USA > Alabama > Memorial record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military, professional and industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. Volume I > Part 106
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clerk in a store, and in 1874, formed a co-partnership with M. Meyer, under the firm name of M. Meyer & Co., which firm lasted and continued to do business until 1888. The partnership was then dissolved and Mr. Sterne became a member of the firm of M. L. Sterne & Co., established to conduct a wholesale business in dry goods, notions, hats, caps, etc., which business they have since continued. This house is the only exclu- sively wholesale house in Selma. Mr. Sterne has held the position for some time of captain in the Thirteenth regiment Alabama militia, and has has been staff officer under Col. S. W. Johns, when he was colonel of the Third regiment. He is a member of the school board of the city of Selma, is a chapter Mason, Knight of Honor and a member of the I. O. B. B. He is treasurer of the Harmony club, is a member of the congregation Mishkan Israel, has been treasurer thereof several years, and was one of the originators of the Salem Bridge company, which built the bridge across the Alabama river. He was married, in 1875, to Miss Sallie Meyer, daughter of M. Meyer, his former partner. By this marriage he has two sons and two daughters. Mr. Sterne is one of the public-spirited citizens of Selma, aiding to the extent of his ability and his influence in promot- ing all enterprises having for their object the advancement of the mater- ial condition of the city of his choice.
ISAAC STERNE was born at Babra, Kur Hessen, Germany, in 1839, and came to the United States in 1854. He at first made his home in New York, and then in Columbus, Ga., and at the outbreak of the Civil war became a member of the Second Georgia battalion of infantry, and entered into the Confederate army. He served in the army up to the battle of Gettysburg, upon the first day of which battle he was wounded in the leg and captured by the enemy. He was taken to a hospital in Maryland, from which he was soon released upon taking oath not again to take up arms against the Federal government. He then went to West Virginia embarked in business, in which he continued up to the close of the war. In 1865 he married, at Cincinnati, Fredericka Feibleman, a native of south Germany, born in 1844, at Rutzheim, and in 1866, he removed to Selma, Ala., where he became a wholesale grocer, but later he engaged in the crockery business, in which he continued until his ill health warned him to retire altogether from business. Notwithstanding his retirement, however, his health did not improve, and his death occurred in October, 1872. His widow still resides in Selma. He left three sons, all of whom are engaged in business at Selma, of whom mention is here introduced. He was a member of the congregation Mishkan Israel of Selma of the B'nai B'rith, and of the Masonic fraternity. The names of the sons are, Marcus L. Sterne, the eldest of. the three, who is engaged in the wholesale dry goods business, as a member of the firm of M. L. Sterne & Co. at Selma, and who is a young man of excellent business qualities; Joseph J. Sterne, the second of the sons, and Samuel A. Sterne, the third, are associated together as business managers of the Selma
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Book company, and are of more than the usual business capacity. Joseph J. Sterne was born at Selma, July 31, 1837, and received at the Dallas academy and at the private school of Prof. Callaway, a liberal literary education. He became a dress goods salesman, and remained in this line for fourteen years at Selma, and then became associated with his brother in the management of the Selma book company, which was organized as a stock company in April, 1891, with R. M. Nelson as president. He is a member of the Selma Advance lodge. No. 3, Knights of Pythias; of the congregation Mishkan Israel, and he is also prominent in several social organizations. Samuel A. Sterne was born at Selma, December 23, 1868, and was educated at the same school as his brother Joseph J. For ten years, he was teller in the Commercial National bank of Selma, which position he relinquished in April, 1891, to become manager with his brother Joseph J. of the Selma book company, in which both the brothers are stockholders. He is agent of the insurance firm of R. M. Nelson and Samuel A. Sterne, Jr. He is also vice-president of the Selma branch of the Standard Building and Loan association of Mont- gomery. He is a member of the congregation Mishkan Israel at Selma,. of the I. O. O. F., is chancellor commander of the Selma Advance lodge, No. 3, K. P .; of Elk lodge, Nc. 167, and by virtue of being the first esteemed lecturing knight, he is a member of the state grand lodge, of Elks of the state of Alabama. He is a member of the Central City Masonic lodge, and is acting senior deacon of Mohawk lodge of Red Men. Marcus L. Sterne was born at Leesburg, Ky., January 17, 1866. He was educated at Selma, and became a dry goods clerk, at the age of thirteen, with M. Meyer & Co. February 1, 1890, he became a member of the wholesale dry goods firm of M. L. Sterne & Co., of Selma, and is still a member of the firm. On July 6, 1890, he married Miss Rosene Rosenberger of Birmingham, Ala., and has one son. He is a member of the congregation Mishkan Israel, of the I. O. B. B., and of the Knights of Pythias.
HORACE HEZEKIAH STEWART was born in Edgefield district, S. C., in December, 1844. His father, James Stewart, was born in South Carolina in 1805, and died near Selma, Ala., in the eighty-third year of his age. His mother, a Miss Ella Wright, was born in Westmoreland county, Va., in 1825. She was early left an orphan, and was reared by an uncle of means, in South Carolina. She lived to be nearly sixty years of age. She was the mother of nine children, three only of whom are living. Horace H. Stewart was brought by his parents to Alabama when he was in his fifth year. He was reared in the country, mostly on his father's farm in Dallas county, and aided his parents to manage the farm. He received a common school education in what was known as the old field school house. For about two years prior to the war he filled the place of a daily laborer, and at the same time pursued a course of private study at night. At seventeen years of age he volunteered as a private soldier and went into drill camp. His company, not being received, was disbanded.
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At eighteen years of age he joined a recruiting band and rode on horse- back to Tennessee, where he joined a company of partisan rangers, com- manded by Capt., afterward Maj., S. H. Lewis, of Cahaba, Ala. He served three years in the army, and at the close of the war he was color bearer of a cavalry battalion. He received a severe wound at Lafayette, Ga., while fighting under Gen. Pillow. After the war he entered a country dry goods store as clerk in Athens, Ala., and studied bookkeeping, and also for a time French and Latin as a private student. Leaving the country store, lie served one year as bookkeeper for Jeffries & Ware at Uniontown, Ala. About 1868 he removed to Selma, Ala., and in August, that year, he married Miss Josephine Cabe, of Dallas county, daughter of William Cabe. She was of Scottish ancestry. He was bookkeeper and salesman in different leading establishments until 1875, when he entered into business for himself, conducting a wholesale grocery store for about three years. He failed in 1878, and in a short time afterward established himself in the brokerage business, in which he is still engaged. In 1877, he was elected a member of the city council and served eight years. During this time he was one of three commissioners, appointed by the governor, to adjust the city debt of Selma, W. B. Gibbs and E. Gilman being the other members. He served once as a delegate to the county convention, in which he made a most favorable impression as possessing political ability of a high order. In 1885, he was defeated for the mayor- alty by Hon. H. S. D. Mallory. He again stood for the same office in 1887, but all the candidates in the convention were withdrawn, and S. Maas, not in the race, was elected. In 1891, he again made the race for the mayoralty, and carried every ward in the city. He has eight chil- dren, all living. One son is employed in the bank, and one is employed by his father in the brokerage business. He is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church. south, and was for a long time superintendent of the Sunday-school in Selma, and he is now one of the board of stewards of his church, and a member of the executive board of the Alabama Methodist orphanage at Summerfield, Ala. He is a gentleman of modest bearing, courteous in manner toward all, and unostentatious and unassum- ing in demeanor. He is one of the most highly respected citizens of Selma.
FRANK TIPTON, M. D., was born in Dallas county, Ala., on the 11th day of November, 1848. His parents were John Green Tipton and Elizabeth Tipton, née Turner. The father was a native of Georgia, while the mother was born in North Carolina, and she, who recently died an octogenarian, was descended from among the prominent families of the Revolution. She distinctly remembered having seen her immediate family and relatives as they departed from home to go to the seat of war in 1812. After marriage Dr. Tipton's parents settled down in life on a plantation in Dallas county, Ala., and here the father became both a wealthy and influential planter. He was a man of sterling qualities
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and of strong force of character and mind, and his wife, who survived him some thirty-nine years or more, died recently in the city of Selma, where she will long remain in affectionate memory as a pious and cult- ured woman, for she was a devout Christian and a most excellent lady. Dr. Frank Tipton was reared upon a plantation and received his schol- astic education in the academical department of the university of Ala- bama and university of Virginia. . He received his medical education at New York city and city of New Orleans, and began the practice of his profession at the seat of his parental homestead in Dallas county, but in 1881 removed to Selma, the county seat of Dallas county, Ala., where he is now engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1869-70 Dr. Tipton was chief of clinics at the Charity hospital, New Orleans, and in 1880 a clinical assistant in the New York Ear, Eye and Throat infirmary. Dr. Tipton has contributed to various pamphlets and medical journals; among his contributions to the former are the following: "The Negro Problem from a Medical Standpoint;" "Laryngology;" "Ophthalmology;" "Otology;" purposed for the general practitioner of medicine and sur- gery. He takes appropriate rank among not only the foremost physi- cians and surgeons of Alabama, but of the south as well. He is a member of both the Alabama State and Dallas county Medical societies, and in them has wielded a wide influence. He is not only skillful and learned as a physician and surgeon, but his literary education is good, and he is gifted in speech or conversation, while with the pen he writes with ease, grace and learning. He has been twice married, his first wife having been Miss Gertrude Riggs, daughter of Daniel M. Riggs, and sister of the late Dr. B. H. Riggs, of Selma, Ala. His second wife, whom he married in 1884, was Miss Lewis, daughter of the late Ivey Lewis, of Hale county, Ala.
DR. W. J. TIPTON was born in Dallas county, Ala., in 1852, and is a brother of Dr. Frank Tipton. He graduated in the languages and pure mathematics from the Virginia Military university at Lexington, in 1871, graduating also in the same year at Eastman Business college at Pough- keepsie, N. Y. For a time thereafter he was on the home plantation in Dallas county. In 1886 he began the study of medicine, and in March, 1888, graduated from the Southern Medical college at Atlanta, Ga., in which institution he was for two years an assistant demonstrator of anatomy. In October of 1889, he and his brother, Dr. F. Tipton, formed a partnership in the practice of their profession, and since then they have continued at Selma. Dr. W. J. Tipton is a member of the State and Dallas county Medical societies, and is fast taking high rank among the practitioners of his state and county. He was married in 1880, wed- ding Miss Florence Hunter, of Dallas county.
W. H. TRIMBY, wholesale and retail dealer in furniture and musical instruments, Selma, Ala., was born May 17, 1856, in Dorsetshire. Eng- land. His parents were John and Lucy (Young) Trimby, who yet live
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
in Dorsetshire, England. The father is a machinist by trade, as is also W. H., who served a five years' apprenticeship with a large manufactur- ing establishment in Dorsetshire. He had gained a fair education and had served his apprenticeship by the time he was twenty-one years old, and then he accepted a position with the manufacturers with whom he had finished his apprenticeship, and remained with them until 1881, as a "work examiner," visiting in the meantime, in the interest of his employers, the countries of France, Spain and Italy. In 1881 he came to the United States and located at Knoxville, Tenn., where he secured employment as a mechanic in the Knoxville Iron works. In 1885 he moved from Knoxville to Selma, to accept employment as a mechanic in the works of Brooks, Taylor & Barker. In 1886 he embarked in the furniture business, and now has a good business of his own in the whole- sale and retail furniture and musical instrument line. He carries a full stock of articles of both kinds, and does a large business. As a business man he is practical and successful, and he is much esteemed for his integrity and sincerity of purpose. In 1890 he was married to Miss Lelia Dumas, of Arlington, Ala. He is a member of St. Paul Episcopal church at Selma, and is a Knight Templar.
WILLIAM ULLMAN, one of the leading citizens and merchants of Selma, Ala., was born in Bavaria, Germany, April 9, 1837. In his native land. he received a liberal education, studying both French and English, and at the age of seventeen he left the Fatherland and emigrated to the United States. Having selected Alabama for a home he commenced business at Oxford, and remained there until some time after the break- ing out of the Civil war. He then cast his lot with the people among whom he made his home, and, joining the army, he was enrolled as a. private, soldier in the Eighth Confederate cavalry, under Gen. Joseph Wheeler. His record in the army is one of which he need not be ashamed, and he is held in affectionate remembrance as a good soldier, as a faithful comrade, as always ready for service, and as remaining in. the army continuously from the time he enrolled to the close of the war. About one year ago there was made a call upon the veterans to write out reminiscences of the war, and Mr. Ullman, complying with the request, wrote a paper, entitled: "My Recollections of the War." This paper Mr. Ullman read at a meeting of the veterans, and, though unpreten- tious, was yet a very interesting one. It related many incidents of the war, and recalled many events dear to the old soldier. It was received with much enthusiasm. When the war closed Mr. Ullman located at Selma and entered upon a successful business career. The oldest and one of the most reliable business firms doing business at Selma is that of Oberndorf & Ullman, of which firm Mr. Ullman is a member. Messrs. Oberndorf & Ullman began business in 1865, and they have conducted a large and prosperous wholesale and retail dry goods business ever since, not only securing a handsome competence for themselves, but also in
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WM. E. WAILES.
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largely contributing to the upbuilding of the city of Selma. Mr. Ullman has three times been a member of the Selma city council, and for many years has been a member of the school board. From the time of its organization Mr. Ullnian has been an efficient member of the Hebrew congregation, Mishkan Israel of Selma. Before the annual meeting of the congregation in January, 1890, Mr. Ullman delivered an address which was subsequently published in pamphlet form by request of the. congregation. This may be justly considered an expression of their high appreciation of the general merit and wisdom of the address. In January, 1892, he delivered, before the annual meeting of the congrega- tion, an address, the subject being: "Baruch Spinoza, the Hero of Modern Philosophy," in which he reviewed the life, character and teachings of Spinoza in a manner that indicated thorough research, learning and ability. Mr. Ullman is logical and philosophical, and is a clear and deep thinker. Still later he spoke with both knowledge and wisdom on the subject of "The Stage, as Viewed from its Moral Aspects," before the Young Men's Hebrew association, of Selma. His first public address was delivered before the Hebrew Sunday-school, in the form of a paper upon the proper mode of teaching children at Sunday-school, with a view of encouraging the study of the great men of Israel, and the mak- ing of them the ideal of our life. This paper was received with much popular favor, and was published in pamphlet form and in the news- papers. Other addresses followed in rapid succession, among them being an address before the congregation Mishkan Israel on the occasion of the celebration of the centennial of the adoption of the constitution of the United States, and another before the junior high grade of the Dallas. academy on Grecian mythology. Mr. Ullman is a ready, learned and pleasing writer. He is unpretentious and unostentatious, and in bearing toward his fellow-men he is fair, just, polite and courteous. His conver- sation is lofty and pure; his language chaste; his life exemplary. He is esteemed as a citizen, trusted with abounded confidence as a business man, and respected by all for his high moral character.
WILLIAM E. WAILES, cotton factor of Selma, Ala., was born at Salis- bury, Somerset county, Md., August 12, 1837. His parents were Dr. William Handy and Sarah Ann (Leonard) Wailes. The former, a native of Maryland, was a son of Benjamin Wailes, who married a Miss Anna Handy, a descendant of Samuel Handy, who was born in England and who settled in Maryland as. early as 1675, sailing from London in the bark Assurance. He had a descendant who was a signer of the Maryland declaration of independence, July 26, 1775. Benjamin Wailes was a native of Scotland, and settled in Somerset county, Md., about 1770. Dr. Will- iam H. Wailes was reared and educated in Salisbury, Md., graduated from the Baltimore Medical college, and was a prominent and successful practitioner of medicine for many years. His wife, Sarah Ann Leonard, was born in Somerset county, Md. Her ancestors came from the north
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of Ireland. Her ancestor, Joseph Leonard, was a protestant, and came to Maryland, that land of religious toleration, in 1731, settling in Somer- set county. The plantation he purchased and settled on has never been out of the possession of the family. He had a great grandson whose name was Ebenezer Leonard, who was the maternal grandfather of Will- iam E. The wife of Ebenezer Leonard was a Miss Elizabeth Stanford, who was a daughter of David Stanford, born in Somerset county in 1741. Thus has been traced with perhaps more particularity than has ever been done before the ancestry of William E. Wailes, who was himself reared and educated in Salisbury, Md. He was one of a family of five sons and two daughters. He received an academical education at private schools in his native village, and at the age of fifteen became a clerk in a dry goods store in Salisbury. He passed his nineteenth and twentieth years " clerking in a store in Baltimore, Md .. and after spending a part of a year at home, came to Selma, Ala., on January 8, 1860, securing a position aș bookkeeper, which position he retained until the breaking out of the Civil war, and in November, 1861, he enlisted in Captain S. J. Murphy's cavalry company as a private soldier. In May, 1862, he was made second lieutenant of his company, which had become Company F, Third Ala- bama cavalry. After the battle of Murfreesboro he was promoted to the rank of major on the staff of Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, having been from November, 1862, acting assistant adjutant-general on the same gen- eral's staff. He was wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro, at Ring- gold Gap, and on October 20, 1864, near Gadsden, Ala., while guarding the movements of Hood's army into Tennessee. After the battle of Ben- tonville, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel and chief of staff of Gen. Wheeler, but his commission. being in some way intercepted, never reached him. He was paroled with his command at Charlotte, N. C. He was always a brave and gallant soldier, and was highly complimented by his superiors in command. Since the war he has been vice-president of the Dallas county Confederate veterans' association, and served one year as president and one year as vice-president of state association of Confed- erate veterans. He is now serving his second year as member of the board of control. He has manifested great interest in politics, and has served twelve years as chairman of the second ward democratic club of Selma. He is a trustee of the Dallas academy and of the board of educa- tion of the city of Selma. He is a dimitted Mason, and is a prominent member of the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he has been for years a trustee and director. He has been a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, south, for forty years, and a steward of his church twenty-five years. In November, 1866, Col. Wailes embarked in the dry goods business as a member of the firm of Waller, Wailes & Co., which firm was dissolved in January, 1873. He then formed a partner- ship with Thomas D. Cory, which continued until the death of Mr. Cory, in 1890, the firm, however, in the meantime, in 1882, changing its busi-
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ness from that of dry goods merchants to cotton commission merchants, which it has since then continued. On January 1, 1891, William S. Dris- kell was admitted to partnership, and the name of the firm was then changed to William E. Wailes & Co., which it is at the present time. Col. Wailes was for several years a director in the City National bank of Selma, and for thirteen years of the Central City Insurance company. He was married December 22, 1864, to Miss Georgia E. Driskell, daughter of Thomas S. and Emily E. (Stanford) Driskell, of Plantersville, Ala., who was born in Dallas county in 1840, and who died in September, 1888, leaving two sons and three daughters, viz. : Laura S., Sarah E., Will D., Catharine E., and William E.
THOMAS PORTER WHITBY, D. D. S., a leading practitioner of dental surgery of the state of Alabama, was born at Fayetteville, Fayette county, Ga, February 24, 1845. His father, Rev. Thomas H. Whitby, was a native of South Carolina, in which state he was reared, educated and mar- ried. His wife, E. M. Porter, was born in South Carolina, and died in Georgia in 1856. She was the mother of six children, and after her death,. Rev. Mr. Whitby removed to Alabama, where he married, for a second wife, a Mrs. E. M. Gunn, by whom he had one child. While he was a farmer by occupation throughout life, he is also a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. In this church he was well known as an able min- ister and a devout, pious man. He remained in connection with the Alabama conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, until his death, which occurred in October, 1870, when fifty-nine years of age. Dr. Thomas P. Whitby was raised in Auburn, Ala., and was educated in the East Alabama Male college, and was in attendance there when the Civil war came on. In January, 1862, he enlisted as a private soldier in company D, Thirty- seventh Alabama infantry, with which regiment he remained as a private soldier until the end of the war, surrendering with Gen. Joseph E .. Johnston, at Greensboro, in 1865. In every skirmish or battle in which his command was engaged, Dr. Whitby participated. He was in the bat- tles of Iuka, Corinth, Hatchet Creek, Vicksburg, in January, . 1863; Fort. Pemberton, siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Dalton, Rocky Face Ridge, the other battles down to Atlanta; and so on down to the last great battle, at Bentonville, N. C. He was three times. wounded, but never disabled. After the war Dr. Whitby again attended the East Alabama Male college, at Auburn, for one year, and then began the study of dental surgery under a private preceptor, who was then a practitioner at Auburn. In 1887 he was located at. Wetumpka, Elmore county, engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. He remained here until January, 1888, when he located at Selma, Ala., and has since then been located at this place. While at Wetumpka he acquired the reputation of being a first-class dentist, and became prominent in the state, and became a member of the Alabama state board of dental exam- iners, of which he is still a member, and is its secretary at the present.
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