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 52
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA 1
ing, which has been his life-long pursuit. In 1867 he married Miss The- resa E., daughter of Dr. James S. Moore, of Georgia. but an early settler of Macon county. Ala., whose death occurred at Warrior Stand, Ala., shortly after the close of the war. He was a graduate of West Point Military academy in the class with Robert E. Lee. and was for many years a successful physician. Mrs. Hurt was born in Macon county, became the mother of five children -- all still living -- and died, a devout Methodist, in August. 1884. In 1858 the judge married Mary Jessie. a daughter of Prof. G. A. Granberry, now a teacher at Dothen. Ala., but formerly of Harris county, Ga., where Mrs. Hurt was born. From 1875 to 1880, Mr. Hurt served as tax collector of Macon county: in 1886 he was elected probate judge, and was re-elected in 1592. so satisfactory had been his attention to his duties. He is a member of Tuskegee lodge, No. 57, F. & A. M., is a member of the Knights and Legion of Honor, and, with his wife, of the Methodist Episcopal church.
JOHN MASSEY, LL. D., president of the Alabama Conference Female college, at Tuskegee, Ala., is a native of Choctaw county, Ala., and was born in 1834, the son of Drewry and Vashti (Gorham) Massey, of South Carolina. Drewry Massey was quite a young man when he left his native state and went to Tennessee, whence he came to Alabama and located in Choctaw county, where he followed farming. He served in the war of 1812, under Gen. Andrew Jackson, and died in 1849, at the age of about . sixty-five years, a member of the Baptist church, his widow surviving him . until 1857. These were the parents of three children, viz. : Drewry, who was killed at Resaca, Ga., in 1864, while serving as a private in the Twenty-third Alabama infantry, in which he enlisted in 1562; Joel. who died before the war. and John. whose name introduces this sketch. The last named was reared on a farm and received his preliminary education at the common schools: he then passed six years in Clarke county. Miss., under the tutelege of Dr. S. S. Mellen, and three years at the State uni- versity of Alabama, from which he graduated in 1962. He was then requested by the president of the university to accept an assistant pro- fessorship, but the war had aroused his patriotism, and he determined to try a soldier's life. Accordingly, in 1862. he joined Hilliard's legion- later known as the Alabama legion-of which he was made adjutant of the first battalion. and operated in the department of east Tennessee until 1864. when, by special request of the president of the State university of Alabama, the governor of the state appointed him to an assistant profes- sorship in that institution of learning, which position he held until the buildings were destroyed, April 3, 1865. After the close of the war he returned to his native county, where he taught school for a year with marked success. He was then offered the presidency of the Centenary institute at Summerfield, which offer he accepted, and for eight years successfully managed that institution. He then moved to Mobile, and after teaching two years in Mobile he was chosen president of the Ala -
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John Masary.
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MACON COUNTY.
Conference Female college. This college is situated on a high ridge that constitutes the dividing line between the cotton and mineral belts of Alabama. Occupying a position midway between the debilitating tem- perature of the extreme south and the rigor of a more northern latitude, it is highly favored in the uniformity and salubrity of its climate. As may be seen by reference to the statistical mays published by the gov- ernment at Washington. Tuskegee is located in a small area which is less liable to malarial diseases than any other portion of Alabama, middle Georgia or middle Tennessee. The idea of founding this school was the conception of Mrs. Martha Alexander, who, though "dead, yet speaketh" through her philanthropic enterprise. It was chartered by the legislature of Alabama in 1834. under the name of Tuskegee Female college, and its title and management were placed in the hands of a board of trustees. It was organized and began its career February 11, 1856. Under its original name it continued to prosecute its work until 1872, when the Alabama conference became the owners of the property in fee-simple, had the name changed by legislative action to Alabama Conference Female 'col- lege, and appointed a board of managers to supervise its administration. This board makes contracts with the president, who employs the teach- ers and manages its affairs. The first president was the Rev. A. A. Lips- comb, D. D., LL. D. The superior aesthetic and literary culture of Dr. Lipscomb crowned the enterprise with eminent success from the outset, and gave tone to an educational movement of a unique and elevated order, in which taste and criticism found a higher developement than has been hitherto. attempted in female education. In 1859 Dr. Lipscomb retired, and Dr. G. W. F. Price was placed in charge of the institution. In 1862 the board of trustees sold the property to the Rev. Jesse Wood, who assumed control of the school. In 1863 Mr. Wood sold the property to Dr. C. D. Elliott, who managed its affairs until the spring of 1865, when Dr. Price was again placed in the presidency, which he held until 1872. In 1872 the Rev. H. D. Moore, D. D .. was placed in charge of the insti- tution by the board of managers, and presided until December, 1875, when he was recalled to the work of the ministry. Upon his retirement the Rev. E. L. Lovelace, D. D., the preacher in charge of Tuskegee Station, filled the vacancy for the remainder of the school year. In June, 1876, John Massey was elected president by the board of managers for a term of five years. At the expiration of this term. in 1881, he was re-elected
for another term of five years. In 1886, he was re-elected for a third term of five years. In 1891. he was re-elected for a fourth term of five years. Dr. Massey has proven himself to be one of the foremost educa. tors in the south. and since assuming the presidency of this college has been earnestly solicited to accept the presidency of several of the most prominent colleges of Georgia and Alabama, but has steadfastly declined relinquishing his present position. Dr. Massey was first married, in 1866, to Miss Fredonia A. Taylor, of Clarke county, Ala., who died in 1871. In
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA
1873 he was again married to Miss Elnora F. Dallas. a native of Greene county, Ala., and a daughter of Alexander Dallas, a Scotchman by birth, but an early settler of Greene county, where he was extensively engaged in planting. Dr. Massey has been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. south, since he was twenty years of age, and is also a member of the Knights of Honor. His degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the university of Alabama in 1869.
NEIL C. SMITH, deceased. was one of the most prominent business men of Tuskegee, for many years. He was born and reared in Edgefield district, S. C .. and there married Caroline M. Henesee. a native of the same state. In 1857, Mr. Smith and his wife came to Alabama and settled in Tuskegee, where Mr. Smith engaged in carriage and wagon manufactur ing, and continued so employed until his death. He was an energetic, industrious, progressive and honest citizen-a Mason and a Methodist. He was the eldest child born in a family of one son and eight daughters, whose father, a Scotchman, came to America when a young man, and was mar- ried in South Carolina, to a Miss Boatwright. Mr. Smith was promi- nent as a Baptist minister: a sister of his, the only other member of the family that came to the United States. married Rev. Mr. White, also a Baptist minister, who erected the first Baptist church in Savannah, Ga. Mrs. Neil C. Smith was a daughter of John Henesee, a carriage dealer and general speculator of Columbia. S. C. She died in 1884, aged about sixty-six years, a Methodist, and the mother of six sons and two daugh. ters, viz .: John C., who died in 1892. a very prominent man of Tuskegee, and who, on the death of his father, took charge of the business. and, in 1867, changed the firm name to that of John C. Smith & Bro., under which style the surviving brother still does business. For some years past a furniture department has been carried on in connection with the carriage trade, and the company also run a grist mill, and a cotton-gin, and since 1888, have operated the Tuskegee oil-mill. At the beginning of the war the estate was valued at 860.000, and consisted mostly of negroes. which were, of course, lost: but good management has restored the con- cern to its former prosperity. Mr. John C. Smith was once sheriff of Macon county. was always active in public affairs, and in the church; he was also one of the board of managers, and a member of the executive committee of the Alabama Conference Female college. He left a wife and three children. The second sou of Neil C. Smith. was George H., deceased, who was captain of a battery stationed at Mobile most of the time during the war; afterward, he became a member of the carriage and furniture firm. Ellen L. is the elder of the two sisters. The fourth child is Campbell E., the senior member of the present firm, who, at the breaking out of the Civil war, was one of the first to offer his services to the Confederacy. by enlisting in company C. Third Alabama infantry, early in 1-61. His first active service was at Pensacola for about six weeks, when he was transferred to Virginia, where, with the exception
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MACON COUNTY. 453
of the first battle of Manassas. he fought in every engagement in which the great army of Virginia participated, serving as corporal all through, and never absenting himself save once, when he had a furlough home for thirty days. At Gettysburg. he was wounded in the shoulder and in the head, which disabled him for a few weeks, when he was again at the front, and remained there until the surrender at Appomattox, since when he has passed all his time with the carriage and wagon firm. The fifth member of the family, Charles Alexander, now a member of the firm. was also a soldier in the late war, in the same command, was captured at Petersburg, early in 1865, and imprisoned at Point Lookout until the close. The sixth child, James D., deceased, was in the same corps with his brother, George H., from some time in 1863. The youngest son, Dr. M. M. Smith, a graduate of the Kentucky Medical college, at Louis- ville, is a resident of Birmingham. Ala., where he stands at the head of his profession. The younger daughter, and youngest child. Mattie, deceased, was the wife of Rev. Wiley Denson, a Presbyterian divine.
CHARLES W. THOMPSON, prominent as a banker and merchant of Tus- kegee, is a native of Macon county, Ala., and a son of William P. and Mary W. (Jordan) Thompson, who were respectively born in Talladega county, Ala., in 1839, and near Richmond, Va., in 1840. Mrs. Mary W. Thompson came to Alabama with her parents. and was married in Macon county, where she still resides: William P. Thompson died in January, 1891. He had passed nearly all his life in Macon county, and although possessed of limited capital at the start, became one of the county's most successful and wealthy merchants, and held the implicit confidence and esteem of the community. He served through the late war as a private in the Forty-third Alabama infantry, and also served as sheriff of Macon county from 1880 until 1884. He died a Mason, and a member of the - Primitive Baptist church. His father, Alfred Thompson, died about 1882, in Macon county, of which he was a pioneer farmer. He had three sons in the Confederate army, viz. : James, who was killed at Atlanta, July 22, 1864, while serving with the Forty.third Alabama. William P., as already mentioned, and Robert, who was also a member of the Forty- third regiment. Charles W. Thompson is the eldest of a family of nine sons and two daughters. He was educated at Tuskegee, and in 1880, at the age of twenty years, assumed charge of his father's mercantile busi- ness, which he has ever since controlled with marked ability, doing now a trade that reaches the immense sum of $100,000 per annum. In 1890 he organized the Tuskegee Alliance Warehouse company, of which he is the present secretary and treasurer. He is also largely interested in plant- ing, and is one of the shrewdest and most successful business men of the county. He is a member of the city council, and in 1885 was county superintendent of education. His marriage took place in 1880, to Miss Estella, daughter of William Alley, a machinist, who is now deceased. 28*
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
Tuskegee is the birthplace of Mrs. Thompson, and in its Female insti- tute she received her education, being a refined and cultured Christian lady. Mr. Thompson is C. C. of the K. of P. council, No. 107. and is a member of the A. L. of H., also a steward of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Sunday school superintendent ..
WILLIAM H. WRIGHT, of the firm of Campbell & Wright, bankers, and doing business at Tuskegee, Macon county, Ala., was born in Lincoln county, Ga .. in 1827, the son of Hon. John and Elizabeth (Walker) Wright, natives of Columbia and Lincoln county, Ga. Mrs. Wright died in her native county in 1846, and in 1847 Mr. John- Wright came to what is now Bullock county, where he died in 1863, aged about sixty-seven years. He was a farmer in his calling, but he was a man of much prominence among his neighbors, having served as their representative in the Georgia legislature. John H. Walker. the maternal grandfather of Will - iam H. Wright, was a native of Kentucky, but died in Walton county, Ga., having followed farming during life. William H. Wright is the . second in a family of four sons and three daughters, born to his parents, as follows: Mary, widow of Charles B. Dill; William H. ; James. deceased, a private in the Confederate army during the Civil war, but who was chiefly employed in a recruiting camp, owing to disability physically; Martha, deceased wife of J. B. Neal; Eliza J., deceased wife of George W. Campbell; John, who served all through the late war, but is now deceased, and Moses, who was a soldier until 1864, when he died in the hospital at Richmond, Va. William H. Wright came to Alabama with his father, and after following his calling of farmer for a year or two, at the age of twenty-one entered the employ of Bedell & Lanier as clerk. In 1852 he became a partner of G. W. Campbell, his brother-in-law. In the fall of 1863 he joined Wheeler's cavalry, served as a private, was later in the ordnance department, and at the close of the war was an ord- nance officer in Hannon's brigade. He was in the Georgia campaign, fol- lowed Gen. Sherman to the Carolinas, and surrendered at the close, near Columbia. After the restoration of peace he passed a year and a half in the store, but the firm at that time purchased a plantation near Union Springs, of which he had the management for five years, when, in 1871, E. T. Varner, L. V. Alexander and Campbell & Wright built the Tuske- gee railroad. of which he has had control ever since, and has managed with much success. Mr. Wright was married in December, 1858, to Miss Lucy, daughter of Alfred and Nancy Carter, natives of Georgia, whence they came to Butler county. Ala., in 1819. and where Mrs. Wright was born. The children born to this union were ten in number, of whom seven are still living, viz .: Ida, wife of S. B. Johnston; George C., of Tuskegee; James C., chief engineer of the Savannah, Americus & Mont- gomery railroad; Lorraine, Inez, Bessie and Moses. Capt. Wright is a member of Tuskegee lodge, F. & A. M. No. 57, and, although not an office-seeker, is a stanch supporter of the democratic party.
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MADISON COUNTY.
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MADISON COUNTY.
MILTON COLUMBUS BALDRIDGE, M. D., eldest son of William F. and Elizabeth Caroline (Mitchell Baldridge. was born in Cornersville, Marshall county, Tenn., May 12, 1832, being a descendent of Scotch-Irish parents. William F. Baldridge was born in North Carolina in 1809, and moved with his parents to Giles county, Tenn., where, in due time, he learned the tanner's trade, in which business he was subsequently engaged for many years. In 1854 he located near Huntsville, Madison county, Ala., at which place he established the first fruit nursery in that portion of the country. His wife having died in 1866. he married Miss D. H. McDonnald of Huntsville, Ala., and subsequently moved to Plano, Tex., where he died May 31, 1891. Milton C. Baldridge was reared on a farm, receiving only a limited education in the common schools of the country. At the age of sixteen he chose the vocation of his father, and accord- ingly followed the tanner's trade for several years, but being desirous to acquire a more liberal education, in order that he might be prepared for a wider field of usefulness, he again returned to school for a preliminary training, preparatory to the study of medicine. Accordingly he began the study in 1850, near Florence, Ala .. under the instructions of Dr. Jef- ferson P. Mitchell. In 1853 he attended lectures in the Medical college of Ohio, at Cincinnati, and practiced medicine under a license from a state board of examiners until 1874, when he graduated in Bellevue Hospital Medical college, New York. At the breaking out of hostilities between the states, he connected himself with the medical department of the Con- federate army, and served as assistant surgeon in the Twenty-seventh Alabama, and the Forty-eighth Tennessee, regiments respectively, for a time, until failing health compelled him to abandon the service. After the close of the war, he located in Madison county, where for several years his practice was large and remunerative. until 1871, when that location was changed to the city of Huntsville, since which time he has been continuously engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery. The doctor is ex-president of the State Medical association. grand senior counselor, president of the Madison county Medical society, chairman of the board of medical examiners, member of the Amer. Public Health association, and fellow of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological asso- ciation. He has contributed several papers to medical journals, and the transactions of the State Medical association. Though the doctor has been abundant in professional labors for nearly forty years, he has devoted much time to benevolent and charitable institutions. Being a member of all Masonic bodies, from entered apprentice, to the Scottish Rite, Knight Templar inclusive; also an Odd Fellow, Knight of Pythias, and Knight of Honor. The doctor was married January 16, 1-55, to Miss N. C. Neeley, eldest daughter of Anderson P. and Eliza M. Neeley of Lauderdale county, Ala. Unto them were born seven children, namely :
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
7 .mes Alexander. Viola Beatrice, Mollie Bettie, Felix Edgar, Stella Cor- iin, Percy. and Katie. The doctor's wife died April 13, 1876, and Sep- tember 19. 1880, he married Miss Ella M .. daughter of Andrew and Saralı E. Jolinson of Huntsville, Ala. To this marriage was born one son, Milton C., Jr. The doctor and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, in which he has served as steward from 1856 until the present time.
HENRY S. BRADFORD, of Huntsville, Ala., was born in Madison county, Ala., near Huntsville, March 15, 1856, and was educated at Hunts- ville. He was engaged in farming until 1891, when he removed to Hunts- ville to educate his children. He is an encampment Odd Fellow, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was married March 27. 1878, to Dora Hereford. daughter of Dr. Hereford, of Madison county, Ala., and to them were born fve children: Sallie W .. Mame D., Ańnie, Martha and Roberta. The father of Mr. Bradford was H. G. Bradford, of Madison county, Ala. He married Susan Ward, of that county, and they had two children -Sallie, wife of Dr. E. G. Case, of Hopkinsville, Ky., and Henry S., of Huntsville. In 1892, Mr. Bradford was elected a trustee of the Huntsville Female college.
JUDGE ROBERT COMAN BRICKELL is a native of Colbert county, Ala., but now a resident of Madison county. His father, who came from North Carolina, was a printer and journalist in Huntsville, Tuscumbia and Athens, and represented Limestone in the house in 1532. His mother was the sister of Hon. J. P. Coman, of Limestone. The son was born in 1824, and labored in the printing office of his father to obtain money to secure his education. He then read law under Judge Coleman in Athens, and was admitted to the bar about the year 1844. Repeated failures in his early professional career were occasioned by his diffidence, but persistence has crowned his efforts with such success that he ranks among the first lawyers of the state. In 1846, he came to Madison, where he has since resided. Only in 1856 was he a candidate for office, and then within the line of his profession. It was for supreme court judge, but he withdrew his name. He is a " book-worm." and has a singularly reten- tive memory, which he applies with great advantage. His arguments are profound, and he is sure " to make the worse side appear the better." He has long been associated in the practice with Gen. L. P. Walker. Of late, he has devoted much of his time to a digest of chancery decisions, which will crown his hard-earned fame when published. Mr. Brickell is small of stature and delicate.
DR. P. L. BROUILLETTE. of Huntsville, Ala., was born in Vincennes, Ind., September 3, 1844. He was educated in the preparatory schools of his home, and at the age of twenty-four took up the study of medicine with Dr. A. Patton, at Vincennes. and graduated at the Ohio Medical college in 1971. After locating in Worthington. Ind., and practicing thirteen years, he located in 1884 in Huntsville, where he still practices
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his profession. During his residence in Indiana he was a member of the Indiana state Medical society, and has published a number of valuable papers in medical journals. one of which, "Intestinal Obstruction," attracted considerable attention, when published in the Alabama Medical and Surgical Age. He belongs to the Madison county Medical society, and the State Medical society, of Alabama. Dr. P. L. Brouillette was married, in 1885, to Mary L., daughter of W. C. Andrews, of Worthing- ton, Ind., by whom he had one daughter-Katharine. The doctor is the son of M. L. Brouillette. of Indiana, a life-long resident and farmer of Vincennes. He married Jane B. Langdon and they were the parents of eleven children, of whom the following eight are living: Dora. widow of B. P. Wigginton, of Terre Haute, Ind. ; Samuel L .; Dr. P. L .; Helen, wife of Dr. Jett, Clay City, Ind .: Leila: Alice, wife of James A. Austin, of Worthington, Ind. ; M. L .. of Vigo county, Ind., and Anna. The doctor's father died in 1869, and his mother in 1891. The Brouillettes are of French extraction. but the founders of the American branch of the family came from Canada. Dr. Brouillette is a member of the Episcopal church.
JAMES L. DARWIN, physician and surgeon of Huntsville, was born in Madison county. Ala .. July 8, 1859. He began hiseducation in the schools of his home, and continued his studies at the Agricultural and Mechanical institute at Auburn, Ala .. but ill health necessitated his withdrawal from this institution before he had finished the courses prescribed there .. To recuperate his failing health. he went into the mercantile business with his father, in Huntsville, and remained with him six years. In 1885 he went to Bellevue hospital medical college. N. Y .. and graduated there- from in 1888. and was appointed on the staff of the Harlem hospital, which he resigned soon after. to accept a position on the resident staff of the New York cancer hospital, where he served one year, and in 1890, returned to Huntsville. where he has since practiced with good success. He belongs to the Madison county Medical society, and the Alabama state medical association, and is a licensed practitioner of the state of New York. He is also a'K. P., and a member of the Episcopal church. Dr. Darwin's father is Sidney F. Darwin. a native of Madison county. who is, and has been, for forty years, engaged in mercantile business in Huntsville. In 1856 he married Mary Lanier, of Madison county, by whom there were eight children, the following six of whom survive: Dr. James L. : Mary S., wife of S. W. Harris, of Huntsville: Dixie, wife of Dr. S. J. McGrew of Shelbyville, Tenn. ; George, of Huntsville; Belle and Walter. Sidney Darwin was a soldier in the Confederate service from 1862 to 1863, a member of Ward's battery, but connected with the commissary depart- ment.
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