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 35
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father was Gen. Jolm McQueen, a distinguished son of South Carolina, and his mother was Sarah E. Pickens, daughter of Col. Joseph A. Pick- ens, and a niece of Gov. Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina, both among the pioneer settlers of Alabama; she was a granddaughter of Gen. Andrew Pickens, of Revolutionary fame, and her grandmother was a Calhoun- ancestors, who were noted in councils of state and on the tented field. She is described as a remarkably beautiful and charming woman, having been, during her husband's long public career, the leader of a galaxy of superb southern women. both at Washingtor and in Richmond. She was the mother of three sons: Hon. Joseph Pickens, of Eutaw, Ala .; John, whose name heads this sketch, and James William, of Birmingham. Gen. John McQueen, father of Hon. John McQueen, of Birmingham, was born in Robeson county. N. C., in 1-06. and died at his residence in Society Hill, Darlington county, S. C., of apoplexy, in 1869, in the sixty-third year of his age. He had been a lawyer of great prominence in Marlboro district, S. C., to which place he had removed after establishing a reputation for legal abilities in Robeson county. N. C., where he graduated from Chapel Hill university. He married a Miss Rogers, who died giving birth to her only child. the late Capt. S. F. McQueen, and after a lapse of twenty years, married Miss Pickens of Eutaw, who survives him. He held a seat in the United States house of representatives at the breaking out of the war, having served continuously in that body since 1847. After South Carolina had seceded, he was sent as commissioner to Florida, and to Texas, to secure their co-operation. and at the first Confederate congressional election was elected a member from his district for two years. He was known, in the Pee Dee country, as an extensive planter. and until his removal to Society Hill. was a resident of Mineral Springs. eight miles southwest of Bennettsville. where he dis- pensed a large hospitality. He was in politics a states' rights man of the Calhoun school, and never faltered in sustaining his principles. He was a good lawyer. a fine speaker. and a man of remarkable suavity and polished manners. His military title was derived from the fact that, in 1833, he was elected a colonel of state volunteers, at a time of general armament, owing to nullification excitement, and in 1838 rose to the rank of major-general. The father of Gen. John McQueen came from Scotland: was a great-grand-nephew of Flora McDonald, who saved the life of Charles the Pretender, and a lineal descendent of Robert Bruce, the last king of Scotland: he had royal blood in his veins and was loyal to the last to the traditions of "Auld Scotia:" his mother was a McRae, and the McQueens. Me Raes and the Pickens have made many noble marks upon the pages of southern history, and the probabilities are strong that many more will be made. before Hon. John McQueen lays down the staff of life.
JOHN M. MARTIN, the well known legal light of Birmingham. first saw day in Athens, Limestone county, Ala., January 20, 1837. His early
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mental training was acquired at Green Springs, Ala., under the tutelage of Dr. Henry Tutwiler. He afterward attended the university of Ala- bama and Center college at Danville, Ky. He graduated from the last- named institution in September, 1856, and returned to Alabama and studied law under the late chief-justice, E. W. Peck. He was admitted to the bar at Montgomery, in August, 1838. and practiced law there until 1886, and then moved to Birmingham. He was elected to the state senate in 1871, and served five years, and three years as president. pro tem., of that body. He was prominent in the calling of the constitutional conven- tion in 1875. He was a member of the joint committee on the state bonded indebtedness. and opposed the purchase and working of the penitentiary farm, and, as chairman of the joint committee on penitentiary affairs, was principally instrumental in taking convicts from the railroad, and returning them to the penitentiary. He was also on the committee on judiciary, finance, taxation, and education, and was chairman of the local legislative committee. He was a member of the Forty-ninth con- gress from the sixth Alabama district. He was a warm advocate of the Warrior river improvement bill; opposed the interstate commerce bill, and was one of the memorable thirty-three who voted with Randall against the Morrison tariff bill, because of his opposition to the scheme of foster- ing other sources of internal revenue upon the people. his views in regard to the whole subject of taxation being that taxes should be limited to the needs of an economical administration of the government, that the laborer's wages would be increased. His position upon the Morrison tariff measure compassed his defeat for renomination, since which time he has held severely aloof from politics, until he was elected, in 189t, to the chair- manship of the democratic executive committee of Jefferson county, Ala. From 1875 to 1886 he held the chair of equity jurisprudence in the law department of the university of Alabama. He is a Mason, a K. of P., Knight of Honor and Knight Templar. In 1857 he was married to Lucy C., daughter of the late chief-justice, E. W. Peck, of Tuscaloosa. They were the parents of nine children. of whom four died in infancy, and one son, Lanier, at the age of fourteen. The living children are: Wolsey R., lawyer at Fort Smith, Ark .; Lucy, Sara and Lydia. Mr. Martin served in the Confederate army. first with the Warrior guards as a corporal, and then as assistant quartermaster of the Forty-first Ala- bama infantry. His health failed shortly after this, and he was made post quartermaster at Montgomery, Ala., till the close of the war. His father was Joshua Lanier Martin, of Tennessee, who came to Alabama in September, 1819, and was elected governor in 1545, being the eighth governor, and the man who saved the state from repudiation.
JUDGE JOHN H. MILLER, of Birmingham, Ala., was born in Wilcox county. Ala., August 11. 1858. He was thoroughly educated for the pro- fession in which he has made such a gratifying success in life. He grad- uated first from Erskine college, S. C., in 1880, took the law course at
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W. J. MILNER.
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the university of Virginia, and then went to Johns Hopkins university in Maryland, and took a special course. From 1852 to 1889, he was professor of mathematics in Erskine college, S. C., and in 1855. he was admitted to the bar at Birmingham, and was elected city recorder in 1891. for one year. He has had conferred on him the degrees of A. B. from Erskine college, and A. M. from the Alabama state university and Erskine college in 1885. He is an elder in the first Presbyterian church. Judge Miller's father was Rev. John Miller, D. D. He was a Presbyterian minister of prominence and learning. and was president of Wilcox Female college from 1867 to 1872. He was born in York district, S. C., in 1821, and came to Alabama when twenty years of age, and located in Wilcox county, where he died. Prior to 1867 he was elected president of Erskine college, but declined the honor. He was chaplain of the "Wilcox True Blues" during a portion of the war. His wife was Sarah Pressly, a native of South Carolina. They had ten children, of whom eight survive as follows : Joseph N., Camden. Ala. ; Barnett M., wife of John L. Pogue, Gadsden, Ala .; Jane M., wife of Calvin S. Dale, of Wilcox county; Judge J. H. : Sallie M., wife of A. G. Brice, of Chester, S. C .; James P., of Wilcox county, Ala. ; B. M., Camden, Ala. and David P., editor of the Wilcox New Era. S
WILLIAM J. MILNER, general manager of the Elyton Land company, is one of the chief architects of the great and good fortunes of that colossal enterprise. At the very inception of the scheme, he was thought fully eligible to the general management of the company by a number of confreres thoroughly capable of selecting a man to fill that important position, and the ability with which Mr. Milner has discharged the manifold and momentous duties of the office. fully attest the sagacity of his election. Maj. Milner was born in Pike county. Ga .. May 3, 1842, and is the youngest of a family of six. Subsequently the parents moved to Batler county, Ala., where the father died in 1564. and the mother in Birmingham, in 1579. When the war broke out. Mr. Milner left Mercer university. Ga .. and began his military record. as first lieutenant of a company in Escambia county, Fla., but he afterward resigned his commission, and enlisted in the Clinch rifles. a company of the Fifth Georgia infantry. stationed at Pen- sacola. After two years of hard duty as a private soldier, he became connected with company K, Thirty-third Alabama infantry. as first lieu- tenant. Having. in the meantime. been twice wounded, once at Mur- freesboro and once at Chickamauga, he was appointed regiment adju- tant, to succeed Adj. Moore, who was killed at Chickamauga. His mili- tary ability soon excited attention, and he was promoted to the staff of Lowry's brigade of Cleburne's division, the most famous in the army of Tennessee. This division received a vote of thanks from the Confeder- ate congress for saving Gen. Bragg's army from annihilation at Missionary Ridge. When the Sixteenth and Thirty-third Alabama regiments of infantry were consolidated, he was elected major of the new organization,
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and at the time of surrender, by reason of casualties among his superior officers, he was in command of the regiment. After the war he engaged in the drug business with his brother-in-law, Dr. H. M. Caldwell, at Greenville, and held other important positions, until his removal to Birmingham. In 1865, he married Miss Gustrine C. Key, daughter of the late Dr. James F. Key, of Lowndes county. He went to Birmingham in 1871, as an employee of the South & North Alabama railroad com- pany, and soon after was made secretary and treasurer of the Elyton Land company. and subsequently he was made general manager of the com- pany. Mr. Milner is a man of great business ability. In addition to his other duties, he planned. constructed and had the management of the com- pany's water-works, its belt railroad, and its street railway system. Very great difficulties had to be overcome in the construction of the water works. which constitute a splendid monument of the builder. He . is also the founder. and the senior member of the well known commercial house, "The Milner and Kettig company." He and his wife are commu- nicants of the Episcopal church.
GEORGE L. MORRIS, of Birmingham, was born in Spring Place, Ga , August 7, 1849. He was educated at Dalton academy, at Dalton, Ga. Leaving there in 1870. he located in Alabama to develop his business ambition and to grow up with the state. Upon his arrival in Alabama, he was first employed in the construction of the South & North railroad for two years, and then entered the service of the Red Mountain Iron and Coal company. He next engaged in the lumber business, until 1882. when he located in Birmingham, and devoted all his time and business talent to mines and mining, in which business he still continues. He has been president of the Morris Mining company since 1884; is director in the Standard Coal company. and also Birmingham railroad and electric com- pany ; and director in the First National bank. He was married in 1875, to Lizzie, daughter of Col. L. N. Trammell, chairman of the Georgia railroad commission. They have two children-Helen and Elizabeth. Mr. Morris' father was Judge F. B. Morris.
DR. GEORGE M. MORROW, one of the leading druggists of Birming- ham, was born in Elyton, Ala .. August 20. 1846. His father, Hugh Mor- row, came from Kentucky to Alabama. He and his wife, Margaret Holmes, are both dead, the father dying in July. 1889, and the mother in June, 1891; the father at eighty-five years and the mother at sixty- seven. George Morrow attended the common schools of his home until he was sixteen years old. when, in 1863. he enlisted in the Confederate service, in company F. Seventh Alabama cavalry. under command of Col. L. B. Musgrove, and the next year he was transferred to the famous cavalry brigade under command of Gen. Joseph Wheeler, and promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. He fought at Nashville and at Franklin. When he came home from the war, he attended school one year at Ely: ton, and took up the study of medicine under Dr. Joseph R. Smith, and
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the following year he attended the Miami M. lical college. of Cincinnati , graduating in 1868, and at once began to practice at Ashville, remain- ing there until 1871, then going to Elyton, where he practiced until 1878. In the latter year he removed to Birmingham and embarked in the wholesale and retail drug business in company with Dr. F. D. Nabers, having abandoned the medical profession on account of ill-health. Here his career has been marked by great financial success. and his warm nature and genial social qualities have endeared him to a large circle of friends. He was married, the first time, in November, 1868, to Mary E., daughter of Dr. Joseph and Mrs. Margaret Smith, of Elyton. They had one child, Margaret J. The first wife diel'in 1573. His second wife, whom he married in May, 1874. was Miss Susie, daughter of O. S. and Malinda (Nabers) Smith. of Eiyton. There were four children of the lat- ter union -- Lucy O .. Anna Bertha, deceased: Geo. M., Jr., and Frank. In December, 1890, he was elected grand master of the Masonic order of Alabama. In 1891 he was elected sheriff of Jefferson county for four years. Both he and wife are communicants of the Baptist church.
JOHN C. MORROW, late judge of probate, Jefferson county, was born December 31. 1833, two and a half miles north of the Elyton court house. His father, Hugh Morrow, was born in Abbeville district, but came to Alabama from South Union, Ky., and settled in Elyton, Ala., in Septem- ber, 1825, and taught school until 1838. when he was appointed circuit clerk, by Judge J. L. Perry, and held the office twenty-five consecutive years, or until 1838. His mother, whose maiden name was Calhoun, was a relative of the great South Carolina statesman, John C. Calhoun. Hugh Morrow married Margaret, daughter of James and Sarah (Killough) Holmes. John C. Morrow first went to school. in Elyton, to the Rev. F. M. Graves, and also to Jacob H. Baker, one of the most thorough educators that ever lived in Jefferson county. This was the finishing touch to his scholastic training, and was concluded in 1854. At this time he began reading law in Tuscaloosa, under Judge Peck, who, afterward, in the year 1868, was chief-justice of this state. In 1856 he went to the Lebanon. Tenn. law school, and among those of his schoolmates who have since become distinguished, are Col. G. W. Hewitt, of Birming- ham; Judge Reuben Gaines. now on the supreme bench of Texas: United States Judge Jackson. of Tennessee. aud Col. Enoch Ensley, president of the Pratt Coal & Iron company. He graduated in February, 1557, and on his way home passed through Montgomery, where he obtained his license to practice law. Judge Samuel F. Rice was then chief justice. He prac- ticed in Elyton from 1-57 to 1-65, and was a partner of Col. Hewitt from 1859 to 1566. In 1-02, he went from Jefferson county as first lieutenant of company G, Twenty-eighth Alabama regiment of infantry. He resigned his office in September, 1-62. on account of his failure of health. He was. prior to this. in the campaign through Kentucky. When he regained his health, he rejoined the Confederate army, February. 1863, by enlisting as a
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private, in Major Lewis battalion of cavalry. In August of that year, he was elected to the state legislature by the people of his native county, and served during the years from 1863 to 1865, inclusive. On August 7, 1865, several months after the close of the war, he was appointed probate judge of Jefferson county. by Lewis E. Parsons. provisional governor of this state. In May. 1866, he was elected to the position by the people, and re-elected from 156 -. and successively thereafter. up to and including 1884. In the last named year he resigned, and thereafter lived the life of a private citizen. Judge Morrow was married, in 1:59, to Miss Mary, daughter of W. A. Walker. of Elyton. He has seven children living. and two dead. The names of the former are: Emma C .. now Mrs. J. J. Cahalan; Nettie, now Mrs. Dr. Ledbetter; Fannie S., Mamie, Hugh, Katie, and Willie, all of Birmingham. 1
J. P. MUDD, the well known land broker, of Birmingham, was born at Elyton, in 1859. He is a son of the late eminent Judge William S. Mudd. He was educated in the schools at Elyton, and at the university at Ala- bama, and graduated in 1879. After his graduation, he began his business career in a bank, but ill health compelled him to abandon so sedentary a calling, and he embarked in business on his own account. In 1885 he opened a broker's office in Birmingham. for the exclusive sale of stocks and bonds, and his business at this time has assumed large proportions, and is daily increasing. He is a man of fine business talent, and of large and varied experience, in nearly all the lines of pecuniary pursuits, and deserves to take high rank among the successful financiers of the Magic City. On October 3, 1883, he was married to Miss Eula Anglin. and they were blessed with two sons, William S. and Joseph P. Mr. J. P. Mudd, is a member of the Episcopal church. His wife was a Presbyterian, and died February 10. 1590. He is also a Knight of Pythias. In 1969 Mr. Mudd was elected president of the Central Savings bank. and when that bank was consolidated with the People's Savings bank and Trust company. he was made vice-president of the new corporation. He was elected an alderman in 1858. and served one term, acting as chairman of the finance committee. J. P. Mudd, as remarked above, is the son of W. S. Mudd, so long an ornament of the Alabama bench, and a leading, and central figure in the political and judicial history of the state. He was born in Ken- tucky, in 1-16. and came to Alabama. the following year. He was edu -. cated at St. Joseph's college, at Bardstown, Ky., and read law in the office of W. K. Baylor, Esq .. and at the age of twenty-three, he was already dividing honors in the legislature with such men as Jere Clemens. L. P. Walker and W. L. Yancey, and from the legislature to the arduous duties of the state solicitorship, and then to the circuit judgeship. As a jurist, the name of Judge Mudd, is a household word among those people whose differences he adjudicated. with the highest intelligence and integ- rity for so many years. He was conscientious and trustworthy, faithful and just. loving more the spirit of honor and equity, than the a ofttimes.
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unjust teachings of the law. But he did not lose sight of his own affairs. while absorbed in those of others. He was a merchant for a number of years, and acquired a most competent fortune. Much of the early development of Birmingham was due to his liberal public spirit, having built the first hotel in the city, worthy to rank as such. He was married early. to Miss Florence Earle, of Jefferson county. The living children of the union. reside in Birmingham. They are Mrs. Dr. M. H. Jordan, Mrs. William A. Walker, Jr., J. P .. and Mrs. P. B. Clarke. He was an Episcopalian, and died September 22, 1884.
JUDGE WILLIAM S. MUDD (deceased) was born in Kentucky, in 1816. but was brought to Alabama when but a year old and educated in Mad- ison and Lawrence counties, and at St. Joseph's college. Bardstown. Ky. He gained his first knowledge of law in the office of Walker K. Baylor, circuit court judge of Jefferson county. Ala., and at the age of twenty- three was a member of the state legislature, in which body he served three terms. He was then given the state solicitorship. and next placed on the circuit court bench of Jefferson county. and while in this high office was stricken down by death, September 22. 1>>4-a communicant of the Epis- copal church. The following extract is from Teeple & Smith's History of Jefferson county. Ala., published in 1-67: "Judge Mudd was eminently a business man. Unlike other great lawyers he did not neglect his own affairs while immersed in those of other men. For many years he was a prosperous merchant, and accumulated a good round fortune in the mercantile pursuit, with J. B. Earle as partner. W. S. Brown and William Hood, two of Birmingham's now most progressive. active and live merchants. were among their clerks. and received their business edu- cation and tutelage under his direction. To him is due much of Birming- ham's material development. In the early life of the city he was a shrewd and potent factor. To him the city owes the credit of building her first public inn. the Florence house, worthy the name of hotel. In this act he illustrated his abiding faith in the Magic City, where he had ventured much of his life's hard-won carnings. When the fate of the Magic City was still trembling in the balance, and other much richer men than he would not vetture even in a stock company upon such a cloudy sea, he boldly cast the die of his own fortune. The success of the ven- ture confirmis not only his foresight, but also his practical common sense. Judge Mudd married, in early life, Miss Florence Earle, a descendant of the family of Earles, who were pioneers in Jefferson county settlement. They reared a large family. Their imposing residence, resting on a wooded knoll in the valley on the skirts of Elyton. is one of the most beautiful of southern homes. A happy domestic life, where sons grew to manhood in the nurture of honorable example and sound precept, and where daughters, 'polished like the pillars of the temple.' spread joy. reigned there." The children now living all reside in Birmingham. They are Mrs. Dr. M. H. Jordan, Mrs. William A. Walker, Jr., J. P.
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Mudd. a leading and thriving man of business, and Mrs. P. B. Clarke." The venerable Bayless E. Grace, who is spending the declining years of his life at his home near Birmingham. Ala., and who was an old and inti- mate friend of the late Judge Mudd. writes of him as follows: "We were nearly the same age, and I was acquainted with him from boyhood, and corresponded with him when he went back to Kentucky to attend college, and that acquaintance and friendship 'grew with our growth and strength- ened with our strength'. The judge was rather of slender build, but pos- sessed great power of endurance. I have known him in his early manhood to travel fifty miles in a day and part of a night on horseback over the hills of shoal. rock and mud creeks, when he was a candidate for the legisla- ture. He generally rode at a gallop, and, on meeting a voter, would stop, pass a few kindly words, and then start on to see somebody else. I believe he was never defeated but once for any office to which he aspired. He served several terms in the legislature and was elected judge as often as he wanted the office. with one exception. back in the forties. when he was defeated by the heavy vote cast by the voters of the southern dis- triet for S. W. Harris. Judge Harris was a member, I believe, of the Episcopal church, but was tolerant in his religious belief to all denomin ations. He was a strong man in every way, and knit his friends to him as it were with hooks of steel. In his death Jefferson county lost one of her greatest and best citizens and the bench an able and just judge."
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DR. FRANCIS D. NABERS. the well-known and popular druggist of Birmingham, was born in Jefferson county, in 1845. He was educated at the university of Alabama, which institution he left in 1852, to become a lieutenant in the cadet troop of cavalry, afterward attached to the Seventh Alabama cavalry. and known as company F. He held his rank all through the war, and took part in the following battles: Nashville, Franklin and Henryville, and was severely wounded in the groin and wrist, at Mount Pleasant. Tenn. After the war, he attended the Tulane Medical university. at New Orleans. He graduated in medicine in 1867, and located first. at Cotton Gin, Miss .. and later in the Mississippi Valley, practicing at both places about two years, when he went back to Jefferson county Ala., and practiced two years more. and in 1578, he and George M. Morrow located in Birmingham and commenced their present prosper- ous drug business. He has served four years as an alderman of the city, and for the past twelve years has been president of the Birmingham Building & Loan association. He is a director in the First National bank and in the East Lake Land company, and is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. In 1-66, he contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Mattie Faust. a daughter of Samuel Faust, of Pulaski. Tenn. The union has been blessed with two sons. Frank and Samuel. The father of Dr. Nabers was Francis D. Nabers. a South Carolinian, who came to Alabama when a child. and was all his life a farmer. His wife was. Matilda Mullens, of Madison comity. Ala. He died in 1852, and his wife
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