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 58
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499
PERSONAL MEMOIRS -- MARSHALL COUNTY.
Miss Jane Warren, a maiden lady of suitable age to wed with one of his years. Gen. Rayburn dled July 15, 1892, lacking exactly two months of being eighty-one years old. He had been suffering for some months with a difficulty of breathing, but with that exception was in his usual health. About ten o'clock A. M., of July 15, 1892, he lay down to take a nap, and while asleep his spirit took its flight. His death was instantan- eous and painless, caused from heart failure. Notwithstanding his great age he was a man in the fullest sense of the word up to the hour of his death, being in full possession of all his mental faculties, and his bod- ily vigor being preserved to a remarkable degree. Never was there a
man occupying as many public positions as he did that had fewer ene- mies and more friends. Only a few weeks before his death he attended the meeting of a democratic club, named in honor of himself, and made them a speech. There were many of his old friends and acquaintances present, and their manifestations of love and esteem for him were affect ing in the extreme. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian ' church, most of his family being members of the same. The Rayburns were originally Presbyterians, but when a division took place in the church most of them went with the Cumberland Presbyterians.
DR. W. L. THOMASON, of Guntersville, Marshall county, Ala., is a native of Georgia, born November 22, 1849. In 1854 he was brought to Alabama by his parents, who located in Henry county, where the son attended school as well as the schools of Macon (now Bullock) county, Ala., finishing in the last named county in 1867. His next progressive step was to begin the study of medicine, under the tutorship of his father, Dr. W: B. Thomason, when, being sufficiently prepared, in November, 1869, he entered the Georgia Medical college at Augusta, and subsequently the Medical department of the Vanderbilt university. at Nashville, Tenn., graduating from the latter institution in 1871. He first located at Union Springs, Ala., where he practiced three years, and then went to Chambers county, where he passed eighteen months for the improvement of his health, and practicing but very little at that point; next, he removed to Summit, Blount county, where for seven years he stood high with the community, as a successful practitioner. He then became a charter mem- ber of the Blount county Medical society, of which he became the second president. In December, 1852, he decided to make his permanent home in Guntersville, Marshall county, and here he has met with abundant success ever since. In 1884 he organized the Marshall county Medical society, of which he served as secretary and treasurer five years: from 1884 to 1890. he also filled the office of county health officer. He has been a member of the State Medical association since 1984; and in 1889 was elected junior censor. He has been a frequent contributer to the medical journals of the country, but of late has not been so prolitic, his last con- tribution appearing in 1891, in which he discussed the treatment of grip -his practice being now too onorous to permit him to devote much tmie
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
to essay work. or to literary effort. The doctor is a master Mason, and a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, of which he has been a steward for nearly twenty years, and for eight years superin- tendent of the Sunday school in Guntersville; he also represented his church in the general conference, held at Richmond, Va., in 1886. The marriage of the doctor took place in May, 1875. to Miss Ida Pearce. daughter of Tilman J. Pearce. of Columbus, Ga., the union being favored with eight children, viz. : William Pearce, Paul. Mary Irene, James, Lillian. Ida Moore, George S. and Wiley Justin. The father of Dr. W. L. Thomason was Dr. W. B. Thomason, a native of Georgia. He was a graduate of the Medical college of Georgia, and of the Medical college of Memphis, Tenn., and secured a very extensive practice in Henry and Bullock counties. Ala. He married Sarah Ann Wilcoxon, daughter of Levi J. Wilcoxon, of Georgia, and had born to them four children as follows. W. L., of Guntersville, Ala. : James R., of Bullock county, Ala: Irene Ida. wife of S. M. Smith, of Midway, Ala., and Polly, now Mrs. Dowling. of Midway. The mother of these children passed away in 1880, and in 1883 the father re-married.
MOBILE COUNTY.
WHITING AMES. clerk of the circuit court of Mobile county, was born in Montgomery, Ala., December 31, 1853. His father was Dr. Silas Ames, a physician by profession. who died while his son was a child. The mother was Sarah Tarlton, who died in 1853, leaving her son an infant. Left thus without father or mother at an early age. he was raised by his elder sisters, and in 1865 accompanied one of them to Mobile, which city has ever since been his home. He was educated at the Spring Hill college and at the Virginia military institute, spending three years in the former and two in the latter. In 1870 he entered the employ of Tarlton. Ledyard & Co., cotton merchants of Mobile, and remained with them in a clerical capacity for a number of years. the firm in the meantime undergoing several changes in its membership. In 1886 he was elected clerk of the circuit court of Mobile for a term of six years, and is now serving in that capacity. In politics he is a democrat, and has frequently been a delegate to the democratic state conventions. He is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias. He was married April 26. 1553. to Miss Helena P. Maguire, of Mobile, a daughter of P. G. Maguire. formerly of that place.
CHANCELLOR HURIEOSCO AUSTILL, attorney-at-law of Mobile, Ala., was born in that city February 16, 1541. His father was Col. Jeremiah Austill, a native of South Carolina. and an officer in the war of 1812. He served in the Alabama legislature, and by occupation was a cotton factor and a farmer. Col. Jeremiah Austill died in 1951. He was a son
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H. AUSTILL.
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MOBILE COUNTY.
of Evan Austill, a native of North Carolina, and a son of Isaac Austill. There is a family tradition that the Austill family came from Saint Austell, England. The mother of C. H. Austill was Margaret Eads, who' was distantly related to Capt. Eads of Mississippi jetty fame. Her ancestry is traced back to Wales. She died in 1890. Each of C. H. Austill's parents was eighty-five years of age at the time of their death. He graduated from the university of Alabama in 1861, and went directly from college into the army of the Confederate States. He was at once appointed second lieutenant of the First Alabama battery of artillery, and held a.commission throughout the entire war in that command. During the Kentucky campaign in December, 1802, he was appointed to a cap- tainey in the Twenty-second Alabama, in the way of a detached position. He was once slightly wounded, and was captured at Fort Morgan and held a prisoner for twelve months, or until the close of the war. Four of these months were spent at Fort Lafayette, and six months at Fort Delaware. He came home from the latter prison in a very bad state of health, and it required a year for him to recuperate. In 1866 he entered upon the study of the law in the office of Dargan & Taylor, of Mobile, and was admitted to the bar in 1868, practicing at Mobile ever since. He is a member of the State Bar association, and is counsel for the following projected railroads: Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City; Mobile & North- western, and the Mobile & Dauphin Island railroad. Politically he is a democrat, and was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1880, serving one term. He was elected to the state senate in 1882 for four years. In 1874 he was elected chancellor of the Southern division of Alabama, and served one terin of six years. He is a member of the Baptist church. He was married December 24, 1874, to Miss Aurora R. Ervin, of Wilcox county, Ala., by whom he has six children, three sons and three daughters.
HON. DANIEL P. BESTOR, attorney-at-law of Mobile, was born in Greensboro Ala., March 27, 1840. His father, Rev. Daniel P. Bestor. D. D., was a prominent Baptist minister, and served as a member of the Alabama state legislature, being, as such. one of the authors of the pres- ent educational system of the state. He was a native of Connecticut. He was for many years a trustee of the university of Alabama. He was a son of Daniel P. Bestor, also a native of Connecticut, and a major on the colonial side in the Revolutionary war. The Bestor family is of French Huguenot descent. The mother of D. P. Bestor was Eliza Townes, a native of Amelia county, Va. She was the daughter of Major Jack Townes, who served in the war of 1812, and was also a native of Vir- ginia. He was prominent in politics, and was a member of the Alabama state constitutional convention of 1819. He was a planter of much wealth, and of English descent. D. P. Bestor graduated from the uni- Versity of Mississippi as a bachelor of arts in 1860, standing fifth in a 31*
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
class of twenty-four. Immediately after graduating he removed t> Mobile and commenced the study of law. in the office of Robert H. Smith, but in the spring of 1861, the war coming on, he temporarily abandoned the study of law. and spent a few months on his father's plan- tation in Clarke county, Miss. In the fall of 1561 he volunteered in the Thirty-seventh Mississippi infantry. and in the spring of 1862 he was ordered to Richmond, and from that time to the close of the war he was in the signal service, acted in the capacity of scout under Capt. R. E. Milbourn, in the command of Gen. T. J. Jackson, until the latter was killed, and then in Gens. Ewell and Firly's command until the war closed. He was at Chancellorsville at the time Gen. Jackson was killed. At the close of the war he returned to his father's plantation in Clarke county, Miss., remaining there a few months. In December, 1865, he returned to Mobile and again entered the office of Robert H. Smith. He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1867, and at once .entered upon the practice of the law in Mobile, where he has ever since been located, and he is now a leading member of the Mobile bar. He is now the partner of G. Y. Overall. He practices all branches of the law except the criminal, though the larger part of his practice is of a mer- cantile character. He has built up a large and profitable practice, and has accumulated a handsome estate. He is a member of the State Bar association. In politics he is a democrat. He is counsel for the Mobile Water Works, for the Stonewall Insurance company, for the Fac- tors and Traders' Insurance company, and for the Planters and Mer- chants' Insurance company, of Mobile. He was elected mayor of Mobile in 1877, and served one term. He is a member of the Baptist church, and of the Masonic fraternity. He is president of the board of trustees of the Medical college of Alabama, and, by virtue of this office, he is a member of the board of trustees of the university of Alabama. He was . a delegate to the national democratic convention in 1884 that nominated Grover Cleveland for the presidency, and he was also a delegate to the national democratic convention in St. Louis in 1888, that nominated the same gentleman for the same office. He was married December 23, 1873, to Miss Nellie Tarleton, of Mobile, by whom he has had three children, two sons and a daughter. The mother of Mr. Bestor died in 1832, and his father in 1869. Mr. Bestor has been so successful in his practice, that he no longer finds it necessary to continue the exertions which necessarily characterized his earlier years, and he now accepts such cases only as are congenial to his tastes and suitable to his desires. Financially he is in all probability as independent as any of his fellow- practitioners at the Mobile bar, and he is highly respected as a man by the entire community.
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URIAH BLACKSHER, lumber manufacturer and exporter at Mobile. was born in Escambia county, Ala., March 19, 1848, and was there. reared on
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BRANT & FULLER, PUBS
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MOBILE COUNTY. 507
a farin until nineteen years of age, when he engaged in the timber busi- ness, felling and sawing at intervals in connection with farming until the outbreak of the Civil war, from which time until its close he devoted his time to his farming interests. Peace being restored, he gradually merged his agricultural pursuits with those pertaining to the manufacture of lum- ber for exportation and for domestic use, building a number of mills and giving employment to many hands. In 1859 he moved to Baldwin county, where he purchased large tracts of land, and located in the upper part of the county, near Montgomery Hill, where he secured the establish- ment of a postoffice, which was named after himself. Here he erected a large saw mill and store, stocking the latter with a well selected assort- ment of merchandise, and began the manufacture of all grades of mer- chantable lumber on an extensive scale. His business soon assumed pro- portions so extensive that he found it to be advisable to form a co-partnership with Messrs. Peter E. and John McGowan. In August, 1892, he decided to locate in Mobile. where he purchased a comfortable home on Government street, to which he added many improvements. He also bought and re-built the mill at Magazine Point, three miles above the city, with a sawing capacity of 50,000 feet of lumber per day, and is now manufacturing at this mill large quantities of clear stock lumber for export and for the northern trade, employing about fifty operatives, in addition to those employed at his mills in Baldwin county. January 5, 1870, Mr. Blacksher was united in marriage with Miss Martha McGowan, a daugh- ter of Samuel McGowan, one of Escambia county's early settler, but a native of Georgia. Mr. McGowan was a successful planter and had a large family, of whom he sent seven sons to serve in the Confederate service during the war, five of whom were slain. His own death occurred in 1892, at the ripe age of eighty-six years. Mrs. Blacksher is a native of Escambia, was married in her twenty-first year and is now the mother of two interesting children-E. Manford, . born August 4, 1879, and Maggie E., born in December, 1881. Uriah Blacksher is the son of Jephtha and Martha (Mayo) Blacksher. Jephtha Blacksher was born in Georgia in 1807, and was married in Brewton. Ala. He was a justice of peace in Escambia county for many years, was the owner of 20,000 acres of land, and was a representative citizen of the county. He was a char- ter member of Evergreen lodge. F. & A. M., and died in 1889, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Mrs. Martha Blacksher was born in Escambia county in 1822, was married in her eighteenth year. bore her husband twelve children, of whom seven still survive, and died in 1891. Uriah Blacksher is also a Mason, and an active member of the Gulf Lum- ber association. He is the owner of 26,000 acres of land in Escambia and Baldwin counties, and is one of the busiest and most enterprising men of the state. He has done much toward the upbuilding of church and school, and in politics he is an ardent democrat.
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
PRELATE D. BARKER, postmaster at Mobile, Ala., was born in New York city. September 20, 1838. His father, Jonathan Brooks Barker, was a native of Connecticut, and a sea captain. He was the son of Jacob Barker, also a native of Connecticut, and of Puritan ancestry. The mother of P. D. Barker was Frances J. Appell, a native of Connecticut. and a daughter of Pierre Appell, a native of Bordeaux, France, who came to this country with Gen. Lafayette, and served with him through the Revolutionary war, after which he settled in Connecticut and mar- ried Lois Baldwin. Mr. Barker received an academic education at New Haven, Conn .. and at Stratford academy. in that state. At seventeen years of age he left school and went to New York. He entered the law office of Harris Wilson. Esq .. and remained with him two years, when he went west. In 1857 he came to the south and entered the employ of McClure & Thames, general merchants at Claiborne, Monroe county; Ala. In 1861 he entered the service of the Confederacy as the assistant of Major C. E. Thames, post quartermaster at Selma, Ala., at which post he served during the entire war. On August 1, 1865, Mr. Barker married Joanna Elizabeth Ferguson, a daughter of Col. Hugh Ferguson and Caro- line Minter, of Selma, Ala. Col. Ferguson was a retired merchant and planter. Mr. Barker's place of residence continued to be at Selma until 1879, when he removed to New York with his family and engaged in the petroleum business as secretary of the Empire Refining company (limited) until 1883, since which time he has resided at Montgomery and Mobile, Ala. From 1865 to 1883 he was engaged in the lumber, cotton seed oil and petroleum business. He was appointed secretary and treasurer of the Selma & Meridian railroad in 1969, which position he held two years. In 1871 he was appointed, by President Grant, collector of internal rev- enue for the second district of Alabama, and when all the districts of the state were consolidated in one he was appointed collector for the entire state. He served in this position for six years and resigned. In 1883 he was again appointed collector of internal revenue for the state by President Arthur and served, with headquarters at Montgomery, Ala., until shortly after Mr. Cleveland's inauguration as president, when he resigned. He came to Mobile in 1885, and actively engaged in the cotton compress and storage business, with which he has been connected since -1878. He was appointed postmaster at Mobile in November, 1890, by President Harrison, and he now holds that office. In politics he is a republican, was a delegate to the national convention at Cincinnati in 1876. In 1868 he was a delegate to the national convention at Chicago, and in 1892 a delegate to the national convention at Minneapolis. He is a Knight Templar and a thirty-second degree Mason. He has four children, one son and three daughters. Mr. Barker came from a family of great longevity. His youngest grandparent died at eighty-nine years of age, and the oldest at one hundred and two
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P. D. BARKER.
511
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MOBILE COUNTY.
DANIEL BOONE BOOTH, collector of customs at the port of Mobile, was born in Autauga county, Ala., May 13, 1839. He is of English ancestry. His father was Charles Booth, a native of South Carolina, a farmer, and died in 1869. . Mr. Booth's mother was Elizabeth Booth, a native of South Carolina, who survived her husband but a few months, her death occurring in 1870. Daniel B. Booth was reared on a farm in his native county, which has been his home all his life, his place of resi- dence being at the present time in Autagua county. He attended the country schools till he reached the age of eighteen, and then, in 1859, he entered Mossy Creek college, of east Tennessee, in which institution he spent about two years, leaving college to enter the Confederate service in 1861. He enlisted in a cavalry company formed in Autauga county, and remained with it until May, 1862, when he was wounded by a ball in the right thigh, which rendered him unfit for further service during the war. He was so severely wounded that he was compelled to use crutches for three years. As soon as he had sufficiently recovered from the effects of his wound, he began teaching school at Pine Level, Mont- gomery county, Ala. In August, 1863, he was elected tax collector of Autauga county, and while serving in that capacity he was elected clerk of the circuit court of Autauga county, and served as such until July, 1868, when he was appointed clerk of the supreme court. He thereupon resigned the office of clerk of the circuit court, notwithstanding he had just been elected for a term of six years. He remained clerk of the supreme court till 1875, in which year he represented the eighteenth senatorial district in the constitutional convention, which framed the present state constitution. In 1876 he was the candidate of the repub- lican party for congress from the fifth congressional district, and though he received a very large vote and ran ahead of the presidential ticket in his district, he was defeated. Shortly before the close of President Grant's second term, he was appointed by the president collector of internal revenue for the second district of Alabama, and he served in that capacity for two years. For several years after this he followed farm- ing in Autauga county, but in March, 1890, he was appointed by Presi- dent Harrison collector of customs of the port of Mobile, and he has served as such officer ever since April 1, 1890. In politics Mr. Booth has always been a republican, casting his first presidential vote for Grant in 1868. He was a presidential elector on the Garfield and Arthur ticket in 1880. He was for many years a member of the republican state executive committee, and for fifteen years was chairman of the republican executive committee of Autauga county. He is a member of the Episco- pal church and a royal arch Mason. He was married in 1867 to Miss Sarah E. Benson, daughter of Grandison Benson, then probate judge of Autauga county. Mr. Booth has eight children, five of whom are sons. While he was clerk of the circuit court of Autauga county, Mr. Booth studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1870; but he has never been an active practitioner.
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
WILLIAM A. LE BARON, of Mobile, was born in Pensacola, Fla., November 7, 1827. His father was Charles le Baron, a native of New Orleans, La., who was a merchant by occupation and who died in 1881. The father of Charles was a quartermaster, with the rank of colonel, in the Seminole war, and for some years was vice-consul at Mobile for Mexico and Spain. The latter was the son of Charles le Baron, as commo- dore in the French navy. Upon coming to the United States he first located in Philadelphia, but afterward removed to New Orleans, and finally to Pensacola, Fla., where he died. The mother of William A. le Baron was Ann McVoy, a native of Baldwin county, Ala., who died in 1889. Her father was Martin McVoy, a Scotchman, who, it is worthy to note, piloted Gen. Jackson and his army from Mobile to Pensacola during the war of 1812. William A. le Baron completed his education in Spring Hill college, Mobile county, his parents having removed from Pensacola to Mobile when he was twelve years old. At college he studied both English and Spanish. Throughout his early life he clerked for his father, and in 1846 he helped to organize the Mobile Cadets, of which he served as first lieutenant until a few years before the war broke out, when, on account of the demands upon his time by his bussiness, he resigned. In 1856 he engaged in the cotton compress business and followed it until the beginning of the war. In the fall of 1862 he was elected lieutenant- colonel of the Twenty-fourth Alabama regiment, which position he resigned a few months later to enter the navy. From 1863 until the close of the war he acted as clerk to Commodore E. Farrand. After the war he clerked a few months for his father, after which he and his father formed a partnership in the commission business, and the firm, under the name of le Baron & Son. continued until dissolved by the former's death, in 1881. Since then Mr. le Baron has still continued in the same busi- ness. In politics he is a democrat. He is at present vice consul at Mobile for Mexico, Nicaragua and Spain. He has been Spanish vice- consul since 1881, Mexican vice-consul since 1888, and Nicaraguan vice- consul since 1889. Mr. le Baron is a member of the Roman Catholic church, the Catholic Union and the Manassas club. He was married, in 1848, to Eliza J. Robb, who was born in the city of Mexico, and is the mother of nine children.
HON. FREDERICK G. BROMBERG, ex-congressman and prominent attor- ney of Mobile, was born in New York city, June 19, 1837. His father, . Frederick Bromberg, was a native of Hamburg, Germany, and came to America about 1832. The mother, whose maiden name was Lisette Doro- thea Kunigonde Beatz, was also a native of Hamburg. They were acquainted in Hamburg, and became engaged to be married, but their marriage occurred about 1834, the father preceding the mother to this country by about one year. In February, 1838, they removed from New York to Mobile on the ship Lewis Cass, before Frederick G. was a year old. The father in Mobile conducted a music and variety store until his death, May 13, 1885, his wife having died July 11, 1872. Both died in Mobile, the former at the age of eighty-three, the latter at that of sixty-
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MOBILE COUNTY.
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eight. Frederick G. Bromberg graduated as bachelor of arts in 1858, from Harvard college. In 1861 he entered the chemical department of Harvard college, and served as assistant two years to Prof. Charles W. Eliot, then professor of chemistry in the Lawrence scientific school, and since president of the university. In 1868, he was elected a tutor in mathematics in Harvard university, which position he resigned in 1865, and returned to Mobile. Here, during the school year 1866-67, he acted as teacher of mathematics in the school of Madame A. de V. Chaudron. He then served as treasurer of Mobile two years, and, in 1868, he was elected state senator from the twenty-eighth senatorial district, served one term of four years. during the time being a member of several com- mittees, among them the judiciary committee, and committee on banking. In 1869, he was appointed, by President Grant, postmaster of Mobile, and served until 1871. In 1872. he was a delegate to the liberal republican convention at Cincinnati. which nominated Horace Greeley for president of the United States. He was nominated for congress in 1873 by the democratic convention, though a liberal republican, for the reason that the democrats knew they could not elect a democrat. He was elected and served one term, being a member of the committee on commerce. He voted for James G. Blaine for speaker. He was renominated for congress by the democrats, but owing to the influence brought to bear by the administration, he was defeated. He preferred not to be admitted to practice law until he should retire from office. In 1877, he was again nominated for congress by the people's party, but, his friends claim, was counted out. While serving in congress, he took a very active part in shaping and promoting legislation for the improvement of rivers and harbors of Alabama, and was the author of the first national quarantine bill, which was passed by the house. but not reached in the senate on account of the Louisiana imbroglio. This was the beginning of the agita- tion which has since resulted in the enactment of our national quarantine laws. In 1874, he introduced a bill for the establishment of a bureau of internal improvements, and was one of the sub-committee which drafted the "Eads' jetties" bill for the improvement of the mouth of the Missis- sippi river. He also introduced a resolution favoring the institution of an inquiry into the solvency of the National Freedman's Saving and Trust company. He was not opposed to the institution, but he had reason to believe that its funds were being misused. The resolution resulted in an investigation. and the institution was wound up. In 1876, he was admitted to practice before the supreme court of Alabama. and, in 1880, he was admitted to practice before the supreme court of the United States. He is a member of the Alabama state Bar association, and has served as its vice-president. He is now chairman of the committee on correspondence. He is a member of the National Bar association. and is now one of its vice-presidents. He was one of its organizers in 1898, being sent by the Alabama state Bar association. Since 1575, he has devoted his whole attention to the law and, since 1877. has refused to
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