870 he became a membi-r of the Texas and I^ouis- iana German Mission Conference, and was a mem- ber of that body to the time of his death, which occurred November 18, 1887. He was sixty-eight years of age. While in New Orleans, he had charge of Craps Street Church for three years. :i ^-^t-ti~ytu^ ^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 571 Otiriiig the late war, he was presiding elder in 'I'l'xas, and iield that otiice for seven years. In (ialveston lie married Miss Rene, by whom he had horn to him six cliildren, four sons and two ilaiighters. Charles A. (irote was gradiiateil fidin the Southern University as A.M., in IST.I. lie after- ward continued tlie study of French in tlie city of Xew Orleans, and in 1887 took a special course of chemistry in Harvard College. He began teacli- ing in his native place when seventeen years of ago, and in 187, to Miss Flossie G., daughter of Rev. L. M. Smith, D.D., who was once president of the Southern University. WILLIAM D. LEE, member of the State Board of Inspectors of Convicts, is a native of Perry County, Ala., where he was born August 18, 18:i:J. Ifis father, David Lee, was a native of North Carolina, as was his mother, whose maiden name was Holmes. The senior Lee came to Perry County in 1818, and remained one year, when he returned to North Carolina, got married, and brought his bride to Alabama. Here he became one of the largest planters in the country, and accumulated, before the war, an extensive fortune. He died December Jil, 1803, at the age of sixty- four years. William I). Lee was graduated from Howard College in l.S.")-^, and spent two years subsequently at the University of Virginia, where he read law. He was admitted to the bar in Perry County in IS.')."), and was in the practice of law at Marion, Ala., when the war broke out. In 18C2 he entered the service of the Confederacy as a jirivate in the Kighth Alabama Cavalry, and served to the close ! of the War. After the final surrender he returned ! to I'erry County, and settled on the old homestead, where he was engaged at planting until 1800. lu that year he came to Greensboro, where he has still retained his interest in farming. Though always an active Democratic worker he has at no time sought oflice for himself. Without solic- itation on his part, but at the instance of iiis friends, (iovernor O'Neal appointed him to his present position March 1, 1883, and re-appointed him at the end of two years for tlie succeeding four years. His term will expire in Marcli, 1889. Mr. Lee was married at Greensboro, in July, 1860, to Jliss Imogen Ilobson, the accomplished daugh- ter of Matthew Ilobson, one of Hale County's most substantial planters. V. GAYLE SNEDECOR, Register in Chancery, (ireensboro, was lioni in (ireene County, this State December 6, IfS'^-l. His father, the late Isaac C. Snedecor, was a lawyer by profession, and was twelve years Clerk of the County Court of (Jreene County. He was a native of Kentucky, and of Holland-Dutch descent. He married, in Jlont- gomery County, Ky., a Miss Sarah C. Chambers, a native of Virginia, and removed to Alabama in 1822. He spent the rest of his life in Greene County, and died in the year 1857, at the age of fifty-seven years. His only child is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. V. Gayle Snedecor was educated at the common schools and at Cumberland College, Kentucky. He began life clerking in county offices and for several years occupied different positions in various county offices and mercantile establishments. He was appointed Tax Assessor of Greene County in 1852, and in 1855 he published a map of that county, which so familiarized him with the lands thereof that he was afterward elected by the people to the office of Assessor and held it twelve consecu- tive years. In 1807, the county of Hale was formed out of a part of Greene, and in 1870 Mr. Snedecor published a map of the new county. He was, in that year, appointed Register in Chancery for Hale County, and has since been continuously kept in that position. He was married at Forkland, Greene County, May 1, 1849, to iliss Ann George, daughter of Solomon George. She died in 1800, leaving four sons. Again at Forkland, April 10, 1807, he mar- ried Miss Louise Harris, daughter of Hamlin Har- ris, Esq., farmer and educator. By this marriage he has one daughter. Probably one of the most important accomplish- ments of Mr. Snedecor's life was the drafting of the revenue laws adopted by the State in 1805. This important legislation fornisa part of the liis- tory of the State, and reflects great credit upon its author. 572 NORTHERN ALABAMA. VOLNEY BOARDMAN. Clerk of the Circuit Court of Ihilu ( Muntv, was born in Franklin County, Ohio, lie came to Alabama in 1832, since which time he has been a resident of Greens- boro, lie was educated in Ohio, and there learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. He estab- lished the first jewelry store at this place, and followed that business up to ISHl. He was married in 1 840 to Miss Margaret Locke, who died in 1844, leaving two children. His sec- ond marriage was in 1840. to Miss Harriet E. Harrison, of Tuscaloosa County. She died in 18TG, having born to him seven children — six daughters and one son. He was first appointed Clerk of this county un- der the military government in 1867, and since that time has been continuously kept in that oflBce by election. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and of the Masonic fraternity. HENRY TUTWILER. A. M.. LL. D.. one of the most learned ami ctuiiieiit eduoators of the South, was born at Harrisonburg, Rocking- ham County, Va., November 10, 18(i7, and died at his home, the site of his noted School for Roys, Greene Springs, Hale County, Ala., on the 22d of September, 1884. The first twenty-three years of his life were spent in his native State. Between the ages of twelve and fourteen, he was a pupil of Dr. Daniel Baker, the distinguished Presbyterian minister and revivalist, together with his life-time friend, Gessner Harrison, for many years Professor of Ancient Languages at the University of Virginia. These young men en- tered that University during its first term, in 1825. Henry Tutwiler and Gessner Harrison were the first graduates of the University of Virginia, in 1829, Mr. Tutwiler being the first A. M. of that institution. After attending law lectures there, and teaching in Charlottesville nearly two years, he was chosen Professor of Ancient Languages in the new University of Alabama, and came to Tuscaloo.-a in the spring of 18:51, to aid in its organization. He resigned this position in 1837, and, for the next two years, was Professor of Mathematics in an Iiulustrial College, begun at that time near Marion, Ala. While in Tuscaloosa, he united with the Meth- odist Ciiurch, of wiiifh he was a most exemplary and devoted member for fifty yeais. Yet, so catholic was his spirit always, and so earnest was his belief that the broad principles of Christian- ity are the only essentials of a truly religious life, that many of his best friends did not know to what branch of Christ's Church lie belonged, and different denominations claimed him at times. Christmas Eve, 183.">. witnessed his marriage in Tuscaloosa to Miss Julia Ashe, second daughter of Paoli Pascal and Elizabeth Strudwick Ashe, from which happy union ten children survive out of eleven born to them. Mrs. Tutwiler died April 0, 1882. In 1840, by recommendation of Bishop Robert Paine, then President of La Grange College, in North Alabama, Professor Tutwiler was selected to fill there tils' ehairs of Mathematics and Chem- istry. In this faculty he was associated with Dr. Carlos G. Smith and Rev. R. H. Rivers. The former was afterward with Dr. Tutwiler in his famous (Jreene Springs School, and married Miss Martha Ashe, a sister of Mrs. Tutwiler, being sub- sequently President of our State L^niversity, and President of the Alabama Normal College for Girls, at Livingston. Mr. Rivers, in his life of Bishop Paine, says of Professor Tutwiler, at this period: "He was a i>rofound and rich lin- guist, a thorough mathematician, and a sui)erior chemist. He was learned without pedantry, pious without bigotry, a gentleman without a blemish, a character without a flaw." After seven years' service at La Grange, Pro- fessor Tutwiler resigned, and bought the property of Greene Springs, then in Greene County, Ala., — a famous watering place previously, because of its fine chalybeate sjirings. Here, in the fall of 1847, he established his well-known classical, sci- entific and practical High School for Bofts. In this entirely private institution, managed according to his personal views of the best mental, moral and physical training for young men, he continued his peerless labors as an advanced edu- cator. This was his final life-work, lasting thirty-seven years, up to .June, preceding his death, in 1884, the school .having been discontinued only two years of that time — 1877 to 1879. No teacher was ever more generally beloved than he, or more sincerely venerated in the after years of his numerous students. Indeed, few men have lived who possessed minds of sucli broad scope as his, and such rare and versatile acquire- y/y. Ju2u) l/u}- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 573 merits as ii linguist, a scientist, a iirofoinul scholar in every (k'liartment of knowledfje. In his school, Prof. Tiitwiler ruled by moral suasion and personal influence alone. No rod, no form of corporal punishment, was ever used there. So soon as lie found a boy incurably bad and obstinate, he (|uiet]y and kindly sent him home, or advised his parents, when the term ended, not to send liim buck. His large patronage en- abled him to do this independently. He could readily fill their places. His long experience proved that these methods suffice for the strictest discipline in a boarding school like his. Frequently was he offered professorships and presidencies in various in.' ■ -'(^m' < •• ' • WILLIAM E. W. YERBY, Editor and Proprie- tor of the Greensboro Watchman, and author of the history of Greensboro published in this vol- ume, may be safely written as one of the coming young men of the State. He was born at Greens- boro on October Id, 1862, and is a son of Prof. Miles II. Yerby, who for thirty years was a teacher in the schools of tliis place. He received his first instructions under the tutelage of his father, and subsequently took a primary course at the Southern University. He was only fourteen years of age when he entered the office of the paper he now owns and edits, for the purpose of learning to be a printer. From office boy, or "devil," he steadily worked his way up to pro- prietor and editor. Mr. Y'erby is a careful, painstaking and inter- esting writer. His paper is one of the most pop- ular of the State provincial press, and his history of Greensboro, as jtublished in this volume, is one of the most thorough and readable chapters in the book. He is a member of the Masonic fratern- ity and an official member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South. XV. MONTGOMERY. Bv Thomas H. Ci.akk. The earliest wliite settlers on the spot wliere tlie city of Montgomery now stands, found on tiie high river bank west of the phice two earthen mounds of a kind common throughout the Soutli- west. One of these mounds was ninety feet square and twcnty-five feet high, and when razed to tlie ground, in 1833, a quantity of human bones, primitive pottery, arrow-heads and trinkets were discovered buried underneath. Mounds similar to these have been found in various sections of Ala- bama, and it has been conjectured that the ancient race that left such imposing remains in the Valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi Kivers dwelt here also, and left at Montgomery these traces of their mode of life. The historian of Alabama, Albert James Pickett, was of the opinion, in which lie is supported by the authority of many leading American ethnolo- gists, that the Indians themselves built the mounds in this State. Jle cites some instances in which mounds like those in question were thrown uj) by Indians years after the country had been peopled by the whites. He thus, in some degree, lends countenance to the hypothesis, that the Indians and mound-builders were, if not ihe same race, as so many s])ecialists on this subject now believe, then closely allieil. The [)rofound obscurity that has rested on the life of prehistoric man on this continent, is being gradually dispelled, and it is likely that science will, in no great while, have something definite to say upon the relations of these two races during the prehistoric epoch. It is more to be regretted tliat an obscurity almost as deep rests upon the early history of the Indian tribes proper in Alabama. De Soto made his famous mardi tlirough this State in l.-)40, and it remains aa unseltleil problem whether or not the natives whose fields he pillaged and whose jKM'sons lie led captives wore of tlii' .eculators was to have irresponsible, parties attend the sales, bid enor- mous amounts for land, and then disap]iear alto- gether, leaving the would-be owners to secure the land at private sale and on their own terms. At one of the Cahaba land sales, forty men put up *1,000 each, and agreed not to bid over two dol- lars per acre. Two valuable townships were bid off, when the Register ordered the sale stopped. The speculators then sold their purchases, clear- ing $1,980 each, by the transaction. Andkew Dextek. — .\mong those infected with the land fever of 1817 was Andrew Dexter, a member of the distinguished Dexter family of Massachusetts, and a lawyer by profession. He attended the sale of public lands at Milledgeville, (Ja., in this year, and purchased one section, namely, section seven, township sixteen, range eighteen, less one quarter lying east of the Indian town already several times referred to as Hostile Bluff. It is not known what information Dexter possessed upon the desirableness of Hostile Bluff as a trading point, but it may not be supposed that a Yankee lawyer was buying in the dark. Dexter had jirobably talked with some one of the numer- ous traders or hunters who had traversed the region lying along the .\labama Hiver. Tlie Indian town was on the road from Mil- ledgeville, to Fort t'laiborne. It was near the head of navigation on the Alabama and the best natural site for a trading-post for many miles along the river. It is probable that any one acquainted with the central region of the State would know of the attractions of this higii bluff and the higher hills above as a place for building a town. Dexter came on immediately to examine his purchase and made his tirst stop at Line Creek, and put up there with Jesse Evans, the most fam- ous fist fighter for his size in the territory. Dex- ter found several merchants already located here to catch the trade at the crossing of two great roads. These were Meigs and Mitchell, James Powers, Major Flanagan, Arterberry and Denton and J. G. Klinck. THE FOUNDING OF NEW Pnil-VDELPHIA. Mr. Klinck in a letter written to the Mont- gomery Mail, and published in that paper Novem- ber 24, 1858, tells of Dexter's visit and the out- come of it. Dexter it seems, while stopping with Jesse Evans, made an arrangement with Klinck by which the latter should remove his stock of goods to the site of the projected town, and join Dexter in inducing other traders to locate there also. The customary inducement was offered. Each trader who came was to have a lot as a i)res- ent from the founder of the place. The town was laid off at first on a plan by which vv-hat is now Col- umbus street should be the leading thoroughfare. Fearing that the location was dangerously low, Mr. Dexter moved his town southward to the more elevated site directly west of the present State capitol. The place was baptized " Xew Philadel- phia." Five trading concerns were established at once, namely: Messrs. Klinck, Carpenter & Har- ris, Falconer, (Joldthwaite and Fades. The founder showed his confidence in the future of the place by setting apart a square to be used as a site for the capitol when the seat of government should be removed to New Philadelphia. The advantages of the place must have been consid- ered great even at this early period, for in the next year (1818). the Alabama Company, consisting of a number of Georgians, bought a large tract in the section adjoining New Philadelphia on the west, and laid out the town of " East .\labama." In the same year still another town, " Alabama," was founded in a section still further west on what ig now known as the Chajijiell place. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 577 This last luinied town was the real and danger- ous rival of Xew I'liiladeli)hia or " Yankee Town," as New Philadelphia was coming to ho called on account of the number of New Englanders who bad settled there. The Commissioners who were appointed in 1818 to select a temporary seat of justice for the county, passed Fort Jackson (former county seat) by, Augusta, also East Alabanui and New Philadel- phia, to choose Alabama. This was done in spite of the fact that the residents of New Philadelphia had entered into a bond to pay ^"20,0011 to build a court-house if their town should be selected. Mr. Klinck more than hints that "politics" were at the bottom of the decision. In tlie letter of Mr. Klinck, already referred to, there is a trace of the embittered relations between the good people of New Pliiladelphia and Alabama Town, lie there attempts to enumerate the inhab- itants in each place. In Alabama Town he finds Capt. John Gause and family, William Oause and family, James (iause and family, old lady Gause, and her daughter Eliza (who that fall married Willburn), Major Peacock and family, Mr. Ashley and family. Mi'. Jones and family, a Mr. Perry, Judge Bibb, Major Johnson (mail contractor), Edmondson (Clerk of the Court), and his mother- in-law, Mrs. Moulton — an entire military and civic population — no merchant or trader in town. " Such as I can now name," he adds, '' of the in- habitants in ilontgomery (now called) are De.xter, Loftin, first justice in town; James Vickers, inn- keeper; Stone (son of Judge Stone, and son-in- law of Esquire Loftin); Eades, merchant; Drs. Gullett & Co.; J. C. Farley, merchant; Carpenter, merchant; John Falconer.niercliant and first post- nuister: Dr. .Morrow; J. Goldthwaite, merchant: John llewett. Widow Ilewett and family; Mr. Lar- kin. innkeeper and farmer; Henry Farley, brother of J. C!. Farley; -\. M. Reynolds and family; Mr. Maker; John Belew, carpenter; K. Moseley, and a number of other families of the same name on the hill; Ximrod Benson, Esq.; Sims, attorney, and a dense population." It would seem that at this early day, the colonels' voice was a potent one in our politics, that the en- tire military and civic population of the onejtlace, though without a merchant or trader in their midst, outweighed in influence the dense popu- lation of the shopkeepers in tlie other. The colo- nels secured the court-house for Alabama Town. On IkHcmber 3, 1819, the Legislature passed an Act consolidating New Philadelphia and East Alabama, jiroviding substantially, that all that tract of land, situate on the east bank of the Ala- bama River, of the following description, namely: Fraction number twelve, township si-\'teen, range seventeen, southeast and southwest quarters of section number seven, township sixteen, range eighteen, including all that jiart of the river lying opposite to said fraction, within si.xty yards of its margin in the county of Montgomery, is here- by incorporated, and shall be called and known by the name of the town of Montgonieiy. With consolidation came a change of name. Contrary to the received opinion, Mr. Klinck states that the town was named after the county. The weight of authority seems to be that the county was named after Major Lemuel Montgom- ery, who was killed at the battle of the Horseshoe, in ISI4. and that the town was named after Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell at Quebec early in the Revolutionary War. This statement of the origin of the names was made by Jonathan Bat- telle in 1821, in the first issue of the first news- paper published in Montgomery, and Battelle was followed by Pickett in his history. It may seem odd that the citizens of a small frontier town should single out for honor a Revolutionary sol- dier who had been killed more than forty years before. The reverence for the heroes of the Rev- olution was then at its height, it is true, but this fact alone would hardly explain the choice in this instance. There is a circumstance that removes the difticulty. In 1818 the Legislature of New York adopted a resolution looking to the removal of the body of (ieneral Montgomery from Quebec to that State. In July of that year his body was removed to New Y'ork City. Congress soon after- ward made an appropriation to erect a monument over Montgomery's new grave. These incidents were fresh in tiie public mind, and the Legisla- ture merely reflected a prevailing sentiment when they called the united villages " Montgomery," after the young Irishman who had been killed beneath the bluffs of a Canadian city. Montgomery was incorporated December 'i, 1H19. Eleven days later, on December 14, Ala- bama was admitted into the Union. The wild character of the State ivhen admitted, in spite of additions in population, is shown by the fact that a few days later, on December IC, the Legislature passed an .Vet for the encouragement of the killing and destroying of wolves and pantliers. The 578 NORTHERN ALABAMA. bounties paiil under this Act were three dollars for any wolf or panther, not exceeding six months old, and five dollurs for one over six months of age. The aggregate disbursements under this law were so large that they threatened disaster to the young Commonwealth, one county having used all its State taxes in paying for wolves and panthers. The Legislature made haste to repeal the Act at its next session. iSKAT OF .JUSTICE. At this same session, on December lU, 1820, ^Montgomery was made the temporary seat of justice for the county. One year from that time, December 17, 1821, Commissioners were a])pointed to select a permanent location for the court-house of the county, and they selected Montgomery. The new town had distanced all her rivals. Henceforth relieved from all appre- hension t)y rea.son of the competition of the places in immediate proximity, the town measured itself against Cahaba, Tuscaloosa and others of the more promising villages of the Central Alabama of this time. Immigrants continued to pour into the State from every quarter of the Union, and Montgomery shared in tiiis increase. 'J'he bulk of the new pop- ulation, however, came from the South, as is shown indirectly, by the composition of the Legislature of 1820. According to Niles, one native Alabamian, one Pennsylvanian, two Marylanders. two Tennes- seeans, seven \orth Carolinians, eight Georgians, thirteen South Carolinians, and eighteen A'irgin- ians. If it be true that the composite races have establisiied their institutions \\\io\\ a more endur- ing basis than others, -Vlabama may be considered fortunate in the character of her early settlers. When it is considered how much of wiiat was finely typical and best in the older States of the Union, in manners and lawsalike, found congenial soil in .\labama, -Mabamians may be i)ermitted to refer their admiration of their State to striking and suflicicnt causes. Alabama has been conspic- uous among the Southern members of the Union for a .spirit of conservatism, joined to impulses, toward orderly progress, a spirit that is the nat- ural outcome of the varieil stream of immigration that early jioured into the State. TIIK FIKST NEWSPAPER. In 1S20 the town had grown so much that there was a demaiul for a newspaiier, aiul. on .laii- uary G, 1821, in response to this demand, Jonathan Batteile, a young man from Bi>ston, Mass.. pub- lished the first number of the Montgomery Repub- lican. Fortunately for the chronicler, the file of this paper from its earliest is.sue to May 20, 1824, has been preserved. In these early numbers of the RepuhUran, we have mirrored, with more or less fidelity, the business, the pleasures, the man- ners and customs of Montgomery's founders. They themselv^ are all gone, and in this file of old papers, if anywhere, must be found the story of their every-day life. In his prospectus Mr. Hattelle gives a descrip- tion of the place where his pajjer is to be pub- lished, and, as the first sketch of Montgomery ever published, it possesses unusual interest. " Montgomery." he says, "'formerly called Hos- tile Hhitf, lately East Alabama and New Philadel- phia (the former established by a company in Georgia, and the latter by A. Dexter, Esq., both having been incorporated into one town by the Lsgislatureof 1810), is situate in the healthy, fertile and thickly-settled county of the same name, of which it is the seat of justice (intended to perpetuate two distinguished martyrs to the cause of the Hepublic), directly opj)osite the east- ern point of that highly-cultivated, extensive and fertile tract of laiul known by the name of ' Hig Bend.' It adjoins the fraction on which the town of Alabama stands, and bordering on the celebrated river of that name, to which it is navi- gable at all seasons, from the (iulf of Mexico, for steamboats of a large class; distant about two hun- dred miles from Milledgeville, a similar distance from the seaports of .Mobile and Hlakely, about fifty-five miles above Cahaba, the seat of govern- ment, and about twelve miles below the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. It is the point at which the Atlantic mails reach tiieir first stopping place in the State, and from whence News may be distributed through the countrj' with great facilities, Montgomery, fiom its high and airy situation, the purity of the waters flowing from its several springs, and the elevation of the banks along the river on both sides, which exclude stag- nant water, is considered jieculiarly healthy; in- deed, many resort to that section during the summer months on that account. It contains many romantic as well as level sites for building, and, for an infant establishment, it may be called a pleasant, flourishing town." In the next issue of the Repuhlicon " A Vis- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 579 itor," had a conimuiiication describing the town ' in which the following occurs: " Krom the top of the blulT, which in some places is one hun- dred feet al)ove low water mark, the land rises gradually until it terminates in high and ronuin- ti<' iiills, the prospect from which is beautiful and sublime — a meandering river, verdant meadows, well cultivated farms, rude forests and lofty mountaius. Its present population is about fioo, c-oUi'cti'd fi-oin almost every State in the Union. There are nnuiy respectable mercantile establish- ments, and barges carrying from five huiulred to one tliousand barrels are constantly plying between this and Mobile. When the contemplated im- ])roveinents in the navigation of the Coosa shall have been ofTected. and the fine country in the vicinity become thickly ])opulated, events neither distant or uncertain, Montgomery will probably increase and flourish beyond almost any town on the Alabanni." That "A Visitor" was really a visitor is attested by his being deceived, as so many strangers in Montgomery are, by the Au- tauga hills, and mistaking them for " lofty moun- tains." The editor added, by way of endorse- ment of this stranger's description of Montgomery, "that the town enjoys local and public advant- ages, such (in our estimation) as render its future growth and importance no longer problem- atical." In his prospectus, as has been seen, Mr. Battelle had boasted of Montgomery as a place whence news might be distributed through the country with " great facilities." The commentary on this boast was a statement made elsewhere in the same issue that the publication of his paper had been postponed for several weeks owing to a delay in the transportation of his printer's outfit. This outfit had been shipped from Savannah to Mobile, but the vessel bearing it put back to Savannah on account of stress of weather, and the i)ress, type and paper were hauled overland from Savannah to Montgomery, a distance of 3">0 miles. In dis- trii)utiiig his ])ai)er he complained that the mail for Cahaba left .Montgomery on Sunday at two o'clock, proceeded to .Alabama Town, a distance of three fpiarters of a mile, where it remained until Tuesday. On its return it met with some, if not similar, detention. Hut this was not the worst, the great Atlantic and Southwestern mails between Georgia and .\labanni were out-traveleil without a change of horses by travelers, both in carriages and on horseback. It was two davs on its wav between the Creek Agency and Fort Mitchell, a distance of sixty miles. On a part of the route through the Creek Nation the mail was carried in an open wagon, and a part of the way on horse- back. 'I'he consequence was, the newspapers were frequently detained for weeks, and in some in- stances months, and at last arrived so wet and muti- lated tinit it was difficult to read them. In the news column of the fir.st issue appeared this bit of intelligence: " We regret to learn that the horses and carriage belonging to Mr. Calfrey (one of the mail contractors), on their way hither, were lost last week at Icheeconnah Creek, between Fort Hawkins and the Creek Agency — the mail was taken over in safety on a log." Nearly all the editorial matter of this date was devoted to dis- cussing imperfect mail facilities, but the editor had the satisfaction befoi-e he finished writing them of chronicling an itnin-ovement. The post- office at Alabama Town was discontinued, and with the removal of the postoftice to Montgomery, dis- appeared the last vestige of rivalry between the two places. In the way of pure news this initial number of the Republican contained accounts of a fire, and an accident by which a negro was thrown from a horse and killed, the announcement of a horse- race and another of a ball. The fire totally con- sumed the house and its contents. The editor recommends the passage of an ordinance against gunpowder, and expresses a hoi)e that the town would soon have a bell belonging to some public building, with which to sound fire alarms. The horse-race was to be a mile heat, for one thousand dollars, to be run by lilack John and Quaker Girl, on Saturday, the 13th inst., about three miles from town, on or near the road leading to Cahaba. The ball, a Jackson l)all, was to be on the suc- ceeding Monday, January 8th, and was to be given "in commemoration of the glorious victory at New Orleans, on the 8th of January, 1815, which shed so much lustre on the arms of our country." Rut it is to the advertisments rather than to the news items that tlie reader of to-day will turn in theseold papers. Iti the first number we have the announcement of the result of the election for members of the town council, when Messrs. Will- iam (irahani, N. E. Benson, John Edmondson, James Faries, James Humphreys, II. W. Henry, and George Wilkinson, were elected members of the council. And, on the day following, N. E. 580 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Benson was elected Intendant. and Charles Shon re-elected Clerk of the Council. The retiring Intendant, William Graham, has affixed his name to two ordinances that appear, one, extending licenses granted merchants and retailers of spirituous liquors, and the other, pro- viding for raising a committee to examine the landing and make report of what would be the probable expense of making a good and sufficient landing. Anuinberof merchants offer their goods for sale and describe them. MacNamara, Hell and Hanrick had just received, i)er barge Triton, bag- ging, twine and herring, which would be sold low for cash or cotton. CiiristophcrtiiS; Parkin had just received whisky, gin, cognac brandy, .sugar and molasses per barrel, best green coffee, cheese, soap and candles by the box, a lot of domestic goods, consisting of ginghams, stripes, checks, denims, ahirting, slieeting, an assortment of fine and coarse shoes, cotton bagging, bale rope, Swedes iron, German steel, powder, shot and lead; also a light Jersey wagon with harness for two horses, all to be sold low or exchanged for cotton. Mr. E. D. Washburn offered for sale six barrels of sugar, five of gin, four of whisky, four of rum, one bag of coffee, 7.'>5 pounds of iron, one and one- half dozen sifters, an elegant horse and gig. several town lots in Jlontgomery and two shares in the town of Selma. Messrs. George Wilkinson & Co., who had a store near the landing, offered a general assort- ment of goods, among which were broadcloths, cassi meres, negro clothes, flannel, calicoes, cam- bric, muslins, silks, sugar, five bags of coffee, forty barrels of whisky, four barrels of gin, to- bacco, cigars, crockery and glassware. Graham and Lewis had jufet received from New York a general assortment of sugar, tea, coffee, rum, wine, tobacco, shoes, boots, powder, lead and shot, bagging and dry goods. These were offered for cash or for cotton. J. S. Walker had several thousand acres of Ala- bama lands, with the prices affixed, ranging from #70 down to H'i. There had been but one install- ment paid on these lands to tlie Government, and Mr. Walker urged on the public the advantage a buyer would have from •'the relief anticipated from the Acts of the j)resent session of Congress." The high prices paid for lands, it appears, had borne fruit, and Congress was overwhelmed with petitions for relief bills. The editor of the RepuhUcan\i\w\&e\\ anuounced that he would give immediate employment to a compositor and pressman, and that he desired an apprentice in his office of uiK|uestionable morals. He would also do job printing of every kind: he was daily expecting a consignment of Murray's Readers and Grammars, Walker's Dictionaries, Testaments, Bibles, Adams's Geography, Daboll's Arithmetic, Webster's Spelling Hooks, New England Primers, Watts' Psalms and Ilymns, and .Song and I)ream Hooks. A handsome light four- wheel carriage, with plated harness complete, could be bad on terms to be learned on applica- tion at the office. One double-barrel and one single-barrel fowling piece would be exchanged for shingles, plank and scantling: a good draft- horse, also pleasant under the saddle, would be exchanged for bricks or lumber. Our ancestors loved their patent medicines. A large consignment of these, none of which were genuine unless they bore the signature " T. \\ . Conway," were hourly expected to arrive by the boat Patriot. In the medical profession Dr. C. Billingslea. having purchased the possession lately occupied by Dr. Andrew, tendered his services to the citizens in various branches of the medical profession. In the law, A. A. McWhorter had removed his office to a small new building on Court Square, south of the market house. John D. Bibb had resumed the practice of the law and would attend the courts of Montgomery and Au- tauga, lie would be found at home three miles above the town of Montgomery, except when abroad. Mr. S. Dennis and Mr. J. P. Lewis, re- spectively, offered their services as tailors. They would make clothes for gentlemen in the newest fashion on the shortest notice. Clement Frecny was then proprietor of the Montgomery Hotel. His place was in the western part of the town. Private rooms with fire places could be furnished to those who wanted them. His bar was siijiplied with the best liquors: his stables were commodious. J. P. .\all and G. W. B. Towns kept the Globe Tavern, and set as good a table " as the country affords." They kept the most genuine liquors and a stable well furnished with provender. There was one "for rent" in the paper. Fleming Freeman offered to rent two stores oppo- site the Montgomery Hotel. Such was the Montgomery of the first week in .January. 1S21, so far as the facts can be col- lected from the first issue of the Montgomery Re- piihliraii. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 581 The Republican of Febriuiry 17, suminarized the growtli of the town up to that date. There were then in that portion of .Montgomery, formerly known as New I'hihidelphia. of frame hiiihlings, buiUling or already finished, ten twostory struc- tures and fourtee!! one-story .structures; of log- houses, nine "tolerable," and of inferior lo^- hou.ses eighteen. In that part of the place form- erly known as East Alabama, there were eighteen one-story frame buildings, and seven two-story buildings; si.x tolerable log-houses and five infe- rior ones, making a total in the town of eighty- seven dwelling houses and stores. " liesides which," adds the RepuhUcan, "we are about to begin prei)arations for erecting a jilace of public worship, an academy, a court house and a jail. " We have," it continues, " at j) resent ten stores of assorted merchandise, three public houses, four or five practicing lawyers, two or three regular bred physicians, one teacher, several carpenters, two master brick-layers, one cabinet maker, one saddle and harness maker, two smith's shops, one watchmaker and silversmith, one tinner's shop, and one shoemaker. When we reflect how short a period has elapseil since this was an inhospitable wilderness, and, how, recently, was lieard the sav- age yell, we may exclaim, in the language of sur- jirise, what astonishing changes have taken place at ' Hostile Bluff ' in the short space of two years." A glance through others of the early numbers of the Rcjiu/jlica)!. will show more clearly what was the life of the citizens of Montgomery at that time. In the main the editor's own language can be used, and with better effect than any possible paraphrase. February "-24, l.s-^'l. — The Circuit Court closed its term the Saturday preceding, having disjiosed of 100 causes, leaving a number on the docket that were not reached. "Citizen " writes a communi- cation accusing the town Council of rottenness in the management of the town's finances. " An Observer " writes to say that the Coosa River must be opened up to navigation in order to assure the commercial supremacy of Montgomery. A ta.\ ordinance appears, in which a tax of one-half per centum is levied on the real estate of the town, a poll tax of one dollar, fifty cents for every dog more than one kept by any family, and a license fee, of four dollars per year, is imposed for merchandising, or keeping a hotel. Charles Hodg- ers advertises a dancing school in this issue. March 3, 1821. — .Jonathan JIayhew opened a school, charging five dollars for twelve weeks' tui- tion in the common branches and ten dollars for tuition in the higher branches. A boat arrived from West Point, in East Tennessee, loaded with flour. This boat came down the Tennessee to the Iliwiissee, thence sixty-five miles to the entrance of the Okoa; up the Okoa some distance, when it was ti'ansported into the head waters of the Coosa; thence down to the Alabama and to Montgomery, a distance of one thousand miles in all. This trade had been jirofitably carrieatrick appeared as Jnlius Cavar, Mr. G. W. B. Towns as Octavius and Sir. Henry (ioldthwaite as .Mark .\nthony. January 2o, 1823. — Notice is herehy given that all jiersons, who shall hereafter cut down trees for firewood or rails, on town lots belonging to the subscriber [.\. Dexter] will be prosecuted. The public is welcome to all wood lying on the ground NORTH EKN ALABAMA. 583 liiililo to decay, provided the same shall be removed within three months. About eight acres of land in and H(ljoinin'l\ had over- spread a great part of the place, and in the spring of 1822 nearly the whole town was under the water. The State House itself was threatened. The population which, in 1821, was one thousand, had dwindled down to less than two hundred. Public sentiment demanded that a change should be made. It was said by a wag of the time tiiat if the pale ghosts of the Yankees and Ten- nesseeans, whose bones were then niolderingin the mud of Cahaba. could appear in the State House at the opening of the session, the destiny of the place would be decided without debate. Selma, (Jreensboro, Montevallo, Wilson's Hill, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery were the places prominently mentioned, but the contest at once narrowed down to a struggle between Tuscaloosa, favored by North Alabama, and Montgomery, backed by the southern sections of the State. The papers were full of .-irgument and debate, and the editor of the Jlontgoniery jiaper in particular was earnest in making adisjilay of the resources and advantages of his own town and enforcing the wisdom of locat- ing the capital here. It was the geographical centre, it was on the great stage line from the North to New Orleans, it was healthy, it was prosperous. As for Tuscaloo.sa he was saved much trouble. If she had any claims they existed in some sonnet and in sonnets only. Tuscaloosa captured the prize by a vote of '.V^ to 21!. Dexter's dream of having the capitol at Montgomery was not yet to be realized. The dis- appointment of the citizens in not securing the location of the State capital here was not the most NORTHERN ALABAMA, 585 serious trial of the year 1825. The suninier sea- son of that year had been the most unhealthy of the town's history, anil this fact doubtless had something to do with the good fortune of Tus''a- loosa. The summers of 1825 and lS2ii were re- nienil)cred as periods of horror in the life of Mont- gomery. A fever, the origin of which was un- known, raged with great violence, more tliaii decimating the population of the place. Immi- gration ceased altogether, and the outlook was gloomy enough. The year 1827 went by, however, without a recurrence of the epidemic, and the Jdiirnnl of December 7th was able to say that '■ during the last season our town has been re- markably healthy, scarcely a case of fever during the wliole summer. The county, generally here- tofore so sickly, has this year presented a healthy, industrious and vigorous population. The de- stroying angel appears to have dcjiarted, and the returning of our visiting brethren, the daily com- ing in of cotton, the rolling of wagons under their heavy weights, give Montgomery an air of busy importance and indicate its future greatness." During the ue.xt decade or until the year 1837, nothing happened to retard the steady growth of Jlontgomery. In February, 183(!, the ground was broken for a railroad from Montgomery to the Chattahoochee, and in the next year, December 23, 1837, a charter was granted to the place as a city, and in January, 1838, the first election oc- curred under the charter. WHAT MANNKR OF PEOPLE TIIEV WERE. There is a wide contrast between the ilontgom- ery of those early years and the Montgomery of to-day. Undoubtedly Jlontgomery at this time was a rough town. In this it Avas like scores of other frontier settlements in tlie Southwest. The place had been peojiled in the first instance, it is true, by an unusually good class of settlers. The ex- travagant expectations excited by fanciful accounts of the productiveness of Alabama lands had in- duced many people to hazard their fortunes in the Territory who would otherwise have remained at home. Montgomery was settled, too, when the country was passing through one of its periodical paper-money crazes, when values were greatly in- flated and speculation was rife. This craze had spent itself when New Philadelphia and Kast Ala- bama were consolidated. Tiie dreams of wealth suddenly to be acquired were then dispelled, and Montgomery and its destiny were committed to that mixed class, half working, half idling, half good, half virions, that from the first have made homes of new towns in America. p]ven so late as September, 1828; the New York Christian Ad- vocate, in setting out the facts that proved the need of missionary work in certain (piarters in the South, stated among others that a half-built church had stood for years in Montgomery, and concluded its indictment thus: '" Why a place containing 1,2(KI inhabitants should be left so destitute is a question which presents itself with awful force to the Christian community. Five or six only are professors of religion. We are not certain, therefore, that there is even one real Christian in tlie whole town. As to the Bible, it is seldom seen except in courts of justice, and even then it seems it is used with the same spirit as the ancient sorcerers used their philters when they wished to charm the object of their attention, for its truths and sanctions are unknown and un- heeded." A reply was made to this in the Jnurtud. The population, the Journal .said, was probably not so great as stated, and it consisted mainly of a peo- ple from the North, whose residence hitherto had not been of a permanent character. It was ac- knowledged with regret that the statement with regard to the Church and the number of profess- ing Christians was but little short of the truth. It was difficult, however, tlie reply ran, to find an apology for the rest of the communication, for it was not only untrue in relation to Montgomery, but a libel on the character of the people of the South and West. In the next succeeding issue a correspondent was at some pains to disprove the charge that the Bible was used to conjure with in Courts of Law, but has nothing to urge against the truth of the other charges. The town needed some missionary work certainly, as what town does not, and it must not be inferred because the citizens had built a court-house and a jail ten years since, and had not yet built a church, that they were entirely given over to iniquity. If this population had its defects it had good qualities also. There were many horse-racing, cock-fighting and whisky-drinking people here and the bowie-knife gleamed more frequently and the pistol-shot rang out more often than was comfortable for the citi- zens who loved law and order. At the same time there was a marked hospitality of sjurit, much real and formal courtesy and a devotion to public 586 NORTHERN ALABAMA. aflfairs. Every new community calls? the hospitable spirit into play. All the members of such a com- munity are early brought to feel a dependence. The neighbor must be asked for some assistance or the neighbor himself, it may be, needs heli> of some kind. Then, too, the stranger is making constant demands upon the kindness of the settlers, and in caring for him, they are imbuing themselves still more deeply with the temper that regards others. On the side of their public interests, the citi- zens of the ilontgomery of this early time are not less interesting. The town was granted its char- ter, and Alabama was admitted into the Union, in the year that the slave question and its related issues came prominently to the front in politics. In 1819 Missouri applied for admission as a State, and the '• misery question," as it was called by some, was debated with a clamor everywhere in the Union. That the citizens of Montgomery profited so well by the opportunity for discussion, is the grief of the chronicler of to-day. When he looks at old newspapers for material to be used in depicting the daily life of these people, he finds lonf', tedious and angry discussions upon the power of Congress to exclude slavery from the Territories, or to make tlie abolition of slavery in a Territory a condition precedent to admission into the Union, Public opinion was already gathering itself into the two great opposing volumes that were to meet finally in the horror of civil war. The history of Montgomery, to be complete, would have to include in its narrative the animated political contests that are here only hinted at. It would show how the larger issues of the National cam- paigns controlled the narrower issues in the State elections, and how again both of these gave shape to municipal contests. In such a history we should be able to discover the gradual growth and expansion of the splendid civic spirit that prompted the people of Montgomery to illustrate, with the full measure of their devotion, the cause tliev had so often contended for. in the arena of public discussion. The mind, quickened into activity by debates on atlairs, found its interests extended and ex- tending into other fields. We have .seen how the various anniversaries were celebrated — the aTini- versary of .Jackson's victory at New Orleans, Wash- ington's birthday and the Fourth of July. Tlic court-house in those days stood where the present city fountain is. Here the inhabitants assembled for celebrations of every kind, and also to delib- erate ujjon the conduct of local atTairs. In 1821, the Franklin Literary Society was organized. On July 10, 18:i3, a meeting was called to discuss the ways and means of building a church. On May •23, 182!), a like meeting debated the building of a theatre, and in July of this year another meeting was called to establish a bank. In September, 1828, a public demonstration w.is made, and the National Government was denounced for inter- ference in Creek affairs. On the 20th of October, in the same v'ear, a banquet was tendered by the citizens to Colonel Brearly for his services in re- moving the Indians from the State. This ability to combine, and the spirit that prompted combinations, extended to matters of quite other sorts than such as have been men- tioned. When the first steamboat, the Harriet, arrived, in October, 1821, an agitation was promptly begun for the formation of a company, whose object should be the establishment of a line of steamboats to ply between Montgomery and Blakely. So, also, when the streets reached that state of bad repair, where the resources of the infant municipality were unequal to their proper care, some public-spirited citizens contributed money and labor, for use in filling the gullies in the streets and the sinks in the sidewalks. This watchful guard upon the welfare of the place, ran into an excess now and then, and an occasional offender against the prevailing standard of decorum in S])eech or conduct, paid the i>cn- alty, and that was, to be soused in some one of the three or four ponds in the village, and afterward to be ridden on a rail. On one occasion, a stranger, suspected of passing counterfeit money, was publicly whipped with a lash, under the direc- tion of a committee of citizens, and ordered to leave the countr}'. The curse of Montgomery at this time was gambling and gamblers. The liepvbUcan is tilled with comj)laints against the gamblers and their pernicious and destructive influence upon the morals of the community. " Philanthropos," writing in the issue of January 20, 1821, called on the authorities to enforce the law against those men in their midst, '"a portion of the dregs of creation " — men who had fled the law in other States. Gamblers have little to do, however, when they arc fleecing one another. On Decem- ber 15, 1821, the Governor approved a bill "au- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 58? thorizing a lottery for the benefit of building an aciulemy in the town of Montgomery." Gambling, evidently, had a congenial soil in which to grow and nourish. To oj)en a lottery was a common nu'thod. at this time, to furtiier the construction of a school-house or a Masonic lodge. When we read the advertisements in the Ala- hamu .hurnal Q)i April, 1831, a little more than ten years after the first issue of tlie Repnlilican, its predecessor, we begin to tread ground that will seem familiar to many of the citizens of to-day. The number for .\j)ril loth contains an announce- ment of the t'oosawda Academy, with John A. El- more as president of the Board. T. B. Maddox & Co. offered drugs; John Giiidrat & Co., dry goods; McGehee& Gilmer, groceries; Pond & Con- verse, hardware; William Sayre, dry goods and groceries, and Charles T. Pollard representing the Augusta Insurance & Banking Company offered to insure buildings and merchandise against fire, and to take risks upon cotton shipped to Mobile. These names put us fairly in touch with the Mont- gomery of that year (1831) The life of Mr. Charles T. Pollard alone covered nearly the entire period of our local history, he having lived here for nearly sixty years of his life. His energy gave Montgomery her first railroad, and with a railroad she rapidly took the lead among all the cities of the State except Mobile. A charter was granted in .January, 183'^, to the Montgomery Ifailroad Company, and a preliminary survey to West Point, (ia., was ordered. The com- pany was re-organized January 15, 1834, and ob- tained a new charter at that time. It was not till February, 1830, that ground was broken. In the meantime causes were at work that still further de- layed the completion of this enterprise. In July, 1832, a branch of the State Bank of Alabama was established in Montgomery. The opening of the new bank was but one feature of a movement tiien spreading all over the country, a movement des- tined to produce one of the most violent financial convulsions of our history. Money was plenty and prices ruled high in the cheap money of the day. Town lots, farms and negroes brought uniieard of prices, and prices continued to grow bigger and big- ger, and fortunes grander and grander, until the whirlwind of disaster in 1837 swept these paper-built castles out of existence. Tiie financ- ial cra., tlie corner- stone was laiil on July 4th, of that year, and in No- vember, 1S4T, it was coni))lete(l, the building itself approved by the proper authorities and the keys delivered, as ref|i ircd by law, to the Secretary of State. The archives of the Slate, packed in boxes and weighing ■^0,704 pounds, were hauled from Tusca- loosa to Montgomery in a train of thirteen wagons. The cost of the removal, ^1,."J2.">, was defrayed by the Montgomery Huiiding Committee, it liaviiig been stipulated that the State should be put to no expense whatever by the removal. The Legislature met in the new Ijuilding on the (). Ill 18.">(> the population of Montgomery was 8.7'^8. Of these, ii,.jll were whites and •3,v*I7 negroes; a proportion of almost three whites to one negro. What the population was in 1840, the census does not show, but it does show how many negroes there were in the place at that time. There were "2, Kit. The increase in jiopulation. between 184iiand 18."iO. had been of the best kind. In the next decade, that between 18.i(» and iStJO. there was a great change. In this time, the Mont- gomery and Wetumpka plank road was begun (1850); the Montgomery & West Point Road was opened to West Point (1851); the Hank of Mont- gomery was established under the Fi'ee-banking Act (1852); the court-house was moved from the square and the present handsome building erected (1852); the large artesian well was bored (1853); $500,000 was voted by the city in aid of the Mont- gomery & Mobile Railroad (1853); the city was first lighted with gas (1854); and *300,000 was voted in aid of the South & North Alabama Railroad (18G0). In these years, however, Mont- gomery was several times visited by yellow fever, her white population was much reduced, and again and again was the cry raised to have the seat of gov- ernment changed once more, and to a place where the lives of the State officials and the members of the Legislature would not be imperiled. That the fever ceased its ravages in the winter season and permitted the Legislature to go and come in safety, was the saving cause in the capital being retained where it was. There was a noteworthy change in the charac- ter of the population between 1850 and 18G0, but there was a more potent cause than yellow fever to produce the change. The frightful scourge of slavery, worse than the dreaded fever in its consequences, was slowly sap})ing the ener- gies of tlie South, and its blight was plainly seen on Montgomery. In 1800 the population of Mont- gomery was only 115 more than in 1850, number- ing in all, in 1800, 8,843. Of these 4,341 were whites — a decrease in white population of 2,170 in the ten years; 4,502 were negroes — an increase in negro population during the ten years of 2,285. The proportion, that in 1&5(I had been three to one in favor of the whites, had changed for the worse, and there were now 101 more negroes than whites in the place. Tiiese figures tell their own story. The city, like the State, was being Afri- canized. Industrial death was creeping over the place. M'hat was lacking to the cajiital, during these years, in excitement of material growth was sup- plied by the warmth of political discussion. As the war issues began to define themselves, and the sections became mord and more plainly arrayed against each other. Montgomery became the theatre of many bitter contests between the Whigs and the Democrats. The Whigs were bat- tling for life, and their opponents were sustained by the tide of passionate anger and apprehension. 590 NORTHERN ALABAMA. aroused by the growing ascendency of Republican- ism at the North. There could be but one result to the local conflicts at the South. In .Montgom- ery, the Whigs, under the leadership first of Hil- liard, then of Watts and Judge, struggled on, but all in vain. Ililliard, who was a partisan with one hand only — the hand that received — scented danger, and made terms with the Democrats at his earliest convenience, leaving the contest to be carried on by others. The greatest debates Montgomery has ever lis- tened to were heard in those days. Estelle Hall was commonly the scene of these oratorical en- counters. Here it was tliat Yancey gave final shape to the style and the logic that was later to carry him to the forefront among those who ex- pounded and defended the cause of "Southern Rights " before the civilized world. Here it was that he forged the bolt with which, in 18G0, he shattered the Charleston Convention, and so in- directly precipitated the Civil War. The war came on, and Montgomery, like the South generally, made ready for it with some of that gayety of spirit that marked the famous mil- itary parade of 1870. To adequately treat " Montgomery in the War" would require a separate sketch. Such a sketch should include an account of the assembling here of the Provisional Congress and the establishment of the Provisional (Jovcrnment. It should picture all the incidents of life in a small capital, where the streets were crowded with citizens and strangers, all alike aglow with the ardor of im- minent conflict in arms. It should show how speculation and conjecture passed into certainty, when out of the Winter building on Court Square flashed Secretary Walker's order to Heauregard at Charleston to fire on Fort Sumter. Then would be heard the tramp of the volunteers, as they mustered here, now as infantry, now as cavalry, and now as artillerymen hurrying to the scene of war. Some of these will defend the coast, others will join the army of the Tennessee, and yet others will face and beat back the enemy from the soil of Virginia. Then follows the period of suspense when the citizens begun to awake to the grave character of the contest before them, that, in fact, they were engaged in a desperate and bloody war; a period of varying hopes and fears of alternating joy and dismay as the news came from the front, bringing the intelligence of victory only to be followed by disaster. Such a sketch, too. would tell how the heroism of man on the field was matched by the devotion of woman at home: how indefatigable she was in making clothing and gathering food for the soldiers' needs, liow ten- derly she waited upon and watched over the sick, how she bore up under the sad stories told by the lists of killed and wounded in every battle, liow patiently she wrought on, and how earnestly she prayed for the success of the Southern arms. Then it would be told how, despite manly valor and womanly devotion, the end came. The end came for Montgomery three days after the sur- render of Lee's army at Appomatto.x. Wilson's cavalry reached Montgomery on the Vl\.\\ of April, 1S()5. Of this period and of the ten years imme- diately following the close of the hostilities there is less need even than in the case of the war itself to atteni))t detailed treatment. The car- petbagger is a picturescpie figure — birds of prey usually are — but anydiscussion of himand his rule at the South, might, j)erhaps. lead the most judi- cious into a betrayal of too strong a bias for decency and law and order. In spite of misgovernment and the uncertainty and unrest incident to the violent changes wrought by the war, Montgomery had not only held her own, but was steadily increasing in wealth and population. In 1870 the population numbered 1(1,588, showing a much larger increase for the decade than was shown for the period be- tween 18.50 and 1860. A sounder industrial con- dition was already at work, with a myriad of in- fluences, to build up and restore the waste places of the South. From 1870 to 1880 the town made even more rapid progress in every direction. The city gov- ernment was during the greater part of this time wisely and economically administered, the schools were well patronized, much building, both of store houses and dwellings, was accomplished, and the commerce of the place was largelv added to. In 1880 the population had mounted to 1G,713, showing an increase of over O.OdU since 1870. The same rate of increase, 57 per cent., would make - the population in 1890, 26,383, and it is probable ' that, owing to the large additions to the population by immigration, this estimate will be under, rather than over, the figures of the ne.xt census. This sketch may be concluded i)roperly with a statement of the present condition, and the out- look for the immediate future of Montgomery, ■ but it will not be amiss to collect here, first. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 591 some facts in tlie history of the place that the course of tlie narrative up to this point has made it seem proper to ignore. (•lU'KfllES. We have seen the (lilliciilty tliis young com- munity had in its early years in adopting any religious observances, and the long time that elapsed before a church was built. Religious ser- vices were held generally in the court-house, and sometimes in private houses. The movements, began in 1S"2.'>, terminated in 18"2.") in the erection of a small church to be used by all the denomina- tions represented in the place at that time. It was so used until lS3'i, when it was relinquished to the Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This church ha-1; the Adams Street Baptist Church in October, 1804. The Presbyterians first organized as a congrega- tion in 1824, and as a church in November, 1829. The present church edifice was dedicated Febru- ary 21, 1847. St. John's Protestant Episcopal (hiinli was or- ganized January 9, 1834, and their building was dedicated December 9, ISS.'i. The Church of the Holy Comforter, on Hoot street, was de0. the Times in 1852, the Mail in 1854, the Messenger in 1850 (being merged, in 1858, into the Confederation), and the Daily Post in 1860. Just prior to these, we have the Metropolitan, started in 1847, and the Atlas in 1><49. The editors of those days rarely pursued jour- nalism alone as a profession. They commonly joined their newspaper work with the law or the minis- try, or a land agency. The press was then, more than it is now, jjerhaps, the training school of the young wits and young professional men about 592 NORTHERN ALABAMA. town. Tliat the careers of some of tliese were eveiitfully picturesque, goes without saying. Thus Moseley Baker, a lawyer, at one time editor of the Jimrnnl, became involved in some question- able transaction, by which the State Bank was defrauded of a sum of money amounting to many thousands of dollars. Baker was arrested, and thrown into prison, but succeeded in making his escape, and went to Texas. In Texas he be- came a distinguished and wealthy lawyer. lie was prominent in the Texan War for Inde- pendence; was promoted for gallantry at San Jacinto; became a brigadier-general; and was sub- sequently elected to the Congress of this new empire in the Southwest. His life in Texas had always been invested with more or less of mystery, and this mystery was to be dramatically dispelled. He rose one day in the Texan Congress, and told the members the story of his shame in his old home. He had achieved his ambition, he said, and was then able and ready to pay in full the debt he owed the State of Alabatna. He there- upon resigned his position, and put himself in communication with the authorities of the State Bank at Tuscaloosa, offering to pay what lie owed, with interest. Mr. Joel White, now of Mont- gomery, then of Tuscaloosa, and a director in tlie State Bank, i>i-oceeded to Houston, as the repre- sentative of the Bank, and collected every dollar of Baker's debt, in gold. The best known editor in Montgomery during the antv-hellum period was jirobalily Johnson J. Hooper, of the Mail. Hooper was the author of "Simon Suggs, "and the J/rt/7, foumled by him in 18.")4, was distinguished throughout the time ho edited it by the wit anil liiinmi- that iiiudu I he faiiu' of his book. The Daihj Adrer/iser and the Daili/ Dispatch (18.S5) more than maintain at the present time the traditions of the press of Montgomery. Their superiority to the best of their predecessors is but an index to tlie signal improvements in every field of journalism during the last twenty years. A number of excellent weeklies, like the Ahihaiiia Blip/ ix( iiiid the Affririil/Krisf. still further broaden the sphere of the newspapers' usefulness at the capital. Tiie colored |)0)iulation have an organ for their race in the Herald. DISTINOriSIIF.n VISToHS. LaFayettc visited Montgomery, as already relat- ed, in l.S"-J."i. and we have seen the nature of the reception given him. The next distinguished visitor was the Duke of Saxe-Weimer, the patron of (ioethe and .Schiller. Washington Irving came in I.s:j-.i, on his return from his expedition in John Jacob Astor's interest to the Pacific Cofist. John C. Calhoun stopped in Montgomery for some hours on April 10, 1841; returning in a few days from Jlississippi he delivered a political address to a mass meeting of the citizens. Several of the ex- Presidents, while on their Southern tours, made stops in Montgomery. Van Buren was here April 3, 184:i, Polk in 1840, and I'illmore on April 15, 1854. Henry Clay came up by way of Mobile in March, lc44, accompanied by Mrs. Octavia Le Vert, the authoress. He made one of his stirring public speeches to an immense concourse of people. Louis KoESuth, the Hungarian patriot, who is still alive in Turin, Italy, was in Mont- gomery in 185"2. Stephen A. Douglas came South in the campaign of 1800, and included Mont- gomery among the other cities visited by him. War was imminent, however, and he here spoke to dull ears. The two most memorable visits to the place, with the possible exception of LaFayette's, were those of Mr. Jefferson Davis in April, 1886, and of President Cleveland in October, 1887. The receptions given Mr. Davis and Mr. Cleveland, respectively, had much of fine historic color for an eye anxious to watch the progress of social and political sentiment at the South. Mr. Davis had an enthusiastic welcome from a j)cople who considered that his days were well nigh spent, but that in his prime he hud stood u]) before the world and had l)een blasted in the service of a cause once unsjieakablydear to them all. Jlr.Cleveland, as the first President of the United States who had ever visited Montgomery during his incumbency of that office, as the first President elected through the aid of the South since Buchanan, as the rej)resenta- tive of a restored Union, and himself an ex- emplar of so many of the finest qualities of Ameri- can citizenship, had a reception befitting his great station, and one alike honorable to him and to the community whose guest he was. The city that had given Yancey to the cau.se of '•Southern Rights,'" that had itself been the seat of the pro- visional government of the Confederate States, had now within its gates and was spending a gen- erous courtesy upon a President who, above all things else, stood for an indissoluble and non-sec- tional union, a nniii who in his official capacity NORTHERN ALABAMA. 593 directed all his cares, his hopes and sispinitions, to the future of oiir common country. President Cleveland's visit may be said to mark an epooli in our local history. Not that his visit had any wide- reaching influence, but because of the proof the visit olTered, with its holiday aocoinpaniments, that Montgomery was facing toward tiie morning, that she had taken her place in the ranks of that greater army, the army of industry, before whose arms slavery had gone down. THK FUTl'UE. .Montgomery will celebrate its Centennial in I'.'IT, and doubtless will celebrate it with all the pomp and circumstance befitting the event. What is there of j)romise in our town of to-day that the Centennial of I'JIT shall illustrate a progress in every direction of sound municipal development':' Our [)opulation still consists of a disproportion- jitely large number of the coloi'ed race, but it is of good omen for the future that the negroes are build- ingthemselves homes in larger number every year. Then, too, many of them manifest a passion for educational advantages, and, by a growing atten- tion to work, to saving, and to conduct, are aiding instead of impeding the progress of the place. On the purely induotrial and economical side the record of the current decade is the most remarka- ble in the history of the place. Already there are si.x railroads m operation that run into .Montgomery: the Louisville & Xashville, the Western of Alabama, the Montgomery & Eufaula, the Montgomery & Florida, tiie Mobile & ilontgomery, and the road leading to Selma. There are projected, and under survey at present, the Midland, another route southeast to the Chattahoochee and the ilontgomery & Maplesville, to connect this place with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia, in Chilton County. The merchants are fully alive to the advantages of river competion, and have organized and had in operation, since ISiSd, a line of steamers between Montgomery and ilobile. The merchant can noW get through bills of lading on this line, 4-iii Mobile, to New York and Liverpool. The volume of .Montgomery's trade now amounts annually to nearly *;JO,()0(i.(iO(i. made up largely of the busine.ss done by wliolesale dry-goods and gro- cery mercliantsand the handling of tliecottoncrop. The annual receipts of cotton are never less tinin lOO.OiHi bales, and in one year they amounted to 140,0(10 bales. Hut cotton and dry goods and gro- ceries Montgomery has always had, and the beads she likes best to tell over just now are the new manufacturing enterprises that promise so solid a foundation for commercial growth and greatness. More than *^*, 000, 000 are now invested in facto- ries of various kinds, among them the following: One cotton-mill, three cotton-seed oil mills, one oil refinery, one cracker factory, two grist-mills, five wood-working establishments, si.x carriage and wagon factories, si.x brick and tile works, one boiler works, three foundries and machine shops, one candy factory, two ice factories, one soap fac- tory, one fertilizer factory, two railroad-car shops, one cigar factory, one furniture factory, one pa- per-box factory, one sausage factory, one vinegar factory, an alcohol distillery, four cotton-gineries and one iron furnace — in all, forty-seven manu- facturing establishments. The desirableness of Montgomery as a residence city has been quite generally acknowledged during late years. There lias been but one epidemic of yellow fever since the war, and that was in 1873. At the present time the city's death rate is one of the lowest in the Union, and there is reason to believe that the record in this respect will be maintained. The capital feature in the sanitary advantages of the place, is the new water works system, the capacity of which is .5,000,000 gal- lons daily, and the water itself the purest kind raised from artesian wells. The city is now engaged in supplementing this admirable system by putting in the Waring system of sewerage. The last General Assembly granted the corpora- tion the right to issue bonds to the amount of f^'ioH.OOO, the proceeds of which are to be expended in putting down this perfected system of drainage. In addition to these improvements there have been others made, and tiiere are now in operation a fine electric light plant and fifteen miles of electric street railway. It is the jiledge of her homes, her churches, her schools, her commerce, her manufactories and the character of her citizens that the Montgomery of to-day gives to the Montgomery of 101 T that our city will tiieii be worthy of the best traditions of her past. THOMAS HILL WATTS, distinguished Attorney and Counselor-at-law, son of John 11. and Pru- dence (Hill) Watts, natives, respectively, of Fan- 594 NORTHERN ALABAMA. quier County, Va., and Clarke County, Ga., was born in Butler County, this State, January 3, 1819. The Watts family came into the province of Virginia from Wales, and the Hills came from " merry old England." Thomas Watts, the grandfather of the gentle- man whose name forms the caption of this sketch, was a soldier under John Marshall (afterward the renowned Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court) in the Revolutionary War. and held the rank of a non-couimissioned officer. In 17!»7 he removed into Georgia and settled in Greene County, where he spent the rest of his life. His widow became the wife of Governor Rabun of that State. In 1818. John Hughes Watts, who married Pru- dence Hill, daughter of Thonms Hill, of Clarke County, Ga., moved into Butler County, Ala., the latter ])lace being a wild, unsettled country and the home of the Creek Indians. Of his children, Thomas Hill Watts was the eldest. In a small, one-story log school-house, with puncheon floor, receiving light and air through the unchinked recesses of the building, and pre- sided over by Mr. Burwell Rogers, who called the boys " to books " viva voce, and literally spared not the rod with which he ruled them from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the sub- ject of this sketch' began the arduous undertaking of mastering the English alphabet. Who has forgotten the magnitude of this task? And who does not remember the stern, relentless vi.sage of the master, whose keen eye detected the slightest infraction of his iron-clad rules, and who punished stupidity as crime? How long ago this seems, and yet how short a time it really has been! What mighty things have transpired since then, and through what stirring scenes have we passed! And with many of the most important events of this wonderful period the life of Thomas Hill Watts is identified. Though yet in the prime of a mature anil well-preserved manhood, he is famil- iarly known in the pages of our common country's history, and while it is the province of this work to give but the briefest outline of his career, the future chronicler of his noble deeds will find abundance of theme for encomium and panygyric. At the age of si.vteen years his father sent him to Airy Mount Academy. Dallas County, where he fitted himself for college. The senior Mr. Watts was not a weallliv inan. and, having a large family of children, did not I feel justified in conferring upon any one of his I sons an University education, as he was not able j to do so unto all of them. This objection, how- ever, was readily overcome as to his eldest; for upon his father's agreeing to defray the expenses of his schooling, young Watts agreed to and did , relinquish his every further claim to his parent's bounty. This arrangement enabled him to enter the University of Virginia, from which institution I he was graduated in l,S4(i. During the year fol- I lowing his graduation he was admitted to the bar I in Butler County, and there practiced law until : 1847. In January of that year, he removed frcmi ' Greenville to Montgomery, and here he has since made his home. Prior to the late war (ioveriior Watts was an I extensive planter and slave-owner, although at the same time he was giving his very best energies to the practice of the law. His public life began in 1840. when he took an active part in the presidential campaign, support- ing Harrison as against Van Buren. In 184"2, 1844, and 184."), he represented Butler County in the Legislature: in 184!t he represented Montgomery in the Lower House; and in 18.">.'{ he was Senator from Montgomery and Autauga. In 1848 he was the General Taylor presidential elector for the State-at-large, and in 18,">G, the ''Know Xothing" candidate for Congress, and was defeated by a small majority. In 18G(i he was a prominent sup- porter of Bell and Everett. Opposed from ])rinciple to the idea of secession, he labored assiduously to jirevent the arrival of such an emergency. But the election of Lincoln upon a platform purely sectional, satisfied him that there was no further ground for hope of a compromise of the great disturl)ing question, and he at once announced himself as with his State in her withdrawal from the Federal L'nion. Thos. H. Watts and Wm. \j. Yancey represent- ed Montgomery County in the Convention of Janu- ary T, ISOl. and Mr. Watts was made chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Through all the deli- berations of that important body he played a con- spicuous part. In the summer following the formation of the Provisional Confederate Government, Mr. Watts raised the Seventeenth Alabama Regiment of In- fantry, and became its colonel. While in com- mand of this regiment at Corinth, Miss., Mr. Davis selected him as the Attornev-General for NORTHERN ALABAMA. 59» the Confederate (iovernintMit, an lionor wholly un- solicited upon his part. However, he at once re- signed his command, and proceeded to Richmond, where he took the oath of office on iUli of April, In August, 1803, he was elected, against his ex- j)ressed wishes, to the (iovernorship of Alabama, and filled that position from December, 18()3, to the spring of ISCa, the most momentous and trying jieriod through wliich tlic State has ever passed. Tiie war swept away (iovernor Watts' fortune, and drove him temporarily under cover of bank- ruptoy, but he despaired not, neitiier did he com- plain. Possessed of a strong and vigorous con- stitution, mentally the peer of the foremost of his contemporaries, full of unadulterated energy, he proceeded to re-construct his affairs, and, it is l)lea5ing to -note, success rewarded his efforts. Applying himself persistently to his profession, at no time a speculator, and appropriating his vast energies at all times to legitimate uses, he has paid off his indebtedness, principal and interest, over one hundred thousand dollars, and about three-fourths of this vast sum represents liabili- ties incurred by him for other people. Kind-hearted and generous; of spotless integ- rity, and with an e.xaltcd sense of honor — his noble character has made him respected and beloved, and has gained liima lasting place in the hearts of his fellow-citizens. And yet these very char- acteristics ]iroi)ably disclose the key to his j)ast financial embarassmenis. (iovernor Watts has occupied the leading posi- tion at the Alabama Bar for matiy years, and both as advocate and lawyer he has few equals and no superiors. His practice is largely in the Sn- jireme Court, where he is identified with nearly every important case occurring before that august body. Thoroughly jtroficient in every department of his profession, he is not excelled by any lawyer in the country. His speech on the constittition- ality of the electoral law before the United States Court, December, 1K78, was pronounced a master- piece of exhaustless reasoning, and for thorough knowledge of the subject far surpassed any speech made in Congress on that question. Earnest and forcible, terse and vigorous in the use of language; possessed of strong natural sense, and a deep sympathy with human nature — he wields an immense influence over men at all times. He is a {lolished orator and a finished scliolar; and his mind is one vast storehouse of useful know- ledge, upon which he can draw at jjleasure. Since his advent into public life he has taken an active and prominent part in every question of importance, State, municipal and national, that has been brought before the people. With one single exception, he has never sought an office. Away back in the '40s he came to the Legislature from Kutler County at his own request. Since then he has adhered to the principle that '' the office should seek the man." Yet in the prime of manhood. Governor "Watts bids fair to remain many years a useful citizen of a country that honors itself by honoring him. He has been twice married; first, to Miss Eliza B. Allen January 10. 1842. She died .\ugust 31, 1873, leaving six children. His second wife, to whom he was married in September, 1875, was the widow of the late J. F. Jackson. She died February 3, 188T. SAMUEL F. RICE, distinguished Attorney-at- law, ilontgoinery, was born in Union District, S. C, June 2, 1810. His father, William Rice, also a native of South Carolina, was upward of twenty years the Judge of Ordinary in Union District; his mother's maiden name was Herndon. The Kices probably came to America from Wales; the Hern- dons from England, and both families have played conspicuou.< parts at various times and places in the United States. Samuel F. Rice was the third in a family of four sons, and, with one e.^ception (the oldest son who resides on the old homestead in South Caro- lina), is the only one living. There were also four daughters in the family, and of these there is but one living. She is the widow of the late William H. Gist, once Governor of Soutli Carolina. Mr. Rice was graduated from Columbia (S. C.) ("ollege in 1833; read law with William C. Preston, who afterward became distinguished as United States Senator, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1837. After spending a year at Winns- boro, he came to this State and located at Talle- dega, in the practice of law, and remained there until 1852, when he removed to Montgomery. During the last four years of liisstay at Talledega, he was in partnership with the distinguished John T. Morgan. In 1840-41, he represented 596 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Talledi'ga f'ounty in the Legislature, and in the latter niinieil year was made State Printer. An- other writer has said that he was made State Prin- ter because of his connection with the W'tifchloicer, a Democratic paper establislied by him at Talla- dega. He was beaten for Congress in 184.5 by General McConnell. In 184M he was one of the General Taylor electors from his district. When the Southern Hights party was formed in 18.")1, he united witli it, ran again for Congress upon the i)latform of that party and was defeated by Ale.xander White. In 1S5!I he represented .Mont- gomery County in the Legislature, and in LSGl represented .Montgomery and Autauga Counties in the Senate. In lS7,i he was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and in 187G-T7 he was again in the Legislature. We have thus hastened over the life of one of Alabama's most distinguished citizens. Judge Rice is probably known personally to more men than any other one man in the State. In the halls of the Legislature he always ranked among the leaders, and as a debater he jjrobably never met his sui)erior. .\nother writer has said of him '• that his record is peculiar, abounding in lights and shadows to a romantic extent," and that it may be summed up as follows: " A college gradu- ate, a good lawyer, an efficient editor, a legislator. State Printer, Democrat, Taylor man. Southern Rights man, Know-Nothing, twice a candidate for Congress, a .Judge of the Supreme Court, a Secessionist in ISGl, and a Republican in 1S70.'' A )iart of this summing up, at least, is true, but that .Judge Rice was ever a Republican is not accejited by his present biographer. Tiiat he dif- fered with many men high in authority in the State of .\labama as to the best policy to be pur- sued in the days of Reconstruction is well known, but that he ever went further than to advocate a peaceable submission to the inevitable is doubtful. Judge Rice took his seat upon the Supreme Court bench of the State in 18.55. but resigned it in 1850, to resume tlie practice of law. It was relateil of him that for ten or twelve years before the war, he tried his hand at planting, but finding that it re<|uired his professional earn- ings to supjjort his Jiegroes, he gave it up. He is one of the hanlest working men in the profession to wiiich he is devote!3fi, states the causes which inipellefl him to such a course. It was a time of great political interest. .Mr. Morrissett and Mr. IJagby were j>rominent men. A question of veracity had arisen between Ihem in regard to some political matters attracting public attention. Mr. Morrissett pub- lished a minute statement of tlie grounds of the controversy. In support of the charges made against Mr. Bagby, he cites in proof the records of the courts, and vouches us witnesses some of the foremost citizens of the State. Garrett, in the «ketch alluded to, seeks to create the impression that the difference between ilr. Morrissett and Mr. Bagby naturally resulted from a congenital dis- similarity that prevented mutual appreciation. In his pamphlet Mr. Morrissett states that for nearly twenty years — since ISllS — they had been friends, he often voting for Bagby and Hagby for him, though generally differing j)olitically. Mr. Mor- rissett never asjjired to soar among the stars, when dealing with the business affairs of men. While he was capable of discerning and honoring high intellectual endowments, and appreciating noble and sensitive natures, he never hesitated, when it came in his way, to ruthlessly tear off the nuisk of hy])ocrisy and falsehood, regardless of whom the wearer might be. In the same sketch the author, who had, perhaps himself, not escaped, at some time, the " grasp " of this "vigilant adversary,"' takes occasion to determine that Mr. iforrissett was sometimes on the extreme. He cites, as an in- stance of this, the course of Mr. Morrissett in ad- vocating in the Legislature a bill to regulate the sampling of cotton in Mobile, whicli was after- ward adopted, and has long been on the statute books of Alabama. The sampling of cotton had been intrusted chiefly to negroes and a low class of foreigners; the rapacity of these samplers be- came so reckless that it aroused the indignation of the planters of the State, who demanded some re- striction or limitation as to the quantity of cotton to be taken from a bale in sampling it. Mr. Mor- rissett championed the bill, and as he did not use sugar-coated words in describing the existing jirac- tice of sampling cotton, a crowd of these people with those who shared with them the fruits of their calling, sought to insult him afterward in Mobile. No commission merchants or other gen- tlemen took part in the "hostile demonstration," so far as could be ascertained. The lion. John Morrissett, was simple in dress, and candid and fearless in speech. He was devoted to his friends. but like Wolsey, " he was lofty and sour to them that loved him not." He occupied a prominent and honorable posi- tion among the distinguished men who early settled in Alabama. To his biography, as the father of the subject of this sketch, is devoted space for the correction of certain eiTors in a book that may hereafter be referred to by the historian of the early settlement of the State. Edmund P. Morrissett possesses many of the traits of his father, perhaps somewhat mellowed by the less rugged and .siiavifer in modo qualities of his maternal ancestry. Descended from the sturdy pioneer stock that resolutely wrought out fortune by subduing the forests, Edmund P. in- herited a robust constitution and vigorous intellect. Early left, by the death of his father, to the in- struction and guidance of a cultivated mother, proud of her lineage, he was taught to esteem in- tegrity and manly virtues beyond riches. Gradu- ating at the State University, at Tuscaloosa, in the class of 185(5, he was admitted to the practice of the law before the bar of the Supreme Court of his State, in 185tt. He entered the army soon after the commencement of hostilities between the States, as a private in the Cavalry company com- manded by Capt. Robert W. Smith, of Mobile, and which was afterward united with the Third Alabama Cavalry Kegiment. Remaining with the army till the close of the war, he surrendered with (len. Joseph E. Johnson at Greensboro, X. C, and repaired to his old home-stead in Monroe County, where he remained only long enough to rent out his lands, and then moved to Montgomery, to engage in the practice of the law. Devoting himself to his profession and to his farming interests, he has taken but little part in politics, except in 18T4, when he entered actively into the canvass that resulted in the election of Governor Houston, as well as the restoration of the Democratic party to power and the final over- throw of the carpet-bag rule in the State; and afterwards in 1884, when he was a candidate for the ottice of Attorney General of the State, when he was defeated by the Hon. Thomas N. -McClel- lan. In 187"^ Mr. Morrissett married, in Montgomery, Miss Katie Hutcheson, the accomjilished daugh- ter of the late John D. Hutcheson, and a grand- daughter of Judge B. S. Bibb, of this city. He now ranks among the foremost lawyers of the Montgomery bar. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 599 HENRY C. SEMPLE, Attorney-at-law, Mont- gomery, was born .laniiary 14, \'&l'i, ;vt Willitims- 1)11 rg, Va., and is a sou of James and Joanna (McKenzie) Senijile, natives, resjic'tivcly, of New Kent and Cliestcrfield Counties, tiiat State. The grandfather of our subject was a Scotch- man, and came to America in 1750. He was a minister of tiie Church of England, and was rector of St. Peter's, New Kent County, Va. He was one of the few ministers of tiie Cliurch of England (in Virginia) who were Whigs during the Kevolution. James Semplc, the father of our subject, was a Judge of the (Jeneral Court of Virginia, and professor of law at William and Mary College. Tie had practiced law, presided on the bench in \'irginia, or served as professor of law from 1796 up to 18;U, at which time he died at AVilliams- burg, Va., at the age of about seventy-seven years. Henry C. Seiuple was educated at William and Mary College, Virginia; graduated from the law school of Harvard University in September, 1845, and began tiie practice of his profession at Mont- gomery, Ala., in 1846. He is said to be tlie oldest practitioner, now living, of those who were at the Montgomery bar in 1846. His first association in the practice was with George C. Ball, which lasted but a short time. In 1856 he became associated witli Judge George Goldthwaite, the firm name being Goldthwaite «fe Semplc; subsequently Judge Rice was added to the firm. In 1870 this firm was dissolved. In 1868, October, he formed a copartnership with Judge R. C. Hrickell, of Huntsville, and ^\'illiam A. Gunter, the style of the firm being Briokell, Semple & Gunter. In 1861 Mr. Semple entered the army as aide- de camp on General liragg's staff. He remained with that General until March, 186'2, when he was placed in charge of a command known as Semple's Battery, with which he went into the campaign of Kentucky under General Bragg, and partici- pated in every general action from Perryvillc to Missionary Ridge. While cai)tain of Semj)le's Battery he had at times command of the artillery of Cleburne's Division and of Hill's and 15reckiii- ridge's Corjis. In 1864 he was promoted to' major and transferred to the command of the artillery of the District of the Gulf, at Mobile, and surren- dered to General Canby May Vi, 1865, at .Merid- ian, Miss., witli Dick Taylor's army. At the close of the war he returned to Montgomery, and re- sumed the practice of law, to which he has since devoted his time. Mr. Semple is a director of the Merchants and Planters Natioiuil Bank and of the Western Rail- road of Alabama. lie is a member of the National Democratic Committee, and was a member of the Convention of 1867 that framed the Constitution of 1868. Disapproving of tluit Constitution, he witlidrew from tlie Convention. He was a mem- ber of the Board of Aldermen that effected the payment of the city debt in 1875. Mr. Semple was married in November, 1848, to Miss Emily V., daughter of Lorenzo and Eliza (Scott) James, of Clarke County, Ala. Of the seven living children born to this union we make the following mention: McKenzie is at the pres- ent writing Assistant District Attorney of the city of New York; Henry is a Jesuit priest, and is a Professor at Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala. ; Mary C. is a nun at the Convent of Visitation, at Mobile; Barrington is engaged in the practice of law at Birmingham, Ala.; Lorenzo is an ensign in the United States navy; Irene and Emily are still under the parental roof. Mr. Semple and family are all devoted members of the Catholic Church. DANIEL SHIPMAN TROY, prominent Attor- ney-at-law, Montgomery. President of the Ala- bama Fertilizer Company, President of the Dis- patch Publishing Company, and Director in the Elyton Land Company, was born October 9, 1832. He read law with his brother-in-law, Wni. Hun- ter, at Cahaba, and in 1851, at the age of nine- teen years, was admitted to practice in the nisi prius courts. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court in 1854. He lived at Cahaba until 18G0, and from there came to Montgomery. In January, 1861, lie joined the Jlontgomery "True Blues," as a private, in an expedition against Fort Barancas, Pensacola. After this he recruited a company known as the " Gilmer Greys," and went out as its captain. The "Bhus" were mustered into and became a part of the Ililliard Legion early in 1862. In the fall of 1862 Captain Troy was promoted to major, and in 186.3 the Infantry of this Legion was reorgan- ized into the Fifty-ninth and Si.xticth Alabama Regiments, and he was made lieutenant-colonel of 600 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the Sixtieth. He took part in Longstreet's attaelc upon Kiioxville, siege of Cunibeiland Gap, bat- tle at Mean's Station. Kiury's Bluff anil Bermuda Iluiitlred. He was wouiuled at Drurv's Bluff.and on tlie "^.ith of March, 1805, near Petersburg, he was shot entirely through the left lung, and left upon the battle-field for dead. He fell into the hands of the enemy, where he remained to the close of the war. Some time after the cessation of liostil- ities, he resumed the i)ractice of law, at which he has been remarkably successful, both as a lawyer and in the accumulation of wealth. He is now at the head of the law firm of Troy, Tompkins & London. He was a member of the State Senate from 1878 to 1880 ; was an active Democratic worker during the period of Reconstruction, but is Jiow entirely out of politics. Colonel Troy is a scholarly man with a decid- edly literary turn of mind, which finds vent through several of the most popular periodicals and newspapers of the day. He writes with equal facility upon law, politics and science. He is a member of the Catholic Church, to which religion he was converted while in the Federal Hospital. THOMAS GOODE JONES, i>rominent Attorney- at-law, Montgomery, distinguished as Speaker of tlic House of l{epresentatives, and colonel of the Second Regiment Alabama State Troops. His father was the late Colonel Samuel G. Jones, and his mother was, before marriage, Martha W. (ioode, the former being a native of Brunswick and the latter of Jlecklenburg County, Va. The Joneses are traced back to the Colonial days of North Carolina and Virginia, and the Goode family came originally from England. The senior Jones was an eminent civil engineer, a graduate of Williams College, Massachusetts, where he took one of the honors in the class of 1S;57, and was one of the pioneers in railroad building in the South. He came to Georgia in 18.5'J, and was en- gineer iu charge of hication of the roads of the old Monroe Railroad & Banking Company, one of the first roads in (ieorgia. The thriving town of Jonesboro, (ia., was named in his honor. In 1849 he came to .Montgomery as chief engineer of the Mourgomery & West Point Railway. He was one of the projectors of and a chief spirit in the building of the Alabama & Florida Road to Pensa- I cola, and the railroad from Montgomery to Selma. He removed to Tennessee in 1877, and died at I Sewanee, October 4, 1880. in the seventy-second : year of his age, universally respected for his high character and piety. Col. Tlios. G. Jones, whoi-c name is placed at I the head of this sketch, is the eldest of the four sons born to his parents. Of these four sons, two are lawyers, one a civil engineer, and one a loco- motive engineer. Colonel Jones was born in Macon. Ga., Xovem- ber ■•'0, 1844, and came with his parents to ^[ont- gomery in 18,i(i, and here has since made his home. At the outbreak of the war he was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute, and was ordered to Richmond as drill-master of volunteers. In 180"^ he served in Jackson's celebrated Valley campaign, and at its conclusion enlisted in a com- pany of "Partisan Rangers.'" General Jackson, who, as a professor at the Institute, had known young Jones as a cadet, gave him a recommenda- tion for appointment in the regular army. Upon this, and the refjuest of Gov. Thos. H. Watts, then Attorney-General, at Richmond, Brigadier- General Jno. B. Gordon appointed young Jones his aide-de-camp. He served on (ieneral Gordon's staff during the remainder of the war, being twice promoted and several times wounded. For "gallant conduct at Bristoe " he was com- mended in orders, and personally thanked by Gen. Robert E. Lee. The same officer sent his " thanks to the brave young Alabamian" for his services at Hare's Hill, where in the presence of General Lee, young Jones volunteered to cross the space between the works of the two armies, which was plowed by a terrific fire of cannon and small arms, to bear (iordon's order for the withdrawal of his troops from the positions they had captured. He was in the last action at A]iponiattox, and bore one of the flags of truce sent into the enemy's lines just before the surrender. During Ex-President Davis' visit to ilontgom- ery, in 1880. to hiy the corner stone of the Confed- erate Monument, Colonel Jones, at the request of the Memorial Association, delivered a lecture at McDonald's Opera House, on "The Last Days of the Army of Northern ^'irginia." General Gordon in introducing Colonel Jones to the audience, spoke of his career as a soldier, as follows: " Rarely, if ever, have I had a greater pleasure than the one assigned to me this evening. It is my privilege to introduce to you one who was NORTHERN ALABAMA. 601 assigned to my staff when a beardless boy; who was with me in wliatever trials I experienced my- self during the war; who never failed to discharge his duty, not only willingly but gladly, whatever might be the promised cost. I think I may truth- fully say, without one particle of exaggeration, that if the bare facts connected with his services in the Confederate Army were written out, it would furnish as thrillitig a romance as one ever i read. I^et me relate to you one or two instances which I recall at this moment: On one occasion I directed him as a staff-officer to carry an order several miles, through an unbroken forest to an- other jiortion of the army, from which we had been detached. The sun was just setting. At night- fall he still found himself in the forest and in the midst of the Federal pickets; but by the instru- mentality of his cool bearing — genius lam pleased to term it, and I think I am doing justice to him in saying so — ihe captive became the captor, and marched to my tent nine Federal soldiers. As to how he did it, I had his simple story at the time. I have often related it, and I have never found a listener who did not say that it was without par- allel in the history of personal heroism. Chilly night came on and he induced those F^ederals to kindle a blaze and to stack their arms. No sooner was it done than he possessed himself of their guns, and ordered them to march to the Camp. " On another occasion, during the fearful attack on Hare's Hill, near the close of the war at Peters- burg, it became necessary for an order to be car- ried to the troops who were in front, and across the most deadly portion of that field, where it had been utterly impossible to move large bodies of men. So fearful was this fire, that I hesitated to designate any one of my staff for the service; and I asked if there was one who would volunteer to carry the order. No sooner had I uttered the words than this boy, not yet out of his teens, sprang to his feet with the words: ' General, I will carry your order.' He carried it, but left his track in his blood in doing so. I know that this audience does not need to be told, that such a career in one so young gives promise of a great and useful future. It is your young and brilliant fel- low citizen, whom I introduce to you. Col. Thos. G. Jones.'' At the close of the war he returned home, and engaged in planting, and at the same time read law in the oHice of the late John A. Elmore, and afterward, under the direction of his near neigh- bor and friend, the late Chief-Justice A. .1. Walker. He was admitted to the bar in ISOO, and the same year married Miss Georgena Bird, of Montgomery, who, with their seven children, con- stitute his household. His planting operations resulted disastrously, and he surrendered every- thing to creditors, not even reserving a home- stead, and devoted a large share of his professional earnings afterward to paying these debts. In 18C8 he was one of the editors of the Daihj Picaijune, a Democratic paper published in ilont- gomery, and evinced much ability as a writer. In 1809 he was one of the Democratic nominees for Alderman of the city, but was defeated with the rest of the ticket. His oration at Montgomery on '• Memorial Day," 1804^, was a classical production, full of thought and beauty, and at onte brought him jirominently before the country. The press throughout the Union published extracts from it, pronouncing them high types of Southern oratory and feeling. The earnest and thoughtful words of the young Confederate, who " would not wrong the cause by arguing its right," and yet hojied that "something higher and nobler would rise from the graves of all our heroic dead than a sectional vendetta between the North and the South," created a pro- found impression, and were not the least among the happy causes which combined in 1874 to check the further tide of vindictiveness against the Southern people. He was one of Governor Houston's military staff in 1874, but resigned in 1870 to accept the captaincy of the Montgomery Greys. He resigned command of the Greys in 1880 to accept the colonelcy of the Second Regiment of State troops, which office he still holds. This regiment is one of the best in the country, and in morals, disci- pline and manly deportment is excelled by none. On several occasions portions of it have been ordered out, under his command, to supress law- lessness, and each time peace was restored without bloodshed or bitterness. The triumphs of moral power, rather than that of mere physical force, were due not more to the splendid body of men under him than to the firm and humane hand which guided them. Of his conduct as commander of the State troops at Birmingham on the night of December 4, 1883, the then Governor, in a general order, said: " Colonel Jones, the commanding officer, was charged with a grave responsibility and a large NORTHERN ALABAMA. discretion, under circumstances of the greatest difficulty, and to his courage, temper, prudence and skill is mainly due the repression of a dan- gerous revolt against the laws and dignity of the State." In 1875, when the affairs of the city of Mont- gomery were in a deplorable condition, and required almost Herculean efforts to set matters to rights, he was one of the Democratic nominees for Alder- man, and was elected. During four successive administrations he took a laborious and prominent part in shaping and executing the various meas- ures and policies which aided inre.storing its pros- perity. The reports written by him on the nu- merous important matters arising during this period of the city's history would make an ordi- nary printed volume, and add greatly to his reputa- tion as a writer and thinkeV. AVhile in the City Council lie published a paper on "Quarantine Law" which was extensively copied in medical and legal periodicals, and is now quoted as authority on such subjects. He resigned from the Council after nine years' service. In 1880 he resigned the office of reporter of the Supreme Court which he had long filled with credit to himself, and satisfaction to the bench and bar, to give his entire attention to the practice of his profession, in which he had gradually but surely attained high rank. In 1S84, he was nominated and elected in a most flattering manner to a seat in the General Assem- bly. He took a prominent and useful part in the session of 1884-8,") and soon became one of the ac- knowledged leaders of the House. His services were highly appreciated by his constituents, and lie was renominated by practically a unanimous vote at the Democratic primaries and convention in the spring of 1880, and elected in August fol- lowing. He is the author of the " Code of Legal Ethics," recently adopted by the Alabama State Bar Asso- ciation, which has already attracted wide atten- tion, and won many encomiums from the profes- sion in this and other States. Of his lecture at McDonald's Opera House, on "The Last Days of the Army of Nortliern Virginia," ex- President Davis, who was an interested listener, said it was, "not only a faithful and valuable history of the closing struggles of that illustrious army, but a produc- tion of rare literary merit." He was Speaker of the Alabama House of Rep- resentatives, session of 188C-87, and by his prompt, intelligent and impartial rulings, won for himself the unstinted respect and affection of all parties. [The publishers are indebted to the deservedly popular metropolitan journal, the Montgomery .If/re/Vi'.'if;- for many of the foregoing facts.] Of irreproachable integrity and stainless char- acter in all the relations of life; hospitable, gen- erous and public-sjtirited; tolerant of opposition, yet tenacious of his own convictions: of an open nature, pleasing address, and a great kindliness of heart, he has long enjoyed, in full measure, the confidence and good will of hi.s fellow-men. «-J^^««- EDWARD ALFRED GRAHAM. Attorney-at- law, -Montgomery, and Senator fmm the Twenty- eighth District, was born at Wetumpka, this State, October 18, 1852. His father, the late Malcolm D. (Jraham, was a member of Congress, Confederate States of America, from Texas, and was Attorney-General of that State from 1859 to 1801. He returned to Alabama in 1800, and spent tlie rest of his life at Montgomery, where he died in October, 1878, at the age of fifty-two years. Senator Graham was educateil at Henderson, Tex., Jlontgomery, Ala., and Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. He began the study of law in 1872, in the office of his father and Judge 'i'homas 5L Arrington, and was ad- mitted to tliebar in June, 18?;^ In JIarch, 1877, lie was aiipointed by Governor Houston, clerk of the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, and in ISSO, was elected to fill that office, but at the end of one year, he resigned for the purpose of devot- ing himself to the practice of law. He was first elected to the House of Representatives from this county in 1882, served one term, and in 1880 was elected to the Senate. He has served Montgomery twice as Recorder, and di.^charged tlie duties of that office in a highly satisfactory manner. He has always taken a great interest in public edu- cation, and was for a long time a member of the City School Hoard. He distinguished himself as the captain of the famous Montgomery Greys, and commanded that company at the troubles at McGehee's Switch, Opelika and Hirmingh-im. At the latter place his cool determination and soldierly bearing contributed much to the preven- i tion of bloodshed. c^ C-l^-i-T/Wv-^ "^^ ^*~^*''T--v-.--^/L^t-c-«_A=> NORTHERN ALABAMA. 603 Senator Graham is an active Deinocratio worker, member of the order of the Kniglits of I'ythias, iti winch organization he is Past(iraiul Chancellor and at present one of the representatives from Alabama to the Supreme Lodge. lie \vas married December, lS7fi, at Eufaiila, to Miss S. ('. Thornton, daughter of the late Dr. William H. 'I'hornton of that ])lace. LLEWELLYN ADOLPHUS SHAVER, Attorney- at-law and County Superintendent of Education, Montgomery, was born at Howling Green, Ky., .lauuary 18, 1844. and is the son of the Kev. 0. II. Shaver, of the Methodist Protestant Church, who died in this city October. IS.'iS. The Rev. Mr. Shaver came to this State in 1S47, and will be remembered as for many years the popular minister of tlie Metliodist Protestant Church of this city. His wife's maiden name was Taylor, of the prominent Kentucky family of that name. L. A. Shaver was educated at Jfontgomerv })riinarily, and graduated at Lynchburg, \'a., in I8iil, with the degree of A. H. In February, ISfili, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Sixtieth Alabama Infantry, and served two years and four months. December 14, 18C3, at Bean's Station, he was, for gallantry in action, promoted to ser- geant-major, and later on, was advanced to tlie rank of acting-adjutant of the regiment. He was one of the men under arms who surrendered with General Lee at Appomatto.x. After the war he read law in the office of Watts & Troy, was admitted to the bar in 1H68, and has since given his attention to the practice. In 18i9 he was elected ciuiirman of the Democratic County Com- mittee, a position he has since continuously filled. He was appointed County Superintetuient in 1880, and at tliis writing has been eight years in that otiice. He was a presidential elector from the second district in 1884, and, with Colonel Herbert, canvassed the district in the interest of the Demo- cratic nominee. In 18I1T Captain Shaver published a history of the Sixtieth Alabama Regitnent, General Gracy's Brigade, the first edition of which has long been exhausted, and the second one, we are informed, is now in course of preparation. He was married in .Montgomery, \ovember 2.">, 1873, to Miss Clara A. Wilson, daughter of Dr. A. A. Wilson, of that city. • -^-^gf^-^ WILLIAM PARISH CHILTON, Attorneyat- hiw. Montgomery, son of the late Chic^f-Justice W. P. Chilton (whose biography will be found in another part of this book), was born at Talladega, September '^7, 1838, and was educated at Howard College and the State University. He read law in the office of his father at Tuskegee, and was ad- mitted to the bar October 11, 1858. In 18(il he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State, since which time he has given his attention to the law, having in the meantime served one year as Solicitor of the Ninth District. Though physically disabled to a very large ex- tent, the result of having jumped from a third- story window of the State University building at the time of its conflagration some years since, he offered his services to his State at the beginning of the late war. He was at once assigned to special duty by order of Governor Shorter, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He is a profound scholar, a good lawyer, an able speaker, and one of the most facile and charming writers in the South. The Colonel has been more than once prominently spoken of in high circles in connection with the governorship of the State, and while these pages will not reach the eye of the public until after the successor to the present incumbent of the gubernatorial chair shall have been named, it is not at all improbable that the future historian, in chronicling the life of Colonel Chilton, will speak of him as having held the highest office within the gift of the people of the State. — — -^^J^t^]— ^^^ — —. HENRY C. TOMPKINS, distinguished Attor- ney-at-hiw, Montgomery, is a native of P^sse.x County, Va., where he was born Sei)teniber 14, 1845. His father, Joseph Temple Tompkins, was a planter and coal operator in Virginia for many years, and there died in 18C3, at the age of seventy- two years. His mother's family name was Ford, and she was born at Fredericksburg, \'a. The Tompkinses came to America from England, though it is understood they are of Celtic origin. 604 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Three brothers of them came over prior to the Revolution, one of them settling in New York, from whom Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice-President of the United States under Monroe, sprang, and the other two going into A'irginia. So far r. William S. Mabson, of that place. Of the children born to Colonel HIakey and wife. Holing A., A. H. and .M. S. are in mechanical business: William M. is a student at the State University, and David T., Jr., attends school in Montgomery. JAMES T. HOLTZCLAW was born December IT, is;i:i, at .MrDonougii, (Ja., though his father at the time was a citizen of .\labama. The senior Mr. Iloltzclaw was a planter and died in 186T, his widow still survives at the advanced age of eighty- seven, and resides at Salem, Ala. James T. Iloltzclaw received an academic edu- cation at the P^ast Alabama Institute: came to Montgomery in December, 185;{; studied law with W. L. Yancey, and was admitted to the bar be- fore the Supreme Court of Alabama in January, 1856. During the late war, in wliiili .Mr. Iloltzclaw took an active part, he made a record as a brave and courageous soldier, and one that he may well be proud of. In 1860 he was first a lieutenant of State troops, and in 1861 he volunteered with his company (the Jlontgomery True Blues) and was at the capture of the I'ensacola Navy Yard. In August of the same year he was aj)pointed by President Davis, as major of the Eighteenth Ala- bama Infantry, and in December following was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. April 6, 1862, he was shot through the lung and, though his wound was considered mortal, he was back at his post within ninety days. After the battle of Shi- loh he was commissioned colonel of his regiment, and in June, 1864, was commissioned brigadier- general, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. Another writer says of him: " In the spring of 1863, he was recommended for promotion by Gen- erals Beauregard and Buckner, and by the Gov- ernor and Legislature of the State; again by Gen- erals Bragg, Ilardec, Hill and Stewart: and by Gen. J. E. Johnson, when he took command of the Army of Tennessee. Colonel Holtzclaw was prominently engaged in some of the most important battles, among which may be mentioned: Shiloh, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Iiidge, Xashville, Spanish Fort, at which latter place he took com- mand of a division, consisting of his own and Ector's Te.xas Brigade, which, with Gibson's Brigade and Patton's artillery, formed the garrison at this fort. Here, for twenty days, 2. TOO Con- federates held 25,000 Federal troops at bay. After the war. General Holtzclaw returned to Montgomery: resumed the practice of law and con- tinued it to the present time. His practice has steadily increased and it has now assumed e.xten- sive proportions. He was chairman of the Demo- cratic County Committee from the time of Recon- struction up to the time the Democrats got con- trol of the State and countv. 606 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He was a delegate from tlie second district to the Convention tliat nominated Seymourand Hlair in 1868, and was an elector for Tilden and Hen- dricks in 187fJ. He has always taken an active part in politics, and held himself subject to the orders of the County and State Committees in all elections. General Holtzclaw was married in April, ISoii, to Mary, daughter of John A. and Lucy (White) Cowles, of Montgomery. Ala., and has had born to him two children: Carrie W., now wifeof John A. Kirkpatriok, a prominent attorney-at-law,Opel- ika, Ala., and James T., Jr. General Iloltzclaw is a Knight Templar Mason, and is Past Grand Commander of the Order. ^—■^—\^^."^-^- JAMES S. PINCKARD, Attorney-at-law, was born at I'"'orsyti). gtothe bar young Troy has devoted himself assiduously to the require- ments of his profession, and at this writing he is regarded as one of the most promising young men in the State. He began the practice in partner- nar NORTHRRN ALABAMA. 607 ship with George F. Moore, Esq., then and now a prominent member of the Montgomery Har. He coTitinued a member of this firm until January, 18S0, when lie, with Colonels Troy and Tompkins, formed a partnership, the style of the firm being Troy & Tompkins. In January, 188."), Mr. A. T. London, being taken into the firm, the style and firm name became Troy, Tompkins & Ivondon, which was changed on the first day of January, 1S8S, when Colonel Troy retired from the practice, and the style of the firm became Tompkins, Lon- don & Troy, and, undoubtedly, stands well at the head of the profession in the State. In .January, 187!t, when the State Bar Association was organ- ized, Mr. Troy was selected for tlie position he has since held. Secretary and Treasurer. Mr. Troy was married in this city December 20, 187'!, to Miss Alice H. Watts, daughter of ex-Gov- ernor Thomas H. Watts, and they have added unto tliem two children. ARIOSTO A. WILEY, prominent Attorney-at- law, Montgomery, son of J. McCaleb and Corne- lia A. (Appling) Wiley, was born at Clayton, Bar- bour County, this State, November tJ, 1848, and graduated from Emory and Henry College, Vir- ginia, in class of 1871. Having been admitted to the bar, he in 1872 located in the city of Mont- gomery, and engaged in the jiractice of the law. Shortly after coming to Montgomery, he was ad- mitted to practice before tlie State Supreme Court, and formed a partnership with the Hon. Samuel F. Uice, which association still exists and is rec- ognized as one of the strongest legal firms in the South. In 1877 he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Wiley at an early day, after coining to the bar essayed the management and personal direc- . tion of many of the most important cases coming before this popular firm. This gave him rare op- portunity, and naturally developed the powers of clear analysis, cogent reasoning, and the pleas- ing and often highly eloquent address which sub- sequently characterized him as lawyer. The re- sult is that althougli a young man, we find him in the front rank of his profession at a bar noted for its men of ability. Col. Wiley was elected to the Legislature for the session of 1884-5 and as chairman of the Commit- tee on tlie Revision of Laws, and as a member of the Committee on Commerce and Common Carriers, wielded an immense influence in that body, and was an able, useful and efficient representative. To his energy and watchfulness is due to a large extent the measures authorizing the purchase and embellishment of the capitol grounds. He has been for several years an active member of the city council of Montgomery, and his uniiring efforts have contributed very greatly to the improvement of this goodly city. As an evidence of the esteem in which he is held, and the high regard that his people have for him as councilman, a petition was signed by nearly every citizen of his ward, request- ing him not to resign when he was elected to the Legislature. He is one of the progressive men who have helped to re-create the cajjital city of Alabama. Colonel Wiley's name has been repeatedly men- tioned by his friends in connection with a nomin- ation for the United States Congress, but, pre- ferring to give his time to his profession, he has thus far declined to become a candidate. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1880 and again in 1884. He takes a deep in- terest in politics, and is a member of the State Executive Committee. At this writing (1888), be is a member of Governor Seay's staff, with the rank of colonel; is a Presidential Elector for his District; and will be a member of the Legislature of 1888-!l. Colonel Wiley is a devoted and faithful friend, and a courageous adversary; possessed of the in- separable concomitants of sincerity of purpose, honesty in intentions, and of firm and decided opinions. His temperament is eminentlv positive. He is a born polemic, intellectually pugnacious and combative, and he resolutely defends or in- trepidly attacks any position he is called on to maintain or assault. His brilliant success is due entirely to this mental characteristic, for what- ever success he has achieved is the result of his tireless energy and the zealous advocacy and asser- tion of his rights. With such mental and moral at- tributes, of commanding appearance and s])lendid physique, he bids fair to leave a rich inheritance of fame to his family and friends. The publish- ers, in consideration of the distinguished esteem in whicli the Colonel is held in Alabama, take pleasure in illustrating this chapter with his por- trait. In November, 1877, Colonel Wiley married Miss 608 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Mittie A. Xoble, the accomplished daughter of B. F. and Mary T. (Cook) Xoble. of Montgomery, and has had born to him one child, Noble J. TENNENT LOMAX, Solicitor for the County of M(jiiti,'(iiiui-y. was liditi in the city of ^[ontgomery, April ".'O. ISojS. His father was the late gallant Colonel Lomax, of the Third Alabama Infantry. The subject of this sketch was educated at the CTniversity of Alabama, from which institution he was graduated in the .\cademic Department in 1878, and from the Law Department one year later. Associated with Captain Ferguson, he at once entered upon the practice of his chosen pro- fession at Montgomery, and has since devoted his time and his talents thereto. The Legislature of 1880 elected him to his present position as Solic- itor for the County of Montgomery, an office of equal rank and power with the Circuit Solicitor- ship, the territory being less. Mr. Lomax isVecogiiizedasone of the prominent young Democrats of the State; he is president of the Democratic Central Council of the city of .Montgomery, and has been secretary of the Dem- ocratic State Executive Committee since 1878. With the exception of about one year, he was con- tinuously, since June 1, 18S1, up to the summer of 1887, lieutenant of the famous " Montgomery Blues." Ilis father was captain of this popular company for many years prior, and up, to the out- break of the liite war. — .. — ..^,-.;^^g>v.»i . , WILLIAM SEWELL THORINGTON, City .U- torney, Montgomery, was born in this city, July 30, 1847. His father, the late Jack Thoring- ton, native of Ireland, came here when a boy and here spent most of his life, dying in August, 1871, at the age of sixty-three years. He was some time a merchant, but afterward entered the law to which he gave his attention thereafter — in part- nersiiip with Hon. H.'W. Ililliard before the war, and afterward with Hon. \V. P. Chilton. In 18(13 he entered the army as colonel of the First Battalion of the Ililliard Legion, and in 1804, on Colonel Ililliard's resigning, succeeded to the command of the Legion. He was colonel of the Legion when he left the service by resignation on account of ill-health. Of three sons reared bv him to manhood, Robert D., a merchant, died at Montgomery, in 1879 — he was a gallant soldier during the late war, and served on CeneraKJracy's staff; Jack, the second .son, also served through the war with General Hucker's escort, was Vice- Consul to Aspinwall from 1871 to 1883, and is now in the Land Office at Montgomery: and William S., who Wiis educated at the University of Alabama, left that institution in 1805. served in the army as a member of the Alabama Corps of Cadets, during a portion of 18C4 and 1865. After the war he read law with Chief-Justice Chilton, and was ad- mitted to the bar January 24. 1807, under a special Act of the Legislature authorizing his examination, he being then under twenty-one years of age. As a member of the firm of Chil- ton & Thorington, he embarked at once into the practice. He was in partnership with Mr. Chil- ton and his father, under the firm name of Chilton & Tiiorington, until that firm was dissolved at the death of Judge Chilton in 1871, when he became associated with John T. ilorgan and Walter L. Bragg. Thi.< firm ceased to exist with Captain Bragg's appointment to the presidency of the State Railway Commission. General Morgan had withdrawn before, having been elected to the United States Senate. Colonel Thorington was appointed trustee of the University of Alabama, by Governor Cobb, to fill out the unexpired term of the Hon. H. A. Herbert, and was twice re- appointed to that board by (iovernor O'Xeal. and confirmed by the Senate. He was also judge-ad- vocate general on Governor O'Xeal's staff', during that gentleman's incumbency of the gubernatorial chair. In 1880, the city council appointed him City Attorney, to fill out an unexpired term, and in 1887 he was elected to that office. In 1884 Colonel Thorington was a strong competitor for nomination before the State Democratic Conven- tion for the office of Attorney-General, and was defeated for the nomination by Jlr. McClellan, by a very small vote, notwithstanding there were two other candidates from his county. He W!is married at Montgomery. October 'i\, 18(i7, to Miss Wilella Ciiilton, daughter of the late Chief-Justice Chilton. Of this marriage there are nine living children. THOMAS HENRY WATTS, commonly known as Thomas 11. Watts. .Ir.. .\ttornev-at-law. Mont- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 609 gomery, son of Hon. Tlioinas Hill Watts, was born in that city, August li, ISoIi. Thomas Henry Watts received his primary edu- cation at the private school of (Jeorge W. Thomas, in the city of Montgomery, where he attended from 1800 to lS(il», and in KS(;it went to 15elle- vue High School, Bedford County, Va., the presided over by Hon. James P. Holcombe, where lie remained for two years, and was graduated from the University of Alabama, in July, 1874, taking the degree of Hachelor of Laws, and the academic degree of B. S. at tlie same time. He was admitted to practice in the city court at Montgomery, in July, 1874, and in the State Su- l)renie Court, January, \%Vi. After practicing law for over one year, he, on January 1, 187(i, went into partnership with his distiiigoished father, and the firm is now familiar throughout the State of Alabama as Watts & Son. .Mr. Watts was assistant secretary of the Constitutional Con- vention of 187.5. He was elected Alderman May, 1885, for a term of four years to the City Council of Montgomery, from Ward Three, and is still (1888) serving as such. On the 1%i\\ of April, 1886, during the Jetferson Davis celebration, as acting Mayor of Montgomery, he delivered the address welcoming to the city (ten. John B. (ior- don. He was married, December S, LSi."), at Tusca- loosa, to Johness B., the estimable daughter of the late r)r. S. J. Eddins, and has had Ijorn to him five children, four sons and a daughter. The eld- est sou, Thomas Hill Watts, Jr., died in 1880. Mr. and Mrs-. Watts are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Watts is past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and is one of the most active Democratic workers in the State. One fact about Mr. W^atts, singular in its na- ture, is tliat, although he is now (1888) nearly thirty-five years of age and weighs over two hundred pounds, he has never during his whole life, eaten either '• fish, flesh or fowl." • •* > • -i^i^' • < ♦■ • BUCKNER K. COLLIER. Attorney-at-law, Montgomery, was born in Upolika, this State, and is tlie son of the late Thomas Collier, a native North Carolinian, who died at Opclika, 188;5, at the age of seventy-eight years. The subject's mother was, before marriage. Miss Killibrew, a native of Tennessee. She died at Ojielika in 1877, at the age of fifty-si.x years. The Colliers' came originally from England; the Killibrews from Scotland. Of the eight sons born to Thonia.< and Mrs. Collier, Bnckner K. is next to the youngest. He was educated at Decatur, Ga., High School, and the Auburn, Ala., College. At 0])elika, in 1875, he began tlie study of law with the late Hon. William H. Barnes as his preceptor, and was admitted to the bar in 1877. He began the practice immediately after his admission in the city of Opelika, associated with Augustus Barnes, the son of his late preceptor. He came to Mont- gomery in 1S8.">, and, forming a partnership with Mr. Pinckard, has since devoted his time to the practice, and the firm of Collier & Pinckard are ranked among the leading lawyers of this city. Mr. Collier has been si.x years attorney for the Corbin Banking Company of New York, and, as such, has had supervision of their immense financial interests in Alabama. From 1877 up to the time of his coming to Montgomery, he filled the office of Assistant Solicitor for Lee County, which, aside from the chairmanship of the Demo- cratic Executive Committee of that county, appears to be about the only office of a political character he has ever held. He is vice-president of the State Abstract Company of this city, and a director in the First National Bank of Opelika. ^fr. Collier was married at Opelika, in 1881, to Miss Charlotte Isabella Hooper, daughter of the late Col. (ieorge W. Hooper, who so gallantly com- manded the Third Alabama Regiment during the war. The firm of Collier & Pinckard number among their clients, some of the leading corj)oration8 of Alabama and some of the largest capitalists in Great Britain. ALEXANDER TROY LONDON. Attorney-at- law, .Montijoniciv, u:is burn at Wilmington, N.C., February "..'8, 1847. His lather, ^[auger l.,ondon, was also a native of Wilmington, and his grand- father, came from London, England, and settled in Carolina prior to the Revolutionary War. The subject of this sketch was educated at Wil- mington, and left school to go into the army in iMay, 18 '^^i^' <' ■ • JOHN FREDERICK WHITFIELD. Attorney-at law. aiul (iiiuMal .Vir.nt of tlio L. Oc X. R. \\. Co., at Montgomery, was born at Ilayneville. Lowndes County, Ala., March 16, 183T, and his parents were (Jeo. B. and Sarah (\'arner) Whitfield, na- tives, respectively, of the .States of North Carolina and Virginia. The senior Mr. Whitfield was a farmer by occu- pation. He died at Ilayneville when .John F. was but three years old, and his widow survived him only four years, •lohn F. at an early age entered a newspaper office at (irittin, (ia., and there learned the print- er's trade. He was afterwards foreman of the Adrer/iser ottice in Montgomerv, and in is5'.t. in company with other gentlemen, organized the Montgomery Daily Mail, and became one of its editors. In 1801, he joined the Montgomery True Blues, and as orderly sergeant, was with them at Pensacola, and later on, as a part of the Third Alabama Infantry, in the Army of Virginia. Just before the battle of Seven Pines, he was promoted to the rank of captain, which commission he soon afterward re-signed and returning to Montgomery, raised a coin]iany for the First Alabama Infantry, and as captain of Company K, with that regiment joined Bragg's army. After the battle of Corinth, he was sent to Island No. !(•. where he was after- ward taken prisoner and carried to Johnson's Island. At the end of si.\ months he was ex- changed, and, at Port Hudson commanded a com- pany -of artillery, under (ieneral (iardner. He was captured again at Port Hudson, and as pris- oner of war. was taken to New Orleans, and later on to Johnson's Island, where he was retained until the latter part of 1804, when he was paroled and sent through the lines. He never was ex- changed, and reached Montgomery as the war closed. Here, he again entered the office of the Mail, beginning as type-setter, was soon made foreman, and, later on, purchased a half-interest in the plant. The paper was then enlarged, and he was connected with it until 18T0. (Jivingup newspaper business he turned his attention to railroading, first with the Montgomery i Eufaula IJailroad, and later with the L. & N., in his present position. He read law in 18T8; was admitted to the bar, and is now a member of the State Bar Association. He was married in this city in 18i;i. — — ••♦"J^^^-^' — •— JOHN GINDRAT WINTER. Attorney-at-law, Montgomery, i.- a graduate nf Columbia College ■ Law Institute, class of 18»!8. He was ailmitted to the bar in New York, came to Montgomery, and at once (1808) began the practice of law. In 1870 he was appointed County Solicitor to fill out the unexpired term of a preceding incumbent, and held the office two years. He is now actively en- gaged at tlie law. and is enjoying a lucrative prac- tice. Mr. Winter was born in this city March 21. 1840, and is the son of Joseph S. and Mary E. (Gindrat) Winter. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 611 From tlie State riiiversity, in 18()2, he entered tlie army us a jirivate in tlie 'I'uscaloosa Cadets, and remained in tlie service until the close of the war. His first promotion was from the ranks to a third sergeant, and took place soon after the or- ganization of the company. He was next made color-bearer of the Seventh Alal)ama Cavalry, and, later on, commissioned second lieutenant in the line. At Columbia, Tenn., he was promoted to adjutant of the regiment, with which rank he left the service after the final surrender. His regiment formed a part of F'orrest's command, and. later on. was attached to Hood, and with both of those distinguished fighters he participated in all the engagements of his regiment. At the close of the war he entered the Columbia (New York) College, Law Department, and. as has been seen, was graduated in l.S*J8. ] For about six years after the war he was the ' commanding officer of the (Jovernor's Guard, who i have since adopted the name of the ilontgomery True Ulues in honor of, and as a revival of tlie old i and famous anti'-heUum military organization of that name. Captain Winter was married January ■l\\, 1S(j7, at Tuskegee, Ala., to Miss Sallie V. Calhoun, daughter of the late James \i. Calhoun, and has had born to him two daughters. The family are communicants of the Episcoj)al Church, and Captain Winter is a Knight Templar Mason. lie is an active Democratic worker, though at no time an office seeker. i HORACE STRINGFELLOW. Jr., Attorney- i at-law, Montgomery, son of the Rev. Hor- ace Stringfellow, D.D., of St. John's Episco- ' cal Church, this city, was born in Indianapolis, Ind., September Vi, 1860. Dr. Stringfellow is a ' native of \'irginia, and came to Montgomery in ISTO. The subject of this sketch was educated at Howard College, the Epi-scopal High School at Alexandria, and the University of Virginia. After an experience of about five years as clerk in the wholesale dry goods house of LeCirand & Co.. he, in 1S81, entered the law department of the University of Virginia, took a summer course, returned to Montgomery, and. with Clopton, Her- bert & Chambers, began the studv of law. In June, 188li, he was graduated by the law depart- ment of the State University of Alabama, as L. B., and with the maximum rank of loo. He was the first student of th:it institution to attain that rank, and whether any other graduate has since reached the maximum, the writer is not in- formed. He began the i)racticeof law in October, 1SS:J, at Montgomery, and, in 1884, formed a paitnership with M. P. LeOrand, Jr. In 1887 the strength of the firm was augmented by the addition of Scott Sayre. The style of the firm is now Sayre, Stringfellow & f,e(;rand, and it num- bers among its many patrons several of the large corporations of Alabama. Mr. Stringfellow is of the Central Council of the Alabama State Bar Association, and is the author and compiler of an Indexed Digest to the Alabama Supreme Court Reports (published 1888), covering al)out loo volumes. — — -^-E^J^I—J^- — — JOSEPH M. WHITE, Attorney-at-Law, Mont- gomery, son of Robert and Mary White, na- tives of the State of Georgia, and of Irish descent, was born on the 20th day of April, 184(1. The senior Mr. While came to Alabama about 1830, and lived and died in Barbour County, where he was an extensive planter. J. M. White, at the ago of sixteen years, en- listed in the service of the Confederacy as a pri- vate in the JetT. Davis Legion, and, with Stuart's Cavalry, served in the Armies of Virginia and North Carolina to the close of the war. He was wounded at Bentonville, and in 186.") returned to Bar- bour County, read law, and at Clayton was ad- mitted to the bar in lSi!9. He began the j)ractice at Clayton, and was there until 1885, when he re- moved to Montgomery, where he became a mem- ber of the firm of Roquemore, White & Long, now one of the leading law firms of the capital city. Mr. Rorjuemore has his office in Decatur, Jlr. Long at Eufanla, while Mr. White looks after the interests of the firm, and conducts the businessat headquarters. Mr. White represented the County of Barbour in the Legislature in 188U and 1881, and as a mem- ber of the Ways and .Means and other important committees, rendered much valuable service. He was a delegate to the C'hicago Convention that nominated Jlr. Cleveland in 1884. and subse- 612 NORTHERN ALABAMA. quently labored hard for the success of the ticket, tliough he was originally a Bayard man. Mr. White was married in Barbour County in 18fi9, to ^liss Cowart. Mrs. White died in the summer of 1887, leaving two children, a son and daughter. — • — ■ 1 ^ *^jg»^?— *^» — • — THOMAS HARVEY CLARK, Attorney-at-law, ^lontgoiiifiy, was Imru at I'iiie Level, Mont- gomery County, this State, November 10, 1857, and was educated at the common schools, Howard College, and Harvard Univt rsity. He studied law at the University of Virginia, and subsecjuently at Montgomery, and was admitted to the bar at the latter jilace in 1880. Krom the time of his coming to the bar up to 188G he practiced at the capital with commend- able application and success. In I'ebruary, 188G, he took editorial charge of the Selma ytwe.v, where he at once proved himself a writer of far more than ordinary ability. In December following, he returned to .Montgomery and accepted a place on the staff of the Advert imr. July, 1887, he gave up newspaper work and resumed the practice of law, to which he is now devoting only a portion of his time. He was a])pointed Recording Secretary to (Jovernor Seay in 1887, and the duties of this office require most of his attention. He was As- sistant Secretary of the State Senate, sessions of 1882-3, 1884-.i, and 188C-7. Mr. Clark is the author of the history of Mont- gomery as found in this volume, and the publish- ers take pleasure in recommending it to their many readers as the most thoroughly reliable work ever published on the subject. Tiiough not volum- inous, it covers the material points and preseTits all salient matter in such a concise and succinct form as only the adept at condensation can accom- plish. Mr. Clark is but at the threshold of a life fraught with brilliant promise and rare possibil- ities. THOMAS SEAY. (iovernor of Alabama, was born in (ireene County, this State, in 1846. His parents, Heuben and Ann Seay, were natives of Georgia, and descended from English and Irish ancestry, respectively. The senior Mr. Seay was a planter by occupation; died at (Ireensboro Jan- uary 12, 1872. at the age of si.xty-five years, and Mrs. Seay died March 9, 1883, at the age of sixty- nine. They reared seven children, Thomas being their only son. He received his primary educa- tion at the common schools of this State, and was graduated in 18G7 from the Southern University with the degree of A.M. Immediately after leav- ing college he began the study of the law with the Hon. A. A. Coleman at Greensboro, and was admitted to the bar in February, l^•i9. He entered at once into the practice, and, readily, took high rank in the profession, and to it gave almost his entire time until he was called to the gubernatorial chair. He wjvs defeated (1874) for the Senate, but at the ensuing election he suc- ceeded by a handsome majority, and he retained his seat for ten successive years, finally retiring from that body as its president. He was a dele- gate to the National Convention that nominated Hancock, and in 1884 presided over the State C'onvention held at Montgomery. It will be seen that he stepped at once from the presidency of the Senate to the governorship of the State. It is not tiie jirovince of the biographer to eulogize current public men in a work of this kind, no matter how deserving they may be, nor how great tiie temptation therefor. This fact is, undoubtedly, at once obvious to every intelligent reader. Therefore we are limited, in this brief sketch, to a bare presentation of literal truths, which, when stated in the present instance, can lead up to but one conclusion, and that is, that of the many brilliant young men of a State prolific in their production, there is none to whom is more universally accorded the palm of sujierior merit than to Tliomas Seay. He ha.* virtually made hisown way in the world: and while the pos- sessor of a handsome fortune, it is the result of his individtial effort and industry. Always devoted to his profession, never failing in his duty to a client, ever wide awake to the great interests of the Democratic party, vigilant alike in all things, he has deserved success, earned recognition, and realized fully upon both. Tliough. but a youth at the outbreak of the war, he particijiated in the struggle, and was as gallant a young soldier a« Alabama sent to the front. Thomas Seay was married July 12, 1875. to Miss Smaw, who died February 15. I87'.>, leaving £/^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 613 two little children named, respectively, Fannie and Reuben. March. 1881, in the city of New Orleans, Miss Clara De Lesdernier. of that city, became Jlrs. Thomas Soay, and the four children that have been born to them are Fiank, Amie, Annie, and Howard. The (iovernor is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As a compliment to the high merit of the Governor, and that the world may know just how the popular young Executive of the great State of Alabama looks, the publishers preface this chap- ter with a handsome portrait of him. — ■» > ' ■?^^- < »■ • ■ GEORGE W. STONE, Chief-Justice of the State of Alabama, was born in Bedford County, Va.. October 11, ISll. The Stone family came to America some time in the eighteenth century, probably in the person of ilicajah Stone, who was grandfather to the gen- tleman whose name stands at the head of thi.s sketch. Judge Stone's father, also named Micajah, was a native of Virginia; there married Sarah Leftwich, and came to Tennessee in 1818, where he lived all the rest of his life, dying in Lincoln County in October, 1827, at the age of fifty-two years. His widow survived him ten years, and died at the same place at the age of fifty-four years. They reared a family of seven sons and three daughters, of wiiom there are now living but two of the former and one of the latter. George \V. Stone was but si.x years of age when the family migrated to Tennessee. At the com- mon schools of Lincoln County he acquired a fair English education, and when about twenty-one years of age, in the office of James Fulton, at Fayetteville, began the study of law. He was admitted to practice at the age of twenty-two, and at once came to Alabama and opened an office at Talladega. There, in 1840, he formed a part- nership with the late W. P. Chilton, who after- ward became Chief-Justice of the State Supreme Court. This partnership existed two years, when Mr. Stone was appointed Judge of the Circuit Court to fill out an unexpired term of the theii late incumbent. At the ensuing election, he was chosen by the ))eople to succeed himself upon the bench, but he resigned the office before the expi- ration of his term. Removing from there to Lowndes County, he practiced law seven years. two years of the time in partnership with the late Thomas J. Judge, distinguished as one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. In 18.5C, Judge Stone was elected to the Supreme Court bench, and removed immediately to Mont- gomery. He held the Judgeship until the winter of 18t;(J-7, when he retired at the request of the Reconstruction party. For ten years there- after he devoted himself to the practice of law, associated in the meantime with the Messrs. Clopton & Clanton, whose names are familiar in the history of the legal profession of Alabama. In 187G, his late partner, Justice Judge, hav- ing been removed by death to the courts of a higher tribunal. Judge Stone was again appointed to the Supreme Court bench, and, in October, 188-1, was made the Chief-Justiee. In all. Justice Stone has served on the Supreme bench for twenty-seven years. His present term will expire in 1892. He was married in Lincoln County, Tenn., in 1834, to a Miss Gillispie, who died at Talladega, in 1848. His second marriage was in Lowndes County in September, 1849.. to a Miss Moore, who died January, 18(52. The present Mrs. Stone's maiden name was Harrison. Her first husband's name was Wright. She and the Judge were mar- ried February, 18G6. Justice Stone is rather a self-made man. The little inheritance that fell to liim from his father's estate, was exhausted while he was pursuing his studies. His opinions since his advent upon the Suj)reme bench will aggregate fourteen volumes of the Alabama Reports, and they are regarded both within and without the State, as the highest exponents of the law. They are found in forty- two different volumes, or about one-third of the entire Alabama Reports. DAVID CLOPTON, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama, is a na- tive of Putnam County, Ga. His father was Dr. Alford Cloptouj a native of ^'irginia, and descend- ed from English ancestors, and his mother was, before marriage, Sarah Kendrick, a native of (ieorgia. His parents were married in (Jeorgia, and Dr. Clopton there practiced medicine many years. He came to .Mabama in 1843, lived two years at Tuskegee. and tlicn removed to Mont- 614 NORTHERN ALABAMA. gomery. He abandoned the practice of medicine when about thirty years of age, and thereafter gave his attantion to planting. He died in Feb- ruary, 1870, at Montgomery, in the eighty-third year of his age. At Macon, Ga., Judge Clopton was fitted for col- lege, and he was graduated from Randolph-Macon in 1840, with the first honors of his class. After leaving college he read law at Macon, under A. H. Chappel, and was there subsefpiently admitted to the bar. He was twenty-one years of age when he began the practice of law at Griftin, Ga., and from there, at the end of eighteen months, moved to Tiiskegee, where he was living at the outbreak of the war. He represented his district in the United States Congress in I8.j!t-G0, and was a seceding member in 18()1. In the spring of the latter year he enlisted as a private in the Twelfth Alabama Infjuitry. In the fall of 1801 the people of his district, without any solicitation upon iiis part — without his knowledge, in fact — elected him Kepresentative to the regular Confed- erate Congress, of wiiich body he remained a mem- ber to the end of the Confederacy. He returned to Tuskegee,resumed the practice of law, and in the fall of 1800 moved to Montgomery, where he formed a partnership with George AV. Stone (the present Chief -Justice of the Supreme Court), and Gen. James H. Clanton, under the style and firm name of Stone, Clopton & Clanton. General Clan- ton having been killed in 186!t at Kno.wille, Tenn., the firm became Stone & Clopton. This firm existed until Stone was appointed by Governor Houston (1876) to the Associate Judgeship of the Supreme Court. After that Judge Clopton formed a partnership with H. L. Herbert and William L. Chambers, which partnership lasted four years. Mr. Herbert's desire to remain in Congress led to its dissolution, and Mr. Chambers entered the banking business. In October, 1884, Governor O'Neal appointed Judge Clopton to the Supreme Court bench, where he is at this writing. Judge Clopton was one of the organizers of the First National Hank of Sheftield, also of the SlieHield Coal and Iron Company, and is a director in each of these great corporations. In 1878 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, and was the .Speaker of the ensu- ing session. He refused a second term, preferring to devote him.self to the practice of law. Judge Clopton has been thrice married. First, to Miss Martha E. Ligon, sister of Governor Ligon. She died in November, 1867. The Judge's second marriage occurred at Columbus, Ga., in 1871, when he led to the altar Mrs. Marj' F. Chambers. She died in February, 1S85; and November 29, lfi87, the Judge's third marriage took place at Huntsville, Ala. The present Mrs. Clopton was the brilliant and accomplished widow of the late distinguished Clement C. Clay. The Judge is a member of the Mjisonic fraternity, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has been for nearly twenty years superintendent of the Sabbath-school. SOLOMON PALMER was born in Blount County, Ala., August 'l'-\, 18.(9. His father, Solomon Palmer,Sr.,of South Carolina, was born in 1787, and came to Alabama in 1819. He settled in Blount County, and there spent the rest of his life, dying in 1807 at the age of eighty-one years. Of the six sons reared by him to manhood, Solomon was the youngest. In 1861, Solomon Palmer, the subject of this sketch, was graduated from the State University, and at once entered the Southern army as a tecond lieutenant of Company K. Nineteenth Alabama Infantry, and served to the close of the war. His first promotion took place immediately after the battle of Shiloh. when he was advanced from second lieutenant to the rank of captain. At Chickamauga he was promoted to major, and afterward commanded the regiment through sev- eral important engagements. At the close of the war he returned to Blount County, and the same year was sent to the lower house of the Legislature. After teaching school in Blount some three or four years, he began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1870. In 1874 he removed to Gunters- ville, and there continued the practice until 1884, when he was called by the voice of the people to preside over the educational interests of the State. His successful management of this important branch of the State Government produced the very natural result of his re-election for the ensu- ing term. He is, therefore, at this writing, well advanced in his second incumbency, and as the office is not one to be hawked around to the high- est political bidder, but is rather one requiring peculiar fitness and adaptation, the people in their NORTHERN ALABAMA. 615 wisdom would be justified should tliey see fit to retfiin him for even an indefinite period. It is not necessary in this connection, nor in tliis publica- tion, to discuss this proposition, and the sugges- tions arc here merely thrown in as a compliment due to the man who has conducted tlie educational interests of the State for the past four years with such signal ability. The question of the succes- soiship to this office will have been settled be- fore these pages reach the eyes of the public. In 188"-J, Major Palmer purchased the Giiulers- ville Democrat, and presided over its editorial col- umns up to some time in 1888, when he disposed of it to the present capable and accomplished management. Major I'almer has always taken an active inter- est in politics, and whether he has for himself been asking the support of that party, or has been aiding his friends in tlieir laudable ambition in that direction, his services have been equally as freely given. In Blount County, he was many years ciiairman of the I)emocratic Central Com- mittee ; also in Marshall, after he became a citizen of that county, he presided with the same devo- tion and interest over the committee that forms one of the stones in the great foundation that supports the grand superstructure — the mighty Democratic party of the Nation. He is a consistent member of the .Methodist Epis- copal Church, and represented that body as the lay delegate of the Korth Alabama Conference to the (ieneral Conference held at Atlanta in 1878 — the highest honor the Church confers upon any lay member. -Major I'almer was married, in Cherokee Coun- ty, Ala., in 18(17, to Miss Virginia A. Law, and he and his wife are the parents of seven daughters and one son. The Major is a member of the Legion of Honor and of the Grand Lodge of -Masons. CHARLES CARTER LANGDON. Secretary of State, is a native of (■oniii-i-tiriit. where he was born .\ugM!it .'>, lS(i."). Cliarles C. Langdon was educated at the com- mon schools of Connecticut, attending thereat during winters only, as he sjjcnt his time during the rest of the year upon his father's farm. At the age of sixteen years, he began teaching school and taught several winters. He came to Alabama in 18"i5, locating first at Marion, where he was in mercantile business for a period of ten years. In the fall of 18;)4 he removed to Mobile and was there for three years engaged in the commission business. In 1838 he purchased the .Mobile Jdver- tispr, of which he was editor up to 18">:5, and with which he was more or less identified until ISOI. It was then the leading Whig paper of the State, and the conduct of its editorial columns placed Mr. Langdon high up in the counsels of that party. He directed its editorial pages during the famous campaign of 1800 and made the paper the strong opponent to secession. At the outbreak of the war. he engageJ in agriculture, and established a nursery for fruits and flowers near the city of Mobile". While a resident of Perry County, Mr. Langdon appeared first before the public as the Union can- didate for the Legislature as against nullification, and was defeated by a very few votes. In 1838 he was a Whig candidate for the Legislature from Jlobile County and was defeated; in 1839 he was elected, and succeeded himself in 1840. At the end of the latter session he declined further offi- cial preferment, as his business interests were such as to claim his whole attention. In 1848 he was elected Mayor of Mobile and held the office for six successive years. In I8.j.">-C, and in 1802 lie was in the Legislature from Mobile, lie was a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1865, also of 1870. He was in the Legis- lature again in 1881-2-3, and was Chairman of the Committee on Education in 1881, and of the Com- mittee on Common Carriers in I8S3. lie was a prominent candidate for Goveruor in 1872, but was beaten by Jlr. Herndon,and again in 1878, when he was beaten by ilr. Cobb. He was elected to Congress the first year after the war, but was not allowed to take his seat, for be it re- membered that while he opposed secession from principle, and heartily, too. that after the State withdrew from the Union, he gave the Southern cause his earnest support. In 1885 Governor 0"Neal appointed him Secre- tary of State to fill out the unexpired term of the Hon. Ellis Phelan. This appointment was to him a complete surprise, as he in no manner had in- dicated the desire for that position or for any other under that administration. His conduct of this office led to the very natural result of his election thereto in the fall of 1880. Such is a brief outline of Mr. Langdon's politi- «16 NORTHERN ALABAMA. <;al career. A fair and impartial history of his public acts would make a volume of interesting reading, and show that he has been, as he is now, one of Alabama's noblest and best citizens. He was married in Soutliington, Conn., in 1829, to Eliza Moore, a native of that town, and an eld schoolmate of his. Their fathers had been firm friends and had served in the State Legislature together. Mrs. J^angdon died in 1884, at Mobile, after a married life of fifty-five years. The five children born to them are all dead, the two daughters dying quite young. The oldest 5on, Henry Clay, died in 185G, at the age of twenty-two years. Charles C, Jr., died in 18C7, at the age of twenty-seven years, from an illness resulting from exposure while in the t'onfederate Army, where he was a gallant soldier during the entire war. The Langdons came originally from England, And were among the early Xew England colonists. Capt. Giles Langdon, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. They are a long-lived people. Secretary Lang- don's father lived to be eighty-five years of age, one of his brothers to seventy-four years, and Another to eighty six years. -« — *«5^^-«— HENRY R. SHORTER. President of the Rail- road Commission of tliu State of Alabama, was born at Montieello,Ga.,Feb.28,1833. His father. Dr. Reuben C. Shorter, a native of Culpeper County, Va., was graduated in early life from the jnedical department of the University of Penn- sylvania, and practiced medicine twenty-five or thirty years in Georgia. He settled at Eufaula, ^then L'winton), in the fall of 1836, removing thither from .Jasper County, Ga. He was an ac- complished scholar and gentleman of the old school, a strict disciplinarian, a jiopular physician and a man of much influence in the community. Jle served several terms in the Georgia Legisla- ture, and was distinguished as a useful legislator. After coming to Alabama he devoted his time to cotton planting, and the rearing and training of his children. How well he succeeded in the last mentioned, but most important subdivision of his life's efforts, may be ])artially gathered from the printed pages of our State's history, and the vol- umes of biography chronicling the lives of her noblest sons. He died July 14, 18")3, at the age of sixty-six years. His wife was Mary Gill, a na- tive of Hancock County, Ga. They reared four sons, and the brilliant achievements of eadi of these noble sioiis illumine the pages of history and reflect honor upon the State of their adojition. The eldest son, John Gill Shorter, served tlie peo- ple of Alabama as Solicitor (184'.J), as Senator (1845), Legislator (l.*s.')l). Judge of the Circuit Court nine years. Commissioner to the Secession Convention of Georgia (18G1), member of the Confederate States Congress and as Governor (18(;i to 18G3). He died May 20, 1872, at the age of fifty-five years. The second son, the late Col. Eli S. Shorter, distinguished lawyer and politician; member of the United States Congress, 1855 to 1859, in'clusive; an able defender of Southern rights; indentified with the Southern Confederacy from its inception to its close; commander of a volunteer regiment at the battle of Shiloh, died at Eufaula, Ala., in May, 1875. The third son, Reuben C. Shorter, was also a brilliant lawyer. After mar- riage he settled in the city of Montgomery and com- menced the study of the law, with every prospect of a successful future. He died at the early age of twenty-six. The subject of this sketch was graduated from Chapel Hill (North Carolina) University in June, 1853; read law with his brother, Eli S. Shorter, at Eufaula.and was admitted to the bar in May, 1 '^^.'^^*- JOSEPH DAY BARRON is a native of Upson County, (i;i., wlu're he was Ijorn March 19, 1833. His father was the Rev. Hiram Barron, forty years a minister of the Baptist Church. He was a native of Georgia, came to Alabama in lived eleven years in Russell County, and from 1837, 1848 to 1872 in Randolph County, where he died in the last named year at the age of about seventy- two years. His wife was, before marriage, named Pool, and her ancestors fought under General Greene during the Revolutionary War. Joseph Day Barron was educated at the com- mon schools of Russell County, and in 1856 assumed the editorship of the Louina Eagle. Two years later he removed this paper to AVedo- wee, Randolph County, changed its name to the Southern Mercury, and run it up to 1861. He was afterward associated with the Ashland Times for about a year; his last newspaper work was with the Montgomery Advertiser during the years of 1879, '80, '81, '82, '83. Most of his time during the late war was given to the milling business, but during the latter part of 1864 he was connected with the Sixth Alabama Cavalry, and remained with it to the close. He represented Clay County in the lower house of the Legislature, session of 1874-5, and again in 1875-0. During both sessions he was at the head of the Committee on Enrolled Bills, on Commit- tee of Public Printing, and Federal Relations. In 1878 he came into the office of Secretary of State as chief clerk to Maj. William W. Screws, and has continued in that position. 620 NORTHERN ALABAMA. lie was mariierl in Randolph County, in 1854, to Miss Hebecca Wood, a native of Georgia, and a daughter of the Kev. Allen Wood, of the Baptist Church. His continuation in the position which he has filled tiirough so many administrations attests his eminent qualifications for the duties of the office of Secretary of State, for which position his thorough acquaintance with all the details of the office, as well as his close application to business and his well-known honesty and integrity of char- acter, peculiarly fit him. It is quite likely that the people will at no distant day advance him to the head of the department. It may be proper to add that Mr. Barron is a Democrat of the old sciiool. — — -^-i^^-^' — ^ FREDERICK HORTON SMITH. Treasurer of State, was born in Hancock County, Ga., of Ver- mont and \'irginia ancestry, Octobers, 1822. He was taught in boyhood at the primary schools of the period and supplemented his learning in the intercourse of daily business by private study and instruction. At an early age (being an orphan), he familiarized himself with farming and mercan- tile pursuits, which as a vocation he has contin- uously followed. He removed to Alabama in 1844, and married in Dallas County in 1851. He has since made Dallas County his home. He has has had two sons and two daughters born to him; is a member of the .Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities and of the Grange. He served the Confederacy during the war in a civil capacity, and afterward the county of Dallas (with others) in extricating it from burdensome indebtedness and taxation inflicted upon its taxpayers during the Reconstruc- tion period by unscrupulous aliens and corrupt officials. Mr. Smith was a representative in the State leg- islature in 1883-3 and was appointed during that session by Governor O'Xeal to the State Treasury- ship, and at the expiration of that term, elected by the people to that office for that and the next succcding term. Mr. Smith has made a good and efficient officer and retires from the position with the thanks of the peoj)le for the excellent manner in which he has conducted the financial afifairs of the State. REUBEN F. KOLB, Commissioner of Agricul- ture for tlie State of Alabama, was born in Eu- faula. Ala., April 10, 183!>, and has resided in Barbour County since the day of his birth, ever active in the promotion of its best interests. At the commencement of the war between the States, he entered the Confederate service by enlisting in the ranks of the Eufaula Rifles, commanded by that intrepid soldier and matchless orator, Capt. Alpheus Baker. The second, third and fourth years of that memorable struggle, he commanded Kolb's Battery in the Western Army. His ser- vice and that of his gallant command were signal- ized by bravery and patriotic devotion. He was a courageous, bold and energetic officer, never shrinking from danger, but meeting it with the fortitude of one deeply impressed with the righte- ousness of his patriotic convictions. When he was finally compelled to sheath his trusted sword, he returned to his native county to restore his lost fortunes, and to assist in elevating Alabama from the debris of financial and political desola- tion to a plane of progress and prosperity. During the dark days of Reconstruction no man was truer to the cause of good government and to party fealty than was Captain Kolb. His devotion to the Democratic party, and his sacrifices in its behalf, are jiart of the unwritten political history of Alabama, and familiar to those who were most zealous in securing for the State the blessings of local self-government. His pri- vate life has been devoted to his favorite pursuit, progressive agriculture. He has made it a practi- cal study, and his ideas in that direction are broad and comprehensive, and will be of material benefit to the agricultural interests of the State in the administration of his jiresent official duties. Recognizing his capacity, (iov. Thonuis Seay ap- pointed him Commissioner of Agriculture, in July last, to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Betts, and again in September, 1887, he was appointed for the full term of two years from that date. In No- vember, 1887, the Farmers' National Congress, in session at Chicago, elected him president of that distinguished body, which was a compliment to the State and a handsome tribute to his capabil- ties. As Commissioner of Agriculture, he has in his brief service given evidence of the successful results that will accrue to his administration of the trust. The department overwhich heprcsides is already an important factor in the State Govern- ment, and under his energetic and wise adminis- ^. A /cV^ ) NORTHERN ALABAMA. 621 tr:itioii, it promises to accomplisli much good to- ward tiie develoi)ment of tlie material resources of Alabama and in restoring to agriculture its for- mer prestige. Captain Kolb is a genial, whole-souled, generous gentleman, and enjoys the esteem of a host of friends in Alabama; and embodying, as he does so many superior traits of character, the publishers take pleasure in embellishing this short and imperfect sketch with his portrait. ■ • •»-;^^-»— ^ WILLIAM WALLACE SCREWS has been a citizen of Montgomery since the first day of .Janu- ary, 18.58. When a boy eighteen years of age, he entered the office of Watts, .Judge & Jackson as a law student, lie was born in Barbour County I'^ebruary 2.5, IS.'Jl). The only school advantitges he enjoyed were those of the high scliooi of (ilen- ville, the town in which he was reared. He was a Whig in political sentiment, and his first vote was cast for Hell and Everett. He was opposed to secession, but went off with Alabama troops before the State went out of the Union, and was at I'ensacola .January 11, 18G1, wlien news was received that the ordinance of secession had been a-!^g^- ■ < ' ■ ■ JOSEPH W. DIMMICK, Clerk of the United States Circuit and District Courts, Montgomery, was born in Schuyler C'ounty. 111.. November tl, 18H8, and is the son of Ebenezer Dimmick, a native of New York State, and of English an- cestry. J. W. Dimmick was educated at the common schools of Illinois, and at Kashville Academy, and was teaching school at the outbreak of the war between the States. May 8, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company G, Sixteenth Illinois In- fantry, and served three years and three months. ^Immediately after the battle of Corinth, he was promoted from the ranks to a second lieutenancy, and held that position when he left the army. In 1860, President Grant appointed him post- master at Montgomery, and he held that office four years. In 1875, Justice Woods, of the United States Supreme Court (then of the United States Circuit Court), appointed him Clerk of the United States Circuit Court, a position he has since filled with credit to him- self, and to the satisfaction of the people. Captain Dimmick was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of -Montgomery: many years a member of its Board of Directors, and is now its vice-president. He is officially connected with the Sheffield Land Company, the Sheffield and Birmingham Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, president of the Montgomery Iron Works, and a director of the Capital City Water Works. September 7, 1869, Captain Dimmick was mar- ried to Miss Annie Savage, a daughter of the late Professor Polk Savage, of this city, and has had born to him tliree daughters and one son. '■^«:< ««►► JOHN BRUCE, Judge of the United States District Court for the Jliddle and Northern Dis- tricts of Alabama, was born in Sterlingshire, Scotland, February 16, 18:W, and came with his parents, James and .Margaret (F.,iddell) Bruce, to America in 1840. The family located in Wayne County, Ohio, and there the two old people are buried, Mr. Bruce dying in 1848, at the age of sixty-eight years, and his widow in 1874, at the age of seventy-two. The subject of this sketch was educated at Franklin College, from which institution he was graduated as A. B. in 1854. From college, he went to Keokuk. Iowa, there read law with lian- kin & Miller, the latter now a Justice of the Su- preme Court of the United States, and, in 1856, was admitted to the bar at Burlington. Associa- ted with George W. McCreary, afterward Secre- tary of War, he began the practice of law at Keo- kuk, and was there at the outbreak of the late war. As cajitain of Company A. Nineteenth Iowa pl/^ aJiJ^-^c^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 623 Volunteer Infantry, John ]{riu;e entered the United States service in 18G:i. From captain he was soon afterward jjromoted to major. In 1863, lie was made lieiitenaiit-ooloiiel, and in 1804, was commissioned colonel. At the close of the w-ar, " in consideration of distiiiguislied valor and meritorious services,"' Colonel Uruce was [jronio- ted to the rank of brevet brigadier-general. Dur- ing hostilities. Colonel Bruce participated in the battles of Prairie (Jrove, Ark., the seige of Vicks- burg, Yazoo City, Port Hudson, New Orleans atid Banks' e.xpedition to Texas. From Browns- ville, Tex., his command returned to New Orleans in 18(14, and, as landsmen, took part in tiie attack on Fort Morgan. He was afterward engaged in the battles around Mobile and at the surrender of Spanish Fort. Being mustered out of the service in 18G5, at Davenport, Iowa, General Bruce returned to Keo- kuk, and, the following fall, came Soutli for the purpose of entering into the production of cotton. He located in Wilcox County, this State, and was sent from there to the Legislature in 18Tti and again in 1874. In 187"> he was apjtointed by Pres- ident Grant, and confirmed by the Senate, Judge of the Thiited States District Courts for the Dis- tricts of Alabama. Judge Bruce was married, in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1870, to Anna J. Hamil, daughter of Smith Hamil, an extensive wholesale merchant of that city, and has had born to him five children, two of whom were buried in infancy ; the others are William Hamil, Maggie and Martha. Judge and Mrs. Bruce are members of the Pres- byterian Church, of Montgomery, Ala. '««; "«- JOHN GIDEON HARRIS. The subject of this sketcli is not oiily diu' of the most extensively known, but is also one of the best and purest men in the State. His father was Page Harris, a North Carolinian, who settled in Hale County in 181!l, became a planter, and in 1887 died at the extreme old age of ninety-three years. There were few men more esteemed in the cul- tivated and intelligent business and social circles of West Alabama than Page Harris, and his death was universally regretted. The Harris family came origimilly from England and Wales, and settled in N'irginia about 1(;80. and from there passed into North Carolina, from whence it migrated to Alabama. Major Harris was educated at Greene Springs, under the celebrated Professor Henry Tutwiler, and after leaving that institution, taught school for about five years. At the age of twenty-three he entered the Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tenn., and in 1858 was graduated in law. He began the practice immediately after his gradu- ation at Greensboro, in this State. He was finite successful at the bar, especially as an advocate. It is a noteworthy fact that Major Harris made the money with which he was educated, and when he reached his native county, on his return from the law school, he did not possess a dollar. But, illustrative of his thrift and superior business qualities, he still possesses the first fee he earned as an attorney. He entered the Confederate Army as a private in the Greensboro Light Artillery Guards, State troops, that were sent to Fort Jlorgan to take and hold possession of that fortress. His company was relieved in April of the same year, and during that summer, he raised a company of volunteers, known as the Planters' Guards, that became apart of the Twentieth Alabama Infantry. During the winter of 1863, at Dalton, Ga., he was promoted to the rank of major, and there- after had command of the regiment at various times. This regiment was shut up in Vicksburg during the siege; it had operated with Kirby Smith in Kentucky, participating in the battles of Crab Orchard, Richmond and Perryville. After Vicksburg he joined Bragg's army, and was with that command through all the campaign of Tennessee and Georgia, i)articipating in all those hotly-contested battles. During the latter part of the war he was on detached duty in charge of transportation between Selma and Meridian, and finally surrendered at (iainesville. After the war he located in Sumter C(>unty, and practiced law at Livingston until appointed to his present position in March, J886. Major Harris has always taken an active jiart in politics. He made the race for Congress in 1870 in the Fourth District, and was defeated by the Republican nominee, Charles Hays, by a very much reduced majority. Hays defeated him by only about 8.i0 votes, while at the preceding elec- tion the Republican ticket received a majority of at least Ki.OOO. As an evidence of his popularity, it may be mentioned that after declining the 024 NORTHERN ALABAMA. nominiitioii in 1872 the district went over 0,000 Rei)iiljlic:iii. In 1?S7C he was an alternate elector for the State at large on theTilden and Hendricks ticket, anil in l!S8o was an elector on the Hancock ticket from the Sixth Congressional District. In loK4 he was again alternate elector for the State at large. In 1ST4 his nomination to the office of Lieuten- ant-Governor WHS regarded as an assured fact, but calmly considering the responsibility, and the necessity of leaving home, he wrote a letter to the Montgomery Advertiser, declining to have his name presented to the State Convention. This course was a surprise to his many friends, who were entiiusiastic in his support and confident in the belief that he would be nominated. In IsT.'j, by invitation of the State Democratic Executive Committee of Mississippi, Major Harris made a canvass of the State, aiding those people to redeem their country from Radical thraldom. His services were highly appreciated, and the Democracy in Mississippi carried the strong-holds of the enemy, and became the victors in a glorious cause. Thus it will be seen that Major Harris not only aided to a very large extent in vindicat- ing our cause and driving the Kepublicans from the offices in Alabama in 1874, but his voice was heard in the thickest of the fight in a sister State in 1875. In 1880 he was appointed by President Cleve- land, without any solicitation on iiis part. Regis- ter of the United States Land Office at Mont- gomery. This is, perhaps, the most important office in the State. Very many difficult legal questions arise that the Register must decide, but the sagacity, conservatism, and legal training of the present incumbent, has enabled him to dis- charge the difficult duties of his office satisfac- torily to all parties concerneil. During his term, the largest amount of business has been transacted since the office was estab- lished. When he took charge of it, there was a vast accumulation of unfinisiied business, and now, for the first time in its history, there is no un- finished business in this office. This fact is a grand tril)ute to .Major Harris' rare executive ability. Owing to his great personal popularity, his appointment gave much satisfaction through- out the State, and his successful administration of the office vindicates the wisdom of the President in selecting him. In 1885 he was elected (J rand Master of the Grand Lodge of F. and A. Masons, of Alabama, and held this office during the constitutional limit of two years. His administration of the high office was wise, prudent, and full of eminent service to the Craft: and it is hardly possible that any one of the long line of distinguished and worthy grand masters of the State is more highly appreciated, loved and admired than the subject of this sketch. It may also be asserted that the daily walk and conversation of no Mason more beautifully illustrates the grand teachings of that ancient and honorable order than does that of I Major Harris. He was married in Sumter County, in 1801, to Miss Mary J. Brown, daughter of John E. Brown, a large planter of that county, and was on his wedding tour when he joined the army at Mobile. He has only two children: Mary Julia, now Mrs. L. G. Dawson, whose husband is a progressive farmer and merchant in Elmore County, and Annie B., now Mrs. Dr. J. T. Rushin, of Talla- hassee, Ala., and her husband is one of the most learned and successful physicians of his age in the State, having graduated and entered the practice at the age of twenty. Major Harris is a pleasing and forcible writer, and for several years ably edited the Alabama Bap- tist, a religious paper of great influence in this State. Together with all the members of his family, he is a communicant of the Baptist Church, with which he has long been identified. For many years he has been a zealous and faithful worker in the Master's vineyard, and his course iis a Chris- tian has been characterized by an earnest and sweet-toned piety. He has always manifested a lively interest in the religious welfare of young men, and his electioti, a few days since, as presi- dent of the Young Men's Christian Association in Alabama, is a deserved compliment and an appro- priate recognition of his faithful labors in that field. Major Harris has been identified with every movement for the advancement of education in the State, and the negro lias been to him an ob- ject of much concern in that direction. He has left no stone unturned that would tend to advance that race, believing that tlie country will be best served by raising them as much as possible out of their ignorance. He is fearless in the denunciation of wrong, and asks no quarter when vindicating the right. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 625 Major Harris is well known tiirougliout the State for liis liheral and conservative views in politics anil religion, and while he is fixed and iinmovaljle in his nnitnred convictions, he maintains them in a dignified, manly way, showing great courtesy to those differing with him. His manners are unas- suming and agreeable. Possessing a fair share of personal magnetism, he secures at once the good will of his associates, which ripens into a warm re- gard when his estimable social and moral qualities arc fully known. He is unselfish and generous, and, like Hen Adhem, he loves his fellow-man, and it is therefore not a source of wonder that he has such a stronghold upon upon the affections of the people of .Vlabama. " So his life lind flowed. From its mysterious urn a sacred stream III whose calm depth the beautiful and pure .Vlone are mirrored; which, though shapes of ill May hover around its surface, glides in light, And takes no shadow from them." :-» — WILLIAM C, JORDAN, Heceiver of the United States Land Office, -Montgomery, Ala., native of Talbot County, Ga., was born July 10, 1834. His fatlier, Thomas (!. Jordaii, of North Caro- lina, a farmer by occupation, died in 187"'hairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, a member of the State Com- mittee, and is regarded as one of the best political workers in the State. He was married at Uniontown, .\la., December 0, 18G0, to >riss Sallie T. Nicholson, daughter of Robert W. Nicholson, of that place. The Judge is a prominent Knight of P'thias, Knight of Honor, and a member of the Ancient Order of I'nited Workmen. >^^ ROBERT BARBER, I'nited States Commis- sioner, was born at I'tica, N. Y., in 1840. and is a son of Milo G. Barber. Mr. Barber's great-grandfather was a captain, and commanded a Vermont Company in tiie Revo- lutionary War, and his grandfather was a captain in the War of 1812. The father of our subject was born at Enos- burgh, Vt., in 1810, and died at Utica, N. Y., in 1855. His wife was of Irish descent. Robert Barber was educated at the High School at I'tica, N. Y. After leaving school he was engaged in the drug business until 1800, when he enlisted in the Union Army as a private in Com- pany E. Twenty-seconil New York Volunteer Infantry, with which command he served two years. He re-enlisted as a veteran in the New York Cavalry, and was mustered in as adjutant. He was wounded at the battle of Antietam, and was mustered out of service at Talladega, Ala., in NORTHERN ALABAMA. 62J) 18(!5, us assistant adjutant-general of the field forces of Alabama. Jlr. Hiirber eaine to Montgomery in 18(>f!, as chief clerk of the Civil Bureau, wJiich position he held until the time of holding the Constitutional Convention in 18i!7, at which time he was elected secretary of the Convention. In the fall of 181)7 he was' elected SherifT of Montgomery County for the term of tliree years, wliich is as long a time as one man could liold that office under the law, but lie acted the following three years as Deputy Sheriff. He was Clerk of the House of Kepre- sentatives, session of 187-2-3, and was then appointed clerk for the United States Attorney, and was subsequently appointed United States Commissioner. He has held both positions ever since. Jlr. Barber was the organizer of the firand Army Post, of Montgomery, and is at present its com- mander. He was married in ^[ay, 18CG, to Miss Alice B., daughter of Frank P. Hall, of Talla- dega. Ala. They have two children: Thomas M. and Mary. S. HENRY BARTLETT, Superintendent of Pub- lic Schools, Montgomery, was born June 13, 1841, at Petersburgii, Va. He is a son of Charles L. and Emma (.Nforton) Bartlett, natives, respectively, of Connecticut and New York. The senior Mr. Bartlett traces his ancestry to the Bartletts of tlie Pilgrim Fathers. He located at Petersburgh, about 1837. The mother of our subject was of English descent. S. H. Bartlett received the best educational ad- vantages that were offered in his earlier days, and at the age of fifteen years, entered Hampden-Sid- ney College, Prince Edward County, Va., from which institution he was graduated in 185'J. He came to Alabama in Decemberof that year; located at Dayton, Marengo County, and began the study of law under Judge Wm. E. Clark. He taught school at Dayton at the same time he was study- ing law, and continued to teach and study law until the war broke out. He enlisted in the Confederate Army as a pri- vate in Company D, Eleventh Alabama Infantry, under Col. Sydenham Moore, and was in the army of Northern Virginia one and a half years when his health failed. He came home, remained a few months, regained his health, went back to the army, and in what is known as the Petersburgh Battalion, located at Petersburgli,Va. He was engaged in the first fight at Petersburgh in the fall of 1803, and was i)romoted to first lieutenant of Company B, Petersburgh Battalion, in which capacity he served until the cessation of hostilities. Immediately after the close of the war he re- turned to Dayton. lie began the practice of law in 1800, and continued it until 187."), at which time an accident befell him which injured his health to such an extent as to necessitate his giv- ing up the practice. In 187(i he resumed teaching at Tuskegee, where he was associated with the Park High School. He held that position five years; went to Scottsville, Ala., as principal of the school of that place, remained one year, resigned and accepted the position as principal of the high school at Columbus, Ua. After four years at the latter place, he came to Montgomery in 1885 for the purpose of organizing the Montgomery High School, of which he was chosen principal before he came here. He acted one year after the school was organized, and was then elected general superintendent of the public schools of Montgomery City. He has under his control five school buildings and about fifteen hundred pupils. Professor Bartlett was married July 10, 1807, to Miss Julia, a daughter of Col. John II. Prince, a large planter of Marengo County. Of this union six children have been born: Charles H., Belle M., Henry T., Oliver P., Robert L. and John Edmund. The Professor and family are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he has been an officiating elder over fifteen years. He has always taken an active part in the Sabbath school, and has been superintendent several years. EDWARD R. HOLT, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Montgomery County, native of Augusta, Ga. (son of the late Hon. Wm. W. Holt, who was for nice- teen years Judge of the Superior Court of the Middle District of Georgia, a gallant officer in the War of 181"2, a distinguished lawyer and politician, and who died in 1804 at the age of 75 years), was born January 25, 1833. E. K. Holt was educated at Augusta: came to Alabama in 1855, and has since lived in Mont- gomery. Physically unable to shoulder arms in 630 NORTHERN ALABAMA. behalf of his country during the late war, he was compelled to leave the ranks of a soldier, into which he had so willingly volunteered, and accept service as agent of the commissary until the close of the war. In September, 1881, Governor Cobb appointed him Clerk of the Circuit Court, to fill out the unexpired term of E. A. Graham, and in the fall of 1880 he was elected to the office with- out opposition. Mr. Ilolt married in Montgomery County, in 1857, Miss Mary Augusta Bellinger, daughter of the late Dr. Carnot Bellinger, and has had born to him seven children, two of whom are dead. The living are three sons and two daughters. WILLIAM P. CHILTON. The name of Will- iam 1'. Cliiltdii, Sr.. i-s iilt'Utified with the history of Alabama, from 1834, to the occurrence of his death, in 1871. He contributed much to the pros- perity of the State; as he shared also its honor in adversity. He was born in 1810, in Christian County, Ky. His mother (a Bledsoe) was of distinguished family, and his father was a Bapti.st divine, widely known and of great influence. William I'. Chilton was " the self-made man." Ilis motiier died when he was but three years old, and his father soon after; and he was left, witli Lysias, a still younger brotlier, to the care of his sister Jane, who married Rev. Charles Metcalfe. These noble people were to him as father and mother. He read law with Judge Meggs (of the Supreme Court of Tennessee), and while at Nashville, met, and afterward married, his first wife, Mary C. Morgan, a most accomplished lady, daughter of Oeorge Morgan. Esq., of Athens, and a sister of Hon. John T. Morgan, now of the LTnited States Senate. With a young wife, without money, and with- out the influence of friends, in 18.34, he located at Mardisville, in Talladega County (from which the Indians had not been removed), and there began the practice of law. Mr. Chilton was associated with Geo. P. Brown, Esq., and the firm, by dint of hard and systennitic work, soon acquired a lucrative practice, and with it the respect and confidence of the people. In 1830, though a Whig in a strongly Demo- cratic county, he was elected to the Legislature, where he readily took and retained notably high rank. He declined re-election to devote his time to law. In 1840 he actively supported Harrison for the presidency, and in 1844 worked equally as ardu- ously for Clay. He was recognized as one of the most powerful debaters of his time in the State. In 1845 he ran against Gen. F. McConnell for Congress, but the General's pereonal popularity, and the large-standing Democratic majority of the district prevailed. Though a Whig he was elected in 1848, by a Democratic Legislature to the Supreme Court bench, and in 1852 succeeded Judge Collier as Chief-Justice. It was as a judicial officer that Judge Chilton illustrated, in the highest manner, those qualities of purity, honesty and integrity, which were his most prominent characteristics. He was, in the most exalted sense, a model judge. In 185C he resigned the office of Chief-Justice to resume the practice of law at Tuskegee. He was elected in 18.^9 to the Senate from the Macon District. The political events of that period. State and National, were of the most exciting character. Tiiough Judge Chilton depre- cated disunion, he could not submit to dishonor in the Union. He earnestly desired the perpetua- tion of the Government as the Fathers had bequeathed it; but not in violation of the Consti- tution. He favored measures having in view the cooperative action of the Southern States, and ulti- mately the conventional power of all the States of the Union, if necessary, to an honorable and final settlement, by compromise, of the great question at issue. His speech in advocacy of this policy was the greatest of his life. It became the basis of action of several of the Southern States; but, lacking in unanimity, it was not successful. Judge Chilton resigned his seat in the Senate, and with his sons Thomas G. Chilton, and W. P. Chilton, Jr., in connection with William L. Yan- cey aiul his son Benjamin C. Yancey, established the law firm of Chilton & Yancey, with offices at Montgomery and Tuskegee. The two offices were consolidated on the death of Thomas G. Chilton, a lawyer of brilliant promise, in 1860. After the secession of Alabama, Judge Chilton was unanimously chosen by the State Convention a member of the Provisional Confederate Congress; and was afterward twice elected to the Congress of the Confederacy. Of this body he was one of the most influential members; and, in the absence NORTHERN ALABAMA, 631 of tlie Speaker was often elected to preside over its delibenitioiis. In tlie fall of the Confederacy .liulj^e Chilton, in common with his tSoiithern countrymen, sustained a severe loss in property of every kind. Undaunted by reverses he resumed, after the war, the practice of law at Montgomery, associat- ing with him Col. Jack Thorington and Col. W. P. Chilton, and engaged in a first-class law prac- tice, C'olonel Chilton afterward retiring from the firm, W. S. Thorington and John M. Chilton be- came members of it. Judge Chilton contributed nuR'h by his conserv- atism and influence toward restoring the State Government to its former relations in the Union. In a conference of leading gentlemen on the sub- ject of the State's action on the jilan of Congres- sional Reconstruction, he, with lion. Benjamin Ficzpatriek, favored action instead of the policy of inactiun (or not voting) adopted by the Commit- tee of the Democratic and Conservative party. Had his views prevailed many of the evils endured afterward could have been avoided. Judge Chilton in person was over six feet in height, well proportioned, erect and. of command- ing appearance. In character he was as pure as a virgin. He was a devoted husband, a kind and affectionate father. He was an ardent jiaptist, and during his life was president of the Hajjtist State Convention and vice-president of the South- ern Baptist Convention. He was, at the period of hisdeath,(irand Master of Masons, and High Priest. The degree of LL. D. had been conferred on him by a Tennessee University. His death resulted from an accident January 20, 1871, and was announced the day following by Gov. R. B. Lindsay, in the following fitting words: State of Ai..\h.\ma. — Executive Department. Montgomery, January 21, 1871. Genthmen of the Senate and Hou.te of Representa- tives: It is with feelings of sorrow and regret, that I inform you of the death of the Hon. W. P. Chilton, of the city of Montgomery. The event occurred last night about tlie hour of eleven. Judge Chilton was one of the best beloved citi- zens; eminent as a jurist, and the people of Ala- bama had often honored him with their confidence and esteem. As a member of the Legislature, as a member of Congress, and as Chief Justice of our Supreme Court, he discharged his duties with de- votion and zeal. In the Halls of Legislation, he was a statesman, and he adorned the Bench by his integrity and learning. The loss of such a man is a public calamity, and it is fit that the departments of dovernment of a State he loved so well should jniy a tribute to his memory. Robert B. Lindsay, Governor of Alabama. The Legislature, by appropriate resolutions, gave additional testimony of appreciation, and adjourned in respect to his memory. In 1875 the county of Chilton was named in honor of him, and attests the love and respect of the people for his memory, and worthily contri- butes to its perpetuation. —- »-;^i^- < '• • ■ TENNENT LOMAX was born in Abbeville Dis- trict, S. C, on the 2Uth day of September, 1820. His father was Hon. "William Loma.x, a lawyer of distinction, who served in the Legislature of South Carolina. His mother was a Miss Tennenl, a lineal descendant of the celebrated family of Pres- byterian preachers of that name, the founders of the famous Lay College in Pennsylvania. He grew to manhood in South (Carolina, and was ed- ucated at Randolph-Macon College, graduating fourth in a class of which Mr. Justice Clopton, of the Alabama Supreme Court, was valedictorian, and the late Hons. Joseph F. Dowdell and R. H. Powell, of this State, and Bishop H. N. McTyeire, of the^Southern Methodist Church, were members. After his graduation he removed to Alabama, and began the study of law in the office of Hon. John A. Calhoun, who was then practicing his profes- sion at Eufaula in this State. Completing his studies, he was admitted to the bar, and practiced law until the breaking out of the Mexican War. Upon the President's call for troops, he raised a company in the county of Barbour, and was made its captain. The command was must- ered into the service at Mobile, in 1847, and be- came a part of the Fifth Battalion, Alabama In- fantry Volunteers, commanded by Lieut.-Col. John J. Seibel. The batfalion sailed for Vera Cruz, and was in service at that place and also at San Juan, Cordova and Orizaba, being stationed 632 NORTHERN ALABAMA. at the latter place on garrison duty for several months prior to the close of the war. The snhjectof thissketch was for a short period of this time ^[ilitary-Goveriior of Orizaba. While stationed at the last named place, he, with a select party of companions attempted the ascent of the famous Volcano of Orizaba, a feat in which Hum- boldt had failed. He, with one of his companions reached the summit, being the first man who had ever climbed that dizzy height and looked down into the extinct crater of Orizaba, an honor which has since been claimed by other persons. This in- cident is vouched for by the survivors of the bat- talion, one of whom Col. T. T. Tnnstall, who uow resides in Baldwin County, Ala., and who was of the party that went with Captain Lomax, having related it to the writer. After the close of the Mexican War, Captain Lomax returned to Eufaula and, in 1849, was married to Miss Sophie Shorter, a member of the distinguished family of that name, so widely known in Alabama. His wife dying f.oon after his marriage, he removed from Eufaula to Columbus, (Ja., and, abandoning the practice of law, he entered journalism, and was, for a number of years, one of the proprietors and the editor of the Columbus Times and Senti- nel. While editor of this paper, he achieved a wide-spread reputation as an able and brilliant writer, not only in Georgia, but throughout the Southern States, ranking as the peer of Forsyth and other distinguished Southern journalists. While engaged in this profession, he held the po- sition, by election of the Legislature, of State Printer of Georgia. While never a candidate for a political office, he took a conspicuous part in pol- itics, and was presiilent of the Democratic Con- vention which first nominated the present Senator Joseph E. Brown for Governor. He was at one time tendered the position of Charge d'Aflfaires of the United States to Belgium, but declined the appointment. In March, 1857 he was married to Mrs. Carrie A. Shorter, iii'e Miss Billingsled, of Georgia, and shortly after his marriage he sold out Ills paper and removed to Montgomery, Ala. After coming to Alabama he devoted his time to plant- ing until the beginning of the war between the States. In the great political campaign of 1860, Colonel Lomax was an enthusiastic advocate of the election of Breckenridge and Lane, and by his brilliant pen and his elor|uence as an orator, he used his best endeavors tnwanl srcuring that result, con- tributing many articles to the newspapers of his party, and taking an active part on the stump, both in Alabama and Georgia. The natural inclination of his life seemed to be toward a mili- tary career. While a resident of Columbus he was captain of a military company for several years, and, shortly after his removal to Mont- gomery, he became captain of the Montgomery True Blues, a position he held until the out- break of the civil war. Through his infiuence the Second Volunteer Regiment was organized soon after the Harper's Feriy raid. In 1861. as colonel of this regiment, he was ordered to Pen- sacola by Governor Moore, to assist the Florida authorities in taking possession of the forts and the navy yard, and Forts Baraneas and McRae were surrendered to him by Lieutenant .Slemnier of the United States Army, who withdrew, with a mere handful of men, to Fort Pickens, on Santa Kosa Island. Colonel Lomax recognizing the fact, that for the latter fort to remain in the hands of the Federals rendered the other forts useless, and placed the navy yard at the mercy of the Federals, desired, and insisted upon being allowed, to take Fort Pickens, but the Florida authorities refused their assent to such a course. He urged upon the officer in command of the Florida forces the im- portance of taking P'ort Pickens before it was re- inforced, and insisted that the fort could easily be taken without a struggle, even if it was not sur- rendered upon a demonstration of force. But his prayers were unheeded, and instead of prompt action, a council of war compo.sed of militia officers gravely determined that the taking of Pickens was impracticable at that time — it was soon i-endered impo.ssible by its reinforcement, and thus were the Federals left in command of the approaches to Pensacola Harbor, and from this "coign of vantage" they battered down the other forts at their leisure and rendered the navy yard — the second best in the Southern States — useless to the Confederate cause. Finding him- self thwarted in tliC main jnirpose of his mission, and recognizing the futility of his command re- maining longer in their state of masterly inactiv- ity, Colonel Loniax wrote to Governor Moore ask- ing their recall, and shortly after its return to Montgomery, the regiment disbanded, the terms of service of the men having expired. In April, 1861, Colonel Lomax was elected lieutenant- colonel of the afterward famous Third Alabama Regiment, and proceeded at once to Virginia. He NORTHERN ALABAMA. 033 80011 became colonel by tlie promotion of Colonel Witliers. 'L'lie regiment was stationed at Norfolk until the spring of 18ii"2, and was perfected in drill and disciidine, under his command and in- struction, so that when it jiassed through Rich- mond on its wa}' to the front it was the subject of universal admiration. Ex-(Jovernor "Watts, of Alaliama, having declared to the writer that the unstinted praise bestowed upon it made him proud of his State. t'olonel Loniax was commissioned a brigadier- general just before the battle of Seven Pines, but not having been assigned to a brigade, he remained in command of his regiment and leil it in that battle. On the 1st day of June, 186:2, while at the head of the regiment, leading it to its "bap- tism of fire," he was instantly killed, his body falling into the iiands of the Federal troops, by reason of the necessary withdrawal of the com- mand, so far in advance of the Confederate line had the regiment been thrown by the blunder of some general officer. His remains were subse- quently recovered and interred in the cemetery at Montgomery, where his widow lias erected a mar- tial shaft to mark his resting place. "No event of that terrible war sent a deeper pang of regret to the public heart,"' says Mr. Brewer in his "Ala- bama," " than the death of Tenncnt Lomax," and his fame is cherished to-day throughout the State, as furnishing one of the brightest pages in the history of the Commonwealth. General Lomax was six feet four inches in height, as straight as an Indian warrior, and in form and feature was one of the handsomest of men. " His bearing was knightly and his man- ners polished." He was remarkable for his stern devotion to duty, his patient endurance and manly self-reliance. Unflinching in his principles, he was gentle and courteous to others and had a broad charity for all. Said one of his comrades in the Mexican War: " It is worth the hardships of the service to have secured the friendship of such a man as Teniient Lomax." The nobility of his nature, his gentle kindness and unselfish char- acter are attested by the fact that the survivors of his gallant and famous regiment, without excep- tion, cherish his memory with a devotion that is unjiaralleled, and this sketch can not be mor« appropriately closed than by quoting from one of tiiem the following tribute to his beloved leader : "Firm in the advocacy of a cause, and outspoken in the expression of his sentiments, he never for- got the courtesy due an opponent, nor failed to command the respect to which he was entitled." • • ■ • > ■ •^^i^>-»— - WILLIAMJOSEPH HOLT. M.D., was born in Augusta, Ga., January Ki, 1S29, and died at Montgomery, Aj)ril 28, 1881. Dr. Holt imbibed principles of heroic justice from his honored father. Judge William W. Holt, who for nineteen years presided in the Superior Court of Georgia. Imbued with an earnest desire for knowledge, the subject of this sketch, after an academic course in his native city, entered the University of South Carolina and graduated at Columbia. Choosing a medical career, he studied with the venerable L. A. Dugas, the Xestor of the profes- sion in Georgia. After graduating in the Medical College of Georgia, Dr. Holt, desiring to have the advantages of every avenue to professional science, went to Europe and studied in the medical schools of Ber- lin, Vienna and Paris. While in the latter city, and after an arduous course of lectures, he tend- ered his services to the Czar of Russia, and en- tered the medical department during the C'rimean war. The then Czar, Nicholas, as a token of ap- preciation for his services, conferred upon him the rank of lieutenant-colonel, knighted him and honored him with several badges and marks of distinction. Returningtohishomein 18.")owndes County as a planter. He was pursuing that vocation when the troubles of IStiO arose, and with the call to arms he offered his services, and was with the earliest troops that reached Pensacola. From then unf/il tlie close of hostilities he was constantly on duty, and thou- sands of Confederate soldiers have showered bless- ings and benedictions upon Jiis head. After 18ii,") he lived in Montgomery: and who in this community did not know, honor and love liim? His heart was open as day; his life as pure as snow. He was not only the kind physi- cian — but he was the watchful nurse, and often the pious prayer from his lips wended its way heavenward in behalf of the dying and suffering. He was in deed and in truth the thoughtful friend, the constant attendant and the Christian physi- 634 uYOU THERN ALABAMA. cian. More careful of others than himself, his death can be literally called a sacrifice for the good of his fellow mortals. Ilis constant minis- trations upon the sick and dying, even when his own failing system gave him warning to desist, at last prostrated him and compelled him to retire from work. After a short respite and temporary rally, he again buckled on his armor, only to fall at last a victim to his high sense of duty and self- sacrificing charity. Speaking of Dr. Holt, the Montgomery .irfccr- tiser said: " Yesterday morning the light went out from as noble a soul as ever graced a human body. The poor and needy will miss him, for he was indeed their friend. Society will miss him, for he was an ornament to any circle. His State and country will miss him, for he ever stood ready to discharge any public duty incumbent on him. The high and lowly will miss him, for he was gentle and kind alike to both. " Since early manhood he was a consistent com- municant of the Episcopal Church. He leaves surviving him a wife and two children, brothers and sisters, and other relatives and friends with- out number, who will never cease to cherish his name and honor his memory." JEROME COCHRAN. M. D., State Health Officer, Senior Censor of the State Medical Asso- ciation and Chairman of the State Board of Medi- cal Examiners, was born at Moscow, Fayette County, Tenn., December 4, 18.31. He was eld- est of the four sons of Augustine Owen and Fran- ces (Bailey) Cochran, natives, respectively, of Georgia and Tennessee, and descended from Scot- land; the Cochrans tracing their ancestry back full six iiundred years. Augustine 0. Cochran removed from Tennessee to Jlississippi wlien the subject of this sketch was quite young, and there spent most of his life as a planter. He died in Indian Territory, in LSTO, while visitingoneof his sons. Jerome Cochran spent his youth upon his father's plantation, in Marshall County, ^Hss., alternating rugged physical labor with attend- ance at the old-field schools of his neighborhood — the one developing brawn and the other brain, each to serve him to good purpose in after life. Meagre as were the opportunities of young Coch- ran for learning, he there laid the foundation upon which he .subseijuently reared a superstruc- ture of most grand proportions. Early appre- ciating the advantages of learning, we find him. while yet in his boyhood, by dint of persistent ap- plication to reading and study, far outstripping the wisdom of his whilom preceptor — he of the ferule and birchen rod — and, in fact, approximating excellence in many important studies. Possessed of a retentive memory and a voracious appetite for learning, he devoured everything that came in his way, and it is pretty generally con- ceded by those who know him, appropriated and retained it. Mathematics, logic, political econ- omy, metaphysics, theology, biology, general lit- erature, general science, modern languages, his- tory, philoso]>hy, poetry and fiction, — all were fish that came to his net. From nineteen to twenty- five years of age he taught country schools, there- by earning some money, accumulating books and widening his field of study. In 18.J5 he began reading medicine, and in 1857 graduated from the Botanic College of Medicine at Memphis, delivering the valedictory of his class. After practicing his profession for two years in Missis- sippi, he placed himself as private student un- der W. K. Bowling, Professor of Theory and Practice, Medical Department of the University at Nashville, Tenn., obtaining at once the posi- tion of resident student in the State Hospital. In 180U he was put in charge of the iiospital as resident physician, and in February, 1801, after having attended two winters and one summer course of lectures, received the regular degree. Early in 18ijl he entered the Confederate hospi- tal at Okolona, Miss., as a contract physician, and was soon thereafter promoted to the full rank of surgeon. He remained in the Confederate service to the close of the war, and in June, 18G5, located at Mobile, where he entered readily uj)on a lucra- tive practice. In 18(18 he was elected Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Alabama, and remained with this institution about nine years, occuitying, during the last four years of the time, the chair of Public Hygiene and Med- ical Jurisprudence. In 18TS he Wiis a member of the Yellow-Fever Commission under the auspices of the United States Marine Hospital service, and in 18T9 of the Board of Yellow-Fever FLxperts. In April of the last-named year he wae honored by apjioinl- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 635 merit to the position he has since so ably filled, at the iiead of tlie State Medical l)epartineiit. Among the many able addresses delivered by Dr. C'oehran before various societies and scientific l)(>dies, and most of which are now in print, we note the following titles: "On the Principles of Organization and the P^volution of Organic Forms": "'-Medical Education and the Degrada- tion of the Profession by Medical Colleges"; '''riie Law of Duty ami Its Helations to Success in Life"; Memorial Addresses, etc. And from the long list of scientific papers published by him, and recog- nized by the profession everywhere as of pro- nounced merit, we select the following: "The Administration of Chloroform by Deglutition" (ISilT): " Kndeinic and Kjiidemic Diseases of Mo- bile, their Cause and Prevention " (18T1); "His- tory of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 18T3 " (18T4); " The AVhite Blood Corpuscle, its Phys- iology and Pathology" (1874); "History of the Small-Pox Epidemic of 1874-75 in the City of .'Mobile" (lb75); " Yellow Fever: in Kelation to Its Cause " (1877); "Hermaphroditism" (1878); "What is Puerperal Fever?" (1878); "Sanitary Administration, and the Theory and Practice of Quarantine" (1870). The Doctor's miscellaneous articles (published) treating upon various subjects are numerous and important. Among them are: " The Health Or- dinance of the City of Mobile": "The Act Es- tablishing Hoards of Health in Alabama"; "The Constitution of the iledical Association of tlie State of Alabama": "The Annual l{eports of the Board of Censors of the Medical Association of Alabama from 1843 to 1888, inclusive"; and "The Zymotic Diseases in their Relation to Public Hy- giene." While we are driven to the necessity of modera- tion in j)rinting conclusions as to the merits or demerits of living men, it is right that we should jiay just tribute where it is unquestionably due, and to this end, we quote the following extract from an address delivered at Eufala in .\pril, 1878, by the distinguished Dr. B. H. Higgs, the orator of the State .Medical Association, and en- dorse it as fully sustained by the facts: " As Bichat and Hunter were the geniuses of the origin of the new era, which I have attempted to briefly portray to you to-night, and Sims and Sayres are its choicest fruit and greatest mo" 5^^- <" ■ - JAMES KIRKMAN JACKSON, Private Sec- retary to Governor Seay, Montgomery, Ala., was born at Florence, this State, April 7, 180"-2, and received his education under a private tutor and at the State Normal College, Florence. He came into the State service in March, 1883, as clerk of the Alabama Railroad Commission, and remained in that department until called to his present position by the (iovernor, in January, 1887. In speaking of his appointment to this highly important office — a place hitherto regarded as one especially adapted to political favorites — the Mont- gomery Advertiser of February 13, lfc87, says: " When Governor Seay came into office last November, he immediately began to cast about for a private secretary. This is a high and respon- sible office. The incumbent is the confidant of the Governor and must be trustworthy. The duties are confidential and require fidelity. They are onerous and require industry. They are com- plicated and difficult, and require intelligence. The incumbent must meet and receive at the capi- tol of the State the people of the State, and his address and manners must uphold the dignity of the State. He must also be a Democrat. "The Governor found Mr. Jackson up to the full measure of every requirement, and appointed 636 NORTHERN ALABAMA. him to this responsible office, never before filled by ao young a man. It is only necessary to add that the Governor has found iiis private secretary all that he hoped, a priceless acquisition." -• ■' > -^^?^- <" ■ DR. JOHN HOWARD BLUE was born Novem- ber 0, 1848, at iIol)ile, Ala., and is a son of Rev. 0. K. and Ann E. (Howard) Blue. Tlie grandfather of our subject was one of the original settlers of Montgomery, and was one of the men who first located this town. The father, Rev. 0. R. IMue, is a Methodist minister, and has been actively engaged in ministerial work in Ala- bama for many years. The mother of our subject was a native of Georgia. J. H. Blue, the subject of our sketch, began the study of medicine with Dr. J. W. Hunter, of Tuskegee, Ala., in 18C8; subsequently entered the Washington University of Baltimore, and was graduated in 1870. He immediately returned to Montgomery and began the practice of his profes- sion, to which he has since devoted his time. Dr. Blue was married October 24, ISTG, to Miss Mary Wood Cook, sister of G. W. and E. T. Cook, grocers of Montgomery. They have five children, viz.: John R., Mary E., Annie K., Harvey Jlorris, and Ann H. The Doctor is a member of the Medical Associ- ation of Alabama, and also of the Montgomery Medical and Surgical Society. THOMAS ALEXANDER MEANS, A.M.. M.D.. was born in Covington, Ga., October 1], 1831; received an academic education in Emory College, Georgia, class of 1851 ; read medicine for four years under his father; attended his first course of lec- tures in the Medical College of Georgia, at Augusta, in 1855; second course in the Atlanta Medical Col- lege, class of 185G; and immediately set sail for Europe, under tiie chaperonagc of Prof. Willis F. Westmoreland, of Atlanta, to further complete his studies. After three years abroad, attend- ing the medical schools of [..ondon, Paris, Dub- lin, and Edinburgh, he returned home, and settled in Memphis, Tenn., in 1859. Spurred by the love of country, and the ambition to further enlarge his field of operations, he re- turned to his native State, was commissioned surgeon in the Confederate States Army July, 1861, and had his initial experience at the first bat- tle of Manassas. He continued in the Army of Northern Virginia until the battle of tJettysburg. After tlie retreat of Lee's army he was, by order of tieneral Longstreet, left in charge of the wounded of his corp.s, and the divisions of Hood and Pickett. He remained in the field for one month, and was then transferred, with the wounded under his charge, to Camp Letterman, near Get- tysburg, and placed on duty as surgeon of Confe- derate officers, jirisoners of war, reviaiiiing three months. When this hospital was broken up he was transferred to Fortress McHenry, near Balti- more, and was held for one month as prisoner of war. He was exchanged shortly afterward, and ordered to hospital duty further south, locating at Columbus, Ga., in charge of the Marshall Hospi- tal, where he remained until the close of hostilities. In 181)7, the Doctor located in Montgomery, where heat once took high rank in his profession. Among the many positions of honor and trust to which he has been called, and in the discharge of which he has acquitted himself with the highest credit, may be mentioned the following: Secre- tary of the Medical and Surgical Society, Secretary of the Board of Health. City Piiysician and Regis- trar of Vital Statistics, Surgeon in charge of City Hospital, President aiul Secretary of City Scliool Board, President Medical and Surgical Society, one of tlie consulting physicians to the Montgom- ery City Infirmary, Superintendent Public Schools, President Young Men's Christian Association, etc, etc. To the literature of the profession of wliich lie I is so distinguished a member he has contributed I the following important papers and lectures: The f Anatomy of F^xjiression, or the Human Counte- I nance in Health and Disease (lecture); Parisian j Hospitals, their more Striking Features and Ad- vantages (letters from Scotland); Total Ablation of the Inferior Maxilla (translation); Spcrmatorrhd'a, I Care, Treatment and Cure;Di]>htheritisorDij)lithe- ritic Sore Throat; (Jelsemium Semper \'irens as a Remedy in Gonorrhiea; Renal and Vesical Disor- ders; On the Influence of Weather in Relation to I Disease; Constipation and Costiveness; Oxone, its Definition, Mode of Generation and its Jlffects upon the Health of Human Beings; the Dry Method in the Treatment of T'terine Diseases (in NORTHERN ALABAMA. 637 prepanitioii); ami many otliers of equal import- ance, iind all attractinff the widest attention and most favoralile criticism. -^^ JOHN BROWN GASTON. M.D., distinguished rhy.sician and Surgeon, .Montgomery, one of the trustees of the Alabama Insane Hospital, and President of the Hoard of Health of Montgomery County, is a native of Chester, S. C, and was born .Tanuary 4, 1S:J4. His father, also named John Brown Claston, was a prominent physician during his life; and his mother was before marriage Mary 15. McFadden, also a native of Chester. Tlie Gastons came origirally from France: the McFaddens from Scotland. When the Huguenots were driven out of France, John Gaston lied into Ireland, and from there came to America in the latter part of the sixteenth century. He settled fir.st in Pennsylvania and removed subsequently to South Carolina. This .Tohn Gaston was the grand- father of the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch. The senior Dr. Gaston practiced medicine many years in South Carolina, and there died in 18fJ3, at the age of seventy-three years. His widow survived him until 18)S(i, and died in the eighty-second year of her life. They reared si.\ sons to manhood, .John B. Gaston, Jr., being tliird in order of birth. Three of the sons became professional men — one doctor and two lawyers — and the otliers farmers. Dr. (lastou received his primary education at the common schools of South Carolina, entered Columbia College, that State, in 1850, and was graduated in December, 18")'-J, as A. B. Leaving college, he entered the office of his brother, Dr. .1. McFadden Gaston, and read medicine with him about a year, going thence to the medical de|iart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he was graduated as M. D. in 18.")."). He returned to his native State, and in York Dis- trict began the practice of medicine, at which, as he says, he "earned victuals and clothes of an inferior quality." He came to Montgomery in ls.")T. Here his talents were readily recognized, and he rose rapidly to a front rank iu tlie jjrofes- sion to which he has since devoted liis time and talents. His first partnership, after coming to this city, was with the famous Nathan Bozeman. M.D., now of New York city. After the war, he was associated with the late Dr. W. .J. Holt. It is needless to say that Dr. (iaston's association with those two eminent men gave him many advantages that otherwise might have been deferred, if not wanting. In April, 18tU, Dr. (iaston was made surgeon of a .Militia Regiment which was assigned to Fort Morgan. In July following he was commissioned surgeon of the Fourteenth Alabama Infantry, and during the summer of 18(it.' was made senior surgeon of Wilcox's Brigade, which position he filled until the spring of 18G4. During the last year of the war he was in charge of the Alabama Division of Howard's (irove Hospital, at Richmond. Since the war he has occupied the highest rank of his profession, both in Montgomery and in the State at large. He was annual orator of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama in 1809, and its president in 1S8-.J. Though he has not contributed largely to the literature of the profession, some of his papers have been of excep- tional interest and value. His articles on "Med- ico-Legal Evidence of Independent Life in a New Born Child" (1870), has placed a very important question on correct jihysiological grounds, and must have the effect of establishing a uniform ruling in the courts of law in this distinguished subject. It has been accepted by the profession as determining definitely the correct doctrine on this hitherto unsettled question. Dr. Gaston has never taken an active part in politics. He has, however, felt a deep interest in public affairs, and at times has participated in the discussion of questions prominently before the people of the State. But in view of the splendid results accomplished, he has contributed nothing to the press that can afford him more pride and satisfaction than the incisive articles which, as President of the State Board of Health, he pub- lished in 188:i, and in wliich the then existing penal system of Alabama was fearlessly and vigor- ously attacked. He arraigned the State, and pointed to the sanitary condition of her prisons, the disregard of the comfort, and especially to the mortuary record of her convicts, to show that Alabama had '• not been a protector and friend to her dependent children of crime." The evidence on which he " held up the results of penal servi- tude in Alabama to the reprobation of good men everywhere" was found in the annual reports of the inspectors of the penitentiary; and the con- 638 NORTHERN ALABAMA. •Insion at which he arrived was " that more than seven per centum of tiiose who had been sent to penitentiary hud died of the unnecessary rigors of prison discijilinc." '• There is a right to punish," wrote the Doctor, " but there is an obligation to protect, and tiiis obligation is nowhere more bind- ing than in regard to the convict. He may have placed himself in the attitude of an enemy to soci- ety, but the State should not become his enemy." These papers produced a profound impression throughout the State, and the interest and inves- tigation which they aroused have resulted in the thorough reformation of the prison discipline of the State. The great reduction of the death rate which he, in the face of much opposition, claimed was practicable, has been accomplished, and the condition of prisonsand convicts in Alabama is no longer a reproach to her people. Dr. Gaston was elected Mayor of ilontgomery in ls81, aud re-elected without opposition in 1885. As chief magistrate of that growing city he has had no superior in an impartial, faithful, intelli- gent and successful administration of her ailairs. Under his administration the finances of the city have been kept in a most satisfactory condition, order has prevailed, the streets have been beauti- fied and improved, sanitary inspection and street cleaning have been organized and systematized as never before, and almost without expense, so tliat Montgomery is one of the cleanest and liealthiest towns of the country. He has large capacity for work, and, although occui)ied with an extensive practice, he, when emergency refjuired it, person- ally superintended the most minute details of his administratio)!. He is reflective and analytical in the treatment of any subject of investigation, and as a writer and speaker, is clear, concise and energetic. Dr. (iaston was nnvrried in Mecklenburg County, N. (-'.. November 11. 18.">7, to Miss Sallie J. Tor- rence, and of the five children born to them, two died in infancy. RICHARD FRASER MICHEL, M.D.. was born February l.">, ls27, at Charleston, S. C, and is a son of Dr. William and Eugenie (Fraser) Michel, nativesof that city, and of French and Scotch de- scent, respectively. The elder Michel was an eminent physician of Charleston, where he practiced many years. Both he and his wife died in that city; the former in 1870. and the latter in 18:5«. R. F. Michel was educated in Ciiarloston: was graduated from tlie Medical College at that city in March, l.s4T, ami there immediately began the practice of medicine. In 1S48 he was elected Professor of Materia Medica of the Charlefcton Medical Institute, which position he held until ISfiO. He entered the Confederate Army as a surgeon with (ieneral Evans" Brigade, and was in the Virginia .\rmy until very nearly the close of the war. During his services in the army he was actively engaged all the time, and was called upon frequently to [)erform the most ditlicult operations. He is regarded as one of the first-class surgeons of the Army of the Potomac. He went into the Confederate Army Christmas P-ve, 1800, in Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, and only left at the surrender of (ien. Robert E. Lee. After the war he located at Montgomery, where he has since devoted himself to the prac- tice. In 187"i he was elected vice-president of the American Medical Association, which position he held one year. In 18G9 he was elected presi- dent of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, and in November of the same year was elected president of the Medical and Surgical So- ciety of Montgomery. He was appointed Sur- geon-General of the State of Alabama (in 1S8:J) on Governor O'Neal's staff; and was the orator of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, at Jlobile. in 187G. He was elected Counselor of the Medical Association of the State of South Carolina in 1850 and 18reciating the value of bed-side instruction, he determined to remain one year longer among the hosi)itals of Philadelphia, so as to better fit him- self for the resjionsible duties of his profession. On his return to Montgomery in 18.54:, he formed a partnershi]) with one of his former preceptors, Dr. William O. Haldwin. In 18.59. he abandoned practice and went into the drug business with Mr. Stephen Hutchings, of this city. In 1807 he withdrew from the firm of Hutchings & Williams, and resumed the practice. In the autumn of ISiiii, he formed a second jjartnei'ship with Dr. Baldwin, and remained until the winter of l.sr;i. In the summer of 18ej)artment of the University of Virginia, in 18T0 and from the Medical Department of the Univer- sity of New York in 1S8U. For a short time prior to his entering the University of Virginia, he taught school and read medicine under his father. He began tlie practice of his profes- sion in Orrville, Dallas County, from which place, at the end of eighteen months, he returned to New York, spent some time in reviewing his studies, and in givingparticular attention to special diseases. In 188"2 he located in Montgomery, where he entered at once upon a flattering practice. He is a member of the Medical .\ssociation of Ala- bama, and is one of its Board of Counselors. He has been president one term, of the Medical and Surgical Society of .Montgomery County, and is the County Health Officer at this writing. Dr. Wilkerson was married Novembers. 1884, to Miss Williams of Clayton. Ala. I)r. and ^Irs. Wilkerson are members tjf trlie lJa^)tist ChntcJu DR. SAMUEL DIBBLE SEELYE, born March 14, 18v!'.i. at Bethel, Conn., is a son of Frederick and I'olly M. (Dibble) Seelye, natives of Con- necticut. The senior Mr. Seelye resided many years in New York ('ity. The subject of this sketch, after completing his academic education, followed mercantile business until 18.53 in New York City and Vicksburg, Jliss. During the latter year he entered the Medical College of New York, and was graduated from that institution in 18.i."). He immediately began the practice of medicine in New Y'ork City and continued it for two years, when, on account of ill-health, he abandoned the practice for two yeirs. In 18.")'.) he came to Montgomery and resumed the practice of his profession. In 18(!!> he formed a partnership with Dr. E. A. Semple, which partnership continued until the hitter's death, which occurred in 1871, since which time Dr. Seelye has been alone in the practice. Tlie Doctor was vice-president of the American -Medical Association in 187i'); has been a censor for ten years in the Medical Association of Alabama; was president of this .Vssociation in 188G-7, and has been twice president of the Montgomery County Medical Society. Dr. Seelye was married in November. 188,">, to Miss Amelia J., daughter of William and Eliza- beth Bigelow, of New York City. They have one child, a daughter. The Doctor is a member of, and is officially con- nected with, the Presbyterian Church. He has for years occuj)ied a prominent jiosition in his pro- fession, both at home and throughout the State. JOB SOBIESKI WEATHERLY. M. D., is a native of South Carolina, and is descended fiom a sturdy and highly meritorious Scotch ancestry. He was boin .July ".'8, 18"-'8: educated primarily at the high school of his native town, and there for about two years read medicine under Dr. McLeod. Graduating, in 18.51, from the Medical Depart- ment of the University of New York, he located at Adairsville, Ga. , and at once entered ujion the practice of his chosen profession. From Adairsville he removed to Palmetto, that State, and in 18.57 came to Montgomery. Here he readily took rank among recognized men of skill in the sciences of materia medica and therapeutics. 642 NORTHERN ALABAMA. In response to tlie call of his country, in 186'-J he hurried to the fatal field of Shiloh, where, in charge of tlic hospital for the sick and wounded soldiers, he toiled for many days earnestly, ardu- ou.mor- rhagic Malarial Fever" (187">); "Anatomy and Diseases of the Cervix Uteri "; "Syphilis and its Prevention by State Action"; " (Quarantine against Yellow Fever" (1878), etc. September, 185"-J, Dr. Weatherly married .Miss Eliza G., daughter of the late Col. C. B. Talia- ferro, and a grand-niece of ex-Governor Gilmer, of Georgia. Of the six children born to this union we make the following memoranda: Charles Taliaferro, graduate of Atlanta Medical College, a promising yonng physician at Benton, Ala.: James Merriweather, graduate of the Law Depart- ment, University of Alabama, and now the gifted young attorney of the (Jeorgia Pacific Hailroad. located at Birmingham, where he is recognized as one of the rising young men of the State; (iilmer, a planter near Benton, where he is also interested in mercantile business: Thaddeus. William and (ieorge. ■ The entire family are communicants of the Episcopalian Church, wherein the Doctor has been many years a vestryman. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 643 DR. BENJAMIN RUSH PEARSON was born Aii<;ust I. ism, at l)!i(lovilk\ Ala., ami is a son . \\. Pearson attended the private schools of his county until he was eighteen years of age, then entered the Mrginia Military Institute at Lexington, from which institution he graduated in July, 1S71. lie had a brother who was gradu- ated in the same class, and who is now j)racticing medicine in Autauga County. Ala. Our subject, after his graduation at Lexington, took a course of studies at the Montgomery Com- mercial College, in 1871. In February. 1872, he went to St. Louis, where he remained but a short time, returning to Montgomery and engaging in the shoe department of the wholesale dry goods liouse of .M. P. LeOrand & Co. lie was with this hou.se until 187.'5, when he engaged in farming, which avocation he followed until 187^. In the last-named year he began teaching school and reading medicine, and in the winters of 1870, 1S8(I and 188] attended lectures at the Alabama Medical College, at Mobile. in 18S1 lie located at Montgomeiy, where he began the practice of his profession, and is to-day one of the leading physicians in this city. Having built up a large practice, and being successful in ;il! his undertakings, he has commanded the re- spect and tlie recognition of the members of his profession. Jle is a member of the Medical and Surgical •Society of Montgomery County, and has held the ])osition of both president and vice-president of that body. He was also County Health Officer three years. Dr. Pearson was married in December, 1873, to -Miss Sallie Coleman, daughter of Capt. C. V>. Ferrell. of Montgomery, and has had born to him three i-liildren: Annie E., Coleman V . and James .M. Dr. Pearson and wife are members of the First Baptist Church. DR. LUTHER L. HILL was born in Montgom- ery. .Ian. 'VI, isi'i"*. He is a son of Hev. Luther L. Hill and Laura Croom Hill, natives of Alabama. 'J'lie senior Mr. Hill is a Protestant Methodist minister, and preached in this city for many years. The subject of this sketch attended the private school of Prof. Geo. W. Thomas, of Montgomery, until 1.S78, at which time he entered Howard Col- lege at Marion, Ala. After a special course of studies he went to New York, and was graduated in the Jledical Department of the I'niversity of that State in 1881. From February to October, 1881, he attended lectures at the diffeient hospitals of New York C'ity; then went to Philadelphia, where he took a regular course of studies and was graduated from the .Jefferson Medical College in 188-.i. He continued visiting the different hospi- tals in Philadelphia nntilJanuary, 1883, and from that time until June, of that year, attended the New York Polyclinic College, where he studied surgery and the diseases of the eye, ear and throat. In July, 1883, he visited Europe, and entered the Medical Department of King's College, of London. He studied surgery under the iustructions of Sir Joseph Lister and Dr. John Wood, both distinguished surgeons; remained there until April of the following year, and returned to America, after visiting the principal cities of con- tinental Europe: located in Montgomery in 1884 and began the practice of his profession, making a specialty of surgery. Dr. Hill has built up a large practice in the few years that he has been in Montgomery, and, to .say the least of him, he has as bright and promising a future as any other pliysician in the State. The knowledge that he has obtained from the various medical institutions, and the results of some of the most difficult operations ]ierformed by him in this city, has placed him in the foremost rank of the profession. In .lanuaiy, 1881, he was elected president of Montgomery Medical and Surgical Institute, and is probably the youngest niau that has held that position. In tiiat sameyear he wasappointed by the . l)resident of the State Medical Association as dele- gate to the American Medical Association, which 644 NORTHERN ALABAMA. met at Chicago, lie was elected Surgeon of the Montgomery County Hosi)ital for the years 188T-8: has been Surgeon of the ^fontgomery True Blues (a military company) since 188."). and is at this time a member of the Board of Health for Montgomery County. ■ '"> -i^^- < « ■ • MILTON PAUL LeGRAND, President of the Commercial Fire Insurance Company, Montgom- ery, and \'ice-l'resident of the Montgomery & Florida Railroad Company, is a native of Wades- boro, X. C, and was born Xovember 10, 183'-i. Ills |)arents, William C. and Jane (Paul) LeGrand, were natives of North Carolina, and descended, respectively, from a Huguenotish and English an- cestry. They came to Alabama in 183T, and settled at Tuskegee, where they spent the rest of their lives, Mr. LeGrand dying in 1839 at the age of thirty-nine years, and Mrs. LeGrand in 1842. The senior Let; rand was an educated gentleman, and, after coming to this State, devoted his time to teaching and farming. His early demise fell with crushing force upon his little family, and, as his widow survived him only three years, it will be seen that his children, one son and four daughters, were doubly orplianed before they had reached that age at which peojde are expected to be fully equip])ed for the battle of life. How- ever, we have no records of failure or of unusual hardships to chronicle in the history of the LeGrands. If left without fortune in worldly goods, they were bountifully blest in that which the Prophet tells us is better than gold. The meagre data at the command of the writer, limits this chapter to a brief resume of the life of the gentleman whose name forms its caption. Milton P. LeGrand acquired at the schools of Tuskegee a pretty thorougli knowledge of the elementary studies, and was fully jn-epared to enter college. He had also read the tc.\t books on med- icine and was ready to attend lectures, but instead of so doing, he accepted service with a druggist at Marion, Aia., with the understanding that he should be taught in the mysteries of pharmacy and educated for a j)hy8ieian. It appears, how- ever, that at the end of four years he became sat- isfied that at least one imiiortaiit branch of his employer's undertaking was lacking in fultillnient. He had learned the drug business — in this he could be serviceable — but the schooling necessary to a professional M. 1). was for some reason neglected. Notwithstanding this default upon the part of his employer, young Leany (of which he is vice-president), an industrial enterprise which has accomplished more in the one year of its existence toward the development, improvement and upbuilding of Montgomery than the combined efforts at such in her preceding history. Broail in his views, liberal in his dealings, pub- lic spirited at all times, Wm. L. Chambers is truly a modern, present-day man — a man with the full courage of his convictions; believing in the future of Alaiiama, her brilliant promises, and in the continuation of the prosperity and growth of her cities, manufactories, and other great indus- tries. In the earlier days of Birmingham be laid money upon the promises of that city; when Sheffield was in embryo he took stock in her bank- ing houses and land companies; and at Mont- gomery, every legitimate enterprise, going to the advancement of the city, has found in him a sub- stantial supporter. While ever ready to advance the interests of friends whose ambitions run to politics and the emoluments of office, he has himself at no time been an aspirant to position in the public service — State or Nationjil. On the contrary, he has re- peatedly declined honorable stations of trust and profit, preferring to serve the people, as he has, in quite different ways. He is most actively interested in the educa- tional institutions of the city, and gives to them much of his time. He was first elected member of Montgomery's School Board in 1885, a position he has continued since to honor. At this writing (October, 1887), he is serving his tenth year as president of the Board — a fact needing no com- ment upon the part of his biographer. November 4, 1873, at the city of Montgomery. Mr. Chambers was married to Miss Laura L., the handsome and accomplished daughter of that distinguished jurist, the Hon. David Clopton, now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and to this union bivs been born four children: Annie L., David Clopton, William Henry and Louise. Mr. and Mrs. Chambers are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which they both became associated while yet quite young, and Mr. Chambers is a patron of the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he is trustee. JOHN McGEHEE WYLY, General Contracting Freight Agent of the E. T. Y. & G. R'y was born at Jacksonville, .\la., July 7, 1837. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 04; His father, tlie late Ben jam in Cleveland Wyly, was a native of (Jeorgia. and his mother, who be- fore marriage was Ann Maria Mc'(!ehee — at the time of marriage an orphan living with her uncle, William Mc(ieliee — was born in Nortli Carolina. 'I'iie senior Mr. W yly came into Calhoun County in \'6'.Vl and lived there until his death in 1885. He there married the daughter of John Mctiehee, originally from Milton, N. C. He was one of the wealthiest planters in that county: an honorable, upright citizen; a consistent Christian gentleman, and ae such held in the highest esteem of the many good people who knew him. John MctJehee was an only son. He was edu- cated at the Kentucky Military Institute, Frank- fort, Ky., and after graduating, studied law at .lacksonville, Ala., never designing to adopt the profession. In 1857 he turned his attention to ))lanting, and followed it successfully until the outbreak of the war. Early in 1801 he enlisted as a private soidier in Coni{)any (t. Tenth Ala- bama Regiment, and at the end of one year was promoted to first lieutenant, and assigned to the staff of General John IJ. Forney, as aide-de-camp. He remained with General Forney to the close of the war, acting as major, — adjutant-general's de- partment. — on the staff of Major-CJeneral John 11. Forney, then in the Trans-Mississijipi Depart- ment in 1864. The reverses of the war dissipated the large fortune once at his command, and when he again resumed planting upon the old homestead, it was under adverse circumstances, indeed. After a two-years' struggle he gave up modern cotton raising and turned his attention to railroading. At the end of two years apprenticeshij) as trav- eling freight agent of the Selnia, Rome li Dalton Hailroatain of the " Montgomery True Blues," was born in this city in 18.")7. His father was the late Col. Joseph H. Bibb, who com- manded the Twenty-third Alabama Infantry dur- ing the late war. Colonel Bibb died in this city in 1868. from the effects of wounds received at the battle of Franklin, Tenn., and was at the time of his death about forty-eight years of age. Captain Bibb's mother was a daughter of the late distinguished Benajah S. Bibb. P. B. Bibb w!is edmated at the Virginia Mili- tary Institute, and from there in 1874, entered the NORTHERN ALABAMA. 651 Annapolis Naval Academy, from which institution he was graduated in 1878. He made one cruise to Europe, one to the Pacific Ocean, spent two years in the Uniteil States Coast Survey, and, in 1884, resigned for the purpose of devoting his time to civil enstineeriiig. He located in Jlont- gomery wliere he has since remained. He gave up civil engineering in 188G, to accept the general managership of the Montgomery Iron Works. He was made captain of the "The True Blues" in 1S85, and as their commander won distinction for himself and fresh laurels for the company. XVI. SELMA. Bv S. W. John. The city of Selma is situated on the north bank of the Ahibama River, near the geographical center of tlie Stale. On the IGth and 18th of ^larch, 1819, before Ahvbama was admitted as a State into the Union, W in. K. King and George Phillips bought of the United States all of section 30, township 17, range 10, and section 31, township 17, range 11, lying north of the river, about 1,101 acres. A company had been organized for the purpose of laying these lands off into a town. The stockholders of this company were A. P. Fore, Benjamin Clements, William Walton, William Aylett, Samuel Walker, L. H. .\dams, Caleb Tate, William Harris, Alex. S. Outlaw, Thomas J. Campbell, George Phillips, William Blevins, Jesse Wilson, William Cowles, .lames Hatcher, J. M. C. Jlontgomery, J. P Cun- ningham, John Simpson, Benjamin L. Saunders, James .McCarty, William K. King, David Keller, .lolin Taylor, David McCord, Samuel Greenlee, Henry Lucas, J. K. C. Pool, C. Sledge, William Taylor, C. L. Mathews, James .lackson, Thomas -Moore, and Jesse Beene. William R. King, upon perfecting its organization, was given the privi- lege of naming the town. He named it "Selma." (iwin Washington, a surveyor, laid off the town into Via lots and 37 out-lots. The two principal streets. Broad and Water, were laid out 1"20 feet wide, and all others 100 feet wide. Lot 107, cor- ner of Alabama and Church streets, was given to the Baptist denomination for a church. Lot 112, corner Church and Dallas streets, was given to the Methodists for a church, and lot I'i'i, cor- ner of Washington and Dallas streets, was given to the Presbyterians for a church. The square bounded by Selma, Broad, Alabama and Church streets was reserved for a public square, and out- lot 9 was set apart for a cemetery, and the north half of out-lot 26 was set apart for a school lot. In May, 1819, the town company sold off all the lots, except those reserved and set apart for public purposes, and the total proceeds amounted to $37,930. On November 29, 1828, the out-lots and ferry across the Alabama River were sold, which increased the total proceeds of sale to !ii-14,7.")4.93. The highest price paid for one lot was I80(i, at which sum lot 29 was sold to E. M. BoUes. The St. James Hotel now covers this lot. The next highest price, $790, was paid by Wm. Read for lot 101, which fronts on the west side of Broad Street, from Walter Street to Hinton Alley. In 1831 the ground reserved for a public Square, was divided into lots, and sold off for the sum of 12,099. Although Selma is located on a beautiful, com- paratively level plateau, about fifteen feet above the highest water kuown in the Alabama River— that of March 28-April 4, 1886— yet, for the want of proper drains, the town suffered severely from fevers; so much so, that some of these sickly sea- sons had the effect to materially reduce the pop- ulation of the town, so that, after twenty years of existence, there were only 431 white people living in Selma, out of a total of 1,053. In June, 1836, the people of Selma became in- terested in connecting the waters of the Alabama and Tennessee Rivers by railroad. The first step was taken by John W. Lapsley, William H. Fel- lows and George W. Parsons calling a citizens' meeting at the law office of John W. Lapsley, the " father" of railroad building in Selma. This meeting took such action as resulted in the grant of a charter to " The Sclnia & Tennes- see Railroad Company "' in December. 1830, by the Legislature of .Mabama, under which the company organized in March, 1837, by the elec- tion of (iilbert Shearer as president, and Thornton B. Goldsby, .Middleton (i. Woods, James C. Sharp, 652 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 053 Daniel II. Norwood, Joliu Brantly, ITriah (irigs- by and Jainca M. Calhoun as directors. The comj)any located the road over the line now ociMipicd by the track of the Selma, Rome & Daltoii division of the East Tennessee, A'ir- giiiia I'i: Georgia Railway, and let the contract for grading the first ten miles to David Cooper A- Hros. Col. A. A. Dexter, of Montgomery, was the cliief engineer, and made a survey and located the line of the road as far as Monte- vallo, -Ma. Tiie great financial depression follow- ing the " (lush times of Alabama," so embarrassed tliis company as to put a stop to the construc- tion of the road, and finally resulted in the death of the company. In ]8:{s a medical society, a military com- pany (■•The Selma Rangers'"), iin educational society and the Real Estate Banking Company, were all organized, and the town bought its first fire engine, a public library was established, and the building of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was begun. In 183'.t was laid the corner stone of the Episcopal Church, corner of Alabama and l^auderdale streets, which was afterward burned by '' Wilson's Raiders" in 18G5. The Ladies Educational Society of Selma was organized and chartered by the Legislature, and did much to aid in building the churches begun about that time and soon afterward, and also built four large, commodious school buildings — three of which are now standing, but all of them, except "The Dallas Academy," have passed into the hands of other owners, and are used for other than .school purposes, — one being'the "'Court House of Dallas County."' The prevalent sickness of the years 1840 and ls41, drove many of the most active business men of Selma to seek other homes, and the very great monetary stringency of the period. 1840-7, cast a gloom over the town. This may be called its •" darkest hour."' In 1848 business began to improve, jiopulation increased, and Selma took a new lease on life, and John \V. Lapsley, Thornton H. Goldsby, Philip J. Weaver, .lohn Brantley, William Johnson, Hugh Fergusson. and others, were granted a charter — as ''The Alabama & Tennessee Rivers Railroad Company'" — for the purpose of building a railroad from Selma to some point on the Tennessee River. For some years (iuntersville was the objective jKiint, but the liberal contributions of citizens of Slielbv, Talladesra and Calhoun Counties, com- bined with the great energy and ability of such men as Walker Reynolds, Judge Thos. A. Walker, and associates, caused the road to be built by Columbiana Talladega and Jacksonville, and finally, under the name of "The Selma, Rome & Dalton Railroad," to Rome and Dalton, CJa., a total length of 230 miles. The first "spike" was driven in IS-il, and the Coosa River was crossed, eighty-seven miles from Selma, in 185.i, and Blue Mountain, 13.5 miles from Selma, was reached in 18GI>, where the war put a stop to all building. The starting of this enterprise seemed to infuse new life into Selma, and was (piickly followed by the building of the Alabama & Mississippi River Railroad, of which enterprise Jos. R. John, Jas. L. Price, Philip J. Weaver. Thornton B. (Joldsby, Wm. L. Davidson, John W. La])sley and others, were the leading spirits. This road was begun in 1855, and built to Uniontown in ISGO, where it was stopped by the breaking out of the war, but in 1861-2 the Confederate Government furnished the means to build it to York in Sumter County, where it was united with twenty-seven miles of track of the Northeast & Southwest Railroad, running into Meridian, Miss. — thus giving a con- necting line of railroad between the waters of the Alabama and ilississippi Rivers, the purpose indi- cated by the name of the first corporation. This company had its origin among the people of Uniontown, who sought raj)id transit to the Alabama River, and was chartered to run -from Cahaba, west, but the wealthy men of Cahaba refused to subscribe a dollar to its building, and greeted the public statement of its first advocate, sent to them to solicit aid, Hon. Joseph R. John, "that if they would build thirty miles of railroad and put a train on it, it would never stop till it reached the banks of the Mississippi," with shouts of derisive laughter, and with the bold assertion that "a railroad could never l)e built through the cane- brake," "the cars would sink out of sight in the mud."' This conduct on the part of the people of Ca- haba, opened the way for Selma to step in and give the desired aid, which she did. following the lead of Philip J. Weaver and Thornton B. Golds- by. and at the next session of the Legislature the charter was so amended as to allow the road to be built from Selma. west. In ten years from the time that Cahaba refused to subscribe to the building of this road, the thirty miles of road 654 NORTHERN ALABAMA. had been built, and then extended, as we have seen, so that trains running west from Selma were not Inilted till they had reached the banks of the great Mississippi River. And C'ahaba? From a flourishing town, the rival of Selma declined steadily till, in 18CG, the court-house was removed to Selma, and soon there were not more than twenty whites and a few negroes living in the limits of the former capital of Alabama, and now it is a '' deserted village," and Selma a thriving city of 15,000 inliabitants, seven railroads, and *15,0(iO,000 of taxable property. Tiie spirit of building railroads to Selma was not satistied by the building of these two roads, and in 18.")7 John W. Lapsley, William T. ilinter, Willis S. Burr, Dan. C. Langley, J. J. Hawthorne and others projected the Selma & fJulf Railroad, to be built from Selma to Pensacola. When most of the grading of the first twenty miles of this road had been finished, it was suspended by the war. After the war forty miles from Selma were built, aud the road from Pensacola north to Pen- sacola Junction, and on to Repton — eighty miles — was built, and these two ends are now owned and operated by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, leaving an unfini-shed gaj) of thirty- three miles between Pineapple and Repton. From the organization of the Alabama & Ten- nessee Rivers Railroad Company to the breaking out of the war, the growth and prosperity of Selma were wonderful. Population and capital flowed in, banks and insurance companies were formed and successfully operated, and the volume of busi- ness grew from a few thousand to several millions of dollars annually. The receipts of cotton in 1860 were 100,nOO bales, much of which was bought from the producers by the merchants of Selma. During this period of growth there were erected six handsome brick churches, three large brick and one frame school-house, and many other buildings. It would not be just to the " builders" of Sel- ma to leave unnoticed the fact that Thornton B. (ioldsby built and owned more business houses in Selma than any other man, and that William J. Xorris built more handsome dwellings than any one else. During this period of building activity, many artesian wells were bored, one of which was num- bered among the notable wells of the world. At the same time the yards and grounds of the private residences were adorned with trees and shrubs, and the sidewalks planted with a species of oak, which is evergreen, and very like the "live oak," thus making it much more pleasant as a dwelling place in the summer. The city might well be called the "City of Wells and Trees." This active building of a city was interrupted by the breaking out of the war between the States, when, at the call of Alabama, nearly every able- bodied man in Selma donned the gray and went to battle. The great natural advantages of Selma, and its superb location near the coal, iron, limestone, sandstone and timber of the mineral region of Alabama, and in the heart of the great "black belt," the then "corn and hog" raising section of Alabama, together with the great navigable river flowing past it by Mobile to the Gulf, soon attract- ed the attention of the Confederate Government, and it erected here, under the command of Col. J. L. White, the largest arsenal of the Confeder- acy, where immense quantities of fixed and small arm ammunition and ordnance stores and supplies of every kind, were made and shipped to the armies of the Confederacy. The Confederacy also erected under the command of Capt. Catesby R. ap Jones (who designed and directed the build- ing of the famous " ram," " Virginia," the first iron-clad vessel ever taken into action, and super- intended her armament, and was her executive officer and commander on the wounding of Admi- ral Buchanan), a large and well-organized naval foundry and rolling mill. In this foundry were cast the heavy guns mounted on the harbor and sea coast defenses, and guns used by the Confederate gunboats in Mobile Bay under Admiral Buchanan in the en- gagement with the United States fleet under Ad- miral Dahlgren. All of the nnichiiies and tools used in the foundry and rolling mills were made in the shops erected in connection with the.se works, ilany of these were new inventions — notably a revolving lathe for turning off the trunnions of the eleven and twelve inch " Colum- biads." This machine carried the tool around the trunnion, whereas before its invention the gun was strai)j)ed to the wheel of an immense lathe and revolved "end over end" around the center of the trunnion, while the cutting tool was sta- tionary. Many of the machines and tools used in the arsenal were likewise built therein, and the first NORTHERN ALABAMA. G55 machine for milking liorse shoes, at one blow, was iiuule and operated here. The gun boat " Ten- nessee," Admiral Buchanan's flag ship in Mobile May, was built and launched here, and floated down the river to Mobile, where her armor and armament were placed upon her. The concentration of tliese (iovei'nment works at Seinia drew to this phice many contractors who erected shops and factories of various kinds, to make and supjjly materials and munitions of all sorts to the Confederate Slates Government, so thatSelma became, next to IJiclimond, the greatest depot of supplies of the Confederate armies. This attracted the attention of the Federal gen- erals, and in Maicli, 18i!."i. a corps of cavalry, com- manded by (ieneral Wilson, marched from the Tennessee Kiver direct to Selma. arriving in front of the earthworks, which had been thrown up around the city, on the afternoon of Sunday, April l, 186.5. The works were about live miles in length, and were manned by (ieneral Armstrong's Cavalry Brigade, about 400 strong, one battery of field ar- tillery (Fjouisiana): the citizens of Selma, the work- men from the arsenal and foundry, and a few hundred Dalhis County militia, old men, in all about l,.iOO or "^,000. (ieneral Wilson attacked with Long and Upton's divisions, about 8,000 strong. The main attack was nuide on the Sum- merfield Road, across which, behiiul the earth- works, was posted Armstrong's Brigade. This gallant brigade, although posted ten to fifteen feet apart, repulsed the Federals twice with great loss to them. Upon the third advance the Federal's assaulted the works to Armstrong's left, where the militia, strung out twenty to thirty feet apart, held the works. Carrying the works at this point, the Federals attacked Armstrong in front and on histlank simultaneously, and drove him from the works. The Federals then look the city by storm, burned dwellings, storehouses, warehouses, arse- nal, foundry, and shops and stores of every kind, and gave the city over to be sacked and plundered by drunken soldiers. In this engagement Major- General Long, Unitetl States Army, and 168 offi- cers and men were killed, and about 800 were wounded. The Confederate's militia and citizens lost thirty killed and about :500 wounded.* •Amoiitf the kUleil witi-; rajit. Wm. T. Mintor mid A. W Ellfrti<.f.of DalliLs County; Hi'V. \. M. Siimll.of tin- rrcsbylfriaii Chiin-h: iiiiil H. N. Pliilpot. A. M. Huvy iiml Tims. Kiirirs, of .-^I'lma: Captain Uonalioo.of Talladoira, and KoImtI Pulton, of Florencf. (ieneral Wilson occupied Selma about ten days while a pontoon bridge was being thrown across the river, upon which he crossed his army — now about r2,000, (ieneral McCook's division having come up with the trains, and marched on to Mont- gomery, burning and plundering as he went. His last act before leaving Selma was to have killed in yards, in staoles, on lots, on the streets, wherever they happened to be, 800 disabled horses, which were buried by the few old men and boys left, to save the people from the direful elfects of their decay. While the city was occui)ied by the Federals General Lee surrendered, and in a month there- after all the armies of the Confederacy had laid down their arms and returned to their desolated homes. When Selma's sons returned from Lee's, John- son's and Taylor's armies, they found the once beautiful city in ruins, and the people, many of them, receiving food from their friends in the surrounding country, who had escaped j)inage. Without money, many of them with only the threadbare suit of gray they wore, they set to work to ••rebuild the city" — no small task, under the circumstances, for tiie place had been literally destroyed. At this time there was not a train of cars run- ning into Selma, and nearly all of the boats, which had made the Alabama River a famous highway, had been destroyed by the Federal troops when they captured Mobile and ^lontgomery, but the men of Selma did not despair, but worked with a will, and soon had cleared away the rubbish of the destroyed houses, and were actively engaged in building a new city. When it is remembered that " Wilson's raiders" left the whole of the business part of the city in ruins, and that there was not a single storehouse of any kind open for business, all the banks closed, all offices closed, and no postoffice, the wonderful progress made by her citizens in this work can be seen by contrasting their then coiulition with their present condition. Probably no better index on this material growth can be given than that of the banks of Selma. Tiie City National Bank, with *4(iO,(KtO of capital, *H»0,00o surplus, and *800,- (100 deposits, and the Commercial Bank, with *i:iOO,- OOO capital, |i10i>,(M)0 surplus and «;t;(iO,(HiO de- posits, now do an immense business, whereas, the two banks of Selma during the war were ruined and their vaults empty and doors closed. 656 NORTHERN ALABAMA. In ISGO, Selma received 200 bales of cotton; now her annual receijits vary from 80,000 to Wl.- 00(» bales. Then all cotton received had to be shipped to Mobile to be compressed and thence shipped to market; now nearlj' every bale received is compressed in Selma and shipjied direct to New England spinners, or to j)orts for e.xjiort to Europe. Then not a dollar's worth of goods were made in Selma; now her factories and shops turn out an- nually over a million dollars' worth of cotton goods, oil, oil-cake, cotton-seed meal, engines, presses, wagons, sash, doors, blinds, cars, car- wheels, brooms, castings and ice. K.\IIJ!UAI)S. MUNICIPAL DEPAUTMENT. The town of Selma, was first organized on the first Monday in April, 18-^1, by the election of Carter 15. Hnddleston, James Reynolds, .lames Cravens, Gilbert Sheaner, and Wm. Read, as councilmen, who elected James IJeynolds as In- tendant. In 1851, the charter was changed by the Legis- lature, and "The City of Selma" was created, and John M. Strong was elected the first Mayor, who was re-elected annually till 1858, and snc- ceeded by the following named incumbents of that office to the present time, namely: 1 58, JI. J. A. Keith; 180 miles, from Mobile to Marion Junction, thence over Alabama Central Division: Selnui, Rome & Dalton Division of E. T.,Va. it Ga. Railway, -^30 miles, to Dalton. Ga. PRO-JECTED HO ADS. Cahaba Valley Railroad, Selma to Birmingham; Alabama & Atlanta, Selma to Atlanta, Ga. : Selma & Greenville, Selma to Greenville, Ala. STREET RAILWAY. The Selma Street Railway Company was organ- ized in 1872. and laid about two miles of track through Broad, Water and other streets. This was operated with little or no profit, till recently it lijis been relaid with lieavier rail and a steam engine ("dummy") put on, and about three miles of additional track laid in East Selma and North Selma, the latter a newly laid out suburb. BANKS. Tiie tir.-;t bank organized in Selma, was the " Real Estate Banking Company of South Ala- bama,'" which began business in 18;$8 on a cash cai)ital of 1^28, G35, and did a flourishing business till the crash after the " flush times" forced it out of business. "The Commercial Bank of .Mabaiua " began business in 185G, with a cash cajiilal of ^500,(100. William .1. Norris was jtresident from its organ- ization till it ceased to do business at the close of the war. Under the management of Mr. Xorris, this bank made a r<'markable financial record. It never lost a dollar, or had to l>ring a suit for the recovery of a debt due it. On the outbreak of the war it had in its vaults gold coin enough to redeem every bank note issued bv it. This coin was taken bv the .State and used NORTHERN ALABAMA. ill oi|iiii)iiiii<; .soldiors and in projiariiig coast de- f I' rises. •' 'i'lie Hank of Si'iiiia " was organized in 18."i7, witli *:i(io,()O0 capital : Wasliington M. Smith, jircsident. It assets were all converted into Con- feiiei'atc I'linency. and tlie l)aiik ceased to do busi- ness at the close of liie war. In 18(>"), " Tlie First National Hank of Selnia" was organized under the National Banking Act, with *l()(i,(KKl capital : John JI. Parkman was the jirincipal stockholder and jiresideiit. Speculation soon baiiknii)ted this institution and its deposit- ors lost nearly all they had deposited therein. '• The City National Hank of Selnia'' and the •'Selnia Fire and Marine Insurance Company" were chartered by the State soon after the close of the war, and did a banking business for a year or two, till its capital had been reduced nearly a half, when its officers induced Jos. Isbell, Esq., of Tal- ladega to invest %!-.J."),(H)() and take charge of its business. With a capital thus made up to $75,0(M), Mr. Isbell named W'm. P. Armstrong as its cashier. Shortly afterward the name was changed to " The City Hank." and its capital increased to-?!lO(),()On. In 187i> tliis bank was converted into a National Hank, and so successfully has it been managed that its capital stock has grown to 1400,000, with a surplus of *109,OuO. Since its organization it has jiaid large annual dividends to its sliarehold- ers. Its management has been at all times ju- dicious and its success remarkalde. •' Tlie Commercial Hank of Selma" is organized under the law of Alabama. It was formerly the " Selma Savings Hank." Under the management of U. .M. Nelson as president, the business of the bank has grown to a very large volume, and the value of its stock has increased nipidly. Capital stock, *:i(i(»,()Ou; surplus, *loO,On(). SC'IK )()L.s. Selma has a very fine system of public scliools, under the control of the School Hoard, which is elected by the City Council. J, W. Mabry is the Superintendent of Schools. Under the control of this Hoard is "The Dallas Academy," a public school building built by the citizens on a lot given for that purpose by William Johnson. This academy was converted into a public school for white children in ISflS, with Joseph 1{. John as [•resident of the Hoard of Trustees, C. J. Clark, secretary, and N. I). Cross, superintendent of the school. It has continued to improve ever since its organ- ization, and now has over ."lOd children in daily attendance, with a corjis of very efficient teachers. The City School Hoard rent the "Hurrell Academy," a large and commodious building, and liavc a good school conducted therein for the negro children, of whom there are over 40(( in daily attendance. CHUHC'IIKS. Selnia is renowned for her churches, their num- ber, the number of members, and their zeal and piety. For the white people there are two Pres- byterian, two Southern .Methodist, one Haptist, one Protestant Episcopal, one Christian (Haptist), one Cumberland Presliyteriaii, and one Roman Catholic Church. The negroes have ten or twelve large churches, and there is a Congregational Church wiiose mem- bers are negroes and white people. The Hebrews have a synagogue, and a large, well-organized congregation — " Mishkeii Israel." SECJHET S0CII:TIE8. The following secret and benevolent societies are represented here: Masonic — Selma Fraternal Lodge, No. --i?, Central City Lodge, No. .305, St. .John's Chapter, Selma Council, and Selma Coni- maiidery. No. ,5; Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, and Ancient Order of United Workmen. YOING MEN'S CHHIsTI.\N ASSOCLVTIdX. In the spring of 18SG, the Rev. D. T. Moody, during a series of sermons preached in Selma, de- livered a lecture on Christian_ work among the young men. There had been a Young Men's Christian Association at Selnia for many years, but it had no local habitation. Immediately after Mr. Moody's sermon a liberal contribution was made, and that was followed by an organized movement, which resulted in building a three- story building on Hroad street, which has been elegantly fitted up, anrl is one of the best and most tasteful buildings of the Association in the United States. SANITARY. ETC. The healthfuliiess of Selma has steadily im- proved under the wise direction of tlie Hoard of IFealth, led by Dr. Walter P. Reese, and after his death liy Dr. Hen II. Riggs. After long and pa- tient work in the direction ofdrainage. Dr. Riggs procured the adoption of Colnncl Waring"s plan 658 NORTHERN ALABAMA. of sanitary sewers, which are now being laid under the principal streets of the city. In June, I88I1, a complete system of water works was opened, fur- ishing pure artesian well-water for drinking and other purposes' in almost inexhaustible quantity. The benefits following these two great improve- ments are very marked, and the reduction of the death rate among the white citizens of Selma be- low the average of the United States shows the great wisilom of these sanitary improvements; and these, with her superior public schools, her numer- ous churches, well organized and zealous, her seven railways, her unrivaled banks, her facilities for handling a large cotton crop, her manufacto- ries, the finest water supply in the known world, the grand river navigable all the year round, her geographical position, and tlie fact that Selma is and always will be the market of the finest body of farming lands in the world, the '' Canebrake " of Alabama, assures her of a i)!ace in the front rank of Alabama's cities. • •* > •?^^>-»— PHILIP J. WEAVER was born at Uniontown, near Manchester, .Md., .lune 11, 1707, of German parentage, his father and mother being natives of the Palatinate on the Hhine. The family was large (there being many sons and daughters), and poor. But with (icrman industry, honesty, and economy, a plain good living was obtained, and, as each child started out in the world, his por- tionate jiart, amounting to $".J,()00, was given him. While a child Philip J. was bitten by a moccasin snake in his right ankle, from the effects of which he never recovered, and which disabled him more as years increased. He often lamented that this misfortune prevented him from undertaking many things which he otiierwise would have done. The necessity of taking care of himself at an early age, deprived him of an education; but constant intercourse with all classes of men, and a facility in letter writing, made this deficiency unnoticed, i)oth in Ills conversation and in his letters, lie had the singular faculty of being able to write business letters and carry on a business conver- sation at the same time. Mr. Weaver was first articled to a large mercan- tile firm in Baltimore, to learn the business, and after a few years (ISl.")). he was sent as a clerk to the firm of Trevis i^ Mcis." — — '-^t^g^- • < »• • WILLIAM M. WEAVER, .son of I'hilip .lohn Weaver, was born, reared and educated at Selina, Ala. Soon after the outbreak of the late war, he joined Gen. John H. Morgan's command, and served with that general and was with him when he was killed. After the death of (ieneral Mor- gan, Captain Weaver joined the Thirty-seventh Alabama Infantry, and was made adjutant of that regiment. He left the army, at the close of the war. at Greensboro, N. C. lie was married in Dallas County, 1S.">T, to Miss FiUcy Frances Winter. She died in 1S8II. leaving two sons and four daughters. Mr. Weaver and family are communioaiits of the Episcopal church. • '•J' 'fSt^^' '^* ' * WILLIAM J. NORRIS was identilied with the ]irogress and liistory of Selma for fifty-nine years. lie was born at Madison, (Ja., in 1808, and came to Dallas County about the year 1820 with his parents and settled near Cahaba. In IS^ii he came to Selma and engaged in business as a clerk. and in 18:52 became a member of the firm of Douglass, Wood & Norris. In a short time there- after he became associated with William .lohnson, one of the most prominent and wealthy merchants in the place, under the firm name of Johnson & Norris. Mr. Johnson retired from the bu.-iiness in a few years with a large fortune, when Mr. Norris associated his brother, James A. Norris, with him in the business, which continued as one of the most successful and prosperous in the city, and from it he realized a fortune. In 18.if), with P. J. Weaver, E. K. Carlisle, Sr., Benjamin Marshall, John W. Lapsley, A. L. Ha- den, and others of the then prominent and wealthy citizens of Central Alabama, he organized the Commercial Bank of Alabama, at Selma, with a cash capital of 8!.")00,UOO and was made its ])re8i- dent, which position he held until the bank was closed by the results of the war, in 18(j.">. This bank was one of the three largest banks in the State, and it was one of the most successful and popular, its stock being at a high premium. It was in the management of this bank that he showed great judgment and financial skill, and established the reputation of being one of the best financiers in the State. In 1806, he began a large dry goods business in Selma, with Mr. Thomas Johnson, of (ireensboro, Ala., but on account of the death of Mr. Johnson, the business was closed. He was a member of the Methodist Church, and was one of its trustees, and it was largely due to his energy and liberality and attention to the duties in this office, that the elegant brick church building on Church street was erected in 1S.")(;. During the epidemic of yellow fever in Selma in the fall of the year 1853, he was one of the few wealthy citizens who remained in the place to aid, by his personal attentions and benefactions, its stricken citizens. During his long residence in Selma he was identified with, and took an active part in every public and j)rivate enterprise for the advancement of the interests of its citizens. He constructed three or four of the handsomest residences in the city, which he occupied at dif- ferent times as his home, and he did much by his example in planting shaile trees, shrubbery and flowers, in inciting among his neighbors that taste for beautifying their homes and their surround- ings, which has resulted in making the shade trees and shrubbery of the city the pride of its citizens, and the admiration of all visitors. 660 NORTHERN ALABAMA. In stature lie was of medium height, slightly stont, of shapely figure, and of haiukome appear- ance. He was scrupulously neat in his dress. In manners he was reserved, but at all times polite, courteous and considerate of the feelings and opinions of others, yet firm in his own oi)inions and in his dealings with every one. His honesty was a proverb in the community. He died July VI, l.ss."). at the age of seventy-seven years. His brotliers were all men of high character, and identified with the early commercial history of the State. The eldest, John B. Norris, was a successful merchant at Mobile, and the president of the Branch of the Hank of the State at Mobile, which was the largest bank in the State, and did an immense business throughout the Southwest. Another brother, Thomas ]5. Norris, was a suc- cessful commission and grocery merchant in Mobile, and accumulated a large fortune; after- ward removing to Xew York City he engaged in business and died there a millionaire. Another brother, Calvin Xorris, became a wealthy planter, and died leaving a very large estate. The young- est brother, James A. Xorris, was associated with liim as a partner in business at Selma, and ac- quired a fortune. He married in 1837 ^[is8 Rutherford, the daughter of William Rutherford, a wealthy planter of Dallas County, who was, by birth, a Georg- ian, and a member of the well-known family of that name in that State. He left, surviving him, his widow, a son, and three daughters. His eldest daughter marrieil J. C. Compton, p]sf|., of the Selma bar; another daughter married Capt. David M. Scott, of Selma; and the third daughter mar- ried Mr. H. B. Franklin, of Xashville, Tenn. His son, Frank Xorris, is at present engaged in business in Selma. JOEL EARLY MATTHEWS was born at the allas County. His whole life was spent at this place, which became, under his taste and care, one of the most beautiful and attractive family seats in the county. This home was the center of a generous hospital- ity, as its hoit was the type and representative of the Southern planter of the old rvyime. Here he devoted himself to the management of his large planting interests, and was very successful. He received a handsome patrimony from his father, which was improved by judicious management, and at the commencement of the war he had grown quite wealthy. He took great interest in all that tended to improve society and develop the resources of the country. He was a liberal patron of schools and churches, and public-spirited and liberal in his aid to enterprises of a public nature. Mr. Matthews possessed a strong, discriminating mind, which wa.< highly improved by reading and study. His leisure hours were spent with his Bible, Shakespeare.Gibbon,Bolingbroke, Calhoun, thecurrent jtolitics and literature of the day, and he made the science of government a study. In his political school of thought he was a dis- cijile of Jefferson and Calhoun, and acce])tcd their interpretation of the powers and limitations of the Federal Constitution, and. when all other means had failed, favored resistance and secession. Though too old to take an active part in the war which followed, he gave largely of his means to the State. Soon after .Mabama seceded he sent his check to the Governor for fifteen thousand dollars in gold, stipulating that the sum should be used at his discretion for the defense of the State. The letter bears datethe "^'oth of January, IsCil. ami though both of these jiatriotic men have " shuffled off this mortal coil" and sleep under the sod thev loved so well, the bold characters convey- NORTHERN ALABAMA. G61 iiig this inunificeiit contribution to the State are as frosli as if they were written yestenhiy. The (iovenior acknowU'dsrod its ddnatioii in the fnlhiw- ing letter: " ExEcvTiVE Depautmext, MoNTUOMEUY, Ai.A.. Jan. 28, ISCl. " Mk. Joel K. Matthews, Caiiaba, Ala. •' Dear Siu: — Your muniticencefor t}ie protei'- tion of the State is accepted, and the evidence of it placed upon record in this office. The i)raise of one man, although hespeak as one having authority, is but a small part of the reward which your patriotism deserves and will receive. When the present time shall have become historic, this donation will bean heirloom to your posterity, and the example you have set will be a source of power to vour State, compared to both of which the liberal sum of money you have given will be as nothing. As Chief Executive of the State, and acting under a deej) sense of responsibility, I have been compelled to do all in my power to strengthen the sense of resistance in the Southern mind, and to deepen the current flowing toward the inde- pendence of the State in defense of her constitu- tional rights. What I have been compelled to do by conviction of duty you have done voluntarily, and to that extent deserve more freely the grati- tude of your fellow-citizens. Trusting that an approving conscience and the gratitude of your State maybe your ample reward, and commending you and the State to the protect- ing goodness of Providence, I remain Very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. B. Moore, Gnvemnr nf Alabama." During the war Mr. Matthews was liberal to those in need of aid or assistance, and was very kind and generous to the sick and wounded. He uniformed and eriuipped several military com- I)anies at his own expense. JIany of his neighbo'-s were killed or died in the army, and many families were impoverished by the fortunes of the war, but this noble man permitted none to suffer or want within the limit of his means. Those to whom he rendered assistance were told that he was only discharging a debt and obligation that every pat- riot owed to those wiio had fallen in the service of the State. After the termination of the war many persons in the South, smarting under misfortunes and disappoinments. desired to leave the country, and some, attracted by the similarity of its climate anil institutions, turned their attention to Urazil. Liberal inducements were held out to them by the government, as the Emperor was exceedingly anxious to secure the accession of citizens from the South, familiar with the culture of cotton and its agricultural system. In 18[atthews was ardent and strong in his at- tachments, and devoted and unselfish in his friendships. In all the relations of life he was gentle, consid- erate ana atfectionate. His home was the world in which he lived, and he made it tlie center of liis life and happiness. It was tiiere, that he gave full expression to the warm current of his tender- ness and love. As a husband .-md father he was indulgent, gentle and alTectionate. Upon his family was lavished the wealth of tenderness which filled his bosom. These (pialities welled up from his heart, like the juire waters that flow along the current of the smooth ami limpid stream. As a master few were more kind and indulgent. He provided for his dependents with the same gen- erous hand with which he bestowed the comforts and luxuries of life upon his own family. In his intercourse with them the master was merged in the friend: he was more like a patriarch than a master. He was fully rewarded by them for this kind treatment. After the.'r emancipa- tion few of them deserted him, and most of them now live in the old homes where they have long resided, and where most of the present generation were born and raised. He married Miss Elizabeth Woods Poague, of Al- bemarle County, Va., who was born August 31,1814, and died Novemljer 5, 1800. She was a woman of rare virtues and lovely character, and the gentle almoner of her husband's benefactions. The rich, and the poor and the distressed were alike the recip- ients of lier kindness and ministrations. Gladness followed her presence into every household, and envy, hatred, nuilice, and all uncharitableness were silent in her presence. They passed through life with nniny trials and griefs; they were blessed with lovely and loving children, whom they lived to see wither under the north wind's breath and sink into early and untimely graves. They survived all their children but one. who died a few years after their death without chil- dren. Two daughters, Anne Eliza, and Lucy Early, married, respectively, Col, N. II. K. Daw- son, of ]>allas. and Col. Daniel S. Troy, of Mont- gomery. Both died young, and the latter child- less, the former leaving an only daughter, now the wife of Dr. John I'. Furniss, of Selma. For forty years they lived in the same home, dispensing a generous and hearty hospitality. .\nd now, after the cares and sorrows of life are ended, they repose alongside of their children and cherished kindred, in the beautiful family reme- tery at Evergreen (irove on the Alabama Uiver. in tiie shade of the magnolia and cypress trees planted by their own hands. Let us hope that a blissful immortality awaits them in the realms of eternity. FRANK NORRIS was born at ."^elnia, Ala., -March S, 1S4T. His father was William .JelTer- son Norris, one of Sehna's most distinguished and oldest citizens, who located here in early life. Our subject first went to the foinuion school of -^ ^ Z;/^ ^ ^^^^^^tt. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 663 liis native place, and in 1863-4, attended the Uni- versity of Alabama. At the age of seventeen, he enlisted as a private in Company M. Sixty-second Alabama Infantry, and was cajitnred at Blakely tills State, in Aj)ril, 1S()."). He was held a prisoner thirty days, paroled and retnrned to his home, lie engaged as a clerk in a dry goods house at Selma, and was occnpied in that caimcity most of the time up to January, ISSM, wlien lie bought an interest in the wholesale grocery house of Mr. Montgomery, his present partner. The business is now conducted under the firm name of Mont- gomery & Xorris, and is in a llourisliing condition, with increasing patronage. Mr. Xorris is a member of the Masonic frater- nity and of the Methodist Episcopal Churcli, South. lie is one of the young men indentiticd, with the social and industrial life of the Central City, who has won for himself an enviable name by his sterling qualities, and who, to his fine busi- ness capacities, adds good social requisites. It is reasonable to expect that with the growth of his native city, his expansion and progress will bear a proportionate relation. NATHANIEL HENRY RHODES DAWSON. son iif l,;iuri-nrc H. :ind Mai'v \V. (Kiiodt-s) l)au- son, was born in Charleston, S. C. His j)arents were of Huguenot and English extraction, and were descended from among the oldest families in Carolina — a rich heritage which no sensible man will either overvalue or underestimate. His fatlier moved to Alabama in 1S4"-.', and settled near Carlowville. in i)allas County. He was a prominent lawyer in South Carolina, and was rap- idly securing, by his zeal, ability and professional learning, a high reputation and an extensive and lucrative practice in the courts of Alabama, when he was arresteil, in the meridian of life, by the hand of death. To his professional attainments were added that peculiar refinement which comes of high culture and a generous nature, exquisite grace and courtesy, which charm us in the man of genial manners and gentle spirit. He was loved during his lifetime for his stanch and manly adherence to principle, his loyalty to his Christian duties, and his devotion to his family and friends. The son attended the local schools, and was matriculated at St. Jo.seph's College, -Mobile, and there received those advantages of a well-rounded classical education, without which even the most intellectual men feel themselves, in some sense, poorly equipped all through life. Upon leaving college he at once entered ujjon the study of the law with the Hon. (ieorge R. Evans, of Cahaba. In 1852 he was admitted to the bar, and com- menced the practice of that noble i)rofession, which, in his native State, is illustrated by such names as those of Drayton, Harper, linger and Pettigrue, and in Alabama by Uargon, Williams, Elmore, Evans and (ioldthwaitc, who were then in the zenith of their fame. Surrounded by this jirofessiomd atniosi)here, it is not surprising that he should have formed a very high view of the excellencies and require- ments of that profession, success in which, as has been well said, demands the " hicubrationi'S rigi)ili annormn." In 1855 he was one of the candidates of the Democratic party for the Legislature in the memo- rable ''Know-nothing" canijjaign. His party was largely in the minority, yet such was the hold he had upon popular confidence and favor, that he barely failpd of election. From then to the stirring and critical Presidential canvass of 1860, he devoted himself unsparingly to the demands of his profession. In 1860 he was a delegate at the Charleston and Baltimore Conventions, and withdrew from the former with the Alabama delegation, under instructions from the State Con- vention. As a result of this campaign ilr. Lincoln was elected, simply because the conserving forces of the country were frittered away between Bell, Douglas and Brecken ridge. In April, 18111, upon the secession of Alabama, he was elected captain of the Cadets of Sehna. a company composed of the very best material of the young manhood of the South. The writer was a member of that company, and, at this late date, bears willing testimony to the pojnilarity of Colonel Dawson with his comrades, and to the fidelity with which he discharged the various du- ties of his position. En route to Virginia, at Dalton, Ga., the company was incorporated into the Fourth Alabama Regiment, an organization of which every Southern man, and especially every Alabamian, should feel justly proud, for so nobly did the regiment bear itself, under the lead of .Jones and Law and others that no man ever spoke invidiously of that historic command which, when brigaded with the invincible Texans, helped Hood 6G4 yORTHERX ALABAMA. and Law on to martial fame. After his service with that regiment, he commanded during tlie last two years of the war a battalion of cavalry. During this period he was elected to the House of Representatives, and at the annual sessions of 18*i3 and 18ti4, faithfully served his constituents, returning to his command at the close of the ses- sion.* of tiie Legislature. At the close of the war, Colonel Dawson resumed the practice of law in the city of Selma. Li common witii all the good and true men of the .South, the war had brought no little trouble and sorrow to him. He had lost heavily financially, but by far the greatest loss to him was the fall of those noble friends who, at their country's call, after faithfully serving in the cause of the South, had passed from warring earth, we trust, to peaceful Heaven. He sought not to forget the past in Lethean waves of dissipation, but with nobler aim of rigliting up the wreck, addressed himself with greater energy than ever before to the duties of his profession, and sought to appiv to the youth of the South the vast powers of rec'iperation embodied in the aphorism of the great Virginian, when amid the classic shades of Fjcxington he taught the world " How to suffer and grow strong." not by repining, but by work and labor. During this period of depression, he took an active part in politic.", and was nnvde chairman of the county and congressional com- mittees. In 187-J when the South was struggling to swing loose from Radical rule, and to rehabili- tate herself in the constitutional habiliments of Statehood, he was appointed an elector on the Presidential ticket, and canvassed his district. From 18Tf! to 188*! he was a member of the State Executive Committee, and from 188-t to 1880 was its chairman, and rendered valuable and accept- able service to his party and State. In this posi- tion he gave universal satisfaction, and his candi- dacy for (iovernor in 18S2 was the reward of the zeal, discretion and executive ability which char- acterized his administration. Under his guidance the Cleveland State canvass of 1884 was conducted ably and successfully. In March, 18HC, he re- signed this position in order properly to become a candidate for the Chief Magistracy of the State. In the heated and prolonged canvass which fol- lowed, and ill the contest before the State conven- tion for the noniiiiation, he had a very strong fol- lowing and came near being the choice of the people. In 1870, when the State University was reor- ganized, his interest in popular and higher educa- tion W!is recognized by his a])pointnient by Gov. {Jeorge F. Houston as one of the trustees, an honor which has been continued to the present time. In the midst of political, professional and business duties, so economical has Colonel Daw- son shown himself in the wise expenditure of time, as to be able to look carefully after one of the most important duties of the citizen, and the present success of the State University in her ability to keep pace with the advancement in the various departments of a rounded education, has found a zealous and capable advocate and friend in him. Colonel Dawson has enjoyed many honors at the hands of his fellow-citizens. He was a member of the Legislature of 188(i-8I, and was made Speaker of the House of IJepresentatives. His conduct in the chair justified the choice; his dignity and courtesy, his impartiality and vivid sense of justice, his knowledge of parlia- mentary law, and his executive ability, greatly facilitated the public business. It was partly owing to the popularity obtained by him during this session of tlie Legislature that he was placed in nomination by his friends for Governor in 188"..', develoi)ing great strength in the convention. He was urged for the same position in 1884, but declined to antagonize the Hon. E. A. O'Neal, taking the ground that, according to the usages of the party, the incumbent was entitled to a second term for the faithful manner in which he had discharged the duties of the office. In 1884 he was President of the State Bar Association. Among such eminent lawyers as Hrooks, Watts, Pettus, Walker, and Semple, to say nothing of many others whose fine talents shed a lustre on the profession, this was no empty compliment. To a mind clearly judicial, and honestly discriminating, he had brought that delicately shaded power of expression in all that comes from pen or lip, which attaches to the diligent study of the Greek and Roman classics as a basis for the superstructure which the best English authors sujjply. Colonel Dawson has rendered conspicuous ser- vice to his party, both as a private in its ranks and as one of its leaders. He was a laborer in the vineyard when the State was struggling in the throes of Reconstruction and Radical rule, and continued to work throughout the heat and bur- den of the day, for the good of the people of bis NORTHERN ALABAMA. 665 State, witliout reward or preferment. He is a j)iiblic-.spirite(l and liberal citizen, a true and generous friend, and an upright and honorable gentleman. His large practice and long expe- rience at the bar and in pul)lic affairs, his pru- . Cooper, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. lie began the practice at Gainesville, this State, and re- mained there until 1848. The gold e.xcitement of I.s4'.i attracted him to California, and he remained there two years. Returning to Alabama, he lo- cated at Carrolton and there practiced law until 18.")8. From Carrolton he moved to Cahaba, and from there, in 1860, came to Sehna. Recurring to an earlier period in General Pettus' life, we find that in 1S44, he was elected Solicitor of Sumter County, and that he resigned to go to California. In l8o"-i he was appointed Solicitor of Pickens County, and iield the office two years. In is,5.") he was elected .Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit and resigned before moving to Cahaba. At the outbreak of the sectional war, Judge Pettus, as he was then known, was appointed com- missioner of Alabama to the State of Mississippi. In August, ISOl, he entered the army at Cahaba and was made major of the Twentieth Alabama Infantry. He was soon afterward promoted to lieutenant-colonel and held that rank until the siege of Vicksburg. lie first saw actual war in the Kentucky Cainpaign of 1802, and commanded (ien. Kirby Smith's advance when the enemy were driven into Covington and Cincinnati. I hiring the winter following he was ordered to Mississippi, and there took part in the battles of Port (iibson and Baker's Creek. At Port (iibson he fell into the hands of the enemy, but readily effected an escape, rejoined his command, and with it entered the fated \'icksburg. During the siege of the latter place he was commissioned colonel. An incident of the siege of Vicksburg, and with which (ietieral Pettus was connected, has been many times related in print, and while in the main it has been correctly reported, the real truth as to at least one feature of it appears to have been somewhat overdrawn. It is related that (Jen. Stephen D. Lee wished to drive ihe enemy from a redoubt captured by them in the earlier part of the day, and that (_'olonel Pettus proffered his services for the undertaking, but could find none of his own men, nor any otiiers, in fact, w^illing to join in the perilous enterprise. How- ever, Waul's Te>as Legion did volunteer f« wfrt.sae, and forty of them were selected. Led by Colonel Pettus, tliose brave men easily retook the redoubt without loss, and carried away ion prisoners and three of the enemy's flags. The only correction to be made in the narrative is as to Colonel Pettus vohniteeriiig for the mani- festly hazardous undertaking. In conversation with the writer, General Pettus said: " I did not volunteer my services on that occasion, as has been published. I was j)eremptorily ordered by (ien- eral Lee to take the redoubt. Waul's Legion and three gallant Alabamians did volunteer, but I, as their commander, was acting in response to orders. '' In October, 180:i, Pettus was promoted to brig- adier-general and placed in command of a brigade composed of the Twentieth, Twenty-third. Thir- tieth, Thirty-first and Forty-sixth Alabama Regi- ments, and led that command until its final sur- render at Salisbury, N. C. From first to last General Pettus took an active part in the following engagements: Be- ginning with the skirmishes around Covington, in which he commanded the advance, he was afterward, and in rapid succession, at Port (iib- son. Baker's Creek, siege of Vicksburg, Lookout .Mountain and Missionarv Ridjre, where he held 668 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the right under Hardee; (row's Valley, Daltoii, j Rocky Face, Hesaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw | Jlountain, siege of Atlanta. Jonesboroand C'olum- bia.Tenn., where he forced a crossing of the river, \ and at the head of three regiments charged and captured the enemy's breastworks ; both the battles of Nashville: thence by the way of Flo- ence, through Mississipi)i to South Carolina, where he took part in the battles about Columbia; on to Kingston, and finally at Bentonville, N. C. At the last-named place he was seriously wound- ed, which, aside from his capture at Port Hudson, appears to be about the only j)ersonal mishap tiuit overtook him. Soon after the cessation of hostil- ities. General Pettus located at Selma, and resumed the practice of law. Another publication describes the General as of " imposing personal ap]iearance, a man six feet tall, broad-shouldered, with a large head some- what leonine in its contour": and a distinguished citizen of Alabama, in writing of him. says: " In general intercourse he is cordial and genial; at the bar he is diligent and laborious in the prosecu- tion of his causes. His style of sj)eaking is argu- mentative, clear and convincing. While on the bench he was distinguished for his decision and dispatch of business, and for his clear exposition of the law. As a soldier he was noted for devo- tion to duty, strictness in enforcing discipline, and promptness in obeying orders. He was always prudent, cool and brave. No otticer was more jealous of the welfare of his men, and he was re- paid by their respect." Though ajiproaching in years the allotted three score and ten, (Jeneral Pettus is apparently but in the prime of life. Blessed with an iron constitu- tion, in the enjoyment of robust healtli and in the daily exercise of a vigorous and perfect manhood, he is intellectually the peer of the greatest, and prom- ises yet many years of a brilliant and useful citizen- ship, in a community that honors itself by honor- ing him. A brilliant soldier, a great lawyer, an esteemed , citizen, an eloquent speaker, a terse and vigorous writer, the biographer ])laees General Pettus in the fore front rank of the greatest men of a State prolific in the production of intellectual genius. CHARLES MILLER SHELLEY, Fourth Auditor of the Treasury 1 k-jiartnient of the United States, is a native of Sullivan County, Tenn., and was born December "^8, 1833. His father was William P. Shelley, also a native of Tennessee, from which State he came into Alabama in 1837, located at Talladega, and followed building and contracting. He died in 1804, at the age of sixty-four 'years. Two of his sons, Henry E. aiul Gen. N. G. Shel- ley, both of Austin, Tex., are lawxers by pro- fession. The subject of this sketch was educated at Tal- ladega, and learned the trade of builder under his father. lu February, 18f;i, he enlisted in the Tal- ladega .\rtillery as a lieutenant. At the reorgan- ization of the artillery, while at Pensacola, during the spring of 1861, he was made captain. In May of that year, the command was sent to Virginia, and there joined Lee's army. In Feb- ruary, ISO'^i, he was made Colonel, placed in com- mand of the Thirtieth Alabama Infantry, and re- ported to (ieneral Stevenson in East Tennessee. After participating in the Kentucky and Tennes- see campaigns, he was ordered to Mississip))i, and was in Vicksbiirg when that city fell. After be- ing exchanged he joined Bragg'sarmy at Mission- ary Hidge. In 18(54, he was promoted to briga- dier-general and assigned to Cantey's brigade, at the head of which he participated in the battles at Franklin and Nashville. Toward the close of the war he was assigned to a l)rigade composed of the remnants of various connnands and there- after known as Shelley's brigade. As captain of a company, he was in the advance on the march to Bull Run; he was engaged at Tazewell. Tenn.. the bombardment at Cumberland Gap, Chicka- saw, Port Gibson, Baker's Creek, Siege of N'icks- burg. Missionary Hidge. Rocky Face, Resaca, the Georgia campaign, Jonesboro, and at Franklin, Tenn., where he lost 432 men and all his staff officers, and had his own horse killed under him. In the consolidation at Greensboro, N. C, he and (teneral I'ettus were the only general officers retained. He was at Danville, Va., when (ieneral Lee surrendered. During his stay in Mrginia he held the rank of cajitain. but. as has been seen, he was thereafter promoted to i)rigadier-general: and in no instance was promotion in response to his own solicitation. In fact it is known that in one case at least he insisted tlmt another than himself should be elevated to the command of the brigade. General Shelley always shared the perils and hardships of the men under him. lie was com- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 669 jiliinented by Gen. 8. D. Lee for gallantry on the hattlc-fickl at Baker's Creek; and (ieneral Hood said: "that the strategy of (Jeneral Shelley saved Stewart's corps from capture at Franklin." When the army was concentrating in North Caro- lina, General Shelley was sent with his brigade to protect the stores at Danville, but. as peace followed soon after, we find that he returned to .Mabania, and, on .June 1^, 18(!5, was married in Talladega to Miss McConneli, daughter of Hon. Felix G. McConneli. .June, ISfJii, he removed to Selma, where he again took up building as a busi- ness, and followed it uji to ]S74, at which time he was appointed Sheriff of Dallas C'ounty. lie was elected to the United States Congress in 1870, 1878. 1880 and 1882, and in May, 188.'), at the in- stance of Senator Pugh. was appointed to his present position in the Treasury Department. It is of history, that the Republicans contested his every election for Congress, and that they succeeded twice in unseating him. General Shelley is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, a Knight of Honor, and of the Metho- dist Kjiiscoiial Church, South. Another biographer says of him: "General Shelley is of ordinary stature, and as unpretentious in appearance and bearing as he is sensible and sincere in conduct and language. As a soldier he was faithful, etHcient and intrepid, beloved by his men and piized by his superiors." "^►^ ♦■*« JOHN COLEMAN REID. Attorney-at-law, was born in Tuscaloosa County, this State, December •!, 1824. His father, Thomas Reid, planter, a native of North Carolina, came to Alabama in 1818, lived in Tuscaloosa County many years, re- moved to .Memphis in 1830, and died in IM.'ifi at the age of forty-one years. His wife's maiden name was Mary Coleman, of Nortii Carolina. She died in Memphis Iti 183:5. The Reids came originally from Ireland, and this particular branch of the Coleman family trace their ancestry to (iermany. The subject of this sketch was educated in Jlem- })his: at the age of nineteen years he began the study of law, an--^^<£4 NORTHERN ALABAMA. 675 that State. The present governor of Georgia ((leneral J. B. (iordon) married a daughter of Gen- eral Haralson and a cousin of the subject of this sketch. So did the Hon. F.ogan E. Hleci. in 18.")1. In 1853, he was graduated by the Law l>epartment of the University of Louisiana in the degree (if i,L. H., and began the practice at once, in Sclinu. He gave his time and talents to the jiractice of law until 18T0 when he was a)ipointed by Governor Houston to the City .Judgeship. He was re-appointed to that office by Governor Cobb in 188'2, and again by Governor Seay in 1888. .\s a lawyer, Judge Haralson ranks among the foremost in the State, and as Judge, his character and reputation are as spotless as snow. He is the educated, polished, courteous gentleman at all times: actively interested in the cause of education and consistent alike in jtretense and practice. He was for many years trustee of Howard Col- lege; is at present a trustee of Dallas Academy; has been continuously pi'esident of the Alabama J^aptist Convention since 18T4, and is one of the trustees of the .Vgricultural and Afechanical Col- lege at Auburn. He is one of the directors of the Commercial Bank of Selma, and its vice-president, and is largely interested in agriculture. Judge Haralson was first married near Colum- bus, (Ja., in IS.iS, to a daughter of the late John W. Thompson, of that place. She died in 18G7, in I'aris, France, whither she had accompanied her husband the jirevious year. He was married a second time at Selma in .May, ISOS, to Miss Lida .1. McFadden, a daughter of the late Hobert H. Mc- i'adden, of (ireensboro, Ala. ' ■ 'J' 'fSjtM" *V • • PLEASANT GREEN WOOD was born near Centerville, in Bibb County, Ala., January 31, 183'^. When about si.x years of age he removed, with his mother to Cahaba. where he received such education as the common schools of that day couhi furnish. During his leisure hours, while attending school, he devoted himself to the study of tclegrajihy, and after having become proficient in tluit art, was given charge of the company's office at Cahaba. He remained in tiiis position about two years, when he was given a "sit'" on the Dallas Gazette, a paper then published at Cahaba. In 1852 he began the study of law in the office of Jlessrs. Dawson vi Pegues, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. He then devoted himself to the practice of his profession till the commence- ment of the civil war, at which time he enlisted in the Twenty-eighth Alabama Infantry, and was made first lieutenant of Com])any I. He served during the entire war with this regiment, and at the close of hostilities held the rank of lieutenant- colonel of the regiment, having been three times promoted on the field for bravery. Immediately after the surrender of the Confederate armies, he returned to his home and resumed the practice of law. In 18G<1 he was elected .Judge of the City Court, and resigned immediately after the passage of the Heconsti'uction Act. Retiring from the bench, .Judge Wood, at Selma, resumed practice at the bar. In 18TT he was appointed by (Jov. George S. Houston to the I'robate Judgeship of Dallas County; in 1880 he was elected to that office by the people of his county, and in ISSfJ, was re- elected; each time without opposition. The subject of this sketch has been, since boy- hood, a consistent member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. He is the present president of the Board of Trustees of the Methodist Church in Sel- ma, and also of the Board of Trustees of the South- ern University, — the only male institution of learning endowed and sustained by the Methodist Church in Alabama. Judge Wood has tieen twice married, having wedded Miss Kate Webb, of Greene County, X. Y., on the seventh day of February, 185ti, and after her death in 18T4,he married .Miss Julia V. Roach, of Charleston, S. C, on the fifth day of August, 1875. He has been for many yars one of the directors of the Conimcroial Bank of Selma. SAMUEL W. JOHN. Attomey-at-law, Selma, was born at L'niontown, Perry Co., this State, June 29. 1845, and is a son of the Hon. .Joseph R. John. He was graduated from the University of Alabama in 18i!o, and was admitted to the bar in .June, ISGO. He entered the army during the first 674 NORTHERN ALABAMA. year of tlie late war, as a private in Company F, Third Kegimont of Alabama Cavalry, and on the expiration of iiis term of enlistment left the service, on account of his yontli, and returned to school. Kver since his admission to the bar he has been regularly at the practice, and it is proper to state that he occupies a high rank in the profession. Mr. John was solicitor of Dallas County in 1,^71 and 187".J, and has been in the Legislature contin- uously since 18K-i. In the Legislature he is one of the most active members, and many of the most salutary laws are to be credited to his efforts. In the reformation of the convict system he took a leading part: he was the author of the law of increas- ing the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace of Dallas County; also of tlie law prohibiting the system of "rebates," and the Dallas Jury Law, which insures the best juries possible; and many other similar statutes are due almost entirely to his wisdom. One of the most important changes in the old laws of Alabama, that of the Rights of Married Women, is to be credited to Mr. John. In the last session of the Legislature he was chair- man of the Judiciary Committee, the most honor- able committee of the lower house. He was also chairman of the Committee on the Codification of tlie Alabannx Laws, and the author of the law pro- viding for the establi-shment of an Experiment Station at L^niontown. He was one of the organ- izers of the State Agricultural Society, of which he is now a life member. Mr. .John is also the author of the law making gambling a felony in this State. In April, ISS.i, he organized the Third Regiment of State troops of which he is, and ha.-* been since its organization, the colonel. The present jiopular military laws of the State are almost entirely due to the efforts of Colonel John and Col. Thomas 0. Jones of Montgomery. The law providing for the indict- ment of cor])orations, and requiring judges to fix the amount of bail as soon as an indictment is found, are due to his genius, as well as the law amending the school fund statute, providing that the money shall be paid into the State Treasury, instead of distributed as heretofore. He was the author of the law providing for an expert exam- iner of public oflicers' accounts. Thus it will be seen that .Vlabaina has probably never had a more indu.strious legislator tlum Colonel John. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Knights of Honor. Ancient C>nler United Workmen and of the Mctliodist Kpi-ci)pal Clnu'Oi. South. As a speaker Colonel John is ranked among the foremost of the State, and as a writer he is fluent, polished, logical and readable. The history of Selma. as found in this volume, was written by Mr. John, and is one of the most elegantly pre- pared chapters in the book. JOHN FINLEY WHITE. Attorney-at-law, Selma, was liorii at Tall.nlega. this State, March .3. 1S51, and is the eldest sdu of Capt. John White. He was educated at Caliaba — Stonewall Institute — and the Virginia Military Institute, from which latter school he was graduated in ISTL During ISTI, 187'^. and part of 1873, he was clerking in a mercantile establishment in New Orleans, and, at the age of twenty-four years, in the office with his father, began the study of law. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1874, and has since that time been regularly in the practice. The firm of which he is now a member. White & White, is composed of himself and Capt. John White, whose sketch apjiears elsewhere in this volume. John F. White, with the rank of colonel, was Covernor Cobb's adjutant-general during l)Oth that gentlennin's terms of office, and was by Gov- ernor O'Neal appointed brigadier-general of mili- tia. He was appointed city attorney for the city of .Selma in ISSO. and has been since regularly continued in that office. He was a member of the Legislature, session of 18S4-.">, and there bore himself in a manner in full keeping with his exalted character and reputation. Colonel White is a good lawver. a shrewd politician, an eloquent si)eaker, and a gentleman of high re]nite. He is a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Knights of Honor, and a com- municant of the Episcopal Church. While in the Legislature, Colonel White served on the Committee on Corporations, Committees on I'ublic Huildings and Institutions, Accounts and Claims, .Military, and was the author of the bill to protect and encourage industries in the State, and the law providing against strikes. He was married October, 1S7'>. in Clark County, this State, to Miss Alice C. Jackson, who died in November, 1879. The present Mrs. White, nee Miss Sadie Waller Nelson, is a daughter of the late A. S. Nelson, of (ireensboro. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 675 T. B. ROY, attoriu'V-iit-law, Selma. was born Octoljer VI. 1.S38, near Front IJoyal, Wari'eii County. Va.. anil is the son of honorable parent- age, traciiij; their ancestry back to the early set- tlers of the 01(1 Dominion, ami among whom have been men clistinguishetl in both C'hureli anil State. April 18, 18t!l, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company B, Seventeenth Virginia Infantry, and was snbsef|uently promoted successively to captain, major and lieutenant-colonel in the Adjutant-General's Department. Confederate States of America. In April, isi;-^, he was ap- pointed adjutant-general and chief of staff to Lieutenant-General Hardee, and held that position to the close of the war. Colonel Hoy participated in the battles of Siii- loh. I'erryville, Murfreesboro. Missionary Ridge, the Daltou and Atlanta campaign, the battles of Atlanta, siege of Savannah, the battles of Ayres- boro av.d Hentonville. X. C. He was in active service from April 18th, 1861, to Johnson's sur- render at Greensboro, N. C., April. 18()."). Having been educated for the bar, at the close of hostilities. Colonel Roy settled down to the practice of law. He came to Selma in 1867, and soon afterward became a member of the firm known for five years as Brooks, Haralson & Roy. After the retirement of .Judge Haralson, the firm of Mrooks & Roy continued for ten years. Judge Brooks having removed to Birmingham, Colonel Roy is at this time unassociated in the ))ractice. He is recognized as a polished, scholarly gentle- man, standing high in the legal i)rofession, and in the esteem of all those who claim his acfjuaint- ance. He is one of the directors of the Commer- cial Bank of Selnni. Colonel Roy was married, April 18. ISTI, to Miss .*^allie Hardee. He is a communicant of the H|>iscopal Church, and has been vestryman of St. Paul's Cliurcii. Selma. for seventeen vears. -»-^ JOSEPH REED JOHN. :. retiri-d lawyer of some distinction, was born at Mecklenburg. N. C. March 16, 1814. His father was Abel John, of that State, and his mother's famiiv name was Reed. The John family came originally fi'om Wales, and this i)articiilar branch of the Rteds was Scotch-Irish. 'I'lie J(dins settled first in renn- sylvauia. removing thence into South Carolina, and later on into the North State, whence, as has been seen, they came into Alabama. Joseph R. .John was educated at the common and high scliools of his native State; visited Ala- bama ill 1836, and the following year located at Uniontown. Here he began the study of law with Col. C. W. Lee, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. From the time of his coming to the bar up to IS.iO, he practiced law at Uniontown. In .lanuary, of tne latter year, he came to Selma, where he has since resided. While a resident of Perry County he held the office for a time of Justice of the Peace, and in 1847 represented that county in tlie Legislature. In 1862 he was Mayor of Selma, and in 1863 was appointed Chancellor of the iliddle Division, which office he was holding at the time of the overthrow of the State Government by the Federals in 1805. Since that time Mr. .John has neither sought nor held any political oflice. He devoted his time to the practice of law until 1883. Another biographer says of him: " Chancellor John is a profound lawyer, and a citizen of the highest moral and social standing." Jlr. John has always been more or less identified with the very best interests of education. The excellent school system of Uniontown is due lo his efforts, and the Dallas Academy, of which he was many years a trustee, is jn'obably the result of his labors. He was one of the original organizers of the East Tennessee, Virginia & (ieorgia Railway (then the East & West Alabama), and as attorney, procured its right of way, its charier, and the sub- sequent appropriations to its construction. Dur- ing the war his sympathies were with the South, and it was under his direction that the fortifica- tions at Selma were constructed. He was ap- pointed receiver by the court to take and care for the property of Northern people sequestered here during the conflict, and in that capacity became for a time the trustee of immense sums in money and valuables. Chancellor John has always taken an active part in politics and has been one of the most jiersistent and effective workers in the Democratic party. He is also equally interested in the cause of temperance, to which he has given much of iiis time. At this writing he has completely retired from active labor, and is spending the declining years of his life in absoluie quietude at his beauti- ful residence in the citv of Selma. 676 NORTHERN ALABAMA. He was married at Mecklenburg, X. C, in 1837, to Miss Jiine Smitli, of that place, and has had born to him five sons uiid two daughters. GASTON ALEXANDER ROBBINS is prominent uiiiiinir the rcjirc-i'iiuttivf men of Alabama. He was born September "^0, 1659, and is the son of the late Capt. .Julius A. Hobbins. Captain bobbins, the fatlier of tlie subject of tliis sketcli, was a native of North Carolina, and a graduate of the University of that State. He married ^liss Alford, of Eastern Carolina, a lineal descendant of Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury, and removed to Selma, Ala., where he commenced the practice of law. iSoon afterward. Alabama acceded from the Union, and he was one of the first to answer the call for volunteers. After spending four years in active service, lie was killed, just before the surrender, at Mt. Sterling, Ky., while leading a cavalry charge, made by a division of the brigade of (ien. John H. Morgan. His company was composed of citizens from Dallas County, and of Jones Valley, in the vicin- ity of Birmingham. The valor of the " Robbins boys" is well-known to the soldiery of the State. and particularly to the remnant of the Fourth Alabama Regiment. Four of the six brothers were killed in their country's service. Gaston A. Robbins is the only male representa- tive of the family now living in Alabama. He graduated at Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina, in 187!i. The Supreme Court of that State granted him license to practice law, when he immediately returned to his home and began the practiee'of his chosen profession. In 18S1. Mr. Robins became the editor of the Soulhern An/iis, published in Selma. This paper was for some years successfully conducted by him and finally sold to the Times rublisliing Company, and, by consolidation, became the Time.i Aifjvs. He was elected by the Democratic State Con- vention of 18S4, the Presidential elector for the Fourth Congressional District. (The Democratic electors of .Mabama were elected by a hundred thousand majority). He therefore had the privi- lege of voting for the first Democratic president after the war. Mr. Robbins has applied liimself closely to the practice of the legnl jirofession, and with a dis- tinguished degree of success. FRANCIS F. PETTUS, Attorney-at-law, Selma, son 111' (ieii. K. W. I'ettus. is a graduate of David- son (.\. C.) College; read law with his father, and was admitted to the bar in 18TU. Since that date, with the exception of the years 1S81-84, spent as secretary of the Supreme Court, he has devoted his time to the profession, and attained enviable rank therein. He was elected to the Legislature I in 1880, and, as a member of the Judiciary Com- mittee and of the Committee on Ways and Means, ' performed much valuable service. Mr. Pettus is a prominent member of the ila- I sonic fraternity and of the Presbyterian Church. I He was married at Selma, in 1880, to Miss Mary 1 Knox, daughter of the late William S. Knox, ' Esq. GEORGE H. CRAIG, son of James D. and Elvira S. ( Herry) Craig, natives of South Carolina and Mississijjjii, and descendants of Scotch-Irish and English ancestry, respectively, was born at Cahaba, December '^."1, 184,5. The senior Mr. Craig wasa lawyer by profession and held office many years under the old riijimc as Clerk of the County Court of Dallas County. He removed to California in 18T4. and was there filling the office of Master and Examiner in Chancery at the time of his death, which occurred at SanFranciscoin February, 1882. He was eighty- three years of age. The subject of this sketcii was educated at the I'niversity of Alabama, and at the age of sixteen years, entered the army as a lieutenant of Company C, Alabama Corps Cadets, and was in the service about twelve months. He began the study of law in 18f;.") in the office of White & Portiss, and was admitted to the l>ar December •-.':. 18G6. Of the firm of White. Por- tiss & Craig, ne practiced law until February I8t!7, when he was elected l)y the Hoard of Commissioners to the office of County Solicitor. It may be re- marked, however, that Federal tJeneral Pojie never allowed him to discharge tlie duties of the office. In 18(18, the Governor appointed him Sheriff of Dallas County, and he held that office one year. He was but twenty-four years of age when elected Judge of the Criminal Courtof Dal- las County, and was but twenty-eight years of age when Governor Lewis appointed him Circuit Judge to fill out an unexpired term. At the ex- piration of this ajipoiiitiaent he was elected Judge NORTHERN ALABAMA. 677 of the Circuit, held tho office one term, six years, and declined re-election, to resume the practice of law. In 188:2, lie was the Kepublioan candidate for Congress, nominally defeated at the polls, but given his seat after a contest. At the e.xpiration of his term in Congress, he was appointed by Tres- ident Arthur as United States Attorney for the Northern and Middle Distriots of Alabama, and held that othce until July, 1885. Since retiring from officii he has devoted his time to the law, and is at this writing senior memberof the firm of Craig & Craig, one of tlie leading law firms of Sehna. lie was married at Selma, April 15, 1868, to Miss Alvina White, the accomplished daughter of Capt. John White, and has had born to him five children — three sons and two daughters. FRANK BOYKIN. jF.,'rax Collector for Uallas County, son of Frank lioykin, native of .South Carolina, was born in this county, Jfarch 3, 184"2. He was attending the University of Virginia at the outbreak of the l"ate war, atid left that institution to enter the army in April, 1861. In Wilcox County, where the family was then residing, he joined the Alabama Mounted Hifies as a private, but served only a few months, ill- health necessitating his discharge. After a few months at home, having in a degree regained his health, he joined the Second Alabama Cavalry, and at the organization of that regiment in the spring of 18t I'rr.-liytc-rian Church, of Selma; Trustee of llampdeii-Sidney College, Vir- ginia; Director in the t'olumbia Theological Sem- inary, South Carolina; Member of the Executive Committee Colored Theological Institute, and of the Executive Committee of the Orphans' Home, Tuskegee, Ala., is a native of Hanover County, Va., and was born November 'i, \&i. His father was Josepli Hooper, a native of Virginia, and a descendant from the Hoopers, one of whom, William, was a signer of the Declaration of Inde- pen'i, at the age of forty-five years. His wife, before marriage, was Miss Haw. of \'irginia, and a descendant probably from Irish parentage. Shedied in Richmond, Va.. in 18S1. ut tlie age of seventy-three years. The subject of tiiis sketch was educateil pri- marily in Hanover County, and graduated from Hampden-Sidney College as A. B. in 18.i.">, with the first honors of his class. From Hampden- Sidney, he went to the Union Theological Semi- nary, of New York, and from there returned to Union Seminary, Va., completed a theological couise. and was licensed to preach in 18.")T. In 18.")8, he was ordained at Pole (Jreen, and was installed pastor of Pole Green and Salem Churches, where he preached five years. From Hanover he went to Liberty, ^'a , as pastor and chaplain of the hospital, and remained until the close of the war. He was next at Christians- burg five years; thence to Lynchburg, where he was in charge of the Second Presbyterian Church up to the time of his coming to Selma and to his jiresent charge (18T(i). In 18T:J, he visited Europe on a pleasure trip, taking in the World's Fair at Vienna, and in 1884 he was a delegate to the Presbyterian Alliance which met at Belfast, Ireland. While abroad, his letters (published) under the caption of a " Memphian's View of Europe '" attracted a great deal of attention, and showed him to be a man of versatile literary attain- ment. He was instrumental in the compilation and publication of a popular book of family worship: his sermons and addresses have been pub- lished, and his monograph, "Our Pastor's View of the People, as Seen by Himself," and his lectures on his travels of LST-'J, delivered for benevolent purposes, are all replete with interest and disclose much originality of thought. Tiie title of D. D. was conferred upon him in ]8T, identified himself with the Times. He is a public speaker of rare force and ability, and as a newspaper man, he ranks among the fore- most of the State. At New Heme, N. C, in 1885, he delivered the address at tlie unveiling of the Confederate monu- ment, in response to a special invitation of the ladies of that city. (laptain (Jraliam was married, in Dallas Countj', July. 188(). to Miss Mary J. Moseley, daughter of L. li. Moseley, Ksq. ■ • ■ ■ - '^^^-^ ^—^ ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON JONES was born November :!, 1840, in Somerville. I'ayette County. Tenn. His father, the late Honorable Calvin Jones, Chancellor of the Northern District of Tennessee for a period of eight years, was a North Carolinian of English e.xtraction. and was educated at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, receiving the first honorsin a large class. His mother, Mildred Williamson, also of North ( 'arolina, was of Scotch parentage, she being of the first generation in the United States. His father, after retiring from the Bench, continued in the active practice of law until his last illness. He died on the 8th of Marcli, 18(jS, in the seventy- eighth year of his age. His mother is still living at the family residence, near Somerville, Tenn., in her seventy-first year. Alexander W. Jones received his preparatory education in the schools of his native county, and afterward a classical education at West Tennessee College, located at Jackson. Selecting medicine as his profession, he prei>ared himself under the guidance of Dr. A. J. I'eebles. of Som- erville, Tenn., then attended the usual course of lectures, at the University of Pennsylvania, com- pleting the same in the spring of 18G1. Return- ing to his home immediately after the Southern States had commenced to withdraw from the Union, ke early enlisted in the volunteer troops of Tennessee as private in the Di.xie Kifles, Thirteenth Tennessee Infantry, then stationed at Randolph, Tenn.. on the Mississippi I!iver. He remained with his regiment until some time after it had moved to New Madrid. Mo. While there he was appointed to a position in the medical department, State Troops, and afterward, when mustered into the Confederate service, was appointed assistant surgeon and ordered before the Confederate States Examining Board of Surgeons, composed of Doc- tors Ross, Miller and Hall, at Mobile, Ala. Pass- ing the e.xainiuation with credit, he was ordered back to duty at the Confederate States Hospitals at Lauderdale Springs, -Miss., where he had been on duty since the battle of Shiloh; remaining at this point nntil 1802, he was ordered to Port Hud- son, La. While at that place, early in 1803, he was again examined by the Confederate States Examining Board, composed of Drs. 0. B. Knode, J. F. Fauntleroy and (ieorge Maughs, easily pass- ing his examination for surgeon. Before the sur- render of Port Hudson, he was ordered back to Jackson, Miss., and then to Lauderdale Springs, (after Vicksburg had fallen): remaining there until November 1803. Then orders came for .Surgeon Jones to report to Gen. .Stephen D. Lee, in command of the district of North Missis- sippi. Reporting promptly to this officer, then with his command at New Albany, Miss., Surgeon Jones, was, at the request of (ieneral Forrest, who was present, assigned to his (Forrest's) command. At that time (ieneral Forrest had orders to i)ro- ceed to West Tennessee, and organize for his spe- cial command a cavalry force to consist of one or more brigades, having as a nucleus for his opera- tions one battalion of cavalry and one four-gun battery. (_'ros8ing the Memphis it Charleston Railroad, under the escort of Stephen D. Lee's cavalry, driving off the Federal troops guarding that road, lie with liis battalion and battery, ren- dezvoused at Jackson, Tenn., and there ojiened a recruiting camp for volunteers and conscripts, and, sending for Surgeon Jones, ordered him to €80 NORTHERN ALABAMA. organize a medical examining board for conscripts, of wliich he was to be president, instructing him not to allow an^'one excused who could stand ninetj- days' service. Under this stern and posi- tive order, but few were excused from military duty, and the result was that Forrest soon had a large number of unarmed men, which he car- ried through the enemy's lines successfully, had them efiuipj^ed and armed, and, with this ■command, made himself still more distinguished by his numerous battles and victories, prominent among which are Fort Pillow, Tishomingo Creek -and Atliens, Ala., capturing at the last-named place more prisoners than he had soldiers, by the surrender of Camj>bell. the Federal commander at that jroint. From the time of Surgeon Jones' assignment to (ieneral Forrest's command, November, 18(53, until the surrender of that command at (Jaines- ville, Ala., May 5, 186.5, when he was paroled, he served- on Forrest's staff; was with him in «very battle he fought, and by his side most of the time during the engagements, waiving the pro- tection thrown around the medical department. He wore the usual anns of staff ofticers, and used them effectively as occasion presented. A notable instance was when he came to (.ieneral Forrest's aid a few miles above Plantersville, Ala., ■during General Wilson's raid, in the spring of 1805, when Forrest was surrounded by six Federal -cavalry soldiers, and materially assisted his com- mander by disposing of twoof his assailants, while Col. M. G. Galloway, also an aide on his staff, helped the General care for the others. Surgeon Jones had the privilege of having his clothes and horses shot occasionally, but never the honor of a tlesh wound. After the war was over. Dr. Jones, remember- ing the dark-eyed witchery of a girl he saw in one of his campaigns, returned to Alabama, wooed and won her, one of Alabama's fairest daughters, Miss Augusta Carlisle, only daughter of E. K. and Lucy \V. Carlisle, and they were mairied on the 30th of January, 18(56, at the family residence, near -Marion. Ala. Returning with his fair bride to his native Tennessee, he lived thereuntil 18T0, when he formed a copartnership with E. K. Car- lisle, of the firm of Carlisle & Humphries, of Mo- bile. Ala., and opened a commission house in Selma, under the firm name of Carlisle & Jones. In 1S7'2 E. K. Carlisle, Jr., was admitted — ^^j^'-^— COURTNEY J. CLARK, M.D.. President of the City Board of Education and of the Selma Medical Society, was born in Laurens District, S. C, October ".i 7, 1810. His parents were John and Susan (Parks) Clark, natives of South Caro- lina, and respectively of English and Irish descent. The senior .Mr. Clark removed from South Carolina to Georgia away back when the subject of this sketch was a small boy, and he lived in Jasper County in the latter State, aiul was a planter up to 18G'.t, when he died at the advanced age of ninety-two years. His wife lived to be eighty-eight years of age. So the Clark family, particularly this branch of it, is evidently long lived. The subject of this sketch was the first-born of a large family of children. He was educated at the common schools of (ieorgia, at least to the e.\- tent of a fair knowledge of the elementary studies, which were augmented by 8elf-ap])lication, to the end that when he had reached his majority he was well up in literary attainments. He began the study of medicine when eighteen years of age, and at this writing (Ib8S) he says he is still a student of medical and physical science. He was graduated from the Louisville College of Medi- cine in 184.'], and from Jefferson (Philadelphia) 1S44. He began the practice at Jacksonville, Ala., in 183T, and, with the exception of the time spent as suigeon in the Jlexican War and as assistant surgeon during the late war, re- mained at Jacksonville until ISHl. He was appointed surgeon in the Mexican War by President Polk, and was with Colonel Butler's Palmetto Regiment in all the batt'es of the valley and the city of Mexico. At the outbreak of the war between the States, he started out as a regimental surgeon, but was transferred to the charge of the Alabama Hospitals in Richmond, where he remained two years, coming thence to ^lontgomery, where he was again in charge of hos- pitals until toward the close of the war. He was finally at Columbus, (ia., and there surrendered to Wilson. Dr. Clark came to Selma in the fall of 18C5, and has here remained in the practice. He is a member of the State and County Medical Socie- ties, a contributor to medical journals, a physician and sui-geon of pronounced ability, and a citizen of the highest character. As president of the Board of Education, he has labored for the past fifteen years earnestly and faithfully. He was married at Jacksonville, Ala., in 1853, to Nancy W., daughter of Thomas J. Davis, and now has a family of one son and five daugh- ters. His son, Percy Clark, is a journalist, now employed as a newspaper correspondent at Wash- ington City. BENJAMIN HOGAN RIGGS, M. D., was born in Mobile, August l!i, 18:58, and died at Selnia, on the 11th day of January, 1888. His father was Daniel JI. Riggs, a native of Surry County, N. C. The senior Riggs was once cashier of the .State Bank of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and from there removed to Mobile, where he was in the banking business for some years. He came into Dallas County in 184.">, and here followed planting the rest of his life. Ho dicil in 18."»!i. at the age of fifty-nine years. The subject of this sketch was educated at Mo- bile and studied medicine at Selma in 18oo in 682 NORTHERN ALABAMA. the oflRce of Drs. Mabiy & Kent. lie attended lectures in New Orleans during the winters of 185")_(i, spent the summers of lK."iT-8 at the Marine Hospital, Mobile, and was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1850. Dr. Riggs began the practice of medicine in Wilcox County the summer following his gradua- tion, and in the spring of 1801 enlisted as a pri- vate soldierin Ca])tain Kobbins' "Wilcox Rangers." He was soon afterward made assistant surgeon, and rose rapidly to surgeon, and senior surgeon of the brigade. He was in the Army of Tennessee and most of the time on field duty. At the close of the war, he returned to Selma and engaged in the practice of medicine at which he was very suc- cessful, and in which profession he occupied a high position. He was active always in sanitary mat- ters and devoted special attention to hygiene, upon which subject he lectured at various times and places. He also wrote upon the subject for some of the leading newspapers and medical journals. He was an ex-president of the ^ledical Association of the State of Alabama, and Grand Senior Counselor in and member of the State Board of Health. He took an active interest in all current matters, political, professional and social. He was a prominent member of the Masonic fratern- ity, and held high official positions in the C'om- maiulery, having been Eminent Commander, Past Deputy Grand Commander, etc. The Doctor was married in June, 18<)T. to Miss Fannie Gray Robertson, daughter of Henry C. Robertson. Esq., and has had born to him three sons and one daughter. The doctor was a consistent member of the Episcopal Church. ■ • '>" '(^^.' < '• • ABRAHAM MINTHORNE WOOLSY was a na- tive of Connecticut, and belonged to the immedi- ate family from which descended the distinguished Dr. Woolsy, Cbancellor of Yale University. In early life, he removed to Augusta. Ga., and was there married to Miss Emily Wingfield Sims, who was of the families of the Simses and the Wing- fields of that State. From this union seven chil- dren were born, of wlioui Benjamin Minthorne. the subject of this sketch, was the oldest child. Mr. Woolsy was a very handsome man, and his wife was a very beautiful woman, and both of them were noted for their elegant manners and pleasing address. The son inherited the physical features and acquired the jiolished manners of his parents, and was from boyhood remarkable for his fine appearance and graceful address. In 183G the family removed to Mobile. Ala., where the father died, leaving the mother with the son and two sisters, younger than himself. Reverses of fortune had overtaken them, and in widowhood this splendid woman leaned upon her son, who became her comforter and her counselor. Never did a son more honor a mother; never was a mother more worthy of honor. In early boy- hood young Woolsy joined the Methodist Church with his mother, and remained in that communion until the day of his death. At sixteen years of age he was sent to Emory College, Ga. Here he remained two years, boarding in the family of Bishop James C. Andrew. He was graduated at eighteen years of age, and returned to Mobile, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In the summer of 1847 young Woolsy was chosen to deliver the commencement oration at the Centenary Institute, at that time a very large and flourishing female college, located at Summer- field, Ala. On the rostrum of the college chajiel he saw for the first time Miss Lucinda Swift. She was a member of the graduating class. Bright, beautiful, wealthy, and of excellent family, she won the heart of the brilliant young orator, and was won by him. Of his sons, only two are now living. They are men of honorable positions, both in the social and business circles of Selma. Mr. Woolsy was a man of very decided views — a very positive character. He read largely, thought clearly, spoke fluently, and felt strongly. In youth he was a political disciple of the great Henry Clay, and identified himself with the old Whig party. As a Whig he was elected from Dallas County and served in the Legislature of 18,'')i>, and again in 1858. In 1860 he was nomi- nated for Congress by a couvention of his jiarty, but refused, for ))rivate reasons, to accept the nomination. lie was an elector on the Bell and Everett ticket, in 18G(t. In the best sense, Colonel Woolsy was a typical Southern gentleman. He had a fine physique and a handsome face. He was polite to all, rude to none. His nnmners were winning; his fortune was ample; his knowledge was large, and he had NORTHERN ALABAMA. 683 as much leisure for reading and study as lie wislied. His friends were numerous and enthusiastic; his home was ha])])v: his wife loved him and wasanibi- tiousfor his distinction. Everything combined to secure for him success in politics, if he had only entered on that pursuit with the ardor that char- acterized him in other matters. But he preferred the pleasures of home to the strife and confusion of political life. Frec|uently he was called upon to preside over jiolitical meetings, and to address political assemblies, and always acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his friends, though his heart never seemed to he fully in these atTairs. From his political standpoint, he thought the war between the States could be avoided, and, hence, was unnecessary. But when it began, he accepted the situation. fJov. T. H. Watts appointed him Salt Commissioner for Alabama, a most important ottice at that time. This trust he discharged with fidelity, managing this very vital interest to the ■entire satisfaction of the Governor, the people and the Confederate authorities. At the close of the war, though strongly solicited to engage in poli- tics, he persistently refused to do so. His shat- tered fortune he determined, if possible, to restore, and removed to the city of Selma, to engage in the cotton business. There he spent the remnant of liis days, in the bosom of his family, and sur- rounded by friends and acfjuaintances, who had known him amid all the changes of fortune, lie died at his own liome August 19, 1880. ALBERT GALLATIN MABRY. M. D.. was burn near the town of .lerusiik-iu, Southamj)ton County, Va., on the 7th day of September, 1810, and died in the city of Selma, Ala., on the 2;3d day of February, 1874, of pneumonia. His father, a farmer, of high standing in the community in which he lived, died when Albert was a small boy. He was the only child of his father's second marriage. His mother married the second time ; but her husband did not i)rosper in worldly mat- ters, so that the subject of our sketch was taught, at an early age, habits of self-reliance, which bore much fruit in after life. At the age of sixteen years, he went to the town of Jerusalem and engaged in business. The dormant capacities witliin him, soou made him discontented and caused him to long for a higher field of usefulness. By the advice of his friends he studied medicine. He had the fac- ulty of fastening friends to him "witli hooks of steel," and those friends of his early youth who survived him, in a rijw old age, felt with keen sorrow his taking away. Among his earlier friends was Dr. Wm. Spark, a man of liberal and cultivated mind, who befriended him in an effec- tive manner ; and thus began an attachment which lasted until death severed the tie. In later years this benefactor, wasted with age and infirmity, came to Dr. Mabry's elegant residence in Selma, and there, administered to by this friend and his family, surrounded by comfort and luxury, he breathed his last, when mourning hands bore his remains to the family burial lot in Selma, where now, side by side, lie the remains of both.' Dr. Mabry graduated from the Jledical Depart- ment of the University of Peinisylvania, Phila- delphia, March 3, 1S.37. After a short residence at the town of Whitesville, (ia., he came to Selma early in the year 1843. Here he began a long and useful career as a public-spirited citizen and as a high-toned physician, fully imbued with the ethics of his profession and alive to her inter- ests and behests. Arriving in Selma, Dr. JIabry became a member of the local medical society, and associated in the practice of medicine with Dr. Drewry Fair, now deceased. They remained associated for many years in active practice, when Dr. Fair moved from Selma. July, 1845, Doctor Mabry was married to Mrs. Martha (Kiggs) Tartt, widow of Thomas E. Tartt, formerly of the head of the firm of Tartt, Stewart & Co., commission merchants, of Jlobile. ilrs. Tartt was a sister of Daniel M. and Joel Riggs, lately of this State. She had one child by this first marriage, a daughter, Gertrude T. Tartt, now the widow of the late Catesby ap Roger Jones, captain in the Confed- erate States Navy. Through this marriage Doctor Mabry became intimately associated with the late Gov. John A. AVinston, who was guardian of Miss Tartt, and this association developed a friendship between these men of sterling worth wliich lasted until severed by the scythe of death. Governor Winston dying first. There were six children born from their marriage, five sons and one daughter. There are now living three sons and one daughter. The oldest boy, named for his father, in the midst of a budding manhood of great promise, a young G84 NORTHERN ALABAMA. lawyer in Selma, preceded his father but a few years to tiie grave; William Spark Mabry, a civil engineer, and John Winston .Mabry, both grad- uates of the Virginin Military Institute, of Lex- ington; Rioliard II. Mabry and Miss Virginia Mabry, named for his much-loved native State. Doctor Mabry continued constantly emi)loyed in an e.xtensive and lucrative jiractice at Selina, from 1843 to 1857, and remained at his post in the faithful discharge of iirofessional duty during the prevalence of the yellow fever epidemic in the fall of 1853. In 1855 he associated with him in the practice Dr. James Kent, and to a great degree turned tlie work over to him, for his health had become im- paired. In the year 1857 he was elected to tlie Legislature, and was there continuously to 18C7. In politics he was a State's Rights Democrat. Dr. Mabry was, from the beginning of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama to the day of his death, an earnest and efficient mem- ber thereof, and its zealous friend. In an elabor- ate address delivered before tlie association soon after his death, the distinguished Dr. (ieorge A. Ketclium of Mobile, said: "The medical his- tory of Alabama and its State Association would be incomplete, indeed, did not the name of A. (J. Mabry adorn its brightest ]iage. •' His brain conceived this organization; he was present at its birth; he stood sponsor for it in its helpless infancy; he succored it in its days of progress; and now, when in its approaching ma- turity he dies, he bequeaths to it the lionors in- separably connected with his example and name. '• Whilst we drop a tear on his newly-made grave, let us rejoice and be proud that he so hon- ored his profession in his life." As a pul)lic man and legislator, Dr. ilabry's service gave eminent satisfaction to his constitu- ents; as a i)liysiciaii, he was successful aiul cautious in treatment, and his character was above re- proach. He was a consistent and prominent mem- ber of the Protestant Episcojial church; a kind and indulgent father, and a considerate and atten- tive husband. Dr. Mabry was a man of medium physical stature, being about five feet and eight inches in height, weighed about 14r., entered upon the practice of medicine. He is a member of the State and County Medical Societies, and is Grand Senior Counselor of the former. In addition to his practice, which is large and lucrative, he is much interested in manufacture and agriculture. Dr. Furniss was married in Selma, in December, 1876. to Miss R. M. Dawson, daughter of Hon. N. H. R. Dawson. — ■ • > -S^^- < » ■ ■ CLIFFORD DANIEL PARKE. M. D.. was born at \\ adesburo, N. C., September ",.'7. 18;.'i!. and died in Selma, May Id, 1885. His jjarents were Thomas Duke and Ann (Shipman) Parke, the for- mer a native of Ireland, and the latter of Jiorth Carolina. They came to Alabama in 184".?, and settled near Kufaula, in Harbour County. After his academic education, C. D. Parke attended the iledioal College of Louisville. Ky., and in 1850 was graduated as a doctor of medi- cine from Jefferson Medical College, Philadcli)hia. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 085 He first began tlie practice of medicine in Montgomery County, coming froni tliere to Seltna, wliere he spent the rest of his life, giving liis entire time to his cliosen profession, ami mak- ing tiierein distinguished success. lie was devoted to his profession and was recognized by liis fellows as one of the foremost doctors in the S*atc. Tiiougli always a decided Dem- ocrat, he never sougiit political preferment for liimsfif, and the only otlicial position he is re- corded as having licld was that of President of tlie State Medical Society. Dr. Parke was a quiet, unassuming gentleman, polished in his manner, s)niewliat reserved in his intercourse with men, though always possessing the confidence of his patients and the highest es- teem of the people. lie was married in Dallas County, January 10, 185.5, to .Miss Louisa Swift. DR. THOMAS P. GARY. Wholesale (Jrocerand Cotton -Merchant, was born September 'l'-\. 1829, in Abbeville District, S. C, his parents, William L. and Frances R. Gary, being natives of that State. His father moved to Lowndes County, .Via., in 1831, and was for many years a prominent planter in that county. He then found a home at Tuskegee, in Macon County, where he died in 1S.V.>. After going to that place, Thomas P. tiary at- tended the Literary College at Ogelthorpe, Ga., and afterward studied medicine in the oHice of Dr. William .Mitcliell, at Tuskegee; took a course of medical lectures at Charleston (S. C.) College of Medicine, and graduated in 185".i. Immediately afterward he began the practice of medicine in Tuskegee, where he remained three years, and then located at Cotton Valley, and followed his profession at that place two years. We ne.\t find Dr. Gary at his plantation in Lowndes County, farming and practicing medi- cine, which he continued until 1871, when he moved to Wesson, Miss., and followed the mercan- tile business for several years. In 18T7 we find him in Selma, engaged in the wholesale grocery and cotton business, to which he has given his attention ever since, and has maintained his place as one of the first merchants in the central city. He formed a i)artnership with William IJ. liavmond, which continued to January, 1888, under the firm name of Gary & Uaymond. It was at that time dissolved by mutual consent, and Dr. Gary's son-in-law, D. A. Kennedy, became his partner. Dr. Gary was married in Tuskegee, Ala., in 1853, to Miss Amanda W. Ligon. daughter of Robert and Wilhelmina Ligon, of Georgia. To them si.x children have been born, two of whom died in infancy. The remaining four — Mina, wife of Law Lamar; Leila, wife of D. .\. Kennedy; Eleanor, wife of .1. F. Hooper, and Thomas K. — are now living in Selma. Our subject has for many years been an earnest and zealous member of the Presbyteiian Church, and has sustained different official relations therein. He has been a successful citizen, a val- uable member of society in its moral and social relations, and always ready to extend encourage- ment to any enterprise calculated to advance the common good. — — «-?€?^ "<" • - GOLDSBY KING, M. D., a promising young Pliysiciau and .Surgeon, of Selma, son of the late E. B. King, Esq., an extensive planter of Dallas County, was born in this city April 2'.!, 18(Jl, and here received his primary education. After completing his studies at Prof. Tutwiler'.s, Greene Springs, he entered the South Carolina Medical College at Charleston, and in March, 1880, was graduated therefrom as Doctor of Med- icine. After receiving his diploma, he remained one year at Charleston as House .Surgeon of Ropei and City Ilosjiital, coming thence to Selma. where he began the practice in July, 1881. He is a member of the Board of Censors, Dallas County, and present City Physician and Health Ofticer. lie was ajjpointed one of the Board of Color Blind E.xaminers of the State by (iovernor Seay, Octo- ber, 188T, and is regarded as one of the most active and efficient members of that imjiortant Itody. He was made .Secretary of the Dallas County Jled- ical Society in May, 1883, and has continued in that office since. He was at the same time appointed Health Officer of the city, and has been since continued in that position. Dr. King was marrieil at Selma, October 11, 1S83, to Miss Annie (Jraham, the accomplished daughter of Dr. C. W. Graham, of Kenansville. N. C. The Doctor is an elder in the Presbyterian Church. C86 NORTHERN ALABAMA. The name of Ooldsby is so prominently indenti- fied with Diillas County and Selmii as to form a part of their history. ■ — ' — •■*5*~*i^jiM' '0 • *~" JOHN ALEXANDER McKINNON. M. D.. llealtli Officer of Dallas CouMty, and Kegister of X'ital Statistics of Selma, was born in Pike County, tliis State. He was educated in the common schools, and began reading medicine at .Macon, Ga., when nineteen years of age. lie was graduated from the University of Louis- iana as -M. 1). in 1807, and in 1874 took the ad eundem degree from Hellevue Medical College. He began the practice with Dr. Fahs, at Selma, in 1807, and remained with him eighteen moutiis. He is a member of the various medical societies in his county and State, and is Grand Senior Counselor of the State Medical Association of Alabama, which he represented at the International Medical Congress at Piiiladelphia, in 1870. He was eighteen years of age when he entered the army from Lowndes County as a private in the Third Alabama Infantry. He remained with that regiment until after the battle of Malvern Hill, at which time he was commissioned a lieutenant in the regular army, and was placed in charge of the medical laboratory in ifacon, Ga., when only twenty years old, where he remained until the close of the war. While a private soldier, he took part in the battles of Drewry"s Bluff, Seven Pines, and the Seven Days' Fight in front of Hichmond. He came to Selma in February, IS'lO. and here clerked awhile in a drug store, subsequently com- pleting hi.s education and entering regularly into the practice of medicine. He is a prominent Knight 'remi)lar Mason and has filled the chair of Eminent Commander; is a member of the Knights of Honor, the National Union and Ancient Order United Workmen. He is also connected with the Railroad Conductors' Insurance .\s.sociation and the Hrotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, as Medical Examiner. He has been surgeon for the railroads run- ning into Selma for the past fifteen years, and has gained (|uite a reputation in his section as being very successful. He is a man of strong convic- tions and untiring cnergv. RICHARD MARSHALL NELSON, President of the CiiMnnciri;il liaiik nf Selma, was born in Wayne County, X. C, in 1843. Appointed by President Hnchanan, he entered West Point as a cadet in 185'.t. At the outbreak of the civil war he resigned his cadetship, and in May, 1801, entered the military service of the Confederate States. He served throughout the war. mainly as captain of ordnance. The technical knowledge of young West Pointers created a demand for theirservices in the ordnance and engineer depart- ments and the like, where promotion was slow and slight, as compared with the line, and it thus not unfrcquently liapj)ened that conspicuous merit and fitness operated as a bar to rank and promo- tion. After the close of the war he studied law, and was, by the Supreme Court of North Cjtrolina, admitted to the bar in 1800. The same year he removed to Selma. Ala., where he formed, with Joseph F. Johnston, Esq., now president of the Alabama National Hank, of Birmingham, Ala., the law firm of Johnston iS: Nelson, and continued in active and successful practice until January, 1878, when, on account of his already recognized financial abilities, he was chosen President of the Selma Savings Bank, the oldest incorporated bank in Central .Vlabama. He accepted the oflice, and has ever since been the head of this prosperous institution, the name of which was in 1880 changed to the Commercial Bank of Selma. In 1881 he also became President of the Loan Company of Alabama, at Selma, the pioneer in the South in the now extensive business of negoti- ating farm loans. In 1873 he was, by President Grant, appointed one of the Commissioners for the State of Ala- bama to the Centennial Exposition at Philadel- phia: and was, l)y the Commissioners, elected a member of the finance committee, chargetl with the auditingof the millions of dollars disbursed in that enterprise. He was Deputy for the Diocese of Alabama to the several General Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Churcli of the United States, which sat, respectively, at Baltimore in 18i 1, at Boston in 1877, at New York in 188(i, at Philadelphia in 1883, at Chicago in 1886. He was also one of the deputation to the 1880 Synod of the Church in Canada, appointed by the General Convention of 1883. He has, for rnanv vears. been an active member NORTHERN ALABAMA. 687 of the Aiiiericiin Bankers' Association, was, in 1878, elected to the Executive Council of the As- sociiition, and has, annually, ever since, been re- electeil to tliat responstl)le jiosition. It may justly be said of liiin that few men of his age, or, indeed, of any age, in this country, have maintained a liigher standard of business sagacity and execu- tive ability. He has made an honorable record in the various spheres and relations of life, but, while he is Ivcenly alive to, and faithfully discharges the duties of good citizenship and good neighborship, it is as a business man that he is most widely known and appreciated. Whether as an officer of the several financial institutions with which he is identifieil, member of the Bar Association, chairman of boards and committees, member of the Court of C'ounty Revenues, vestryman, trus- tee of the public schools, or what not, he is prom- inently a man of aifairs, of which it may be truly added, none of them, to his sense of duty, has seemed too small for careful attention, and none of them, to his facile grasp, has been too large for easy mastery. Captain Xelson was married at Selma, in 1808, to >riss Ella nines, step-daughter of Hon. Thos. .T. Portis, now of St. Louis. Mrs. Nelson died in is;(>. Their only son, William P. Nelson, is now a clerk in the Commercial Bank. In December, ISTli, Captain Nelson married Miss Mary McFad- din, a daughter of the late Robert H. McFaddin, of Creensboro, Ala. Rev. Charles J. Nelson, of the Baptist Church, Goldsboro, N. ('., is the father of the subject of tliis sketch. He is a native of the old '"North State," and a descendant from Irish ancestors. His father was " High Sheriff "of Craven County, N. C, at the beginning of this century, and was otherwise a very influential man in his day. Prior to going into the ministry. Rev. Mr. Nelson was an active military man, and was quite con- spicuous in public affairs generally. Since he be- gan preaching, ho has devoted his time and liis talents to religious work. Three Nelson brothei's left the North of Ire- land sometime in the early part of the eighteenth century, and came to America, one of them set- tling in Ma'Tland, another in New York, and a third in Virginia. From these pioneers a large number of the Nelsons now in the United States, and many of them honorable men, have sprung. WILLIAM PARK ARMSTRONG, President of the t;ily XatiuiKil Bank of Sulmaand of the Selma Press and Warehouse Company, of this place, was born at Knoxville, Tenn., on May 7, 184;i. His father was James II. Armstrong, a merchant of Knoxville, where he spent the most of his life, and his mother was, before marriage, Ann Eliza Park, a daughter of William Park, of one of the old and first families of East Tennessee. The subject of this sketch was educated at the University at Knoxville, and in 1859 entered Princeton (New Jersey) College, which institu- tion (now a University), in 1880, conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts as acomjiliment- ary recognition of his scholarship. For be it un- derstood that in May, 18G1, he left Princeton to enter the Confederate Army, and we find him almost immediately afterward acting as volunteer aide on the staff of General ZollicofTer. He was with (ieneral ZollicofFer at Fishing Creek: was be- side him when he was killed, and assisted Major Fogg, another aide, mortally wounded, from off the battle-field. After Fishing Creek Mr. Arm- strong was assigned to the staff of Gen. John P. McCown as aide-de-camp, with the rank of lieuten- ant. After Murfreesboro, Lieutenant Armstrong received his appointmentf rom the Secretary of War as captain, with instructions to raise a company of cavalry for independent and scouting service. At the head of this command he remained to the close of the war, it being, during the last year, a part of General Vaughan's cavalry brigade. Captain Armstrong surrendered with (ieneral Warford at Kingston, Ga., May, 18G.5. During the service he participated in many of the most hotly-contested battles, and at Wilsonville, Tenn., was seriously wounded; so seriously in fact, that it was thought to be mortal, and he was left upon the battle-field for dead. lie wasactively engaged at Fishing Creek, Shiloh, Perryville, Wild Cat, ^lurfreesboro, and was under d'en. John H. Morgan, at (ireenville, when that brilliant officer was assassinated. At the close of hostilities he went to New York City, where he accepted employment as a traveling salesman for the boot and shoe house of J. II. Ransom & Sons, and for them .=old goods through the Southern States during 18anking business at Selma. In January, ISfO, that institution was merged into the City Bank, he acting as cashier, 'i'lie City Bunk was merged into the City National Bank January 1. 1871, with Captain Armstrong as cashier. At the death of Major Isbel. which occurred in Septem- ber, 1871, he was made president. Captain Armstrong has made hi.s home in Selma since 1808. In addition to his banking interests in this city he is also interested in similar institutions in other cities of Alabama and in Tennessee. He is regarded throughout tlie South as one of the most skillful financiers of the day. He is a man of a high moral character, liberal in deeds of charity, and a conscientious member of the Presbyterian Church and of the Young Men's Christian Association. He was made cashier of the Selma Savings Bank, in 18.5, and has been since continuously in that position: the l)ank having been changed to its ))resent style anil title in 1881. Mr. Biker, with the rank of lieutenant, served a short time during the war as a member of the Fourth Alabama State Troops. He was Mayor of Selma two years (]881-8.i), which appears to be about the extent of his public service. lie was married in Mobile, in 18.i7, to a daughter of Geneial Strang. She died in 1881, leaving two sons and two daughters. Mr. Baker's second marriage occurred at Marion, in 188:!. when he led to the altar a Jliss Clancy. He is a member of the ^Masonic fraternity, Knights of Honor, National Union, and is treas- urer and deacon of the Presbyterian Cluircli. ALPHEUS E. BAKER. Casliier of the Commer- cial Hank i)f Svlnui. and president of the Central Alabama Fruit Company, was born near Leigh- ton, Ala., March X'4, 1834. His parents were John W. and .Martha J. (Estes) Baker, natives of Tennessee and Virginia, and of English and Irish extraction, respectively. The senior .Mr. Baker was an architect by pro- fession. He removed from Franklin County, in 1837, to the State of Mi.^sissippi, and from there, in 1842. to Sumter County, this State, where he manufactured plows and wagons until the time of his death, which occurred in 1858. He was killed by a drunken wretch. The subject of this sketch pursued his elemen- tary studies in an old log school-house, and grad- uated, lie says, between a pair of plow handles. From the age of sixteen to nineteen years, lie learned the wagon maker's trade under his father, jind when about twenty went to Mobile, and there clerked in a grocery store for six years. In 1854 he went to Baltimore, Md.. and was there graduated from Chamberlain Commercial College. He came to Selma in 185(i,aiul here, in partnership with his brother, Iv. H. Baker, carried on a wholesale and j'etail grocery business until 1873. In that year a bank failure forced them into liquidation, but not out of business. In 188<'>. lie withdrew from the concern, which has ceased to do a jobbing busi- ness in 1873. WILLIAM R. NELSON. In charge of the Law Department anil (ieneral .Manager of the Loan Company of Alaliama; President of the Selma Board of Trade; Director in Selma (Jas Light and Electric Light Co. Mr. Nelson was born in Petersburg. Va. in 1844, and is a son of Hugh Nelson and Elizabeth (Har- rison) Alinge, who were natives of Virginia, and they were descended from old English families. .Mr. Nelson's mother was a neice of President Harrison, and she was also a granddaughter of Benjamin Harrison. Jr., who was one of the sign- ers of the Declaration of Independence. On his ]iaternal side Mr. Nelson is a grandson of Col. William Nelson, a distinguished officer of the .Vmerican army during the Hevolutionary War. (Colonel Nelson served under (Jeneral Washing- ton, and participateil in several of the hitter's great battles with the British forces.) The father of the subject of this sketch, who married Miss .Minge, died at Petersburg in 18'i2, at the age of sixty-seven years. He was for some years the treasurer of the old .South-Side Hailroad Co. .and died holding that position. (Thisroatl is now a part of the Norfolk & Western Railroad system.) Previous to his connection with the above railroad, the elder Mr. Nelson had for some years been engaged in flour manufacturing at Petersburg. The subject of this sketch was given a common- school education, and had just entered the lower class at Ilampilen-Sydncy College when the war NORTHERN ALABAMA. r.S9 came on. He at once left college for tlie army, altlioiigli under tlie military age. He entered Coni- ])any A of the Twelfth Virginia Infantry, and was with that conunaiul for over two years, when he was overtaken by serious illness contracteil in t lie swamj)! around liichniond. He was then trans- ferred to Selden's Light Artillery, and remained with it until the close of the war, never having missed a whole day from duty while connected with this battery. .Mr. Nelson saw active .service in Virginia, North Georgia, and with General Hood in his disastrous Tennessee C'aniiiaign. a)id ])articipated in the battles of Seven Piiios. Kesaca, i'each Tree, tlie figiits around Atlanta, at Tiltoii, and at Nashville. At tlie close of the war he went to New Orleans as a clerk in the employ of an e.x- jiress company, and was engaged there at first without the promi.se of any pay, he having accejit- ed the place merely to be employed, and being quite sure he could make himself too useful to he dispensed with. He had been there but a short time before he was placed in a responsible i>osition and i)aid a fair salary. In 188G,he came to Selina as a clerk for Kno.x & Adams, cotton factors, and after remaining with them for a year, and until they went out of business, he accepted a place as clerk in the law otlice of jV[organ & Lajisley, and after his duties for the day were over he studied law, most of his studies having been carried on v.ery late at night. He was admitted to the bar in 18fi'.t, and in 1870 was admitted to the fii'm, the style of which was Morgan, Lapsley & Nelson. The firm had a very large practice and existed until 1887 when General Morgan was elected to the I'nited States Senate. He then practiced with i[r. (now Judge) Laps- ley for a short time, then alone for some time, and then as a partner with ('a])t. Joseph F. John- ston, now j)resident of a National bank in Hirm- ingham. After the latter retired from practice, he .•igain practiced alone, and always with a go( d cli- entage and with niucii success. He gave up the general law practice in 18'>6 to accept the manage- ment of the Loan Company of Alabama, in which jyosition he has charge of all the abstracts of title aiul all law matters connected with their large bus- iness. In 18()lt-70 lie represented Dallas County in the Legislature, and as a member of the .ludic- iary. and as chairman of the Committee on Cor- l>orations, he was (|nite a prominent member. He was always engaged with his duties, and framed and had passed some of the iin|)ortant bills of the session. About this dale he was very active in the county Democratic commitlccs of which he was a member, and for four years was a member of the State E.xecutive aiid Disti'ict Congressional Com- mittees of his party. Mr. Nelson was married in October ISTO, at Selma, to ilrs. Octavia L. .Jones, nue Owen, the daughter of the late Dr. Robert Owen, of Mobile, and a cousin of Hon. R. B. Owen, the present .Mayor of Mobile, and they have seven beautiful and very interesting children. Mi'. Nelson is an elder in the Presbyterian Church. .^^ ^.^^ A. M. FOWLKES. secretary and Treasurer and General .Superintendent of the Birmingham, Selma & New Orleans Railroad, and wholesale dealer in hardware, agriciltural implements, etc., Selma, was born at Lewi.sburg.N. C, in November, 1838. His father, Edward L. Fowlkes, wasa law- yer by profession: he came to Alabama in 18."iO, located at Marion and there died the same year. TheseniorMr. Fowlkes was a native of Virginia, and the family came originally from Wales. The Welch members of the family spelled their names Ffowlke^. His wife's maiden name was Foster, also a native of Virginia. She died in .Marion, in in IST.i. The subject of this sketch, the eldest of their two sons, graduated from Howard College in 1856, as Bachelor of Arts. Early in ]8<>1, he joined the army, and was made lieutenant in Company A, Twenty-eighth Alabama Infantry, and commanded the company for the two succeeding years. His captain having been made major of the regiment. Lieutenant Fowlkes, without the commission of captain, was left in command of the company. In 1803, he was promoted to the rank of major and assigned to the staff of Gen. Joe Johnson, where he remained to the close of the war. -Major Fowlkes participated actively in the battles of Shiloli, Farinington, Perry ville.Muifresboro, Chat- tanooga, Chickainauga, Missionary iJidge. siege of .\tlanta, Bentonville, etc. [When Hood superseded Johnson, he retained Major Fowlkes upon his staff, and when Johnson resumed the command, the Major remained with the latter.— Ed. J At the close of the war. Major Fowlkes turned his attention to farming. In isiis. he was made 690 NORTHERN ALABAMA. treasurer of the Selnia, >rarion & Memphis Rail- road (now tlie Cincinnati, Selnia & Mobile), and in iJSTi was made the receiver of that compauj-, and controlled it as such until its sale under foreclosure in 1878. He remained with the road afterward as superintendent and treasurer until l.s8".i. At the sale of the New Orleans & Selma road, in October, 188(I, where Nathaniel and his brother Thomas Flint Waller engaged at farming. A Sabbath-school was organized in the neigh- borhood, and Nathaniel, then a mere lad, became a member. His teacher here was the gentlennin (Mr. Hughes) to whom he had gone as a pupil for a sliort time in a day school. This gentleman took a great interest in the lad, and spoke to Mr. Anthony Minter concerning him. As it was then jirior to the days of public schools, it was arranged between these two to give the promising boy a chance for an education without expense to his mother, wlio was too poor to afford him such advantages. He attended school three or four years under this fortunate turn of events. W'i' then obtained a clerkship with I'arkman & Douglas, dry goods dealers at Selma. Remaining with them only a short time, he accepted a situa- tion at a country store, wliere he remained until 1836. Mr. Minter then procured a situation for him with Philip .1. Weaver, at that day one of the )nerchant princes of the State. He ren)ained with this gentleman during the year 183G, and was paid ^(!(iO per annum for his services. In the follow- ing year he was in the mercantile business on his own account. In the year succeeding he again engaged with Mr. Weaver: here he renuvincd until the year 180."). He was advanced step by step, until he became head book-keeper and general manager of Mr. Weaver's vast business, which at that time was perhaps second to none in the State. His salary was increased from time to time, until he came to receive i^:!,:}:!:! per annum. This lucrative pay was accorded him for several years in succession before Mr. Weaver's death. Perhaps there is no more crucial scst of one's capabilities than that afforded by the daily routine of business life; and the idea is intensified in ten-fold ratio when one is subjected to the scrutiny of a careful and painstaking business man, such as was our subject's worthy employer. And were there no further evidence of his ability as a successful man of business, these facts alone would entitle him to a place among the foremost commercial men of his day. At the dawn of peace in 18()5, Mr. Waller farmed for a short time; then for an equally brief space of time he was engaged in a clerical capacity. Afterward with Major Wailes and A. M. Treadwell, as partners, he was engaged in the mercantile business until the year 18^3. Since that time he has given his attention to the cotton trade. In 1875, Mr. Waller admitted his son, George L. Mailer. This firm continued for ten years, when the firms of Joseph Hardie & Co. and N. Waller & Co. consolidated. This firm was composed of N. Waller, (ieorge L. Waller, .Joseph Hardie and William II. Welch, and was known under the firm name of Waller, Welch & Co. This association lasted until January, 1888. The partnership was then dissolved, and Mr, Waller and his son (ieorge, continued the business under the original firm title <>f N. Waller & Co. Mr. Waller was married February 9, 1842, to .Miss Annie A., daughter of Griftin and Matilda ('.», he purchased the inter- est of iiis ])artners. and became the sole owner. Up to 18TT the business had been confined to re- tailing. In that year they began jobbing in a small way. At this time it has growji to be one of the most extensive concerns in Central \\a- baina. The firm is composed of .loseph IL, Eu- gene and.T.Syd. Robbins. the two latter being the sons of the former. Eugene became a mem- ber of the firm in 18T4, and J. Svd. in 1883. NORTHERN ALABAMA. 693 Dr. Robhiiis was married in Dallas Comity, in 1S.">4. to .Miss Mary Ann .Jackson, of North Caro- lina yimkor descent, an(>, the people of Shelby County, without any solicitation upon his part, elected him to tlie Secession Con- vention by a good round majority, thougli his op- ponent, a known secessionist, was counted in. Thus a majority of the voting people of Shelby County were misrepresented in that memorable Convention. In response to the earnest entreaty of his friends, he attended the Convention, but was peremptorily refused a seat in that body until ectively, of Georgia and North Carolina. Some time after the birth of our subject, Mr. Cawthon, Sr., moved to Whistler, Ala., where he lived many years, and devoted himself to architec- ture and merchandising. He has retired from active life and is now living at Stonewall, Miss., and is seventy-eight years of age. Alexander Cawthon was educated at Barton Academy, Mobile, and when sixteen years old, began clerking in his brother's drug store in that city, where he remained until the war came on. In the year IHGl. our subject enlisted in the 'I'wenty-First Alabama Kegiment (Woodruff's IJitles), but owing to his superior knowledge of the drug business, he was appointed, soon afterward, hospital steward, and acted in that capacity until the close of the war. During this time he was several times transferred, and when the surrender of the Southern Army occurred lie was at Selma. Mr. Cawthon was identified with the drug business in Selma as far liack as 18G5, and at the time above referred to he formed a partnership with James L. McVoy, under the firm name of Cawthon & Mc\'oy. A partnership was formed at a later period with Mr. Coleman, and the new tirm was and still is known as Cawthon & Cole- man. Mr. Cawthon is one of the most experi- enced and skillful druggists in Dallas County. Til is is but a natural conclusion to arrive at, when we consider that he has devoted his life to the drug business, and has had an exjjerience extend- ing from ]8.")7 to the present time. The firm of Cawthon & Coleman possibly do the largest drug business in the State. Having a most suitable location for the transaction of a large business, they have not been at all slow to avail themselves of the advantage it offered. Personally we may say of Mr. Cawthon that he is a public-spirited man, and has lent his efforts to other meritorious things than his immediate business. He is ready at all times to give ail the assistance in his power to the furtherance of all laudable undertakings which have as their object tlie general upbuilding and advancement of his locality. He is a director of, and takes a deep interest in, the Selma Land, Improvement and Furnace Company. Mr. Cawthon was married in April, 18G7, to Miss Laura J., daughter of Thomas A. and Ade- laide Keith, of Winchester, Tenn. They have five children: .Marshall 0., Carrie L., Alexander K., Sadie ^I. and Frank !•". LAWRENCE H. MONTGOMERY. Wholesale Grocer, .Selma, was born at Summcrtield, this State, in Jlay, 1849, and is a son of John II. and Hannah (Moore) Montgomery, natives of North Carolina. John H. Montgomery located at Summerfield in 1847, and there carried on the saddle and har- ness business. He was a local minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for many years, and died in 186:5. Our subject attended the Centenary Institute at Summerfield until he was sixteen years old, and then began to clerk for Hosser & Morey. of Selma, with whom he remained seven years. Graduating from Poughkeepsie (X. Y.) business College in 1809, he returned home, and was engaged with his old firm for three years. In 1872, he embarked in the wholesale grocery business in Selma, and has built up a trade equal to the best in Middle and Southern Alabama. Mr. Montgomery was married in October, 1872, to Miss Annie, daughter of Joseph li. and Jane 690 NORTHERN ALABAMA. (Smith) .John, of this city. Their union lias been blessed with five children: Lawrence, William V., Hosa Helle. Emaline and diaries G. • Our subject i.s a member of the Kniji^hts of Honor and of tlie Methodi.st Episcopal Clmrcli. South. REV. ROBERT WOODWARD BARNWELL, Hector in char<;e of ?^i. I'iiurs Kjiisiojiui Ciiuiuh, Selma, is a native of Beaufort, S. C, and was born December il, l)S4".t. His father, John G. Harnwell, now a retired citizen of Home, (ia., reared six sons to manhood, and four of them are ministers in the Episcojjal Ciiurch, to-wit : Rev. Stephen Elliott Haniwell. of Louisville, Ky. : Rev. William Ilaversham Harnwell, of Paris, Ky. : Rev. R)bert Haversham Harnwell, and thesubject of this sketch. This -:< EDWARD G. GREGORY. I're.-ident of the Union Iron Works tJomjiany, .*^elnia; Secretary and Treasurer of the Gregory & Coe Ijumber Com- pany, Stanton, .\la., and Director in the Selma and Cahaba Railroad C'ompany, was born in Liv- erpool, England, July 11, 1833, and came to .\merica in 185'2. He learned the machinist trade at .Manclnster, P'ngland. Mr. Gregory was edn.-uted for a profession, but preferred mechanics,* and therefore luriied his at- tention ill that direction. Aftercoming to .\merica he began work in Hicbmond. Va.. where he re- mained until 18.>7, in which year he came to Selma as an engineer and machinist on the Alabama & Tennessee River Railroad (now the E.T.,V. t.>t G.). lie was with that company four years, at which time he was made -Master .Mechanic of the .\la- baniait Mississippi Railroad, and he held that posi- tion lip to 1S(;7. In this year he began business for himself in a small way, establishing a shop for the repairing of machinery, engines, etc. In 18C9, in partnership with Mr. Coe (fiim of (ireg- ory & Coe) he liegan themanufactureof macliinery. The firm afterward became Gregory , Coe & Pol- lock, adding to that of machinery, a foundr; . The firm was merged into and liecanie The LTiiion Iron Works Company, in December, 1885. with Mr. Gregory as president. They now manufac- ture steam engines, cotton presses, castings, etc., making a specialty, however, of stationary engines for all pur])oses. Mr. Gregory is a director in the Commercial Bank of Selma, and is regarded as one of the most thorough-going business men in Central Alabama. He was married in Southwestern Virginia, in 1S57, to a Miss Ewing. Both .Mr. and .Mrs. Greg- ory are communicants of the Episcopal C'hurch, and for ten years, the former has been a vestryman of St. Paul's Church, Selma. HUGH S. D. MALLORY. Attomey-at-law. Sel- ma, President I'f the Hume Heal Estate and Loan Company, and of the Selma Council of the Xa- tional Union: Member of tlie Board of Directors Selma & Cahaba \'alley Railroad; Superintendent of the Baptist Sabbath-school, and Member of the State Mission Board, Alabama Commission, was born in Talladega County, .\la., February 6, 1848, and his parents were .lames and (Darby) .Mallory, of \'irginia. The senior Mr. Mallory, a planter by occupa- tion, came into Alabama in 183"2, and died in August, 1877, at the age of seventy years. His widow now lives (1888) at Talladega at the age of seventy years. They reared four sons, three of whom are living. The subject of this sketch was educated at the Talladega Male Academy, and the University of Alabama, and from the University of \'irginia in 1808, received the degree of LL. I). He entered into the practice of law at Selma in 1.SG9, and NORTHERN ALABAMA. 097 since that time has served two j'ears as magistrate; a short time as t'ommissioner of the United States <^'ircuit Court, and Mayor of this city two terms (ISS")-, was merged into the Union Iron Works Conii)any. Mr. Brooks was married at (iosheii. Conn., August, 1878, to Miss Carrie T^. Tuttle. He i.s a member of the order of Knights of Honor, and is a communicant of the Episcojial Church. GEORGE PEACOCK, Iron and Brass Founder, was born on a farm near Stockton-on-Tees, in the County of Durham, F^ngland, May 5, 18'^3, and came to America in 1848. His father, Joseph Peacock, came to America in 1851 on a visit to his three sons (all of whom were then living in this country), and was acci- dentally killed by a New York Central Railroad train. He was an old man aiul very deaf. His widow returned to England, and there spent the rest of lier life. The subject of this sketcli was educated in his native town, and, at the age of fourteen, was ap- prenticed to the trade of moulder. It requires seven years to learn that trade in England, and soon after his twenty-first birthday he accepted employ- ment as a journeyman in the city of Liverpool. Before coming to America, he had, through cor- respondence, been engaged by the famous Erick- son as an expert to assist in heavy castings in the construction of the Caloric engine, but, after arriving in this country, some misunderstanding led to a cancellation of the engagement, and Mr. Peacock accepted a situation inTownsend's foun- dry and machine shop at Albany. He was there for two years, and he distinguished himself. He moved to Troy, where, in less than a year, he was made superintendent of a large plant making a spec'alty of iron pipe. He remained with them three and a half years, and had under him as many as five hundred men at a time, and worked into piping as much as fifty tons of iron jier day. When he went into this establishment, liowever, they were working less than one hundred men, and using about ten tons of metal per day. The great increase in facilities and product, was owing to inventions first introduced by Mr. Peacock. Mr. Peacock invented what is known as the casing system of making piping; the system of making cores, known now as the green sand core; the core bar system by which all cores for crooks, crosses, etc., in green sand are now made; system of making small size pijjing on a match-board; the collapsable core bar, so valuable in manufact- uring large size pipes, tlicreViy dispensing with the 698 NORTHERN ALABAMA. use of hay rope aiul much other expense well- known to the manufacturer, and many other inventions efjually familiar now to scientific men ami manufacturers in all partsof the world. From Troy he was induced to go to Cleveland, where he remained three years. He built the first works ever erected on the Cleveland Plats, where now stands over two huudre. Archer, then the largest (Jovernment contractor for the manufacture of heavy ordnance in the United States. I'nder a contract with Col- onel McUay, he came to Selma in 180-2, and took charge of that gentleman's shops, then manufact- uring arms for the Confederate Government. In 18(i3, McKay's works were transferred to the Con- federate States, who converted them at once into a manufactory of arms and ef|ni]iments for both the army and navy. These shops were in a Short time converted wholly to the uses of the navy NORTHERN ALABAMA. G09 department, ami Mr. (Jay was made superintend- ent of gun making, and retained that position to the close of the war. During his engagement in that capacity he invented many useful tools and improvements, for use in gun-maki"g, that have since been ado])ted by the United States Govern- ment, and probably by foreign countries as well. It is worthy of note that Mr. Clay was so well known as a skillful meclianic, and especially in the art of gun-making, that the United States (iovcrnment offered him special inducements to enter its service, but his political preferences led him to the South. At the close of the war, he began work for the Alabama Central IJailroad, and remained with them seventeen years, being tlie last four years of that time in the capacity of master mechanic. In ISSI. ,Mr. Gay began work fur the East Ten- nessee, Virginia & Georgia, as general foreman, and wa.s within a few months, promoted to master mechanic, a position he held until 1880, when a change in the general management replaced him. Since that time he has been in his present posi- tion. It was prol)ably due to his ingenuity that the Confederate Government was able to manufac- ture, at Selma, the superior cannon used by it upon so many hattle-lieids, and won for it the reputation of having produced some of the best guns ever brought into use. The iron from which those guns were made was melted with pine knots, a feat hitherto unheard of. There has been some controversy as to who was the real inventor of the system employed in the conversion of iron by the use of wood alone, but investigation satisfies the writer that Mr. , and took service with .1. II. Rob- bins & Co., then in the foundry business. At the end of a few months, in company with Mr. Brooks, under tlie stylo and firm name of Brooks & Tyler, he purchased the Bobbins Works, and sub- sequently merged them into the Union Iron Works Company. Since the organization of this com- pany, in which lie is part owner, he has continu- ously filled his present position. JOSEPH POLLOCK, Vice-President of the Union Iron Works, Selma, is a native of Belfast, Ireland; was born in 183'-?, and came to America in 1855. He learned the moulders' trade in his native city, and after coming to America first ob- tained work in Philadelphia. From there he drifted into New Jersey, thence to Brooklyn, to St. Louis, and to Mobile, where he was at the outbreak of the war. He was in Mobile until 18G2, and was employed by the Confederate States Xavy Department at Selma from .January, 18(!3, to the close of the war. In 187(1, as one of the firm of Pierce & Pollock, he established a repairing and machine shop, and in 1873 merged it into the company of (Jregory, Coe «fc Pollock, increasing their facilities and extending the branches of their trade. In 188fi, the Union Iron Works Company was incorporated, with Mr. Pollock as vice-presi- dent, and it is now manufacturing his patent brake shoes in large (piantities. He is also superinten- dent of the foundry department. Mr. Pollock is a skillful mechanic, and gives his personal attention to the business. He was married in St. Louis, in 1859, to Miss Susan JIuldoon. She died in New York, in 1844, leaving seven children. ^.^»- B. S. BIBB, of the firm of B. S. Bibb & Co., general bankers, real estate and insurance agents, Selma, was born February 5, 1847, at Mont- gomery. Ala., and is a son of George I{. and Mary E. (Lipscomb) Bibb. The father was a native Alabamian and the mother a Virginian. Mr. Bibb was educated at the schools of Mont- gomery in his early years, and sub-sequently at the Universities of Georgia and Alabama. I'pon leav- ing the latter institution he engaged in railroad business, which he actively followed for twelve years in his initive citv. 700 NORTHERX ALABAMA. In 1881 he came to Sehnu, and was a merchan- dise broker for two years, after which he entered the general brokerage business. He took a lead- ing part in tlie organization of the Selma Land, Im- provement and Furnace Company, of which he is a director, and is its agent for the sale of lands. During his residence in the Central City, Mr. Bibb has been more or less identified with the city government. He was married first in February, 18T4, to Miss l^lla, daughter of Frederick and Margaret Smith, of Dallas Couiity. To them were born two chil- dren, Sophie and Adgatc. Mrs. Bibb died in 18T8. Mr. Bibb was married the second time in 1885, to Miss Helen E., daughter of Dr. J. 11. and Mary Uobbius, of Sc-lma. They have one child, Benajah S., Jr. WILLIAM B. GILL was born in Louisville, Ky., .hiiiu i;, IS-.*;, and is a son of William B. and Ihith Gill, natives of ilaryland. The senior Mr. (Jill came from Baltimore to Louisville about the beginning of the present century, and was there until about 1820 in the mercantile business, in company with his brother. He died in Louisiana in 18:!8 while on a visit to that State. The subject of this sketch was educated in Louisville, there learned the trade of carriage- maker, transferred thence to Xashville in 184(). to New Orleans in 185(i, and to Selina in 18.")2. Here he engaged in the carriage manufacturing business in a small way, with a capital of about |il,800. |)uring the late war, under a contract with the Confederate States Government, lie manu- factureil wagons, ambulances, and pontoons. The clo-^e of the war found him without money^ but the owner of a great deal of real estate, which, with the advance in values, renders him at this writing in quite comfortable case. He has never been a politician, but always an active business man, and much interested in the welfare of the town. Mr. Gill was the largest contributor to, and one of the most earnest workers in, the Young Men's Ohristian Association, whose magnificent hall is a monument to his generosity. He has madi' his fortune by degrees; never a speculator. he has adhered strictly to legitimate dealing. He is noted for his punctuality and promptness in the discharge of his obligations.- After the war he resumed business, adding, in 18G7, to his carriage-making that of furniture. ! He was married at West Point, (Ja., February 22, 1852, to Miss Ann X. Evans, daughter of Captain Evans, an old seafaring man, who jilied his ships I between New York and India. To this union two sons and one daughter have been born. The ' latter, Elnora, died in 18t;5, at the age of sixteen months. Mr. Gill is a member of the Presbyterian Church ' and of the Masonic fraternity. In 180!i he erected the block now known as Gill's Hotel, and has been giving it his personal super- vision since June, 1887. EDMUND D. BOWLES, Real Estate and In- surance .Vgi'ut and Xegotiator of Loans, was born Septeml)er4, 1855, at Wytheville, Va., and is a son of Zachariah H. and Mary F. (Pettit) Bowles. Edmund D. Bowles removed to Selma with his parents in 18G2. At the age of fourteen, he be- gan the battle of life by engaging with the Selma Savings Bank (now the Couimercial Bank of Sel- ma), with which institution he remained until J885, when he resigned the responsible i)ositionof first book-keeper, to engage in his present business under the firm name of Bibb & Bowles. This partnership continued one year. Having been reared, as it were, in one of the leading financial concerns in the South, and being in daily intercourse with the people of Dallas and surrounding counties, Mr. Bowles has acquired a knowledge of business and peojile which well qualifies him for the position he now fills in the business world. In addition to the real estate and insurance business, Mr. Bowles has succeeded in distributing among farmers in Central Alabama, during past twelve months, nearly a quarter of a million of foreign capital in farm-land loans, and he is yet in correspondence with leading banking houses and loan agencies in Xew York and other cities. He was married December .3ii, 1880, to Miss II. L. Brown, daughter of Josiah H. Brown. They have one child, Bessie Garland. XVII. MARION. Bv Wll I lAM (iAKKoTl BkOWN. [The history of Marion has been written by Samuel Townes, a former resident, and I have seen the book, but have not been alile to obtain a copy to aid mo in the present slteteh. To some papei-s on the same subject, wliieli appeared two years airo in the Marion :^iiiiiliiril. I am, however, much indebted for informa- tion 1 eould not liave obtained otherwise.] Perry County, with six otliers, was formed by the first Legislature which was assembled after the admission of Alabama into the Union as a State. This was done at Iluntsville, in the autumn of 1819. The new county was at the time almost a wilderness. There were a few unimportant In- dian settlements and some white pioneers from South Carolina and Tennessee. Andei'son West, a Tennesseean, was the sole inhabitant of the place afterward known as Muckle'.s Kidge, and which we now call ilarion. Tlie former name was taken from that of the first settler, Michael Muckle.who came in 1817, built a cabin, cleared an acre of land, remained a year, and then sold out to .Mr. West and departed — I know not whither. The latter is perhaps more intimately associated tlian any other with the earlier, and much of what may properly be called the later, history of Marion. Immigration geems to have been peopling the county with considerable briskness during the two or three years following the coming of Anderson West. In lS2-i the Legislature authorized the election of five commissioners to locate the county seat, Perry Hidge, which had until then enjoyed that distinction, having been found inconvenient when the boundaries were defined. When the commission had been chosen and had assembled, several sites were nominated. It was finally de- cided, chiefly through the influence of Joseph Evans, a member of thecommis^on, that Muckle's Ridge was the most eligible spot. Soon after, the name Marion was chosen, again through the in- fluence of Mr. Evans, who came from tiie State which had given the " Swamp Fox " to the Colonies in their struggle with (ireat Britain. In the same year, If^'i'i, Siloam Baptist Church was established. The Hev. Charles Crowe was pastor until 18:3U. In the spring of 18:23, the first court-house was built — a veritable log cabin, sus- tained by wooden blocks. It was not replaced by a more substantial building of brick until lfc37. The present court-house, which is among the first in the State, was built in 185") or 1850. For a number of years after receiving its name, Marion appears to have remained little more than a chance assemblage of squatter homes, dignified by its possession of the seat of justice for the sparsely-inhabited county, and slowly taking on the proportions, not unaccompanied by the rough- ness, of a frontier town. The record of its growth is little more than a chronicle of the various indi- viduals and families that from time to time came from the Carolinas, N'irginia, (ieorgia, and occa- sionally from others of the States, some to remain for a few years and then resume a life of wander- ing somewhat characteristic of the period, others to remain permanently and have descendants who now constitute a reasonably large pi'oportion of the citizens of the town and county. Among tliese are to be found our best ami worthiest jieo- ple — people of education and refinement. They arc in no way ashamed of their pioneer fathers; they are, on the contrary, proud of the manly and sterling chai'acters thoy so generally gave evidence of possessing: but our present reputation for cul- ture need not blind us to the fact that the earlier settlers of this region were not representative of the refinement to which the old South, justly or not, laid claim. It has been asserted frequently enough, and never disproved, that immigrants, j as a class, are not apt to belong to the more cul- tured portion of the communities from which -.01 702 NORTHERN ALABAMA. they come, whatever merits of a diiferent sort they may and often do possess. Indeed, tlie work which tliey liave to do in developing a new terri- tory is such as to demand lather the sterner and rougher than the humaner and gentler virtues. The strength and endurance which they need is more often found in the rough hands and coarsely clad bodies and unkempt heads than iu hands and heads and bodies adorned with the graces, wiiich have been so closely associated with the weak- nesses of civilization. To the rough, strong, pioneer class, our fathers, as a rule, belonged, and they betrayed it in their speech and customs. Let us count it a ground of self-gratulation that in so short a time we have gained distinction for qualities of an entirely opposite sort. The best idea of the maniiersand customs of the time, is to be obtained from such books as Long- street's Georgia Scenes, and the stories of Richard JIaleolm Johnston, who has for some time been depicting the life of the period with a humor that is somewhat milder than Longstreet's. Such scenes as the fight, the horse-swap, the lockout of the school-teacher, the school rebellion, all have their parallels in the early history of Marion. Simon Suggs appears less of an e.xaggeration and caricature than we are wont to consider him, when we hear or read authentic accounts of the doings of the spirited youth who gave life and animation to the community whose chief fault at present is an excess of order. It is hard for us to believe that there was a time, not more than half a century ago, when the absorbing topic of conversation at corn-shuckings and log-rollings was not the latest sermon (which was probably a month back), nor the Sunday-school lesson (there was no Sunday-school), nor the concert, nor the chances for prohibition legislation, but the beau- tiful style in which " Red Fox," the pugilistic champion from "Sinncr'.s Beat," had demolished Weaver, " the boastful Goliath from Hamburg" — a combat in honor of which the market bell had rung and the entire community, white and black, male and female, had assembled around the prize ring. A bar-room was set up as soon as the first court- house was built, and became the rendezvous of a number of choice spirits, who accepted the phi- losophy, though they could only vaguely conject- ure the meaning of its classical sign — " Duin Viviiiius, Viramus." The sjjring and fall assizes are still apt to bring to the surface the rougher elements of our society: but the orderly adminis- tration of justice we now enjoy could hardly sug- gest the original and ingenious punishments which were resorted to in the good old days. Of thete, '•Chandler's Coach," a device em- ployed by an organization of friends of law and order, known as "Captain Slick's Company," was one of the most striking and effective. There were two lines of coaches under the control of this company, and under the immediate superin- tendence of David Chandler, who was elected Sheriff in 1834 ; one running from what is now the intersection of (ireen and Main streets to the Plupnix stables ; the other from the jail, down the hill, to a brooklet then known as ''Hangman's Branch." The coaches were large hogsheads, such as were used in shipping crockery, with a movable head in one end, through which the passenger was received. Pegs were driven through the sides, to which the occupant might hold when enjoying his ride. If the objectionable character lived east of .Ma- rion, the coach was brought up before Gains .Johnson's store and the offender headed up and rolled to the stable : then required to walk back to the starting point, and given another ride, and as many as the crowd thought his wickedness deserved. A tramp, found asleep and drunk on the street, was nailed up in a box made after the fasliion of a chicken-coop, and exhibited like a wild beast in a menagerie for a day. Drunkards were frequently ducked in mud-pools to the point of suffocation. A man detected in the act of taking money from a merchant's cash-drawer was first given several rides in the " coach," then carried off on a sharp rail, followed by half the adult population of the village, and thrown into a mud-pool to repent. But the contrast between the old and new order of things is most strikingly apparent in the mat- ter of education. The first school was a log cabin, built a mile west of Marion, in IS'ii. by Thomas Billingslea, assisted by his neighbors. The second was taught in 18"2,5, in a cabin where the Second Baptist Church now stands. Xext j'ear David McCul- lough taught at the same place. Joseph Walker opened a school near Gen. E. 0. King's residence, and divided the town's patronage with McCul- lough. Descriptions of these schools would read like extracts from Longstreet and Johnston. The in- struction and discipline were barbarous. Of the NORTH ERA' ALABAMA. T03 former we are told that " spelling was the princi- pal stiuly, and the pupils were not only rcqiiireil to spell the lesson, hnt to eominit it to memory. After the sjjelling-ljook was mastered, j)tipi!s were permitted to have a slate and copy-hook and learn to read. One thing at a time was the rule. Geo- graphy was not embraced in the (curriculum. Teachers were expected to know how to sing, ami ''singing geogra])hy " was the usual method of teaching this scicnrc The teacher formed his school in line, and, marching either in.side or outside of the liouse, beating time with his switch, he sang the States, capitals and rivers, to some tune improvised by himself. After this manner the multiplication table was learned. Of the discipline we are told that the teachers en- deavored to e.xcel each other in the mnltijilicity of their useless rules, the penalty for the violation of which was invariably a wliijiping. " I'arents estimated their sons' progress at school by the number of whij)pings they received. If, at any time, tlie boy thrashed the teacher, the fond father was never so elated, and usually boasted of it in a •liiict way to his neighbors as evidencing his son's early jjliysical development."' Teachers were often " barred out " to secure holidays, and when there was a pond near the school-house the instructor always received at least one ducking during the year, the patrons assisting if the pupils were un- able to coiisumnuite the rebellion unaided. In many other ways, evidence of a low stage of moral ami intelleciual development was given. The pastimes and amusements were rude; the Sabbath was not properly observed: drunkenness was common: such records as we have are filled with accounts of incidents that could never have occurred in a community where a high standard of morality and refinement j)revailed. 1 have no doubt that a similar state of things existed in most, if not all, of the towns whose his- tories recorded in this volume run back as far as that of .Nfarion, The only reason I can give for referring so |)lainly to a period whose true history is so generally palliated, or left unwritten by admirers of the old order is, that .Marion's present claim to pre-eminence in culture among Alabama communities is so generally admitted that she need not fear a revelation of the extremely differ- ent state which was formerly hers. There was never any sudden change of course, anil there was probably, from tlie very first, a certain progress, just as there was a gradual increase in wealtli and population. Hut the founding of the Marion Female Semimvry in ISIJC, nuiy serve as well as any other particular forward step to mark tlie beginning of a period in which the upbuilding of schools and colleges, and a continuous growth in refinement, have been the leading features. This was accom|)lislied through the united exer- tions of the citizens, irrespective of denomina- tional or other distinctions. The school was con- trolled by Methodists, rresbyterians and Baptists until 183'.i, when the latter seceded and built the .ludson. Since then it has been controlled by the Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians, The building was at one time destroyed by fire, and had to be replaced: there have been many diffi- culties and distresses: the war, of course, was a great interruption, but the Seminary now numbers near 3(>0 graduates among its alumni, living and dead, and over 4,000 pupils have received instruc- tion within its walls. The work it has done, and helped to do, in civilizing and elevating its envi- ronment, and the refining influence it has directly and indirectly exerted throughout Alabama and other States, have been great and valuable. It is the oldest female college in the State, and was founded at a time when there was much need of just such work and influence. Hut, perhaps its most important mission, was thedemonstiation of the fact that an attempt toward the iiigher educa- tion of their youth was possible to the citizens of Clarion. Through some dissatisfaction wMth the nninage- ment, or with their share of the management of the school they had helped to build, tlie Baptists, as I have said, seceded in 1830, and set about es- tablishing a school of their own. It was a great undertaking for a single denomination, in a com- munity where religious affinities were not yet the strongest incentives to coi'>peration, and where the population was not yet large enough to create a necessity for more thati one institution J^voted to the education of a single sex. But the Baptists ajipeared to have already become strong, relatively and absolutely, and they persevered. Fortunate- ly, they secured at the start the services of Milo I'. .Jewett, afterward somewhat celebrated as the first president of Vassar College, as principal, and with no great array of pupils and a rather unpre- tentious building, the career of the .Judson was begun. Tiie Baptists throughout the State soon became interested in a scliool whicli represented almost 704 NORTHERN ALABAMA. completely their efforts as a denomination in the way of education. This insured the success of the boarding department, and the local patronage was good from the first. AVith intervals of mis- fortune arising from various causes, but with much steady progress, and with a high aim, the institu- tion has grown into an important factor in the educational development of the State, and a con- stant source of pride and profit to the place of its location. Of late years its policy has been especi- ally progressive, and its standard and aims seem to have grown higher and higher; it has become a practical and effective plea for the fuller education of women — a demonstration of its practicability and beneficence. Of late, too, its success financi- ally has been greater than ever. Howard College was probably a sort of after- thought from the Judson, in the minds of the Baptists. If the denomination was able to build and sustain a female school of high grade, why not a male school of like grade also? Such, doubtless, was the way in which they looked at it; and, accordingly, in 184i, five years after the building of the Judson, they made the attempt. Again the beginning was such as tlie size of the community and the state of opinion concerning the value and need of higher education rendered necessary. But the same co-operation which had sustained the Judson, secured the success, though somewhat gradual, and with the inevitable war- time delay, of the Howard also. From the first it was a school of high grade, and the standard has been constantly rising. During the last de- cade the drill has been a feature of importance, and, under the superintendence of Dr. J. T. ^lur- fee, who was at one time commandant of Cadets at the University of Alabama, the college has taken on the aspect of a thorough military estab- lishment. The removal of the Howard to Birmingham is still fresh in the memory of the people of Ala- bama. It was accomplished through the efforts, probably disinterested, of a number of leading Baptists throughout the State, backed by the fin- ancial inducements held out by Birmingham's citizens. It is useless now to question the wisdom of the change. There was much bitterness in the feeling with which it was contemplated by the people, especially the Baptists of Marion, and when Ih'. Murfee announced his resolution to re- sign the presidency of the college and endeavor to establish in the abandoned buildings a school which should carry out the ideas he had formed during a long experience as a teacher concern- ing the peculiar educational needs of Alabama and the neighboring Gulf States, it was at once apparent that he would receive the earnest sup- port of a community which felt itself injured by the removal of an institution it had fostered, and whose progress it had watched with so much sympathy and pride. Marion ililitary Institute began its first session in the old Howard build- ings in October, 1887, and its work so far is more than a promise of a great and useful ca- reer in the future. The same year that saw the Howard removed, saw also the removal of another educational insti- tion from Marion. Lincoln Normal University was a school for negroes, first built uj) and sup- ported by Northern philanthropists, and afterward controlled by the State. Under the presidency of Prof. W, B. Patterson it had been remarkably suc- cessful, the attendance during the last two or three years having averaged about four hundred. Certain unpleasantnesses between students of the Howard and students of the University, however, and the general opinion that it was not fit that large schools for whites and blacks should be located in the same community, caused the sending to the (ieneral Assembly of a petition for the removal of Lincoln. It was granted ; and in the summer of 1887, while Birmingham was exulting over the capture of the Howard, iloiitgomery, by a much less effort, secured our second great male school. An excellent system of public school instruction, facilitated by the building of an adequate school- house, has grown up within the last several years. It has not diminished the prosperity of our pay- schools, however, but has supplemented them, and in a measure, completed the grounds on which to base our claim to be considered as an educational center. In order to bring together all the reasons for this claim, I have followed the development of our institutions, without reference to the increase of population and the growth of other interests by which they were accompanied. From a view of the situation at present, it surely ajipears that the claim is valid. The Judson and Seminary, each under the direction of an experienced educator, and with able faculties, are doing much for the cause of the higher education of women, and the patronage they receive would indicate that their work is not unappreciated. Marion Military In- NORTHERN ALABAMA. 705 stitute is applying the ideas of Herbert Spencer to tiie tniiiiiiig of Vjoys, witii a practical consist- ency, that is a new thing in the South, if not in the entire country, and the indications arc that the result will fully realize Doctor Murfee's ex- pectations, and the academy is serving as a feeder to the institutions of higher grade. There has been no period, at which our people had better right to feel contented and hopeful concerning the schools which have now for years been the subject of their greatest atixiety and care. Keturning to the consideration of the growth in pojiulation and wealth, through which alone the progress in educational development Itecame pos- sible, we must state, in general, that ifarion has had no sudden influx of either at any period in its history. Such quiet developments ai'e not char- acteristic of agricultural districts or towns; and •Marion and Perry County are agricultural if any- thing, forming a portion of the Black Belt, which is the agricultural part of the State. To speak at length concerning the natural resources of the county, must be to repeat what has been written with surticient fullness and correctness already. 1 therefore borrow from Kiiey's Guide Book the following paragraph: " The noi'thern end of the county is of an uneven surface. The central and southern portions are level. In the northern portion there are brown uplands: in the southern, there is the genuine prairie soil. These are the only two characteris- tics attaching to the lands of the county. Both these soils possess very great inherent fertility. Upon tiie highest of the hill lands in north I'erry there is a prevalence of sand, in which grows chiefly the yellow or long-leaf pine. Descending to the base of these hills, or rather to the uplands, w'e find, as we said above, a brown loam soil. Be- neath tills fertile surface there is a red loam sub- soil, said to l)e twenty or twenty-five feet thick. The prairies proper, which embrace the central and southern portions of Perry, are broken here and tbere by sandy elevations, upon which are usually located the towns and settlements of the county. These knolls areadmirablysnited for the location of homes, as they place one beyond the reach of prairie mud, and at the same time fur- nish him with an abundant supply of excellent water. Corn and cotton are the chief crops, and their yield is oftentimes amazing. Like many in the adjoining counties, tiie farmers of Perry are turning their attention to tiie remunerative pur- suit of raising stock. Excellent stock farms can now be seen in the county, superior grasses are being cultivated, and the profits annually realized are most gratifying. Tiiese lands can not be sur- passed for jnirposes of stock raising." The same writer also adds: "Many delicious fruits are grown in the county. Peaches, pears, figs and grapes, together with strawberries and watermelons, are the jjrincipal fruits produced. Tlie timbers of the county are the usual upland oaks, hickory, short and long-leaf or yellow pine." A region of this sort could only become the home of planters and small farmers, and after the organization of the county the planters and small farmers came, not in crowds, but one by one and family by family. They settled at the most ad- vantageous spots — those who were rich enough and owned slaves enough, taking large plantations in the central and southern parts, where the nature of the soil and the absence of hills and other obstacles made agriculture on the large scale profitable; the poorer class, who are now known locally as " Ilillians" and " I'oor Whites," and more widely as "Crackers," spreading thinly over the northern portion. Because of its cen- tral situation and its importance as the county seat, as well, perhaps, as from the somewhat en- terprising character of its first settlers, Clarion became the distribnting point for both of these classes. The trade could not at first have been ex- tensive, and it has not yet become colossal, because there were not enough j)eople within the territory adjacent to require a large quantity of supplies; be- cause, also, it is the good fortune of jilanters in this part of the State — of whieli, however, they have not fully taken advantage — to be able to farm their own lands, to supply themselves with many of the necessities and luxuries of life. But with each addition to the population of the the country the business of the town grew; there was, prol)ably, an almost constant ratio between the number of inhabitants in the "territory" which Marion supplied and the number in Marion. The courts and the county oflices were also a source of increase, as, from the nature of our politics. I be- lieve they always are in every capital, county, State or Xational. Slowly, (piietly, almost im- l)erce[)tibly, Marion ceased to be a private neigh- borhood, passed the village stage, and became a veritable " town." Thegoodsof which Marion was the disti-iliMf ing 706 NORTHERN ALABAMA. point, were obtained mostly from Mobile. 'J here were tio railroads, and they were only to be ob- tained by the use of pole boats on the Alabama Hiver, on which they were brought up to Cahaba. 'riienee they were hauled to Marion with teams. In 1830 the town had, including taverns, eleven business houses, mostly stores: there were three doctors, and four lawyers divided the meagre docket among them. In 1831), there must have been a larger amount of property, or the building of the Seminary could not have been undertaken and accomplished. The dates of the construction of the Judson and Howard may also serve to indicate the rate of progress. But thougli there was, during the whole of this period, and up to a few years before the war, the same gradual growth, accompanied by an increase of retinement and morality equally steady, but more rapid, there was no event of preeminent business importance until about 1853, when the first effort to build a railroad to Marion was made. In order to gain connection by rail with the rest of the world, it was necessary to construct a road to the point now known as Marion Junction, to which the road that is now the Alabama Central division of East Tennessee, Virginia & fJeorgia system, had been built. From the Junction, the road already constructed, afforded a passage to Selma. The people of Marion and those living between Marion and the Junction were unaided in the enterprise. They were compelled to raise every cent of the money themselves, and there were among them few, if any, capitalists able to contri- bute largely. A wide cooperation was therefore necessary; and much praise is due the nion who effected this cooperation and the spirit wliirli made it possible. The work was slow; it was three years before it was completed, and only for a short time after its completion was Marion permit- ted to enjoy the connection with Selma. Some dilticulty arising between the two roads meeting at the Junction, the more recently built was debarred the privilege of using the older line from the .Junction to Selma, and the object for which the former was constructed was thus left unac- complisiied. In this emergency a commendable spirit was shown. Determined not to surrender the benefits of their enterprise, the directors and the people abandoned the idea of a connection with Selma, and bv another great effort e.xtended the road from the Junction to Cahaba, thus making con- nection with Mobile through the boat lines on the Alabama River. Such was the situation at the opening of the great civil conflict, which, while bestowing temporary disaster so liberally on every portion of the South, did not forget to bring a special misfortune to JIarion. The Government, needing iron for purjioses of its own, took the rails from the track between Cahaba and the Junction, and employed them elsewhere, and for a long time it was necessary to change cars be- tween Marion and Selma. Immediately after the war, Gen. X. W. Forrest became largely interested in our road, and the Government offering a bounty of filU.OOd a mile for every twenty miles of new railroad, by skillful management suc- ceeded in extending it six miles beyond ilarion in the direction of Greensboro, to which place it was soon completed. From Greensboro it has been extended to Akron, connecting with the Ala- bama Great Southern. This is, so far, our only railroad. It has unquestionably helped much in the development of the business possibilities of the place, both by affording a cheaper means of obtaining goods, and by the activity and enter- prise which it could not fail to arouse and encour- age. Chiefly because of its existence, the eleven business houses of 1830 have grown into near seventy-five, and the cotton trade, which has always been the index to our prosperity, has been greatly increased. At present the hopes of our people are directed to the securing of the ilobile & Birmingham Rail- road, which must pass near Marion, and for which, in the opinion of many, it would be profitable not to ignore so important a place, which it might touch with small additional expense and with mu- tual benefit. Some account of Marion's " war record" will perhaps be expected; but my desire to make this sketch as little as jiossibleof a personal and family narrative leads me to confine myself to generalities. It is enough to say that no community responded more generously than this to the call of the South. No soldiers of theSouthern.Vrmy conducted them- selves with more heroism on the battle-field: none returned with records freer from blemish or stain. The Fourth Alabama, perhaps the most celebrated of all the regiments of the State, was largely com- posed of men from Perry County, and the youth of Marion, among whom were many students of Howard College, vied with the hardy yeomen of ^t/-6'4.-^^ NORTHERN ALABAMA. 707 north Perry and tlie wealtliy iiiul Iiigh-spirited jtlanters of the prairies in t'ourageand endurance. Our cemeteries are not without sohiier graves, and on our nionurnent to the " rnreturiied ])ead'' there are names wliose fame is not merely local. Having so plainly indicated my opinion that there was, during the earlier period of our history, a state of morality and an absence of refinement hard to conceive of. it i.s only proper that at the close I should again refer to the widely dilTerent condition of our society now. The work of our schools in this respect has been simply marvelous, and the schools have been nior*; than supplemented by the churches. I do not think there is another community in .'Mabama whei'e so much deference is paid to the mi?iistry and to the teachings of Christianity. There is something almost I'uritan- icai in the supremacy of moral consiilerations over all others, and the censorship to which, willingly or unwillingly, our people submit. The result is that whatever may be said on the score of dullness, no justaccusationof anything approaching license can be brought against the town which Captain Slick's Company used formerly to keep in order only with the greatest difficulty. A quiet, moral, refined community, spreading comfortably over a ridgy congregation of hills, divided by pret*y brooklets, with an abundance of fine trees; a fair proportion of handsome residences and well-kept yards; the Seminary, a solid-looking brick edifice, hiding among the elms which cover its grounds; the Judson, an imposing structure, with a front of two hundred and fifty feet, crown- ing a flight and gentle rise near the eastern slope of the ridge: ^^lriou .^^ilitary Institute, with three adequate buildings, but in the suburbs toward the southwest: the court-house, at the center of the whole, facing Main Street and the business houses — such is Marion, a town of near 3,000 souls. Such, or nearly such, in all human probability, it will remain for years to come, playing no brilliant part in the life of the State, yet not without a power and influence for good through the morality and refinement it inculcates and exemplifies and the young characters it is shaping. JESSE B. SHIVERS, Judge of Probate, was born in M:iren;,'o County, this State, April •.J7, is:{!t. His father. Dr. 0. L. Shivers, a North Car- olinian, came into Alal)ama at an early date, and settled first in what is now Hale County. Some- time after his marriage to Mi.ss Wood fin, a Vir- ginia lady, he settled in I'erry County, where lie resided during the rest of his life. He died in 1S81, at the age of sixty-six years. Jesse B. Shivers was graduated fron; Howard College, ilarion, in 18.i9, and was i)ursuing the study of law at Cumberland (Tenn.) University at the outbreak of the late war. Coming directly homo, he enlisted as a private soldier in the Eighth Alabama Infantry, from which he was subsequent- ly transferred to the Eleventh Uegiment Alabama lufantry. and with this command remained up to and including the Seven Days' Fight around Hich- motid. At Glendale, or Frazer's Farm, he received seven severe wounds, one of which resulted in the loss to him of his left arm. The operation of amputation, which was immediately performed while he was yet upon the battle-field, was for some cause unsuccessful, and he was compelled, after arriving at the hospital, to undergo a second amputation. lie was brought from Virginia to his home by his father, and was eleven months in re- covering. Judge Shivers entered the army fr(mi juirely patriotic motives, and as a soldier he made an enviable record for personal bravery and a patient submission tb hardship and misfortune. He was admitted to the bar in 18li3, and has now long been recognized as one among the very best lawyers in Cen'ral Alabama. About the time of his coming to the bar, he was elected Mayor of JIarion, and held that office by re-election until ousted by the Reconstructionists in 18ii7. He was subsequently again called to the mayoralty, and was retained in that office for a jieriod of about six years. From 187l> to 1881! he held the office of County Superintendent, discharging the duties thereof with characteristic ability, and in the latter year he was elected Probate Judge. In the performance of the functions of this important office, he is notably faithful, painstaking, obliging and correct. Judge Shivers is decidedly a nunlest, unassuming gentleman; retiring and somewhat diffident in his nature. In repose his countenance is stern and gives out the impression of austerity, but in con- versation his whole expression i;- entirely changed, and his face lights up with softness, humor and good-nature. As a testimonial of the high resrard in which he is held, the publishers take pleasure in embellish- ro8 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ing tliis chapter with a life-like steel plate portrait of. Judge J. B. Shivers. The Judge was married at Huiitsville, this State, in 1871, to a Miss Robinson. PORTER KING, an extensive Planter and a dis- tinguished c'iti/en of Marion, was born in Perry County, tills State, April 30, 18"^4, and is a son of the late Edwin D. King, a native of Greene County, Ga. Gen. Edwin D. King came to Alabama in 1810, settled in Perry County, and here followed plant- ing until the time of his death, which occurred in January, hSO^i, and in the seventieth year of his life. He was a prominent citizen of Georgia, and was equally prominent after coming to Alabama. His first wife, to whom he was married in his n*- tive county, was a Miss Hunter. She died in \'6hi. leaving two sons, William, an extensive planter during his lifetime (now deceased), and the subject of this sketch. General King was [>rominently identified with the Baptist Cinirch, and gave to that organization substantial aid and support so long as he lived. He was by far the wealthiest man in Perry County at the time of his deatii, and it is written of him that he gave from his ample means unto all worthy objects of charity with a liberal hand. In a lengthy article devoted to him, and published in the Ala- bama Baptist, we learn much of this worthy man. The author of that article, Samuel Henderson, says: " .My acquaintance with General King com- menced about the time his influence and useful- ness began to assume their denominational power, that is, about the year 184(i. In the establishment at Marion of the Judson Female Institute, one of the grandest institutions of its kind in the South, he took a leading and conspicuous iiart. He ])ut his shoulder to the wheel, and, in connection with otiier good men, reared it from its foundation, and from e.xperinient to permanent success. General King took an active part in theestablishmentof the Howard College, and gave that worthy institution his strongest support. He was a man of few words, always meant more than he said, and his deeds were beyond his promises." Speaking further of him, Mr. Henderson said: " Perhaps it would be invidious to say that, but for (ieneral King, neither the Judson nor the Howard would have been in Marion, for there were other noble spirits there and elsewhere in the State, who gave to them their hearty coopera- tion, but thus much may be said most truthfully, that to no man in Alabama is the denomination more indebted for what tiiese grand institutions have been in the past, are to-day, and promise to be in the future, than to Gen. E. D. King. His name is so interwoven with them that the history of neither him nor them can be written with- out writing the history of each. And so long as these institutions shall exist to bless the denom- ination and the State, so long will his name be as.sociated in grateful hearts with all that is praise- worthy in Ciiristian philanthropy. Nor less was he distinguished in other departments of Chris- tian beneficence. God gave him a large estate, and a large heart to nse it wisely. God blessed him, that he might be a blessing to others. The support of his pastor, to whom he was always devoted, the missionary enterprise — indeed, every institution that looked to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom or the elevation of his fellow- men, always awakened his liveliest sympathies and the most generous responses. Thus he lived, thus he laboreil, thus he gave — laying up in store a good foundation against time to come. " General King was twice married. In his later years, accompanied by his second wife, he made a trip to Europe, visiting many places of interest, and on his return enlivened many a circle of his friends by his impressions of men, places, and things. I remember to have listened with no little interest to some of the incidents of his tra- vels in Great Britain, where he first met the Eng- lish after having foiight them in the battle of Xew Orleans under General Jackson. Some of his bouts with them were amusing and entertain- ing. He was as destitute of fear in war as in peace, and could speak his mind to an English nobleman with as much dignity and confidence as any King that ever walked their soil."' General King received his title as a major- general of militia; in the war of 181"^ he held the rank of major. His father was an officer in the Revolutionary struggle. Porter King was educated in the University of Alabama, and in Brown University, Rhode Island, He began reading law in 1843, at I Marion, with Tom Chilton, was admitted to the bar in 184.5, and practiced law until 1850. In I this vear he was elected Judge of the Circuit NORTHERN ALABAMA. 709 Court. While in this capacity and presiding over the Bibb (County) Circuit Court in 18fil, he received notice of the formation of a company of volunteers, composed mostly of Howard College boys, and, calling his grand jury together, he handed in his resignation as Judge, and pro- ceeded at once to Jlarion, where he was made captain of the company. This company became part of the Fourth Alal)ama l{egiment, and Judge King commanded it twelve months. At the end of that time he returned home and resumed his seat upon the bench, and was there until ousted by Military (iovernor I'arsons. Since that time he has given his attention entirely to his planting interests. Away back in 18.")l-.")"-i. .ludge King, though a Democrat in a strong Whig county, was a mem- ber of the State f.,egislature, and there took an active part in the establishment of the insane hospital. He was sul)se<|uently made one of the trustees of that institution, a position he held up to the close of tlie war. He was many years one of the trustees of the Alabama University; is now, and has been a great while, one of the trustees of Howard College, and, from ISCC to 1886, was president of the board of trustees of Judson Fe- male Institute. He was prominently identified with the construction of the Selma, Marion & Memphis IJailroad, and was its president until succeeded by (ieneral Forrest. The Judge was married February "-io, 1849, at Greensboro, this State, to a daughter of Col. John Erwin, a distinguished lawyer in his day. Jlrs. King died in 18.")(i, and Judge King, on the litth of February, 18,it2, at Athens, Ga.. married the youngest daughter of Chief Justice Lump- kins, of the Supreme Court of that State. To this union eight children were born, five of whom died in infancy. The living are: Joseph Henry Lumpkins King, attorney-at-law, Anniston; Por- ter King, Jr., attorncy-at-law. Atlanta, Ga., and Thomas King, of the lie.-;semer Steel Works, Troy, N. Y. Judge King and family afe members of the Baptist Church, and the Judge is a Knight Tem- plar Mason. JOHN MOORE, Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit, was lioiii in Wake County, N. C, March i;3, 18".i'.». His father, Wooteii Moore, a native of Chatham, N. C, came to Alabama in 1833, and in 1834 -settled in Perry County, nine miles west of Marion. He was an e.xtensive cotton planter, and died in 185.i, at the age of si.xty years. He reared three sons, the subject of this sketch being second in order of birth. John Moore was educated j)riniarily at Howard College, and in 184!) was graduated from the State University with the degree of A.B. ; the same in- stitution conferring u])on him, subsequently, the degree of A. M. He began reading law in 1850, at Jfarion, in the office of I. W. Garrott (after- ward General Garrott), and was admitted to the bar in 18-51. Associated with his preceptor, he at once entered upon the practice, but was soon afterward called from it to enter the army. Early in 1861 he raised a short-term company at .Marion, and went out as its captain. At the expiration of the term for which his comi)any was enlisted, Mr. Moore entered the regular service and was made a lieutenant in the Fortieth Alabama In- fantry. He was captured at Xoon Day Creek, Ga., June 1.3, 1864, taken to Johnson's Island, and was there detained until the following winter. Having been exchanged he rejoined his command, but illness, contracted while on Johnson's Island, disqualified him from further service, and he soon afterward returned to Marion. In 186,5-0 Judge Aloorc represented Perry County in the Legislature, and in May of the lat- ter year was elected Judge of what was then the First Judicial Circuit, composed of Autanga, Bibb, Perry and Dallas Counties. He was occu- pying this position in 1808, when he was removed by the Reconstructionists, and from that time until 1880 he devoted himself to the practice of law. In the year last named he was elected Judge of the Fourth Circuit, and was re-elected in 1880. Judge Moore was at one time oHicially con- nected with what is now the Selma, Marion & ilemphis Pailroad. He was many years a member of the Board of Trustees of Howard College, and at this writing (1888) is jiresident of tlie Board of Trustees of Judson Female Institute. He was married at Marion, February 18, 18-51, to Miss Emily Billingsly, daughter of the late Dr. C. C. Billingsly, who, before coming to this county, represented Montgomery once or twice in the Legislature. To this marriage have been born two sons and one daughter. The sons are now residing in Tenne.=see. The family are members of the liaptist Church. 710 NORTHERN ALABAMA. ROBERT TIGNAL JONES, was born iu Meck- lenlim;: Coimty. \'a., October 8, 1815, and was killed at tlie battle of Seven Pines, in May, 180-2. Me was graduated fi-oiu West Point in 183Tand served in the regular army until and during the Floiida War, after which he resigned and retired to private life on his plant. ition in Perry County. He was married at Marion in 184T, to a daughter of Leonard H. SeawelKand had born to him three sons and two daughters. lie was a prominent cit- izen and a gallant soldier. He survcye^l and con- structed the Cahaba & Marion Kailroad. now the C, S. & M.. and was its first president. At the outbreak of the war between the States he left his plantation, tendered his services to the Confeder- ate Government, and at once proceeded to raise what became the Twentieth Alabama Infantry. Before the organization of this regiment, the Con- federate Government commissioned him colonel, and assigned him to the command of the Twelfth Alabama Infantry, which regiment he was leading at the time of his death. In 1801. and prior to his being made colonel of the Twelfth, he was ten- dered the rank of brigadier-general and a seat on the military board of the State by Governor Moore, but declined it and repaire.l at once to Fort Mor- gan, wher*^ he was placed in command of a battal- ion of artillery and. for a short time, in command of the fort. Colonel Jones was a strict disciplinarian, yet so great in him was the confidence of his men that at the reorganization of his regiment, in 180:2, he was unanimously chosen by them as their colonel. Toward the close of the day at Seven Pines, and while in the act of turning the captured guns upon the enemy, a ininie ball pierced his breast, and he fell. He was a man of sound judgment, inflexible will, lofty sense of honor, upright character, and one who always preferreil deeds to words. Early in 1802, it will be remembered, the new battle- flag adopted by the Government was sent to the various commands, and its reception was made the object of many addnsses by various colonels. Colonel Jones' men of the Twelfth anxiously waited the address that he should deliver at the time it was to be unfurled as their banner, ilount- inghis horse he had the regiment drawn upiu line, and turning to an orderly, he said: "Unfold that flag;" and then to the men, he continued "there is your new battle-flasr. Wherever vou see it mov- ing, do you follow." This was the end of his speech, and he dismissed his regiment and rode away. Colonel Jones' lirst wife was a ^liss Jones of this county. His second was a sister of Caiitain J. J. Seawell. He left living several children, and among them we will notice L. S. .(ones in another chapter. ■ ■■^•— ; -£ * 5> ]— ^' — ■ — L. S. JONES, .^on c.f the late Col. b'oliert T. Jones, was born in Peny County, .Via., in ]8")0, and was educated at Iiichmond (\'a.) Bajitist Col- lege. He was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court of Perry County in 1871, and again in 1874; the lat- tei' appointment was the result of necessity — the Negroes having elected a nnm to that position who was unable to give the rerpiired bond. He has been twice elected to the same oflice, and in all had held it over si.vteen years, when he resigned for the purpose of going iu business. He is a member of the Knights of Honor, a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and is an upright, hon- orable, highly-respected citizen. Mr. Jones was married, in 1877, to a daughter of Capt. John Howz, of .Marion. ■ ■ * > •^^t^:-^— JAMES DOUGLAS WADE. A. M.. President of the .Marion Fcnialc Seminary, was born at Chris- tiansburg.Va., in 18;i"2, and was educated at P^mory and Henry College, that State, and at DickinsonCol- lege, Carlisle, Pa., graduating from the last named institution in 185.). Soon after leaving Dickin- son he accepted a position as teacher in Andrew Female -College, Ctithbert, Ga., and remained there eight years. In 1803 he was elected to a professorship in Monticello (Fla.) Academy, and tnught there nine years. From here he went to Tallahassee, where he took charge of the Western Florida Seminary, liow University, and was there eight years. At Troy, Ala., he established an academy, be- ginning with only thirteen students, and building it up to one of the first institutions of the State, with an average attendance of one hundred and twenty-five pujiils. He came to Marion in the fall of 1884. as president of the Marion Female Seminary. Under his wise supervision, the school NORTHERN ALABAMA. ill lias rupiilly lulvuiK-ed in poiuilitrity, and is now one of tlie leiuliug institutions for the education of girls in Alabama. It is claimed that this is the oldest female college in the world." It was founded in 183i;. The Seminary now belongs to the Pres- byterians, Methodists and Episcopalians jointly. Tiie art teacher. .Miss Mary K. Jones, visits Europe and our Northern cities frc(|iieiitly. in the interest of her department. Miss Harriet A. Woodliarn, an English lady, a graduate of Leipsic, (icrmaiiy, is jirincipal of the music scliool. Over 4,0li!i young ladies have lieen taught at this school, and there has not been a death among its hiardiiuj pujiils in thirty-five years. CYRUS D. HOGUE, Attorncy-at-law, Marion, was born in I'erry County, near fScott's Station, this State. December T, lS4s. His father, Jolin Hogue, was also a native of this county, and his mother, whose maiden name was Wallace, was a native of South Carolina. His grand father Hogue was one of the pioneers of I'erry County, and his father lived here all his life, and died in 1870, at the age of fifty-two years. 'I'he Ilogues are of Scotch-Irish descent, and the Wallaces came orig- inally from Scotland. Cyrus I). Hogue was educated at Howard Col- lege, the Alabama State l^^niversity, and Washing- ton and Lee University, \'irginia, attending each of these institutions in the oi'der nanieartici])ated, including Gettysburg, Richmond. Petersburg, NORTHERN ALABAMA. 713 Fredericksburg, the second Manassas, and many others wliose names are not now recalled, Mr. Moore took an active part. At the close of the war he returned to Marion and soon after- ward established the mercantile firm of J. A. Moore & Co. This tirm subsequently became Moore & Fitzgerald, and went out of mercantile business in 1883. The .Marion Savings Bank was established in 187"-2, and he became its president in 18s:i. The cajiital stock of this bank is ^50,000, and something of the skill with which Mr. Moore has managed it may be gathered from the fact that in 1883 its stock was selling at fifty cents on the dollar, while now it sells at about par. It is proper to say that Mr. Moore is a self-made man. What of this world's goods he has, have been acciuired by his individual effort and indus- try. He was ilayor of Marion in 188"-?, which seems to constitute the sum of his public services. At ITuntsville, this State, in October, 187"-J, he married Miss Sarah F. Hobinson. THOMAS HUDSON, Editor and Proprietor of the Marion Slandard. a weekly Democratic paper, published every Wednesday morning, was born at Uniontown, Ferry County, Ala., August 28, 1841. His father. Richard H. Hudson, many years a successful merchant, came from ^'irgi^ia when seventeen years of age, and lived at Uniontown until the day of his death, which occurred in 18tI3. He married a Miss Chambers, of Clarke County, this State, a granddaughter of Gen. Joseph Chambers, of the War of 1812. Thomas Hudson was educated at Uniontown, and at the age of sixteen entered the State Uni- versity, leaving there in 1859 to attend the Uni- versity of Virginia. He was at the latter place when Alabama seceded from the Union. He came immediately home and entered the army as a member of an old military comi)any, which had at that time tendered its services to the Governor and been accepted. They left for the field April 10, 18i>l. At Dalton, this command was reorganized and becanie the Fourth Alabama Heg- iment, and took j)art in the first battle of Manas- sas, where tiie subject of this sketch fell into the hands of the enemv. He was taken to the Old Capitol prison, and held to November following, when he wsis paroled. It will be remembered that about this time the Confederate States (iovern- ment, as a stroke of economy, ordered the dis- charge from the service of all paroled prisoners. Therefore, young Hudson was at liberty to enlist into another command when once he had been ex- changed, and we find that early in 1863, he joined Captain Storr's Cadet Company from Tuscaloosa, and became a part of the Seventh Alabama Cav- alry, with which command he remained to the close of the war. Having married while on parole, he, in 18G5, returned to Uniontown, settled down upon a plantation and followed farming until 1874. His wife was a Miss I'itts, daughter of P. H. Pitts, Sr., and a niece of the Hon. A. C. Da- vidson, the present member of Congress from that district. She died in August, 1873, leaving four children, one daughter and three sons. Mr. Hudson is Grand Keeper of Records and Seals of the Order of Knights of Pythias, member of the Knights of Honor and of the Order of Iron Ilall. He has been twice vice-president of the Alabama Press Association; held the office of As- sistant Tax Assessor, and was elected Tax Asses- sor and served three years. It is proper to mention that the records kept by the County Commissioners show that they, upon three occasions, passed reso- lutions declaring that " Thomas Hudson was the best Tax Assessor the county ever had." In the fall of 1880 he came to Jfarion to take charge of the Probate Judge's office for Judge Stewart, who was incapacitated from illness to attend to the duties of the oflHce. While liere he jiurchased the Southern Standanl, and changed its name to the Marion Standard, the present popular provincial paper. — — -?"^^^;- < '- ■ BENJAMIN M. HUEY, prominent Attorney and Counselor-at-law, Marion, Ala., and present State Senator from this district, is a native of Talladega County, this State, where he was born •June l.">, 1840, and is a son ot General James G. L. Huey. Captain Huey was educated at Oxford. Ga., primarily, and graduated from tlie Southern Uni- versity, Greensboro, Ala., as A. B., class of 1860. Immediately after leaving college, aiul in the office of Hon. A. J. Walker, of Talladega, he be- gan the study of law. In June, 1861, he joined 714 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Company E, Tenth Alabama Infantry, as a sergeant, and was with that command about eighteen months. At 'Williamsburg, Va., he was promoted by the War Department (C. S. A.), for gallantry in action, to second lieutenant, and as- signed to Talladega as drill master. He remained in that position from October, 1862, to July, 18G4, at which time he raised a company of infantry, and was assigned to a battalion at Mobile. At the latter place his company fell into the hands of General Farragut — he, being absent with his sick family at the time, escaped imprisonment. His company was never exchanged, and he was assigned to post duty again at Talladega, where he remained until the close of the war. AVhile in the service. Captain Huey partici- pated in the battles of Dranesville, Williams- burg, Seven Pines, Gaines' ilill, Frazier's Farm, Malvern Hill, second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, and any number of skirmishes not dignified in history with the name of battle. At the close of the war, he came to Marion, and, with e.x-Governor Moore and Hon. William M. Brooks, resumed the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 18GG, and at once entered into the practice. He was a member of the Legislature from Perry county in 1878-9, and for the succeeding term declined nomination. He was Mayor of Marion in 1881, and was elected to the State Senate in 1886. In 1887 he was appointed on the staff of Governor Thomas Seay with the rank of colonel, by which title he will hereafter be familiarly known. Colonel Iluey is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and is a member of Selma C'om- mandery, Xo. 5; is Past Chancellor of E. D. King Lod^e, Knights of Pythias, in which order he has been the representative to the Grand Lodge four times in succession; and is also an officer in the Grand Lodge. He is a member of the Knights of Honor, in which he is Dictator of Marion Lodge, No. 2780. The Colonel is one of the Trustees of Marion Female Seminary, and is otherwise variously in- terested in JIarion and her most reputable insti- tutions. He is one of the most earnest Democratic workers in Central Alabama; takes an active part in all political campaigns, and does much effective work. lie stumped the State at the request of the State Central Committee, for Seymour and Blair, Greeley and Brown, Hancock and English, and Cleveland and Hendricks, and is always to the forefront when any duty, political, social or religious, calls him. As a lawyer, Colonel Huey ranks among the best; as a speaker, he is forcible, logical and elo- quent; as a legislator, he is active, diligent, progressive and energetic. He introduced a bill in the last Senate of Alabama to establish a State Female Industrial School and Vniversit)- — the first move in that line ever attempted in this State, and it is to be hoped such a bill will yet become a law at the approaching session of the General Assembly of Alabama. Colonel Huey was married in Perry County, June 9, 1863, to Miss Sarah E. King, daughter of the late E. W. King, and has had born to him four sons and four daughters. Three of his sons are already fine business men. The family are all members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Indicative of the esteem in which Colonel Huey is held in Alabama, and of his high social posi- tion, wealth and attainments, the publishers take pleasure in presenting herewith a life-like portrait of one of the representative men of Alabama, which speaks for itself. Gen. James G. L. Huey came to Alabama from Georgia in 1835. His grandfather, born in Ire- land, came to America prior to the Kevolutionary War, and was a captain in the Continental Army during the struggle for liberty. The llueys were French Huguenots, and this particular brunch of them are the descendants of those who left France under the persecutions of Catholicism in the lat- ter part of the sixteenth century. General Huey settled at Talladega, and there married Miss Vir- ginia V. Maclin, a native of Virginia, and a near relative of the Hon. James M. and John Y. Ma- son, of that State. He lives now in Bibb County, this State, where he is a wealthy farmer. He rep- resented Talladega County in the State Senate, away back in 1845, and during the late war took an active part, holding the rank of major-general in the command of State troops. He removed to Marion in 1872, and from here to Bibb Count}- in 1874. Col. B, iL Iluey's mother nie Virginia V. Maclin was the daughter of Mr. Benjamin Maclin, a high-toned Virginia gentlemaii of the old school and of large means, who reside near Petersburg. Gen. G. L. Huey removed from Lancaster, S. C, in 1833, to Harris County, (ia., where he filled several public positions of trust, and where he is NORTHERN ALABAMA. 715 universally esteemed for his excellent judgment and high integrity of character. He accumulated ft considerable fortune and is ever ready to assist in benevolent charities. ^^►- WM.W.WILKERSON. M.D.,son of P.H. and E. W. (Foster) Wilkerson, natives, respectively, of the States of Kentucky and (Georgia, and of English extraction, was born in Tuscaloosa County, Ala., August 15, 1833. Of the seven sons reared to manhood by the j senior Wilkerson, two of them are doctors of medi- cine, three of dental surgery, and two are farmers. The subject of this sketch was educated at the State University and began reading medicine at Tuscaloosa when twenty-one years of age. In 1855, he was graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and at once began the practice of medicine in Perry County. Since 18(55, he has lived in the town of Marion, where he stands at the head of his profession. In 186"2, he entered the army as assistant sur- geon and remained in the service until the close of the war. The last eighteen months of his ser- vice was as surgeon in charge of the hospital at Eufaula; the first eighteen months were spent in the field. •• Tiie Doctor has been many years prominently identified with the Baptist Church, in which he is regarded as one of the most substantial pillars. For fifteen years he was president of the Board of Trustees of Howard College, the denomina- tional literary institution of this Church, then located in Marion. During this period, the col- lege did some of the grandest work of its history, notwithstanding it had lost its large and munifi- cent endowment bj' the results of the war. The Doctor furnished the means for starting the Alabama Baptixt in Marion, and, a'S business manager, in connection witli Rev. E. T. Winkler, D.I)., as editor-in-chief, carried the paper on for five or six years, during which time it made a Xational reputation. After the successful estab- lishment of tiie i>aper, they turned it over to the Alabama Baptist State Convention. He was married in Perry County, in 1857, to .Miss Moore, a sister of Judge John Moore, of this city, and they have had born to them four sons, the eldest of whom. Dr. Wooten M. 'Wilkerson, is practicing medicine in Montgomery. William is an attorney in Birmingham. Another son is in the drug business at Marion, and Chas. W., the youngest, is in business in Marion. WILLIAM F. HOGUE, son of the late John Hogiie, and lircither of the Hon. Cyrus D. Ilogue, of JIarion, was born in Perry County in 1853, He was graduated from AVashiugton and Lee Univer- sity in 1873; subsequently read law at Marion, and was admitted to the bar in 187'j. For a short time after coming to the bar he gave his time to the practice, but his planting interests were of such character as to require his personal atten- tion. He therefore withdrew from the law, and is, at this writing (1888) devoting his time to the growing of cotton. He lives upon his plantation, near Scott's Station, and is regarded as one of the most successful farmers in the county. He represented Perry County in the Legislature, sessions of 1880-81, in which he proved himself an energetic and useful member, and he is the present nominee of the Democratic party for that position. Having no opposition, he will of course be the next representative from this county. Mr. Iloguc's wife, to whom he was married in Hale County, this State, in 1880, is the accom- plished daughter of William II. Lavender, Esq. JOHN BINION COCKE, Postmaster, Marion, was born at this jilace May 4, 1845. His father was a planter by occupation, and died at Marion in 18G7, at the age of fifty-three years. His brother, the Hon. J. F. Cocke, was sixteen years a State Senator from his district. The family to which John B. Cocke belongs con- sists of three sons and two daughters. The old- est son was a member of the Fourth Alabama Regiment, and was killed at the battle of Gettys- burg. One of the daughters. Mis. Zitila, was graduated with honors from the Judson Female Institute, JIarion, and, after traveling extensively, located at Baltimore, ^Id., where she is engaged in literary work and in teaching German and music. She is a well-known contributor of recog- nized merit to various literary publications. John Binion Cocke was educated at Marion and at the L'niversity of Alabama. In 18G3 he en- listed in the Twentieth Alabama Regiment, then 716 NORTHERN ALABAMA. located at Vicksburg, aud was made first lieuten- | ant of Company G. With this command he served to the close of the war, and participated in the I battles of Jackson, Lookout Mountain, i[ission- i ary Ridge and Nashville, and left the service as a i member of Gen. E. AV. Pettus' staff. For some years after the war he gave his attention to farm- ing, and in 1879 was elected sheriff of Perry ' County. He was appointed postmaster by Presi- ! dent Cleveland in 1885 in response to the wishes of an overwhelming majority of the best people of Marion, lie is an active, simon-pure Democratic worker, in whom there is no guile, and, at this writing, he is a member of the State Executive Committee. Mr. Cocke was married in 1870 to Miss Moda- well, daughter of W. B. Modawell, Esq., and has had born to him six children. CARLOS REESE, probably the best representa- tive of j)ioncer life now living in Perry County, was born in Pendleton District, S. C., in 1815. II is father, Henry Dobson Reese, was a planter, but Carlos Reese, it seems, began life as a mechanic. He learned the carriage-maker's trade, and followed it about fourteen years. He came to Alabama in the fall of 1832, aud carried on a little carriage manufactory at Marion for six or seven years. At the end of that time, he removed to the plantation, about three miles south of the town of Marion, upon which he has since resided. As before stated, he came to Alabama in 1832. At the end of a couple of j'ears, he returned to Charleston, where, in 1836, we find that he was a member of Captain Henry's Company of Irish Volunteers, and with this command fought the Indians in the Florida War about three months. Before returning to Alabama, he spent some time in Augusta, Ga., where as a mechanic, he assisted in the construction of the first passenger coach that ever ran into the city of Atlanta. January 5, 1841, he married Mary Catharine Crenshaw, by whom he had born to him eight children; now living, three sons and two daugh- ters. Two of his sons, Joseph R., and Carlos R., Jr., were soldiers in the late war from the first to the last, and participated in all the battles of the Eastern Army from Manassas to Appomattox. Away back in its early history, the town of Marion probably had the reputation of being one of the toughest places in the State, and we have an idea that the subject of this sketch knows more of its history, during those times, than any other man now living. Xone but the oldest inhabitants can remember one of the most ridiculous incidents that ever occurred in this vicinity. A circus company, after their performance, had occasion to put up at Marion for a night. Jess Price, a painter, was one of the characters of that time, and, at the head of a party composed of Round- tree, Gilmer, Pennell, Cocke, Comer, Scuddy, Dozier, Lee and others, took charge of the menag- erie accompanying the circus, and turned many of the animals loose in the village. It is said that there were stray monkeys, babboonsand other wild animals circulating in the woods of Perry County for months afterward. If Carlos Reese was a member of that party, it does not appear from the data at hand. Nevertheless, a jollier, better-hearted, more whole-souled set of men probably never congre- gated together than were those who formed the pioneers of the town of Marion, and the descend- ants of many of them are to-day among the most respected citizens of Perry County. Sam Houston married here to Margaret Lee, sister of the Lees who participated in the sports hinted at. ^Ir. Reese was present at that wedding, and remembers many interesting inci- dents connected therewith. Gen. John F. Thomp- son waited on Houston as his '' best man," and a week later Thompson married Dr. Benson's daugh- ter, four or five miles west of Marion, and Hous- ton waited on Thompson. As the hour of the ceremony approached at the latter wedding, Hous- ton concluded that Thompson was too drunk to go through with it, and, in order to sober him up, he procured a bottle of cologne and saturated the General's head. It ran down into his eyes, and caused Thompson to think that Houston was try- ing to kill him. The misapprehension came very near leading to bloodshed. One of the Misses Lee suggested to Houston that they " trot the General around the square a few times to sober him up." These and hundreds of other interesting remi- niscences are vividly remembered and dwelt upon by Captain Reese, and an hour or two may be spent more pleasantly in his company than most any other place the writer knows of. He has for some years past been experimenting with Texas blue grass, and has fully demonstrated NORTHERN ALABAMA. ri7 that it fiiii he grown with tlie most jjerfeet success in Perry County, iiiul consequently auywliere in Central Alabunui. JOHN E. FRAZIER, D.D.S., Marion, was born at Trussville, this Stale, and is a son of Colonel J. 11. Frazier, a j)!anter, of Jefferson County. The senior Frazier came with his parents to Jefferson County when he was but tliree years of age, and when tiiere were but few others living in that part of the State. Or. Frazier was educated at tlie Trus.^ville Academy: began tlie study of dentistryat Oxford, Ala., and in the spring of 1884 was graduated from Vanderbilt University, Xashville, Tenn. He began the practice of his profession at Springville, and in April, 1885, came to Marion. At this place he has since made his home, and is, at this writing, in the enjoyment of a well-deserved, aristocratic and lucrative patronage. He is a young man of highly moral character, a member of the Baptist Church, belongs to the orders of the Knights of Pythias and of the Iron Hall, and is altogether a popular and much-esteemed citizen. -•»- ^^^ E. P. THOMPSON. M. D., was born in this county, March 11, 18-11, and is a son of the late John F. Thompson, well remembered as a civil engineer. He was a native of South Carolina, and a member of the celebrateil Thompson family of that State. He spent many j'ears in Perry County, and here died, in 1852, at the age of fifty-two years. Dr. Thompson was educated at ilarion and at the State University. He left the latter institu- tion to join the army, and he served gallantly for three years as a member of the Eleventh Alabama Infantry. At the close of the war, he returned to Marion and began the study of medicine with Dr. R. Foster as his preceptor. He was graduated from tlicMedical Department of theUniversityof Louisi- ana in 187'.t, and at once thereafter began the prac- tice in Perry County. He moved into Marion in 1872, and has liere since been actively engaged in his profession. He is chairman of the Hoard of Censors of the Perry County Medical Society, and is a member of the State Medical Association. He is devoted to the profession, and contributes much to the literature thereof. The Doctor's wife, nh Miss Rosa Townes, to whom he was married in 1882, died in 1885. — —■ ^— ?^*^- <• ■ • J. ANDREW FRAZIER, D.D.S., Marion, Ala., brother of Dr. .Idhn l). Frazier, is a native of Trussville, this State, and a graduate of ^'ander- bilt University. He began the practice of his jirofession at Marion in 1885, where he is at this writing, associated with his brother, with whom he eciually ranks as a skillful and reliable dentist. They are both members of the Alabama State Dental Association. WILLIAM G. BROWN, author of the histories of .Marion and ShefKeld, as found in this volume, and Professor of Ancient and Modern Languages at the Marion Military Institute, was born in this city April 10, 1808. He was graduated with first honors from Howard College in 188G, and bears the distinction of having the best scholarship re- cord in the history of that educational institution. Since his graduation, and prior to his coming to his present position with the Marion Military Institute, he has devoted his time to literary work, and has contributed much valuable and highly appreciated matter to the Montgomery Advertiser. His chap- ters on JIarion and Shetheld in this volume, will be found among the most valuable in the work. XVIII. TROY. Bv Joel D. Murphree, Sr. Pike is one of the oldest counties in the State, liaving been organized in the year 1822. Louisville was her first seat of justice, Monti- cello next, and then Troy. The first court in Pike was held in 1823. In 1836, General Welborn drove the last red men of the forest, tlie Creek Indians, out of the county; the last battle being fought in the swamps of Pea River, near Ilobdy's Bridge, on the road now leading from Troy to Louisville, in Barbour County. Two years from that time the first house was built in Troy, by Peter J. Coleman, for Mrs. Ann Love, familiarly known as " Granny '' Love. October 0, 1838, John Coskrey donated to Pike County fifteen acres of land, and on the 8th of tiie same month, John llanchey donated fifteen acres, Coskrey on the north and Hanchey on the south of the section line running east and west tlirough the court-house, afterward built about the center of said thirty acres. Troy was then laid off by Robert Smiley, County Surveyor, the first lot being the Court-House Square, the remainder of the thirty acres being divided into business and dwelling lots. In the year 1839, the first court-house, a wood- en structure, was built by Nubel A. Moore, who, I am informed, is now living. Pike was, at that time, a wilderness, abounding in game and fish, furnishing sport for the early settlers, most of whom had moved into this county from Xorth Carolina, and settled in neighbor- hoods coniposed principally of those who had been neighbors in the old State. Of the first inhabi- tants of Pike, we find the Fitzpatricks, Baldwins, Evanses, Townsends, Talbots, Youngbloods, Den-" nises. Mays, Stinsons, Loves, Griffins, Keeners, Reeves, Simmonses, Dixons, McLeods, Stringers, llobdys, Flowerses, Grimses, Sharplesses, Crowd- ers, Walterses, Catretts, Whites, Harrises, Faulks, Powels, Burgesses, Wingards, Jeffcoats, Flomars, Hodges, Grangers, Davises, Coskreys, Hancheys, AVilliamses, Spiveys, Rodgers, Darbys, Pughs, Carters, Soleses, Joneses, Wilsons,^[ancflls,Oatses, Sellerses, Gainers, Hendersons, Silers, Gibsons, Kellys, Wm. M. Hill, Enzors, Madisons, Fryers, Stanalands, Brookses, Wileys, Worth ys, Segars, Lees, Bryans, Laws, Redmons, ilillses, Mullinses, Kirk- seys. Hurleys, Herndons, Stanleys, McLures, Bur- neys, Hilliards and Howards. The first hotel, or inn, was erected in 1839, for "Granny" Love, it being the old court-house building removed from Monticello to Troy. Shortly afterward another hotel was built by Nathaniel Soles. The first mercantile enterj)rise wasby James M. Thompson and Stephen I). Smiley, who did a gen- eral merchandise business. The next, and at about the same time, was, what was then known as a grocery (now called a whisky saloon), kept by John Hanchey and 'Zach. Collinsworth. And we find the grand jury, in its general present- ment, mentioning the evils res\ilting from the excessive use of intoxicants, as the juries have, from time to time since, and will continue to do, as long osition he fills to the satisfaction of the partyand thecreditof himself. He is noaspirant, yet his superior business tact places him in many positions of honor and trust. For many years he has been a director of the Mobile & Girard ifail- road, and a stockholder in and nninager of many successful business enterprises in the city. Mr. Murphree, by careful management and close application to business, has accumulated considerable property, and thougii it is esti united that his real estate is worth more than that of any other individual in the county, he does not boast of it. He is possessed of a kind and generous spirit; is always ready to help the deserving poor, and many gifts of charity flow freely from his hands that the world never knows anything of. Though not a member of any religious denom- ination, he does his share toward upholding the preacher's hands and toward the building of church houses. In his dealings in business, Jlr. Mur|)hree is agreeable and straight-forward, observing the golden rule, doing unto others as he would have them do unto him. He is a strong enemy to the sale and use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and, when an opportunity affords, never lets it pass without giving a black eye to the liquor traf- fic. He says that if putting whisky out of the county would depreciate real estate, he would be one of the principal losers, yet he would be willing to make the sacrifice for the public good. Mr. Murphree is a prominent and consistent member of the ilasonic fraternity, and is other- wise one of the most popular men in Pike County. His name and his credit have always been above reproach. The history of Troy, as published in this volume, was written by him, and it will be found upon perusal to be one of the most readable, as well as one of the most reliably correct, chapters in the book. It is succinct, concise, and shows a familiarity with the subjects treated, that is at once inviting, entertaining and instructive. As a mark of the distinguished esteem in which he is held, and as a compliment to him as a citizen in whom there is no guile, the publishers i)resent herewith a handsome engraving of Mr. ilurphree. JOHN D.GARDNER. Attorney-at-law. was born at FliireiRc. (Ja.. July :20. 1830. His father, Benjamin Gardner, was a native of North Caro- lina, and his mother, whose maiden name was Catinirine Collins, was born in South Carolina. The senior Jlr. Gardner was a lawyer by pro- fession, and for some years prior to the war. was editor of the Alabama Journal, a paper then pub- 726 NORTHERN ALABAMA. lished at ilontgomery. In 1872, he was elected Attorney-General of this State, and filled the office one term. Retiring from official life he re- sumed tlie practice of law, and pursued it until compelled by the loss of eyesight to abandon it. John D. Gardner, received his earliest education at the old field schools, studied law under his father, and, in 1859, was admitted to tlie bar. He began practice at Troy, and resumed it after the war. He occupies a high position at the Alabama bar, and is one of the most popular men in the profession. Early in 1801 he entered the Confederate Army as first lieutenant of Company F, First Alabama Cavalry, and remained in the service until the close of the war, leaving the army with the rank of captain. In 1805, he was ap- pointed by the Governor to the office of Solicitor of tlie Eighth Judicial Circuit, and discharged the duties tliereof one term. Captain Gardner takes an active interest at all times in the cause of education, and is at this writing, president of the Board of Directors of the Troy Normal School. He was married in Jan- uary, 180G, to Miss Belle Starke, the accomplished daughter of Bowling Starke, of Richmond, ^'a., and lias liad born to him four children: AddieB., Catharine C, Ann S. and Lucian J). Tlie family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South. WILLIAM H. PARKS, Attorney-at-law, son of William X. and Eliza \V. (llayne) Parks, natives, respectively, of the States of Xorth aTid South Carolina, was born in Mecklenburg County, !N. C, in January, 1T34, and was educated at Davidson College, Charlotte, N, C. Leaving college, he came directly to Troy, where he taught school for about three years, studied law, and, in 1859, was admitted to the bar. In 1872, he was elected to the State Senate and for four years was a member of that body, taking a prominent part in all im- portant legislation during that period. He was a member of several committees, and chairman of the Committee on Local Laws. Aside from being one of the most prominent at- torneys in Southeastern Alabama, Mr. Parks is somewhat distinguished as a literary man. He was married in 185'>, to Miss Catharine Ben- bow, daughter of Richard Benbow, Esq., of Pike County, this State, and the children born to him and now living are: Richard, a promising young attorney at Troy; AVilliam L.. also an attorney at Troy; Isaac T., Clifford, Samuel, Selden and Irene. The family are members of the Methodist Epis- coi)al Church, South, and Mr. Parks is a member of the Masonic fraternity. *-- *^ 'f4iJ2S^* V' ' JOHN P. HUBBARD, Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit of Alabama, was born in this county in 1830, and is the son of William T. and Amy (Youngblood) Hubbard. The senior Mr. Hubbard was an extensive planter in his lifetime, and represented Pike County in the Legislature, sessions of 1847-8. He died in 1873. John P. Hubbard was graduated from Howard College, Marion, Ala., in 1859, read law un- der David Clopton and R. F. Ligon, and was ad- mitted to the bar, before the State Supreme Court, in 1800. In 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company I, Twenty-second Alabama Infantry, and after the war returned to Troy and entered the practice of law. In 1808 he was elected to the Legislature on the Democratic ticket, and was a member of that body until 18T3, being Speaker of the House during the latter session. He was returned to the Legislature in 1870: was elected Judge of the Second Circuit in 1880, and re-elected in 18S6. Judge Hubbard is one of the most ])opular men on the nisi priits bench of the State. As a law- yer he ranked among the foremost while at the bar, and as a citizen he is held in the highest es- teem. He was married in 18G9, to Miss Ann (J., daughter of John S. and Mary E. (Provost) Coombs, and has had born to him three children: Graph J., Amy and Ann. The family are mem- bers of the Baptist Church, in which the Judge has been many years a deacon. He was also some years superintendent of the Sabbath-school. HENRY C. WILEY, prominent Attorney-at- law, was born in Clayton, Barbour County, this State, in 1840, and is a son of Judge J. McCaleb and Elizabeth (Duckworth) Wiley, natives, re- spectively, of North Carolina and Georgia. NORTHERN ALABAMA. Til The senior Mr. AViley was a lawyer by profes- sion, and practiced at the Troy bar about twenty- eight years. He wits elected Judge of the Circuit Court in 1S67, and held the oHice one term. lie came to Alabama in IfS'iS with his parents, who settled in Lawrenoe County; removed to Louisiana in IS-^!), and in is:5v', being in bad health, took up his residence in ilatamoros, Mexico. After varied experiences, some of which were highly romantic, lie joined the regular Mexican Army as aide-de-camp, on the staff of General Santa Anna, with the I'ank of major of infantry. Having been ordered, in l.S;i6, to march against Texas, he deserted the Mexican Army. While in Mexico, he passed tiirough some of the most peril- ous adventures. He was at one time tried by court martial, and sentenced to be shot for dis- obedience of orders; again he was confined in the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa at Vera Cruz, wlien the battle of San Jacinto was fought on the ■.'1st of April, 18:J0, and was. finally, discharged from the Castle, and from arrest, without any inti- mation from any human being as to whom he owed his deliverance. He always thought, how- ever, that there was a certain mystic iuftuence, which, by its labor of love, wrought his libera- tion. At that time the Americans in ^lexico were in very bad odor, and he took the first opportunity to escape, and to return to Alabama. Here, in Barbour County, he began the practice of law in l><:i6, and three years later, was appointed Kegis- ter in Chancery, and moved to Clayton. In 1843, he was elected major-general of militia, and in lS."iO, came into Pike County, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1878, at the age of seventy-two years. In 18ti.") he was appointed to the Circuit Court Uench, and in ISCC was elected to Congress, but was not permitted to hold the seat. Judge Wiley was of portly figure and impressive a])pearance. He was dignified and impartial on tiie bench, and wa.-; a citizen of moral habits ] and public spirit. In politics he was an old I fashioned Whig, and in 1850 took an active part with the Union men in trying to prevent the trouble between the States which afterward occurred. He was a zealous Mason, having taken thirty- two degrees, and was for two years (irand Master of the (J rand Lodge of Alabama. From his return from Mexico till the time of ' his death. Judge Wiley was prominently identi- fied with the temperance cause, being at one time Grand Worthy I'atriarch of the Sons of Temper- ance. In social circles. General Wiley was affable, communicative and companionable. Henry C. AN'iiey was educated at Davidson Col- lege, Davidson, N. C, and at Oglethorpe University, near Milledgeville, Ga. In 18(;i he entered the Confederate Army, as a private in "Terry's Texas Hangers,"' afterward the Eighth Texas Cavalry, and subsequently rose to the com- mand of his company. He remained in the ser- vice to tiie close of the war, when he returned to Troy, studied law with his father, and in October, 18ii5 was admitted to the bar. In 18G8, he was admitted to practice before the State Suj)reme Court, and at this writing is of the firm of (iard- ner & Wiley, the most prominent law firm in Southeastern Alabama. Captain Wiley was the only solicitor ever elected in Pike County by the people. This was under the old law; he received flattering majorities of the popular vote, and held the office two terms, or eight years. He is a fine lawyer, a profound scholar, and a gentleman of tact and foresight, and of jiro- nounced business ability. Captain Wiley is a Knight Templar Mason, and Master of Troy (Hlue) Lodge, a position he has acceptably filled for several years. He was married, in 1800, to Miss Henrietta Worthy, the accomplished daughter of Dr. A. N. and Ann (Pace) Worthy, natives of the State of Georgia. By this marriage has been born to him three children: Lizzie, Rhydonia and (Ophe- lia. Mrs. ^Vilcy having died, Ca))tain Wiley, in 1874, married her younger sister, Jliss Oi)helia Worthy, and to this union have been born two children: Henrietta and Walter Harry. CHARLES HENDERSON. Mayor of the city of Troy, was i)orn in Pike County, this State. April 20, 180n, and is the son of Jeremiah and Jlildred (Hill) Henderson. He was instructed through boy- hood in Troy under the various distinguished jK'd- agogues who have been instrumental in nniking tiie town famous as the educational center of 728 NORTHERN ALABAMA. Southeast Alabama. In 1875, he entered Howard College at Marion, and in 18TG wlien nearing the completion of his literary training, was obliged to abandon his studies (being called home by the death of his father) to enter vigorously ujion the business pursuits of life. At the age of seventeen years he was relieved of the disabilities of nonage by the Legislature of the State, and has since been conducting a large and successful business on his own responsibility. He is now the junior member of the wholesale and retail estab- lishment of Henderson Bros. & f "o. His kind and generous nature has won for him many friends, especially among his associates, the young men, and to their efforts may be accredited his victory in the formidable race for Mayor of this city, on December 7,- 188G. Among all Troy's young men of wealth, wisdom and induence, Charles Henderson is certainly the most fitting one to fill, with honor and credit to himself and lasting benefit to the city, the respon- sible position he now holds. Since he entered the office of Mayor, he has been constantly on the alert, ever watchful of the city's interests, and has already done much for Troy. The phrase •'Suc- cess in business," is almcst inseparably linked with the name of Henderson, one of the principal characteristics of the wliole family being industry and energy. The progenitors of the family came from Edge- field District, S. C. Eli Henderson, the first to immigrate to Alabama, settled tlie old homestead nine miles below Troy in 1828. He married a Miss Darby, whose family was also from Edgefield. They had thirteen children, twelve of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. Eli Henderson, who was tlie grandfatlier of the present generation of younger Hendersons now residing in this city and county, died in 1859, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. J. A. Henderson was born in 1831, and after he came to years of maturity, married Miss ^I. E. Hill, who is of another old and noted family of this county. He settled at what is known as Henderson, twelve miles below Troy. Seven children were the fruits of their union, all of whom are yet living. In 1870 he moved to Tro)', where he resided until his death, in 1870. Fox Henderson was born in 1852, J. C. Hen- derson in 1857, Ciiarles Henderson in 1860, and W. J. Henderson in 18G.3. " Toodle Dink " and Miss Gussie are yet under age, and the oldest daughter, now Mrs. Brock, of Montgomery, was married in 187'J. LaFayette Henderson and Willis D. Henderson, were born in 18.33 and 1830, respectively, and are engaged in the mercantile business in this city. They came to Troy in 1870, from the neighbor- hood of ■■•Henderson's Store," in the southern part of the county. J. il. Henderson, another brother, also does a large and prosperous business in this city. At a rough estimate, this family owns property, both personal and real, in Pike County, amounting to nearly a million dollars, and perha])s more, if it were summed up. They have a large connec- tion in the county, and number among them, aside from those already enumerated, many of tlie county's very best and most highly esteemed citi- zens. As a fitting testimonial to true personal worth and merit, the publishers preface this sketch with a life-like engraving of probably the youngest, municipal executive in Alabama — C'harles Hen- derson, Mayor of Troy. >-^ JOSEPH M. DILL, President of the Troy Normal School, and Superintendent of the Troy City Schools, was born in Dallas County, this State, in 1852, and is a son of Thomas J. and Jane L. (Allison) Dill, natives of the State of South Carolina. The senior Mr. Dill is now president of Howard College, East Lake, Birming- ham. Professor Dill was educated at Howard College, when that institution was located at Jlarion, and was graduated from there in 1874. Immediately after graduating he began teaching in the high school at Tuscaloosa, and was there two years when he accepted the Chair of Natural Science at Howard College. He remained in the Chair of Natural Science two years, and returned to Tus- caloosa as principal of the high school. In the year 1884, he came to Troy as superintendent of the high school, and in 1887, upon the establishment of the Normal School at this place, he was made its president. At this writing he has the supervision of all the schools, lioth white and colored, in Troy. The I'rofessor is devoted to the advancement of education, and, though yet a young man, is known throughout the State as an educator of rare ac- complishments and ability. ^^OJi TJIERN ALABAMA. 729 He was married, in 1878, at Tuscaloosa, to Miss F^ucy Foster, the accomplished daughter of Joshua II. and Lucy (IJillingsly) Foster, ami has one child. Joseph M. I'rofessor and .Mrs. Dill are incnibers of the Baptist Church, wherein the Professor holds the ofHce of deacon and is superintendent of the Sab- batli-.^chool. PUGH H. BROWN, M.D., son of Enoch G. and Peruielia (l-"ioiinio\ ) Hrown, natives of (Georgia, was born in Monroe County, in this State, in 1833. The senior Mr. Brown, a planter by occu- jiation, re[»resented Marion and Caliioun Counties in the lower house of the Georgia Legislature two sessions, and was ten years .Judge of the Court of Ordinary. He was also a local iireacher of the Metiiodist Episcopal Church, South, officiating in that cajjacity upward of twenty years. During the Creek War he commanded a company of vol- unteers, and participated in many of the hard- fought battles of that campaign. He died at Dawson, Ga., in 1S83, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Dr. Pugli H. Brown received his primary educa- tion at the high schools in Slarion County, Ga., and in lS.i4 was graduated as a doctor of medi- cine from the L'niversity of New York. He began the practice of medicine near Auburn, this State, immediately upon leaving college, and removed from there in a siiort time to Hussell County. He •came into Pike County in 18oT. and has had an office in Troy, and given most of his time and tal- ent to his chosen profession regularly since that day. Early in 18iJl he enlisted as a private sol- dier in Company L Fifteenth Alabania Infantry, and remained in the service until the close of the war. At the battle of Cohl Harbor, in 18. (ioldthwaile, son of John K. (Jold- thwaite, was born in April, is,")."),and educated atthe Troy schools and at Wake Forest College, \. C. Completing his education in IS^O, he returned to Troy, where he was admitted as a jiartner with his father in the drug business, and where, since the death of the latter, he has continued to this day under the style and firm-name of (ioldthwaite & Son. Mr. Goldthwaite is a registered pharma- cist, and understands the business as thoroughly as does any man in the State. In addition to the drug business, he is the authorized agent of the Southern Express Company at Troy. ilr. Goldthwaite was married in June, isTO, to Josie, the accomplished daughter of Joel D. Mur- phree, and his three children are: Charles B., Eugene and John Randall. The family are mem- bers of the Methodist P>piscopal Church, South. • ■' > -?^?^- < '■ • JAMES K. MURPHREE. a Merchant of Troy, is a son of Janie.s S. ami .Matilda (Dyer) Murphree, and a luitive of Smith County, Tenn. He came with his father to Troy in lS4.i, and here attended the common schools and clerked in the mercantile establishment of the senior Mr. ilurphree for a number of years. He engaged in business for himself while yet a very young man, and from that time up to 1887, he was recognized as one of the active business men of Troy. Early in 1862, he joined the Fifty-ninth Alabama Infantry, be- came its assistant fjuartermaster, and remained in the service to the close of the war. As before indicated, from the close of the war almost to the present time, he has been actively engaged in business, and that he has been reasonably success- ful thereat goes without telling. Mr. Murphree was married, in 1854, to Miss Adelaide, daughter of Eli and Mary (Darby) Hen- derson, of Pike County, and has had born to him nine children : Augusta, C"larence, Fannie, Ella, -Mary, James, Robert, Bettie B. and Jake. • ■♦ > — -^^j-^ — •— JOHN B. KNOX, a prominent Merchant of Troy, was born in I'pson County, (ia.. May 1, 18.">0, and is the son of 0. F. and Susan (Kendall) Knox, also natives of that State. From a recent 732 NORTHERN ALABAMA. publication, we take the following: " Mr. Knox has been in business in Troy for eight years, and is considered one of the best business men in our prosperous little city. * * * lie has always been engaged in millinery and dry goods business, keeping the finest and largest stock of ladies' goods and millinery in Southeastern Alabama. He has done much to advance the educational and financial interests of Troy. His superior business tact has made him secretary of the Alabama Ter- minal and Improvement Company, which lias the contract for building tlie Alabama Midland Rail- road. He is also secretary and a large stockholder in the Troy Fertilizer Company. Mr. Knox is a quiet, straightforward, unassuming gentleman in every sense of the word, and has made a ho3t of warm friends in Pike and adjoining counties." Mr. Knox was educated in the schools of Pike Coutity, and at the age of seventeen years began business as a clerk in a mercantile establishment at Brundidge, Ala., and subsequently became as- sociated as partner. He came to Troy in 1880, where, in addition to the various enterprises here- inbefore enumerated, he is at this time one of the directors of the Troy Xormal School. He was married February f!, 1873, at Brund- idge, this county, to Miss Lula Dinkins, daughter of Edward and Lucy (Perry) Dinkins, of Mid- way, Ala., and has had born to him seven children: Edward 0., Mabel, John B., C. Ken- dall, Evalyn, Lucy and Susan. Mr. Knox is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of the Knights of Honor, and of the An- cient Order of L^nited A\'orkmen. The senior Mr. Knox, father of the subject of this sketch, was a physician by profession, and, in 1800, was a member of the Legislature. He died in Pike County in 1873. ^,^ .^^^^, XIX. OPELIKA. Rv W. I. Samford. Lee County, nunieil in honor of (icn. liobert E. I.ee, was created by Act of the General Assembly Mecember 1">, ISiHi, out of portions of the coun- ties of Chambers, Tallapoosa, ^lacon ami Russell. A few months after tiie county was formed, by a j)opuiar votej Opclika was designated as the seat of justice. The city has about 4,(1(10 inhab- itants, and is situated on the southern line of the hill country of Alabama. The word is from the soft dialect of the Indian (a language fertile in beautiful names), and was the name of an Indian local chief, which, translated, means "Owl in the Bush." The un romantic insist that it means " Rod Mud," and yet it might be difficult to have a loftier significance tlian the vulgar rendering, since "Adam" means "red earth" or "red man," and man was made out of dust. ]?ut it matters little as to " the classics " of the word: Oiiclika is here as one of the live cities of Alabama, and V>ids fair to measure her growth with the increase of years. FIRST SETTLED. The town was settled in lS:3(i or 1837, while the Indians were here. Among tlie early, if not the first, settlers were Abijah Hennett, William .Mangrum, Amos Mizell, David Lockhart and Luke Mizell, all higlily respectable citizens, and the last named a Methodist minister, so exemplary and upright in liis life and walk that he won the esteem, not only of his own race, but of the sav- ages as well. And wlien the Indians began hos- tilities, they carefully refrained from molesting this good man's house, while many others were burned. Among tiiose who settled early in and around Opelika, besides tliose mentioned above, were J. C. W. Rogers, Nathaniel Sledge, J. R. Greene. Charles Bird, Elisha Thomas, Peter Bogia, Wash Bedell, Thomas Robertson, John Haley, James B. Reese, IJaniel (ientry, Brady Preston. Nelson Clayton, Wesley Williams and Felix Hubbard. Of all these old settlers only four are now liviiig. In April, 1848, the little village was connected with the outside world, by the construction of the Montgomery & West Point Railroad, which was shortly afterward extended to West Point. In 185v, the Columbus branch was built to Columbus, Ga. Notwithstanding the presence of these roads, the growth of the place was very slow, and, as late as \SCtO. could not poll over fifty votes, tliough it was then incorporated, with Beverly Johnson as its first Mayor. Although the progress of the town was imper- ceptible, the surrounding country was being rap- idly peopled with a fine, patriotic and enlightened citizenship. At that memorable period in our country's history, the "country home" was the seat of intellectuality, of social charn) and un- bounded hospitality. The men and women who were building the country iiomes in Alabama in 18G0 were splendid types of the race that fought at Runnymede, and wrenched from kingly pre- rogative the glorious charter of civil liberty. Hence, at the call of the State for men to meet the shock of the war, three companies were soon organized, and on the tented field, from Opelika and the adjacent country. As soon as the cannon's roar was liushed, and this people awoke to the desolation and destruc- tion that had overtaken them, they beat the swords into plowshares, gathered up the little left from rapine and pillage, and with stout heartsainl will- ing hands began anew the battle for bread in the shadows of poverty. Out of the black night of a four-years bitter war, there sprang new ideas, new systems, new problems of civilization that de- manded solution. In the efforts of the people for 733 734 NORTHERN ALABAMA. material iulvaiicement, fortuitous circunistiinces favored Opelika. It was tlie natural point fortlie county seat. Already railroads ran in three direc- tions. The revival of Ihe arts of peace demanded the construction of the two railroads, now known as the East Alabama IJailway and the Columbus «& Western road, which were chartered several years before. The citizens became alive to the advantages of the town as a commercial point, and a wonderful activity set in. Real estate, which for years had been of small value, arose to city prices, and in- deed became so high that the growth of the place was checked. This check became a full stop during the financial depression in IST^J. Since the panic of 1S73, candid statement com- pels the assertion, that the city has not progressed in material prosperity as it should have done. Real estate rapidly decreased in value, and for ten years remained almost stagnant. The causes which produced such an unsatisfactory state of affairs were numerous, not the least of which, was unfortunate difference of opinion among its citi- zens on public questions. In the light of the dawn of a new era, filled with the promise of better things, there is no benefit to result from a recital of the details of antagonisms of the past. We would rather look upon them as incidents to the friction of ideas struggling for ascendancy, and, on their subsidence build struct- ures worthier of record and more beneficial to hu- manity. The city's depression was not due entirely to internal troubles — indeed this was not the main cause. A general lack of prosperity was the mis- fortune of the whole State, and of the whole South, and Opelika shared the common lot. But in the last year or two, by the sheer force of lier natural advantages, she begins to revive and her future is more assuring. It is not permissible in this article to speak of her men: to give place to all who deserve to be mentioned in connection with her majesty, would expand this article to forbidden length, while to mention a few would be invidious distinction. Not even all the points of her excellence can be elaborated— only those of prominence and beyond question will be mentioned. Tiie topography of the city is all that could be desired. Sufliciently level for building and beauty, the location is high and rolling enough for perfect drainage. Sitting on the highest point between Savannah, Ga., and Vicksburg, Miss., she is far above malaria, and epidemics are unknown. When yellow fever scourged other cities in 187:3, Ope- lika cordially invited the citizens from the stricken cities to her gates. This invitation was accepted, and some brought the fever with them, but not a single case was contracted here. In the eastern suburbs of the city a spring rises, whose waters flow eastward to the Chattahoochee, while one in the western part empties its waters into streams that flow into the Alabama. Her health is above dispute, and her death rate will compare favor- ably with any city in the Union. The altitude of the city above the level of the sea, is remarkable as compared with other points in the State. From sources, pronounced by Mr. D. II. Cram, to be both official and reliable, Opelika is 812 feet above the sea, and a point two and a half miles from Opelika measures 847 feet. Thi.-; latter point is higher than any other station on the rail- road from Montgomery, Ala., to West Point, Ga., and what is more wonderful, higher than any station on the Louisville & Xashville Railroad from Montgomery to Louisville. Lest the reader may conclude that this state- ment is exaggerated, the tables are here given that may be verified from official sources. The figures indicate altitude in number of feet: Opelika, 812; Summit (2^ miles north of Opelika), 847; Montgomery, 1G2; Coosada, 17.5; Elmore, 199; Fort Decatur, 312; Chenaw, 2.i2; West Point, 41.5; Deetsville, 300; Mountain Creek, .542; Verbena, 450: Cooper's, 458; Clanton, 59G; Lomax, 625; Jem'ison, 70(1; Clear Creek, 540; Calera, .502; Whiting, 555; Siluria, 464: Pelham. 427; Helena, 400; Brock, 564; Oxmoor, 652: Birmingham, 602; Blount Springs, 434: Cullman, 802: Milner, 840; Wilhite, 608: Flint, 568: Decatur, 577; Athens, 709: Pulaski, 643: Columbia, 646: Franklin, 619; Nashville, 411; Gallatin, 498: Franklin, 691; Bowling (ireen, 469: Cave City, 613: Munfordsville, 570; Eliza- bethtown, 683; Muldraughs, 757; Colesburg, 425; Louisville, 432. The business of the city is almost exclusively of a commercial character. In this line her mer- chants have established characters for solidity and fair dealing, that give them a high rating in the commercial reports of the country. Some of them have accumulated fortunes, and have ample capital to handle all the goods the country around will justify. Several fires, in the last few NOR THERN ALABAMA. 735 years, destroyed many stores, which have been pronijitly rebuilt, and many new ones added, luitii now there are at least one hundred well arrangi'd stureiiouses and offices in the city, and ail ocotijiied. An interesting fact will arrest the attention of the observer, the commercial and in- ihistrial entorii rises of the city are almost entirely in the hands of young men, very few indeed, hav- ing arrived at the meridian of life. The charac- ter of the merchandise is of every sort that is sold in the wholesale markets. 'J'here are also here wholesale houses whose jobbing trade is constantly increasing, and this too in sjiite of the discrimi- nation that has existed in transportation facilities against Opelika, and in favor of Montgomery, Columbus, and other cities. Very recently, the promise is, this discrimination will be largely modified, and in time it is hoped, will cease alto- gether. If it does, an impetus will be given to the commercial efforts of Opelika, that will largely increase her importance as a trading mar- ket, and give her a commanding position in the State. Unfortunately for the agricultural section sur- rounding Opelika, and unfortunately in the final event for any city so situated, the necessities of the farmers has forced them to have "advances," and the merchants have therefore done a heavy " ad- vancing" trade. Rut the farmers in this section are industriousand intelligent, and having learned, by experience, that crops raised by "advances" are barren of profits, are changing their methods, and beginning to get away from such a system. When they completely change, by raising farm supplies at home, it willbeof incalculable advant- age to them and to the merchants also. Krom Opelika, the railways radiate in five direc- tions: One through Columbus and Macon to Savannah; one through -Vtlanta to the North and East; one viu Montgomery and Mol)ile to New Orleans; one through Birmingham to Memphis and Kansas City, and one forty miles to Uoanoke to the northeast, destined very soon to go to Anniston. Hy two of these routes Opelika reaches water transportation at a distance of only a few miles. Columbus, Ca., thirty miles away, is at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee, and Montgomery, sixty-six miles distant, has uninter- rupted mivigation during the year. Hut this mat- ter of her transportation facilities will be subse- quently noticed. In addition to her manv storehouses for trading purposes, there are located in this city, and all in successful operation, five cotton warehouses. It maybe possible that they are capacitated to handle more cotton than they get, still the fact remains that they each get enough to remunerate their owners. The receipts of cotton are not less than 18.000 bales, and will be more another season, and con- tinue to increase, since better rates of freight have been given the city by the railroad, and would be more even now, but for the fact that large quanti- ties are bought at the railroad stations near by, and shipped directly to the spinners in New Eng- land and Europe. Better results will soon come in this regard. As a market for commercial fertilizers, wagons and muleSjOpclikais unsurpassed. Large amounts of the one and numbers of the others are annually sold. But the futnre prosperity of the city will not exclusively, or even mainly, depend on her com- merce. That which is destined to build Opelika to the proportions of a large city, are her unsur- passed advantages for manufacturing enterprises. There are now located here, a soda-water manu- factory, a large wagon and buggy factory, a cot- ton-seed oil mill, merchant mill, a fertilizer fac- tory, an iron foundry, a spoke and handle factory, and a sash and door factory. These industries are in the hands of intelligent, active and stirring men, who are having all they can do, and meeting with unbounded success. Year by year they are enlarging and demonstrating, by practical work, the necessity for the estaljlishment of enterprises to supply the articles which enter so largely into consumption of our people. Besides these, there are here, also, a chair and furniture factory, an extensive manufacture of brick, several steam ginneries, and a wholesale candy manufactory. Situated only a short distance by rail from the iron and coal deposits of the State, with two rail- roads penetrating these inexhaustible fields of wealth, with building sites for shops and houses verv cheap, removed from the large mass of discon- tented spirits that usually gather about the mines, with health assured, a mild, salubrious climate, with ample school and church facilities, and with railroads running out in every direction, Opelika presents splendid advantages for the establishment of factories for the making of many articles which will always be in large demand. For reasons, ob- vious to the thoughtful, this city offers induce- ments superior to cities near the mines for manu- 736 NORTHERN ALABAMA. facturing axes, hoes, bolts, screws, and, indeed, all the lighter articles into the making of which iron enters. It is a singular fact, that the finest and most expensive fabrics from the great staples of universal use are rarely made in proximity to the prodnction of the raw material. Tiie educational institutions are of a very liigh order. In addition to the public school there are two high-schools, with full corps of competent teachers, besides several private schools. These, together with the benign influences of the churches, are exciting healthful, intellectual and moral training, which is observable in the intelli- gence and conservatism of lier citizens. Each Protestant denomination has, among the whites, a well-built, commodious chureli building, some of which are quite expensive and handsome, — wliile the colored people have several churches, which are also substantially built and well attended. Asa people,the citizens are quiet, orderly, sober, upright and conservative; and these qualities are charac- teristic, not alone of the white people, but of the colored population as Avell, some of whom are solid, reliable men, who are gathering sul)stance around them and bravely struggling for honest livelihood and honorable reputation. In the beginning of this article we said that Opelika is situated at the foot of the hill country of Alabama. This is true, and north and east of her is the red land of the oak and hickory— the land of grain, fine horses and hospitality: while west and south are pine and hummock lands, where cotton, fruit and melons grow to perfection, and cheerful homes abound, filled with a race of men and women whose virtues are many. Owing to many untoward circumstances and weighty causes, agriculture has not thriven during the past few years as it might have done, and as its patrons deserved. It would serve no practical purpose, in this brief historical sketch, to set down these causes or to discuss the reasons. Bright hopes of better systems and more abun- dant results are animating the hearts of the peo- ple and nerving them for renewed efforts. And why should they not bear, in this favored land, golden crowns for the labor of tiie husbandman? Climate, seasons and soil, all conspire to enrich the intelligent tiller of the fields. Corn, oats, wheat, rye, barle}', sorghum, milomaize, kaffir- corn, ribboncane, grass, potatoes, melons, pea- nuts, peas, cotton, cabbage, onions, lettuce, car- rots,, celery, asparagus, berries, grapes, figs, peaches, apples, pears, plums, quinces, apricots, and all other field and garden products of the temperate zone, besides different kinds of nuts, grow in great abundance, " with half a chance" ; while the delicious scuppernong is literally at home on every hill and in every valley. When we say these things grow in abundance, we speak only the literal truth. Intelligent experiments have demonstrated that the soil, in all the country surrounding OiJelika, is susceptible of vast improvement, and, when improved, will yield enormous crops. Well au- thenticated results have reached two and three bales of lint cotton on one acre, and one hundred bushels of corn per acre, and other crops in pro- portion. Where such wonderful yields are pos- sible, it requires no prophet's eye to see, in the near future, the hills and valleys of Lee County studded with the cozy homes of bright, cheerful farmers, surrounded by happy, contented wives and children, singing the cheerful songs of life. In addition to these benefactions, a kind Provi- dence has given this favored spot a genial clime. For eight months in the year cattle can subsist in open fields. During all that time the tempera- ture is from 40° (Fahrenheit) above zero, in the early spring and late autumn, to GO' and 80° in the summer, rarel}' reaching 9(1°, while the other four months seldom bring many days that prevent out- door work and recreation. With these condi- tions, cattle-raising is made easy, certain and profitable — a fact which some farmers are now practically demonstrating, for at the agricultural fair held at Opelika, in the fall of 188^, one farmer exhibited twenty-seven colts, and several exhibited fine cattle of different strains, besides hogs, sheep, poultry, etc. The fair-ground is beautifully arranged in the suburbs of the city, and is one of the permanent enterprises of the place. The first exhibition was in October, 1887, and surpassed the most sanguine expectation. In the country surrounding the city, are many indications and outcroppings of minerals, though there has been no development of this source of wealth, and it is not definitely known that minerals exist in paying quantities. But a few miles from the city, there is, in successful op- eration, one of the most famous lime works in the South. The rock is of the finest quality and in- exhaustible. Quarries of granite are being opened in different places, and samples of marble and paint, from different points near by, are now being yORTHERX ALABAMA. rsr tested to determine their value, while a few miles to the northwest gold mines are " ]iiinning out " ill iiayiiig (juantities. In addition to tiie sources of wealth already alluded to, is the timber of the adjacent forests. \'ery tine lumber is being sawed in large quanti- ties by numerous sawmills, which find ready sale in this, and other markets easily reached by rail. Then we have in great (juantities the several vari- eties of oak, iiickory, l>eech, ash, chestnut, china, maple, j)o[)lar, some black walnut, and other vari- eties of hardwood — valuable material for many articles of utility. It would be a difficult matter to find a better watered section than this. Clear, cool, pure, free, stone springs are in nearly every valley, and run on forever. The branches are, therefore, very numerous — indeed so nunierous, that it isdouijtful if a spot in Lee County can be found as much as one mile distant from a never-failing, running stream. With all those points of excellence, land is rpiite cheap l)ut will not rumain so, for a great while. Seven miles from Opelika, at Auburn, is located the Agricultural and Jlechanical College of the State, an institution just beginning a career of usefulness to the whole State. A history of Lee County would, of course, be incomplete, that failed to mention Loachapoka, Salem, Browncville and other important points in the county. Hut this is only a brief sketch of Opelika, and the remarks on the surrounding country are incidental to her environment. One thing that has contributed largely to the depression of t)pelika and Lee County is a large bonded indebtedness, which was voted in aid of railroads, when such things were possible in Ala- l)ama, twenty years ago. The county indebted- ness has been nearly adjusted and can not be biir- densonie in the future, liy judicious legislation it has been compromised, and tlie State assisted by loaning money to ^lay the compromise, which loan bears no interest, and is to be repaid in easy installments. Besides this the county has no iKinded debt. The city debt is now in the hands of Commissioners, and will doubtless be adjusted before a great while. The creditors are offering to compromise, and wiien adjusted, tlie debt can be easily managed. The rate of county ta.xation is ot)e-half of one ])er cent., and the rate of the city is the same. The learned professions are ably and well reji- resented in Opelika. Some of her physicians and lawyers have attained State reputations. Her ministry has for years been, and still is, of the very highest order, and how earnestly, faith- fully and conscientiously these devoted men of the churches have performed their duty, is mani- fested by the large congregations of Christian men and women who constantly wait u})on their ministry. This sketch is assuming forbidden length. A recapitulation of some of Opelika's points of excel- lence, and her present status, will indicate the possibilities of her future. In tlie absence of otti- cial ascertainment, the statements may be incor- rect in some slight respects, but are sufficiently accurate for practical purposes to say that Opelika has one hundred stores and offices of business: five large brick and rock cotton warehouses: two well managed banks: four wiiolesale establishments; three hotels, besides restaurants: a wagon and fur- niture factory; an iron foundry and several steam gins; an extensive variety works: a cotton-seed oil mill and fertilizer factory; a merdiant mill and several other industries: eight churches: several schools: Young Men's Christian Association and other public halls: an opera house: several large livery and sale stables: a large brick manufactory; the court-house and other public buildings; spoke, handle, sash and door factories; four thousand inhabitants: railroads radiating in five directions; a prosperous newspaper: a good country around for farms: a fine climate, good health, good water, and favorable prospects. With all these and many other advantages, Ope- lika, in the very near future will fulfill the prophe- cies, and realize the hopes of her most sanguine friends. . ..> .;g^^H»^>- WILLIAM J, SAMFORD, President of the State Senate of Alabama, and a ]>rominent Attorney-at- law, was born in Meriwether County, (ia.. in September, 1844, and is the son of William F. and Susan L. (Dowdell) Samford, natives of that State, The senior Mr. Samford was a lawyer of high standing in Georgia, and had a rejtutation throughout the South as a gentleman of fine scholarship and varied attainments. He came to Alabama in 1840, and was prominent here as an attorney. He was also an extensive planter and an able political writer. 738 NORTHERN ALABAMA. William J. Samford studied at what is now the Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Auburn, Ala., and at the State University of Georgia, but his collegiate career was cut short by the war. lie was seventeen years of age when he enlisted in the Confederate Army, as a private in Company G, Forty-sixth Alabama, with which command he was in the Tennessee and Kentucky campaigns. Being transferred to Mississippi he was captured in front of ^'icksburg, and afterward imprisoned on Johnson's Island eighteen months. When his exchange was effected, he at once returned to the army, and stayed with it to the close of the war, leaving the service with the rank of first lieutenant. Mr. Samford gave his attention to farming for several years after the war, devoting his spare time to the study of law. lie realized the truth of the saying that there is no royal road to great- ness, and with this idea before him, it is needless to say he applied himself to study with the great- est assiduity. He was admitted to the bar in 1866, and began the practice in 1871, at Opelika, where he has continued ever since, and where he has risen step by step, until he has few ecjuals and no superiors, lie is regarded as one of the most prominent young men in the State. Before reaching thirty-one years of age, he rep- resented his Senatorial District in the Constitu- tional Convention of 1875; was one of the Greeley Electors in 1872; voted for Tildenin the Electoral College of 1870; was elected to Congress in 1878; to the lower house of the State Legislature in 1882; to the State Senate in 1884, and in 1886 was made President of that body. In all the positions to which he has been called, Mr. Samford has borne himself with marked ability and dignity. lie was married in October, 1805, to Miss Carrie E., daughter of Dr. John H. and Mary (Williams) Drake, formerly of North Carolina, and has had born to him eight chil- dren: William IL, Thomas 1)., William J., Richard L., Susan G., Caroline E., Crawford A. and Walter H. Mr. Samford is a metnbor of the Masonic fra- ternity, the American Legion of Honor, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is the author of the chapter in this volume on Opelika, and for careful arrangement and suc- cinct presentation of fact, the publishers take pleasure in recommending it to their readers. WILLIAM E. HUDMON, of the firm of Hud- mon Bros. & Co., Wholesale and Retail Dealers iu Dry-goods and Groceries, Opelika, was born in Chambers County, this State, December 30, 1843, and is a son of Daniel X. and Sarah (Collins) Ilud- mon. His father was a native of Georgia, and his mother of Tennessee. The senior Mr. Iludmon was a planter and merchant, and died in 188'J. He began the practice at De- catur. Ala., the same year, and remained there until lS(;i, when he entered the Confederate ser- vice as a member of Company I, Fourth .Mabama Infantry. Subsequently he was appointed sur- geon at Fort Morgan, near Mobile: was transferred from there to the Eighteenth Alabania Regiment as assistant surgeon, and jiromoted afterward to surgeon. When the war was over, Dr. Shepherd came to Opelika, and since 1805 has been in active and successful practice. He belongs to the State Medical Association and the County Medical Society, and is a member of the Board of Censors for Lee County. CHARLES B. McCOY. M. D., was born Janu- ary 21. IS.V.i. at Salem, this State, and is a son of Dr. Amos and Frances McCoy, natives, respectively, of Georgia and Kentucky. The senior Doctor McCoy is well known in Lee County', where he was one of the pioneers of the profession and where he has been in active practice for forty years. Charles B. McCoy received his academic educa- tion at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Auburn, where he wasgraduated in 1880. From there he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Baltimore, Md., and received his diploma in 1882. He began the practice at Ope- lika, and from the beginning has met with that measure of success which could but be gratifying 1 to even those older in the profession. Dr. McCoy is a member of the Alabama State • Medical Association, of the Leo County Medical Society (is treasurer of the latter), and has filled j the office of County Health Officer for two years. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias, and is a ■ member of the Episcoi)al Church. • - O -'^St^^fr JOHN W. R. WILLIAMS, M. D.. was born in Geoigia. Feliniary 2. l">:>."i. anil is a son of Whit- field and Frances E. Williams, natives, resjjec- tively, of (Jeorgia and South Carolina. The fam- ily located early in Louisiana, and there the senior Mr. Williams died in 1S.">'.>. 740 NORTHERN ALABAMA. John W. R. Williams received his primary edu- cation near liis boyhood home, and was graduated from the Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Auburn, this State. He studied medicine and surgery at the Georgia Eclectic College of Medi- cine, and received the degree of M. D. in 1858. I He began practice immediately in Louisiana, and remained there fifteen years. In 187'-i, he came to j Opelika, and has since been in the practice here. Dr. Williams entered the Confederate Army as a member of the Twenty-seventh Louisiana In- fanti-y, and remained in active service until the smoke of the battle had cleared away. In 1861, he was married to ilary W., daughter of Daniel and Susan (Mizell) BuUard, of Lee County, Ala. They have had five children: Francis, deceased; Daniel B., who is a physician; Wiley W. ; Warren S., deceased; and William H., de- ceased. Mrs. AVilliams died in 1810, and Dr. Williams was married again in May, 1872, to Eliz- abeth, a sister of his first wife. To this union have been born three children: Susan M., Kinaldo (i. and John W. The Doctor has for many years been an active official of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is one of its most prominent members. He is highly esteemed by all who know him as a Christian gentleman and a first-class physician. GEORGE P. HARRISON. Jr., Attorney-at-law, was born Mareli 19. 1>11. iiuar Savannah, 6a. His parents are Gen. (ieorge P. and Jlrs. Addie Har- rison, who still reside in Chatham County, Ga. The senior (Jeneral Harrison is a native Geor- gian, and Mrs. Harrison is a Soutii Carolinian by birth. The former was an extensive rice planter and a conspicuous figure in the politics of his earlier days. lie repeatedly represented his county in both branches of the Georgia Legislature, and before the war was major-general of the (leorgia State Militia. In the Confederate Army he held the rank of brigadier-general. After the war he was a member of the First Constitutional Conven- tion for the State of (Jeorgia, and has filled many other positions of honor and trust. The subject of this sketch, after the prelim- inary school training which most boys receive at the common schools, went to Effingham Acad- emy, and at a subsequent period entered the Geor- gia Military Institute. From the latter institution he was graduated as captain of Company A and as the first-honor man of the class of 18C1. He at once entered the service of the Confederacy as a second lieutenant in the First Georgia Regulars and his promotion was rapid and marvelous. He was successively promoted from the grade of lien- teiuiut to staff officer, colonel of the Thirty-second Georgia, and brigadier-general, with the command of a brigade. He was a colonel before he was twenty years old, and a brigadier-general before he had reached his twenty-second year. He enjoyed the remarkable distinction of being the youngest ofiieer of his rank in the Confederate Army, and maintained this honorable connection with the army, in behalf of the cause he espoused so warmly, until the war closed. The criticisms of his seniors in the service were in every way creditable to and eulogistic of Gen- eral Harrison. General Beauregard, than whom there was no grander military spirit on either side, in his re- ports, where he refers to General Harrison, speaks of him as "'an officer of skill and courage," and in Maj.-Gen. Samuel Jones' reports, after the war, we find equally complimentary notice of him. In 1804 General Harrison was ordered to Flor- ence, S. C, to take charge of the Federal prison- ers. Here his kind treatment of those who were his enemies in war, and who were now to a great extent at his mercy, was as lofty and noble as his previous conduct in the heat of battle had been daring and chivalrous. Xor was this manly and humane conduct to be lost sight of. The memen- toes of appreciation emanating from those who were committed to his charge as prisoners are the nicst striking and the most genuine asseverations of his noble and generous bearing, when, had it been in the power of many to fill a similar position, a tale as black as night itself would have been the only record loft behind. When the fortunes of war decreed that Savan- nah, the native city of our subject, should fall into the hands of the enemy, and when the fami- lies of all Confederate officers had been ordered to leave the city, the War Department of the Federal (iovernment at Washington issued an order giving special permits to the immediate family of General Harrison to remain in the city, and placed guards at their disposal for the protection of their home and pro|)erty, as a reward and evidence of appre- ciation of his previous kind treatment of the Fed- eral prisoners under his care. NORTHERN ALA/IA.VA. 741 As a mark specially eulogistic of General Harri- son's careeer as an army oflleer, nothing more graceful and appropriate can be found than the vote of tiianks jiassod by the Legislature of South Carolina for his gallant defense of Battery \\'ng- ner, on Morris' Island, during the siege of Charleston. Prior to the war and wliile at college, he had cursorily studied law, and afterward, during a four years' e.xperience as a farmer, he gave his leisure hours to a continuation of the study. He was admitted to the bur of Lee County in 187ti, and the following year was admitted to pr.'ictice before the Supreme Court of Alabama. In 1875 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention, and from 187fl to 1880 served as a member of the State Senate. Being re-elected in 188(1, he was made President of that body in 188".2. In 1871 he was cho.sen to the Chair of Civil and -Military Engineering at the State Agricultu- ral and Mechanical College at Auburn, and after remaining there one year, resumed the practice of his profession at Opelika. In 1877, he was ap- pointed a brigadier-genei'al of the Third Alabama District by Governor Houston, and, being several times re-appointed to the same position, he now holds that office. (ieneral Harrison has won distinction as a law- yer, and now has a clientage which would be regarded as satisfactory, from a financial stand- point, by any lawyer in the State, lie is the General Counsel for the Columbus & Western, the Western of .\labama. and the Cliarleston. Savan- nah & Mobile Railroads, all of which are among the leading roads running through Alabama; and liis general practice is of a most satisfactory kind, he being on one side or the other of almost every in)portant ease in his county. He was married, in I8fi;j, to Miss Mary F. . daughter of John C. and Mary A. Drake, of Georgia. To this union two children were born; of these, only one, Miss Mary .\ddie. who is a first-honor grailuate of the Wesleyan Female College, is now living. Mrs. Harrison's death occurred in June, 1884, and General Harrison was married the second time, in issd, to Miss .Mattie C, daugh- ter of Ex-Lieutenant Governor Ligon, of Mont- gomery, f " The General is a Knight Templar and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. JAMES J. ABERCROMBIE was born in (ieorgia. His father. Gen. Anderson Abercrom- bie, was a conspicuous figure in the M'ar of 1812, and was wounded at the battle of Kalebee. The family of Abercrombie belongs to the best jjcople of the South, and have always left their impress upon the times in which they have lived. Gen- eral Abercrombie died in 1807, at the age of eighty-two years. James J. Abercrombie received his education at O.vford, Ga., and at Cambridge University, Mas- sachusetts. He studied law in the latter institution after finishing his literary course, and was admit- ted to the bar at Columbus, Ga., in 18.")8. This city being near the dividing line between Georgia and Alabama, gave Mr. Abercrombie an opportunity to practice in both States, and we find that, in addi- tion to a lucrative practice in the courts of the former, from the lowest to the highest, he also practiced before the United States Courts of Ala- bama. In 1800, he was elected Judge of Musco- gee County, Ga., and filled that position four years. Judge Abercrombie, like most Southern men of that day and time, is not without his war rec- ord. He entered the Confederate service in Koss' Battalion, as a member of Company B. ; was made judge-advocate of the battalion, and served a short time on the staff (if General Browne, with the rank of major. He was married in 1856, to Miss Parthenia, daughter of ilajor Isaac Ross, of Elmore County, Ala. To them have been born four children : James A., Isaac R., John C. and Wily. Judge Abercrombie is a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and has for many years been an active worker in the Sunday-schook • ■■ > • ■^^^•• C" ' - SAMUEL 0. HOUSTON. Attorney-at-law, Ope- lika, was born February "..', 1851. in Harris County, Ga., and is a son of (ieorge W. and Nancy (Wanl) Houston, natives, respectively, of North Carolina and Georgia. His father was a farmer up to the time of his death, which occurred in March, 1880. Samuel 0. Houston attended i)ast Alabama Col- lege (now the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege), at Auburn, for some time, and afterward comi>leled his literary course at the University of Georgia, graduating in 1809. He engaged in agri- 743 NORTHERN ALABAMA. cultural pursuits until I8T9, when he began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in Lee County in 1881. As a practicing lawyer Mr. Houston has been very successful; as a citizen, he is public-spirited; and as a gentleman, he is refined and cultivated. In 1880 he formed a partnership in the law prac- tice with Judge John M. Chilton. This associa- tion continued one year, and was mutually dis- solved. Mr. Ilou.ston is one of those wlio lias studiously let politics alone and devoted himself to his profession; as a consequence, success has crowned his etforts. Thinking it a good way to help the people he has negotiated loans from large moneyed concerns for farmers, in order tliat their lands might be improved and a better state of farming introduced among them. At present, he is in correspondence with capitalists at the North, with a view to bringing additional sums of money into this locality, to be lent to the farmers upon their lands as security. WILLIAM B. GIBSON, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Lee County, is one of those honest citi- zens who has been a tiller of the soil all his life witii the exception of the period of his incum- bency in the present office. He was born in this county in February, 18.!)1, and is a son of Wily J. and Sarah A. (Bennett) (iibson, natives, respect- ively, of Georgia and North Carolina. The former was a farmer throughout his life, and died in 1808. AV. B. Gibson was educated primarily at the common schools near his home, and subsequently attendt^d a private school in Montgomery. At the age of nineteen years he began farming and kept it up till the year 1880, when he was elected Circuit Clerk. Prior to his election lie liad held the posi- tion of Postmaster at Wacoochee, Ala. ; was several years a Magistrate, and was also a Notary-public. He was married in 1871, to Miss Mary L., daughter of John and Martha N. (Finch) Monk, of Lee County. They have six children: Bertha, Jennie, Oscar T. , Katie, William B. and Smith. -.^ «4^> a son of X. P. and Nancy (Rinehart) Renfro. Tiie senior !Mr. Kenfro was a farmer and died in Chambers County in July, 185.5. Noah P. Kenfro was educated at Howard Col- lege, Marion, Ala., and, when twenty-two years old, engaged in tlie grocery business at Opelika in partnership with his brothers, F. and F. JI. Kenfro. Tlie firm did an extensive wholesale grocery busi- ness until January, 1888, when they closed out and entered into the banking and warehouse busi- ness exclusively. The First National Bank was organized in JIarch, 1880, with Noah P. Kenfro as Vice-Presi- dent. He is also a stockholder in the Chewacla Lime Works, a $100,00(> concern, situated near Opelika. !Mr. Kenfro, though yet a young man, has at- tained a place in the business world which tiiose of much greater years would consider an ample re- ward for a lifetime of toil. He has always been a public-spirited citizen and occupies a high social position. He is at present a member of the City Council of Opelika. In 1885 he was married at Greenville, to Miss Maggie, daughter of T. P. and Laura (Williamson) McCall, of that place. They have one child, Ne- ville P. Mr. Kenfro is a member of the Masonic fratern- ity, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the Knights of Pythias. NOAH P. RENFRO, Vice-President of the First National Bank of Opelika, was born in Octo- ber, 1855, in Chambers County, tliis State, and is MOSES T. TRAWICK, Proprietor of the Ope- lika oil Mills and of the Lee County Fertilizer Manufactory, was born in May, 1847, in Kussell County, Ala., and is a son of Moses T. and Anna (Lawson) Trawick, natives of Georgia. His father, a farmer by occupation, died in 1848. ^I. T. Trawick received his education at the common schools in his native county, and, at the early age of sixteen years, enlisted in the Confed- erate Army, where he remained till the close of the war. His last fighting was done within the limits of the county where he was born, and very near his home. After the war, he devoted himself to farming for fifteen years in Kussell County. He came to Opelika and established the Opelika Oil Mills in 1884. In 1885 he built the fertilizer factory of which he is now proprietor. Both of these institu- tions have been among the most successful ever XORTHERX ALABAMA. 743 started in tlie city of Opclika. They employ about thirty hands, and atTord a living to many besides its immediate promoter. To liini, there- fore, is due a double meeil of praise, for, in addi- tion to having given j)roof of his enterprise, thus stimulating those around iiim to energy and effort, he has conferred a blessing ujjou his locality, by showing what the country is capable of. Mr. Trawick was married in 18U8 to Miss Annie, daughter of Kichard and Margaret Buchanon, of K'ussell County. To this union four children have been born: Ilenrv. Hirdie K., Willie D. and L. T. ■ ' > -;^{^-<- CHARLES E. STEVENS, .Alanufacturer of Sasii. hoors. Blinds, t'otton-gins etc., was born in ].s.")4, in North Branford, Conn., and is a son of Amos and Laura A. (Maltrup) Stevens, natives of that State. The senior Mr. Stevens is a mechanic, and died at Opelika in 1885. Charles E. Stevens attended school at Bristol, Conn., and subserjuently, at the grammar school at Hartford. At the age of sixteen years he apprenticed himself to the carpenter trade, and was afterward made superintendent and manager of the construction of buildings of importance, in the State of Connecticut. He remained in that occupation until 1S8e vested in the people to choose his successor. Colonel Powell was chosen second Mayor of the city afteran exciting contest at tlie jiolls. llewas in the prime of physical and intellectual vigor, and had been ever distinguished for masterly tact and indomitable energy, lie liad surrendered to the management of overseers one of the finest cottoi> jilantations on the Yazoo, and neglected other large interests, to come to take up his life- work in the building of Birmingham. Among the tir.