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 48

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 48


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S. H. DENT is a descendant of an old English family of the same name, whose loyalty to the cause of the Stuarts brought down upon them the


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displeasure of Cromwell. The result was the emigration of two brothers. of the family to America, where they settled in what is now Maryland, between the Potomac and Patuxent rivers, Va. Upon the restoration of the Stuarts, they received a large grant of land in Charles county, Md., in the vicinity of which the family have continued to reside, taking an honorable part in the upbuilding of the free institutions of our country. Capt. S. H. Dent is the son of Dr. S. W. and Mary C. Dent. He was born in Charles county, Md., on the 30th of October, in 1835. His father was a prominent physician of that county and held for many years the responsible position of judge of the orphans' court. He was a man of decided opinions on questions of government, and suffered much during the Civil war on account of the vigor with which he supported the cause of the south. He was outspoken and fearless, though his home was within the union lines. After securing a fair education, the captain began life in that "stepping stone to future greatness," the school room. After two years' swaying of the ferule in his native state, he came to Eufaula, where for a year he engaged in the same profession. The following year, 1856, found him a student in the law office of Pugh & Bullock, the present. junior senator of the state being the senior member of the firm. He was admitted to practice after three months' study and he immediately formed a partnership with that distinguished lawyer, Judge John Cochran. This firm continued but a little more than a year, when Mr. Dent practiced alone until the breaking out of the war between the states. The principles instilled into the mind of the son by the father caused his early adherence to the fortunes of the confederacy, and in February of 1861 we find him a first lieutenant in the Eufaula Rifles, afterward a part of the Eigteenth Alabama regiment. The first ten months of service he passed at Pensa- cola, during which time he participated in the bombardment in November, 1861, and January, 1862. Not enjoying the inactive life at that point he assisted in the organization of an artillery company, of which he was elected first lieutenant, enlisted for "three years or the war," and joined the western army. In the battle of Shiloh he received a slight wound, but he did not leave the field, and on the evening of the second day was ordered to report to Gen. Breckenridge as a part of the rear guard of Bragg's army. He was with his command in the siege of Corinth, and his battery was particularly distinguished in the fight at. Farmington, in May, 1862. He was with his command in the retreat from Corinth, and on the march into Kentucky. On the day of the battle of Perryville, his command was engaged in a skirmish with Gen. Sill's division of the United States troops, and therefore did not participate in that battle. He was not present at the battle of Murfreesboro, being absent on furlough. He was made captain of his battery in 1863 and par- ticipated in the battle of Chickamauga. He and his command were speci- ally mentioned for faithful service and gallantry in that battle. In the battle of Mission Ridge his command suffered very severely. They lost,


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nearly all their guns and a large part of the command itself. His battery was re-equipped at Dalton and participated in the constant, and, in fact, almost daily, fighting from that point thence to Atlanta. Capt. Dent was severely wounded in the battle of July 22, 1863. near Atlanta. He was in the battle of Jonesborough and went with Hood in his march into Tennessee. He was in a skirmish at Shoal Creek and was in the battle of Franklin and the battles around Nashville. In the battle of December 16, 1864, near Nashville, he was again wounded but not severely. When he came out of Tennessee he was sent with his command to Mobile and was surrended at Meridian. Miss., under Gen. Richard Taylor. Capt. Dent's battery was well known in the army of Tennessee and wherever hard service and stubborn fighting were neces- sary his command was always called on. He and his command were al-


ways commended for faithful service, and in many instances were specially commended for conspicuous gallantry. It was chaos come again after the war. Capt. Dent returned home, and there being no courts for a year he was engaged in operating a dray line, at first actually driving a dray himself. But in 1866 he resumed the practice of his profession, doing a lucrative and extensive business until his re- tirement in 1879 to accept his present responsible position as president of the Eufaula National bank. As a lawyer Capt. Dent established an enviable reputation in the general practice, and nothing but his firm determination not to engage in the work has kept his friends from plac- ing him in the judicial chair of the circuit. Capt. Dent has always evinced the liveliest interest in public affairs, though it has thus far been manifested in a good-natured turning of the grindstone for his friends. He has been frequently importuned to accept public honors, but he has been contented to play an humble part. His superior qualifications as a presiding officer have given him a reputation in his party second to none. As chairman of the county convention of 1892, when a false move would have precipitated a bolt, his cool and firm demeanor prevented it. In its report of the convention the Eufaula Times says: "Almost any chairman in the world would have provoked and assisted a bolt, but Capt. Dent's wise and temperate words, delivered in a low tone with much feeling, quieted the waters as if by magic." Capt. Dent was made temporary chairman of the democratic state convention of 1892 and is at present a member of the state executive committee. He' is a master Mason and a life long member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, in which he has been a steward for thirty-five years. He has twice filled the highest position to which a layman can attain, that of delegate to the general conference of his church. There he was always conspicuous for his practical good sense and prudent counsels. In the last general con- ference, that of 1890, he was chairman of one of the most important committees of the conference. Capt. Dent was prominent in the politics of his own county during the period of reconstruction, and was, at the


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earnest call of his people, a candidate for the legislature in 1872. The election was close, and on account of irregularities at some of the boxes he was given a certificate of election. This was the memorable campaign which resulted in a dual legislature. In the compromise which followed the seats from Barbour were given to, the republicans. But the result of the election in 1872 gave such confidence to the party in Barbour that the radicals were routed in 1874, and the entire state was redeemed. After 1876, Capt. Dent, seeing his state in the hands of its people, took no active part in politics until 1890. He went into that campaign very heartily. and helped to carry his county for organized democracy. Capt. Dent was most happily married June 5th, 1860, to Miss Annie B. Young, the eldest daughter of the late E. B. Young of Eufaula, Ala. Six children are the fruit of their marriage, three boys and three girls. His eldest son, Edward Y. Dent, is assistant cashier and teller of the Eufaula National bank. His second son, S. H. Dent, Jr., is a promising young attorney, and his third son, Henry A., is taking a course in civil engineer- ing. His eldest daughter, Nannie B. Dent, married Jackson E. Long. Their married life was brief and his widowed daughter, with her three children, form a part of Capt. Dent's household. His second daughter, Louise, is just budding into womanhood, and his third daughter, a young girl just entering her teens, is still at school. Capt. Dent is president of the Eufaula National bank-a bank which, although not one of the largest, is second to none as to credit and standing in the state. Capt .. Dent is a fine specimen of southern manhood. He occupies one of the loveliest and most substantial homes in Eufaula, where he and his wife, assisted by his children, dispense a generous hospitality, typical of what is sometimes called the hospitality of the old south. Few men possess more completely the confidence, and esteem of his neighbors and fellow- countrymen than Capt. Dent.


J. W. DREWRY, M. D .- The subject of this sketch, the oldest prac- ticing physician in Eufaula, and one of the best known medical men of southern Alabama, was born in Hancock county, Ga., on the 27th day of September, 1827. After receiving a liberal education, he began his pro- fessional studies in 1847 under the able management and instruction of Dr. White, of Milledgeville, with whom he remained one year, and then entered the Medical college of Philadelphia, Penn., from which he grad- uated in the class of 1849. He remained in Philadelphia for some time after receiving his degree, and in the fall of 1850 opened an office at. Americus, Ga., where he practiced one year, thence moved to Barbour county, Ala., locating at Spring Hill, where on account of failing health he abandoned the profession for a time, and engaged in the more conge- nial pursuit of agriculture. Subsequently he resumed the practice in con- nection with planting and resided at Spring Hill until 1866, at which time, seeking a wider field for the exercise of his professional ability, he removed to Eufaula, where, with the exception of a brief period of serv-


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ice in the hospital at Atlanta during the war, he has since practiced his profession with a success which has placed him in the front rank of medi- cal men in his part of the state. All the qualities that go toward mak- ing up the popular and successful physician are well defined elements of his character, and during his long period of residence in Barbour county his reputation has continued to grow in public favor, and although at an age when most professional men think of retiring from active life, he is still in active practice with a large and lucrative business. The doctor is a member of the Methodist church, as is also his wife, and stands high in Masonic circles, being a royal arch Mason. In 1851, in Jones county, Ga., he was united in marriage to Miss A. E. Ethridge, who has borne him five children: Stella, wife of J. G. Guice; John, cotton merchant at Dothen, married Anna McDonald of Cuthbert, Ga .; Carrie, wife of John P. Foy, banker of Eufaula; James A,, superintendent of Bluff City mills, Eufaula, married Mamie Harrison of Barbour county; and Lillie, wife of A. C. Mitchell of Eufaula. The name of the doctor's father was John Drewry, a native of Virginia, who, when a young man, moved to Hancock county, Ga., where he first followed the tailor's trade, and later engaged in plant- ing. After his marriage with Elizabeth Wallace, he moved to the county of Putnam, thence to Hancock county, and finally to Alabama in 1857, settling in Barbour county, where he died in 1857; his wife survived him several years, dying in 1872. John Drewry was a very successful farmer, and everything to which he turned his hand appeared to prosper. He was a descendant of an old and highly honorable Virginian family which came came to America in colonial times, and settled near the point which is still known by the name of Drewry Bluff, a place of historic interest in the Old Dominion.


S. J. FLOURNOY, member of the well known business firm of Flournoy & Godwin, Eufaula, Ala., is a native of Putnam county, Ga., and son of Josiah and Martha (Rosser) Flournoy. Josiah Flournoy, a planter by occupation, was born in Georgia in 1819, and after his marriage came to Alabama, settling in Barbour county, on the river, about four miles above the city of Eufaula, in the year 1838. He died on the home place July 27, 1840, and his widow afterward returned to Georgia and married S. A. Wales; she died in Muscogee county, that state, in the year 1850. S. J. Flournoy was born on the 17th day of September, 1840. He was left an orphan at the age of ten years, and from that time until his eighteenth year lived with different relatives and attended school. When eighteen years of age he took possession of his father's plantation, which he obtained by inheritance, and from 1858 until the breaking out of the great Civil war was actively engaged in cultivating the soil. Feb- ruary, 1862, he joined the Eufaula light artillery and served with the same, first in the army of Gen. Bragg, and later went with Johnson and Hood, and took part in all the great battles in which the armies of those leaders were engaged. Among the battles in which he participated, were


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Chickamauga, Murfreesboro, Mission Ridge and the fights around At- lanta. After the evacuation of Atlanta, he joined Hood's army at Colum- bus, Miss., and later was ordered to Meridian, Miss., where his battery surrendered at the close of the war in 1865. Mr. Flournoy's military experience of four years was somewhat remarkable in that he passed through the hottest period of the war, and participated in many of the bloodiest battles without receiving the slightest injury, and, with the exception of a brief furlough, never missed a day active duty. From the close of the war until 1874, Mr. Flournoy was engaged in farming the home plantation, but in the latter year removed to Eufaula where, until 1892. he followed various vocations, at one time serving as assistant postmaster of the city during the administration of President Cleveland. In 1892, in partnership with John D. Godwin, he engaged in the gro- cery trade, under the firm name of Flournoy & Godwin, and he is now one of the representative business men of the city. Mr. Flournoy was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Toney, daughter of Washington Toney, in 1861. Mrs. Flournoy died September, 1864, the mother of two children, Josiah (deceased) and Washington. In November, 1866, Mr. Flournoy was married to Eliza J. Toney, a sister of his former wife, and by her is the father of three children, namely: Sarah, wife of Thomas Irby; Josiah, died in infancy, and Rosser, wife of Saffold John- ston. The Toneys are an old and highly respected family of Alabama and have always moved in the very best social circles of Barbour county. Mr. and Mrs. Flournoy are members of the Episcopal church.


HON. JOHN ARTHUR FOSTER, LL. D., is one of the distinguished jur- ists of southern Alabama and a lawyer of state reputaion. Tracing his lineage back through several generations, it is learned that the paternal ancestor of the family in this country was one John Foster, who came to America from London, Eng., in the time of the colonies and settled in Southampton, Va., where a son, Arthur, remained; but another son, John, subsequently located at Halifax, the same state. Arthur Foster served with distinciton in the war of the Revolution, with the rank of colonel, and throughout that long and trying struggle shared the for- tunes and vicissitudes of his gallant regiment on many fields of victory and defeat. John Foster, also an officer in the patriot army, removed to Georgia at the close of the war and there married and reared a large family. He became a prominent politician and for a number of years served in the state senate, where his abilities as a legislator won for him a reputation, state wide. His son, Arthur, who succeeded him in the senate, became a lawyer of prominence and published, in 1821, a digest of the laws of Georgia. Between the years 1818 and 1821, the entire Foster family except J. L. S. Foster moved to Alabama, and settled in Tuscaloosa county, where a number of the descendants still reside, being among the prominent citizens of that part of the state. John L. S. Foster, the judge's father, was the youngest of a family of six brothers.


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At the age of nineteen he removed to Jasper county, Ga., where, in 1821, he was united in marriage to Susan Holifield, and where, on the 11th day of November, 1828, Judge John A. Foster first saw the light of day. In 1833, he and family moved to Tuscaloosa county, and the judge recalls distinctly many of the incidents of the trip and remembers having seen Indians in their native costume, although but a child of four years at the time. The judge's father became a prominent merchant and manufacturer, and during the late war between the states he was engaged in manufacturing hats for the army of the Confederacy. For some time he carried on a large mercantile business in the city of Tuscaloosa, and before the war was classed with the wealthy men of Alabama, but, like many others, lost his earthly possessions, which vanished like mist dur- ing the hostilities. He died in Tuscaloosa in 1875, and ten years later his faithful wife was laid to rest at Starkville, Miss. Mr. and Mrs. Fos- ter were both born in the year 1800, and there was but a difference of two weeks in their ages. They became the parents of ten children, the eldest of whom, Elizabeth, married her cousin, who is not now living. Hardy Foster, the first son, died in 1863. The third member of the family is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and the fourth in order of birth is Martha, wife of Rev. Dr. T. P. Crawford, who, since 1852, has been located as a missionary in Tung Chow, China, by the Bap- tist church. Dr. and Mrs. Crawford have become noted in their mission- ary labors, and are widely known throughout the world in religious circles, especially in connection with the denomination to which they belong. David L. Foster, the third son, was professor of surgery in the university of Alabama at the time of his death in 1891. The names of other members of the family are as follows: Jesse G., deceased; Sarah, widow of Dr. Glen Montgomery of Lexington, Miss .; Susan, wife of William H. Pace, Marion, Ga .; Robert S., a practicing physician of War- der, Texas, and Ezra, a physician and surgeon of Brookwood, Ala. As already stated, Judge Foster was born in Jasper county, Ga., at the town of Monticello, and in 1833 was brought by his parents to Alabama. After a course of preparation under the able instruction of Rev. E. B. League, a scholarly and disitnguished Baptist minister, he entered the State university in 1844, and after his graduation, in 1847, began the study of law at Eutaw in the office of Hon. Harry I. Thornton, at that time a member of the supreme court of Alabama. In January, 1849, he engaged in educational work at Crawford, Miss., and after teaching there till 1852, accepted a similar position at the city of Columbus, in the same state, where he had charge of the school until his election as president of the Southern Female college, at La Grange, Ga., in 1855. He con- tinued in charge of the last named institution until 1859, in which year he changed his residence to Clayton, Ala., where he was admitted to the bar in January of that year and where he has since made his home. Shortly after engaging in the practice, Judge Foster effected a co-part-


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nership in the law with Jere N. Williams, Esq., under the firm name of Williams & Foster, and their legal business was large and lucrative, until interfered with by the war. In 1860, Judge Foster was elected justice of the peace, at that time a very important and responsible position, and in August, 1861, he relinquished official and professional life and tendered his serv- ices to the Confederacy, enlisting in company G, Twenty-ninth infantry, of which he was in a short time promoted to be first-lieutenant. Sub- sequently he became captain of the company, 'and as such served until the close of the war in the southwestern army corps .. The Twenty-ninth was first ordered to Pensacola, Fla., where it remained until after the evacuation of that city, and for some time thereafter was stationed at. Pollard, thence sent to Mobile, where it was drilled [for heavy artillery service, and put in charge of the redoubts. After remaining at Mobile until 1864, the judge's command was attached first to Cauly's and then to Shelly's brigade, and ordered to Resaca, Ga., and arrived there in time to take part in the bloody Atlanta campaign, and the leading battles incident thereto. The judge received a painful wound in the left arm at Resaca, but refused to leave the ranks, and when Hood made his raid back through Tennessee, the Twenty-ninth formed part of his force and par- ticipated in the bloody battles of Franklin and Nashville, in the latter of which Judge Foster had command of his regiment. In this battle, on the 15th of December, 1864, Judge Foster, with his entire regiment, fell into the hands of the enemy, and from that time until his parole, the fol- lowing June, he remained a prisoner of war on Johnson's island. Retiring from the army, and returning home, Mr. Foster found himself in reduced financial circumstances. and there being no demand for legal services in a town and county from which all courts had disappeared, he collected a class of young men and for some time instructed them in the higher branches of learning. It is a notable fact that quite a number of these young men subsequently distinguished themselves in their various voca- tions, and are now prominent and useful citizens of the state. In 1866, the judge resumed the practice of his profession at Clayton, and the following year was appointed register in chancery. In 1875 he was ap- pointed a delegate to the state constitutional convention, and in 1876 became a trustee of the university of Alabama, which position he held for a period of sixteen years. In 1878, Judge Foster was elected to rep- resent Barbour county in the state legislature, and two years later was elected chancellor of the southern chancery division of Alabama, to which position he was re-elected in 1886, and again in 1892. The judge was married in December, 1849, to Mary J. Webb, who died in 1857, the mother of three children, two living, namely: John Webb, a lawyer of Abbeville, Ala., and Emma, wife of John E. Toole. Esq., of La Grange, Ga. Judge Foster married his present wife, Mary Borders, in La Grange, Ga., on the 11th day of May, 1858, and by her is the father of three children, whose names are as follows: Mary, wife of Dr. Will-


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iam H. Robinson, Pearl and Arthur B., a graduate of the university and practicing lawyer at the town of Troy. Politically, Judge Foster has always been an earnest supporter of the democratic party, and although honored at different times by his fellow-citizens, he has never been a par- tisan in the sense of seeking official preferment. A faithful devotion to the practice of his chosen profession and his eminent success, both as judge and jurist, have amply demonstrated his wisdom and foresight in this direction, and a large and lucrative legal business has been the re - ward of his strict consecration to his life work. In 1883, the degree of L.L. D., was conferred on him by the Agricultural and Mechanical col- lege of Alabama, an honor which he fully appreciates. Since 1842, the judge has been a communicant of the Baptist church; he stands high in Masonry, having taken a number of degrees, including that of Knight, Templar.


TANDY R. FREEMAN .- Prominent among the prosperous planters of Barbour county, is the gentleman for whom this sketch is prepared. Mr. Freeman's father, also Tandy R. Freeman by name, was a native of Marion district, S. C., born about the year 1800. He was bred a farmer, and in early life went to Florida, where for about twenty years he served as,overseer of a large plantation owned by Col. Fitzgerald. He was married in that state in 1828 to Anna E. Sweot, and afterward purchased a plantation below Columbus, Ga., upon which he passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1844. He became quite successful in business affairs and at the time of his death was in possession of a comfortable fortune. Mrs. Freeman was born and raised in Quincy, Fla .. and was the daughter of Rev. Gospero Sweet, a well known Methodist minister, who lived to the remarkable age of 102 years, retaining almost unimpaired his facul- ties, physical and mental, until the last, and preaching a sermon but a few days before he died. Eight children were born to Tandy R. and Annie E. Freeman, but one of whom, Tandy R., whose name appears at the begin- ning of this sketch, is living. Tandy R. Freeman, Jr., was born on the 12th of August, 1842, in Muscogee county, Ga .. In 1849, he accompanied his mother to Barbour county, Ala., and in 1858 entered Emory & Henry college, W. Va., where he pursued his studies until the excitement caused by the fall of Fort Sumter broke up the institution. Returning home, he enlisted in Baker's company, First Alabama regiment, and received his first actual war experience at Pensacola, during the bombardment of that city by the Federal fleet. At the expiration of his time of enlistemnt, Mr. Freeman re-entered the service as member of the Eufaula light artillery and served as gunner till the close of the war, participating in the battles of Murfreesboro, Mission Ridge, Chickamauga, the Atlanta campaign, Hood's raid, Franklin and Nashville, and was then ordered to Mobile, where he remained until the evacuation of that city by the south- ern force. When the war cloud passed away, Mr. Freeman returned home, and has since followed agricultural pursuits in Barbour county.




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