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 2 > Part 12
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JEFFERSON MANLY FALKNER was born at Arbacoochee, Randolph county, Ala., July 14, 1843. His father, Jefferson Falkner, who was born Jasper county. Ga., in 1810, was an eminent preacher-lawyer. was judge of the county court of Randolph county, and served two terms in the state senate. Jefferson? M. Falkner was educated in Lafayette and at Mercer university, Penfield, Ga. He left school in May, 1861, returned home and
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f. M . Falkner
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entered the Confederate service, enlisting in a company his father had organized and was commanding, the Chambers cavalry, later known as company B, of the Eighth Confederate cavalry. He entered the army as a boy and as a private, was promoted to a second, then a first, lieutenancy, and in January, 1965, became captain of his company, being then but little more than of age. His regiment was under Wheeler, and Capt. Falkner was in every battle that Wheeler fought from Columbus, Ky., in 1861, to the close of the war. On the close of hostilities, he returned to Montgomery, and, together with his father, purchased a plantation and began farming. He read law in the meantime, while his crops grew, and in February, 1868, was admitted to the bar. Forming a partnership with his father, they entered upon practice in Montgomery and continued in business together until 1875, when his father retired. He later formed a partnership with Col. Thomas G. Jones, and continued with him until Col. Jones was elected governor in 1890. Capt. Falkner is now district attorney in Alabama for the Louisville & Nashville rail- road, an important and highly responsible position. In addition to his law practice he finds time to take a great interest in farming and stock raising, having extensive landed interests in Montgomery and Chilton . counties. Capt. Falkner has never embarked in politics, though he was for four years an alderman of the city of Montgomery and for two years city attorney. This latter post he resigned. On July 19, 1887, he was married to Lizzie Cameron, daughter of Andrew Cameron, and has two children, Jefferson Cameron and Robert Molton. Capt. Falkner is one of the most highly respected citizens in Alabama and Montgomery, where he has lived for the greater portion of his life, and his name is a synonym for honesty and steadfast loyalty to friends.
JAMES ALFRED FARLEY was born in Halifax county Va., on Feb- ruary 18, 1824. He was a son of James and Eliza (Davis) Farley, both natives of Virginia. He had two brothers and five sisters, born in the following order, viz .: Ann, Henry W., Martha J., William G., Eliza, Caroline T., James Alfred, and Susie Virginia. James Alfred, after the death of both father and mother, moved to Montgomery, Ala .. at the age of fourteen years. He came all the way from Milton, N. C., on horse- back, and took a position in the store of his brother, Henry W. Farley, who was at the time engaged in the dry goods business in Montgomery. He was not too proud to sweep out the store or to do anything else that fell in his way. His perseverance after a few years found him at the head of the concern and the one who made all the purchases for the firm in eastern markets. He remained with his brother until he accepted & position in the office of Winter's iron works, where he proved himself a useful employee of the institution, and was held in high esteem by his employers. In the fall of 1550 he began his career in the banking busi- ness, which in after years proved so highly successful. He first connected
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himself in the banking house of John Henly & Co., as bookkeeper, and during the following year, in recognition of his ability, he was admitted as a partner in business without the investment on his part of a single dollar. During the early fifties the death of John Hen'y left him in entire charge of the affairs of the bank. The death of the senior mem- ber of the firm necessitated the withdrawal of a large part of the capital and surplus upon which the business was conducted; notwithstanding this, however, he continued the firm name of John Henly & Co. until the establishment by himself and his brother, William G. Farley,. of the Farmers' bank of Alabama, in 1861, of which he was president. He was an able financier and accumulated large means; he served the city as alderman for several terms, and was treasurer of the Tallassee Falls manufacturing company for years, besides being connected with the Montgomery gas company and other prominent institutions. In 1865, he admitted Mr. James R. Smith, who had been an employee of the Farmers' bank, as a partner in the bank and changed the style of the concern to Farley, Smith & Co. In 1870, Farley, Smith & Co. were succeeded by Farley, Spear & Co., which change was occasioned by the admission as a partner of Mr. Charles Spear, who married Leonora, eldest daughter of James A. and Sarah E. Farley. During the year 1861, at the opening of the Civil war, James A. Farley was appointed by Hon. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, as agent of the produce loan of the Confederacy with the rank of colonel, which office he held until the close of the war. This office gave him power not only, to pay and settle for all cotton, corn, and other produce for the Confederate States of America, but to negotiate the bonds of the same. At the age of sixty- four years and ten months he died, December 27, 1888, at his home in Montgomery, after a useful life as a public-spirited citizen and warm friend of the needy. His wife, who survives him, was Miss Sarah Elizabeth Hoxey, daughter of Dr. Thomas Hoxey, a prominent physician of Colum- bus, Ga., and descendant of a very distinguished Georgia family. As fruits of this marriage there were born six children, four daughters and two sons. Of these, four are now living, namely: Mary Eliza Leonora, wife of Charles Spear, now of New York city; Cora Annulette, wife of John Metcalf, of Montgomery, Ala .; Louis Bulow, and Hoxey Carter Farley, the two sons. The eldest son of James A. and Sarah E. Farley. Louis Bulow, was born in Montgomery, Ala., October 2, 1867, and received a liberal education, concluding his scholastic studies at the university of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. After finishing his course there he began work as a runner and collector for Farley, Spears & Co., and after learn- ing the various departments in the bank was promoted to the position of teller, shortly before the death of his father. By the last will of his father he was appointed one of the executors of his estate, Realizing the will of his father necessitated the business of Farley, Spear & Co. to be discontinued, and not wishing to see the name of "Farley" so long
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identified with the honorable calling of finance, go down, he conceived the idea of organizing the Farley National bank of Montgomery. to suc- ceed to the established and valuable business which his father had left as a rich inheritance. By vigorous work he interested men of prominence and means, and with difficulty kept from the public the contemplated change in the old and reliable banking house, and on January 1, 1890, the doors of the Farley National bank were opened to the public. He was made cashier of the institution at the age of twenty-two, and has exerted his best energies for the welfare of the institution, of which he and its stock- holders may well feel proud. On October 30, 1890, he was united in mar- riage to Miss Annie Jette Means, of Montgomery, eldest daughter of Dr. Thomas A. Means, and granddaughter of T. A. Means, D. D. LL. D., of Oxford, Ga., a great and good man. They have one child, Jette Ailen Farley.
CAPT. JOHN GOODE FINLEY, eminent as an attorney-at-law, was born in Montgomery, Ala., August 12, 1842. He first attended Irving col- lege, Tenn., and in 1861, graduated from the university of Alabama. Im- mediately after leaving college, he raised a company of infantry in Mont- gomery, Ala., called the "Montgomery Cadets," of which he was elected captain, and tendered their services to the war department of the Confederate States. The command not being received at that time he enlisted in the Confederate service, going into Maj. H. C. Semple's battery, as sergeant, and so served until after the battle of Murfrees- boro, when he was elected lieutenant in company A, Twenty-second Ala- bama infantry. A year later he was acting captain of company A, and served as such until the war closed, having participated in the following battles: Murfreesboro. (where he was run over by a piece of artillery and badly injured). Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold Gap, and in the entire campaign from Dalton to Atlanta-a three months' fight. He was wounded at New Hope Church in the shoulder, and returned home a short time, and then rejoined his command and participated in the siege of Atlanta, being present when that city was captured. Then he went to North Carolina and was at the battle of Bentonville, which was his last fight. After the war, Capt. Finley taught school one year in Montgomery, studying law in the meantime, and was admitted to the bar in 1868, since when he has been in continuous practice. He was married in 1872, to Susie Pierce, daughter of Dr. James W. Pierce, of Montgomery. The cap- tain's father was Rev. David Finley, who was born in Wilkes county, Ga., and died in 1858, aged forty three years. He was a Presbyterian and pastor of the church in Montgomery for fifteen years prior to his death. The maiden name of the captain's mother was Emily W. Goode, daughter of Judge Samuel W. Goode, a native of Virginia. She died in 1882. As a lawyer, Mr. Finley has few equals in the city of Montgomery. A very interesting reminiscence of Miss Emily W. Goode, in connection with the author of "Home, Sweet Home" and Mirabeau B. Lamar is related
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in the "Virginia Cousins", which we quote. "Payne drifted into Georgia during the troublous times which preceded the removal of the Cherokee Indians. His intimacy with the noted Chief. John Ross, re- sulted in his arrest. The state and national governments were in conflict, . and white men were prohibited visiting the tribes without permission of the state. Payne had failed to do this, and being a newspaper corre- spondent and a writer, his actions were considered suspicious. A thorough investigation, however, secured his release after a brief imprisonment. During his southern tour he was a lion in society and there are not a few old albums in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, in which he indited verses to some fair lady whom he met and admired. I have before me a once elaborate album, then the property of a charming young lady of Alabama. This album is now in the possession of a son of the lady. Miss Goode was a woman of rare loveliness and had many admirers. It. was not strange, therefore, that when the brilliant author of Home, Sweet Home, met her and was charmed by her beauty and accomplishments, there should have been equally brilliant rivals to challenge his knightly attentions and contest his advances. So when he wrote the following flat- tering verse in Miss Goode's album, there was at hand a knightlier and equally brilliant Georgian to match it with a verse as good if not better:
'Lady, your name, if understood, Explains your nature to a letter; And may you never change from Goode Unless, if possible, to better.'
Montgomery, Ala., July 21st, 1835.
J. H. PAYNE.
"Mirabeau B. Lamar was a journalist, a poet and a gifted man. Coming across this verse in Miss Goode's album, he penned the following sharp and pointed personal reply :
'I am content with being Goode, To aim at better might be vain; But if i do, 'tis understood, Whate'er the cause, it is not Payne ' MIRABEAU B LAMAR.
"Lamar knew, better than Payne, how to pay a delicate compliment to a beautiful woman. He was indeed the Warrior Poet', and we are told that 'the bravest and the tenderest.' Surely no brave soldier ever penned a tenderer gem of poetry to a fair lady, than this to Miss Goode from Lamar:
'The rose I saw upon thy breast, I deemed the happiest of its race; In such a world of beauty blest How could it wish a brighter place? 'But all its hues departed soon, Like fading clouds at closing day; It could not brook superior bloom And sank in Envy's pale decay '
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 665
"What a different fate awaited these two men, both brilliant, witty, genial and poetic. Payne, after many sad wanderings and misfortunes, and few blessings and joys, died in a far off land, 'an exile from home,' and desolate, even to the last. Lamar, brave. ambitious, impulsive, responded to the call of Texas and the name of the heroic Gen. Mirabeau B. Lamar, the President of the 'Lone Star Republic,' shines brightly to- day in the annals of her struggles, her victories and her grand develop- ments. He drew his trusty sword for a struggling people and aided them to form a republic of their own,-now a part of our common country, -of which he became the honored chief magistrate. So long as the great state of Texas reveres the name of its gallant soldier-poet, General Mira- beau B. Lamar shall live in history and in song."
DAVID FLEMING, the very popular restaurant keeper of Montgomery, was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1849, and came to America in 1857. He sojourned first in Columbus, Ga., for one year, and then settled in Montgomery, Ala., where he has since resided. In 1874 he opened the restaurant which he now carries on. Beside his restaurant, Mr. Flem- ing owns large landed interests in Montgomery. He is a Mason, K. of P. and K. of H., and holds a high position socially. He was first married, in 1873, to Mary Dinsmore, and secondly, in 1891, to Kate Leame. He has one adopted son, whom he has named David Fleming. Mr. Fleming has · served two terms, eight years, as alderman of Montgomery, rendering most effective service. Alexander Fleming, father of David, was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1812, was a farmer and came with his family to America in 1857. He married Ann Bell, and to them were born six chil- dren, of whom four now survive, as follows: Anna, wife of John Han- cock; David Fleming. William Fleming, and Mary, wife of Joseph Ledbetter. The eldest son, Alexander, was in the Confederate service in 1863, in the navy, and after the war was over joined the United States navy and died in 1887.
BUNBERRY FLINN, planter of beat No. 9, living near Hope Hull post- office, Montgomery county, was born in Brunswick county, N. C., in 1808. He is a son of David Flinn, a native of North Carolina, where he spent all his life, dying when Bunberry was quite a small boy, his mother having died at the time of his birth. David Flinn was of Irish descent, was a farmer by occupation, and it is believed he was a Revolutionary soldier. He was married twice. Bunberry was the youngest of five brothers, viz. : William, who came to Alabama at an early day and died near Mobibe: Daniel, also deceased: James, John, and Bunberry. They . all came to Alabama, and all were farmers. Bunberry Flinn was left an orphan when about four years old. and was reared by a half sister, a Mrs. Green, with whom he came to Alabama. locating in Montgomery county, soon after General Jackson's army passed through this section of the country, they following in his trail, some distance behind. They were thus among the earliest settlers of Alabama. Where Montgomery
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now stands there was then a wilderness, and the wilderness was inhabited principally by Indians and wild beasts. Mr. Flinn became very familiar with the Indians, being brought in the country and in the woods for a great part with them. He attended school but a few days during his life, learning to read aud write while attending to plantation business. At about the age of nineteen he began for himself as a laborer, with the promise of some schooling, but this promise was never fulfilled. He afterward became an overseer, and followed that line of work for about sixteen years. He began at $5 per month, and worked most of these sixteen years for Abner McGehee. In the meantime, on February 9, 1837, he was married to Miss Oranza Anderson, daughter of Eley Anderson, who was probably a South Carolinian, but who, at an early day, came to Alabama, and settled in Lowndes county, followed the life of a farmer, and in that county died. Mrs. Flinn was born in Lowndes county, and was a member of the Protestant Methodist church, became the mother of thirteen children, and died in 1864. Eight of these thirteen children still survive, viz. : William R., a merchant at McGehee; Daniel, a farmer at McGehee; Robert, supervisor of public roads; Milton, merchant at Pike Road; Frank, a druggist of Tuscaloosa, who served in the legisla. ture from Montgomery county, in 1886; Octo, a merchant of Pike Road; Missouri, wife of Jesse A. Bozeman, and Lula, widow of J. T. Glaze. Wat- son, one of those who died. was in the Second Alabama cavalry about one year, and has died since the war. Bunberry, soon after marriage, settled on his present farm, then in a wild state, about nine miles southwest of Montgomery, at one time owning about 800 acres of land. He lost about 850,000 during the war, $10,000 of it being in cotton, which was burned. He has given his children $70,000 in cash, and has paid 840,000 surety debts, all since the war. All that he has, and all that he has ever had, was acquired by his own hard work, good management and economy. Some of the time he has worked sixteen hours per day, and for a man of his age, he is yet very active and well preserved. He has spared no pains to educate his children, for many years running a school himself, for that purpose. He superintended the first squad of men in the construc- tion of the first railroad in the state, the Montgomery & West Point rail-
' road. He made the brick, and furnished the material to build what was called the old Mud Tavern, in Montgomery, which was burned about 1840. He is widely known for his honesty, sobriety, and fair dealing, and is one of the best known men in this part of the state. Until the disso- lution of the whig party. he belonged to it, but he has, since that time, been a democrat. He belonged to the state militia in the early day. and has for many a year been a member of the Protestant Methodist church.
JOHN BROWN GASTON, M. D .- The Gastons are of French descent and their ancestors were distinguished, in the early part of the seven- teenth century, as zealous adherents of the Huguenot cause. John Gas- ton, from whom the subject of this sketch was seven removes in direct
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lineal descent, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, sought refuge in Scotland. Subsequently the family transferred themselves into Ire- land, whence the great-grandfather of our Dr. Gaston migrated to the United States about the year 1730, settling first in Pennsylvania, where he married Esther Waugh. About 1750 he moved to South Carolina, and established his homestead, known then as now by the name of Cedar Shoals, on the Catawba river. He bad nine sons all of whom were engaged in the Revolutionary war. Seven were in the battle of Fort Moultrie. Three were killed in the battle of Hanging Rock. Another who was a lieutenant died of small pox during Sumter's retreat from Wright's Bluff. Joseph Gaston, the youngest son, while a lad of sixteen, was wounded at Hanging Rock, became afterward a successful planter, and a member of the legislature, and died at a good old age in 1836. He was the father of John B. Gaston. Sr., who married Mary Buford McFad- den, a native of South Carolina of Scotch descent. Five of their sons were in the Confederate army at the same time, and three of them died in the service. Two of them still survive. Dr. J. McFadden Gaston, now a distinguished physician of Atlanta, Ga., and Dr. John Brown Gaston, the subject of this sketch. Dr. John Brown Gaston was born in Chester county, S. C., on January 4, 1834. He received his primary education at Cedar Shoals academy, and graduated from the South Carolnia college in 1852. He began the study of medicine in Columbia, under his brother, and graduated from the medical department of the university of Pennsyl- vania in 1855. He practiced for two years in York county, S. C., and . removed to Montgomery, Ala., in 1857; here he formed a partnership with Dr. Nathan Bozeman, now of New York city, which continued for two years, until Dr. Bozeman moved to New Orleans. Dr. Gaston con- tinued to conduct a general practice in Montgomery until January, 1861, when he was commissioned by Gov. Audrew B. Moore, surgeon of the state militia, and ordered to Fort Morgan, where he remained about two months. On July 19, he was appointed surgeon of the Nineteenth Ala- bama regiment, and accompanied it to the Potomac, where it found part of the army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. He was present with his regi- ment on the march through the peninsula to meet Gen. Mcclellan, and afterward as they fell back on Richmond, and through the terrible seven days' fight around that city. He participated in the second battle of Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. After the latter battle, in July. 1:63, he was appointed surgeon of Gen. Wilcox's brigade, with the title of "senior surgeon of brigade," and with it took part in all the battles from the Wilderness down to Petersburg. Soon after his arrival there he was ordered to Richmond, and placed in charge of the Alabama division of the Howard Grove hospital, a very extensive institution, of which his division alone contained 550 beds. He remained here until the surrender, when he returned south, stopping for some monhts with his relations in North Carolina.
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In November, 1865, he reached Montgomery, which he had not seen for four years, and recommenced the practice of his profession in partner- ship with Dr. W. I. Holt, with whom he remained associated till 1870. Since that time he has conducted a large and increasing practice by him- self. He has been since his residence in Montogmery a member of the Montgomery Medical society, and has been its president more than once. He became a member of the medical association of the state in 1869, in which year he delivered the annual oration; he has been a counselor of the association since 1875; was its president in 1882; and has been for many years a member of the board of censors, the committee of public health, and the state board of medical examiners. He has been a mem- ber of the city council of Montgomery, and mayor of the city for two terms of two years each, begininng in 1981. Under his administration as mayor the finances of the city were kept in a most satisfactory condi- tion; order prevailed, and sanitary inspection of streets were systema- tized and enforced as never before in Montgomery. He is a member of the board of trustees of the great state hospital for the insane, which has obtained a national reputation for the excellence of its management. On several occasions Dr. Gaston has been instrumental in securing from the general assembly of the state important legislation in behalf of the better qualification of doctors and of health interests of the people. Two of these occasions deserve special mention. The law to regulate the practice of medicine in Alabama was passed in 1877. While it was pend- ing in the general assembly it met with very earnest and bitter opposi- tion, opposition not the less effectual for mischief because it was based on ignorance and misconception. The struggle was protracted and for a long time of doubtful issue, and Dr. Gaston's efforts, in connection with the efforts of Doctors Weatherly and Michel, before the committees of the two houses, and in the lobbies, unquestionably turned the scales in favor of the passage of the law. The law to establish boards of health in Alabama was enacted in 1876; but without any appropriation to carry it into execution. In 1878 a bill was introduced into the house of repre- sentatives to remedy. this defect, and was referred to the committee on appropriations, where it met with little favor, or rather with no favor at all. In this emergency Drs. Gaston, Weatherly, Seelye, Michel and Cochran obtained permission to appear before the committee, Dr. Gas- ton acting as principal speaker. His address was singularly forcible and impressive. He insisted that the duty of the state to protect the person and property of the people against preventable diseases rests upon the same ground as the duty, universally recognized, of protecting their per- sons and property against the assaults of wicked and lawless men, and this was done with so much effect that the committee reported unani- mously in favor of the appropriation, and requested the doctor to address the house on its merits. This he was not able to do. The law was passed by a very handsome majority. Dr. Gaston's message, as presi-
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