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 59
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allow his name to be used in connection with any elective public office. For many years he has been vice-president of the southern conference of Unitarian churches. For a number of years following the close of the war he served as school commissioner, having been appointed by Gen. Pope. He is now one of the members from Alabama of the Columbian centennial commission by nomination of Gov. Seay.
REV. JAMES RALSTON BURGETT. D. D., pastor of the Government street Presbyterian church of Mobile, Ala., was born in Olivesburg, Richland county, Ohio, April 6, 1830. His father was Joseph Rogers Burgett, a native of Pennsylvania, and a farmer, who died in Savannah, Ashland county, Ohio, in December, 1891, in the ninety-first year of his age. He was a son of George Burgett, a native of Holland. The mother of Rev. Burgett, was Ann Ralston, a native of Ireland, and came with her mother to the United States in 1805, her father having died in Ire- land previously. She died in 1875. Rev. James R. Burgett graduated from Jefferson college, Penn., in 1833, taking first honors in oratory. and at the commencement. he was chosen valedictorian of his literary society. He had taught two terms of school before attending college, and afterward, he taught several terms in Ohio. After graduating, he was for two years superintendent of the public schools at Hamilton, Ohio. During this ยท time he devoted his leisure time to the study of theology, having deter- mined to prepare himself for the ministry. He had been a member of the Presbyterian church since he was eighteen years of age. In the fall of 1856, he entered the Western Theological seminary of Alleghany City, Penn., and graduated therefrom in 1857, in June, of which year, he was licensed to preach. He was ordained in April, 1858, and his first charge was the First Presbyterian church at Mansfield, Ohio, of which he was pastor two years. During this time. he was also president of a female college at Mansfield. In November, 1859, he was called to the pulpit of
. the Government street Presbyterian church, at Mobile, accepted the call, and has been its pastor ever since, during a period of more than thirty- three years. His entire attention has been devoted to the ministry, and he has been an able and efficient pastor. The church of which he is pastor is the largest Presbyterian church in Mobile, and one of the strongest in the state, having about 400. members. Dr. Burgett has been twice married, the first time to Miss Martha A. Vance, of Washington county, Penn., July 26, 1855, who died December 17, 1856, leaving an infant daughter, who is now the wife of Rev. F. L. Ewing, of Covington, Tenn. On June 6. 1860, Dr. Burgett married Miss Sarah V. Wheeler, of Mobile, who is his present wife. By this latter marriage, Dr. Burgett has had seven children, six sons and one daughter, all of whom are living except one of the sons.
PETER BURKE, tobacconist of Mobile, and ex-sheriff of Mobile county, was born in 1846. He received a good English education in Mobile, and at the early age of ten years he entered the employ of M. D. Grinnell, a
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tobacconist of Mobile, for whom he clerked for about ten years. In 1865, he became the partner of Mr. Grinnell, and the firm of M. D. Grinnell & Co. continued to exist and transact business until it was dissolved by the death of Mr. Grinnell, in 1869. Mr. Burke succeeded the firm, as sole owner of the business, and he has conducted it as such ever since. Ever since Mr. Burke entered the employ of Mr. Grinnell, at the age of ten years, he has been engaged in business in the same room, at one of the corners of Dauphin and Royal streets. He has now one of the leading tobacco establishments in the city of Mobile. For the last twenty years, beside conducting his tobacco establishment. Mr. Burke has been largely identified with the steamboat business, having owned and operated lines during this time running between Mobile and Pensacola, Mobile and Point Clear, Mobile and Demopolis and Columbus, and between Mobile, Selma and Montgomery. He is now the owner of the steamers C. W. Anderson and L. T. Armstrong. In politics, Mr. Burke is a democrat, and in 1880 he was elected sheriff of Mobile county by an overwhelming majority, and served one term of four years, which is the full limit allowed by law, a sheriff not being permitted to succeed himself. He was a most excellent officer, discharging the duties of his responsible position in a manner which brought to him the praise of all, irrespective of party. He is a member of the Can't Get Away club, of Mobile. Mr. Burke is one of the jury commissioners of Mobile county, having been appointed by Gov. Seay, and he has been for several years a government con- tractor on Star routes. Mr. Burke has always been a public spirited man and has to his credit numerous deeds of charity.
PHILIP C. CANDIDUS, druggist of Mobile. Ala., was born in Germany, June 17, 1831. His father was Frederick Candidus, of royal blood, who served as inspector of forests in Germany. Philip C. Candidus was reared and educated in Germany, emigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen, and landed in New York city. He located in Phila- delphia, where he remained five years as a drug clerk and as a student of the college of Pharmacy. In 1853, he went to Marietta. Ga., where he clerked in a drug store a year and a half, when he removed to Aber- deen, Miss., and there resided until 1868, except as his residence was interrupted by his service in the army of the Confederate States. He was a clerk in a drug store there from 1854 to 1558, when he engaged in the. drug business on his own account, as a member of the firm of Can- didus & Jones, Mr. Jones having been his employer. The firm of Candi- dus & Jones existed till 1-64. when Mr. Candidus sold out to Mr. Jones. In the meantime, Mr. Candidus, in 1861, entered the service of the Con- federate army as purveyor of medical supplies to the Mississippi troops, and he held this contract until 1864, when he became an orderly sergeant in a Mississippi regiment, in which rank he continued until the close of the war. At this time he resumed the drug business in Aberdeen, Miss .. continuing there until 1-6 -. In that year he removed to Mobile, where
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he has been constantly engaged in the drug business ever since. He is now one of the leading and most highly respected druggists in the city. He has for years been very prominent in druggists' circles and associa- tions both in city and state, serving at the present time his second term as president of the state board of pharmacy. He also served several years as president of the Alabama Pharmaceutical association, and he is its present secretary. He is an ex-president of the American Pharma- ceutical association, and for three years he has lectured on pharmacy in the Medical college of Alabama. He is also very prominent as a member of mystic societies, being at the present time a trustee of Howard lodge, F. & A. M., a past high priest and past captain general of the Knights Templar commandery, and he is also a member of the Knights of Honor and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. In politics, he has always been a democrat, and in religion, is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. Mr. Candidus has been twice married. On December 24, 1856, he was united with Miss Mattie Williams, who died December 4, 1884, leaving no children. In October, 1888, he married Miss Arvalla Culton, his present wife. In 1890, Mr. Candidus paid a visit to his native country for the first time since he came to the United States.
FRANCIS B. CLARK, JR., a prominent attorney of Mobile, Ala,, was born in Augusta, Ga., November 7, 1850. His father was the Hon. Francis B. Clark, an ex-member of the Alabama legislature, and one of the railroad pioneers in Alabama, having been of the projectors of the old Mobile & Ohio railroad. a director and vice-president thereof for many years, and subsequently president of the Mobile & Alabama Grand Trunk railway company, now the Mobile & Birmingham railway. He was born at Dansville, N. Y., and is of English descent. The mother of Francis B. Clark, Jr., was Helen Mary ( Shepherd ) Clark, a native of Orange county, Va., and she. as well as her husband, is living. Francis B. Clark, Jr., graduated from the Virginia Military institute at Lexington, Va., in 1870. While there he acted as president of one of the literary societies, and subsequently as orator of the same society. In 1872, he graduated from the law department of the university of Virginia. In 1875 he was admitted to the bar at Mobile, which city has been his home nearly all his life, his parents having been only temporarily sojourning at Augusta at the time of his birth. At once, upon admission to the bar, he began practice at Mobile, where he has since risen to distinction. In 1878 he published Clark's Manual of Criminal Law, which had an exten- sive circulation both in Alabama and in the country generally, and was adopted as a text book in the law department of the university of Alabama. In 1881, he published Clark's Criminal Digest. In 1878, he was made recording secretary for Gov. George S. Houston of Alabama, and remained with him until the latter's election to the United States senate, in 1579. He was then elected reporter of the supreme court of Alabama under a special act of the legislature, and acted in this capacity for about six
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months. During that period, conjointly with Thomas G. Jones, the state reporter, and now governor of the state, he prepared volumes fifty-seven all fifty-eight of the Alabama Reports. 'In 1930 he was elected, by the general assembly, as state prosecuting attorney and solicitor for Mobile county, serving in that capacity for six years. Since 1886, he has devoted his entire attention to the practice of his profession, in connection with his brother, Gaylord B. Clark, under the firm name of Clark & Clark. In 1882, he prepared a book on legal and business forms, which became very popular, a second edition being published in 1889. He was appointed by ex-Chief Justice Robert C. Brickell to aid him in the preparation and revision of the laws of Alabama, comprising the code of 1886. Mr. Bric- kell was then chief code commisioner of Alabama. About the time of his admission to the bar, Mr. Clark aided in the re-organization of some of the historical military companies of Mobile, one of them being the Wash- ington light infantry, first organized prior to the Mexican war. He acted as captain of this company for several years, resigning the position after his election as solicitor. He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Beside the works already mentioned, Mr. Clark has written various articles for che law magazines and an occasional article of a literary character. In politics he is a democrat, and is at present a member of the democratic executive commitee of Mobile. For many years, owing to the extensive practice of his firm, he has had no time to devote to literature. The firm of Clark & Clark are attorneys for the Mobile & New Orleans division of the Louisville & Nashville railroad. They are counsel also for the Mobile & Birmingham railway company, Mobile & Spring Hill railway company; the Mobile street railway company; the Western Union Telegraph company; the Southern Express company; the Sullivan . Timber company, and several other corporations: for the Mobile River & Harbor commission and the Quarantine board. While their corporation practice is very extensive, they have also a general miscellaneous practice which is very large. Mr. Clark is a master of arts, the degree having been conferred by the Virginia Military institute. Mr. Clark was married in Montgomery, Ala., August 29, 1879, to Miss Mary Pickett Banks, who died March 25, 1891. He has three sons living, the youngest being now four years of age. Mrs. Clark was the granddaughter of Col. Albert James Pickett, the historian of Alabama, and she was a niece of the late Bishop Samuel S. Harris, D. D. LL. D., of the Protestant Episcopal church, diocese of Michigan.
HON. GAYLORD B. CLARK, a prominent attorney-at-law of Mobile, Ala., was born in that city April 16, 1846. His father is Francis B. Clark, a native of New York, who was educated in Kentucky, where he has since resided. His paternal grandfather was Dr. Willis Fish Clark of Livings- ton county, N. Y .. and his paternal grandmother was a Miss Barnard of Massachusetts. The ancestry of Mr. Clark's family on his father's side is English. The mother of Gaylord B. Clark was Helen Mary Shep-
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herd, a native of Orange county, Va. Her father was James Shepherd. a native of Virginia, and of. Scotch descent. Her paternal grandfather was Paul Verdier, a French Huguenot. Gaylord B. Clark graduated from the Virginia Military institute, at Lexington, Va .. in July. 1867. standing second in his class, having spent four years at the institute. During the last two years of the war he participated in its har lships and trials as a member of the institute's corps of cadets and was in the battle of New Market. Was graduated as a civil engineer and followed this profession about two years after graduating. During the last year of his collegiate life he was selected by the board of visitors as assistant professor of mathematics. but declined the position. While still pursuing the duties of a civil engineer he began the study of the law with Amos R. Manning and Percy Walker, two prominent lawyers of Mobile, the former of whom served upon the supreme court of Alabama, and the latter several terms in congress. Mr. Clark was admitted to the bar in 1870, but pursued his studies for two years afterward, entering regularly upon the practice of the law in 1872 in Mobile. During the first year of his practice he was admitted to the supreme court of Alabama, and in 1881. he was admitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States: has been admitted to and has practiced in the supreme courts of Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana, and in the United States' courts in those states. His partner is his brother. Francis B. Clark, Jr., whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work, and the firm, Clark & Clark, is one of the leading because one of the ablest firms of the state. This firm has a very extensive, as well as a very remunerative corporation practice. Mr. G. B. Clark was one of the organizers of the state bar association, and he is a member of the American bar association. He has, upon different occasions, been offered judgeships. and has twice been offered a position upon the . supreme bench of the state. but he has declined them all, preferring to devote his time to the practice of the law. He is one of the ablest lawyers of the state, and is a man of fine physical appearance. In politics he is a dem- ocrat. In 1876, he was elected a member of the Mobile city council, serving one term. In 1878, he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, and served here one term. In 1984, he was the candidate of his party for the state senate, but he suffered defeat with the entire democratic ticket in his county. He was a delegate to the national dem- ocratic convention which nominated Grover Cleveland for the presidency in 1888, and he has frequently been a delegate to his party's conventions in the state. He was an alternate presidential elector for the Mobile congressional district. He has been a member of the democratic state executive committee, and chairman of the district executive committee since 1884. He always takes an active part in politics and in the councils of his party. He is a vestryman of Christ's Protestant Episcopal church; is a member of the New York democratic club and of the .Southern society of New York. He is counsel for the quarantine board of Mobile
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Bay and for the Mobile river commission, general counsel for the Mobile & Birmingham railroad company, and district attorney for the Mobile and Mississippi division of the Louisville and Nashville railroad company. He was married April 15. 1881 to Miss Lettice Lee Smith. daughter of Colonel Robert White Smith, a prominent cotton merchant of Mobile. Four members of the Clark family are members of the legal profession. LeVert Clark being a member of the bar at Mobile. and Louis V. Clark, formerly of the Walker county bar, residing at the present time in Birmingham, where he holds the position of colonel of the Alabama state troops. Mr. Clark is also a nephew, of the Hon. Willis G. Clark of Mobile.
WILLIS G. CLARK was born in western New York, October 27, 1827. His father was a physician of large practice and his mother's family, the Barnards, contributed several educated men to the christian ministry and other of the learned professions. Both parents were of patriotic descent, their forefathers having participated actively in the war of the Revolu- tion. Believing strongly in education, their children were given the best education the country then afforded. W. G. Clark commenced school at the early age of four years and continued, with little intermission, pass- ing from the primary to the high schools-until he passed his thirteenth year. At the age of fourteen, he entered the collegiate institute, near Quincy, Ill., founded by the celebrated David Nelson, who was eminent both as a physician and a divine. After three years of close study in this institution, he returned north, and, for a time, engaged in teaching, first, in the public schools, afterward as principal of the Dansville academy, meanwhile improving his leisure hours in the study of law, which profession he proposed to adopt. In 1845, he entered regularly the law office of Hon. George Hastings, of Mount Morris, N. Y., an eminent statesman and jurist, who had served a term in the Federal congress and was afterward elevated to the bench. Having completed his appointed clerkship, in the fall of 1848, Mr. Clark went south, prin- cipally to see the country. With this view he traveled extensively in the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, visiting localities of interest and particularly the infant industries of these states, which were just. budding into life. He spent some months in the summer of 1849, travel- ing in Georgia, by private conveyance, from town to town and county to county, tarrying at places of interest and taking full notes of scenery, legends, and, particularly, of manufactories, visiting every considerable factory in that state. As leisure afforded, he wrote out from his notes, a series of letters to the New Orleans Picayune, which were widely copied and attracted much attention. He also contributed occasional sketches and political and industrial articles to the columns of the Chronicle and Sentinel of Augusta. Ga., and to the Daily Advertiser of Mobile. At a later date, he contributed a series of sketches under the title of A Summer in Georgia, to a monthly magazine published in the
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city of New York. Returning to Mobile in the fall of 1849, he determined to make his home in that city and entered the law office of Messrs. Campbell & Chandler, for the purpose of studying the Alabama statutes and the decisions of the supreme court of the state. In the spring of 1850 he was presented to the several courts by Mr. Daniel Chandler of that firm, and having been admitted to the bar, commenced the practice of law in Mobile. His time at first not being fully occupied, and having strong literary proclivities, he accepted the position of editor of The Southern Magazine, a literary venture published monthly, which had been undertaken sometime before by a publishing firm of Mobile. In the spring of 1852, he was solicited to take editorial charge of the Mobile Daily Advertiser during the expected absence of the editor, Hon. C. C. Langdon, whose impaired health and serious physical condition rendered entire surcease of labor and a change of climate absolutely niec- essary to a recovery. He accepted the position and assumed control in May, 1852. The summer of that year was an exciting one in the history of Mobile. The political campaign, ushered in by the whig national convention which met in Baltimore and sacrificed, on the altar of expediency, the great Commoner, Henry Clay. the idol of the whig party of the country-and nominated a military chieftain, Gen. Winfield Scott, for president, was a stormy and laborious canvass. The whig party in Mobile and Alabama, at this period, was strong in numbers, and strong in character and influence. Every man of them was devoted to Mr. Clay, and the electric flash which told of his defeat at Baltimore was a terrible disappointment, which shrouded every whig heart in gloom. Angry mutterings were heard on every side. and leading and influential whigs declared that they would not support the ticket. The Mobile Advertiser. however, was a party paper, and must perforce stand by the party ticket. The second question, although of purely local interest, was not less absorbing and exciting. Under an act of the general assembly, the people of Mobile were called upon to decide whether or not the imposing and beautiful structure called the Barton academy, designed and erected for educational use, should be sold, and the proceeds put out at interest to increase the amounts distrib uted among the several parochial schools of the city. On this question the com- munity was divided, and for a time political affairs were overlooked in the immediate and all pervading interest of its solution. Thus the young and inexperienced editor was confronted on the threshold of his new. undertaking with responsibilities, difficulties and labors, which might well have discouraged if they did not appall him. He had youth. energy and a great capacity for labor on his side, and was familiar with the school systems of the northern states. He entered zealously into the contest, and in the press and on the stump contended vigorously for the candidates of his party, and for the establishment of a system of public schools in the city and county of Mobile. He opposed, with all the force
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he could command, the proposed sale of the Barton academy, and urged that instead. it should be at once devoted to the uses for which it was designed. In the course of the discussion he outlined and printed in the editorial columns of the Advertiser, a plan for the establishment of public schools, which became the basis of the system afterward adopted. The position of the Advertiser on this question was ably seconded by the Mobile Register- then under the control of Thaddeus Sanford, one of the most astute, thoughtful and accomplished of editors-and the result was an overwhelming victory at the polls for the policy advocated by these journals. and the organization soon afterward of the first system of public schools established in Alabama. On his return from the north, Mr. Langdon proposed to sell his paper to Mr. Clark, who (retiring from the practice of the law, and from the editorship of the Southern Magazine) became the purchaser, and conducted the Advertiser successfully, until the Civil war, breaking out in 1861. obliterated old party lines. when the Register became associated with the Advertiser, and the joint journal was continued under the name of Advertiser and Register. and Col. John Forsyth, of the Register, became co-editor of the united journal. The Advertiser and Register, although it had strongly opposed the separate secession of Alabama. took an active part in the war which followed, and zealously sustained the Confederate government, and particularly the armies in the several fields of conflict, with all of whom it had corre- spondents. It gave special attention to its news service, organized a telegraphic system of its own, and contributed largely to the inaugura- tion of an association of the southern daily newspapers, of which its manager, Mr. Clark, became president. The paper was published up to the day of the surrender of Mobile-although such of the material as could be spared had been removed to a place of safety-but on the occupation of the city by the Federal troops, the office was seized, and a printer who came in with the troops was placed in charge, and issued a paper with the material he found. At the close of the war, the proprietors, having returned to Mobile, made application for the surrender of their office and contents, but were met by stout resistance, and only succeeded in recovering their property after months of delay and discouragement. The next two years, were years of great prosperity to the Advertiser and Register. The influx of people, the high price of cotton, and the enormous quantities of merchandise brought in to replenish the empty larders, and the wasted wardrobes of the people. made business very active, and as the war had disrupted old business relations, every dealer had to advertise his location and business The high prices then ruling for news and book papers, and the scarcity of both, led Mr. Clark, in 1867, to organize a company for the manu- facture of paper, and a mill was built near Mobile, and thoroughly equipped for that purpose. Having been chosen president of the paper company, he sold his interest in the Advertiser and Register and
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