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 43
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
40,000 to 50,000 feet per day, and employing from 100 to 125 operatives, whose pay-roll reaches $3.000 per month. He has 12,000 acres of timber land. nine miles of steel railroad track, and a general store; he also owns two mills in Elmore county and one in Crenshaw county, all doing a good business; beside these, he is proprietor of the Woodwork and Manufacturing company of Montgomery, and is in every respect a thor- oughgoing and successful business man, esteemed by all with whom he comes in contact. He is pronounced and prominent in his politics as a democrat, and is chairman of the democratic county executive commit- tee, and of the congressional committee, but yet is not an aspirant for official honors. May 9, 1866, Mr. Wadsworth was united in the bonds of matrimony with Miss Idella P., daughter of Burkett Thompson, who was an early settler of this country, and who died in Autauga county, of which his father was one of the first settlers, and which is also the birthplace of his daughter. The union of Mr. Wadsworth and Miss Thompson has been blessed by the birth of five children, viz: William M., who was educated at the state university and at Pougheepsie, N. Y .; Frances E., wife of Dr. S. W. Jackson; Sallie M., who died in infancy; Mary Idella and Edward, all of whom Mr. Wadsworth has spared, or is sparing, no pains nor expense to prepare for the social and business worlds.
DR. JOHN E. WILKINSON, the well known physician and druggist of Prattville and an elder brother of Judge William F. Wilkinson, was born near Autaugaville, Ala., in 1847, and was reared on the home farm and attended school at Autaugaville until sixteen years of age, when he joined company A, Eighth Alabama cavalry, of Gen. Clanton's brigade and was engaged mostly in scouting throughout Alabama and on the coast, and surrendered about six months after the surrender of his general at Merid- ian, Miss. After the war had closed he resumed his studies, and after being duly prepared, read medicine with Drs. Davis & McNeel, at Autau- gaville and then took a course of lectures at the university of Maryland, at Baltimore, and finally graduated from the university of Louisiana, now known as the Tulane university. at New Orleans, 1869. He then prac- ticed twelve years at Gastonburg, Wilcox county, Ala., and since then at Prattville, Autauga county, where he has also conducted a first-class drug store. He is one of the counselors of the State Medical association, and was last year president of the county Medical society. He is a mem- ber of Prattville lodge, No. 87, F. & A. M., of K. of H. lodge, No. 2,828, and of Merrill Pratt lodge, K. of P. The marriage of the doctor took place January 10, 1872, to Miss Eugenia, daughter of Hon. David F. and Mary Gaston, both natives of Wilcox county, Mrs. Gaston being now deceased. Mrs. Wilkinson is also a native of Wilcox county, which county her father represented in the state legislature for several years. They have four children, David L., Lena A., John E., and Genia. David L. has just finished a four years' course in the Southern university of Ala-
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-AUTAUGA COUNTY.
bama at Greensboro. He is now at Tulane university (medical depart- ment) of Louisiana, and expects to make a physician. Lena A. has recently graduated at the Alabama Female college. She has just returned from the Conservatory of Music and Art at Boston. John E., Jr., is now in the academy at Prattville. Genia, age eight. Dr. Wilkinson is not only a skillful and popular physician, but a practical buisness man, and stands very high in the esteem of his fellow-citizens. His genealogy, which is of the brighest respectability, will be found in the sketch of his brother, Judge William F. Wilkinson, and it is, therefore, not necessary to repeat it here.
JUDGE WILLIAM F. WILKINSON, of Prattville, was born in Autauga county, Ala., in October, 1849. His father, Joseph B. Wilkinson, was a native of Blount county, Tenn., born in 1813, and came to Autauga when a youth. Here he married Miss Elizabeth A. Nicholson, a native of the county, born in 1820. He began life a poor man, but was a skillful farmer and merchant, and became quite well to do. He was a great. reader and became one of the best informed men in the county. He served as county' commissioner a number of years, and was active in politics and public affairs generally; was a Mason of high standing, a member of the Methodist church, and was Sunday-school superintendent at the time of his death, which occurred in 1889. Mrs. Wilkinson is now, in all probability, the oldest native-born inhabitant of the county. She was married, first to a Mr. Taylor, by whom she had one daughter, now Mrs. E. A. Hall; to her second husband, Mr. Wilkinson, she bore eight children, viz .: James L., who, when a student at the age of seventeen, June 2, 1861, enlisted in company M, Sixth Alabama infantry, and later in company G. April 28, 1862, he was promoted to be sergeant, and December 1, 1862, was commissioned lieutenant. He took part in all the chief engagements in the Virginia campaign, except that of Sharpsburg, when he was ill, and met his death at Spottsylvania, May 12, 1864. The second child, Dr. J. E., is a physician and druggist at Prattville; the third is Judge W. F., who graduated from Emory and Henry college, Va. Joseph A. is now a merchant at Selma; Asbury T. is a merchant and farmer of Wilcox county, Ala .; Mrs. L. A. Steele is deceased; Mattie is the wife of F. J. McNeil, of Autaugaville; Edgar A. died young. Judge William F. was reared on a farm, received his early schooling at Autaugaville, and in 1871 graduated from Emory and Henry college, after which he taught school for six years, and then for four years edited and published Shelby Guide, of Shelby county. He then returned to Prattville and fouuded the Southern Signal, which he edited until 1886, when he was elected probate judge and re-elected in 1892. He had performed other public service, however, having been appointed circuit clerk in 1879, and elected to the same office in 1880, being incum- bent at the time of his election to the probate judgeship in 1886. The first marriage of the judge took place in 1880, to Miss Ida McConaughy,
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
a native of Shelby county, who died in 1882, leaving one daughter. The second marriage of the judge was in 1888, to Miss Eva L., daughter of Dr. E. L. and Mrs. Mollie Lovelace, both natives of southeast Alabama, and now residing in Troy. Dr. Lovelace is regarded as one of the most gifted Methodist divines in the state. Mrs. Eva Wilkinson was born in La Fayette, Ala., and was educated at Selma, and Mobile, finishing her education at the latter place while her father had his charge there. She has one son, William Everett. Judge Wilkinson is a member of K. of H., No. 2828, is past dictator, and has been a representative to the grand lodge. He has always been active in politics, and is worthy of any office to which his party can elevate him. A democrat, he has for some years been a member of the state executive committee, chairman of the congressional executive committee, and has been chairman of various congressional conventions; he attends nearly all the state and district conventions, and was a district delegate to the Chicago convention of of 1884, that nominated Grover Cleveland for the presidency of the United States, and is regarded as a safe counselor, and man of cool and excellent judgment on nearly all questions. But few men enjoy the con- fidence of those who know him more than he.
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BALDWIN COUNTY.
EDWIN BALDWIN, merchant and lumberman of Baldwin county, was born March 18, 1848, and is a son of Henry C. and Sarah M. (Hartley) Baldwin. Henry C. was born in North Carolina in 1822 and there grew to manhood, attending school at such times as his services could be spared from the farm. He came to Alabama when a youth in company with his brothers. He entered a grocery in the capacity of clerk and further improved his education by attending a night school, and thus obtained for himself a reliable education. Early in life he developed an ability to do business for himself, and soon secured a position on one of the Tombigbee steamers, quickly rose to the position of pilot, and fol- lowed the occupation for many years on the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. Nor did he confine his operations to rivers alone, but acquainted himself with the coast and general lay of Mobile bay and the gulf of Mexico. He was elected colonel of a regiment in 1862, but resigned his commission to take charge of government steamboats during the war, after which he resumed his former occupation. Being a man of broad intelligence and extensive acquaintance, he became captain of several boats, later owned a line of lighters and passenger boats, and eventually amassed a fortune. In 1875 he built the Hotel Grand, a noted summer and winter resort, located at Point Clear, at a cost of $75,000, and under his direction it was operated successfully for two years. When his death occurred in 1878, he was regarded as the best steamboat and deep water navigator in
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Mobile. He was the builder of the first set of ways and docks in that city, and did much toward the upbuilding of its commercial interests. He avoided litigation and was never known to have anything in the way of law suits. He was a good business man and politically was a demo- crat. Mrs. Susan M. Baldwin was born in Mobile county, in 1832, and there grew to womanhood, much care being bestowed upon her early education. She was married in her sixteenth year and became the mother of nine children, six of whom now survive-three girls and three boys. Early in life she united with the Methodist Episcopal church and lived a consistent life till her death, which occurred in 1862, in her thirtieth year. In 1865 Capt. Baldwin married Miss Anna Wilson, of Wilcox county. She still survives, is the widow of Frederick Swain, and resides in Louisiana. Capt. Edwin Baldwin grew up in Mobile and spent his early life in school. In 1863 he left Spring Hill college and' joined a military company then being formed for actual service in the then existing war. In this company he served a year, then was transferred to the Forty-sixth in- fantry, in which he served until peace was restored. He then attended school till 1866, in which year he went on board an Alabama river steamer, as clerk, following this occupation with efficiency till the follow- ing year, when he was appointed boarding officer of the port of New Orleans, and served as such till removed by Federal authority in recon- struction days. He then became clerk of the steamer Sarah, which plied between New Orleans and Mobile, and later entered a wholesale house as clerk, and followed this occupation nearly three years; then went to Texas and entered a wholesale grocery house at Galveston. In 1870 he crossed the plains on the old Chisholm trail with 2,000 cattle, passing all through the great western ranges. The latter part of 1871 he returned to Galveston and went on the prairies as a cow boy and became conversant with all the phases of a ranchman's life, including stock dealing, mer- cantile pursuits on the Guadaloupe river, but finding the business not to his liking he returned, in 1873, to Mobile and went aboard the steamer "Annie," as captain and pilot, remaining in this occupation till 1875, when he came back to Mobile and established a steamboat supply house and grain business, and remained there till his father's death; he then took charge of the steamer "Annie," as master and owner, and followed this business till 1885, during which time he had become owner of a num- ber of crafts of all denominations and had extended his business to all parts of the gulf and river points; in 1885 he sold out his entire business and went to Monterey, Mexico, and engaged in the stock brokerage and commission business, following this occupation three years, during which time he did business at Valedino and Laredo, Mexico, learned the Mexi- can language, and in co-partnership with Mr. T. P. Hartley built up an extensive and lucrative business. In 1888 he returned to Mobile, after having sold out his Mexican interests to his partner. January 18, 1888, Mr. Baldwin was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Kapahn, daughter of
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
George Kapahn, one of Baldwin county's prosperous merchants and former partner of Charles F. Zundel. Mrs. Baldwin was born in Mobile, in 1865. She was married in her twenty-fourth year and is now mother of three interesting children: Alfred J., born November 24, 1888; George H., born December 8, 1889, and William, born in 1890. Mrs. Baldwin affili- ates with the Catholic church. Mr. Baldwin engaged in mercantile pur- suits in 1888 at Point Clear; then moved to his present beautiful home, located, in the west prong of Fish river, at the post office known as Marlow. He has a large and well assorted stock of general merchandise, valued at $6,000, and does a large cash business. Since his locating here he has built a nice residence and furnishes accommodations as a hotel for winter and summer visitors to the south; he has built a steam saw- mill, and deals extensively in lumber and juniper blocks. He has a grist mill, with gin attached to the saw-mill. and has the only gin adapted to the ginning of Sea Island cotton in Alabama. He owns some 3,000 acres of land, including fine tracts of virgin forests of pine timber. He has made successful experiments with and is now a producer of the famous Sea Island cotton. Mr. Baldwin owns a sixty-ton schooner, a naphtha launch, and a fleet of smaller boats on his premises; he also has a fine vein of pottery clay, operates three potteries and a brick yard; also owns and operates a ferry across the river at his store. He contemplates the erection of a cannery in the near future for the canning and preserving of all kinds of fruits and fish, which latter abound in the clear waters of Fish river. He is one of Baldwin county's most progressive men. He is ever ready to assist all enterprises for the advancement of Baldwin county, and takes pleasure in welcoming immigration to his fertile country.
EDWARD BRODBECK, merchant and fruit grower of Point Clear, Bald- win county, and junior partner in the firm of Charles F. Zundel & Co., was born in Baden, Germany, in 1853-the son of Christian and Barbara. (Derr) Brodbeck. The father was a butcher of considerable wealth, who came to America in 1873 with his family, landing at New Orleans, whence he moved directly to Point Clear, where he bade farewell to earth in 1891 at the ripe age of eighty-one years. His wife was also a native of Baden, was married in her nineteenth year, and became the mother of twelve children, of whom six still survive. Early in life she united with the Lutheran church, and faithfully lived according to its tenets, until her death in 1866, in her fifty-third year. Edward Brodbeck attended school in his native land until fourteen years of age, when he was ap- prenticed to a tailor. Shortly after his arrival at Point Clear he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Charles F. Zundel, for the purpose of trading and of fruit and vegetable growing, under the firm name of Charles F. Zundel & Co., who now carry a stock of goods valued at $3,000 to $5,000 and who do an average business of $10,000 to $15,000 per annum. The marriage of Mr. Brodbeck took place in 1875 to Miss Rosina Jenne,.
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daughter of Jacob M. Jenne. This lady was born in Baden in 1852, was married at the age of twenty-three, and has borne her husband four children, viz .: Edward C., born in 1976; Emil, born in 1878 and died in 1881; Arnold M., born in 1881: Carolina R., born in 1883. Mrs. Brodbeck and family are members of the Lutheran church, and the children have been highly educated. Messrs. Charles F. Zundel & Co. own in their own right between one and two thousand acres of land and a number of tenant houses; they own their large store buildings, with their residences ad- joining, and have their surrounding grounds laid out in convenient and picturesque fruit and vegetable plats. Mr. Brodbeck turns much of his attention to horticulture and has his gardens planted with all kinds of fruits and nuts, including the orange, of which he has a large number of all sizes; 200 pear trees, 75 pecan trees, and grapes of all varieties, as well as figs. He also raises Irish and sweet potatoes and (kehager) cabbage, and all garden vegetables for the early spring market. He is also a lumber and wood dealer, and has a schooner that transports all freights from Mobile and elsewhere to the wharf near the store. He farms on a small scale and has his land well fenced and enriched by proper culti- vation and fertilization. He is one of Baldwin county's stanch business men, is a democrat, and a member of the Lutheran church. He came to his present location with little or no means, and by careful and well- directed efforts has gradually built his business up from a small scale to its present proportions. Mr. Brodbeck raises his cabbage in the winter and harvests it in January; then raises a crop of Irish potatoes and two crops of hay off the same ground in one season. He is highly respected. CHARLES F. ZUNDEL, senior member of the firm of Zundel & Brodbeck, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1824, the son of Jacob and Kath- lene (Schieffelin) Zundel. Jacob Zuudel was principal of a public school in his native land for many years, was a member of a Protestant church, and died highly respected in 1855. Charles F. Zundel had good school advantages, of which he fully availed himself, and then, while still quite young, learned the baker's trade. At the age of twenty-eight years he sailed for America and landed at New Orleans, whence he went to Mobile where he worked at his trade until 1866, when he moved to Baldwin county and engaged in merchandising in partnership with George Kapahn. . They carried a large and varied stock and were so successful that they opened a branch store on the west prong of the Fish river, at what is now known as Marlow postoffice. The business being thus divided up, a dissolution of copartnership eventually resulted. Mr. Zundel then formed a copartnership with Mr. Brodbeck, with whom he has met with abundant success, as will be perceived by a perusal of Mr. Brodbeck's sketch. The marriage of Mr. Zundel was solemnized, in 1870, to Miss Anna M. Brodbeck, a sister of his partner in business. The lady was born in Baden, Germany, in 1842. She came to America with her par-
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
en'ts in 1869, and was married at the age of twenty-eight. She has blessed her husband with nine children, born in the following order: Charles F., Ludwig T., Otto E., Ferdinand C., Emil J., Wilhelmina G., Paulina L., Amelia and Cathalina. The family affiliates with the German Lutheran church, and are held in high respect by the community at large. In politics he is a democrat, and was an active participant in the late war, joining the forces of the section in which he had cast his lot.
AUSPHERA W. BRYANT, planter, was born in Baldwin county, August 20; 1827. He attended school till seventeen, then entered the employ of Mr. Edward Robinson, as clerk in a store of general merchandise. At the age of twenty years, he entered in business for himself. In 1858, he bought his first piece of land, consisting of forty acres, where his pres- ent pleasant home now stands and which he settled at that time and put on first-class improvements. He enlisted in the Confederate service in 1862 and was paroled in April. 1865. After the war he returned to his home and family and began the upbuilding of his shattered fortunes. He began the clearing of land and turned to farming, in which he has been successful and has accumulated much realty, adding to his original pur- chase of forty acres, till he now owns 1,900 acres, agricultural and tim- ber lands. Mr. Bryant was married in 1858 to Miss Virginia Steadham, daughter of Edward Steadham, who was a native of South Carolina and was one of Alabama's early pioneers. With his father and two brothers he settled in Baldwin county, near the boat yard, so called, and was one of the many settlers that sought safety in Fort Mims, and escaped the day of the downfall of the fort. With two musket balls in his thigh he returned to the Alabama river, and, with the assistnace of a pine log, swam the stream and thence to the Tombigbee river, and in like manner succeeded in crossing that stream and found his way to safety, and' lived to be one of the wealthy and representative men of the county. Mrs. Bryant was born in Baldwin county, near Montgomery Hill, September 26, 1838. was married in her twentieth year and is now the mother of eleven children, ten of whom still live, born in the following order: Emma, now the wife of John McDavid, whose biography appears elsewhere; Julia A., wife of I. R. Cox; Martha E., now the wife of John Richard- son; Maggie V., single; William E., married to Maggie Richerson; Ausphera W., now attending the dental school of Philadelphia; Percy A., attending college at Auburn; May H., George R., and Douglass O. William P. Bryant, father of A. W. Bryant, was born in North Carolina in Scotland Neck, in March of 1799, came to Alabama and settled near Fort Mims, and in a short time returned to North Carolina and brought his mother and sisters to this state. He was married in Baldwin county in 1825 to Miss Margaret Weekley. He then engaged in merchandising near old Fort Mims, where he continued in business till death, which occurred September 27, 1839. His wife was born near Montgomery Hill, Baldwin county, Ala., where she grew to womanhood. Her parents
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-BALDWIN COUNTY.
came from St. Augustine, Fla., and setled in Baldwin county near Mont- gomery Hill. She was married in her twentieth year and became the mother of three children, two of whom reached maturity and still sur- vive. In 1843 she was married to Edward Robinson, and lived a happy, consistent and exemplary life till her death, which occurred December 28, 1862.
FRANCIS EARLE, a retired agriculturist of Baldwin county, Ala., of which he is a native, was born in February, 1818, received a three years' course of schooling in one of the best institutions of learning in the state, and then took charge of his father's plantation and stock farm, spending much time in western Alabama, looking after the vast flocks of sheep and herds of cattle belonging to the estate. He lost his father in 1836, when the charge of the entire property, including the home- stead, devolved upon his young shoulders. His parents were Jones and Elizabeth (Tarvin) Earle, the former of whom was born in South Caro- lina in 1766, and in 1792, came to Alabama, settled in Baldwin county, near Fort Mims, and at once engaged in stock raising. He built a dwell- ing near where his son Francis now lives, married Miss Elizabeth Tar- vin, and led a life of quiet usefulness until February 12, 1813, when he was warned of a threatened outbreak among the Indians and advised to seek safety at the fort. He accordingly destroyed such of his household effects, that he knew would be either stolen or burned, and sought refuge in the fort seven miles away. That night his negro herdman reported that he had seen numerous squads of red men in the vicinity, but the report was discredited by the inmates of the fort, with the exception of Mr. Earle, who, with his wife and three children, stole away from the defenses and made his way to Blakely, sixty miles distant, and thence to Mottville. His caution and foresight proved of service, for the next day February 13, 1813, at 12 o'clock, noon, the fort was attacked by the savages and one of the bloodiest massacres recorded in the annals of Alabama was perpetrated. In a few days Mr. Earle returned to his plantation and stock range, proceeded at once to rebuild his home; cleared up more land and began planting on a large scale. When Gen. Jackson arrived in the ter- ritory he went into camp near Mr. Earle's plantation and received his needed supplies therefrom for a number of years. The death of Mr. Earle took place in 1836. He was a member of the Primitive Baptist church and a sincere christian. The old house built after the fall of Fort Mims is still standing in good condition. Mrs. Elizabeth Earle was a native of Baldwin county and a daughter of one of its earliest pioneers, John Tarvin. She was married in her nineteenth year and was the mother of nine children-six boys and three girls-of whom Francis, whose name heads this sketch, was the seventh in the order of birth. After his father's death, Francis continued the live stock business, be- came a large owner and dealer in negro property, and set free over 100 slaves at the close of the Civil war. Before the war he had lived like a
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