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 II pt 1 > Part 32
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JUDGE SAMUEL EARLE GREENE was born in Jefferson county. Ala., on February 19, 1853. He is the son of Robert N. and Sarah" E. Greene. and is the eldest of six children. He attended. when a boy. the schools at Elyton, and afterward received a collegiate education at the Washington and Lee university, Lexington. Va. He then taught four years in the Elyton and Birmingham schools, during which time he read jaw as he could spare the time from his school duties. He also studied law one year in the office of Porter & Martin. He began the practice of his profes- sion at Jasper. Walker county. Ala .. in October. 15-0. After practicing there for a little more than two years. he returned to Birmingham. In August, 1854. he was elected a member of the Alabama legislature from Jefferson county, and served one term. In February. 1557. he was appointed by Gov. Thomas Seay, judge of the criminal court. of Jeffer- son county, to serve until his successor should be elected in August, 1588, the next general election. At this election he had no opposition. and was elected for a term of six years. On the 27th day of February, 1559, he was married to Rosa Miller, daughter of Judge G. K. Miller. of Tal- ladega county. This union has been blessed by the birth of two children, Robert Knox and Sarah Ellen. Judge Greene is a member of the Epis- copal church, the Knights of Pythias, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
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R. H. HAGOOD, a representative real estate dealer of Birmingham, is a son of Jefferson county. He was born in Trussville, October 7, 1539. and was educated at the common schools of the county. His boyhood days were spent principally on his father's farm, but at an early age he embarked in the mercantile business on his own account, at Hagood's Cross Roads in Jefferson county. He conducted this business until the war broke out. when he entered company C, Nineteenth Alabama regi- ment as a first lieutenant, serving with distinction until the close of the war. He served in the western army, and was in the following engage- ments: Shiloh. Perryville. Murfreesboor, and the engagements around Atlanta, where he was captured and held fourteen months a prisoner at Johnson's Island. He was also in a number of minor engagements. He was wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro and at Resaca, Ga. When the war was over. he returned to Jefferson county and again engaged in farming until 1574, when he was elected sheriff of the county, and served three years. In 1884 he went into the real estate business, which. together with his farming interests, he still conducts., He was married in April, 1-66. to America Walker, daughter of Alfred Walker, of Elyton, Jefferson county, Ala. They have seven living children, as follows; Robert W. Hagood. of Birmingham, Ala .: Corrilla, wife of W. M. Bethea, of Birmingham; Margaret Hagood. Laura Hagood. Lucy Hagood. Helen Hagood and Rufus H. Hagood. Mr. Hagood is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. His father was Robert J. Hagood, a native of Pickens district, S. C., where he was born in 1811, and came to Alabama with his parents when about nine years old, locating in Jefferson county, where he died in 1860. He . was a farmer and merchant. and his wife was Nancy M. Hale, a native of Kentucky. They had eight children, the following five of whom are living: R. H. Hagood. Lucinda. wife of Elias A. Glenn, of Texas: Thomas Z. Hagood, of Warrior. Ala. : Menila I., wife of Dr. J. M. Bevins of Warrior. Ala .. and Robert C. Hagood. of Birmingham. The mother of Mr. Hagood died in 1-75.
GEORGE W. HARRIS, at present engaged in the painting and paper hanging business in the city of Birmingham. was born in Knoxville, Tenn., in December. 1-54, the son of a well-known contractor of that city. At the age of fifteen years, after passing through common schools. he left his studies and was apprenticed to the business, at which he is mak- ing such marked success. When he had finished the trade, he himself became a contracting painter in Knoxville, and followed it there one year. He went to Birmingham in December, 1-71, and was appointed foreman in the paint shops of the L. & N. railroad, remaining in the employment of this company three years. In the year 1883, he began the splendid business which he now carries on in Birmingham. Since that time he has built a business house. in which he does his prosperous and increasing business. In 18-7 he was elected a director in the Jefferson
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county Savings bank. He was married in 1878 to Ella, daughter of John and Charlotte Evans, of La Grange, Ga. They have four children, Hol- lon, Fay, Roscoe and Glen.
SAMUEL H. HARRIS, painter and paper hanger. of Birmingham, was born at Gunter's Landing. Madison county, Ala., August 5. 1850. From that place he removed with his parents to Knoxville, Tenn., when quite young. At this latter place he went to school, and lived there until 1569, when he went to Chattanooga and remained there until 1971, in which year he settled in Birmingham, and went to work at his trade, that of a painter and paper hanger. Since that time he has handled the business with increasing success. In 1886 he consolidated his house with that of his brother, George W., who was also a painter, and at present their business is the first in the city, in point of quality and material and excellence of workmanship. After one year. the firm dissolved and Mr. Harris now conducts the business alone, and has frequently as many as fifty men in his employ at one time. He has held all the chairs in the Knights of Pythias and the Red Men, and belongs to the Encampment and I. O. O. F. He is also a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church. In 1875, he was married to Virginia Moore, daughter of John Moore, of Virginia. Four children have blessed this marriage: Roberta, Frankie T .. Howard and S. Houston, the two latter being twins.
WARREN HARRIS, one of the old pioneers of Alabama, was born in Georgia in 1804, a son of Jesse and Nancy (Sausom) Harris. The father was a soldier in the Creek war and the war of 1812. He was a son of George and Martha (Autry) Harris. the former a native of South Caro- lina. Mrs. Nancy Harris was a daughter of Richard Sausom. Warren Harris was reared in Georgia until 1828, when he came to Alabama with his parents and settled on Terrapin ereek. in what is now Calhoun county, among the Indians. and became a great friend to them; they were his best friends and would do anything that he might ask of them. He was a great help to the government when the time came to remove the Indians. He attended school in the old pioneer log school house, which like his own house had a dirt floor. In 1828. he married Mary Statum, daughter of Pleasant and Mary (Terry) Statum. This union was fruitful in the birth of nine children. six of whom are still living, as follows: Nancy, Matilda. Mary, Austin. Jerome and Y. C .; those dead are Louisa, Jesse, who was killed at the second battle of Manassas, and Frank E. The mother was born in Georgia and was a consistent mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. The old pioneer has served as commissioner of Calhoun county five years: he also belonged to a home guard company during the war. He is one of the oldest citizens of Calhoun county, and well respected by all.
L. C. HARRISON. the efficient general manager of the Pearson Coal and Iron Railroad company. of Warrior. was born in Eufaula. Barbour county. Ala., in 1849. He was educated at Summerfield, Dallas county. Ala., at a high
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school taught by D. B. C. Connelly. From the time he left school in 1862, nearly all his time was devoted to farming in Dallas county and two years in Washington county, Ala., in which latter place he was washed out by a terrible overflow of the Mississippi river. While he farmed he carried on the business extensively. employing at one time fifty men and culti- vating about 1,100 acres of land. In 1973 he entered the employ of the Alabama Central Railroad company, as conductor, and worked for that company about ten years. In 1>74. he went to Selina and engaged in the mercantile business. which he conducted until 1887. when he removed to Warrior to accept the position he now holds as the general manager of the Pearson Coal and Iron Railroad company. He is also a director, and general manager of the Red Mountain Mining company, owning large interests in coal lands in Fayette and Walker counties, Ala., beside running two large saw mills at Warrior. Mr. Harrison is a democrat, and takes a great interest in the politics of his party. He was married, in 1878, to Miss Fay's daughter of Rev. Dr. Collins, deceased, of Dallas county, and the happy union has been blessed with six children, of whom four are living-Allen Barksdale, Iva Corinne, Cammilla E. and Pearl Castle. Mr. Harrison is the son of L. C. Harrison, of Rockingham county, Va., who came to Alabama about 1850. His wife was Sarah J. Cook, a native of South Carolina. They had eight children. the five following of whom are living: William H., of Montgomery; Mary C., wife of William Ellerson, of Talbot county. Ga. ; Virginia H., wife of Dr. I. W. Vaughan, of Hot Springs, Ark. ; L. C. of Warrior, Ala .; Sallie C., wife of R. H. Pearson, of Birmingham. The father of these children died in 1865, and his wife still lives.
JAMES BUTLER HEAD was born in Greene county, Ala., December 16, 1846, and was educated primarily in the common schools of that county. At the age of seventeen years, in 1864, Mr. Head entered the Confederate service in company A, Sixteenth Confederate cavalry, Col. William Armi- stead. He served as a private in this organization till the close of the war, when he engaged in agriculture for two years, and, in 1867, he entered as deputy, the office of clerk of the circuit court of Greene county. He successfully filled various clerical positions in the several court offices of the county. and in 1571 was appointed clerk of the circuit court. which position he filled until 1874. In the meantime. Mr. Head had assiduously pursued his legal studies, and in 1874 he was admitted to the bar in Eutaw, Ala., where he resided from 1867 to January, 1888, when he came to Birmingham and practiced one year with W. C. Ward, and was appointed. by Gov. Seay, judge of the tenth judicial circuit (Birmingham circuit), the term having expired in November. In June, 1892, he was nominated by the democratic state convention as one of the judges of the supreme court of the state, and was elected at the August election follow- ing. After his election as justice of the supreme court. he removed with his family to Montgomery, where he now resides. Judge Head is, and
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has been, for many years, a consistent member of the Episcopal church, is a Mason, a K. of P. and a member of the A. O. U. W. He was married July 9, 1574, to Virginia Pierce, daughter of the late Judge William F. Pierce. of Eutaw. Ala. Judge Head is the son of William C. Head, formerly a farmer of Alabama, and the maiden name of his mother was Cynthia.
JOHN T. HEFLIN (deceased). in his life-time of the leading and repre- . sentative men of the Birmingham bar, was a native of Walton county. Ga. He was born in that state, August 13, 1820, the son of Wyatt and Sarah S. Heflin, the former of North Carolina, and the latter of Georgia. On the paternal side, Mr. Heflin was of distinguished Scotch and English descent, his ancestors coming to America with Lord Granville prior to the Revo- lution, and on the maternal side he was of French Huguenot extraction. The father died in 1-60. and the mother in 1869. John T. Heflin was the ' third in a family of eight. He received an academic education in Geor- gia, and studied law in Chambers county, Ala., in the office of Steiner & Phillips, and was admitted to practice in 1841, having a professional career of nearly fifty years. He was a member of the state senate during the session of 1851-2. In 1857 he moved to Jacksonville, and was asso- ciated with William H. Forney. a member of congress for three years. In 1860, he was elected a circuit judge. and remained on the bench until 1865. In 1875, he was a member of the state constitutional convention for the purpose of forming a new constitution. In April. 1882. he settled in Birmingham, becoming the senior member of the law firm of Heflin, Bowdon & Knox. Mr. Heflin. all his life, was singularly devoted to, and in love with. his profession, and has achieved some magnificent triumphs in forensic advocacy. In 1886. he was a candidate for judge of the supreme court, and received a flattering vote. He was a bourbon demo- crat, of the old school. He was married in 1862 to Mrs. Bowdon. of Talladega, whose maiden name was Sarah E. Chilton. a native of Ken- tucky. She died June 1, 1878. Mr. Heflin was a member of the Masonic fraternity.
HARRINGTON P. HEFLIN, one of the younger members of the Birming- ham bar, was born at Lonina, Randolph county, Ala .. February 26, 1862. In his early youth. Mr. Heffin attended the high school at Roanoke, Ala., with the view of laying the foundation of a thorough professional education. and having finished there. entered Vanderbilt university in 1880, where he took the full collegiate course of law. He afterward read law with the late Judge John T. Heflin, and was admitted to the Birmingham bar in May, 1887. He practiced alone with marked success for two years. and in January. 1859. he formed a partnership with Col. W. D. Bulger, which continued until 1892. Mr. Heflin is a young man, of strong points as a lawyer and advocate, and gives promise of much success in his chosen profession. He is a member of the Chi Phi college fraternity, is unmar- ried and is a democrat.
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DR. WYATT HEFLIN, one of the physicians of Birmingham, standing well to the front in his profession, was born in Randolph county, Ala., October 21, 1860. His education was begun in the schools of Randolph and Chambers counties, and in Franklin, Ga., and then in Vanderbilt university. Tenn., where he attended the literary department one year and the medical department one year. He afterward attended Jefferson Medical college, and graduated in 1884. After leaving college he practiced two years with his father, Dr. William L. Heflin, at Louina, Ala., and in 1886, moved to Wedowee, where he remained until September, 1588, when he went to Philadelphia and entered Jefferson hospital for a course of special preparation in the diseases of women. Leaving here, he located in Birmingham, where he now enjoys a large and lucrative practice. He is a member of the Jefferson county Medical society and the State Medical association. He was health officer and member of the board of census .. during his residence in Randolph, and is one of the surgeons in charge of the hospital of United Charities at Birmingham. His father, W. L. Heflin, is a graduate of the university of Georgia, and has practiced most of his life at Randolph county. Ala., but at present is located in Roanoke, Ala. His wife, the mother of Dr. Heflin. Jr., was Lavisa Phillips, a native of Alabama, and is the mother of eleven children, of whom nine are living, eight sons and one daughter, Dr. Wyatt Heflin being the eldest child. The mother died in 1-83. Dr. Heflin affiliates with the Methodist church.
W P. HICKMAN, formerly county commissioner of Jefferson county. comes from good old Virginia stock. His grandfather. William Pullen. lived near Gen, Washington. in Virginia. and was a Revolutionary soldier . under the father of his country. The father of W. P. Hickman was a native of Kentucky, who came to Alabama in 1820. He died in Texas in 1838. He was a farmer and a live-stock breeder, and lived in Jefferson county during his residence in Alabama, where W. P. was brought up. All the education he had was that obtained in the common schools of his county. His early years were spent on the farm, and while he was a youth he clerked for W. C. Eubank, a merchant of Elyton, and. for four years after, was engaged in similar business at Montevallo, Ala .. and still' later, did business as a merchant with his former employer. Mr. Eubank, for ten years at Elyton. After the war he farmed a couple of years near Birmingham, where he still owns nearly 3,000 acres of min- neral land. He also farmed at Trussville. from 1868 to 1876. In 1877 he was elected treasurer of the county, which office he held until 1888. In 1998 he was elected county commissioner for four years. Mr. Hick- man is still engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was married in 1-55 to Mrs. E. S. Oden, a daughter of Andy Hamilton. Esq. They are the parents of six children: Fannie J., Hewitt, Cunningham W., Clara E.,
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Jennie Sears and Jesse. He is a Mason, a member of the farmers' alli- ance, and both he and his wife are communicants of the Methodist Epis copal church.
DR. A. T. HENLEY, a practicing physician of Birmingham, was born in Demopolis, Ala., November 29, 1848. and was a student at an early age of Prof. Henry Tutwiler, who taught a select school at Green Springs, Ala. Upon leaving this school he kept books for Dorsey & White, of Demopolis, for one year: studied medicine with Dr. W. C. Ashe, then went to the university of Virginia, and attended the medical department, and afterward the university of the city of New York. where he grad- uated in March, 1869. Upon completing his medical course he went to Hale county, Ala., and practiced there, in all, twelve years. He settled in Birmingham in 1981, where he has since enjoyed an enviable practice. In March, 1883, he was appointed on the board of conviet inspectors. He belongs to the State Medical association and the Jefferson county Medi- cal society. In 1872 he was wedded to Nannie Randolph Tayloe, daughter of John W. Taylor, of Hale county, Ala. They have one child-John W. Henley. The father of Dr. Henley, was John Woodson Henley, of Geor- gia, who came with his parents to Alabama about 1816, and settled in Jefferson county. He was a lawyer of distinction and a member of the legis- lature from Marengo county, Ala. He married Evelina T. Harwell, a native of Clarke county. They had seven children, the following five of whom are living: Alice, widow of George F. Glover, of Demopolis, Ala. ; Evie H., wife of W. C. Butler, of St. Louis, Mo .; Dr. A. T. Henley ; Sadie H., wife of Frank G. Lyon, of Demopolis, and Grace Alston Henley. Dr. Henley's father died in 1853, and the mother still survives
THOMAS H. HERNDON was born in Aberdeen, Miss., October 7, 1853. He attended the common schools of the state, and gradnated in law at Cum- berland university, at Lebanon. Tenn .. in 1672. After finishing his edu- cation, he returned to Verona, Miss., where he practiced about six months. He also practiced awhile in Leesburg. Fla., but in 1879 went into the mercantile business. He remained in Florida eight years: went to West Point, Miss., and remained about two years, being interested in the manufacture of cotton seed oil. In 1950, he was appointed clerk to the committee on territorios. of the house of representatives. and acted' in that capacity, during the session of congress. until March 4. 1851. He left Leesburg in 18-7. and came to Birmingham, and in July. of that year, he and his brother embarked in the hardware business. which business he still conducts. He was married. in 1554. to Mattie C. Herndon, daughter of Dr. S. D. Herndon. of Columbia. Tenn. They had two children, John G. and Frank C. Herndon, the former now deceased. Mr. Hern- don's father was Cotesworth Pinckney Herndon, born at Chapel Hill, N. C .. in 1812. The latter portion of his life was devoted to agriculture. He married M. H. Turner, daughter of Dr. Robert Turner, of Winchester. Tenn. : they had nine children, as follows: Edward C., of Louisville, Ky .;
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G. W. HEWITT.
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Lucian B., deceased: Mary Florence, deceased wife of William C. Clark, of Panola, Miss. : George P., of Birmingham; Bell L., wife of George M. Hubbard, of Leesburg, Fla,; Thomas H., John G. and Pomfret L., of Birmingham, and Irving W., of Birmingham. The father of Mr. Herndon died in 1886. The ancestors of the Herndon family came over from England, about one hundred years prior to the declaration of indepen- dence, and settled in Virginia. Tradition says. they came from north of Wales. His mother's ancestors were the Dales. Evans, Turners, etc. originally from England. They settled on the sea-shore of Maryland and Virginia. Sir Thomas Dale. one of the first governors of Virginia, from 1609 to 1612, was sent over by the London company as governor, before Virginia became a crown colony. He returned to England in 1614. The London company also owned the escheated lands in Londonderry, Ireland, and the English settled there in 1619, among them the Dales. From
near the city of Londonderry. the Dales were forced by religious perse- cution, to go to America. They landed at Philadelphia, in 1698, intending to return to England if they were not pleased with the country. Com- modore Dale, a nephew of this first settler. as well as the commodore's son, were both distinguished officers in the United States navy.
GOLDSMITH W. HEWITT, attorney-at-law. of Birmingham. Ala., and leading member of the law firm of Hewitt, Walker & Porter, was born in Jefferson county, February 14, 1834. He is a son of James H. and Eleanor Hewitt, early settlers of the state of Alabama. The father of James H. Hew- itt was a native of North Carolina, of Irish extraction, and .James H. Hewitt was born in Tennessee. He was a man of industry, and high moral character. He removed from Tennessee to Jefferson county, Ala., before the admission of the state into the Union, and while Jefferson county was a part of Blount. Mrs. Eleanor Hewitt was a Tarrant, and was of Scotch ancestry. The maternal father of Mr. Hewitt. was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, and was one of the first ministers of that church in Jefferson county. James H. Hewitt and his wife reared a family of seven children in Jefferson county, four sons and three daugh ters. Mrs. Hewitt died in 1-53, and Mr. Hewitt in 1858. They and their families were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. south. Gold- smith W. Hewitt received his early education in Jefferson county, and began the study of the law in the office of Judge W. S. Mudd at Elyton. Afterward he entered the law school at Lebannon, Tenn. In 1956 he was licensed to practice law and became a member of the law firm of Ernest & Earl. Later he formed a partnership with John C. Morrow. In 1861, at the outbreak of the war, he entered the Confederate army as a private soldier in company B, Tenth Alabama infantry, and served in that capac- ity until August, 1862, when he was promoted to the captaincy of com- pany G. Twenty-eighth Alabama infantry. As a private soldier. he par- ticipated in the battle of Seven Pines, and the seven days' battles around Richmond, and as captain. he fought in the battles of Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, being disabled by a wound on the second day's battle on
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the Chickamauga. After the war he assumed the practice of the law. In 1870 he was elected to the lower house of the legislature, and in 1872 he was elected to the state senate. While serving in this position he was elected to the Federal house of representatives. He was a member of the forty-fourth congress. and was returned to the forty- fifth, forty-seventh and forty-eighth congresses. He became at once a working member. and was always well informed, a ready debater, courage- ous and incorruptible. His first act was the introduction of "a bill to secure an impartial administration of justice in the state of Alabama," the object of the bill being the removal of political machinery from influence in the courts. His second important bill was designed to put a stop to partisan assessment of officials in the departments of the Federal civil service. Among other measures introduced by him. was a bill to pension survivors of the Indian and Mexican wars, and one to repeal the act forbidding the pensions to all, save those who had taken the Union side in the war of 1861-65. He favored the remonetization of silver: he also supported the bills to prohibit the retiremert of greenbacks, and to prohibit banks of issue: to suppress polygamy in Utah; to improve, by Federal aid, the rivers and harbors of Alabama; and to secure to bona tide settlers the public domain of government. In the last days of his con- gressional career he resisted the senate amendments to the bill to pen - sion the surviving soldiers of the Mexican war, and he believes that his resistance saved many millions of dollars to the government. He opposed the Regan interstate commerce bill in all stages of its progress, and he opposed the policy of the government in selling Alabama mineral lands to the highest bidder. Mr. Hewitt is a revenue reformer from the stand- point of the Chicago democratic platform of 1884. He favors the con- tinuation of the custom house system of taxation. with protection to Ameri- can labor and capital as an "incident." and favors the abolition of all other modes of Federal taxation. With the adjournment of the forty-eighth congress Mr. Hewitt voluntarily returned to private life, and resumed the practice of the law in Birmingham, but afterward reluctantly con- sented to be elected to the lower house of the Alabama legislature 'in 1886. In December, 1558, Mr. Hewitt married Miss Sarah J. Morrow. a daughter of Hugh Morrow, one of the pioneer settlers of Jefferson county. and clerk of the circuit court of Jefferson county for thirty years. Mrs. Hew- itt died in 1863, leaving one child. In 1868 Mr. Hewitt married Mrs. H. E. Perkins, daughter of Dr. Samuel Earle. also ene of the old settlers of Jef- ferson. By this marriage Mr. Hewitt has two children, and he and his family are members of the Protestant Episcopal church.
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