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 121

Author: Taylor, Hannis, 1851-1922; Wheeler, Joseph, 1836-1906; Clark, Willis G; Clark, Thomas Harvey; Herbert, Hilary Abner, 1834-1919; Cochran, Jerome, 1831-1896; Screws, William Wallace; Brant & Fuller
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Madison, Wis., Brant & Fuller
Number of Pages: 1164


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 121


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the practice of medicine. He entered the medical department of the university of Virginia, and took a course of lectures. He then entered Jefferson Medical college, at Philadelphia, graduating in 1842. Return- ing to the cane brake regions of Marengo and Hale counties, he began the practice of medicine, which he continued to follow until 1848, when he returned to Philadelphia and married Miss Maria Louisa Chapron of that city. He returned with his bride to Alabama and has since that time continued to follow the practice of medicine until within a few years. He resides at Gallion. He and his wife have five children living, two sons and three daughters. One son is a planter in Sumter county, while another, William M., is a prominent and successful practitioner of medi- cine at Gallion, Ala., with his father. Dr. Browder and wife and family are members of the Roman Catholic church, and, have always been well known and highly respected people.


SHELBY W. CHADWICK was born in Hale, then Greene, county, Ala., September 26, 1842. He is a son of Shelby W. and Mary A. ( Meredith ) Chadwick, the former of whom was a native of Greenup county, Ky., and a son of John Chadwick, a native of England. He was an early Kentucky settler, and a soldier of the Revoutionary war. He was the father of four sons and three daughters, and followed farming for a livelihood. . His soul, Shelby W. Chadwick, was raised in Kentucky, and came to Alabama in 1832, when a young man, locating in Greensboro, where he carried on merchandising for several years, and died in 1854, aged forty years. He was a volunteer in the Creek Indian war. He was married in 1839 to Mary A. Meredith, who was born in Madison county, Ala., and was a daughter of Elisha W. and Sarah Bowling (Cabell). Meredith, both of whom belonged to prominent families of Virginia. She was reared in Sumter county, Ala., bore her husband four sons, and died in 1868. The eldest son went to Texas before the Civil war broke out, took part in that war with a Texas command, and died in 1867. Two other sons are now residents of Texas. Shelby W. Chadwick was reared in Greensboro, and was in attendance at the Southern university when the Civil war broke out. He then entered the Greensboro guards, and served with them throughout the war. April 2, 1865, he was taken prisoner along with a portion of his regiment, and held until the close of hostilities. He then returned to Greensboro, and served as clerk for a number of years, when he began merchandising on his own account. He continued in the mercan- tile business until 1879. In 1880 he was elected county treasurer of Haie county, and by successive re-elections, held the office twelve years. He is a democrot in politics, and had served previous to his election as county treasurer, as councilman and treasurer of Greensboro. He is an official member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. He is secretary of the Southern university, is a master Mason and a Knight of Pythias. He was married in 1855 to Miss Jane Cammack, who was born in Hale


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county, and who has borne her husband six children, the eldest son, John Chadwick, being a licensed pastor in the Methodist Episcopal church, south. of which the family are members. In 1886, Mr. Chadwick began a private exchange and collection business in Greensboro, and he has since continued in that line. He also represents several old line fire insurance companies, having been in the insurance business since 1880. For twenty years he has been steward and recording secretary of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, at Greensboro, and for the last seven years he has been superintendent of the Sunday school.


J. C. CHISHOLM, D. D. S., a practicing dentist of Greensboro, Ala., was born in Lawrence county, Ala., September 10, 1863. He is a son of Obadiah and Sarah (Wombell) Chisholm, both of whom were natives of Alabama. Obadiah Chisholm is an architect by vocation, and lives in Tuscumbia, Ala. Dr. J. C. Chisholm was prepared for his profession in . Baltimore at the university of Maryland, graduating from that institu- tion in 1888. He had previously begun the study of dentistry in Oxford, Miss., in 1884, where he pursued his studies six months under Dr. W. H. Marshall, and then for twelve months he studied under his uncle, Dr. E. S. Chisholm, at Tuscaloosa. In January, 1886, he began practicing at Uniontown, Ala., and in 1887 entered the university of Maryland, graduating as before stated. He located at Greensboro in 1889, and has continued at that place ever since. He is a member of the State dental association: Dr. Chisholm was married, in 1888. to Miss Nora N. Shearen, of Uniontown, Ala., by whom he has one son. Dr. Chisholm is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias, and is a leading dentist of the county of Hale.


CHARLES W. COLLINS, a. most prominent and prosperous merchant of Hale county, was born in Stafford county, Va., July 1, 1830. He is a son of Joseph Todd Collins, who was a native of Caroline county, Va., in which he lived most of his life and died. He was descended from an old Virginia family of Irish origin. He was a planter by occupation. His wife was a Miss Susan Wood, also a native of Caroline county, Va., and of English ancestry. They were the parents of four sons and five daughters. Of these sons Charles W. Collins is the eldest. He was given a fair literary education, and afterward learned the carriage maker's trade. At this trade he, however, worked but a short time, and in the winter of 1851-52, he left the Old Dominion, and came to Alabama, where he joined an uncle who had come to this state in 1836, and had settled in the cane brake region of Hale, then Marengo. county. That uncle was named John Collins, and was a native of Caroline county, Va. He was one of the most successful farmers in the state, and accumulated a large fortune. After a long and useful life, he died in 1867. At his death Charles W. Collins became a legatee for a considerable portion of his estate, other portions falling to the brothers of Charles W., Joseph Todd Collins, J. W. Collins and R. W. Collins. The last two are repre-


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sentative farmers and reputable citizens of Hale county, and of Joseph Todd Collins a memoir appears elsewhere in this work. Charles W. Collins married in 1855, Miss Cary T. Collins of Virginia, who died in 1865, leaving three children. In 1867 Mr. Collins married Miss Louisa Collins of Virginia, who died in 1872, leaving two children. In 1874 Mr. Collins married Miss Hattie E. Allen, daughter of Rev. W. L. Allen of Virginia, who has borne him five children. Mr. Collins and family are members of the Baptist church. Before the war he was an old line whig, but since the war he has voted the democratic ticket. He has never sought political office, preferring the life of a farmer and business man. His ambition in life has been gratifying, for no other planter in the cane brake region has finer lands and better cultivated fields than he.


JOSEPH TODD COLLINS, a prominent merchant and planter of Hale county, was born in Stafford county, Va., March 24, 1836. He is a son of Joseph T. and Susan (Wood) Collins. When he was about two years old they removed to Caroline county, Va., and here he grew to manhood and received a fairly good education. When he was sixteen years of age he began clerking in a store in Virginia. He continued clerking until about 1856, and then went into business at Cedar Fork, Caroline county, Va., the firm being J. T. Collins & Co., and continuing until the breaking out of the war, and in April, 1861, he became a soldier in com- pany B, Ninth Virginia cavalry, in which regiment he remained a pri- vate soldier through the Civil war. In December, 1867, he joined his brother, Charles W. Collins, at Gallion, Ala., and at once formed a co- partnership with him, under the firm name of C. W. Collins & Bro., which has since continued to do a successful business at Prairieville, and beside their mercantile business they carry on planting to a considerable extent. In November, 1866, Mr. Collins was married to Mrs. Kate Humphries, née Davis, by whom he has four sons and six daughters. In February, 1892, Mrs. Collins died. Mr. Collins and family are members of the Baptist church. While he is a democrat, yet he has never sought politi- cal honors.


WILLIAM C. CROSS, M. D., a prominent physician of Newbern, Hale county, Ala., was born in Colbert county, July 31, 1856. He is a son of Dr. William C. and Mary (Harris) Cross, the former of whom was an emi- nent physician in his day. He was one of five brothers, four of whom were physicians. The Cross family is of English ancestry. On coming to America they settled in Northampton and Gates counties, N. C. Will- iam C. Cross, M. D., was educated at Verulam high school and at Ran- dolph-Macon college, in Virginia, and afterward graduated from the University of Alabama and from Vanderbilt university at Nashville, Tenn. He began the practice of his profession in Bibb county, remain- ing there six years, and then removing to Tuscaloosa. Here he re- mained until 1892, when he removed to Newbern, where he still resides. He ranks as senior colonel of the Alabama state troops, and is a senior


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counselor of the Alabama Medical association. He is a member of the American Microscopical association, of the order of the Knights of Pythias, is a master Mason, and a member of the Psi Kappa Psi fraternity


GEORGE J. DOMINICK, merchant of Greensboro, Ala., was born in Perry county, Ala., October 12, 1857. He is a son of Martin Dominick, who was born in Bibb county, Ala., in 1820, and now now resides in Perry county, where he has lived for many years, devoting his time to farm- ing. He has been for many years a local preacher in the Methodist Epis- copal church, south. Previous to the Civil war he was a very extensive and successful planter, but since then his farming has been less exten- sive and remunerative. His father, Jacob Dominick, came from South Carolina, and was of German extraction. He settled in Bibb county upon coming to Alabama, and there lived the rest of his life. Martin Dominick married in early life and settled in Perry county. His wife was a Miss Martha Thomas of Perry county, born and reared near where he now resides. They had three daughters and five sons reach maturity. George J. Dominick, one of these sons, received a fair education, and remained with his father on the farm until he was twenty-one years of age. He then began clerking in Greensboro, and in 1882 he and his brother, R. B., went into business for themselves in Greensboro. In 1884 George J. sold out his interest and went to Anniston, where he carried on mercantile business a short time, when he sold out on account of ill health. In 1884 he returned to Greensboro, and has since that time lived in that place, engaged in mercantile pursuits, doing an average annual business of about $20,000. He also owns a plantation, and has carried on farming as well as merchandising for the past two years. He is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, and of the order of Knights of Pythias. In 1881 he married Miss Olive Griffin of Perry county, by whom he had four children. She died in December, 1891.


R. W. DRAKE, sheriff of Hale county, was born in Nash county, N. C., July 13, 1842. He is a son of John H. and Polly R. S. ( Williams) Drake, the former of whom was a native of Nash county, N. C., and the latter of Pitt county, same state. The Drake family is of English ancestry. The earliest representative of the Drake family in this country was William Drake, who came over to the colonies with his brother, Sir Francis Drake, who landed at Jamestown, Va., while John Smith was governor. The family afterward moved to Halifax county, N. C., where his descendant, James Drake, did good service during the war of inde- pendence. His son, J. H. Drake, who was the grandfather of R. W. Drake, came to Alabama in 1845, when an old man, to live with his daughter, and died in 1859, more than ninety years of age. He was a member of the North Carolina legislature several times, and was a man of sterling qualities. His son, John H. Drake, was reared and educated in North Carolina. He graduated in medicine at Philadelphia, and like his father, represented his native county in the North Carolina legislature several


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times. He married and came to Alabama in December, 1857, settling at Auburn, now in Lee county, and lived there until his death, in 1872, when he was seventy-one years old. He practiced his profession up to 1870. His widow survives, and now (1892) lives at Opelika, at the age of eighty years. They had four sons and two daughters that lived to mature years. R. W. Drake was about fourteen years old when his parents came to Alabama, and he was educated at the A. & M. college, at Auburn, Lee county. He left school to enter the Confederate army in June, 1861, becoming a member of company F, Twelfth Alabama infantry, in which he served about twenty months, and about the same length of time in the Twelfth Georgia. On March 25, 1865, he was captured in front of Petersburg, and taken to Point Lookout, Md., and held a prisoner until the close of the war. He was with Stonewall Jackson's command. After the war was over he returned to Alabama, and located in Hale county and devoted his attention to farming and also to merchandising at Laneville. He has served as justice of the peace for about eighteen years, and as a democrat he was elected sheriff of Hale county in 1892. In 1877 he mar- ried Miss Hattie Osborn, daughter of Dr. T. C. Osborn, then of Greens- boro. By this marriage he has four children. His wife died in 1890. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and is a master Mason.


R. H. DUGGAR, M. D., physician, living at Prairieville, Hale county, Ala., was born in Petersburg, Va., June 16, 1837. He is the son of Henry and Alice Goode (Vaughan) Duggar, both of whom were natives of Vir- ginia. Henry Duggar was a son of John Duggar, whose father, John D., came to this country from Wales, and settled in Brunswick county, Va., on land deeded to him by George the Second. Said deed was signed June 2, 1760-in the thirty-third year of his reign, by Francis Fauquier, Esqr. ( "our trusty and well beloved lieutenant governor and commander in chief of our said colony and dominion, at Williamsburgh"), under the seal of said colony, etc. This deed on parchment, well preserved, even to the signatures, is in the hands of Dr. Duggar. Mrs. Alice Goode Duggar, is related to the well known families of Virginia-Goodes, Watkins, and Vaughans. She and her husband were the parents of five sons and one daughter. They moved to Alabama in 1844, and settled in Marengo county. Henry Duggar was a merchant in Petersburg, Va., and came to Alabama to look after his planting interests, which pursuit he followed till his death, in 1853, then being sixty-six years old. Dr. Duggar was quite young when his parents moved to Alabama, however he came by land with his father, making the trip in four weeks, bringing with them carriage and horses, wagons, tents, servants, etc. His first scholastic training was from private tutors at home. At the age of fifteen years he was sent to Madison college, Pennsylvania. Before graduating, however, on the death of his father, he returned home and commenced the study of his chosen profes- sion, with Dr. J. D. Browder, and then for more than a year with his


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uncle, Dr. Luke White, a noted physician of Petersburg, Va. Entering the university of Pennsylvania, he was a special student under Drs. D. Hodges, Agnew and Penrose, and graduated in the class of 1857 and 1858. Returning home he practiced medicine for two years before the war. After hostilities commenced he was appointed, by Gov. Shorter, physi- cian in charge of the Alabama state salt works. This position he soon soon vacated. being appointed a member of the state medical examining board of the Confederate army, at the same time acting assistant surgeon of the hospital at Talladega, being stationed there, and was there with his wife at the time Gen. Croxton, of the northern army, made his raid. When hostilities ceased he returned home again, near Gallion, to practice medicine. He is a member of the Hale county Medical society, being at one time its president, and is a counsellor in the Alabama Medical association. In 1864, he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Louisa Minge, eldest daughter of David Minge, Esq., and related to the Adams and Harrison families of Virginia. To this marriage six sons have been born, all but one of whom are still living. Three sons are grown; the eldest, John F., has been assistant professor in agriculture in the Texas and also in South Carolina colleges, and was for some time editor of the Southern Live Stock Journal, of Mississippi, and is now in Washington city in the agricultural department. Reuben H. is merchan- dising; Benjamin Minge is assistant director in charge of the govern- ment experiment station, near Uniontown, Perry county, Ala. I. F. and B. M., graduated at the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical college with distinguished honor, under that noted disciplinarian. Gen. Stephen D. Lee. Waverley Goode, the fourth son, is now at Auburn, Alabama's Polytechnic school. Llewellyn Ludwick is at the Agricultural and Mechanical college of Mississippi. Dr. Duggar has always been much interested in agriculture, fine stock, and experimenting in horticulture, etc., and has endeavored to give his children an education fitting them for business pursuits. He has but one brother living, W. W. Duggar, of Demopolis, Ala. By appointment of Gov. Thomas Goode Jones, he has been recently made a trustee of the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical college at Auburn. He has always been a democrat in politics, and is a master Mason. He and his family are members of the Protestant Epis- copal church.


HENRY DUGGER was a native of Virginia, and removed from Peters- burg, that state, to Gallion, Ala., about 1840, locating on a large planta- tion. Previous to coming to Alabama he was a merchant, but after com- ing to Alabama he followed farming. He was married twice, his first wife being a Miss Stark, of a highly respectable family of Virginia. She bore him two children, a daughter and a son, the former dying in infancy. The son was named Henry B. Dugger. The mother died in Virginia, and the father married for his second wife a Miss Vaughan, who bore him six sons and one daughter. Mr. Dugger removed his family to


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Alabama, as has been stated, about 1840, and died in 1852 or 1853 upon returning from a visit to his friends in Virginia. His widow still lives in Gallion. Henry B. Dugger was born in Petersburg, Va., in 1827, and enlisted in Virginia for the Mexican war. He served through that war, and his widow now receives a pension for his services. He was one of the crew of a vessel belonging to the United States navy that visited Africa under Commodore Skinner, an uncle of his, just before the late Civil war. He returned to the parental home in Alabama after the Mexi- can war, and married Miss Sarah W. Williams, a native of North Carolina, brought to Alabama by her parents at an early day. She was of a highly respectable South Carolina family. Her marriage to Mr. Dugger occurred in 1853, and they soon after located in Greensboro, where he began keeping the Greensboro hotel. The Civil war coming on, he enlisted as a private soldier and fought gallantly through that, as he had done through the Mexican war. At the close of the latter war he returned to Greensboro and again took charge of the hotel, which his wife had kept during his absence in the army. In 1966 he was shot and killed in front of his hotel in a personal encounter. His widow still sur- vives, and resides in Greensboro. His son, Greene W. Dugger, is now the proprietor of the Greensboro hotel, succeeding his father in its man- agement. He was born in Greensboro May 21, 1858. He received a fair education at the Southern university, leaving school at the age of seven- teen and going on a farm in Hale county, which he managed from 1875 to 1887. In the spring of 1888 he took charge of the hotel, which he still manages. In politics he is a democrat, yet he has never sought office. In 1885 he married Miss Florence R. Anderson, of Hale county, by whom he has two sons and one daughter. Mrs. Dugger is a daughter of Thomas I. Anderson, now one of the oldest citizens of Hale county, for- merly one of the most extensive and wealthy planters in the county. The mother of Mr. Dugger is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, and is a most exemplary christian woman.


H. H. EVANS & Co., proprietors of the Greensboro cotton warehouse and also of the gin and grist mill at Greensboro, and dealers in hay, corn, coal, etc., are one of the representative business firms in Greensboro. A. C. Evans, the senior member of the firm, was born in Marion, Miss., July 26, 1853, and H. H. Evans, his brother and the younger member of the firm, was born in the same place, June 22, 1865. Their parents were William P. and Laura (Rainey) Evans, the former of whom was born in New York, and was a son of Charles Evans, a native of Wales. Will- iam P. Evans was educated in New York and removed to Mississippi, when he was a young man. At first he clerked in the drug store of his brother, then doing business at Marion, Miss., and while clerking there read law. In 1852 he married Miss Laura Rainey, who was born in Georgia. Her mother was an Oliver, and she bore her husband seven children, of whom four still survive. The father practiced law at Mar-


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ion, then at Meridian, and later moved to Kemper county, Miss., where he died in 1888. His wife died about 1877. A. C. Evans was reared in Mississippi, and received his early education in the common schools. In 1872 he removed to Sumter county, Ala., and entered the employ of the Alabama Central Railway company. In December, 1873, he was sent to Ma- rion Junction, where he was agent for the Alabama Central and the Selma, Marion & Memphis railroad, to July, 1879. He then removed to Greens- boro, where he continued to serve the companies as agent until 1891, when he resigned in order to devote his attention exclusively to his business. His brother became associated with him in 1882. He was married in January, 1885, to Miss Alice Waller, who died, leaving two children. Mr. Evans married in April, 1891, Miss E. H. Benners, by whom he has once child. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, is a master Mason and a Knight of Pythias. H. H. Evans was, like his brother, reared in Mississippi, and received a commercial education at Atlanta, Ga., and became associated with his brother in business in April, 1881. Theirs is one of the leading mercantile houses in Greens- boro.


HON. NORFLEET HARRIS, state senator from Hale county, was born in Hale, then Marengo, county. December 5, 1848. His father, Richard Norfleet Harris, was a native of North Carolina, and of English descent. He was the eldest of several children, and when a young man he brought his widowed mother and her other children to Alabama, and settled in north Alabama. There he married Miss Amanda Banks, a native of Tennessee. Her people were Virginians, and settled at an early day in Tennessee. They were laterally related to George Washington. Rich- ard Norfleet Harris was the father of four sons and two daughters. Hon. Norfleet Harris was reared in Tuscaloosa, to which city his parents moved . when he was but an infant. He was educated at the university of Ala- bama, remaining there about two years. This was during the war, and he left that institution on account of its buildings being burned down by the Federal soldiers. In 1868 he commenced the study of law at the university of Virginia under Prof. Minor, and there received the degree of LL. B., in the summer of 1869. He was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1868, before entering college. He had studied law pre- viously under Judge H. M. Summerville, his brother-in-law. After


graduating in law he went to St. Louis, Mo., where he practiced for a short time. In 1871 he married Miss Bettie Blocker of Greene county, Ala. At her request he remained in the south and located at Tuscaloosa, where he practiced about one year, and losing his wife in 1873, he gave up the practice of law and retired to a country home near Tuscaloosa. In 1878 he removed to his plantation in Hale county, at Laneville, where he has since resided. He at length drifted into politics, and was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1882, from Hale county, and served one terni. In 1890 he was elected to the senate from Hale


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