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 52
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Ala., where in 1842 he married Rebecca Sellers, daughter of Matthew Sel- lers. a native of North Carolina, who moved with his family to the county of Pike, early in the thirties and settled near the village of Troy. J. E. and Rebecca Parish are now living in the town of Clayton; they are the parents of eight children, namely: Calista A., wife of Joseph Graves; Elizabeth, wife of J. R. Simonton: M. H., J. E., Jr., Ida and Katy, wife of John T. Britt.
THOMAS PATTERSON, M. D .- Among the successful men and physicians of Barbour county, Dr. Patterson occupies no inconsiderable place. Paternally he is descended from Scotch-Irish ancestors, maternally from English, and in him are represented many of the characteristics of these three sturdy peoples. The doctor's grandfather, Robert M. Patterson, was a native of Georgia, from which state the family moved to Alabama about. the year 1816, settling in the county of Barbour. John W. Patterson, father of the doctor, was born in Burke county, Ga., in 1814, came to Barbour county when two years old, and later removed to Dale county, where his death occurred in 1891. He was married about the year 1840, near Skipperville, Dale county, to Susan Payne, who died in 1879, the mother of eleven children, the following of whom are living: Thomas, William, teacher in Geneva county, Ala .; Isaac, resident of Ozark; Susan, wife of Joseph Williams; Frances, wife of James C. Peasly; Joseph D., teacher in Dothen schools, Ala .; and Allen, who resides at Barnes Cross-
Roads, this state. Dr. Patterson was born August 25, 1841, in Dale county, in the schools of which he obtained a fair English education. In the fall of 1861 he entered the Confederate army as member of the First. Alabama cavalry, with which he served one and a half years and was then transferred to the artillery, continuing with the same until the close of the war. The battles in which the doctor took part were among the bloodiest of the war, including Perryville, Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chicka- mauga, siege of Knoxville, the Atlanta campaign, siege of Savannah, thence on the retreat through the Carolinas, during which his battery was frequently engaged in skirmishes with the enemy. Severing his connection with the army, at the close of the conflict, the doctor returned to Alabama, and in 1867 began his professional studies with Dr. D. A. Murdock, at Louisville, Barbour county, and in 1869 graduated from the Medical college of Atlanta. Fortified with a thorough knowledge of his chosen calling, the doctor on receiving his degree opened an office in Louisville, where his superior abilities as a physician and skill as a sur- geon soon brought him into prominent notice and won for him an exten- sive practice in Barbour county and adjacent counties. He has made com- mendable progress in his profession and keeps fully abreast of the times. by an intimate acquaintance with the writings of the eminent medical men of the age. The doctor has been twice married; first in January, 1867, to Phippiby J. Murdock, who died in July, 1877, leaving the follow -. ing sons: John D., William P., Thomas M., James E., and Robert B.
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The doctor married his present wife, Miss Christina Mckay, in Decem- ber, 1878, and she has borne him four children: Bertha C., Leila F., Una R., and Sue Mirvine. Dr. Patterson has a fine home in Louisville, in the best social circles of which city himself and family move. He is an elder in the Presbyterian church, belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and is a potent factor in local politics, voting with the democratic party.
HON. W. H. PRUETT .- The Pruetts are of Welsh descent and the pro- genitor of the American branch of the family came to this country with General Ogelthorpe's colony, in 1734, and settled at Savannah, Ga. The subject's grandfather. John Pruett, the son of a Revolutionary patriot, who lost his life while fighting for independence, immigrated to Ala bama in 1819, settling at the present site of Louisville, Barbour county. His son, James M. Pruett, with whom he subsequently served in the Indian war, was two years old when the faimly settled in Barbour county. James M. was married, about the year 1837, to Louisa Feagin, and lived at Louisville, until 1840, at which time he moved to what is now the county of Bullock, where his death occurred in 1878, at the age of sixty- three years. James M. and 'Louisa Pruett were the parents of six sons, and four daughters, namely: Martha, wife of James Turman; Mrs. Sarah Griffin, deceased; W. H .; John' E., lieutenant in company I, First Alabama volunteers, killed at Port Hudson, La., in 1863; Samuel T., farmer, residing near the old homestead, Bullock county; James W., also a resident of the county of Bullock; S. G., George W., Louisa, wife of E. H. Fitchpatrick, and O. J. W. H. Pruett was born at Midway, Ala., May 20, 1841. After receiving a com- mon school education, he entered the university of Virginia, but was not permitted to finish his course in that institution on account of the war, at the breaking out of which he returned home and assisted in the organization of a company in the Fifteenth Alabama regiment, of which he became orderly sergeant. Shortly after entering the service he resigned his commission, and, raising another company, of which he was elected captain, went with his regiment, the First Alabama, to Pen- sacola, Fla., where he was mustered into the service in February, 1862; thence to Island No. 10, where his entire companp afterward surrendered to the enemy. Shortly after capitulating Captain Pruett and 160 com- rades succeeding in effecting their escape under the following circum- stances. At the time of his capture, Capt. Pruett was with a detail of sixty men, about one mile distant from the place of surrender, and on his way thither, formed a daring plan of escape, which he made known to his comrades with the request that all who felt like joining in the movement should meet him at a certain place the night following their arrest at the Federal camp. It so happened that the Federal camp was reached the same evening; and shortly after dark the entire number who had been let into the secret met at the place designated and at once pro- ceeded to carry out their plan, their arms not yet having been taken
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by their captors. At the head of the company of 160 men, Capt. Pruett, under the cover of darkness, deliberately marched out of camp, but had not proceeded far, when he was halted by the interrogatory, "Who are you?" He at once replied: "The One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Illinois." "Where are you going?" "I am going out, to put a double line of guards around those rebel prisoners, who are trying to escape," was the reply, after which the wily captain and his brave followers were allowed to pro- ceed unmolested. They soon succeeded in putting a safe distance be tween themselves and the enemy, and making their way across Rutfoot lake and on to Memphis, reported to Gen. Bragg, who ordered them to Fort Pillow; thence, after its evacuation, they went to Vicksburg. Sub- sequently the little company went to Abbeville, and from there pro- ceeded to Corinth, in the battle of which they took part, and later at Port Hudson, La., rejoined the regiment, which in the meantime had been exchanged. At the fall of Port Hudson in July, 1863, the regiment again surrendered to the enemy, but, previous to that event, May 20th, the same year, Capt. Pruett was unfortunate in being captured a second time by the Yankees. Briefly stated, the circumstances of his second capture were as follows: At the head of his company, Capt. Pruett was ordered to keep the levees on the low land opposite Port Hudson lighted, so as to prevent the possibility of the enemy's gun-boats passing the batteries undetected. While thus engaged, the captain procured an old flat boat at the mouth of False river, about one mile above the point where his. men were stationed, and with several comrades was preparing the same for firing and cutting adrift in case the enemy's gun-boats attempted to run the blockade, when a squad of Federal cavalry unexpectedly put in an appearance and captured the entire party engaged in the work. Capt. Pruett was carried down the river and around the coast, and finally, with about 100 other officers, was put on board a vessel and started for the officers' prison at Fort Delaware. When on the coast of Virginia the prisoners overpowered the seventeen guards, and, turning the ship about, started back with the intention of effecting a landing at. some Confederate harbor, and making their way inward to the Confed- erate lines. In this they failed, but finally landed on the beach near Cape Henry light-house and after great privations and much suffering succeeded in reaching the Confederate lines at Murfreesboro, N. C., and. then proceeded on to the city of Richomnd. After a four months' fur- lough, Capt. Pruett and several other officers reorganized the members of their old regiment, all of whom in the meantime had been paroled, and formed a new regiment, of which the captain became the major. This regiment was ordered to Mobile, and after a period of service on the coast it joined Johnston's army in time to take part in the Atlanta, campaign, and was afterward with the forces of Hood in the Tennessee raid and the battle of Franklin. Maj. Pruett surrendered with the regi- ment in South Carolina in 1865, and, returning to Eufaula, engaged in
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the mercantile business, which he carried on with indifferent success until 1867. In the latter year he began farming and continued the same until 1876, at which time he again embarked in the goods business, open- ing a store at Fort Browder, which he conducted till 1880, paying con- siderable attention in the meantime, to agriculture. He suffered a severe loss by fire in 1880, after which he removed to Eufaula, where his busi- ness did not prove very prosperous; accordingly he disposed of his stock in 1884, and has since that date been engaged in plantng. In 1887, Mr. Pruett was elected to the office of justice of the peace, the duties of which he has since discharged. He was married in 1867 in Eufaula to Anne Browder, who died in 1880, leaving three children, namely: Brow- der, Willannie, and James G., Maj. Pruett's second marriage was consum- mated in 1881 with Annie Roberts, who bore him one child, Albert Rob- erts, and whose sad death occurred in January, 1890, after ten years of happy wedded life In his political affiliations, Mr. Pruett is a democrat; he belongs to the K. of P. order, is prominently connected with the F. & A. M., being a royal arch Mason, and was, for many years, master of the Blue lodge to which he belongs. In August, 1892, after a heated campaign, he was elected probate judge of Barbour county by an overwhelming majority, which position he now fills with credit to himself and county.
JAMES L. PUGH was born in Burke county, Ga., December 12, 1820. He received an academic education in Georgia and Alabama, to which latter state his father moved when young Pugh was four years of age. He was left an orphan at the age of eleven. Thrown on his own resources, he was entirely equal to the occasion. For awhile he carried the mail from Louisville, Barbour county, to Franklin, Henry county, on Saturdays and Sundays, in order to get money enough to pay his tuition at the school he was then attending. For four years he was a clerk in a dry goods store in Eufaula and for a short while he was a clerk in Montgom- ery. He was in the meantime preparing for the bar and he was admitted in 1841 at the age of two-one years. He was associated with E. C. Bul- lock and with W. L. Cowan in the practice. In 1848, he was a Taylor elector, and a Buchanan elector in 1856, and a Tilden elector in 1876. In his first candidacy for congress he was defeated by Henry W. Hilliard, but in 1859 he was elected without opposition. He withdrew from con- gress when the war came on and volunteered as a private in the First Alabama infantry. He saw service for one year, being stationed near Pensacola. He was elected to the Confederate congress in 1861, and was re-elected in 1863. Returning to Eufaula, which is still his home, he began anew the practice of the law, and continued in private life with one interruption until his election to the senate in 1880, to fill the unex- pired term of George S. Houston. In 1875, he was a member of the con- stitutional convention that formed the present constitution of Alabama. Senator Pugh was re-elected in 1884, and- again in 1890. His term of
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office will expire March 3, 1897. Senator Pugh holds a high place among the distinguished senators of the United States. He does not speak often, but when he does speak, it is with something of the force of a steam pile-driver. A fine example of his power in his famous de- fense of President Cleveland against the demands of the senate to be allowed to inspect his private official papers. Mr. Pugh's speech in favor of the minority report is a monument of legal research and logic. With the assumption of control of the senate by the democrats on March 5, 1893, Senator Pugh takes an even higher official rank in that body, and his great abilities will be even more deeply impressed upon the people of the United States.
WILLIAM H. ROBERTSON, M. D .- The ancestors of Dr. Robertson were among the earliest English settlers of North Carolina, in which state two brothers bearing the name located at a period long antedating the war of the Revolution. From there the family eventually migrated to Georgia, where, on the 20th of May, 1824, was born John W. Robertson, who, by his wife, Harriet E. Bennett, whom he married about the year 1845, became the father of thirteen children, five boys and eight girls, Dr. William H. Robertson being one of the number. John W. Robertson, in early life, learned the miller's trade and later engaged in farming, which he still carries on in the county of Barbour, Ala. Dr. Robertson was born May 10, 1861, in Tallapoosa county, Ala. He received a high school education and commenced his professional studies in the office of Dr. B. C. Bennett, of Louisville, under whose able instructions he con- tinued until the fall of 1885, when he entered the medical college of Mo- bile, from which he graduated March 29, 1887. On receiving his degree the doctor began the practice of his profession at Clayton, with Dr. J. J. Winn, with whom he remained twelve months, since the expiration of which time he has practiced by himself. He is vice-president of the Bar- bour county Medical society, is also health officer for the county, and as a member of the State Medical association has become well known among the successful physicians of southern Alabama. The doctor is active, popular and prominent in the deliberations of the medical societies with which he is identified, and though still a young man has already attained an eminence in the profession which fairly entitles him to a conspicious place among its leading members, and which bespeaks for him a bright and useful future. Politically a democrat, he has never been an aspirant for official favors, and while earnest in his support of party principles he is charitable toward those who differ from him in political faith. He stands high in Masonic circles, being, at this time, high priest of Clayton chapter, No. 63, and in religion is no less active, being a deacon in the Baptist church of Clayton. The doctor was married December 28, 1887, to Miss Mary S. Foster, daughter of John A. Foster, and is the father of two children, John Foster, deceased, and William H. Robertson.
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ALEXANDER SHAW .- The subject of this mention, a well-known merchant of Barbour county, of which he is a native, was born in the town of Louisville, Ala., on the 19th day of March, 1846. His father, William M. Shaw, was born in Richmond county, N. C., about the year 1812, and in 1826 accompanied his parents to Alabama, settling in the vicinity of Clio, where he engaged in farming and merchandising. He served in the Indian war of 1836, taught school the greater part of his his life and was the first probate judge of Barbour county. His wife, whose maiden name was Flora A. McRae, became the mother of ten children, Alexander being the fifth in order of birth. The subject of this sketch was raised in Barbour county, and spent his early years on a farm, attending school at intervals, prior to reaching the years of man- hood. Owing to his small stature he did not enter the army, but re- mained at home during the troublesome period of the war, looking after his own and the interests of his father's family, pursuing agriculture as a means of maintenance. He followed farming successfully until 1885, at which time he engaged in mercantile pursuits at the town of Clio, where he now has a large and well assorted stock of goods, representing a capital of $5,000, and his sales aggregate in the neighborhood of from eighteen to twenty thousand dollars a year. Mr. Shaw was married in 1878 to Jennie McDowell, and his home has been brightened by the birth of one child, William M., now an intelligent lad of fourteen. Politically, Mr. Shaw has always been a supporter of the democrat party, and his re- ligious belief is represented by the Presbyterian creed. His record as a business man is without a blemish, and his career as a citizen places him among that large and intelligent class of people whose lives, dominated by a sincere desire for the right, have done so much for the moral well being of the community.
ELI SIMS SHORTER, SR., was the third son of Reuben C. Shorter, and was born in Monticello, Ga., the 15th of March, 1823. He was graduated from Yale in the class of 1843, delivering the salutatory oration. The following year he graduated in the law department of the same institu- tion, and, returning to his home in Eufaula, began the practice of his profession, in which he soon attained a reputation equaled by but few in the state. He enjoyed a large and remunerative practice during his service at the bar, his strong points as a lawyer being his comprehensive grasp of the case in hand, and its clear and eloquent presentation before judge and jury. Col. Shorter early evinced a lively interest in the political arena, his prominence at the bar and readiness of speech making him a valuable member of his party. The congressional district of which Barbour was a part had always been a stronghold of the whigs, a democrat never having represented it. In 1855 it was determined to change the existing order, if possible, and Col. Shorter was elected as the standard bearer of the democracy. The contest was close, but when the returns came in, it was found that the tide had turned and the candidate
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of the democracy had triumphed. Col. Shorter took his seat in the national congress. where he acted with the southern rights wing of his party, and was again elected in 1857. At the close of his second term he voluntarily retired, private business requiring his attention. In the fall of 1860 he was an elector on the Breckinridge ticket and earnestly sup- ported the doctrine of that wing of the party. The cause of the Confederacy found in Col. Shorter an earnest supporter. and early in the preparation for the conflict he was appointed colonel of the Eighteenth Alabama regiment. This regiment he commanded in the field the first year of the war, but the rigors of camp life were such as to make his resignation imperative. During his congressional experience Col. Shorter had acquired a national reputation as a brilliant and convincing platform speaker, and when the presidential campaign of 1868 came on he was prevailed upon to canvass the northwestern states for the Seymour ticket. Again, in 1876, he performed the same service for the party, at the earnest request of his close personal friend, Thos. A. Hendricks, confin- ing his labors mostly to Indiana. In the event of the success of the ticket, it was Mr. Hendrick's expressed intention to have secured for Col. Shorter one of the cabinet portfolios. The death of his eldest son, William, which occurred in 1877, while on the threshold of a brilliant career, and in whom the father had centered his fondest hopes, was a blow from which Col. Shorter never recovered, and which marked the decline which ended in his death on the 29th of April, 1879. He was a knight templar Mason, and a life-long member of the Baptist church. During the latter years of his life he engaged agreat deal in active church work and at the time of his death was vice-president of the Baptist church state association.
Col. Shorter was married in LaGrange, Ga., January 12, 1848, to Marietta Fannin, a niece of Col. Fannin of "Alamo" fame. To this union were born four children: Annie Bell, born on the 25th of December, 1848, was educated in the best schools of the north. Her intellectual quali- ties and remarkable beauty made her a reigning belle. She was mar. ried on the 7th day of December, 1871, to Col. A. H. Leftwich of Lynch- burg, Va. They now reside at Spartanburg, S. C. William A. was born on the 5th of November, 1850, and was educated at Georgetown college, Chapel Hill, Emory and Henry, and at the universities of Georgia and Tennessee, and in every school he took the gold medal for oratory. He settled for the practice of his profession in Louisville, Ky., but shortly formed a partnership with a cousin in Brooklyn. The climate not agree- ing with his health, a change was made to Atlanta after two years. Here he soon became prominent in affairs, but a better opening offering at Rome, he located there. He soon became a leading light of the Rome bar, and in connection with his legal duties assumed control of the edito- rial department of the Rome Courier. In the full use of his powers, and with a life of rich promise before him, the grim Reaper cut him down,
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his death occurring on the 28th of September, 1877. From resolutions adopted by his fellow-members of the Rome bar, the following is taken : "Though but in his twenty-seventh year, his industry had given him learning as a lawyer; and his experience, knowledge of the ways of men. He was social as a companion and warm as a friend, and had the promise of his youth been allowed to attain the maturity of years, we feel assured that his life would have been covered with honors, and his name have become a power in the nation." Clement C., born February 1, 1856 graduated in the academic course from the university of Alabama in 1877 and the following year in the law course. He practiced in Eufaula until his death, on the 16th of June, 1890. His untimely death cut him off in a career of most marked promise. Entering political life when very young as assistant secretary of the house, in 1882 he was elected to a seat in the in the same body, and was successively returned in 1884, 1886 and 1888. In 1886 he had made an all but winning fight for the speakership, and in 1888 was chosen unanimously to that responsible position, "being the youngest member ever tilling that office, and the only one from whose decisions not an appeal was taken." So great was he held in esteem by his fellow-members that, as a token of that feeling, he was presented with a most beautiful gavel. A prominent newspaper, in speaking of his service as speaker, said: "He discharged the duties of speaker so admi- rably that, when the session was over, there was a general recognition of the fact that he had become a gubernatorial quantity." The first session of the legislature following his death dedicated a page of their printed journal to a memorial of him, and passed appropriate resolutions, in which the following occurs: "That we cherish the memory of Clement C. Shorter as one who moved among us, and without pride or ostentation made him- self felt as endowed with peculiar genius for legislation-in fact, it was his birthright, and as the presiding officer of this assembly, he has had few equals and no superiors."
Eli Sims, Jr., is the youngest of this justly celebrated family. He was born on the 21st of March, 1858, and educated at Howard college, where he graduated with honors in the class of 1874. Since that time he has devoted himself to the management of his father's estate, and to his own business interests, though his recognized ability and his own taste and inclination point to a more public career. In the last year at school an ambition to excel caused the fatal mistake of his life, and he has ever since been mourning a partial loss of sight. This has closed the gate to political life, but it is but fair to say that his career has been no less interesting than that of his talented and lamented brothers. Mr. Shorter is regarded in his community as a connoisseur in classical literature, having one of the most complete libraries in the city. He possesses in a marked degree the oratorical talent that has been a distinguishing feature of his family and is the recipient each season of numerous in- vitations to deliver formal addresses. It will not be out of place to
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