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 53
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JOHN JEFFERSON DEMENT, M. D. (deceased), was born on the 13th of May, 1830, in Madison county, Ala .. and is a son of John and Celia W. (Lowe) Dement. John Dement was a native of Sumner county, Fenn. He received a common school education. became a good, substantial farmer
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and served as a justice of the peace. He was married in 1810, and came at once to Madison county, Ala., which was thereafter his home. He died in 1848, and his wife in 1932. They raised eight children, viz. : Alfred T., now deceased; Susan, wife of G. B. Smith. of Phillips county, Ark .; John J., Elverton F .. Cornelia J., widow of Robert Hereford; Mattie E., wife of L. B. Burrus, of Arkansas; Kate, wife of R. P. Thomp- son, of Madison county: and Lowe. a soldier under Breckinridge in the late war, and was killed at Jackson, Miss. John Dement was a son of Charles Dement, a native of North Carolina, and one of the pioneers of Sumner county, Tenn. He raised a large family, viz .: Cader, Charles, Abner, James, David, John. and two daughters, Mildred and Clara. There is a tradition that three brothers of this name came from France in the colonial days, and were soldiers in the Revolution. One settled in Tennessee, one in Maryland, and the third went west. John J. Dement at twenty began the study of medicine at Meridianville, Ala., under Dr. G. A. Wynche, now at Bossier parish, La. He took his first medical : course at Louisville, in the winter of 1851-32; went to Philadelphia and graduated from the medical department of the university of Pennsyl- vania, in 1853. He then located at Meridianville. where he practiced with success until 1862, when he was commissioned surgeon in the Con- federate army, and was assigned to the Twenty-seventh Alabama regi- ment. He served with this regiment until the surrender of Fort Donel- son, when he was sent a prisoner to Camp Chase, and. later, to Johnson's Island. He was released in June, 1862. In August, 1862, Dr. Dement was assigned to the Forty-ninth Georgia regiment, at Gordonsville, Va .. under Gen. Jackson, and remained with this regiment until it was sur- rendered at Appomattox, and during this time was surgeon of Gen. Ed. L. Thomas's brigade. He was in all the battles in which his brigade par- ticipated. After the war he came to Huntsville and practiced there until his death. He was, for a few years, a member of the American Medical association, and a member of the American Public Health association. He was a member of the Medical association of Alabama, and was its presi- dent in 1876; was president of the state board of censors; a member of .. the Madison county Medical society ; a member of the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order United Workmen, and a Knight Templar; was vice-president of the Home Protection Fire Insurance company. For many years he was president and an active member of the board of trustees of Huntsville Female college. since its foundation a member of the board of trustees of Vanderbilt university; was twelve years a member of the board of trustees of Alabama Insane hospital: was surgeon-general of Alabama militia for eight years under Govs. Houston and Cobb. and declined to act longer. He was appointed by Gov. Seay as one of the examiners under the color blind law. Dr. Dement never sought office, but when it was tendered him he consid- ered it his duty to accept. He was married January 27, 1869, to Miss
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Cornelia C., daughter of Dr. Henry A. Binford, of Huntsville. They had seven children: Henry B., Robert S., Sarah B., John J., William R., and Susie. Dr. Dement's mother was a daughter of Jesse and Susannah Lowe. They raised the following children: George E., a farmer, who died in Virginia; Thomas, of Mississippi; John J., Mary, of west Tennessee; Martha, who died in Alabama, and Celia W. Dr. Dement died August 10, 1892. For the last five or six years before his death his health had been failing. compelling him to retire somewhat from his practice, and during the last year of his life he failed very rapidly. Six weeks before his death he went to Lithia Springs. Ga., and died in his chair on the bal- cony of the hotel two hours before his intended departure for his home. The remains were interred at Huntsville. In 1889 the doctor's son, John J., died, aged eight years.
DR. HENRY ARTHUR BINFORD was born in Virginia, February 17, 1811. He was a descendant of a long line of ancestors of the Binford-Lee fami- lies, who made their home in Virginia in the early settling of that grand old state. His mother, whose maiden name was Grace D. Lee, was closely related to Robert E. Lee, the famous general of the Confederacy in the late war between the states. His parents moved from Virginia when he was quite young and settled on Indian creek, seven miles west of Huntsville, Ala., where they resided up to of their death. Dr. Binford was provided with a liberal education, and after the usual course of study of medicine, entered the university of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1835; returning home he began the practice of medicine. In 1836, October 20, he was united in marriage to Sarah E. Brandon, daughter of Thomas Brandon, of Huntsville, Ala. He was a close student and a successful physician, was actively engaged in the practice of his profession for forty years in Huntsville and its vicinity. Professionally and socially he ranked with the highest in the state. He was a man of noble qualities, genial disposition, sympathetic in his nature. generous to a fault, and beloved by all who knew him. It has been often said of him: "He was nature's nobleman." He died of paralysis, April 15, 1875, at the age of sixty-four years, at the residence of his son-in-law. Dr. J. J. Dement, in Huntsville, Ala.
WILLIAM H. ECHOLS, a well-known and successful cotton factor of Huntsville, was born in that city. March 11, 1834. He went first to the schools of Huntsville, and at the age of twenty years he was appointed to a cadetship at the United , States Military academy at West Point, where he graduated with honor in the class of 1858, and at once. entered the United States engineer corps, and assigned to duty at San Antonio. Tex., and did duty there until the war broke out. When Alabama seceded from the Union, he resigned his commission and offered the services of his sword to his native state, and was appointed captain of engineers and assigned to Fort Jackson, La., and remained there one month and was sent to Savannah, Ga., to superintend the defenses of
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that city. In June, 1862, he was sent to Charleston, S. C .. and made major of the engineering corps of the department of South Carolina, charged with the general defenses of Charleston. Here he remained until the war closed. His reports of the assault of the enemy's fleet, on Fort Sumter. are published in the record of the "War of the Rebellion," published by the Federal government (series 1, vol. 14). He returned to Huntsville after the war. For some time was assistant engineer of the Memphis & Charleston railroad, and was engaged up to a few years ago in managing a large cotton factory in which he is a part owner. He was, in 1859, united in marriage with Mary B., daughter of Dr. Charles H. Patton, of Huntsville, and they have three children-William H., adjunct professor of mathematics at the university of Virginia; Susan P., wife of R. E. Spragins, of Huntsville, Ala., and Charles Patton, who graduated, third in the class of 1891. at West Point, and now in the engineer corps at Willett's Point, N. Y. Mr. Echols is a Free Mason, and Knight of Pythias.
DR. RICHARD MATTHEW FLETCHER, a leading physician of Madison was born in Richmond, Va., April 1, 1831. He was educated at the Green academy at Huntsville, his parents having removed to Alabama in 1833. He left school in 1849, and began to read medicine with Dr. A. S. Harris, and in 1852-3 and 1553-4 he took the medical lectures at the university of Pennsylvania, and graduated in the spring of 1854. When he had finished at the Pennsylvania, university he returned to Alabama and practiced his profession, which he has continued ever since with great success. He is a member of the Limestone county Medical society and was its president one term; a member of the Madison county Medical seciety and is now serving his third term as president of that body; is also a member of the board of censors of the Madison county Medical society. He is a member of the Alabama state Medical society, of which he has been vice-president, junior and senior counselor, and is now grand senior counselor. At the meeting of the state medical association in Mobile in 1888, he read a most interesting paper on pueroeral convulsion, which attracted much attention and has been a frequent and valued contributor to the medical journals of professional subjects. Dr. Fletcher is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was married August 2. 1855, to Rebecca Mason, daughter of Willian Mason of Virginia. Ten children blessed this union, of whom eight are living : Thomas J., Eldred, Sidney. Branch, Leslie, Richard M., Mary G., and Octavia. Mr. Fletcher's father was James M. Fletcher of Brunswick county. Va., who came to Alabama in his young manhood. He served several times in the Virginia legislature, married Matilda G. Cheat- ham of that state. They had eight children, six of whom are living. the doctor being the eldest survivor. Dr. Fletcher rendered important but gratuitous medical service among the sick and wounded soldiers at Richmond and Culpeper C. H., Va .. and at Madison and Limestone counties. Ala ... during the war. His father died in 1869 and his mother in 1882.
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MADISON COUNTY. 461
DR. J. C. FLYNT, popular medical practitioner of Curley, was born at Fayetteville, Tenn., July 8. 1836, and was educated at the common schools of Fayetteville and the Lebanon university of Tennessee, and took up the study of medicine with Dr. Bonner, deceased, and afterward attended the medical department of the university of Kentucky. where he graduated in 1860. In 1961, he entered the Confederate service, in the Fourth Tennessee cavalry, and did service in the field hospitals during the rest of the war. The war ended, he returned to Fayetteville, and in 1866, began the practice of medicine in. Lincoln county. Tenn .. and con- tinued with good success until 1569, and then removed to Madison county, Ala., near New Market, and practiced there until 1576. In that year he removed to his present home at Gurley. In 1889, he embarked in the drug business in Gurley, which he is engaged in at present. He is a member of the State Pharmaceutical association, and takes an active part in democratic politics. He was first married May 29, 1838, to Lizzie Buchanan, by whom he had three children-David E., of Texas: Becca E. wife of H. W. Branum, of Gurley, and J. C., of Texas. He was married, the second time, December 16, 1869, to Lavinia Octavia Grimmette, of New Market, Ala., and they were the parents of six children, namely: Mattie M., Claudie E., Elizabeth K., William G., Bobbie Leota (girl) and Tommie G. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past grand, and is an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He is the son of Pendleton Flynt, of Alabama, and his mother's name was Elizabeth Pitts. of Alabama, and they had four children-Lucy, wife of A. O. Williams, of Madison county; Dr. J. C. of Gurley: Elizabeth Holloway (widow) of Mississippi, and Younger T., of Nashville, Tenn. The father of the above family died in 1845, and the mother in 1882.
HON. OSCAR R. HUNDLEY. the well-known lawyer of Huntsville, Ala., and world's fair commissioner, was born in Limestone county. Ala., October 30. 1854. After a course of study at Phillips' Exeter academy, in New Hampshire, and Marietta. Ohio, he graduated with distinction from the law department of Vanderbilt university in 1877, and was admitted to the bar of his state in the same year. In 1882 he was elected city attor- ney of Huntsville. Ala .. and was re-elected in 1883, and again in 1889. In 1886, without his solicitation, he was nominated by the democracy of his county for representative in the general assembly, and duly elected in August of that year. In 18-8 he was again nominated for representa- tive, and elected by an increased majority. In 1890 he was nominated by his party for the state senate by acclamation, and elected without opposition, being the first incident of this kind in his senatorial district. His career in both the house of representatives and the senate has been a brilliant one, as many important laws in the state now upon the stat- ute book, and which were originated by him, will attest. Being a fine parliamentarian. a ready debater. a fluent and pleasing speaker,, he has championed many public measures with consummate skill and ability,
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and carried them to a successful termination. As a lawyer he ranks among the most prominent at the bar of his state, and is now the general counsel of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis railway for the state of Alabama. As a member of the national Columbian commission, Mr. Hundley occupies a most prominent position, being considered as among the ablest members of that famous organization. He is a member of the com- mittee on the judiciary, rules and by-laws, the committee on electricity, the committee on tariffs and transportation, and the committee on awards. having been the secretary of the latter committee since its organization. He is a Knight Templar Mason, an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias, being a representative from his state to the supreme lodge of the world in the latter order.
DR. JAMES THOMAS JOHNSON, of Huntsville, was born in Charles county, Md., in Port Tobacco, in the year 1831. His education 'was begun at Frederick college, Maryland, and continued at Princeton, N. J., graduating from the latter in 1850. After his graduation he commenced to study medicine with his father, Dr. J. T. Johnson, and then went to the medical department of the university of Maryland, graduating from the latter institution in 1852. He located in Frederick county, Md., where he practiced with success until the opening of hostilities, when he went to Virginia, and entered the service of the Confederacy, as assistant surgeon of the provisional army, from which rank he rose rapidly to that of surgeon and was made medical purveyor, of the army, in 1862 . was made chief medical purveyor, having control of the hospitals and medical supplies for the entire army, involving an out- lay of a million and a half dollars a month. The principal depot of the purveyorship was at Charlotte, N. C., where hospital bedding, clothing and pharmaceutical preparations were made, employing about 250 hands. He held this most responsible and important position until the war closed. He then located, for the practice of medicine, at San Rafael, Cal., where he remained until 1885, when he came to Alabama and settled at Decatur, and was elected for its health officer in 1885, and served in that office with great efficiency till he came to Huntsville, in 1-91. where he now is. Dr. Johnson belongs to the medical and surgical faculty of Maryland; the American Medical association; the Medical association of Alabama. and the Madison county Medical society. He has contributed some excellent papers on the technique of his profession to various representative .
medical journals, notably the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal and the Medical Record, published in New York. Dr. Johnson is a member of the Roman Catholic church. He was married in 1952 to Miss Anna Mobberly. daughter of Dr. E. W. Mobberly of New Market, Md. They have three children living: Roger, a lawyer of San Francisco, Cal. ; Louisa, wife of
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William L. Clay. of Huntsville. and Eldred Johnson, in business in New York.
The doctor's father was Dr. J. T. Johnson. of Frederick county; Md. He practiced all his life in Maryland, and died in 1874, aged about seventy-
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six years. He was a man of political prominence and was several times a member of the Maryland legislature. His wife was Miss Emily Newman, a daughter of Col. Francis Newman, of the English army. They were the parents of six children-Elizabeth, widow of Col. W. P. Richardson, of Fred- erick county. Md. : Dr. J.T. ; Emily, deceased ( unmarried); Newman. killed at Shepardstown. Va .; Olis, died in 1-76; Susan Bird, wife of John H. White, of Washington, D. C., chief stenographer of congress. The doctor's mother died in 18-3. Dr. Johnson is a democrat, but not a politician.
REV. AMOS B. JONES, A. M., D. D., LL. D., president and owner of Huntsville Female college, was born in Randolph-Macon college. Boydton, Mecklenburg county, Va., December 4, 1841. He is the son of Rev. Amos W. Jones, D. D., who was the son of Amos Jones. a noted local preacher of North Carolina. Rev. Amos W. Jones, graduated from Randolph- Macon college in 1839. He was a Methodist minister, and located in Jackson, Tenn., where he now resides, and has been president of the Methodist Conference Female institute for forty years. His wife was Caroline Blanch, daughter of Gen. William Blanch of Virginia. a woman of high Christian character. She died within a few days after Amos B. was born. Amos B. Jones began his educational training at Jackson, Tenn., and attended, at different times. west Tennessee college, Andrew college, Union university, and East Alabama university, but in May, 1861, his education was arrested by the call to arms, and he enlisted in company H, Sixth Tennessee regiment. as second sergeant, and served as such till 1862, when he was made captain of the company and served through the war. He was in the following battles: Belmont, Mo., Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, where he was wounded, Missionary Ridge, Dalton, Resaca, New Hope Church, Atlanta, (three fights, and again wounded), Caswell. Jacksonboro. Lovejoy and many skirmishes. He was united in marriage in 1863, to Miss Mary G. Gates, near Aberdeen, Miss., and they had born to them two sons and three daughters, of whom Amos W. and James T. are living. In 1869, he was elected to a professorship in the M. C. F. institute of Jackson. He held this chair for nine years, when he was made president of the school, which he held two years, and resigned to take charge of Huntsville Female college, which institution, under his efficient and able management enjoys a large patronage and is regarded as one of the best female colleges in the South. Dr. Jones is a Mason of high standing, having been grand captain general of the grand commanderies of the state, and deputy grand master of Masons of Tenn- essee, president of the Alabama Y. M. C. A., a professor in the Corre- spondence university of Chicago, and a member of the American institute of Christian philosophy. The degree of LL. D. was conferred by the southwestern university Tennessee, and the degree of D. D. by the uni- nersity of Alabama.
GEORGE PURDOM LANDMAN, large cotton factor of Huntsville, Ala., is a native of Marengo county, born December 29. 1-38. He afterward
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moved with his family to Madison county, Ala., and received his educa- tion at the schools of Huntsville. At the age of sixteen, Mr. Landman began his business life as clerk for John T. Reed. Later on he entered the cotton house of Bradley, Wilson & Co., cotton buyers and bankers, having branches in Memphis, Charleston, New Orleans, etc. He was employed by this firm when the war broke out when he went into the mercantile business in Huntsville, remaining in it three years. In 1969, he. in company with his brother. J. H. Landman, embarked in the cotton brokerage business, and still continue it at Huntsville. Mr. Landman is a Knight of Pythias. and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was united in marriage August, 1860, to Mary F., daughter of Joseph Sively, of Madison county, and they became the parents of the following children: Lucy Lee, Lilly B .. wife of Robert S. Halsey; Laura. wife of Thomas J. Young; Emma. wife of Jesse F. Young. of Huntsville; Arthur S., Joseph, and George P., Jr. Mir. Landman is the son of George Landman, of Madison county, Ala .. where he devoted his life to farming. He married Eliza Griffin, of Virginia, and to them were born five sons- William, killed at the first battle of Manassas; J. H., John W., and George P., who served with Gen. Forrest through the war. The father . of these boys died in 1840. George Landman's grandfather, William Landman, was a native of Virginia, and his great-grandfather came from Germany.
JAMES HENRY LANDMAN. of Huntsville, Ala., brother of George P. Landman, and associated with him in the business of cotton factor. was born in Madison county, Ala .. February 28, 1835. His education was acquired in the schools of Huntsville, and at the age of fourteen years he commenced his business career as a c.erk with J. H. Beadle, a mer- chant of Huntsville, where he remained six years. At the expiration of that time he was employed by Bradley. Wilson & Co., staying with them until early in 1862. when he enlisted in Kelley's troopers, organized in Madison county, and six weeks later was made assistant quartermaster in Gen. Forrest's command, where he remained until the war closed. He was in several engagements around Nashville. Tenn., and surrendered with Gen. Forrest in 1865. In 1866 he was engaged with his brother in the mercantile business in Huntsville until 1-69, and shortly after embarked in cotton, their present business. In 1980, Mr. Landman was elected tax assessor of Madison county, and served four years in that capacity. Mr. Landman was married in September, 1861, to Fannie M .. daughter of Hampton W. Kelly. of Madison county. They had nine children, of whom. however, only four are living: Minnie F .. wife of J. K. Miller, of Huntsville; Lizzie V., wife of Gordon Greenfield, of Pine Bluff, Ark. : James H., Jr .. and Howard F. Mr. Landman was married the second time (1885) to Fannie, daughter of Joseph Carruthers, of Hunts- ville, this union being blessed with two sons: Harry C. and Frank. Mr.
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Landman belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, A. O. E. W., and the Methodist Episcopal church.
DR. SAMUEL H. LOWRY, one of the leading physicians of Huntsville, was born October 16. 1:50, in Huntsville, the son of John T. and Vir- ginia H. (Miller) Lowry. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent and his grandfather was a divine of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. The father of Dr. Samuel Lowry, was a member of the mercantile firm of Lowry, Hamilton & Co., of Huntsville. for many years. He was also largely engaged in planting, and was the owner of many slaves. He was in the war, in connection with the commissary department, and at the close of the war engaged in business as a lumberman, until his death in 1886. He left one child-Samuel H. Dr. Lowry had superior educational advantages, which began at Huntsville, and continued at the university of Virginia, and supplemented by a course of lectures at the Bellevue Hospital Medical college at New York, where he graduated in 1873. He immediately began practicing with the late Dr. Dement of Huntsville, and has been a successful practitioner ever since. He is a member of the Madison county Medical association, secretary of the county board of censors, member of the college of counselors of the State Medical asso- ciation; is secretary of county board of censors; member of the college of counselors of the State Medical association, and is health officer of the city of Huntsville. Dr. Lowry was married November 26, 1890, to Jim- mie L., daughter of Robert L. Pulley of Huntsville, and they have one son, John Tate Lowry.
BERNARD F. LUDWIG, the postmaster of Huntsville, Ala., was born in Treysa, near Cassel, Germany, April 5, 1842, and with his parents came to the United States in 1548, and located near Memphis, Tenn., where Bernard received his education in the schools near that city. He also assisted his parents on the farm, and in 1856 he went to Huntsville, Ala., to attend school, and subsequently obtained a clerkship. and also learned the confectioner's trade with a brother. Being of Union sympa- thies, he went. in 1862, to Louisville, Ky., in company with the Fourth Ohio cavalry, and was at the battle of Perryville, Ky. He remained in Louisville until the fall of 1865, when he returned to Lawrence county , Ala., and engaged in business with his brother-in-law. In 1868 he returned to Huntsville and resumed his former business until 1876, when he closed out and entered the life insurance business until 1889, when he was appointed by President Harrison as postmaster of Huntsville, Ala. Mr. Ludwig has the indorsement of every prominent business and pro- fessional man of that city, irrespective of party affiliation. He is a director of the Huntsville building and loan association, a prominent and honored member of the Masonic order, Knights of Pythias. and other benevolent societies; is of a progressive and benevolent disposition, intel - ligent and liberal in views, always willing and ready to contribute to the welfare of humanity, and the advancement and interest of his community.
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