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 76
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and was worshipful master three years, and he is also a member of the farmers' alliance. In March, 1877, he was married to Miss Belle Reynolds, daughter of Charles and Mary (Rhodes) Reynolds, who are natives of Georgia, but who removed to Coffee county, Ala., before the war. Mr. Reynolds died in February, 1864, a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, Ohio. He belonged to the Thirty-third Alabama infantry and was captured at Dalton, Ga. Mrs. Reynolds is still living. Mrs. Chap- man was born in Twiggs county, Ga., and was educated at Macon, in that state, and at Elba, Ala. Dr. and Mrs. Chapman are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, and belong to the best families of the county.
ELDER WILLIAM G. CLARK, minister of the Primitive Baptist church, and planter, was born in Lowndes county, Ala., in 1840. He is a son of George and Lela (Ryals) Clark, the former of whom was born near Richmond, Va., and when quite small was taken with his mother to Edgefield district, S. C. When eight years old he came with his mother to Montgomery county, Ala., where he grew to manhood, and came to Coffee county in 1835. During the Indian war of 1836 he retired to Lowndes county, but returned to Coffee county in 1841. Here Mr. Clark died in February, 1882, at the age of seventy-five years. He was a hard-working, industrious man, somewhat retired, and took but little interest in politics. His father, John Clark, died in Vir- ginia, when William S. was an infant, and his mother died in Cof- fee county before the war. Mr. and Mrs. George Clark were members of the Primitive Baptist church, and he was a deacon of the church. Mrs. Clark is still living, at the age of seventy-seven. William S. Clark was the fifth of nine sons and eight daughters, of whom four sons and five daughters are still living. Five sons served in the war: Samuel, spent a short time in conscript camp, was taken sick and sent home, and has since died; William S., whose military record is given below; Gard- ner, in the service from July, 1862; served in the following winter at Tunnel Hill, Ga., and has since died; George W. served in the cadets a few months toward the close of the war, at Mobile and at Fort Blakely; William S. enlisted January 19, 1862, in company K, Twenty-fifth Ala- bama infantry, was mustered in at Mobile, and fought in the battle of Shiloh. He then served in the Mississippi campaign, and with Bragg through Kentucky to Murfreesboro, at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, the Atlanta campaign, and in the battle of 'Atlanta was wounded in the left knee, and spent about twenty days in the hos- pital at Griffin, Ga. He was then at home for sixty days, and rejoined his command in northern Alabama, and was with Hood at Franklin, at Nashville, and into Mississippi, whence he went to the hospital on ac- count of disability, soon afterward coming home and not again entering the service. In December, 1866, he married Mary A., daughter of Henry and Mary King, natives of North Carolina, who came with their respect-
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ive parents first to Lowndes county, Ala., and thence moving to Coffee county, where they married, and where Mr. King spent the rest of his life, dying in 1886, at the time of his death being county treasurer. He was a member of the Elba lodge, No. 170, F. & A. M. His wife is still living. Mrs. Clark was born in Coffee county, and is the mother of eight children, viz .: Martha E., wife of William J. Parish. of Covington county ; William Wyatt, deceased; Marietta, George H., Margaret M .; Florence Ala; Fannie Lana, and John Curtis. Mr. Clark has spent all his life in Coffee county, and on his present farm since 1881. It is four miles west of Elba, and contains 570 acres in three tracts, and 200 acres in Geneva county, all of which he has acquired by his own efforts. Since 1891 he has been engaged in merchandising at Hayman, and for fifteen years he has been engaged in the ministry. At the present time he is pastor of three regular charges. In 1888 he organized Pine Level church, and has been its pastor ever since. He is a member of Pea River lodge, No. 272, and taken all in all he is a worthy and influential man.
JUDGE PIERRE D. COSTELLO, deceased, was born in New York city in 1829; he was a son of Daniel Edmund and Anna Costello (his mother's maiden name was McNamorrow), who were natives of Ireland, were reared and married there and emigrated to the United States, locating in New York city, where Mr. Costello died when Pierre was a small boy, and his mother married again. Domestic surroundings not being congenial to young Pierre, he left home, and acquired a good education in New York. He then came south, and served on the steamer Tortoise in the Mexican war, doing gallant service; after the Mexican war he came to Alabama, and when but nineteen years old was appointed probate judge of Conecuh county and served in that capacity for several years. Afterward he spent some time at Greenville, Ala., and in 1850 taught school at Elba, Ala. In 1852 or 1853 he went to Geneva, Ala., and engaged in bookkeeping for a few years; in 1854 he removed to Elba and was married, in 1855, to Cordelia Lee, an accomplished young lady, a graduate of LaGrange college, daughter of Col. Charles S. and Elizabeth M. Lee, and born in La Fayette, Chambers county, Ala., in 1835. Soon after coming to Elba, Judge Cos- tello was made probate judge, which position he continued to fill with universal satisfaction until the breaking out of the war, when he was one of the first to offer his services to the Confederate cause. He organized company K, of which he was made captain and assigned to the Twenty- fifth Alabama infantry, which regiment operated in the Tennessee army, fighting at Corinth, at Shiloh, in the Mississippi campaign, in the Ken- tucky campaign, at Perryville, and at Murfeesboro, where he was mor- tally wounded, while leading his men through showers of missels of death to the charge on that almost impregnable battery, being shot through the lungs, January 1. He expired January 4th, 1863. Though in great pain, and fully aware of his impending fate, from the time he received his wound until he expired, he bore it all in that manly way that betokened.
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his great fortitude and greatness of soul, having been carried to a resi- dence near by, where he was kindly cared for. His remains were buried on the battle field. Nothing but a simple board marks his resting place. He needs no monumental tomb to mark the place of his remains; his worthy deeds will render him immortal; he will live when monuments will have crumbled into dust and be forgotten. During this battle he was acting as lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-fifth Alabama, leading his men to victory in the charge. He was as brave a man as there was in the Confederate army and beloved by all his comrades, and his death was a great loss to the regiment, and indeed to the entire command. . He was well known for his fearlessness, although he was not reckless or even careless of his life in battle. He was a prominent Mason, holding mem- bership in Elba lodge, No. 170, of which he was once W. M., and one of its most active and worthy members. He was the only son, but had four sisters, all of whom remained in New York. He was the only one of the family that came south. When he was taken away in the untimely man- ner which has been narrated, he left a wife, devoted and cultured to the highest degree, and four children, one son and three daughters, all deceased, as follows: Elizabeth Mary, died in infancy; Mary Agnes, was accidently shot while at play in the yard, by some parties practicing shooting at Elba during the war, aged seven years; Daniel Edward, died at eighteen, a promising young man, and Camilla, died at the age of six- teen, all of them bright and promising children-idols of a fond and dot- ing mother's heart. By the death of the son the name became extinct, so far as this family is concerned. Too much could not be said in praise of Judge Costello, as his character was above reproach in his private as well as his public affairs. In military life he was equally distinguished, that career being noted for its valor, fimness, fidelity and devotion to the cause he had at heart. He was everybody's friend and was exceedingly popular. He was a very brilliant and scholarly gentleman and a leader in both social and public affairs. He had been wounded on the field at Shiloh, being shot through the right thigh by a minie ball. He was car- ried to a residence near by, where he was carefully attended until next day, when after the army had retreated from the field of carnage Captain C. M. Cox, a brother-in-law of Judge Costello, made inquiries about him, only to learn that he was left behind severely wounded. Upon the mat- ter being presented to the brigadier-general commanding, that officer ordered his entire company, consisting then of only sixteen able-bodied men, the rest having been either killed or wounded in the battle, to carry him to Corinth, as it was too dangerous to haul him in an ambulance. They constructed litters of their blankets and carried him safely to Cor- inth, a distance of more than twenty miles across the country. After suf- ficient recovery he went home, and while yet on crutches returned to his command; he was allowed a horse, the only instance in which a line of- ficer was allowed that favor. At Perryville he was shot through the left
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thigh, but was not so severely injured. He was very unfortunate, being wounded in every important engagement in which he participated. Mrs. Costello is still living, and has not married again, remaining true to the memory of her deceased husband. She is a lady of great culture, and is polished and refined in manner. Beside all this she has borne all her numerous misfortunes with more than christian fortitude.
CHARLES M. Cox, planter and proprietor of the Elba hotel, was born in Upson county, Ga., in December, 1831. son of Charles and Mary (O'Neal) Cox, born in North Carolina in 1792, and in Putnam county, Ga., in 1800 respectively. Charles Cox came with his parents to Georgia when he was four years old. He received a fine English and classical educa- tion and became a civil engineer. He surveyed nearly all of southern Alabama under the auspices of the government of the United States. He married in 1817 and the next year moved to Alabama, settling near Columbia, Henry county, and in 1821 moved to where Clayton now stands in Barbour county, while the Indians were still there. He surveyed and laid out the town, and in 1830 returned to Georgia, and there taught school twelve years. In 1848 he removed to Russell county, Ala., engaging in farming and milling for eight years. He then removed to Coosa county, where he followed the same occupation till his death, which occurred in 1872. He was a man of great ability, energy and persever- ance. He was tax assessor and collector of Pike county. He served in the war of 1812 and also in the Indian war. He was very active in public affairs, was a great politician and was widely known. His widow died in 1878. His father, William Cox, was a native of North Carolina, served in the Revolutionary war during the last four years, when he was only a boy, and died in Clayton, Ala., about 1842. The father of William Cox was a Welshman, andhis mother an English lady. Edmond O'Neal, the maternal grandfather of Charles M. Cox, was a native of Virginia and removed from that state to Georgia, followed the occupation of a farmer and died there. He served in the war of the Revolution while quite young and was hanged by the tories several times to make him divulge some secret which they supposed him to possess. His parents were of Irish extrac- tion, but were born in New York and it is believed died in Virginia. Mr. C. M. Cox was the seventh of a family of three sons and five daughters, he and his sister being all that are now living. He received a liberal education at West Point, at Crawford, Ala., and then at La Grange, Ga. He began life for himself at twenty years of age by farm- ing and has raised a large crop every year since that time. In 1851 he came to Coffee county and opened up a farm, and also established a grist milling business. In 1853 he built the hotel he now occupies. In 1855 he married Luticia, daughter of Charles Stephen and Elizabeth Lee, natives of Georgia; but they removed to Chambers county, then to Macon county, and in 1852 to Coffee county, where they both died. Mrs. Cox was born in Chambers county and is the mother of nine children, all of whom sur-
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vive, viz. : John M .; Edmond William: Charles Stephen; Pierce C .; Mary E, wife of Albert J. Porter: Lena Davis and Rena Lee, twins; Anna Kyle and Luticia. In February, 1861, Charles M. Cox joined company D, Eighteenth Alabama infantry, as captain of the company, which was organized at Auburn, and spent the first year on the coast at Camp Mem- minger, and at the end of the first year re-enlisted and joined the Ten- nessee army. His first battle was at Shiloh, after which he started for Kentucky and was afterward sent to Mobile and spent several months at Camp Beulah. He was however in the battles around Chattanooga, and in the Atlanta campaign, and after the fall of Atlanta he resigned on account of illness and came home. He was never absent from a battle in which his regiment was engaged, yet he was neither wounded nor cap- tured. After the close of hostilities he returned to Coosa county and was engaged in farming until 1887, when he returned to Elba and has since conducted the hotel at that place. He owns about 500 acres of land and has 100 under cultivation. He is a member of the Elba lodge, No. 170; F. & A. M. He has a very retentive memory; has had a great deal of experience; is an entertaining conversationalist; is hospitable and courte- ous. He has never aspired to political honors but performs his duty in the selection of men to fill the offices in his county and in his state.
JOHN W. GARRETT, M. D., physician and surgeon, a merchant and farmer of Clintonville, was born in Coffee county, Ala., April 4, 1851. He is a son of Joshua E. and Tempa (Wilkinson, Garrett, the former a native of Virginia and the latter a native of Coffee county. Mr. Joshua E. Gar- rett came to Coffee county with his parents when a lad and was brought up in the wilderness, with but limited educational advantages. He was married three times, his first wife being the mother of Dr. John W. Gar- rett. Mr. Garrett was a farmer and mechanic and served in the late war, in the service of the state, two or three years. He was the father of nine children and died March 26, 1876, aged fifty-six years. His father, Robert Garrett, was a Virginian by birth, an educated gentleman, and possessed a very choice and valuable library. He was one of the pioneers of south- eastern Alabama, coming here in 1827, but spent some years in Coosa county, and also in either Montgomery or Lowndes county. He was an active business man, and possessed of considerable ability. He was a stanch democrat but took very little interest in politics. He died about 1853. Grandfather Wilkinson was one of the pioneers of southeastern Alabama and may have been born in that part of the state, for he lived here when the Indians yet occupied the country, and had a son killed by them. He was married several times and died here. He was very familiar with the Indians, and could understand their language. The mother of Dr. Garrett died when he was about six years old, he being the eldest of four children. He was reared on the farm with meager advantages for acquiring an education, attending school not to exceed ten months in all, and five months of that ten after he had attained his majority. He then
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took up the study of medicine, borrowing books of Dr. F. M. Rushing, and receiving his instructions mostly from the late Dr. John G. Moore. He then attended Louisville Medical college during 1874 and 1875, and in 1881 graduated from the Kentucky school of medicine at Louisville; but in the meantime had passed a thorough examination by an examining board, and had practiced to some extent. His first year's practice was at Elba, and since then he has been located at Clintonville, where he now has a very extensive practice. For some years he has been engaged in farming, and for the past four years he has also been engaged in merchandising. He has been a hard student and has kept up with the prog- ress of his profession. He also pursued other studies under the instruc- tion of his first wife, who was a talented lady. He is now one of the examining board of Coffee county, and a member of the State Medical association. On October 21. 1878, he married Miss Mattie B., daughter of James R. and Sallie E. Gaines, of Ga., who moved to Barbour county, Ala., after the war, and to Coffee county in 1875, but since then Mr. Gaines has resided at Snow, Ga. He resided near and was the originator of and one of the managers of Andersonville prison. Mrs. Garrett was born in Georgia, received a fine education, was the mother of three children and died in 1883. Dr. Garrett's second marriage took place in December, 1883, to Anna Lee, a sister of his first wife, also born in Georgia. She is the mother of six children, four of whom are living. In 1882 and 1883
Dr. Garrett represented Coffee county in the legislature and served on several committees, among them the military committee and the commit- tee on education. He has since served as justice of the peace four years. He was until recently a member of the Coffee county democratic execu- tive committee, having served on that committee sixteen years. In 1880 he was census enumerator of Coffee county. He became a Mason at Elba in 1872 and is now dimitted. His first wife was, and his present wife is, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. Dr. Garrett began his career with but little knowledge of the outside world, but being act- uated by a strong desire for knowledge, he has been a hard student all his life and has become one of the best informed men of the county. He is well informed on national and state politics, and has a large fund of general information.
PHILIP JEFFERSON HAM, planter of Elba, Ala., was born in Crawford county, Ga., in 1841. He was as on of James and Susan (Matthews) Ham, natives probably of Edgefield district, S. C., but who came to Georgia at an early day, were moderately well educated, married in Georgia, lived in Talbot county, then in Taylor county, and in 1858 removed to Coffee county, Ala., settling five miles northwest of Elba, and improved a farm, where .Mr. Ham died very suddenly in June of the same year, aged about fifty-five, leaving a widow and eleven children. He was always a hard worker, and an industrious man, but was in moderate circumstances when he died, which made it difficult for his widow to bring up her children
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and educate them as she would have liked to do. He had two brothers who settled in other parts of Alabama. Philip Matthews, the father ot Mrs. Ham, died near Knoxville, in Georgia. The mother of P. J. Ham died in Coffee county in 1882. She was very persevering and industrious, was possessed of great endurance, strong will and noble character. Mr. Ham was seventh in a family of four sons and eight daughters, all of whom are now living but one son and one daughter. Three of the sons served in the late war, viz .: James W .. who enlisted in company F, Thirty-third Alabama infantry, and was killed at the battle of Perryville, Ky .; William W., who was in Company A, Thirty-third Alabama, from 1863 until the close of the war, and who now live's in Coffee county; and Mr. P. J. Ham, who was reared on a farm and who. on account of the early death of his father, received but a limited education. In March, 1862, he enlisted in company A, Thirty-third Alabama infantry, for one year and spent the first few months at Pensacola, was at Corinth soon after the battle there, and was then sent on the Kentucky campaign and back
to Murfreesboro, Tenn., which was the first general engage- ment in which he participated. At Chickamauga he was wounded in the foot and thereby disabled for six or seven months, during which time he was home. He rejoined his command at Dalton, in 1864, and fought on to Peach Tree creek, where he lost his left arm, by reason of which he came home for a short time, and after a few weeks he was taken to the hospital at Atlanta. After his recovery he spent about two years oversee- ing and has since lived near and at Elba. He has become one of the largest land owners in the county, owning some three thousand acres, a large portion of which is under cultivation. He has been a man of great energy and industry and possesses good business ability, and what prop- erty he owns he has obtained through his own efforts. He has always produced his own supplies, thus making his cotton to a great extent a surplus crop. He owes a large share of his success to his wife, who is a very industrious woman and good manager of his domestic affairs. He was married in 1868 to Mary, daughter of Noah and Elizabeth Carroll, natives probably of South Carolina, but raised for the most part in Cov- ington county, Ala., to which county they came when the country was full of Indians, and where they suffered many hardships and privations. They afterward removed to Coffee county, where they lived the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Ham was born in Covington county, and is the mother of ten children, viz .: Frances E .. wife of A. J. Bryan; James Noah, Philip Jefferson, Jr., Mary Elizabeth, Ada, William W., Trudy, Russia, Stephen and Carrie, all living. The mother of these children died in 1888. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. Mr. Ham has at various times been connected with mercantile business for short periods. Some twenty years ago he was county treas- urer for three years. He always takes a reasonable amount of interest in politics, but is not himself a politician.' In 1890 Mr. Ham married Miss
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Jessie Woodward, daughter of the late ex-Governor James Woodward and Mary Ann Hall, natives of Tennessee and Florida, respectively. The former was for many years a prominent physician at Pensacola, Fla., . practicing there in the hospital. He was in the late war and was at one time lieutenant-governor of Florida. He died at Geneva, Ala., in 1886 and his widow now lives at Anniston, Ala.
HON. P. N. HICKMAN, solicitor of Coffee county, was born in Upson county, Ga., in 1856. He is a son of Joseph M. and Sarah A. (Smith) Hickman, both born in Upson county, Ga., in 1825, the former in August and the latter in February. In 1861 they removed to Butler county, Ala., where Mr. Hickman died in December, 1887, and where Mrs. Hickman still lives. Both were members of the Baptist church for many years. Mr. Hickman was a man of great energy and physical endurance and strength, and by his industry and economy he accumulated a fine property. From 1862 until the close of the war he served in the Seventeenth Alabama infantry, company F, and in the army commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. He was never either wounded or captured. He was a prominent Mason, and an active worker in church matters. He was one of a family of nine sons and three daughters, and eight of the sons, all that were then living, served in the Confederate army. Their father, Aaron Hickman, was probably a native of one of the Carolinas, and died upon a farm in Georgia. Leonard Smith, the mother's father, was with General Jackson in the war of 1812. He assisted in cutting the old Three Notch road, which passes through Bullock, Pike, Coffee, and other counties in Alabama. He was a farmer, and died in Upson county, Ga. P. N. Hickman was the third of a family of three sons and four daughters, viz. : Samuel A., a prosperous farmer and miller in Butler county ; Elizabeth, widow of Leander Wood; McDonald, died when young; P. N .; Mary E., wife of Henry L. Huguley, a well-to-do farmer of Butler county ; Virginia, deceased, and Annelier. HOL. P. N. Hickman was brought up on a farm, received but little education in his youth, but after reaching manhood applied himself diligently to study and reading during his spare. moments, and in this way attained far more than the average amount of knowledge possessed by mankind. At the age of twenty he began life for himself as clerk in the office of the probate judge at Greenville. In the meantime he read law with Gamble & Bolling, and in 1879 he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court. He then practiced law in Covington county until 1882, when he returned to Greenville and served as county solicitor until 1884, when he removed to Sumter county, Fla., remaining there until 1886 engaged in building up a profitable practice, and at the same time planted five acres in orange trees, which he still owns; they are now bearing, and the plat is a handsome piece of property. Since 1886 he has resided at Elba, and is now the leading lawyer of Coffee county. Since 1888 he has been county solicitor. In November, 1885, he was married to Mary B. Chapman, who was born in what is now Crenshaw
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