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 114
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C. F. RANKIN.
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which he resided so many years. In 1822, in the county of Monroe, Ala., he was united in marriage with Nancy Baggett, who became the mother of twelve children, as follows: Sarah J., wife of Drewry Lawyer, both deceased; James B., of Brewton; Hugh, killed at the battle of Corinth; Robert, deceased; Martha, died in infancy; Daniel C., killed at the battle of Culpeper Court House, Va .; William, died in childhood; Isabella, wife of T. S. Sowell, Brewton; Duncan A., farmer near Hillsboro, Tex .; Flora, wife of Allen Pittman, of Escambia county; John, whose death occurred at an early age, and Charles F. Rankin. The father and mother of these children died respectively in the years 1881 and 1882. Charles F. Rankin was born in Monroe county, Ala., on the 10th day of July, 1849. His early educational training was limited to a few months' attendance at the common schools, and during the time he should have been pursuing his studies the country was distracted by the great Civil war, which called all the able-bodied men, young and old, to the front, leaving the support of the families in the hands of the aged and the young. Among the latter Charles F. Rankin was a conspicuous example, and after the departure of his four elder brothers for the hostile field he manfully bore his part in the maintenance of the family. He conducted the farm and looked after his parents' interests for a number of years, and at the age of twenty moved the family to Brewton and embarked in the dry goods business at that place. He followed merchandising with encouraging suc- cess until 1874, when he disposed of his business and accepted the position of assistant timber inspector at Ferry Pass, Fla., the duties of which he discharged for a limited period and then returned to Brewton and became bookkeeper in the mercantile establishment of J. F. Dugan. Subsequently he was similarly employed by J. Blacksher & Co., with which firm he continued three years, and in 1883 engaged as bookkeeper for H. T. Parker, in whose service he remained until embarking in busi- ness for himself sometime later. In 1889, the present firm of C. F. Rankin & Co. was formed. This is one of the largest and most flourish- ing business houses in Brewton, the stock of general merchandise being very large and carefully selected, and the sales aggregating over $30,000 per year. Throughout his entire business career Mr. Rankin has been actuated by the most honorable motives, and his worth and popularity as a citizen are attested by the fact that for five consecutive terms he has filled the office of mayor of Brewton. Mr. Rankin is a true type of the southern gentleman-affable, generous-and has always been an earnest advocate of all enterprises having for their object the public welfare. From his ancestors he has inherited a vigorous constitution, is over six feet in height and of corresponding weight, which, with an open, kindly countenance and most agreeable deportment, make him conspicuous in all circles in which he moves. Mr. Rankin has been twice married; first, in 1875, to Lillie Lovelace, who departed this life in 1883, leaving four chil- dren: Albert L., Herbert C., Howard P. and Clifford. Mrs. Rankin died
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during the great yellow fever scourge which visited Brewton in 1883. She was a woman of exemplary life, possessed a well rounded christian character, and for a number of years was an earnest member of the Baptist church. Mr. Rankin's second marriage was solemnized at Union Springs, Ala., in 1887, with Susan Martin, daughter of William Martin, Esq., of Bullock county. The issue of this union has been two children: Gordon and Lillie Bell Rankin. Mr. Rankin is prominently identified with the K. of H. and Pythian fraternities, is a democrat in politics and a communicant of the Baptist church.
CHARLES W. ROBBINS .- Conspicuous among the successful self-made mnen of southern Alabama is Charles W. Robbins, editor and proprietor of the Brewton Banner, the official organ of Escambia county. Mr. Robbins's ancestors, both paternal and maternal, were eastern people, and early resi- dents of Connecticut. in the town of Rocky Hill, in which state his father, George W. Robbins, was born in the year 1824. By occupation George W. Robbins, in early life, was a tinner, which trade he followed for some years in his native state, and afterward migrated to Alabama, Monroe county, where he was similarly engaged until his death, which occurred in 1864. He served with distinction in the Confederate army during the greater part of the .Civil war, and while on the field contracted the disease which ultimately culminated in his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Ann M. Stanley, also a native of Connecticut, went south some years before the war in response to a demand from Alabama for teachers, and while engaged in educational work, met and married Mr. Robbins, about 1845, in Monroe county. This marriage resulted in the birth of eight children, whose names are as follows: Caroline W., wife of C. H. Flagg, of West Hartford, Conn .; Georgia A., wife of F. W. Gilbert, of South Windsor, Conn .; Eunice A., widow of A. D. Sampey, Evergreen, Ala .; Truman, died in childhood; Ida M., wife of John W. Gridley, Southington, Conn .; Charles W., Edward S., of Evergreen, and Kate 'G., who died in infancy. The family was raised in Monroe and Conecuh counties, Ala., in the latter of which Mrs. Robbins is still living, her home being in the town of Evergreen. Charles W. Robbins was born in the county of Conecuh, October 9, 1854, and at the early age of eleven, by reason of the death of his father, was thrown largely upon his own resources, in con- sequence of which his educational training was for some years con- siderably limited. In 1868, he accompanied his mother to Connecticut, where better opportunities for intellectual culture were offered, and there he completed the common school course and afterward became a student at the Hartford high school, a superior educational institution, from which he graduated in 1875, after an attendance of four years. On entering the schools of Hartford he presented the spectacle of a large boy in a small class, but by the closest kind of application he soon surpassed his classmates, and at the time of his graduation had far outstripped many larger and older pupils of the high school. After taking a business course in the
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CAPT. C. L. SOWELL.
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Osgood commercial college, where he was for one session employed as instructor, Mr. Robbins became principal of the West Hartford high school, where he was engaged for two years, and for sometime thereafter taught at Bloomfield, Windsor and other places, and earned the reputa- tion of a very able and successful instructor. In 1881 he gratified a long felt desire to return south, and removing to his native state was for four years thereafter identified with the educational work in the towns of Belleville, Castleberry, Pollard and Brewton. Having had some expe- rience in the field of journalism, Mr. Robbins, in 1887, in partnership with C. D. Henderson and J. E. Findley, established, at Pollard, the Standard Gauge, a weekly paper of which, in a few months, he became the sole proprietor. After issuing the paper for sometime at Pollard, he con- cluded that the county seat afforded a more promising field. Accordingly he removed his plant to the latter place, and puchasing the Brewton Banner, and merging the two offices into one, soon succeeded in building up a large circulation and remunerative advertising patronage. In 1888 a destructive conflagration visited the town, and, among other buildings completely destroyed, was the office of the competing paper, the Escambia Times, since which event, Mr. Robbins has occupied the field alone, his paper being the only one in Escambia county. Mr. Robbins is a com- mendable example of what energy, coupled with a well formed determina- tion to succeed, can accomplish in the face of discouraging circumstances. He is, in the true sense of the word, a self-made man, and in the field of journalism, as well as the teacher's work, has acquired a reputation which places him in the front rank of both of those professions. Mr, Robbins is by no means a place seeker, though frequently urged by the people of Escambia county to accept official position. A democrat in politics, he is not a partisan, and his paper is noted for the wise and moderate tone with which it discusses all public questions. On the 14th day of February, 1889, Mr. Robbins and Lillie A., daughter of H. T. and Sarah A. Parker. were united in the bonds of wedlock, a union blessed with one child, Charles S. Mr. and Mr. Robbins are members of the Presbyterian church of Brewton.
CHARLES L. SOWELL.'Among the substantial and successful business men whose names have added luster to the fame of Escambia county, few are as widely and favorably known as the popular banker, Charles L. Sowell. Mr. Sowell was born November 12, 1835, in Monroe county, Ala., and is the son of James and Nancy ( Coleman ) Sowell, natives, respec- tively, of South Carolina and Georgia. James Sowell was a wealthy planter and owned, at one time, over 800 acres of finely cultivated land, and from forty to sixty slaves. He was married three times, first, in his native state, to Anne Brown, who bore him four children. After her death, he removed to Alabama, where his second marriage was consumn- . mated with Mrs. Bradford, who was accidently killed about two years later, being thrown from a horse, while on her way to church. The
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third marriage took place in Monroe county, Ala., in the year 1830, with Nancy Coleman, who bore her husband the following children: Andrew J., deceased; Sarah, widow of Eranda Bethea; Charles L. ; Samuel; Thomas, deceased; Douglas S .; Anne; Caroline, wife of William Crook, and John L. Of the above sons, five served through the late war, and earned the reputation of brave and gallant soldiers. The father died in 1849, after which Mrs. Sowell resided on the old homestead for some time, but sub- sequently moved to the village of Monroeville, where she maintained a homestead until the war gave freedom to her slaves. Since then she has made her home with her children in Brewton, where she still lives at the ripe old age of eighty, retaining in a remarkable degree her faculties. physical and mental. Charles L. Lowell spent the first eighteen years of his life in Monroe county, and then left the parental roof, going to Milton. Fla., where, until the breaking out of the Civil war, he was employed in the milling and lumbering business. On the 5th of April, 1860, he entered into the marriage relation with Annie, daughter of Silas Jernigan, and in April, 1862, responded to the call of his state for volun- teers, enlisting that year in Capt. Jack Deloach's company of volunteers, from Monroe county. This company became a part of the Thirty-sixth Alabama infantry. Col. Bob Smith commanding; but on the commence- ment of the Georgia campaign of 1863, it was transferred to the First Florida regiment, and designated as company G, J. D. Lee captain, and such it remained until the final surrender in 1865. Mr. Sowell's military record, of which he feels deservedly proud, is replete with a long series of valorous deeds. He was with his command in the bloody battles of Murfreesboro. Mission Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, took part in the Atlanta campaign from Resaca to its close, and then went with Hood to Tennessee and participated in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. He passed through the greater part of the war without receiving the slightest injury, but at Nashville he received a wound which deprived him of his left arm, and left him maimed for life. During the progress of that terrible battle, the two armies had driven each other backward and forward, for two days, and on the second day, Mr. Sowell, with others, was detailed as a sharp-shooter, and ordered to a position far in advance of the Confederate lines. Finding, as he supposed, a secure position in a hole in the ground, he opened fire on a Yankee sharpshooter, partially secreted in a tree, but the blue coat returned the fire with such effect that Mr. Sowell's left arm was shattered by a ball which passed entirely through the member and killed a comrade sitting a few feet in the rear. After receiving the wound he walked to the rear of the lines, and that night the mangled arm was amputated, close to the shouider. The next day he was made prisoner, but was not able to leave the hospital for over ninety days. Subsequently, he was sent to Camp Chase, where he had a severe attack of small pox, and upon his recovery therefrom, he was started with others to Richmond for exchange, but for
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some reason did not get any farther than Point Lookout, where he was detained with others until after the surrender at Appomattox. At the close of the war he started home, and on landing at Mobile his clothing was in shreds and not a penny graced his pocket. In this dilemma, a comrade presented him with a new Confed- erate uniform, and on reaching home his wife made him a couple. of shirts out of a linen dress which she had kept secreted during the gloomy period of the war, and this raiment, with a few articles of house- hold furniture, saved from the general destruction, represented the sum total of his earthly possessions. Within a brief period he was fortunate in securing the appointment of station agent for the L. & N. railroad at. Brewton, which position he held till 1869, when he resigned and engaged in buying and selling timber. This proved very remunerative, and he continued it successfully for about eight years, during which time he realized a comfortable fortune. He built a large saw-mill, employed a large force of workmen, and followed lumbering very extensively until 1888, at which time he disposed of his mills and engaged in the banking business, which he carried on alone until the fall of 1891. At that time the bank was reorganized and chartered under the state law, with Mr. Sowell as president, a position he still retains. The same year he again embarked in the timber business in partnership with S. J. Foshee, under the name of Sowell, Foshee & Co., a firm which now owns 16,000 acres of timber land in Escambia county, upon which are mills with a capacity of 50,000 feet of lumber per day, and dry kilns and planing machinery sufficient to take care of the same. The plant represents a capital of $100,000, and the yearly business of the firm aggregates in the neighbor- hood of $150,000. In addition to the business enterprise referred to, Mr. Sowell owns a large amount of valuable real estate throughout southern Alabama, possesses fine property in Brewton and other towns, and is, perhaps, the most extensive capitalist in Escambia county. He is public spirited in all the term implies, enjoys almost unbounded popularity, and, while always foremost in every laudable enterprise, has never sought official preferment at the hands of his fellow citizens. Notwithstanding his inclination in this respect, however, he was elected tax assessor in 1872, which position he resigned at the end of one year, and in 1882 was. chosen commissioner of Escambia county, in which capacity he served one term. Since the war he has raised a large family of children, and in their education has expended over $9,000. The names of his children are as follows: Charles L., foreman of Sullivan Lumber company, Wallace, Ala. ; James, general manager of Sowell, Foshee & Co.'s mills at Hammac. Station; John L., telegraph operator, Dothen, Ala .; Mary L .; Preston B., merchant at Hammac Station; Annie; Julia, wife of Richard Parks, of Pollard; Samuel; Daisy; William W., deceased, and Sanford.
JAMES SOWELL, son of Charles L. and Anne Sowell and general manager of the Sowell & Foshee Co. mills, at Hammac, was born at.
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Monroeville, Monroe county, Ala., on the 26th day of August, 1862. Entering the common schools at an early age, he attended the same until his twentieth year, when he entered an institution of learning at Green- ville, Ala., and later spent a year at the Oxford, Ala., college, where he made substantial progress in the higher branches. In the fall of 1883, he accepted the position of sawyer with the large milling firm of C. L. Sowell & Co., at Wallace, and on the 1st of January, 1886, became fore- man of the mill, in which capacity he continued until 1891. He resigned his position as foreman in the latter year. and in May became manager of the milling firm of Sowell, Foshee & Co., with which he still is identi- fied, and in which he now owns an eighth interest. Mr. Sowell and Miss Aloise, daughter of Mrs. M. Arends, entered into the marriage relation, February 16, 1887, and they are now the parents of two children, Charles J. and Phillip M., aged four and two years, respectively. Mr. Sowell possesses superior executive ability, and is thoroughly con- versant with every detail of the timber business. Personally he is highly regarded in his community, is pleasing in manners, popular among his associates, and withal an elegant and intelligent gentleman.
HON. THOMAS S. SOWELL, son of James L. and Mary Sowell, was born in Lancaster district, S. C., October 11, 1840. Paternally he is descended from English ancestors, who came to America in the time of the colonies and settled in South Carolina, in which state his grandfather, James Sowell, was born and raised. James L. Sowell was born in Sumter dis- trict, S. C., in the year 1799, and was by occupation a planter. He was married in South Carolina, in 1820, to Mary Hunley, daughter of Absalom Hunley, of Virginia, and in 1846, moved his family to Monroe county, Ala., whither his father had preceded him in 1818. In 1852, he became a resident of Conecuh county, but in 1865 returned to the county of Monroe, where his death occurred the same year. Mrs. Sowell sur- vived her husband some years, departing this life in the summer of 1886. James L. Sowell was a man of local prominence, a leading politician of the democratic party, and at different times held various public positions, among which were those of probate judge of Monroe county and tax assessor for the county of Conecuh. The following are the names of the living children of James L. and Mary Sowell: William .C., resident of Monroeville, and probate judge of Monroe county; Thomas S .; Sarah, widow of J. P. Andress; and Emma S., wife of H. M. Rumbley. The names of those deceased were Martha, died in infancy; James R., member of company A, Forty-second Alabama infantry, killed October 4, 1862, in the battle of Corinth; Almira J., died in 1886, and Vancy, who died in infancy. Thomas S. Sowell was brought to Alabama by his parents when seven years of age, and passed his youthful days on a farm in Monroe county, attending school at intervals in the meantime. At the age of twenty-one he responded to the call of his state for volunteers and enlisted, March 15, 1861, in company C, Second Alabama infantry, with which he served
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one year. In 1862, he re-enlisted, this time in the Forty-second regiment, of which he continued a member until the close of the war in 1865, and with which he participated in the southwestern campaigns, including the battle of Corinth, where he received a bullet wound in the forehead, and in the siege of Vicksburg, where he was made a prisoner. After his exchange in September, 1862, he rejoined his regiment at Demopolis, Ala., thence marched to Chattanooga and took part in the battles of Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain. He was with Johnston's army from Resaca. to Atlanta, and participated in all the battles of the Georgia campaign, but, before the surrender of Atlanta, his command was ordered to Mobile; then, after a few months' stay, he rejoined Johnston's army in the Carolinas and took part in the battle of Bentonville, in which engagement Mr. Sowell was again wounded, a ball penetrating his left lung, passing entirely through his body. For some time thereafter he was an inmate of the Central hospital, Greensboro, N. C., and upon his recovery, after the surrender in 1865, he returned to Alabama and entered the service of B. L. Lovelace, as clerk in that gentleman's mercantile establishment, in Brewton. After three years spent in this capacity he embarked in the mercantile business in partnership with J. R. Downing, a firm which con- tinued until the latter's death, in 1871. Later he disposed of his stock of goods, and was engaged in farming until 1883, at which time he removed to the town of Wallace, and became manager of C. L. Sowell & Co's large milling interests at that place, discharging the duties of the posi- tion for a period of five years. In 1888, he returned to Brewton, and for three years thereafter carried on the livery business; then, disposing of his barn, he re-embarked in merchandising at Wallace, in partnership with his son, William D. Sowell, which firm continues. Mr. Sowell has. always taken an active interest in public affairs, served several different times as justice of the peace, and in 1875, was appointed tax assessor of Escambia county, filling that position very creditably for three years. In 1880, he was elected representative from Escambia county to the state legislature, and while a member of that body introduced and secured the passage of the bill providing the prohibition law, which has had such a beneficial effect in checking intemperance in Escambia. He took an active part in all the deliberations of the legislature during his official term, served on a number of important committees, and proved a potent factor in promoting much local legislation affecting the southern counties of the state. In 1888, he was again appointed tax assessor and still holds that office. Mr. Sowell was united in marriage, in 1867, to Belle, daughter of Duncan Rankin, to which union have been born the following children : James D., Flora V., William D., Thomas S., Nannie B., and Texanna A., all living except the first named, who died in infancy. Fraternally, Mr.
Sowell is identified with the Masons, and also belongs to the Knights of Honor. He is a democrat in politics, an earnest advocate of temperance reform, and all public enterprises find in him a zealous friend and liberal
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patron. He is a worthy and highly esteemed citizen, and against his his official record and private character a breath of suspicion has never been uttered.
THOMAS M. STEVENS, a prominent member of the Brewton bar, and one of the rising young lawyers of southern Alabama, was born at Perdue Hill, Monroe county, July 31, 1866, the son of Thomas J. and Lydia A. Stevens. Mr. Stevens received his early educational training in the schools of Monroeville, where he spent the first fourteen years of his life, and at the age of seventeen entered the State university at Tusca- loosa, in which he completed the full classical course, graduating, in 1888, with a class of exceptionally bright young men, a number of whom have already achieved a large measure of success in the various learned professions. The university is a military school, and as the honors are chiefly conferred on cadet officers, young Stevens, at the time of his graduation, was captain of company B, a position which entitled him to especial favors in the distribution of honors. His school course was marked by an earnestness of purpose and a laudable ambition to succeed, and before its conclusion he was the recipient of several prizes, among which was the one known as the "Ready Writer's prize," for which the entire senior class of forty members contested. On leaving school, Mr. Stevens, for about one year, acted as deputy United States marshal for the southern district of Alabama, with headquarters at Brewton, and in the fall of 1889 entered the law department of the State university, where he pursued his legal studies until his graduation in June of the following year, at which time he opened an office in Brewton. In July, 1891, he effected a co-partnership with M. A. Rabb, one of the leading lawyers of Brewton and Escambia county. under the firm name of Rabb & Stevens, which does an extensive business in Brewton, beside practicing in all the courts of many other parts of the state. November, 1890, Mr. Stevens received the appointment of deputy solicitor for Escambia county, which office he still holds. Professionally Mr. Stevens has already taken high rank among the successful attorneys of the Brewton bar, and few young lawyers possess in a so eminent a degree the esteem and confidence of the public. His career thus far presents a series of brilliant successes, and, being a man of integrity and spotless reputation, a close and intelli- gent student, he has before him a future of great usefulness. In politics Mr. Stevens is a supporter of the democratic party, and socially belongs to the Pythian fraternity, in the local lodge of which he holds an important official position. Thomas J. Stevens, father of Thomas M. Stevens, was born in Monroeville, Monroe county, Ala., in the vear 1830, and is by occupation a contractor and builder. He was for some years engaged in merchandising, and at one time was sheriff of Monroe county, and also served as tax collector, beside holding several minor positions. He served in the Civil war, enlisting in 1862 in company F, Fifty-third Alabama cavalry, commanded by Col. Harmon, and participated in a
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