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 36
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in 1891. They had nine children, five of whom are living, as follows: W. F., of Birmingham: Lucinda, wife of George W. Smith, of Powderly. Ala .; Frances D., of Birmingham: Matilda, widow of John M. Lykes; Dorinda. widow of S. L. Nabers ( these last two children are twins).
WILLIAM F. NABERS, a representative of the oldest and most respect- able pioneer families of Birmingham, is the son of Francis Drayton Nabers. He was born August 6, 1830, in Jefferson county, and was educated at the university of Tennessee. His life has been principally devoted to agriculture, which he conducted on a large scale until about 1870, since which time it has required all his time to look after his large real estate interests, which have grown out of the fact that he owned the farm upon which the city of Birmingham is built, and, although he sold large tracts of city realty from it, he still holds much land in his own name. Mr. Nabers is a Mason, and belongs to the Episcopal church.' He was married, in 1866. to Virginia E. Worthington, daughter of B. P. Worthington, and to them were born six children, five of whom are living. as follows: Fannie, wife of J. H. McCary, of Birmingham; Carrie, wife of Charles H. Abbott. of Sheffield, Ala. : Bessie, Emma and William F., Jr.
ROBERT H. PEARSON, attorney at law, of Birmingham, Ala., was born near Clayton. Barbour county, November 16. 1848. He is the son of Benjamin F. and Harriet M. Pearson, both of whom were natives of North Carolina, and they were married in that state. They came to Ala- bama, and settled in Barbour county in 1840. They were the parents of six children, Robert H., being the youngest. One brother, Herbert, and two sisters, are living in Texas, the others having died. Robert H. Pearson passed the early years of his life upon the farm. assisting his father in the labor incident to agriculture. He received the rudiments of his education at home, and taught school some time before attending the university of Tennessee, and he afterward took a course of law at the Cumberland university at Lebanon, Tenn. Leaving this latter institution in 1871, he removed to Birmingham, and early in 1872 commenced the practice of the law. having been admitted to the bar in Union Springs, Ala., in 1871. He is now the only lawyer in Birmingham who was a resi- dent of the city when he arrived in it. By his superior qualitications for business and law, he has amassed a considerable amount of property. He is the legal representative of many of the strongest corporations in Bir- mingham, and is a director in many others. He has never sought polit- ical honors, and has seldom accepted of them, though frequently requested to do so. He was chairman of the democratic executive com- mittee of the county two terms, and for four years was assistant solicitor of the circuit for Jefferson county. While never holding office, except as here stated, he has always been a recognized leader of the democratic party since he has resided in Birmingham. He is devoted to his profes sion, and. as a consequence, his practice is both large and protitables and he prefers to spend his life in the practice of the law. He is a member
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of the order of Knights of Pythias and of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was married in Birmingham in December, 1875, to Miss Sallie Harrison, daughter. of L. C. Harrison, of Dallas county, Ala. To this marriage there has been born one child, Maria. The father of Rob- ert H. Pearson died in 1867. He had two sons in the Confederate army, Herbert and James, who served all through the war.
HENRY W. PERRY, a successful and leading merchant of Birmingham, was born in Marion. Perry county. Ala., July 18, 1558, and educated at Howard college. He left college at the age of sixteen years, and became a bookkeeper for Love & Co .. in Marion, Ala., and was with them seven years, and then went to Selma, Ala., where he traveled for C. W. Hooper & Co .. for two years. He went to Birmingham in 1883, and engaged in the wholesale tobacco business. and in which business he still retains an interest. In 1557 he organized the Perry-Mason Shoe com- pany, of which he is the president, the company doing a wholesale boot and shoe business. He is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal church, and is unmarried.
DR. SAMUEL PERRY was born in Franklin county. N. C., Decemebr 14, 1832, and was educated at Howard college at Marion, Ala., having come to Alabama in 1846, and located at Marion, Ala. He left the latter col- lege in 1850. and studied medicine under the tutelage of his brother, Dr. M. P. Perry, a prominent physician of Warren county. N. C., and from there he went to Philadelphia, and attended a course of lectures in Jefferson medical college, and had decided to go to New Orleans, and graduate there, but a yellow fever epidemic intervening, he went to Charleston. and took the medical course in the university of South Caro- lina, graduating in March, 1854. He then returned to Alabama, took up the practice of medicine at Marion, and continuedl with good success until 1887, when he decided to live in Birmingham, his present home. He was president of the Perry county Medical society several years. anl is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which for many years. he has been steward and trustee. He only did ninety days of military duty in the service of the Confederacy, having been exempt because of his profession. He was married, in 1855, to Celina Jones, daughter of Will- iam A. Jones, of Marion, Ala. Nine children blessed this union, all of whom are living. They are Albert J .. Henry W., Samuel. Jr .. Charles J .. Tunstall B., Fannie W., wife of John House, Jr., of Marion, Ala. : Anna P., wife of Rov. Hugh McCormick. now missionary at Zacalitas. Mex. ; Mary Jones Perry, and Patty P. Perry. The father of Dr. Perry was Samuel Perry, a North Carolina farmer, who died in 1-46. at the age of fifty-four years, and his mother, Eliza B. Williams. daughter of . Harry G. Williams, of North Carolina, and his maternal grandmother was Lucy Tunstall, of the well-known Virginia family of that name.
THOMAS PETERS was born October 29. 1812, in Wake county. N. C. His ancestors were one of the English families who settled near Peters-
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burg. Va., in the reign of Charles II. When Thomas was three years old, James P. Peters. his father, moved from Wake county, N. C., to Maury county, Tenn .. and settled near Spring Hill. Fifteen years later the family moved to Henry. one of the western counties of the state. After receiving the limited degree of education which the common schools of a thinly-populated country, then mostly in forest, could offer, Thomas en- tered his long and distinguished business career as a clerk on a steamer plying between Nashville and New Orleans via the Cumberland and Mis- sissippi rivers. At the early age of twenty-one. Mr. Peters was successfully engaged in buying and selling lands in the southwestern states. He bought considerable tracts from the Indians in the northern counties of Mississippi, who sold their possessions preparatory to their removal to the trans. Mississippi reservations. In 1837, when twenty-five years old, Mr. Peters married Miss Ann Eliza Glasgow, of Tennessee. He then moved to a plantation, and became a cotton grower. Five years later, his wife died, childless. Nine years from the date of his first marriage, he married Miss Sarah J. Irion. After thirteen years she died, leaving
a daughter as the only offspring. This daughter. Amelia L., grew into a rarely beautiful and accomplished woman, and became the wife of Robert H. Henley, the first mayor of Birmingham. As contractor, Mr. Peters built thirty-five miles of the Memphis & Charleston railroad. He was living in Memphis, as a real estate broker at this time, and beside railroad work he took contracts on levee building along the Mississippi. While living in Memphis, the war of 1861 came on, and he entered it with zeal.in his forty-ninth year. He was appointed, by the governor of Ten- nesseee, and commissioned as chief quartermaster of the state troops. On a more complete organization of the Confederate army, he was commis- sioned major in that service. and assigned to the duties of quartermaster on the staff of Maj .- Gen. Leonidas Polk. Maj. Peters remained in the field in this capacity until after the fall of Gen., Polk and the assump- tion of the command of the army of the Tennessee by Gen. Hood. In 1864, he was ordered to Selma to take command of army transportation. under Gen. Richard Taylor. Here the surrender of the Confederate armies found him. He received his parole from the Federal authorities in April, 1865, and promptly directed his energies toward explorations for ores and coal into the mountains of Alabama. Pennliess and on foot, he traversed the unknown forests, locating mineral lands, and making the way plain to men of wealth, whom he declared, in his enthusiasm, must come to them. Having accomplished all that any one man might, before the railroads should penetrate the favored lands. Mr. Peters went to reside in Minnesota with his son in-law. Mr. Henley, who was forced to try that climate for his failing health. From there he went to Savan- nah, Ga .. to engage in the cotton trade. In 1869, he returned perma- nently to Jefferson county. Birmingham was not then on the map. He settled in Elyton, the county seat, and engaged in mineral land specula-
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tions, and in 'concentrating on Jefferson county a most valuable spirit of inquiry. When the Louisville exposition of 1883 invited the display of specimens of the mineral and other resources of Alabama there, against the protest of friends, who thought a man in his seventy-first year should not undergo the fatigue of the office, he went to take charge of the large exhibit made by the Alabama railroads from their lands and those bordering. He soon succumbed to overwork and an acute attack of cold, and died. attended by many friends, at an infirmary in that city. The remains were brought to Birmingham at once. for interment. When the last offices of respect to the body were to be performed, the demon- strations of public sympathy were complete. The houses of business in the city were closed, and a great procession escorted it to the city ceme- tery. From early life. Maj. Peters had been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south.
JOHN HERBERT PHILLIPS, PH. D .. the distinguished educator and father of the present excellent school system of Birmingham. is a son of the blue grass state, having been born in Covington. Ky., December 12. 1853, and removed with his parents to Ohio when he was not yet five years old, and his early education was received in the public schools of that state. In 1871 he accepted a position as teacher in a public school near Charleston. W. Va. Here he taught until 1875, in which year he entered Marietta college. Ohio, and graduated in 198C. Upon graduation he was selected over twenty-five other applicants principal of the public high school at Gallipolis, Ohio. He was re-elected with increased salary, and taught there until 1883, in which year he resigned to accept the responsible and important work of re-organizing and establishing the public school system of Birmingham. In 1885 he was elected president of the Chautauqua class of 1589, and has delivered addresses in connection with that work at Chautauqua, N. Y .. and other important points. The work done by Dr. Phillips, and the educational facilities of Birmingham cannot be too highily estimated when we consider the importance of edu- cation with reference to all the other resources of municipal prosperity: and the further fact that a stranger was called thither to work out cer- tain desirable reforms. would seem to assume a lack of home ability or experience. and is ofttimes calculated to induce prejudice, but so well possessed was the man of all the facilities of his work, and so thoroughly capable was he of the work itself, that those who would have otherwise arrayed themselves against him fell readily into the trend of his theories, vouchsafed their sympathy and support. a tribute which ability and merit always exact. He was elected superintendent of schools in a close con- test. over a gentleman who was a resident and a man of ability and of great personal popularity. Dr. Phillips is a communicant of the Pres- byterian church. a Knight Templar, and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. He was married December 27, 15-6, to Miss Nellie T. Cobbs, a
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daughter of Chancellor Cobbs, of Birmingham. a lady of rare personal charms and a distinguished vocalist.
JUDGE MITCHELL T. PORTER, an old-time and highly respected law- yer and probate judge of Birmingham, came of good old colonial ances- try. both his parents having been born in the Old Dominion. His father was Mitchell A. Porter. He came to Alabama from east Tennessee at an early age. and located at Montevallo. Shelby county, and practiced medicine until his death. The mother of Judge Porter also came from Virginia. Her maiden name was Mary Wade. She died in 1556. Judge Porter is a graduate of the university of Tennessee. Having left school and decided upon taking a course of study for the legal profession. he studied law in the office of the late Judge William S. Mudd, and was admitted to the bar in 1850. He began the practice at Elyton. where he was associated with the late Hon. Alburte Martin. He entered the Con- federate service in 1861. with the rank of captain of company C, Twen- tieth regiment of Alabama infantry and served, continuously, until 1864. in the meantime having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of his regiment: but on account of failing health he had to resign. His regiment was in some of the most terrible engagements of the war; among them. the expedition into Kentucky under Gen. Kirby Smith, the battles of Port Hudson. Champion Hills, and being besieged for two months at Vicksburg. After the fall of Vicksburg, he returned home, and represented his district in the state senate. In 1881 he became a resident of Birmingham. Here he practiced law until 1884, when Gov. O'Neal appointed him probate judge. and was elected. in 1886, for a term of six years and again in 1-92. In 1853, Judge Porter married Miss J. Catherine Martin, a daughter of Col. John Martin. of Jefferson county. They have seven children living-Mrs. Sarah E. Hunley, Mary C., Jennie. John M., Mitchell A .. William A. and Thomas W. Judge Porter is ar Episcopalian, and his wife a Baptist.
COL. JAMES R. POWELL came from Virginia to the territory of Ala- bama in 1818. He was an adventurous youth. and a man of varied talents and indomitable energy. When he reached Alabama it was a wilderness, untouched by the hand of man. Mr. Powell first stopped at Montgomery. a horse and $20 being his available assets. From Montgomery he went into Lowndes county, sold his horse. and did whatever his hand found to do. Soon be became a mail contractor. and. later. entered into the stage coach business. His business prospered, and he drifted into cotton plant- ing, and became a member of the legislature. His stage coach line soon became a serious rival of that of Mr. Robert Jemison, who was a gentle- man of great wealth, enterprise and intelligence. Mr. Jemison resented the intrusion of Mr. Powell's stage line, and a rate war was the result Mr. Powell met him fully half way, and after they had practically ruined themselves in mad rivalry, they came to terms. and joined forces, under
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the title of Jemison, Powell. Ficklen & Co. When the war broke out, Col. Powell did not become a soldier. He remained in Montgomery. and used his rare powers of persuasion on behalf of the Confederate cause. An instance of Col. Powell's service to the Confederacy may be noted. In the winter of 1863, the Alabama river was frozen over, and Col. Pow- ell promptly bent every available resource to harvest and store the priceless crop. At this time artificial ice was unknown, and the blockade of the ports prevented any importation being made. When the accus- tomed warm weather returned, so diligently had Col. Powell worked that he was offered 840.000 for his ice. He refused to sell it. and presented the whole supply to che Confederate army hospital. department. During the war Col. Powell purchased many acres of cotton lands in Mississippi, and entered into a contract with John C. Calhoun, grandson of the famous statesman of that name. to operate his plantation. Col. Powell . offered wages, and negroes flocked to his plantation from the parts of the country which had been longer settled. As a result, the colonel's lands were quickly colonized, and rapidly increased in value. Col. Powell came to Birmingham shortly after the site of the town had been located. He found it a city in the wilderness of a state, fresh from the devastation caused by the Federal soldiers, and which was, at the period of Col. Powell's location, governed most disastrously by aliens and negroes. Col. Powell then became president of the Elyton Land company. Almost every condition that can militate against the success of a city obtained then in Birmingham. But despite these, Col. Powell sueceeded. His nature rose to the exigencies of the occasion. He saw into the political future, and reasoned, that as revolutions must make changes in the habits . of the people, the south must change from her old social and industrious conditions to a more active, stirring mode of life. How successful Col. Powell has been in building up the town of Birmingham, with its 40,000 inhabitants, is now a matter of history. Under his direction grants were made by the land company to the city. of ground for parks; to the railroads for yards and depots; to the churches, for lots on which to build houses of worship. His policy was the most liberal. and he invited capital and labor to locate in Birmingham. He advertised the coal and iron resources of the surrounding country in every part of America and Europe, and so influential did he eventually become that the sobriquet Duke of Birmingham, was bestowed upon him. In the spring of 1873, cholera visited Birmingham. During the ravages of the pest. Col. Powell remained at his post, nursed the sick and maintained order. In return for this service the citizens presented him with a handsome knife, manu- factured in England at a cost of $130. In 1874 the press association of the state of New York convened in Montgomery at his insitation, at the same time as the Alabama press association met. The papers through- out the civilized world published the faets placed before these bodies by Col. Powell, and attention was at once drawn to the immense iron depos-
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its in the country surrounding Birminghan. In 1874 Col Powell retired from Birmingham to his plantation. In 1878 he was invited to return to Birmingham to canvass for re-election to the mayoralty. After a bitter campaign he was defeated. He contested the election. and was again defeated. He returned to his plantation on the Yazoo, and met death from a pistol shot in the fall of 1883.
DR. FRANK M. PRINCE. a native of La Grange. Franklin county. Ala., was born June 6, 1-27, and was educated at the State university at Tus caloosa, where he graduated in 1846. He then went to Philadelphia, and graduated from the Jefferson Medical college in 1849. He located in Dayton. Marengo county, where he practiced with great success for ten years. From Dayton he went to Tuscaloosa. Ala., where he practiced until the spring of 1861. In that year he was commissioned surgeon by President Davis, and traveled throughout the various posts and encamp- ments of the army. to inspect the hospitals. After the war he located in Jefferson county. his present home, and built up the large practice which he still enjoys. He is a member of the State Medical society of Ala- bama, of which he has been vice-president; is charter member of the Surgical and Gynecological society, and was one of the committee of three who framed the constitution: the Tri-State Medical society (embrac- ing the states of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee), the Jefferson county ' Medical society, which he organized. and of which he was for many years president: and of the Bessemer Medical society, of which he is its present president. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has been a master of Jonesboro lodge, No. 315, for thirty years, the I. O. R. M .. and the Methodist Episcopal church, south ; a member of the Historical society of Alabama, and has the degrees of A. M .. B. A., and F. H. S. (Fellow Historical Society). He was married in 1850, to Martha G. Jordan, daughter of Mortimer and Lucy (Gray) Jordan. There were born to this union, thirteen children, and pine of them are living, as fol- lows: Frank M., Jr., Bessemer. Ala. ; Ella M., wife of John W. Briggs of Bessemer: Livy. wife of A. M. Robinson, of Abilene, Tex. ; Belle, wife of Dr. T. F. Robinson, of Bessemer: Lelia, wife of Dr. E. M. Robin son, of Bessemer; Sallie, wife of R. H. Carter, of Johns. Ala .; Eva, Maggie and Elward. The father of Dr. Prince was Edmund Prince, a native of Virginia, who came to Alabama in 1825. He was an extensive and wealthy planter. He died at Demopolis, Ala .. in 1861. It is stated that by the issues of the war he and his sons lost 1.000 negroes. Dr. Prince's mother was named Elizabeth Lawrence, of North Carolina. She was the mother of eleven children, of whom. however. only three are living, Capt. John Prince, of Marengo county, Ala. : Dr. Frank Prince, of Bessemer, Ala., and Dr. J. E. Prince, of Big Springs, Tex. Of the chil- dren who are dead. Capt. Oliver Prince was killed at Chickamauga, and Lieut. E. L. Prince died in the hospital in the Confederate service. The mother of these children died in 1840, and the father married Miss L. L.
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Terrell. This second marriage was blessed with six children, only two of whom are living-Dora ind Annie, who reside with their mother.
CHARLES H. REED, the retired.nurseryman of Birmingham, was born in lower Canada, in 1834. He was educated in Beloit, Wis., and Chicago, Ill. He left school at the age of twenty years, and lived with his parents in Darlington, Wis. Here he engaged in the nursery business until 1874. when he removed to Birmingham and bought eleven acres of land from the Elyton Land Co., for $440, and started a fruit nursery. This business he made quite a success, and still holds three acres of the original eleven. which are very valuable. He is president of the Woodlawn Cemetery company. He was married April 11. 1883, at . Milwaukee, Wis .. to Margaret E. Mowers, daughter of Hazen Mowers, of that city, by whom he has three children-Charles H., Jr., Helen and Eugene T. Mr. Reed's father was John Reed of New Hampshire. He married Caroline M. ... Gaylord, a native of Vermont, and had seven children, two of whom. Stephen S., of Denver, Col., and Charles F., are living. Mr. Reed's father died in 1834, and his mother in 1-75.
M. C. REYNOLDS, lumber dealer of Birmingham, was born in Shelby Springs, Ala., September 6, 1858. He was educated at the schools of Shelby county. finishing up his studies at the State university. He left the. ' university in 1879, and settled immediately in Birmingham, where he lived one year, engaged in mercantile pursuits, and then went into the saw mill business, near Selma, Ala. He continued this business until 1886. In this year he returned to Birmingham and established himself in the lumber business, which he is now conducting. He is an honored member of the Baptist church, a K. P., and a Mason in high standing. He was married in 1882, to Miss Ella Burgamy, daughter of Dr. T. P. Burgamy. The couple have three children-Clifton. Irene and Howard. Mr. Roy- nolds is a son of Elisha Reynolds, a native of Tennessee, and was one of the pioneers of the stock business in Alabama. His wife was Miss Nancy Patty, a native of Tennessee. They were the parents of fourteen children, of whom the following six are now living: Sallie, wife of S. D. Brown, of Mobile; H. C., Montevallo. Aia. ; J. M .. Montevallo; Rev. M. P .. East Lake, Ala .: Nannie, wife of Dr. E. N. Lide, of Birmingham. and M. C. The father of these children died in 1972. and the mother in 1 ~~ 2
DR. EDWARD P. RIGGS was born at Pleasant Hill. Ala .. November 13. 1858. His early education was obtained at the common schools of Dallas county. in Alabama, and his medical education at the college of Physi- cians and Surgeons, of Baltimore, from which latter institution he gradu- ated, fourth in a class of 355, in 1sst, finishing with a special course at Tulane Medical college in New Orleans: locating for practice, shortly afterward, in Dallas county, Ala. He settled in Birmingham in 1853, where he has continued in successful practice np to the present time. Dr. Riggs is a member of the State Medical association. of which he was the orator in 1891, and is likewise a member of the Jefferson county
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