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 14
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS -- MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
1862. John Hardie, grandfather of Bradford, was born in Scotland and came to America when a youth, settling first in Virginia and then coming to Alabama.
JOHN GIDEON HARRIS, state superintendent of education in Alabama. is a native of this state, and was born in the thirties in Hale county, then a part of Greene county. He was educated at Greene Springs, under Prof. Tutwiler. whose school was then one of the most famous in the south. He then followed the sound advice of the man who recommended a young man to learn what he knew by teaching it, and spent five years in the school room. He then proceeded to Cumberland university, Leba- non, Tenn., and in 1858 graduated there in law. He opened a law office in Greensboro, Ala .. and obtained a good practice almost immediately. Maj. Harris recounts with' pardonable prile the fact that he still pos- sesses the first fee paid him as a lawyer. He was making his own way in the world, and it required confidence in one's ability to get on, when one puts a first fee away in deference to sentiment. He joined the Con- federate army as a member of the Greensboro light artillery guards and proceeded to Fort Morgan. Later he raised a company of volunteers, Planter Guards, that became a part of the Twentieth Alabama infantry. He saw service with the western army and took part in nearly all the bloody battles of the memorable campaigns through Kentucky, Tennes- see and Georgia. He was promoted to the rank of major in the winter of 1863. Returning home, he took up his residence at Livingston, in Sumter county, and resumed the practice of his profession. Maj. Harris has been for years one of the most familiar figures on the stump in Ala- bama. He is a powerful, ready and eloquent speaker, and his services and his name have been repeatedly put in requisition by his party. In 1870 he was an unsuccessful candidate for congress in a district over- whelmingly republican before that time. He reduced his opponent's majority to less than 900. In 1876 he was an alternate elector at large; in 1880 he was a district elector, and in 1884 was again alternate elector at large. In 1866 he received the appointment, at the hands of President Cleve- land, of register of the land office at Montgomery. He administered this post with signal ability; cleared up neglected business and left it in per- fect shape to his successors, who took charge in 1889. In 1890 Maj. Harris was, by a flattering vote, nominated by the democratic party for state superintendent of education. He was elected at the ensuing election and was renominated and re-elected in 1892. It is not too much to say that he has made one of the very best, most active and vigilant superin- tendents Alabama has ever had, and his strong and capable administra- tion of the office gives assurance that Maj. Harris will not be forgotten by the people of his native state. Maj. Harris is a prominent Mason, having been at one time grand master of the grand lodge in this state. He is also a devoted member of the Baptist church, and as a pulpit lec-
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turer, lecturing on occasions when the regular minister has been detained away, he has delivered some memorable and beautiful discourses. Maj. Harris was married, in 1861. to Miss Mary J. Brown, of Sumter county. He has two children, both daughters, now Mrs. L. G. Dawson and Mrs. J. T. Rushin, of Elmore county, this state. He has served as president of the Y. M. C. A. convention of Alabama, and was chosen president of the international Sunday school convention that was held at Pittsburgh, Penn., in June 1390, and is still president, and will preside at the next convention, which meets at St. Louis on August 31, proxima.
WELCOME EMORY HAYGOOD, the very popular liveryman of Mont- gomery, Ala., was born in Stewart county, Ga., June 28, 1841, and received his education in Macon county, Ala., whither he has been taken by his parents, when a boy. Leaving school when about seventeen years of age, he commenced carrying mails in Alabama and Mississippi. and has been interested in that business ever since. He enlisted in the Confederate service in the fall of 1861, going into company A, First Ala- bama cavalry, commanded by Col. J. H. Clanton. Mr. Haygood served as a private until the latter part of the war, when he acted as scout. He took part in the following battles: Shiloh, and fought from there all the way back to Corinth; Murfreesboro. Resaca, Missionary Ridge, Chicka- mauga, McNamore's Cove, Tenn., Knoxville, Decatur, Savannah, Ga., and then up toward North Carolina; and was badly wounded at Tarboro, N. C., in 1865, about a month before the surrender, which ended his active service. After the war, he was brought back to LaFayette, in a wagon, and as soon as he had recovered, settled in Montgomery, where he went into the livery business, which he still carries on, being one of the most popular men in that line in the city. Mr. Haygood belongs to the Masons, and Knights of Honor, and to the Methodist Episcopal church, south. He was married, in 1868, to Alzada Goree, daughter of Langston Goree, of Elmore. Ala., and to them have been born three sons, as follows; Langston W., James Clanton, and William Warren. Apple- ton Haygood, father of Welcome Emory, was born in South Carolina. He married Mary R. Lovelace, and to this union there were born seven children, of whom four now survive, as follows: Allen W., of Cheyenne, Wyoming; Mary, wife of Judge H. E. Owens, of Abbeville, Ala. ; W. E., of Montgomery, and Martha C., widow of Elisha Flornoy of Covington county, Ala .; another son, James A., was in the Confederate service, serving all through the war. He died in 1968. Appleton Haygood served in the Confederate service a portion of the war, and died in 1866, his wife having preceded him to the grave in 1857.
JOHN HAMILTON HIGGINS, of Montgomery Ala., was born in county Roscommon, Ireland, August 4, 1842, and came to America with his parents about 1850, locating in Bloomfield, N. J., where he went to school, and then came to Montgomery, Ala., and started into the manu- facture of hats, which business he carried on until May 16, 1861, when he
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enlisted in the Independent Rifles, organized in Montgomery county, Ala. The company was commanded by Capt. G. B. Duvall, which company was assigned to the Sixth Alabama regiment, infantry, and was known as company H. the regiment being commanded by Col. Jas. J. Seibels. Mr. Higgins remained in this company and regiment as a private until February, 1862, when Capt. Waddell, of Russell, Ala., raised a company of artillery, of which Mr. Higgins became a member, as will be seen from an accompanying document. Following is a summary of the battles in which Mr. Higgins took part: First battle of Manassas, the raid in Ken- tucky with the artillery; the fight at Richmond, Ky., where 7,000 Fed- erals were captured; Perryville, Ky .; Murfreesboro, Tenn .; Chickasaw Bayou; Grand Gulf, Port Hudson, Raymond, Baker's Creek, where he was badly wounded, and came home on August, 1863, and remained until the winter of 1863. when he was transferred to the Fifty-first Alabama cavalry, in Gen. John. T. Morgan's brigade. His first fight with the cavalry was at Resaca, then New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, and daily fights from there to Atlanta. and then the battle of Atlanta; then the raid near Macon. Ga., where they captured Gen. Stoneman and 2,300 men; then the raid with Gen. Wheeler's calvary, after Sherman, all the way on his march to the sea; from Atlanta to Savannah, and then on to South Carolina, where the command surrendered in April, 1865. After the war, Mr. Higgins returned to Montgomery, Ala., and went into bus- iness four years. then clerked for four years, then farmed in Montgomery county, Ala .. for two years: he then went to North Alabama, where he transacted business for five years, and then farmed two years, and, in 1879, he returned to Montgomery, Ala., and went into his present bus- iness, of wholesale liquor dealing. Mr. Higgins was married, March 1, 1865, to Julia C., daughter of Joseph. Herron, deceased, of Montgomery, and to them have been born four children, as follows: Lulu, wife of Thomas J. Ganghan, of Camden. Ark., who has served as state senator, having been elected at the age of twenty-three; Sallie, wife of T. A. Far- ley, of Montgomery, Ala. : J. H. Higgins, Jr., and Mabel Higgins. Mr. Higgins is a member of the A. O. U. W .. and the following credentials fully show the estimation in which he was held by his forner com- manders in the "days that tried men's souls:"
MR. JOHN HIGGINS. Montgomery, Ala.
In the unceasing roll of the waves of time, one cannot help occasion- ally reviewing the past in his own mind. bringing up before his vision instances striking for their bravery and heroism, in connection with this subject I cannot but dwell on the proud recollection of that ever memor- able day, the 22d of July, 1864. on the right of Atlanta. when you rode up to me with the Brigade colors in your hand, your horse covered with foam (surging to and fro like an untamed deer), you said: "Colonel, can I go with you into this charge, which you are about to make with these colors in my hand and on horse-back," for you remember our men were all dismounted, and skirmishers at their post and all were lying flat on the ground, on account of the severity of the enemy's musketry, shot and
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shell, I remarked to you that I did not know whether the general to whose staff you were attached would like it, you said that you knew he was too brave a man to object. at this moment the silver toned bugle sounded the well known "Forward" then "Charge", you immediately placed yourself with your stars and bars flying in your hand; and mounted on your fiery steed; amid the men and showed them your colors, in the midst of the wild huzzas of our brave rebels. you were ever foremost. Through the streets of Decatur we drove the enemy pell-mell, losing, how- ever, many of our gallant officers and brave men. I have frequently won- dered with the colors and mounted; making you such a conspicuous figure that you were not almost instantly killed. And even at this late day I cannot but thank you for the assistance you rendered me then, as well as on many other occasions during the war. May your path through life be ever strewn with all the blessings that you may hope for, and may your children's actions in all trials be as unimpeachable as their father's during the time that indeed called for the greatest of fortitude.
Sincerely your friend,
W. S. REESE,
Mayor of the City of Montgomery. Formerly Colonel of the 12th Alabama Cavalry.
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Feb. 28th, 1889. To ALL, TO WHOM THIS MAY COME, GREETING :
I hereby certify that John H. Higgins, the bearer of this, was a gal- lant Confederate soldier, having first enlisted and gone to the Virginia army from Montgomery. with the company commanded by Capt. Duvall and known as the Independent Rifles. That after the first battle of Manassas, he was one of one hundred men, from said sixth Regiment, who was detailed by order of the war department, at Richmond. to form "Waddell's Battery of Light Artillery," afterward "Waddell's Battalion of Light Artillery." That. while gallantly serving his gun at Baker's Creek, and while in the act of pulling the Lanyard of a double shotted Howitzer on the enemy, then forty yards of his gun, he was most pain- fully and dangerously wounded. After the siege of Vicksburg, through which he passed, he was transferred to a brigade of Alabama cavalry, serving his country faithfully from the beginning to the end of the war. JAMES F. WADDELL, Major of Waddell's Artillery Battalion. MONTGOMERY, Ala., March 6th. 1889.
MR. JOHN H. HIGGINS :-
MY DEAR SIR: During a conversation between us a few days since, you remarked that it would be pleasing to you to have something in. writing from a few of your fellow soldiers in the late Confederate army, to preserve as a mememto of that struggle in which you and they parti- cipated. According I write this and assure you it affords me great pleas- ure to bear witness in writing. (as I have so often done orally) to your splendid qualities as a man and a soldier. I knew you most favorably as , a citizen, prior to the war, though not intimately-but when you became the color-bearer of my command in the summer of 1864, during the cam- paign from Dalton to Atlanta, you served as a soldier, by my side, and then I learned of what material you were made. You had already seen trying service in the army of Northern Virginia and on the Mississippi, and bore upon your person scars of battle, but while with me, you were so conspicuous for gallantry and valor in every engagement, that you commanded universal admiration. But not alone as a soldier were you a
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yours faithfully. Hilary Alberbert
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2 PANT & FULLER , FUES
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PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
prominent figure. Then (in war) and ever since, you have enjoyed in the very highest degree, the esteem and confidence of all who have known you. Faithfully your Friend.
WM. W. ALLEN. Late Major General C. S. A. HIGHLAND HOME, Ala., March 22d, 1889.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN :
I have known John H. Higgins intimately since 1850. He became a member of the Independent Rifles, a company organized in Montgomery Ala., and served with it at Pensacola, Fla .. for six weeks, from January 9, 1861, until relieved by C. S. troops. Afterward the company was mustered into into C. C. service as a part of the Sixth Alabama regiment, for twelve months. He served with this company until the winter of 1861, when he enlisted into Capt. Waddell's artillery company for the war. Remained with said company until wounded, and then was transferred to my company of Cavalry, Fifty-first Alabama, where he remained until the close of the war. being detailed as flag bearer for Division commander Gen. W. W. Allen, and was on duty most of the time at head-quarters. It affords me great pleasure to bear testimony to his uniform gallant con- duct, during all my knowledge of him while in the service. I know him as a brave soldier, a true friend, and honorable man and a genial companion.
M. L. KIRKPATRICK, Late Col. Fifty-first Alabama.
UNITED STATES SENATE, .
WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 25, 1890. JOHN H. HIGGINS. Esq., Montgomery, Ala.,
Dear Sir and Comrade :- Your recent letter, affords me an opportunity, which I prize, to refer to your career as a soldier in the Confederate army. You and I were more in company with each other than is usual, between a commanding officer and a private soldier, even in our army, made up of brethren, fighting and suffering in a sacred cause. Your children should be proud to know that you were a brave, faithful and dutiful soldier. This is as much as need be said of any man, or officer, for a good man in these high duties. is a good man anywhere. I remember with pleasure, the kindly personal relations we held and enjoyed, and shall always regard with interest and pleasure the pros- perity of yourself and family. Sincerely Your friend,
(Signed) Copy.
JOHN T. MORGAN.
HILARY A. HERBERT, secretary of the navy of the United States, was born in Laurensville, S. C., in 1834. The genealogy of the family from which he springs certainly leads back to England, and without question the Herberts first gained a foothold in America in the early colonial days. At a later date we still find them land owners and planters. Mr. Her- bert's father was a planter, who varied this occupation by teaching school at times. In 1847 the elder Mr. Herbert removed with his family from South Carolina, settling in Greenville. Butler county, Ala, while the Mexican war was still in progress. In 1853 Hilary A. Herbert entered the university of Alabama, and when he left it was facile princeps in all his classes. After an interval of two years he matriculated at the uni-
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versity of Virginia, where he spent two years preparing for his chosen profession-the law. At the end of this time he returned home, read law, and was admitted to the bar. At this juncture the state of Ala- bama passed the act of secession, and very shortly afterward President Davis was inaugurated at Montgomery. The gauntlet once thrown down. Mr. Herbert had no thought but to aid the southern cause, and joined the army of northern Virginia, as captain in the Eighth Alabama regiment. Under Gen. Magruder he fought before Yorktown, and retreated before Gen. McClellan. After this his regiment was engaged in the campaign in the peninsula, he was promoted to the rank of major, and at Fair Oaks was taken prisoner of war. In a short time he was exchanged, rejoined his regiment and almost immediately was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and placed in command of the regiment, which was then in Longstreet's corps, but which was shortly afterward transferred to Hill's corps. Lieut .- Col. Herbert commanded his regiment at the battles of Fredericksburg, Salem Heights, Antietam and Gettysburg. In the latter engagement the Eighth Alabama was opposed by a Federal regiment commanded by Col. Maginess, who long years afterward took his seat by Col. Herbert's side in the house of representatives at Wash- ington. When Lee was desperately warring with Grant in the Wilder- ness, Col. Herbert, while he was leading his men through thick copse- wood, was shot in the left arm, the bullet carrying away a portion of the bone, and to this day that almost nerveless arm hangs in his sleeve 1 memorial to his gallant service in the lost cause. Wounded and almost lifeless, the brave commander was carried by his men from under fire. The colonel of the regiment had long been unfit for duty; but his name still appeared on the roster as commanding officer, and Lieut. - Col. Her- bert, being wounded, there were now two names between the officers in active service and promotion. Not desiring to stand between his officers and the honors they had so gallantly won, Lieut .- Col. Herbert wrote to the officer commanding the brigade, that he wished to be retired at once. The major of the regiment, the gallant I. P. Emerich, who is still living in Mobile, Ala., immediately took steps, however, to prevent this being done, declaring, for himself and his brother off cers, that so brave a sol- dier should not be retired without achieving the rank to which he was so richly entitled. Whether by accident or design it is not recorded, but the wounded colonel was almost immediately placed upon the retired list, and Lieut .- Col. Herbert promoted to fill his place when he was retired, with the full rank of colonel. He had served in this capacity for many a weary day; on many a toilsome march, in many a charge, in many a hard-fought fight, always at the head of his men, he earned their devo- tion, and, as we have seen, so well was he beloved that his officers vol- untarily refused promotion until he himself had been gazetted to the position which was his by right. When Lee surrendered at Appomat- tox, Col. Herbert was at Greenville, Ala., where he was devoting his
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time and attention to rebuilding the family fortunes. His father and his sisters were practically dependent upon him; but he never flinched, though no doubt his burden was a heavy one. In a short time success came and he was recognized as the head of the bar in Butler county. In 1-67 he married Miss Ella Smith, one of the most beautiful women in the south, and to their marriage were born two daughters and one son. Mrs. Herbert was as accomplished as she was beautiful, and in later years was recognized in Washington as a leader in all good works. As vice- regent for Alabama of the Mount Vernon association she was mainly instrumental in refurnishing that part of the hall at Mount Vernon, which was assigned to her state in the historic detail which it presents to-day. By purely personal effort she "procured the furniture, hangings, engravings and other things which are said . to make the hall an almost exact reproduction of what it was in the time of Washington. Mrs. Herbert died in 1885. In 1872, desiring a wider field for his legal labors, Col. Herbert removed to Montgomery, Ala., and there entered into part- nership with Virgil Murphey, under the firm name of Herbert & Mur- phey. Messrs. Herbert & Murphey practiced together for three years, when the partnership was dissolved and Col. Herbert associated himself with Messrs. Clopton and Chambers, the firm being called Clopton, Her- bert & Chambers, and when the colonel went to congress his firm enjoyed the reputation of being the first in the state of Alabama. This was in 1877. The state had been re-districted and Col. Herbert had been elected to congress from the second district. a new one, and though his election had been by a good round majority, showing his popularity, he did not intend to stand for re-election at the expiration of his term. He made arrangements with his partners, Messrs. Clopton and Chambers, to keep his place in the firm open for his congressional term of two years, and promised them that at the expiration of that time he would resume his place with them. He first took his seat in the house at the extra ses- sion called by President Hayes in October, 1877. In due course the forty-fifth congress assembled, and elected Samuel J. Randall speaker. Col. Tom Scott of Pennslyvania then began to put into execution his famous scheme to get a subsidy of nearly forty millions of dollars granted to build a Texas Pacific railroad, which would have branches reaching the most important points in the south. The entire south was asked to aid in procuring this gigantic subsidy; the papers were, it is generally understood, liberally subsidized, and everything that could be done was done to railroad this great railroad scheme through congress. It was held out that this railroad would prove of incalculable benefit to the south, in fact would restore to her her former greatness. The legis- lature of Alabama instructed its senators to vote for the measure and requested its representatives to do so. When Col. Herbert's refusal to support the bill became known, the political screws were put on at once and lobbyists were sent into his district to obtain signatures to petitions,
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which were sent to him, requesting him to vote for the measure. Know- ing the source form which these measures originated. Col. Herbert still stood firm, and when the time came made his maiden speech in the house against the passage of the bill. This speech was the turning point in his career. When it became public property it became an issue in his - district, and once more in his career he refused to dodge an issue. He had copies of the speech printed and distributed broadcast through his district, and when renominated against his will for a second term. he made a vigorous canvass and was triumphantly re-elected. Col. Scott made one more desperate effort to coerce Col. Herbert. He employed a celebrated attorney in Montgomery to induce the legislature to again instruct its senators and representatives to vote for the pasasge of the bill. This lawyer made a telling speech before the legislators of Ala- bama, the burden of which was that Col. Herbert had misrepresented the wishes of the state. Every member of the legislature had a copy of the famous speech, and they stood by its author. They refused to re-instruct. It is a matter of history that the great subsidy bill never reached a vote in the house but suffered defeat in committee of the whole, and its death was owing more to Col. Herbert, than to any one else. In the forty-seventh congress Col. Herbert's seat was contested by a gentleman by the name of Strobach, who engaged Col. Robert G. Ingersoll to address the committee on election in his behalf. Col. Her bert replied for himself, and the committee, though republican in its make-up, unanimously decided in Col. Herbert's favor. Re-elected again to the forty-eighth congress he found that he had to choose between two old friends, Samuel J. Randall and John G. Carlisle, in the contest for the speakership. His views on tariff reform swayed him and he cast his vote for Carlisle, who was elected. Col. Herbert was appointed on the committee of ways and means, and served on it in company with such men as James H. B.ount, Frank Hurd, Thomas B. Reed, Frank Hiscock, and William McKinley, Jr., under Col. William R. Morrison. In such com- pany a man must fight or be lost sight of, and Col. Herbert was not buried. His speech on the horizontal tariff bill gained him great applause. But still another change was to come over Col. Herbert's
career. Grover Cleveland was elected and the forty-ninth congress again placed Carlisle in the speaker's chair. When the nominations to committees were announced. Col. Herbert's was found as chairman of that on naval affairs, and from that day to this, he has been a member of this committee, and its chairman in the forty-ninth. fiftieth and fifty- second congresses. In the congresses made famous by the rulings of its speaker, Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, Col. Herbert was the leading demo- cratic member of the committee. The rebuilding of the American navy has seemed to Col. Herbert indispensable to the nation's welfare. and much of the success of our new navy in congress may be directly attrib- uted to him. Of course he had to encounter bitter opposition, but in the
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