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 120
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governor, and consequently could not be properly considered a prisoner of war. He received a large Revolutionary bounty, which placed his family in affluent circumstances. James Taylor, the father of Col. Samuel Taylor, came over from England as one of the king's officers, and settled upon a farm upon which the city of Philadelphia now stands. The place was known as the Stone House farm. Mrs. Horton's parents were married in 1830, and to them were. born seven children; four are living, as follows: John T. Richardson, a real estate dealer in Birmingham, Ala .; Leonora Richardson, wife of C. McAdory, of Bessemer, Ala .; Ida Richardson, wife of J. R. Rockett, of Birmingham, Ala., Sallie Richardson, wife of Amos Horton, of Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Three are dead, as follows: Mary Virginia, wife of B. T. Higginbotham, died in 1853; Dr. William H. Richardson was killed at Spottsylvania Court House, Va., in 1864, while in command of a company in the Eleventh Alabama regiment Confederate States army; infant son, died at an early age. Mrs. Horton's maternal great-grandfather was a well known and able minister of the Presbyterian church; Rev. Dr. Thomas Reese, born in Pennsylvania in 1742, graduated from Princeton college with great honor, and the degree of D. D .; was licensed to preach in 1773, and was the first Carolinian to be so honored by Princeton. He was a thorough scholar, and was well versed in mental and moral philosophy, as well as in theology. He was the author of the work entitled "The Influence of Religion on Civil Society," which, if it had been written from the other side of the Atlantic, might have done credit to the pen of a Warburton or a Paley. He died near Pendleton, S. C., in 1799, and was buried near the old stone church. To Amos Horton and his wife have been born six children, of whom three sons are living, viz: William Taylor Horton, born December 12, 1871, Hugh Clifford Horton, born November 7, 1872, graduated from the university of Alabama, in June, 1892, having taken a classical course; Charles Richardson Horton, born January 5, 1875. Ainos Horton was a cadet during the late war, subject to state orders, and served a short time in Mobile, Ala. He owns 1,800 acres of land in Greene county, which is in a high state of cultivation, and lies on Sipsie river. He makes a specialty of raising Jersey cattle. Mrs. Horton is a member of the Presbyterian church, and both Mr. and Mrs. Horton are highly respected citizens.
CHESNEY W. HUGHES, a merchant of Pleasant Ridge, Greene county, Ala., was born in Pickens county, Ala., July 30, 1842. He is a son of James J. and Nancy (Hamlin) Hughes. The father of James J. Hughes was Joseph A. Hughes, a colonel in the Revolutionary war, who was a native of South Carolina and moved to Alabama, settling in Greene county, where he lived the rest of his life. James J. Hughes was reared on his father's farm in South Carolina, and when a mere lad was brought to Alabama. He and his wife, Nancy Hamilin, were the parents of eleven children, seven sons
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and four daughters, only four of whom are living, viz .: Chesney W .; Cicero T., a resident of Birmingham; Cornelius A. and Henrietta P., both residents of Pleasant Ridge. The father of these children died in South Carolina in 1856, and the mother died in Birmingham in 1872. Chesney W. Hughes was reared on a farm and educated in the schools of Pickens and Greene counties. In 1861 he enlisted in company D, Second Alabama infantry, under Capt. T. C. Lanier, and served as a private sol- dier all through the war. He was taken prisoner at Corinth, Miss., and held fifteen days, when he was paroled, and soon afterward exchanged. In 1862 he received a wound in the left shoulder and arm. During his service in the army he participated in the following important battles: Corinth, siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, New Hope Church and Atlanta, beside many skirmishes. After serving until the close of the war, he returned to Pickens county and engaged in farm- ing. In 1871 he married Miss Going, a native of Pickens county, Ala., and a daughter of Eli Going, a farmer of that county. To their marriage was born one child, a daughter, Mary G. Mrs. Hughes was a member of the Presbyterian church, and died in 1872. In 1874 Mr. Hughes married Mary Hendley, a native of Greene (now Hale) county. She died in 1876, leaving one child, a daughter, Lucy T. Both of these daughters are living with their father at Pleasant Ridge. In 1884 he married for his third wife Miss Anny F. Hughes, daughter of B. J. and Jane E. (Going) Hughes. The fathers of Mr. and Mrs. Chesney Hughes were double first cousins, their paternal grandfathers being brothers, and their paternal grandmothers being sisters. Their grandmothers were named Brown, and were lineal descendants of the royal house of Stuart, of England. Mrs. Hughes's grandfather, John Hughes, brother of Col. Joseph Hughes, emigrated from Union district, S. C., to Alabama, in 1820. Her grandmother was an aunt of ex-Gov. Brown, of Mississippi. She was a woman of remarkable mental faculties and memory, recalling facts and dates with great accuracy and ease. She died in Pickens county at the extreme age of ninety-five. The grandfather of Mrs. Hughes died in Pickens county in 1839. The parents of Mrs. Hughes were natives of South Carolina. Her father came to Alabama when fourteen years old, leaving his parents in South Carolina. He worked as a field hand in Greene county, Ala., obtaining his education as best he could, and being of a studious disposition he devoted his evenings to his books. In this way he mastered the elements of a common English education, and then took up the higher branches, and even the languages and sciences, including engineering and mechanics, of which he obtained a thorough knowledge. He then engaged in teaching school in the county, and at length embarked in merchandising, going, as was then the custom of country merchants, twice a year to New York to buy goods. He carried on the mercantile business at Vienna and Bridgeville, both flourishing business towns, for a period of thirty years, and notwithstanding some
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reverses and losses, he accumulated finally a considerable fortune. He died in May, 1878, at the age of seventy-four. Mrs. Hughes's mother came from South Carolina to Pickens county, Ala., when nine years old, was married to Mr. Hughes in 1834, and died in 1880, on the plantation on which she had spent the latter portion of her life. Chesney W. Hughes was engaged in the mercantile business in Birmingham seven or eight years, but in the fall of 1887 he removed to Pleasant Ridge, where he has since been engaged in the same business. He was present at the organization of the city of Birmingham, and was instrumental in building the first Presbyterian church in that city. Both he and his wife are members of the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian church.
HON. JOSEPH P. MCQUEEN, a prominent attorney of Eutaw, Greene county, Ala., was born in that county, June 22, 1854. He is a son of John and Sarah E. (Pickens) McQueen, John McQueen being a son of James McQueen, a native of Scotland, who early in life emigrated to the United States, and settled in Robeson county, N. C., and became an extensive planter. The wife of James McQueen was a Miss McRae, of Scotland. Mrs. Sarah E. McQueen was a daughter of Col. Joseph Pickens, of Eutaw, Ala., and a grand-daughter of the distinguished Gen. Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina, of Revolutionary fame. John McQueen was reared in Robeson county, N. C., on a farm, and when twenty-one years old he emigrated to Bennettsville, Marlboro district, S. C., where he read law and practiced his profession for a number of years. At the same time he had large agricultural interests. He repre- sented that district for fourteen years consecutively in the congress of the United States, and was a member of that body at the time South Carolina seceded, and afterward he served four years in the congress of the Confederate States. He was recognized as one of the ablest members of that body, both by his fellow-members and by his fellow-citizens. He and his wife were the parents of three sons, viz .: John, now a lawyer of Birmingham, Ala. ; James W., a resident of Birmingham, and Joseph P. John McQueen died at Society Hill, S. C., in 1867, but his wife still lives and resides with her son, Joseph P. McQueen. Joseph P. McQueen received his early education in the common schools of both North and South Carolina, and after the death of his father he removed with his mother to Eutaw. Ala., and commenced the study of law under Chancellor James B. Clark, and continued on with Clark & Coleman when that law firm was formed. He was admitted to the bar in 1875, since which time he has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession. Like his father before him he is a democrat in politics, and represented Greene county in the legislature of Alabama in the sessions of 1884 and 1885, For six years he was chairman of the democratic executive com- mittee of Greene county, and he is now, and has been for several years, a member of the state democratic executive committee. He is recognized as one of the most eloquent speakers in this part
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of the state, and his services have been regularly brought into requisition by the democratic party in his county in all recent campaigns. He is an extensive land owner and stock dealer, and makes a specialty of breeding blooded horses and cattle, and in connection with a lucrative law practice operates a large plantation adjoining the town of Eutaw, upon which his family residence stands. Mr. McQueen was married in December, 1875, to Miss Roberta Kirksey, daughter of Robert and Anna (Parker) Kirksey, a native of Marengo county, Ala., by whom he has had five children, four of whom are living, viz .: Anna, John, Joseph P. and Robert.
DAVID M. MONTGOMERY, a merchant of Pleasant Ridge, was born in Oktibbeha county, Miss., April 17, 1841. He is a son of William M. and Sarah (Nason) Montgomery, both of whom were natives of Fairfield dis- trict, S. C., and he is a grandson of David and Martha (Tompson) Mont- gomery, also natives of South Carolina. The early part of David Mont- gomery's life was spent as a merchant, and the latter part as a farmer. He represented Fairfield district in the legislature of South Carolina, and moved to Oktibbeha county, Miss., which county he represented in the legislature of Mississippi. Both he and his wife died in Mississippi. The maternal grandparents of David M. Montgomery were Richard M. and Margaret (Milling) Nason. Richard M. was of English extraction, though of Irish birth, and on coming to America settled in Fairfield district, S. C. The maternal great-grandfather of David M. Montgomery, came to America from England prior to the Revolution, settling in Fairfield dis- trict, S. C., and took part in the struggle for independence, holding the rank of captain. Richard M. Nason was one of the founders and one of the first trustees of Mt. Zion college, which antedates the Revolutionary war. Richard M. Nason emigrated from South Carolina to Mississippi, settling at Starkville, Oktibbeha county. He was a farmer and a school teacher, and both he and his wife died in Yalobusha county, Miss. Will- iam M. Montgomery was reared on a farm, and followed farming all his life. He was an unassuming and industrious man, and died in 1848, com- paratively young. He and his wife, Sarah, were the parents of three children, David M. being the only one now living. The two that died were named Laura G. and Richard. After her husband's death Mrs. Montgomery married Thomas P. Archibald, by whom she had four chil- dren, two sons and two daughters. Three of these children are living, viz. : Mary A. ; Margaret E., unmarried, and Robert N. The one that died was named Thomas. Mary A. is the wife of William B. Somerville, of Franconia, Pickens county. The mother of these children died in 1866, and Mr. Archibald died in 1876. By occupation he was a farmer and a school teacher. David M. Montgomery received the rudiments of his edu- cation at Pleasant Ridge academy, and afterward took a literary course of instruction at Erskine college, South Carolina. In 1861 he enlisted in company C, Eleventh Alabama infantry, under Capt. J. C. C. Sander
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and served as a private soldier throughout the war. He participated in several of the most important battles fought, Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill, White Oak Swamp, second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spottsylvania Court House and Petersburg, and he was pres- ent at the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. He was wounded three times, two of the wounds being slight, the other, received at Spottsyl- vania Court House, being a gun-shot wound through the left lung, and being the most serious of the three. After the war he returned to Pleas- ant Ridge and established himself as a merchant, and has continued in the mercantile business ever since. In 1869 he was married to Martha C. Sanders, daughter of Dr. Charles P. Sanders, an eminent physician, and long a resident of Pleasant Ridge. To this marriage there were born two children, only one of whom is now living, David M., Jr., the other dying when an infant. Mrs. Montgomery was a member of the Presby - terian church, and died in 1871. Mr. Montgomery married for his second wife, Miss Jennie L. Bardwell, a native of Oktibbeha county, Miss., by whom he has had four children, viz. : Martha S. ; Brainard B., Roy R., and Hunter, the latter having died. David M. Montgomery has served as county commissioner for sixteen years. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and of the Masonic fraternity. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Presbyterian church, and he is an elder of his church. He is an enterprising, public-spirited citizen, and takes an interest in all issues tending to benefit the community.
DR. SAMUEL S. MURPHY, a prominent citizen and successful physi- cian of Pleasant Ridge, was born in Greene county, Ala., November 14, 1825. He is a son of James and Angelina (Saddler) Murphy, natives of South Carolina. His paternal grandparents were Robert and Rachael (Rainey) Murphy, also natives of South Carolina. His paternal great-grand- father was a native of Ireland, and came to this country prior to the Revolutionary war, settling in South Carolina. He served as a soldier in that war. The parents of Miss Angelina Saddler were Isaac and Elizabeth Saddler, natives of South Carolina. James Murphy, father of Dr. Samuel S. Murphy, came to Alabama in 1818, and settled in Greene county, near Eutaw, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a machinist by trade, and manufactured cotton gins, at which he acquired a handsome fortune, there being no competition in those days. He was born November 11, 1796, and died in 1872. His wife was born in 1800, and died in 1874. They were the parents of eight children, all of whom lived to maturity, and seven of whom are now living, viz. : Caroline, wife of H. D. Boutwell, a farmer and resident of Pickens county; Dr. Samuel S. ; Julia L., wife of J. M. McGowan, of Tuscaloosa; Mary A., wife of S. F. Nunnelee, a retired journalist and politician, of Anniston, Ala .; Elizabeth Starr, wife of W. H. Somerville, farmer and merchant, of Pickens county ; Dr. Adolphus S. Murphy, a physician and druggist, of Eutaw, Ala., and Jas. A. Murphy, farmer, of Bethany, Pickens county, Ala.
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The one that died was named Cornelia R. Dr. Samuel S. Murphy was married in 1856 to Miss Elizabeth Steele, a native of Greene county, Ala., and born July 23, 1832. To their marriage have been born eight children, three of whom only are living, viz .: Thomas E., a physician of Bethany. Pickens county; Samuel S., Jr., who is teaching his third year at Barton academy, Mobile, Ala .; and Charles M., a student at the uni- versity of Alabama, where he is taking a course in the literary depart- ment. Five have died, three in infancy; the others being William M., a promising and bright young man, who was killed by the accidental dis- charge of a gun in his own hands, while at Poughkeepsie college, N. Y., where he was taking a business course of instruction, and Mary E., deceased wife of James H. Archibald. Dr. Murphy received his prelim - inary education in the schools of Eutaw. In 1842 he entered the uni- versity of Alabama, attending four sessions, and graduating in the liter- ary course. In 1850 he attended a session at the medical college of Louisiana, at New Orleans. For a number of years afterward he was engaged in the drug business in Eutaw, in partnership with his brother, Dr. A. S. Murphy, of Eutaw. He then sold his interest in the business to his brother, and established himself in the mercantile business at Pleasant Ridge. In 1870 he resumed his medical studies, entering the medical college at Mobile. from which he graduated the same year. He began the practice of medicine with Dr. C. P. Sanders, an old physician of Pleasant Ridge, and remained with him several years. He then opened an office individually, and has since continued in practice at Pleasant Ridge. He is a cultured and scholarly gentleman, whose many admirable qualities and traits of mind and heart have won for him the highest respect of his friends and acquaintances. He owns about 240 acres of land and a comfortable residence property, the latter in the vil- lage of Pleasant Ridge. He and his wife are members of the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian church, and she is now the only one living that was present at its organization.
THOMAS WILKES COLEMAN, chancellor, is a son of James C. and Martha (Anderson) Coleman, natives of North and South Carolina, respectively. Judge Coleman's grandfather, John Coleman, a planter, came from North Carolina to Alabama in 1818, and settled near Eutaw in 1821. James C. Coleman, his son, was also a planter, and, like his father, farmed suc- cessfully and on an extensive 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 1861, raised a company and became its captain. He was captured at the siege of Vicksburg, and, at the battle of Missionary Ridge, was wounded by a minie ball which passed entirely through his body, destroy- ing his left lung, and incapacitating him for further military duty. He
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recovered from his wound, however (a fact which seems marvelous to those who know its character and extent), and resumed the practice of law. Capt. Coleman was a member of the constitutional convention of 1865, and in 1866 he was elected solicitor for the fifth circuit, but was ousted by the reconstruction performance of 1868. In 1878 he was appointed to the same office for the seventh circuit by Gov. W. R. Cobb, and, in 1880, was elected to that office, by the legislature, for a six-year term. In 1866, Capt. Coleman was again elected solicitor for another six-year term, and in March, 1887, he was appointed chancellor of the southwestern chancery division of Alabama, by Gov. Thomas Seay. Judge Coleman's life has been a busy one. In politics, he has always been a stanch 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 fortunate of the land. He was heartily opposed to the idea of secession and war from its earliest inception, but, when the issue was made, he threw his entire influence with the cause of his people. The judge was married, in 1860, 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, E. 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 uni- versity of Virginia. Judge Coleman is a Presbyterian of the old school, and an elder in that church. He is also a royal arch Mason.
HALE COUNTY.
REV. ALLEN S. ANDREWS, D. D., LL. D., president of the Southern university at Greensboro, Ala., was born in Randolph county, N. C., August 18, 1824. His father, Hezekiah Andrews, married a Miss Fuller, a lineal descendant of Capt. "Brit" Fuller, of Greene's army, in the Revolutionary war. Both were natives of North Carolina, where they lived and died. They were likewise both of English ancestry. Hezekiah Andrews was a farmer by occupation, and was for many years higli sheriff of his county. He died of apoplexy in North Carolina in 1863, at the age of seventy-two. Dr. Allen S. Andrews was reared in his native state upon the farm. He graduated from Trinity college in Randolph county, as bachelor of arts, in 1854, and in 1857 Centenary college, Colum- bia, conferred upon him the degree of master of arts. Long before he graduated from Trinity college, he began teaching school in North Caro- lina, and in 1845, he was licensed as a Methodist preacher. In 1850 he was elected to a professorship in Greensboro Female college, North Carolina, and held the position two years. He came to Alabama in 1855, and for two years had charge. of the Glenville institute. He then went to Mobile, and was pastor of the St. Francis Street Methodist church, south,
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and at the end of the two years was transferred to Eufaula. From Eufaula he was sent to Dayton, and he was there at the outbreak of the Civil war. During that great struggle he was chaplain of a regiment three years, and at the close of the war he was elected president of the Female institute at Columbus, Miss. In 1869 he returned to the ministry at Mobile, and in 1871, he was elected to the presidency of the Southern university at Greensboro, Ala. He held that position four years, and then resigned to accept the pastorate of the Court Street Methodist Epis- copal church, south, of Montgomery, Ala. He remained here for four years, and then spent four years in Opelika, and one year at Selma, when he was again elected president of the Southern university at Greensboro, Ala., since which time he has retained that position, giving nearly all his attention to the work of education. Under his management this institu- tion has become one of the most popular in the south, in which division of the country Dr. Andrews has few, if any, equals. While he is a man of profound learning, sound logic, and persuasive eloquence, he is yet so unpretentious and unassuming, and of such great tenderness and sym- pathy, that all are charmed by his character and presence. Dr. Andrews has been twice married. While still in North Carolina, he married, in 1850, Miss Margaret C. Leach, who bore him two children, and died in 1855, at Glenville, Ala. Their son, Julian L., died when sixteen years of age at Mobile, Ala., and their daughter, Lizzie M., married Rev. R. T. Nabors, now deceased. Rev. Mr. Nabors was born in Shelby county, Ala., July 13, 1850, and died at Vanderbilt university in 1884. He was one of the most brilliant young men of his day. In 1861 Dr. Andrews, while in Mobile, married Miss Virginia F. Hudson, daughter of Llewel- lyn Hudson, and by this marriage he has five children: Willie F., gradu- ated from the university of Alabama in 1883, and received the degree of master of arts from the Southern university in 1886; he is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, south; Allen L., A. M., is also a pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, south; he graduated from the Southern university in 1887; the other children are Lila L., Leigh R., and John H. Dr. Andrews received the degree of D. D., from the Southern university in 1870, and the degree of LL. D., from the same university, and from the A. and M. college at Auburn, Ala., in 1888.
JAMES DANIEL BROWDER, M. D., retired physician of Gallion, Hale county, Ala., was born in Dinwiddie county, Va., May 22, 1820. He is a son of Thomas and Jane D. (Montague) Browder, both natives of Virginia and descendants of prominent families in that state. Dr. Browder received a liberal education at a neighboring academy, graduating at the age of nineteen. In 1839 he left Virginia and came to Alabama, locating in Marengo county, reaching there January 14, 1840, having traveled the entire distance, 1,200 miles, on horseback. In Marengo county he began life as a school teacher, and soon after becoming established in his pro- fession, he retraced his steps to Virginia in order to prepare himself for
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