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 71
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A. B. SCARBROUGH, a leading farmer and citizen of Calhoun county, Ala., was born January 19, 1838. His parents, Lemuel and Nancy P. (McCrae) Scarbrough, were both natives of North Carolina, came to Alabama in 1837 and settled in Rabbit Town valley, where they remained until the father's death, in 1851, at the age of fifty-one years. Lemuel Scarbrough came to Alabama with but one negro girl and about $800, with which he began' life in the then wilds, among the Indians, but by close economy and good management he was very prosperous, and at one time he owned about 550 acres of fine lands in Cheekeleeke valley. A. B. Scarbrough was raised on the farm, and what little education he has was
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obtained between crop times, in the old log school house, with but one door, one log cut out to give light, a plank put on pins which were driven in a log, and a stick and mud chimney. After his school days were over he took charge of the farm, which he conducted until 1862, when he enlisted in company A, Thirty-first Alabama regiment, under Capt. Elijah Thompson, and served until the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, with whom he fought through all his campaigns. After the war he returned to the farm, and has since then devoted himself to that vocation, except six years that he was engaged in mercantile business at Chocco- locco. In 1874, he married Miss Hattie Weaver, daughter of Lindsay and Lucy (Pace) Weaver. They were early settlers also in Calhoun county. Of the six children born to this union, four are still living; Lindsey, Abby, Lucy and Anna. The mother was born and reared in Calhoun county. Mr. Scarbrough is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. while Mrs. Scarbrough is a member of the Baptist church. Mr. Scarbrough also served as justice of the peace one term in his beat. He is now engaged in farming and in the ginning business. He is one of the substantial citizens of the county, and a man that stands very high in the community where he lives.
ALGERNON L. SMITH, president of the Barbour machine works, was born in Prattville, Autauga county, Ala. in 1868. He is a son of B. F. and Sarah A. (Holt) Smith, the former of whom was a manufacturer of sash, doors and blinds at Prattville, Ala. B. F. Smith was a son of Daniel and Hannah (Tuck) Smith. Mrs. Sarah A. Smith was a daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Pratt) Holt. Algernon L. Smith was raised in Pratt ville, and attended Howard college two years, but was compelled to leave college on account of ill health. He then traveled in the interest of the Prattville cotton gin from 1886 to 1889, when he settled down in Anniston and became connected with the Barbour machine works at that place. These works were established in 1882 at Eufaula, Ala., with a capital of $50,000, but were removed to Anniston in 1888. Robert J. Woods was then president of the company: William Petry was made sec- retary and treasurer and Algernon L. Smith vice president, but in 1892 Mr. Smith was made secretary, treasurer and general manager, and in 1893 was made president, which position he still retains. These works employ about forty hands, and manufacture cotton gins, cotton presses, feeders, condensers, cotton seed crushers and the perfect cotton elevator systen, and one of the most valuable industries in Anniston. Mr. Smith, for so young a man, has developed admirable business qualifications, and his services are properly appreciated.
REV. E. T. SMYTH, one of the oldest and most prominent Baptist min- isters of Calhoun county, Ala., was born in Laurens district, S. C., June 3, 1828. He was a son of John and Mary (Teague) Smyth, the for, mer of whom, a farmer by occupation, was a son of James and Mary . Chandlier) Smyth. James Smyth was a native of Ireland, but came to
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the United States when fourteen years of age, and in New York learned the jeweller's trade. He then wandered west and lost all trace of his Irish relatives. Miss Sarah Teague, the mother of Rev. E. T. Smyth, was a daughter of Elijah and Sarah (Williams) Teague, both of whom were natives of Ohio, and the former of whom was a soldier in the Revo- lutionary war. Rev. Mr. Smyth removed to Calhoun county with his parents when he was seven years old, and has ever since been a citizen of the county. His early education was irregular and incomplete, but he never had the opportunity of attending college. He, however, did obtain a partial academic education, teaching and attending school alternately as best he could for some time, having W. C. Garnsey for his preceptor. In 1848 he was ordained a minister, and from that time until 1890 he devoted his whole time to the Baptist ministry, retiring then only on account of ill health. It is said of him that he has performed more mar- riage ceremonies than any other man in Calhoun county, and in fact more than all the ministers of other denominations put together. In November, 1846, he was married to Miss Nancy M. Andrews, daughter of Allen and Luranah (Yeagar) Andrews, who came from South Carolina to Alabama in 1833. She is still living on the farm upon which she and Mr. Andrews then settled in Calhoun county. Both she and her husband were members of the Baptist church, in which church she still retains her membership. To this marriage of Rev. Smyth and Miss Andrews, there have been born three children, two of whom are living; Margaret, wife of Davis A. Long and John A. Mrs. Smyth was born in South Carolina, March 10, 1831, and has been connected with the Baptist church since 1847. Rev. Mr. Smyth, on September 3, 1861 was elected captain of company C, Fifth Alabama battalion, known as the White Plains rangers. After serving one year he was taken sick with the typhoid fever and was dis- charged. He had been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1851, and has taken the royal arch and council degrees. He is at the present time and has long been, one of Calhoun county's most substantial citizens and is highly respected by all.
HORACE WARE, who died in Birmingham July, 1890, was a pioneer in the manufacture of iron in Alabama. He was born in Lynn, Mass., April 11th, 1812, and was the only son of Jonathan and Roxana (Howe) Ware. He was reared in Boston, and New York state until about thirteen years of age, when his parents moved to North Carolina. In that state his father was engaged, in a primitive way, in the manufacture and working of iron. After about five years thus employed. they came to Alabama, and located first in Bibb county, where Jonathan Ware erected one of the old-fashion forges, run by water power, and began the work of making wrought iron -called forge blooms. He operated this forge for several years, when his son, Horace Ware, purchased the property and continued the business. In 1840 he bought the iron ore beds, where the Shelby Iron Co., now have in operation two of the best equipped charcoal furnaces in the south.
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This property was wholly unimproved when he bought. A few years after he purchased the Shelby ores, he erected a cold blast furnace for the manufacture of pig iron. This was one of the first furnace plants built in Alabama-probably one in Calhoun county antedated this a short while. He operated the Shelby works as sole proprietor until March, 1862, when he organized a stock company and sold six-sevenths interest, and retired from the active management. The early operation of this furnace was prior to railroad facilities in Shelby county, and he got his product to market by wagoning to Coosa river six miles and boating the iron in flats to Montgomery, Prattville and Mobile. In 1859 he began, and in 1860 he completed the first rolling mill established in Alabama. This mill was of large capacity, manufacturing all sizes of merchantable bar iron, and turning out the first cotton ties from iron ever made in Ala- bama. The product of this mill was from the Shelby pig iron, and at once took the highest rank in the market for strength and malleability. Ever since, the Shelby iron has maintained, in every market, the superi- ority accorded it by Mr. Ware when he first examined and smelted the raw ore. In 1865 this property was destroyed by Federal troops under General Wilson. They were rebuilt by northern capitalists two or three years after the war, and have been in operation ever since. Mr. Ware sold his interest in the property in 1881, after a connection of more than forty years. In 1858 Mr. Ware sent some of his pig iron to Sheffield, England, and had it converted into steel, and then manufactured into pocket knives and razors. The cutlery was pronounced most excellent, and the manufacturer presented one of the knives to Mr. Ware, with name engraved on same. This knife was taken from him by a federal soldier in 1865. Early after the war, he became owner of iron properties in Talladega county, and in 1872, he formed a partnership with Col. S. S. Glidden, of Ohio, and organized the Alabama Iron Co., which was operated under Col. Glidden's management until 1881, when Mr. Ware associated with himself Messrs. A. L. Tyler and Samuel Noble, of Anniston, who purchased the Alabama Iron Co. property, and other iron properties, and organized the Clifton Iron Co. This company now has two well-appointed charcoal furnaces at Ironaton. Mr. Ware was not actively connected with Clifton, but was a large stockholder until 1888, when he sold. In 1884, he became largely interested in Sheffield, Ala .- a stockholder in the first furnace there, and, for a short while, president of the furnace company. In 1881, he bought the Kelly furnace. near Jefferson, Texas, giving it his personal attention and management, making first class car wheel iron, until he sold it in 1883. In connection with his production of pig iron at Shelby, years before the war, he manufactured all kinds of hollowware, cooking utensils, heating and cooking stoves, etc., and marketed them throughout the surrounding counties. No man at that early day, or even up to the time of his death, was more familiar with the mineral resources of Alabama, and no one prophesied more clearly and strongly of our great
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mineral wealth that would some day place the state in the lead as a coal and iron producer. He was early and late an enthusiast on the subject of enterprise and development, and it was satisfaction unbounded to see the full fruition of his early foresight, hopes and energies, in the successful blast of fifty furnaces operated in his adopted state, by the great devel- opers of her hidden stores. Alabama today is ripening into a grand min- ing and manufacturing development, just what Horace Ware saw for her, and labored and planned for her from his early manhood. Through changing fortunes, with varying success, undazzled by prosperity, undaunted by adversity, he calmly and diligently persevered in his chosen line of work, and his final triumph was a positive illustration of what may be achieved by concentrating steady effort on a single purpose. Mr. Ware was married June 24th, 1840, to Martha A. Woodruff, a member of an old, influential family of South Carolina. By this marriage, he had seven children, four of whom are now living. Mrs. Ware was born in Spartanburgh, S. C., in 1822, and died at Shelby Iron Works in 1862. She was a devoted member of the Baptist church, and she left an indelible impress for the highest good to all those who came in touch with her gentle influence. In September, 1863, he was married again; this time to Miss Mary Harris, of Columbiana. She still lives and occupies his late home on the North Highlands, in Birmingham. Aside from the sterner faculties which made him a leader in the world of progress, he possessed and gave evidence of those softer traits which irradiate the heartstone and make the home-circle happy. And all through his long and busy life, he was the friend of the poor and needy, and many are those who were the recipients of his beneficence. His character was strong, noble and symmetrical. He was modest and reserved in his bearing towards his fellow-men, yet brave as a hero in standing for a principle, or contending for a right. He was firm as the granite mountains of his native New England, yet gentle as the breezes that fan the magnolia groves of his adopted southern home. He was a broad-minded, clear-sighted philan- thropist, wide-awake on all the vital issues of the day. He was a stanch advocate of temperance, an examplary member of the Methodist church, and, withal, his was a well-rounded character in all that makes life useful and beautiful. He left his impress for great good, and the influence of his life-work will abide with those who knew him. Industrial Alabama is his monument.
W. H. WEATHERLY .- The Anniston Mercantile company was organ- ized in August, 1887, with $50,000 paid up capital. The stockholders are J. W. Lapsley, W. G. Ledbetter, W. H. Weatherly, T. A. Turner of Anniston: A. W. Bell of Lincoln; W. A. Scarbrough of Iron City; W. C. Scarbrough of White Plains; Mrs. Anna E. Draper of Oxford; A. M. Weatherly and J. J. Weatherly of Munford, Ala. They employ several traveling salesmen and do a large business in Alabama and Georgia. W. H. Weatherly, secretary and treasurer of this vast mercantile concern,
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was born in Talladega, in 1864, a son of J. J. and Margaret (Smyth) Weatherly. The father was a native of Alabama and was in the post- office service at the time the war came on, and in the latter part of the struggle enlisted in the Confederate army. He was born in Talladega county, in 1833 and was a son of Martin and Martha (Ball) Weatherly. The grandfather was a native of Virginia, but early came to Alabama and settled in Madison county, thence removing to Talladega county, sometime in the twenties. The grandmother was a daughter of Moses Ball, who was a son of Spencer Ball, a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Margaret Weatherly was born in Belfast, Ireland, came to the United States sometime in the fifties, and was first married to a Presbyterian minister-Thomas Howell-and after his death married Mr. Weatherly. W. H. Weatherly was reared in Munford, Ala., and attended the common schools of his county. In 1888 he married Alice Stone, daughter of H. Clay and Saille (Baker) Stone. The union has been blessed by the birth of one child-Mary. The mother was born and reared in Talladega county, and both she and husband are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Weatherly is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the K. of P. He is alderman of the city and is one of Anniston's foremost citizens. Mr. Weatherly is a deacon in the Pres- byterian church, a Knight Templar Mason, past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, director in the Woodstock Iron company, South Anniston Land company and Anniston Building and Loan association. He is a member of the democratic executive committee and takes great interest in the party.
D. F. WEAVER, who is now, and has been for the past twenty years, postmaster, railroad and express agent, and proprietor of the cotton gin at Weaver's Station, was born in Calhoun county, Ala., September 28, 1838. His parents were Lindsey and Lucinda (Pace) Weaver. The father was a native of Georgia, born in 1809 and came to Alabama in 1837, and settled in Calhoun county. The paternal grandfather was a native of Virignia. Mrs. Lucinda Weaver was a daughter of Richard and Annie (Bussey) Pace. The maternal grandfather came to Alabama in 1837, and was one of the prominent Baptist ministers of the state. D. F. Weaver was reared in Calhoun county. and attended school in the old log school house, with a long hole cut in one side to give light and planks loosely laid for the floor. At the age of twenty-one years he began life for himself. He went to Jacksonville, Fla., and accepted a position as clerk for a Mr. Woodard, one of the largest merchants of Jacksonville at that time, and remained with him until 1861, when he enlisted in the late war in company A, Second Alabama infantry, under Capt. D. P. Forney, and served one year. This company was then dis- banded and organized into a company of cavalry under Gen. John T. Mor- gan, and served until July 27, 1864, when Mr. Weaver had the misfor-
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
tune to lose his left foot in battle, while acting as orderly sergeant, which rendered him unfit for further service. After the war he returned home and conducted the farm for his mother, his father having died July 5, 1862. January 26, 1869, he married Lucinda Snow, daughter of Dudley and Priscilla (Munger) Snow. Three children-Robert E., David D., and Clementine L .- are the fruit of the union. The mother was born in 1839, and both parents and children are members of the Baptist church. Mr. Weaver joined the church when fourteen years of age and was clerk of Mt. Zion eighteen years; and is now deacon of Weaver's Station church. He has always been a democrat in politics, and as a business man is one of the most upright and most active in the county.
JAMES H. WHETSTONE, of the firm of Stringfellow, Whetstone & Co. of Anniston, Calhoun county, Ala., was born in Autauga county in 1853, a son of Lewis M. and Mary (Herrman) Whetstone. The father was a native of South Carolina, born in 1808, and came to Alabama in 1820 and settled in Autauga county and followed farming all his life. He was a son of William H. Whetstone. Mrs. Mary .T. Whetstone was a daughter of John G. and Maria Herrman. The garndiather was a native of Switzerland, but drifted into France while quite young and espoused Napoleon Bonaparte's cause and fought with him at Moscow and the battle of Waterloo, and was also present at the time Napoleon returned to France from the Isle of Elba and fought with him till the last. After the battle of Waterloo he came to the United States and landed at Mobile, and then moved to Vernon, where he remained many years. He lived to be eighty-six years of age. James H. Whetstone attended the university of the South one and a half sessions and then began agricultural pursuits, and in 1876 he went to Montgomery and accepted a position as salesman in a store, where he remained until 1982, when he removed to Anniston and engaged in mer- cantile business, and in 1886 formed a partnership with W. W. String- fellow and engaged in the umber and building material business, and since that time has conducted a large trade; they also run a large plan- ing mill and turn out all kinds of building material; they also deal in coal. In 1882, Mr. Whetstone married Mary Beasley, daughter of Joseph and Carolina Beasley. Mrs. Whetstone was born in Lowndes county, Ala. Mr. Whetstone is one of the leading and wide awake business men of the city, and he and wife are members of the Episcopal church.
J. J. WILSON, a prominent citizen of Randall, Calhoun county, Ala., was born September 4, 1834, a son of Craven and Lucinda (Langston) Wilson. The father was a native of North Carolina and went to Georgia in 1827, at the age of twenty-five, remained there five years and came to Alabama in 1832, and settled on Terrapin creek, in Calhoun county, among the Indians and opened up a farm, and there raised a family of seven children. He was a son of Joseph and Mary (Denton) Wilson. The grandfather was a native of North Carolina and was always a farmer. He came to Alabama about 1836, where he remained till his death. Mrs.
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Lucinda Wilson was a native of South Carolina and a daughter of Levi and Nancy (Billings) Langston. J. J. Wilson was reared in Calhoun county on the farm. He never had the advantage of much schooling, but by observation and through the means of books and papers he is a well informed man. In 1861, in February, he volunteered for Capt. Peter Forney's company, but was not admitted. He then returned home and organized a company and drilled several months, but this company was not admitted, and they disbanded. In 1862, he enlisted in company A, and was with Brewer's battalion a short time, when it was organized as the Eighth Confederate regiment, in which Mr. Wilson served until Feb- ruary, 1865, when he was wounded in Cumberland county, N. C., at the time Kilpatrick's surprise, and was retired from the army. He was placed with Gen. Wheeler just after the battle of Shiloh, and was with him until he was wounded. He was with Gen. Bragg all through his raids, and until Johnston took command; was then with Johnston until he was wounded while attached to Wheeler's regiment. After the war he returned home and began farming and for a year or two worked on "half rations." In 1866, he married Mary R. Dugger, daughter of Hiram and Zang (Nolen) Dugger. This union brought forth five children, four still living: Allie G., Lucy, Richard and Anna. William died in infancy. The mother was born in 1847 in Calhoun county; she died in 1882, a con- sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1884, Mr. Wilson married Mary Simmons, daughter of P. D., and Permelia (Courier) Sim- mons. This union has been blessed with two children-Rempson and Pauline. Mrs. Wilson was born in Talladega in 1853. Mr. Wilson has served as justice of the peace of beat No. 9 three years, and has been a member of the Masonic order since 1859. In 1879 he engaged in mercan- tile business at his home place and has conducted a fairly good business since that time. He has always been a true blue democrat, and is one of the leading citizens of the county. When he first began business he went to Jacksonville and remained three years, then removed his store to his farm. He and wife are consistent members of the Methodist church. J. C. Wilson, of Calhoun county, was born May 18, 1844, a son of Cra- ven and Lucinda (Langston) Wilson. He was reared on the farm and at- tended the common schools of the neighborhood. In 1861 he enlisted in company I, Nineteenth Alabama infantry, under Capt. James Savage, and served until 1863, when he came home, enlisted in the Twelfth Alabama cavalry under Capt. James Maxwell, of Gen. Joe Wheeler's command and remained with Gen. Wheeler till the close of the war. After the war he returned to Calohun county and then attended school about one year. He married Permelia Harbrow, daughter of P. W. and Rebecca (Coats) Harbow. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church; he has been a member of the Masonic order twenty years. He now owns 300 acres of the old homestead farm that his father settled in 1832, and, like all the rest of the family, holds the respect of the entire community.
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CHAMBERS COUNTY.
REV. WILLIAM CAREY BLEDSOE, D. D., is pastor of the Baptist church at La Fayette, Ala. The Bledsoe family came from England in colonial times and settled in Virginia. After the Revolution, in which several of the family actively participated, William Bledsoe, the great grandfather of the subject of this sketch, removed from Virginia and set- tled in Edgefield district, South Carolina. His eldest son, also named William, married in the last mentioned state, and among the children of this marriage was John F. Bledsoe, the father of Rev. William Carey Bledsoe, who was born in 1823. While yet a boy, the family in the early part of the thirties, removed to Chambers county, Ala .. John F. Bledsoe was educated at Brownwood institute, La Grange, Ga., and shortly after he left school was married to Miss Mary U. Birdsong in 1846. He soon entered the ministry of the Baptist church, and as long as he lived was an able and faithful preacher. He was for many years one of the leading educators in east Alabama, and was president of the La Fayette Female college during its brightest history. He devoted the last twenty years of his life almost exclusively to preaching, and died in October, 1885, while on a preaching tour, at Marble Valley, in Coosa county, Ala. His wife, a woman of many excellent qualities, survives him. Rev. John F. and Mary U. Bledsoe had nine children-two died in infancy, the others are yet (1893) living, to-wit: Wiliam Carey, Fannie S. Ramsey, widow of John Ramsey; Camp Hill, Ala .; Robert H., farmer, Camp Hill, Ala .; Bettie D., wife of W. M. Dozier, farmer, Quitman county, Ga .; Charles W., railroad contractor, Greensboro, Ga .; James O., farmer, Camp Hill, Ala .; J. Frank, who graduated at Howard college in 1892, and holds a fellowship in the university for training teachers for the deaf and dumb, Washington, D. C. William Carey Bledsoe was born at the old homestead near La Fayette, Ala., October 11, 1847. He was attending a select school at Dalton, Ga., when the war between the states broke out, and when the school disbanded, most of the pupils joining the army, he returned to his father's home at La Fayette and entered the office of the Chambers Tribune and learned the printer's trade. In 1864, in his seventeenth year, he enlisted in the Confederate service, joining company F, Sixty- first Alabama regiment, Battle's brigade, Gordon's division of the army of Virginia, and served until the close of the war, surrendering with Lee at Appomattox. During a short furlough spent with the Bledsoes of Fluvanna county, Va., in the fall of 1864, he was converted and united with the Old Fluvanna Baptist church. After the surrender he was em- ployed by Mr. John K. Spence and issued the initial numbers of the Greensboro Herald at Greensboro, Ga. In the winter of 1866-67 he entered the university of Mount Lebanon, La., but after one ses- sion, entered Georgetown college, Ky., where he graduated with the
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