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 56
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he was prevailed upon by his friends to accept. In company with Col. J. W. A. Sanford, candidate for attorney general of the state, he made a . thorough canvass of each of the fourteen counties of the district. His opponent was the Hon. Charles Hayes, then a member of congress, who by means of United States troops. United States marshals and an appro- priation of 8400.000 worth of bacon to the then flooded counties of the district, was elected. The state was afterward re-districted, and Mr. Jones, in 1876, was again nominated for congress and elected, and served eight years as a representative in congress. In 1892 he was elected judge of the first judicial district without opposition. He has been twice married, the first time in 1862, to Miss Ada Vaughan, daughter of A. G. Vaughan. In 1875 he was married to Miss Jennie Reese, daughter of R. W. Reese. M. D., of Marengo county. He is the father of thirteen children, eight of whom are living. He is a member of the Episcopal church, and is a royal arch Mason. He entered upon the discharge of his duties as judge on the 4th of November, 1892. In May, 1892, the United Confederate Veterans' association was organized, and of this association Judge Jones was made commander.
J. N. LISTER was born near Aberdeen. Miss., June 6, 1840. His par- ents were Jeremiah and Eliza R. (Bush) Lister, both of whom are now living in Alabama. The former was born in Georgia, and the latter in the state in which they now reside. Mrs. Lister's grandfather. John Bush, was an early settler in this state, an Indian fighter. and was high sheriff of St. Clair county. Mr. and Mrs. Lister had two sons and one daughter. all of whom survive. J. N. Lister was reared mainly in Dallas county, at Cahaba. He received a fair education for those days, and at the age of seventeen learned telegraphy at Cahaba and at Selma. In 1858 he took charge of the telegraph office at Cahaba, afterward at Selma. and then again at Cahaba, where he was located when the Civil war came on. During the second and third years of that war he had charge of the telegraph office at Selma. the most important office in the state. He then resigned his office and joined the Confederate army; but before reaching the field. was detailed to the telegraph department of the government, and remained in that connection until the close of the war. He served some time as train-dispatcher at McDowell station, Ala. For one year after the war he operated the telegraph office at McDowell, and was also ยท engaged in merchandising. In December. 1865, he married Miss Joella Coats, of Alabama, by whom he has had six sons and two daughters. He left McDowell, and went to Meridian, Miss., where he established a foundry and machine shop: but the enterprise proved a failure, and in 1867 he removed to Demopolis and opened the Lister House, since which time he has been proprietor of the house. In 1868 he became manager of the telegraph office at Demopolis, and has remained in this position ever since. He was also for about twelve years express agent at. Demopolis. He is a royal arch Mason, and he and his family move in the best society
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MARENGO COUNTY. at Deniopolis. They adhere to the Holiness faith or belief as Christians, - 483
and are higlily esteemed by the entire community.
ROBERT BEALL MCCAUTS, M. D., physician and surgeon of Marengo county, was born in Hamilton. Harris county, Ga .. October 26. 1960. He is a son of Samuel and Mary (Thomas) MeCauts, both natives of Fair- field district. S. C. In 1717 three brothers of this name came from Scot- land to Charleston. S. C., and there operated woolen mills for some years. From these brothers descended a large number of descendants in South Carolina, and in other southern states. Samuel McCauts' father was a native of South Carolina. Samuel McCauts and his wife were the par- ents of nine children. Of the sons two are physicians and the rest are farmers. The father was a farmer by occupation, and removed to Geor- gia when about twenty-one years of age. He married. lived and died in Georgia, his death occurring in 1885, when he was seventy-three years old. His widow now lives with a son in Talladega. Dr. Robert B. McCauts was reared in Hamilton, Ga .. until he was eighteen years old, at which place he received a literary education. and came to Alabama when he was eighteen years of age, he at that time joined his brother, Dr. Jason S. McCauts, then at Jefferson, and at once began the study of medicine. In 1879 he entered the Southern Medical college at Atlanta, Ga., and graduated in the spring of 1881. He immediately located at Jefferson, Ala., and began the practice of his profession, remaining there thus engaged until January, 1892, when he removed to Faunsdale. He is a member of the Marengo county Medical society, and of the State Medi- cal association, and during 1888 he was health officer of the county. In 1885 he married Miss Annie Hildreth of Marengo county, by whom he has two sons, twins. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church, and he is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias. He is also a member of the board of medical examiners of Marengo county, and is considered one of the leading physicians of the county.
HON. D. J. MEADOR, a very prominent planter of Marengo county, and now serving his third term in the legislature from his county, was born in Fairfield county. S. C., in 1858, March 22. His parents were Daniel R. and Emalie R. (Estees) Meador, both of whom were born in, and died in that state. He was a grandson of Job Meador, who was under Gen. Marion during the Revolutionary war. The Meador family has always been a prominent one, and Mr. Meador now owns a historic estate in South Carolina, the grant of which was made to one of his ancestors by the king of England. The mother was also of a distin- guished family. D. J. Meador was educated at Furman university, South Carolina, and there met Miss Lidie A. Poellnitz, who was attending the Female college at Greenville, S. C., and to whom he was married in December, 1881, in South Carolina, at the house of the grandfather, who was descended from an early and prominent Huguenot family of South Carolina. Her father, Edward A. Poellnitz, was a prominent citizen of
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
Marengo county, in which county Miss Poolnitz was born. Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Meador came to Alabama and located in Marengo county, where he has become prominent as a planter and as a politician. He was elected to the legislature in 1888, in 1890, and again in 1892. He is a master Mason, a democrat and a deacon of the Baptist church. Mr. Meador was one of the organizers of the First National bank of Dem- opolis, and is now one of its directors. He is also a merchant at Myrtle Wood and a live-stock raiser. While in the legislature he was appointed on several important committees.
. HON. JOHN H. MINGE, state senator from Marengo county, was born in that county May 25, 1851. He is a son of David and Elvira H. (Adams) Minge, the former of whom was born in Charles City county, Va., and the latter in Richmond, Va. Mrs. Minge was a daughter of Dr. John Adams, who was a Virginian by birth, and whose ancestors came from Scotland. The family was prominent in Virginia. David Minge was a son of Jolin Minge, who is believed to have come from Wales to Virginia when he was a young man. He had three brothers, Dr. John Minge, G. W. H. Minge, and Collier H. Minge, who lived in Alabama. David Minge was a nephew of William Henry Harrison, once president of the United States. He first came to Alabama in 1833, and bought lands in Marengo county. He then returned to Virginia in 1835, and moved his family to his purchase in Alabama. He lived and died in Marengo county, his death occurring in September, 1887, when he was seventy- five years old, his wife dying in 1873, aged fifty-seven. John H. Minge received a common school education in his youth, and then for two years attended Hanover academy in Virginia, where he took a course in civil engineering. In 1370 he returned to Marengo county and began life as a planter, which life he has continued to follow up to the present time with great success. He is now president and general manager of the Faunsdale Mercantile company. In the fall of 1 75 he removed to Texas, and lived at Chapel Hill one year, during which time he was engaged in farming, and at the end of that time he returned to Marengo county, which has always been his home while in Alabama. In 1874 he married Miss Bessie Croom Chadwick. of Texas, and a daughter of J. M. Chad- wick, a native of Kentucky. In 1886 Mr. Minge was elected to the legis- lature from Marengo county and served one term. In 1890 he was elected to the state senate from Marengo county. He served on the com- mittees on finance, internal improvements, and agriculture, and was chairman of the committee on immigration, when in the house. He has been for six years a member of the state democratic executive committee, and for two years of the county executive committee. He is a member of the Episcopal church, and of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Knights of Honor.
ALEXANDER PITMAN, one of the most successful planters that ever lived in Marengo county, was born in Darlington district, S. C., Septem-
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ber 19, 1813. His parents were Elist and Anette (Gerald) Pitman, the former of whom was of Irish, and the latter of Scotch, ancestry. They lived and died in North Carolina. Alexander Pitman was the eldest of nine children, and was an infant when his parents removed to Robeson county, N. C., where he grew to manhood. When about eighteen years, he came to Alabama and made his home in Wilcox county, where he married Miss Nannie McCaskill. a native of South Carolina, but who was reared in Mississippi. This marriage gave issue to five children, only one of whom is now living, viz .: Mrs. Belle Wilkins, wife of Minge Wilkins of Marengo county. The mother of these five children died in 1859, but Mr. Pitman never married again. Her death occurred in Mississippi, in which state Mr. Pitman followed farming three years. He served three years in the Confederate cavalry as a private. In 1865. he located in Marengo county. and ever afterward lived in that county, dying January 3, 1592. He began with no capital. and by means of energy and superior business tact, he amassed considerable wealth. He was an unpretentious man, and a typical planter of high moral character. He was an attendant at the Presbyterian church, though not a member of any church. He was a friend to all religious denominations. In politics he was a straight-out democrat, but never aspired to any office. Though not well educated in his youth he was naturally of keen observation and of sound common sense, and through his habit of reading he became a man of great information on all general subjects. He had very strong will power and was of deep convictions; assured himself that he was right and then kept steadily on in the course that he had mapped out. He remained a most active and energetic man up to the time of his death in his seventy-fourth year. Minge Wilkins. his son-in-law, is a representa- tive planter and business man of Marengo county. He was born in St. Mary's parish, La., near Franklin. August 8, 1850. His parents were Richard A. and Margaret A. (Minge) Wilkins, the former of whom was a native of Brunswick county, Va .. and the latter of Charles City county, Va. They were married at Petersburg. Va., in 1847, and had ten children, eight sons and two daughters, all of whom are living. The father was a planter by occupation, and soon after his marriage he settled on one of his plantations in Louisiana. and lived there until 1859, when he removed to Richmond. Va .. where he lived until 1870, when he removed to Selmia, Ala., and died there April 13. 1878, when he was sixty-three years of age. His widow now lives in Birmingham. Mr. Wilkins was nine years old when his parents left Louisiana, and he lived with them until 1869. October 4, that year, he came to Alabama, and for a time lived at Fauns- dale, and then removed to Selma, but not long afterward returned to Faunsdale. He was engaged in mercantile business until 1852. when he removed to the plantation of his father-in-law, with whom he engaged in planting. May 2, 187, he married Miss Belle Pitman, who was born in
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Montgomery county, Ala., February 22, 1850, and who has borne her husband three children. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins are members of the Pres byterian church. He is a democrat, and since 1872. he has been a mem- ber of the order of Knights of Pythias. Mr. Wilkins is a self-made man, and has been a very successful planter.
D. M. PROWELL, a prominent planter of Marengo county, was born within three miles of Dayton. in that county, November 27, 1838. His parents were William J. and Sarah A. (Pickering) Prowell, both of whom were born in South Carolina, and reared near Columbia, that state. Their ancestors had lived in South Carolina for several generations. In an early day their parents moved to Marengo county, and here they were married. They immediately settled three miles south of Dayton and lived there the rest of their lives. Mr. Prowell was a wealthy planter, and reared a family of five sons and two daughters, viz. : David M., Mildred, E. Roger, Caroline A., William J., Samuel P. and James S. David M. Prowell was reared in Marengo county, and has always lived within its limits. He received a fair education at Dayton, and attended the univer- sity of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. At the age of eighteen he was compelled to leave school, on account of his father's death, to take charge of his interests in the plantation, and he has ever since been actively engaged in planting. He now owns 1,500 acres of land in Marengo county. He served two terms in the legislature from 1874 to 1878, and has been mayor of Dayton for six successive terms, and is president of the board of trustees of the Dayton Female academy. In April, 1861, he enlisted in the Fourth Alabama infantry, company D, and was wounded in August, 1862, at the second battle of Manassas. He was afterward detailed to the commissary department, and stationed at Dayton during the rest of the war. On March 20, 1862, he was married to Miss Virginia S. Jones, of Linden, who yet lives, and has borne hin eleven children, ten of whom survive. Mr. Prowell has been a very successful farmer, and is one of the substantial and highly respected citizens of Marengo county.
H. S. ROYAL, proprietor of the Royal Warehouse at Demopolis, was born in Russell county, Ala., in 1845. He is a son of Daniel and Susan (Dykes) Royal, the former of whom was born and reared in Burke county, Ga., the latter being reared in Dallas county, Ala. They were the par- ents of seven children. Mr. Royal was married the second time, and by his second marriage was the father of five children. They took H. S. Royal to Georgia when he was but a child, and he was reared and educated there. During the last twelve months of the war he served as a private soldier in the Eleventh Georgia battalion, and in the army of northern Virginia. In the fall of 1866 he removed Linden, Ala., and lived there three years. He was deputy sheriff for a time, and in 1869 he removed to Demopolis, but a short time afterward went to Livingston. Remaining there a short time he returned to Demopolis and was engaged in a con- fectionery store for a short time. He was afterward similarly engaged at
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS -- MARENGO COUNTY.
Uniontown and other places, and later took up the work of telegraphy, and was agent for the A. C. R. R. Co., at Bellview. Afterward he had charge of the Western Union telegraph office at Talledega. He next became railway agent for the East Tennessee & Virginia railroad company at Demopolis, remaining in this position for ten and a half years. He then went into the warehouse business at Demopolis, and is thus engaged at the present time. He has been trice married. the first time in 1873, to Miss Maggie Quincy, who died in 1877, leaving three children. only the youngest of whom is now living. In 1881 Mr. Royal married Miss Annie English, of Selma. by whom he had one child. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is a self-made and successful man.
R. M. SCHWARZ. a representative merchant and business man of Linden, Ala., was born in Russian Poland, on September 24. 1840. He received a fair education in Poland, and came to the United States in 1864, and remained in New York during the Civil war. In 1866 he went to New Orleans, where he remained about one year, and then in 1867 he went to Mobile, where he married, the same year, Miss Augusta Morris, who has borne him eleven children, of whom nine are living. In 1869 he went to Hamburg, Perry county, where he was engaged in merchandising till 1883, when he removed to Linden, where he has since been engaged in the mercantile business. He is a member of the orders of Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, and the I. O. B. B. 's. He is a master Mason, and a democrat. He has been a successful business man, and has made himself what he is to-day. a respected citizen in the community.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM M. SELDEN, a representative planter of Marengo county, was born in Charles City county, Va., February 20, 1842. His . father was John A. Selden, born in Sussex county, Va., and was a son of John Selden, a native of England, who, together with his two brothers, came to America at an early day and settled in Virginia. They were descended from the John Selden of England who defended Charles I., in the cause for which he was beheaded in 1649. John A. Selden was a wealthy and successful farmer, who lived and died in Virginia, his death occurring in 1868. He married Miss Maria Pemberton of Goochland county, Va., who bore him nineteen children, twelve of whom lived to mature years. The home of this family in Virginia is the famous West- over homestead. William M. Selden received a fair education in the common schools, and afterward attended school at Williamsburg, Char- lotteville and Upperville, Va. He began life for himself at an early period. In 1859, located in Marengo county, and there read medicine for eight months. The war coming on in 1861, he entered the army as did six of his brothers, all of whom returned but one. He joined the army as a private soldier. and as a member of the Greensboro Guards, which became a part of the Fifth Alabama infantry. During the year 1861, he was made a lieutenant of artillery, and commissioned first lieutenant in the Confederate army. He remained in the artillery until the elose of
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
the war, but early in 1863 he was promoted to a captaincy, and served as such officer to the surrender. He was married August 12. 1863, to Miss Elizabeth Croon, danghter of Wiley and Elizabeth ( Holliday ) Croon, both of whom were natives of North Carolina. The Croon family are descendants of the well-known Hayhood family of North Carolina, and originally from Sussex and Worcestershire, England. Wiley J. Coon came to Aiabama in 1833, locating first in the northern part of the state. Later removed to Greensboro. Ala. He was a farmer of means and prominence. He was the father of thirteen children. Isaac Croon, one of the early settlers of Greensboro, came from North Carolina. He was a cousin of Wiley J. Croon, and was a man of great wealth. Wiley J. Croon was born in 1795, and died in 1849. To the marriage of William M. Selden and his wife there have been born five children who still survive, four daughters and one son. After Mr. Selden returned from the war he engaged in farming in Marengo county, and has ever since been one of the most successful farmers in the county. For twelve years he has been county commissioner of Marengo county and he is a very popular man. He has always been active in politics, both county, and state, and has always been a member of the democratic party. He and his family are members of the Episcopal church, and he is a member of the order of the Knights of Pythias.
FRANKLIN W. SIDDONS, a planter of Marengo county. was born in Allen county, Ky., April 19, 1828. He is a son of James S. and Cinder- ella (Smith) Siddons. both natives of Kentucky, the former being a farmer by occupation. Franklin W. received an academic education, and began the study of law at the law school at Lebanon, Tenn., graduating in 1849. In 1850 he located in Marion, Ala., and at once entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1852 he located at Linden, remaining there till 1860. In 1859, he married Miss Rachel Mary Napier, of Marengo county. She bore him three daughters, who lived to maturity. and still survive. During the war he was detailed by the Confederate government as agent for the purchase of cotton, the idea being to establish cotton as the basis of credit of the government. He was stationed at Selma, and held his posi- tion till the close of the war. After the close of hostilities he settled down to the care of his large plantation. which has absorbed his attention eyer since. He lived in Selma up to 1855. when he moved to his plant- ation in Marengo county, near Faunsdale, where he has since lived. He has always been a democrat in politics, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. south. At one time he was a master Mason. Mr. Sid- dons was one of the board of commissioners for Dallas county, to adjust the debt of that county, and was sent to New York for that purpose. The debt of the county was then over 8140,000, and he so well succeeded as to effect a saving to the county of $20.000.
EDMOND STRUDWICK, M. D., of Dayton. Ala .. was born in ' Hillsbor- ough, N. C., November 27, 1535. His father. Edmond Strudwick, M. D.
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MARENGO COUNTY. 489
was a native of North Carolina, where he lived, devoted his life to his profession and died. His father. William Franklin Strudwick, was a member of congress from North Carolina, and a member of the state leg- islature for several terms. He was a man of wealth and influence, as was also his son, Dr. Strudwick. The mother of Dr. Edmond Strudwick was Miss Ann Nash, a daughter of Chief Justice Nash, of North Carolina. Dr. Strudwick is one of a family of three children, and was reared at Hillsborough, N. C. Owing to the frailty of his health in his youth, he was not permitted to take a collegiate course, but he received a fair academic education, and supplemented it by much travel, close observa- tion and wide experience, as well as continued study. He graduated from the Jefferson Medical college at Philadelphia, in 1856, and he then visited Europe, spending a year in the hospitals in London, Paris and Edinburgh, and at the university of Dublin. He then returned to the United States and practiced for about two years with his father at Hillsborough, N. C. In the latter part of 1838, he removed to Dayton, Ala., where he has since remained. In 1861, he married Miss Fannie E. Stewart, of Dayton, Ala. By her he has one son living; she and five children have died. In 1861, he went to the war as assistant surgeon at Fort Morgan, and a year later was sent to the hospital at Richmond, where he served as surgeon till the close of the war, when he returned to Alabama. He is a member of the State Medical association, and of the Marengo county Medical society. He is a man of much learning and is worthy of much respect and esteem. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and a royal arch Mason.
J. S. TRIGG, merchant of Old Spring Hill, Marengo county, was born at Marion, Ala .. April 11, 1849. He is a son of Edward S. and Martha (Shepherd) Trigg, the former of whom was a son of Abram Trigg, and was born in Tennessee. Abram Trigg was born in Abingdon, Va., and his father was from Wales. Edward S. Trigg came from Tennessee to Alabama, and settled in Perry county at an early day. He reared a family of four sons and two daughters at Marion. He is still living, though very old, and is actively engaged in the mercantile business in Tuscaloosa county, Ala. He served in the Civil war three years, not- withstanding he was then an old man. Previous to the war he was very wealthy and owned many slaves. In 1867 he took his family to Brazil, South America, where he lived until 1875, and then returned to Alabama, where he has since remained. J. S. Trigg was given a fair education at Mobile, in Barton academy. and he then took a thorough business course in New Orleans. In 1977 he located at Old Spring Hill. entering the employ of George Skinner & Son, now W. A. Skinner, and has been engaged in mercantile business ever since. In 1878 he married, at Mobile, Miss Alice Hill, daughter of John Hill of Mobile. By this marriage he has three children. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church, south. Mr. Trigg was made a Mason in Brazil. becoming there a member of one of the first United States Masonic lodges in that
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