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 44
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leading physicians of the county. He owns considerable property, including some fine farming lands. He has 800 acres of land. 250 acres of which are under a high state of cultivation. The doctor was married. in 1-77, to Miss Panola E. Simms, daughter of Thomas D. Simms of Virginia. and to this marriage there have been born five children, viz. : Frances A. : Robert E. : William L. ; Edgar M .. and Thomas C. Dr. Simpson and his family are members of the Missionary Baptist church. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. and also of the Lawrence county Medical society, and of the board of censors for the county. While he began life for himself at the age of twenty-two years with but small capital, he is now possessed of a fine practice and a com- fortable competence for his older years.
GEN. JOSEPH WHEELER. "little Joe Wheeler," member of congress from the eighth Alabama district. is one of the most striking figures in the . annals of his adopted state. He was born in Augusta, Ga., September 10. 1836. He was graduated at West Point in 1859. and. as lieutenant of cavalry, served a short while in New Mexico. Leaving the old army he was named a lieutenant of artillery in the Confederate army. and was successively promoted to the command of a regiment, brigade, division and army corps. He was possibly the youngest lieutenant-general on either side, being less than thirty years of age when he achieved that rank. In 1862 he was assigned to the command of the army corps of cavalry of the western army. continuing in that position till the war closed. By joint resolution of the Confederate congress he received the thanks of that body for successful military achievements, and for the defense of the city of Aiken he received the thanks of the state of South Carolina. In May, 1864, he became the senior cavalry general of the Confederate armies. After the war he located in north Alabama, where he still lives. and began a mixed life of planting and practicing law. He was offered the professorship of philosophy in the Louisiana state seminary, but declined it. In 1552 he was elected to congress, and has served continuously since. In congress. Gen. Wheeler has distinguished himself mainly by attention to the needs of the army, but he has been a strong and capable debater on nearly all current questions of public interest, his speech, for example. on the Lodge election bill in the fifty- second congress calling forth wide commendation. He is an untiring worker, conducts a voluminous correspondence. and extends his aid to hundreds every year, who have no right to exact anything of him. He is. of course, immensely popular.
DEWITT CLINTON WHITE. editor of the Moulton Advertiser, was born in Franklin county, Ala .. September 14, 1-29. He was the second of six- teen children born to Nelson H. and Mary (Pope) White. both of whom were natives of Virginia. Nelson H. White came to Alabama in 1817. and settled in Franklin county. Here he engaged in farming for several years, and then took up teaching school and keeping hotel. He kept
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hotel at Tuscumbia and at Moulton until 1855. when he became editor in chief of the Moulton Advertiser, which position he held up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1863. The father of Nelson H. White was John White, and his mother Patsey White, both of Virginia. The parents of Mrs. Mary White were Thomas and Sarah B. Pope, also of Vir- ginia. DeWitt C. White was reared in Alabama, and received his educa- tion in both private and public schools of the state. He is at the present time editor of the Moulton Advertiser, one of the oldest papers in the state. It is a prosperous paper, circulating in all parts of the country. Mr. White has been the editor of this paper for forty-three years, and it is the fourth oldest paper in the state. It is considered one of the very best local newspapers in the state. Mr. White has taken a very active part in the politics of his county, and has been honored with election to the office of superintendent of education for the county, serv- ing in that office for the unusually long time of eleven years. from 1971 to 1882. Mr. White is a very prominent Mason, and served as high priest of the royal arch chapter for twenty-four years. He is a democrat in politics, and, through his paper, exerts a great influence in favor of his party. He was married in 1551 to Miss Mary E. Long, daughter of Abram Long, of Alabama. They have had no children. Mr. White was in the late war a short time. He enlisted. in 1961, in company F, Sixteenth Alabama infantry, and served as sergeant of his company. He was in the battle of Shiloh, but was in no other battle of magnitude. In 1863, he was commissioned by Gov. Thomas H. Watts to raise a battalion in Lowndes county, and succeeded in raising nine companies, but the war closed before his battalion went into active service. Both Mr. and Mrs. White are members of the Christian church. His is one of the oldest families in the state, and stands high in the county and in the community . in which he lives. It is of Scotch and English extraction.
LEE COUNTY.
JUDGE J. J. ABERCROMBIE .- In early colonial days there came from Scotland to America two brothers named Abercrombie, of whom one settled in Georgia, and the other in Pennsylvania, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch being descended from the former. The grand- father of the judge. Charles Abercrombie, resided in Hancock county, Ga., was a gentleman of great wealth and influence, and held the rank of major in the patriot army, during the Revolutionary war. He was patriotic in every sense of the word, and while the eventful struggle was in progress, erected a large fort, which was designed as a protection and free use for friends and neighbors in need of its protecting walls. The major married into a family named Boothe, and lived to the age of seventy seven years. His son, Gen. A. Abercrombie, was born andl reared
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in Hancock county. Ga., was a very extensive planter, owning an estate. with five miles of river front, and he and his sons-in-law held 800 slaves. when they were freed. He represented his county in the state legis- lature for several years, and was a man of great influence with his neighbors. At the call to arms in 1812. he entered the army as a private, but soon rose to the rank of adjutant-general. having done excellent service at the Calebee fight, and at Ottissee, and having been wounded in the arm in the former. He married Miss Sidney Grimes in Greene county. Ga., but passed the major part of his married life in Hancock county. Early in the thirties, however, he removed to Russell county. Ala., and settled on a plantation. five miles south of Columbus, Ga. He was very kind to the Indians, was honorable and just in his dealings with them, and paid them for his land. and furnished them with corn, etc .. gratuitously when they were suffering from hunger. When the trouble , between the Indians and the government broke out in open hostility, the red men never molested the property of Gen. Abercrombie, but, on the contrary, protected it. The general was a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, and died in its faith in 1867, his widow following him in 1876. Of the large family of children born to these parents, seven are still living, viz. : Elizabeth. widow of Judge N. L. Howard. of Colum- bus, Ga .; Judge J. J., of Opelika, Ala .; Everard H., Columbus, Ga. ; Maria L .. widow of John R. Berry. Clay Springs, Ala. : Mary F., wife of Gen. F. H. French. Winter Park, Fla. : Florida, widow of ex-Governor James M. Smith, Columbus. Ga. : and Maj. Wiley, now living near Winter Park, Fla: Judge J. J. Abererombie was born in Hancock county, Ga .. but was reared in Russell county, Ala. His preparatory education was acquired at La Grange, Ga., as well as at Emory college, and his profes- sional education was gained at Harvard university, from the law depart- ment of which he is a graduate. He opened his law office first in Colum- bus, Ga., where he was recognized from the beginning as a lawyer of remarkable ability, and where he secured a large elientage, and continued until after the close of the late war. serving during his residence there as one of the judges of the Muscogee district court for four years. In 1862 he enlisted in a company of minute men. and after serving a short time as a private, was for meritorious conduct advanced to the rank of major. After the close of the war he settled in Opelika, Ala., where he has a large practice. His residence is one of the finest in the county. and lies in the suburbs of the city. The major is an earnest worker in the Methodist Episcopal church, and a teacher in the Sunday school. while his social position is of the highest rank. He married near Tal- lasee. Ala .. Miss Parthena E. Ross, who has borne him four children. viz. : James A .. Ross. John Chappell and Wiley. A stanch democrat, he has always been active and ardent in his labors in behalf of that party, and his name has frequently been suggested by the press as a fit nominee for governor of the state. In this connection the Rome Daily Courier has
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said: "The friends of Judge J. J. Abercrombie, of Ice county, are urging his nomination for governor of Alabama, and the Panola Star says that his nomination is taking on the form of a boom.' Being well acquainted with Judge Abercrombie, and knowing his estimable traits of character, we can only endorse what the Atlanta Constitution says of him, that he 'stands high as a lawyer, and a christian gentleman. but we will add that he is a member of a family distinguished and honorable in the annals of Alabama, and does credit to the name he bears. The state would have in him one of the most upright and patriotic executives who illustrate her history." It may not be amiss to here introduce a copy of a letter to Mr. Abercrombie from the late president of the Confederacy; it reads as follows:
BEAUVOIR, Miss., Oct. 20th, 1886.
Hon. J. J. ABERCROMBIE, Very Dear Sir:
With pleasure I have received yours of the 17th inst., and have been glad to see. by the paper s notice. that there are yet among us some whom the office seeks, but who do not seek office. and to recog- nize you as one of that class. When I served in the First regiment of United States infantry. the adjutant bore a name identical with yours. I left him in that position in 1833. Was he a relative of yours ?
Respectfully and truly, JEFFERSON DAVIS.
WILLIAM H. BARNES (deceased) was a son of Isaac and Ruth (Mobly) Barnes, and was born in Meriwether county. Ga .. April 21. 1824. The Barnes family are of Irish extraction. and its earlier American members resided in Maryland prior to the Revolutionary war. From that state the grandfather of William H. removed to Meriwether county, Ga .. and later came to Alabama, and settled near LaFayette, Chambers county, where he passed the remainder of his life. William H. Barnes was reared in his native county. and at the age of nineteen began the study of law at. LaFayette. Ala., with Robertson & Reese. He was admitted to the bar in his twentieth year, and began practice at Dadeville. Ala .. remaining in the place until 1837, when he removed to LaFayette. Ala., where he practiced in partnership with James T. Brock, under the firm name of Brock & Barnes, until January. 1-69, and during this interval represented his district in the state senate eight years. In the year last named he moved to Opelika. Lee county. where he conducted a lucrative practice until his death, July 29. 1857. At this time he was a trustee of the Agricultural and Mechanical college, at Auburn. and it was largely due, indeed, to his efforts before the legislature, that this great school was established at that point. Mr. Barnes was an energetic democrat. and was a presidential elector on the Cleveland ticket in 1ss4. He was a corporation lawyer of great ability, and it is said that he had received fees of $60,000, in three cases conducted for the same number of railroad companies. He was a Mason, and was a steward in the Methodist
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church at the time of his death. His marriage took place at Rock Springs. Lee county. Ala., in 1847. to Miss Ann E. Rawles, and his union was crowned by the birth of nine children, as follows: W. W .; J. C .; C. H., deceased: Augustus: R. B. ; Mary E .. deceased wife of Daniel Frazier: Annie O .. deceased; Ione, deceased. and John R .. deceased at twenty-one years of age. The mother of this family now resides at the old homestead, at Opelika. At the demise of William H. Barnes, the Montgomery Advertiser, published the following obituary :
"The news of the death of this eminent and useful citizen will be read with profound regret in every portion of Alabama. None of her citizens was more patriotic. or more devoted to the public weal. No man ever stopped to question .Where stands Col. W. H. Barnes?' He bore a large and useful part in the public life of the state. He was always at the call of his party, and his people. While he cherished the worthy ambition for public station, to which his abilities and services made him naturally , an aspirant, there was nothing of the schemer about him-nothing cold and calculating. He was, by nature, patriotic, impulsive, warm-hearted. He was one of the few men in Alabama who aspired to her very highest honors, who boldly took sides with the doubtful prohibition issue. It was not a part of the man to stop and count the cost where his convic- tions led. The loss of Col. B. will be severely felt in Opelika. where he was so large a part of the life and character of the town. But no man in Alabama will fail to pause and pay some kindly tribute to one of the state's best sons, and to the happy possessor of the broadest, purest, happiest humor that ever charmed an audience of Alabama's sovereign voters.
Augustus Barnes. the fourth of the children of William H. Barnes, was born in Dadeville, Ala., August 16. 1854, and was educated at the university of Virginia, from which famous institution of learning he graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1872. He then read law under his father, in 1876 was admitted to the bar, and from that time to the present, has enjoyed a lucrative practice at Opelika, his place of resi- dence. He is a stanch democrat, and has served his town as mayor four years; he was a Cleveland and Thurman elector in 1888. February 4, 1883. he was happily married, at Opelika. to Miss Lillie B., daughter of Dr. John B. Barnette, the union being now made more happy by the presence of two children, named Ione and Mary Charles. Mr. Barnes is a Knight of Pythias, and is a steward in the Methodist church, and as a lawyer and gentleman, stands in the front rank of the profession. and in the social circle, none holds a better position.
HON. L. P. BOOKER was born in Wilkes county, Ga., April 9, 1816, and is the son of Richeson and Elizabeth Booker. The Bookers are of Welsh-Irish descent, and were among the oldest families of Virginia, settling there many years before the war of independence. William M. Booker, father of Richeson, was a native of Virginia, in which state he married Edith Clay, an aunt of the great commoner, Henry Clay, whose name is so inseparably connected with the political history of the United States. Richeson Booker was born in Amelia county, Va., about
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the year 1790, and was reared to manhood in Elbert county, Ga., where he met and married Elizabeth Simpson. a native of Wilkes county. that state. Mr. Booker was a farmer by occupation, also a merchant, and for a number of years held the office of justice of the peace. His death occurred in Wilkes county. Ga., in 1856. To Richeson and Elizabeth Booker were born several children, only two of whom are now living. namely: John M. and L. P. By a subsequent marriage with a sister of his former wife, Mr. Booker had a family. of whom E. M. and Simpson Booker are the only living members. In his youth L. P. Booker attended the old Penfield school. now Mercer university, Macon, Ga., but did not complete his course, withdrawing from the institution and becoming engrossing clerk of the house of representatives at Milledgeville at the age of nineteen. Subsequently he accepted a clerkship in the surveyor- general's office, in which capacity he continued two years, and then , engaged as clerk with a mercantile firm of Milledgeville to manage a branch store at Fort Gaines, where he remained until 1838. From 1840 till 1843. Mr. Booker was engaged in educational work in the county of Wilkes, and the four years following he was similarly employed in Troup county, where he earned an enviable reputation as a popular and efficient instructor. Relinquishing teaching. he made an extensive tour of Texas and the southwest, and returning in 1849 married Elizabeth Gates, and engaged in agricultural pursuits in Troup county, where he resided until his removal to Lee county, Ala., in 1857. During the late war Mr. Booker served as deputy probate judge of Russell county, and was for some time connected with the militia service of the state. In 1876 he represented Lee county in the state legislature, and in 1892 was nomi- nated for the office of treasurer of the county. He also served as county commissioner during a part of the war period. and his official record reflected credit upon himself and was eminently satisfactory to the peo- ple of the county. Until recently Mr. Booker followed planting in Lee county, but in 1884 retired from his farm and became a resident of Phoenix City, which he has since made his home. Judge Booker is a man of character and high standing in Lee county, and is justly classed with the most popular citizens of the town in which he resides. He is a democrat in polities, and for a number of years has been a faithful com- municant of the Baptist church. He has a family of seven children, whose names are as follows: B. R., Emma, wife of A. N. White; Cora, wife of Warren Williams: Franklin, Nannie, Leslie , and Bessie, wife of T. A. McGraw.
DANIEL BULLARD is one of the oldest inhabitants and one of the most striking figures of Lee county. Ala., and is a resident of Oak Bowery. He was born in North Carolina. September 21. 1811, and came to Alabama when about twenty-three years of age. His father. Robert Bullard. was a native of Robeson county. N. C .. was a planter, who spent a life time of seventy-three years within a half mile of his birth place. He married Mis
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Catherine McLean, a native of the Isle of Skye, who came to America when a child. with her father. Charles McLean, who settled in North Carolina before the Revolutionary war. The children born to this marriage were nine in number, all of whom lived to be grown, but of whom four only are now living, viz. : Daniel. of Lee county, Ala. ; Priscilla, widow; Cath- erine. wife of Atlas Jowers; and Elias. of Robeson couuty, N. C. The parents of these children died in 1-56 and 1870. the mother following the father to the grave. at the age of ninety-five years. Daniel Bullard was twenty-two years of age when he first left his home. to pass a year in Houston county. Ga .. whence he came to Alabama .and located in 1933 about two miles south of Opelika. when that now growing city was a mere Indian village. and a small one at that. At this place Mr. Bullard lived until the year 1844. when he went down the river Chattahoochee. and for three years resided on a plantation in Alabama. opposite Columbus. . Ga., and then returned to the old place in Lee county. where he lived , until 1876. when he settled on his present place. Oak Bowery. In addition to managing his plantations. Mr. Bullard traveled from 1843 to the end of the late war for the Taylor Cotton-gin company. and on one of his trips was captured by the Union soldiers, within the lines at Vicksburg. and confined in that city during the entire siege of nine weeks. Mr. Bul- lard was united in wedlock, just below Opelika, August 7, 1835, to Miss Susan Mizell, a lady of French descent, and born near Savannah, Ga. The children born to his union, were twelve in number. of whom one died in infancy, the others having all reached maturity, and. with two exceptions, still living. and intermarried with the best families of Opelika and Lee county, viz. : Martha A., wife of Capt. R. M. Greene, Opelika; Mary, the first wife of the late Dr. Williams, and Elizabeth, his second wife, but now likewise deceased: Susan H., wife of J. S. Hair, tax collector of Lee county, and a resident of Auburn: Sallie, widow of John Richards; Emma E .. wife of John S. Davis, Gold Hill. Ala .: Winnie, wife of N. S. Harris, Roanoke. Ala .: Laura P .. wife of John R. Chapman, Cedartown, Ga. ; Daniel W .. of Oak Bowery; Robert Lee, who graduated from West Point. in the class of 1885. and is now first lieutenant of the Sixth United States infantry. stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kan .: and Dr. C. C. Bullard, an eminent eclectic practitioner of Oak Bowery. Daniel Bullard is a tall, fine-looking gentleman, with a physique but little impaired by advancing years. He is a democrat, in politics, is a master Mason. and been a member of the Methodist church since early manhood.
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JUDGE THOMAS L. FRAZER, the eldest child born to Addison and Mary A. (Florence) Frazer, was born in Lincoln county, Ga .. Decem- ber 21. 1-35. Addison Frazer was born in Wilkes county about the year 1809, and was a son of Arthur Frazer, a native of North Carolina. of Scotch-Irish extraction. The Florence family were Georgia people, and Mrs. Mary A. Frazer was born in Lincoln county, that state, where she was married early in the year 1-35 to Mr. Frazer. There were six chil-
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dren born to this marriage, of whom five are still living, as follows: Judge Thomas L., Mrs. O. F. Casey, living in Auburn, Ala. : Lucy J., living near Auburn: Mrs. H. C. Johnson, of Opelika, and Mrs. L. S. Driver, of Montgomery. In 1836, Addison Frazer came to Alabama, and located in Barbour county, seven miles west of Glenville, but the Indian troubles had broken out at this time, and the property belonging to Mr. Frazer was all destroyed by fire or other means, and he fled to Muscogee county, Ga., where he remained about a year and then returned to his former settlement in Barbour county, Ala. In 1849, he moved to Auburn, Lee county, Ala., where he ended his days in 1872. His widow still resides on the homestead. two miles from Auburn. Judge Thomas L. Frazer, after receiving a sound English education, engaged in the cotton commission business. which has more or less claimed his attention until the present time, being now engaged in the same at Opelika, Ala. He has hosts of friends, and has made himself quite popular in business as well as social circles. He served as probate judge of Lee county from 1883 to 1886, and during his incumbency took an important part in adjust- ing the bonded debt of the county incurred in favor of railroads by popu lar vote. The judge was commended by the people for the business-like manner in which he adjudicated this debt. Although an uncompromising democrat, he is no office-seeker, yet is willing to do his whole duty as a citizen when called upon. and has always been closely identified with the politics of the state, being a member of the state democratic executive committee. The marriage of Judge Frazer took place in 1875, near Opelika, to Miss Ella N., daughter of Isaac Ross, three children being the result of the union. viz. : Mary Ella, Thomas R., and John. A. The judge is a master Mason, and also a member of the Methodist church.
J. T. HOLLAND .- Prominent among the successful business men of Phoenix City, is the gentleman whose name introduces this biography. He is a native of Georgia, born in the city of Columbus, June 3, 1834, the son of J. C. and Hettie (Day) Holland. Educated in the common schools and reared on the farm. Mr. Holland early became familiar with the practical duties of life, and at the age of seventeen engaged in agricul- ture upon his own responsibility. and continued the same for a number of years. He also began merchandising where he now lives. a number of years ago, and has ever since given his attention to the business, which he has managed so successfully, that a comfortable fortune is the result of his consecration to the business. Mr. Holland served one term as sheriff of Russell county before the war, was again elected to the office in 1865, and on the division of the county, in 1-84, was chosen to represent the new county of Lee in the general assembly of the state. He is promi- nent in the deliberations of the democratic party, both in local, state and national elections, and at this time is a member of the state central com- mittee. Mr. Holland served in the late war as first lieutenant in Wad- dill's light artillery, which he joined in 1861, and with which he took
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