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 48
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DR. S. J. WITHERS. a native of Limestone county, was born in 1528, a son of Dr. John W. and Palmyra S. (Jordon) Withers. The parents were
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both natives of Virginia, but the father becanie an eminent physician of Alabama. He was a graduate of the college of physicians and surgeons of New York, and was in the practice about twenty years. He was a son of Judge John and Mary H. (Jones) Withers, the former a descendant of Lord Withers. Judge Withers was a son of William and Priscilla (Wright) Withers, and was a native of England, who came to America before the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Palmyra Withers was a daughter of Samuel and Jane (Scott) Jordon. natives of Virginia. Her father was a son of Sam Jordon, also a native of Virginia. Grandfather Jordan came to Alabama in 1-15. and settled in Limestone county. Judge Withers came to Alabama with his family in 1808, settled near Huntsville, and built many of the forts and stockades on the Tennessee river. Dr. S. J. Withers was reared on the farm, received a good education, and in 1847 began the study of medicine with John Y. Bassett. and in 1848 entered , the university of Pennsylvania. from which he graduated in 1850. and first located in Madison county. Ala .. and after one year went to Arkan- sas, where he practiced three years. then returned to Alabama and settled in Mooresville. where he has since remained. In 1-51 he married Emma Collier, daughter of Charles E. and Elizabeth M. (Stewart) Collier. This happy union has been blessed with five children-Elizzie, C. S., John W. and Charles W. (twins), Ella Lee and Emma B. The mother was born and reared in Alabama, and he and wife are member of the Episcopal church. John W. is a physician, having graduated in 1878, from the New York city Medical college. Dr. S. J. Withers is a member of the Masonic order, and Knights of Honor. He began life without anything beside his education, and by close application to business, accumulated considerable property, bit the war came on and swept all he had away. After the war he had to start life anew, and in the meantime has built up his present fortune, and is now one of the substantial citizens of the county. as well as one of the leading medical practitioners.
JAMES W. WOODROOF, one of the pioneer settlers of Limestone county. was born in Greenville county, Va., November 28. 1813. son of William and Elizabeth (Avent) Woodroof. The father and mother were both natives of Virginia. The father died when his son. James W., was one year old, and his mother remarried: with his stepfather she came to Alabama. in 1-22, and settled in Limestone county. The father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died while in that war at Norfolk, Va. Mrs. Woodroof was a daughter of John and Elizabeth Avent, natives of Virginia. James W. Woodroof was reared on the farm, and educated in a primitive little log school-house. He is well posted on all subjects, acquiring the information through the avenues of books and papers. His vocation was that of a farmer until about seventeen years of age, when ne accepted a clerkship in a store, at Mooresville, with Thomas H. Thach ; he remained with him until he was twenty-one years of age, and at the age of twenty three years he formed a partnership with R. B. Peebles.
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and entered into a general merchandising business in Mooresville, and remained four years, and since that time his calling has been that of a farmer. In 1853, he married Harriet A. Wright, of Madison county, Ala., daughter of William Wright. This union has been blessed with the birth of five children. three living. Waltoa W., Betty W., wife of Dr. Hill, and James W .. Jr., who was married in 1884 to Sarah Sanders, daughter of Benton and Eliza (Thach) Sanders. To this union three children have been born: Benton, Hattie and James W. Mrs. Harriet A. Woodroof was born in 1821. She was a member of the Baptist church. while her husband is a member of the Christian church. He came to Alabama with his stepfather when this was a new country, and when he began life for himself all he had was a negro woman and her children, but he worked hard, and being economical he came up rapidly in this world, and by the time the late war came on he owned ninety-six slaves, and about 3,500 acres of land. but the war set all his slaves free, and they were worth on an average. about $500 or $600 each, and when the war was over. his land only was left. and he had to begin life anew; but he has succeeded well, and a few years ago he divided a part of his land with his three children, giving them 700 acres each, and retaining the land on which he made liis beginning in life, consisting of about 1,400 acres. He is one of Limestone county's best citizens, and is liked by all who know him. He lost his wife in 1883, and since that time his daughter has made her home with him and attended to trivial wants.
LOWNDES COUNTY.
DR. ANDREW BOWIE, a prominent physician and surgeon of Benton, Ala., was born in Edgefield C. H., S. C., in 1830. He is a son of Dr. Samuel W. and Julia R. (Bonham) Bowie, the former of whom was born at Abbeville C. H. in 1908, and the latter in Edgefield district, in 1823. They were both liberally educated, he graduating at Nashville, Tenn., and she at Columbia, S. C. Dr. Bowie afterward graduated from the university of Pennsylvania. and practiced medicine in South Caro- lina until 1835, when he came to Lowndes county, and here spent the rest of his life, dying in 15-5, having practiced medicine forty years. He was also extensively interested in planting. He was of Scotch ances- try. At first three brotliers came to America, and settled in Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina. Dr. Bowie was one of a family of five children, four sons and a daughter. His mother belonged to a distin- guished family of South Carolina, one of her brothers, Gen. M. L. Bon- ham, being a brigadier-general in the Virginia army for some time; but resigned to become governor of South Carolina. After the war, he was a member of congress for some years. James Bowie was a Virginian by birth, and a relative of Dr. Samuel Bowie. He was the inventor of the
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bowie knife, went west at an early day, and was killed in a duel in Lou- isiana, with a knife of the kind he had invented. A son of his, Col. James Bowie, a very talented man, was killed at the Alamo, with Col. Crockett. in the Texas revolution. Dr. Andrew Bowie is the eldest of a family of seven, four sons and three daughters, viz. : Andrew, James S., who joined a squad of Alabamians for the settlement of Kansas, and died" in Brunswick, Mo., en route: Capt. Malachi Bonham was a captain of a cavalry company all through the late war in the Tennessee army with Gen. Wirt Adams. During a raid on Vicksburg he was detailed with three companies to cut off Gen. Grierson's forces. He held the enemy in check all day. and had four horses killed under him. The people of Vicksburg, therefore, presented him with a fine horse, and that was also shot, but not killed. He, another time, took two companies down the Mississippi river, and captured a trading boat heavily loaded with freight, a very hazardons undertaking; Capt. Milledge L. was captain of company M, Sixth Alabama infantry in the army of northern Virginia, all through the war. He was wounded several times. at Antietam, in the Wilderness, and at other places: and at Spottsylvania. on May 12. 1864, while at the head of the Sixth Alabama, he was severely wounded, ren- dering necessary the amputation of the leg above the knee joint; Sarah E., wife of Dr. J. S. Peake, now of Selma. Dr. Peake was assist- ant surgeon in the army, and was captured once. and was for a time held as a prisoner of war: Sophia Smith, wife of Thomas Riggs. of Pleasant Hill, Dallas county; Rosy E., wife of Joseph R. Dudley. one of the lead- ing planters of Lowndes county. Dr. Andrew Bowie was well educated
in his youth, and afterward spent six years at the university of Georgia, and graduated from Charleston, S. C., Medical college. in 1854. He began the practice of medicine at Bragg's Store, and remained there until the war, when he joined the army, and spent two years in the hospitals around Richmond. He was then made surgeon of the Third Alabama infantry, and served in the field till the close of the war. In the mean- ime he had been promoted to the rank of brigade surgeon and was, ex- officio, surgeon of the Third Alabama. After the war, he located in Ben- ton, where he has ever since been engaged in the practice of his pro- fession. He is one of the oldest physicians in the county, and stands at the head of the profession in the county. He has a powerful constitution. and .. notwithstanding the arduous duties of his calling, he is still well pre- served. During the sickly season he has gone two weeks without going to bed, getting what sleep he did get, in the saddle. He has, however. always enjoyed excellent health. He inherited his strength from his father, who had a very robust constitution, who was thoroughly devoted to his profession, and won the esteem of the entire community. Since 1855, Dr. Bowie has belonged to the State Medical association, and has filled all the offices of the Lowndes county Medical society. He was married first in 1-56, to Mary Ann, daughter of Dr. Adam Arthur, of
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Dallas county, a South Carolinian, but an early settler in Dallas county, where he died, having lived, however, a short time in Monroe county. Mrs. Bowie was born in Monroe county, and died in 1863, leaving three children, viz .: James S., of Tuscaloosa county; Samuel E., of Wilcox county, and Mary Julia. Dr. Bowie was married the second time, in 1865, to Miss Sarah Turnley, daughter of Edward Turnley, who was a wealthy farmer. Mrs. Bowie was the youngest of twenty one children, and died in Virginia in 1873, of consumption. She left two sous, viz. : Ira M. and Edmond Peake, the latter an orange grower of Florida. Dr. Bowie was married, a third time, in 1878, to Mrs. Auna Bowling Keener, daughter of Col. John Walker, who came from Georgia to Alabama in an early day and died at Benton. Mrs. Bowie was born at Benton. Dr. Bowie has devoted his attention almost exclusively to his profession, but takes great interest in politics, and bears his share of party support. So far as he knows, his forefathers have always been democrats. His first two wives were Baptists, and his third wife was a member of the Presbyterian church.
HON. WILLIS BREWER, a prominent lawyer of Hayneville, Ala., was born in Sumter county, March 15, 1844. He is a son of Robert Willis and Jane (Hadden) Brewer. the former of whom was born in Perry county, Ala., in 1819, and the latter in Abbeville district, S. C .. in 1823. They were fairly well educated people, married in Sumter county, Ala., and died in Wilcox county, Ala., the former in 1876 and the latter in 1868. Mr. Brewer was a farmer and country merchant in moderate circum- stances, always honest and industrious. He served in the artillery branch of the service about three years. in the late war, in the western army. He was a good and brave soldier. His father was William Brewer, a native of South Carolina, who came from Wiikes county, Ga., to Alabama, in 1818, and died in Macon county. He was a son of William Brewer, who, though of Welsh ancestry, was born in America. William Hadden. the father of Mrs. Jane Brewer, was a Revolutionary soldier, and died in South Carolina. His wife was a Miss DeFoe. an energetic lady. Mr. Hadden was a worthy and substantial citizen. Hon. Willis Brewer was reared principally on a farm, and received an academic education. At the age of fourteen he entered a printing office, and at seventeen he and an old schoolmate, now Judge Deloach, edited a paper at Milton, Fla. During the late war he volunteered three times to serve in the Confeder- ate army, but owing to ill-health he was not able to perform active service. He was engaged ir post duty at various places, and was deputy provost marshal, enrolling officer, etc. For a short time he was on the staff of Gen. Wirt Adams, in Mississippi. In 1865, he was appointed aid-de-camp on the staff of the governor, and the same year was admitted to practice law. He did not, however, engage in the practice of law for some years. After the war he edited a semi-weekly paper. the Wilcox
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Times, about two and a half years, and in 1858 removel to Hayneville. and established the Hayneville Examiner, which he edited until 183). Since then he has devoted himself principally to the law, planting, etc. In 1871 he was appointed treasurer of Lowndes county, by Gov. Lindsey, and served in that office a few months. In 1376 he was elected state auditor on the democratic ticket. and was re-elected in 1978. In 133), he was elected to the lower house of the legislature, and served on the ways and means committee as chairman. In 1882 he was elected to the senate from Lowndes and Autauga counties, and in the senate was chairman of the committee on internal improvements. He was re-elected to the senate in 1886, and was chairman of the committee on tinance and taxation. In the meantime, in the year 1882, he served as chairman of the committee which investigated the embezzlement of state treasurer Vincent. In 1890, the senator belonged to Autauga county, and Col. Brewer was elected to ' the lower house again, and made chairman of the ways and means com- mittee. He was re-elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1892. He was president of the state press association in 1976. In 1872, he published the "History and Resources of Alabama." a very popular work. and in 1884, he published "The Children of Isachar." He was a member of the Camden lodge, F. & A. M. In 1869, he was married to Mary Baine, daughter of Gen. David W. Baine, who was killed at Frazier's farm, as colonel of the Fourteenth Alabama infantry. Mrs. Brewer was born in Cherokee county, Ala., and is a most estimable lady. Col. Brewer is a director, in the Montgomery. Hayneville & Camden Railroad company, whose road is now in process of construction. He was a presidential elector for the state at large on the Cleveland ticket in 1892, and is one of the most prominent gentlemen in the state of Alabama,
WILLIAM M. BRIGHTMAN, of the firm of J. P. Streety & Co., general merchants, of Hayneville, Ala., was born in New York city in 1828. He is a son of Adolphus and Amelia (Travis) Brightman, who were both born in New York in 1800, and who lived there all their lives, the former dying in 1880 and the latter in 1583. They both died at Albany, where they had lived for fifty years. Adolphus was a contractor and builder by trade, and was an energetic and prosperous man. In politics he was a whig, but he was not a politician. He was of English descent, but his father was born in Nova Scotia and died there when Adolphus was a child. Nathan Travis, the father of Mrs. Amelia Brightman, was also a native of Nova Scotia, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, was a hatter by trade, and died in Westchester county, N. Y. William M. Brightman was the eldest of a family of seven, four sons and three daughters. He is the only one who came to Alabama. He was educated at the Albany public schools, and at seventeen began life for himself in Albany, in the cigar and tobacco business. In 1850, he came to Alabama, locating at Hayneville and there engaged in the cigar and tobacco trade. In 1856, he was mar- ried to Mary E. Tobler, who was born in Mobile in 1533. Her father
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died in Mobile when she was an infant. She then removed with her mother to Hayneville. where she was educated. married. and died in 1872, the mother of five children, viz. : Wiliett T., of the firm of J. P. Streety & Co .; Maggie L., wife of R. S. MeWhorter; Charles H .: Mary C. and La Rue. Mr. Brightman in March 1862. joined company K, Fifth Alabama infantry, as a private soldier, and served in the Virginia army fighting at Seven Pines. the seven days' battles. second Manassas, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg. Antietam, Chancellorsville, around Richmond and in the Shenandoah Valley with Early, and was neither wounded nor captured during the war. At the time of the surrender, he was home on special furlough of one from each company. During the last three years he was orderly sergeant. In 1866 he was engaged as clerk for J. P. Streety . & Co., and in 1869 became a member of the firm. He has been a member of the firm ever since, and the firm is now doing an annual basiness of over $90,000. In 1890, the firm erected a fine cotton gin, one of the best in the state. The company owns over 3,000 acres of land, which is culti- vated by tenants. Mr. Brightman started with nothing, and what he now owns has been accumulated by his own efforts. He is a member of the board of revenue of Lowndes comity. He has always been a democrat, and while not a politician yet he has always supported his party liberally. Mr. Brightman is an elder of the Presbyterian church, and his wife was of like faith at the time of her death. and both highly respected people. JUDGE ANDREW E. CAFFEE, probate judge of Lowndes county, was born in Lowndesboro, in 1848. He is a son of John Hooper and Mary E. (Ivey) Caffee, the former of whom was born in Montgomery in 1921, and the latter at Holy Ground battle field in Lowndes county, in 1824. They were liberally educated. and were married in 1840. Mr. Caffee accum- ulated a good fortune, which he lost during the war. He served a short time in the Third Alabama infantry in Virginia, was afterward a block- ade runner, and was captured and imprisoned at Fort Lafayette, was paroled by Gen. Dix. and made his way through the lines to Vicksburg. He then supplied the western army with cattle and provisions. Since 1866 he and his wife have resided in Indianapolis. Ind .. where he has made a fortune. He is a prominent Mason, and is a Catholic. His father, Hooper Caffee, was born in Guilford county, N. C., in 1794, was married there in 1819. came to Alabama, settling in Montgomery county, and dying there in 1835. He was a wealthy planter. In 1932 he owned the paper that was afterward merged into the Montgomery Advertiser. His wife died in 1836. His father, John Caffee, was born in Ireland, but came to America prior to the Revolutionary war, in which he was a sol- dier, settled in North Carolina, and in 1819 he and six of his sons came to Alabama, he and five of the sons dying in Montgomery county. One of his sons. Thomas, represented Montgomery county in the legislature, as also did a brother of Thomas. Jesse Ivey, father of Mrs. Mary E. Caf- fee, was a native of Virginia, but at an early day came to Alabama, locat-
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ing in Lowndes county, where his wife died. he dying in Louisiana, a wealthy planter. Judge Caffee is the youngest of a family of five chil- dren, four sons and one daughter. One son and one daughter died when young. Albert Hooper. the eldest brother living, has resided for twenty- six years in New York city, where he owns a printing establishment. He was in the Third Alabama infantry in Virginia for a short time, and then in the Seventeenth Alabama in the Tennessee army. He was severely wounded at Peach Tree Creek in the thigh. which terminated his active service in the war. He was at that time lieutenant of his company. James P .. now a planter of Louisiana, was in the Third Alabama infantry. and was very severely wounded at Cedar Creek, Va .. captured and taken to Point Lookout, where he was held until July 1, 1865. Judge. Caffee was reared at Lowndesboro. where he received his early education. . Later he attended Central institute in Coosa county, and in 1864 joined Sayre's battalion, and was at Mobile supporting a Mobile battery for a short time. He then joined the Montgomery Blues, Lee's battery, but did not get into the field until the close of the war. and surrendered at Greensboro, N. C. His life since then has been a checkered one. He clerked for a short time in Montgomery, was engaged in merchandising in Tuskegee, and in 1866 went to New York, where he clerked for a short time. He was next with Maximilian in Mexico, returning on horseback some 600 or 700 miles. He was then connected with a newspaper. the Mirror, in Indianopolis. Ind., a few years, and then he spent about eight years in exploring the Pacific and Rocky mountain states and territories, In 1875 he returned to Montgomery, and in the same year married Min- nie McLemore. and afterward spent a short time in newspaper work. This was in Chicago, and he next went to Iowa, where he edited a news- paper. His wife died in 1878, and he returned with her remains to Ala- bama. In 1881 he married Annie Haynes, a daughter of William B. Hay- nes, who was born in Lowndes county. and is the mother of two sons and one daughter. Since 1880 he has resided in his native county, In 1880 he was appointed sheriff of the county by Gov. Cobb. but soon afterward resigned. The same year he was chairman of the county central com mittee and a member of the state democratic executive committee. In 1884 he was a delegate at large to the democratic national convention at Chicago, and he was a delegate from his congressional district to the St. Louis convention in 1888. In 1886 he was elected probate judge of Lowndes county, and he was re-elected in 1892. He has been more or less connected with newspaper work all his life. and has been promi- nently identified with the democratic party for twenty years. He now owns two farms near Lowndesboro, upon which he is breeding the cele- brated Hambltonian horses. He now owns some of the most valuable of that stock in the country. In religion he is inclined to the Methodist Episcopal church, south, while his wife is a Presbyterian. Judge Caffee is the pioneer breeder of high bred trotting horses in Alabama, and his
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ambition is to see this industry adopted generally, as he believes it will prove more renumerative than cotton and less variable.
DR. PHILIP NOBLE 'CILLEY, a practicing physician and surgeon of Lowndesboro, Ala., was born at Weare, Hillsborough county, N. H., March 9, 1>21. He is a son of Hon. Seth Noble and Sarah (Cavis) Cilley, the former of whom was born at Weare in 1783, and the latter at Bow, N. H., in 1791. They were both liberally educated and spent all of their lives in their native state. the former dying in 1861, and the latter in 1850. They were married March 23, 1813. Mr. Cilley was a farmer, and was for several terms a member of the lower house of the state leg- islature. He also held various minor offices. He was a prominent Mason, and a soldier in the war of 1812. He was a son of John Cilley, who was born in 1739, and married Elizabeth Fowler, of Salisbury, N. H., and removed to Weare, where he died at the age of eighty-nine. His' wife died at the age of ninety-two. He was a farmer by occupation, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. and was also in the French and Indian war. His great-great-grandfather. Capt. Robert Seely (that being the family name then) of Watertown, Mass., married in 1630. removed to New Hamp- shire, and died at Weare. He was one of the two brothers, who came from the Isle of Man, one of whom located at Weare, and the other at Not- tingham. Many of their descendants became prominent in public affairs in the New England states, as member of the legislature and of congress. Richard Cilley. the third child of Robert, was a magistrate at the Isles of Shoals; in 1653 he removed to Hampton Falls. He had three chil- dren: Benoni, third child of Richard, married Eleanor Gatchell; they had eleven children. Thomas, third child of Benoni and Elenor Cilley, born 1707, married, first Elizabeth Fowler, second Lydia French, and had seven children, of whom John. above named, was the second. Nathaniel Cavis, the father of Mrs. Sarah Cilley, was a native of Merrimack county, N. H .. and spent all his life in that state. He was a farmer by occupation. and was in the Indian wars of his time, and also in the Rev- olutionary war. He died at Bow, N. H., at the age of eighty-six, his wife dying at the age of eighty-five. Dr. Philip N. Cilley was the fourth in a family of four, two sons and two daughters, viz .: John Cavis, who was born March 10, 1814, and died March 25, 1893. in the old Cilley house at East Weare: Elizabeth Louise, born June 9, 1815, was the wife of Hon. John Langdon Hadley, who was once secretary of state in New Hampshire, and register of deeds in Hillsborough county for many years. He was also a member of the legislature, having been elected when twenty -one years of age; Mary Ann, born January 31, 1817, married Nathan McCoy, now deceased. and she is also now.dead. Dr. Cilley, thie fourth of the family, was educated at Weare and New Hampton, and began life for himself at sixteen. teaching school in the winter in his native county, and Merrimack, and in Massachusetts until 1541, when he went to Union district, S. C., and taught school there one year. He thien
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