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 2
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established their camping ground near Independence. Mo., not far from the Missouri river, for the purpose of drill in military tactics, and of inuring themselves to the hardships and vicissitudes of the rough life they knew was before them. In the month of April, 1849, this company, inspired by high hopes, started on their trip, making rapid progress toward the valley of the Platte. But, lacking in experience, their rapid progress was made at the expense of the strength of their animals, which were compelled to draw heavily loaded wagons across the open - prairie. Day by day their caravan wandered on through vast herds of buffalo, groups of mighty elks and fleet-footed antelopes. Arriving at Fort Lar- amie, their animals being badly broken down, the necessity forced itself upon them of adopting a different mode of travel. A large part of their outfit had to be abandoned. Mining tools, scientific instruments, appa- · ratus for assaying and coining gold, and valuable collections of books pertaining to mining were left behind, and, freed from everything except articles of the barest necessity, the company. divided into small squads of a few men, again started westward, each squad independent of the others. Pack-saddles were substituted for wagons, and on July 4, 1849, they were in the camp of the Shoshones or Snake Indians. A few days afterward they reached Fort Hall, on the banks of the Lewis fork of Snake river. Next, came a wearisome trip across the alkaline plains between the western declivity of the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada range, involving a still greater reduction of their baggage, and the abandonment of the collection of plants made by Mr. Mohr, day by byoday, since he had left Missouri, a sacrifice involving pangs only felt or appreciated by a naturalist. It was a foot-sore, starved and ragged group of seven, which, after leaving Humboldt river, crossed the water- less plain east of the Truckee river, reached the eastern decline of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Here, in sylvan retreats, and in the enjoyment of the clear waters of the mountain streams, they spent a few days of rest upon short rations, their tired and starved animals feasting on the luxurious grasses of the valleys. The hope that beyond the mountain range before them lay the land of promise, gave a fresh impetus to their drooping spirits, and after crossing this range, on August 12, for the first time in 111 days, they found themselves near the abode of civilization, at a place called Johnson's ranch, in the Sacramento valley. Upon consultation with the miners from the region of the foot hills of the mountams, they concluded to try their fortunes among the hills fronting the Yuba river, and immediately commenced digging in the placers of that stream. They were able, from their earnings, to purchase, and lay in, a supply of pro- visions before the commencement of the rainy season, sufficient to last through the winter. In the summer of 1850, under the impression that in the fissures and pockets of the rock forming the solid bed of the mountain streams they would find the richest deposits. they worked waist deep in the cold waters of the Yuba river, swollen by the melting
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snows of the mountains, when the thermometer indicated 110 degrees in the shade, and many of those, thus exposed at the same time to these extremes of temperature, were stricken down with mountain fever, among them, Mr. Mohr himself. Prostrated for many weeks, and being without proper food, he was unable to resume work in the mines with shovel and pick, and being without hope of recovering his strength, he sold his interests in the undertaking, and joined a company of his friends, who had also sold their interests, with a view of returning to the states. Embarking on a sailing vessel the evening before the greater part of San Francisco was laid in ashes, which latter event occurred September 19, 1850, he reached the city of Panama in due time. There he had to separate himself from his companions, being too feeble to undertake the trip across the Isthmus. On the eve of his departure from Panama, he found himself deserted by his guides, who took away with them his two pack mules and also robbed him of his botanical and mineral collections, made during his stay at the mines. The delay caused by this misfortune resulted in his missing the steamer, which left the roadstead at Chagres just as he arrived at that seaport. Stricken down there with Chagres fever he was forced to remain until the next steamer departed, upon which he was so fortunate as to secure a berth. He landed in New Orleans in the early part of December, and after a long period of rest, he established himself in the drug business at Louis- ville, Ky. Here, in 1852, he married Sophie Roemer, his present wife. In 1856, owing to failing health, he found it necessary to seek a more southern clime, and during a stay of nearly a year in the vicinity of Orizaba, Mexico, his health was completely restored. Returning to the United States, he found Mobile the place he thought most congenial to his health, and his residence here began in November, 1857: After hav- ing passed the ordeal of the yellow fever, he became identified with the interests of the city, and has so continued ever since. After the out- break of the war, he, together with Dr. J. B. Rohmer, undertook the establishment and maintenance of a laboratory for the preparation of medicinal stores for that division of the Confederate army. This work claimed his attention through the greater portion of the war. Soon after his arrival in Mobile, in 1857, he established himself in the drug busi- ness, and he has ever since been thus engaged, and he is now the oldest · druggist in the city. During all of this time, whenever he had leftsure, he has found recreation in the investigation of the flora of the southern portion of the state, and indeed in the more northern portions. In 1880, he undertook the investigation of the forests in the Gulf region, for the tenth census, of the United States, under the direction of Prof. Charles Sargeant. He is an honorary member of the Ohio state Pharmaceutical association, of the Louisiana state Pharmaceutical association, of the Pennsylvania state Pharmaceutical association, and a member of the Ameri-
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can Pharmaceutical association; corresponding member of the academy of Natural Sciences. Philadelphia: the Massachusetts Horticultural society; the Torrey Botanical club, New York, and fellow of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancemnt of Science. From its foundation, in the spring of 1882, he has remained an active member of the American Forestry congress, striving to promote the aims of this organization in the protection and preservation of our forests. In politics he is democrat and he served as school commissioner of Mobile county from 1867 to 1869. He has five children, three sons and two daughters. In 1883, he made collec- tions of the products of the forests and fields of Alabama, for the Louis- - ville & Nashville railroad, for the Louisville exposition, and in 1884 and 1885, he took charge of the exhibits of the same kind of Alabama pro- ducts, both for the Louisville & Nashville railroad, and the state of Ala- bama, at the New Orleans exposition. In 1892 he retired from the retail drug business in order that he might devote his time to the work entrusted to him by the forestry division of the department of agricul- ture of the United States, his duties consisting chiefly in the investiga- tion of the forest trees of the south, most important in their economic bearings, and to further continue his work on the plant-life of Alabama, of late carried on under the auspices of the geological survey of the state.
JOSIAH CLARK NOTT, M. D., was born in Columbia, S. C., March 31st, 1804, and died in Mobile, Ala., March 31st, 1873, aged exactly sixty-nine years. His father was the Hon. Abraham Nott, a native of Connecticut, and judge of the South Carolina court of appeals. Dr. Nott graduated at the South Carolina university, and received his medical degree from the university of Pennsylvania in 1827. He remained in Philadelphia two years longer as demonstrator of anatomy for Dr. Physick. In 1830 he began the practice of his profession in Columbia; in 1832 he married the daughter of Col. James S. Deas, of South Carolina, and in 1835, spent some time in Paris. in the study of surgery and general science. On his return to this country, he settled at Mobile, Ala., and rapidly acquired distinction as a surgeon. In 1857 he filled for one term the chair of anatomy in the university of Louisiana. Returning to Mobile the next year, he led the movement which resulted in the organization of the Medical college of Alabama, in which institution he filled the chair of , surgery. After two sessions the war came on, and he went into the Con- federate army, where he attained the rank of medical director. Soon after the war he removed to Baltimore, where he practiced for one year. In 1868 he removed to New York, where he met with a very flattering degree of success, but the northern winters were too severe for him, and he became consumptive. In the fall of 1872, he went to Aiken, S. C., for the benefit of his health, but failing to improve he went back to Mobile in December of the same year to spend the remnant of his days amongst his oldest and best friends, where he expired peacefully on the sixty-
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ninth anniversary of his birthday, March 31st, 1873. Dr. Nott obtained great eminence as a physician and surgeon, and as a citizen was a man of commanding influence. His manner was that of the old school, full of dignity and graciousness, and withal extremely magnetic. While he enjoyed the patronage of the rich, he never refused his professional advice to the poor. As a surgeon he had no rival in the southwest except Dr. Warren Stone of New Orleans, and for many years they were intimate friends, each acknowledging the ability and worth of the other. Dr. Nott performed successfully all the capital operations of the surgery of his day, originating some of them, improving the usual pro- cedure in others, and performing all with dexterity, boldness and aston- ishing self-reliance. As an author, his first literary labor in. his profes- sion was the translation of Braussais on Inflammation. He contributed a number of articles to the current medical periodicals of the day, including several on yellow fever; but no list of these can be given here. He became much interested in ethnology and made many contributions to that science, among which may be mentioned the following: Two lectures on the connection between the Biblical and Physical History of Man (octavo, New York, 1849); The Physical History of the Jewish Race (Charleston., 1850) ; The Types of Mankind (quarto, Philadelphia, 1855); Indigenous Races of the Earth (quarto, Philadelphia, 1857). These last two works were prepared in conjunction with Mr. George R. Gliddon, the distinguished Egyptologist, and the Indigenous Races contained chapters by Alfred Maury, of the academy of France, Francis Pulsky, of the Hungarian academy, and J. Atkins Meigs of Philadelphia. They acquired considerable reputation both in this country and in Europe, when they were first published. Assuming the ordinary estimate that the creation of man dated back only 6,000 years, the main argument of these books was to show that the various human races could not have descended from a common parentage. In other words, they sustained the doctrine of the diversity of human origins against the doctrine that all the various races had descended by modification from a common stock. About the same time appeared Darwin's great work on the origin of species; and various researches served to show that the antiquity of man on the earth was so great as to dwarf the historic period of the 6,000 years into nothingness, so that the polygenistic speculations of Dr. Nott soon ceased to attract attention. Aside from this theory, however, the books are still interest- ing on account of their learning and research. In point of physical development, Dr. Nott was tall and thin, over six feet in height and not weighing more than 140 pounds. His stature was erect, his head large and forehead high. His face was strongly marked and noble in expres- sion. In any chance assemblage he would have been singled out as a man of remarkable character. His health was never robust, but his habits were so plain and simple that he was able to do a large amount of physical labor without exhaustion. He was not a member of any christian
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church, and did not acknowledge any belief in the christian religion. He could not understand the Trinity, or the New Testament miracles. At the same time he showed by his life and actions. by his broad human- ity, by his gentle and affectionate nature, and by his charity in thought, word, and deed. that he believed in all the broad principles of the highest christian ethics. In social life, Dr. Nott was the charm of every circle that he entered. His own elegant and hospitable home entertained most of the distinguished strangers who visited Mobile. Being a general scholar, there were few topics on which he could not converse, and as his manner was sprightly, and his diction fluent and graceful, he was at all times a delightful companion. He had eight children, one of which died in early childhood, while his family was on a visit to Europe. During the epedemic of yellow fever, in 1853. he had a crushing blow in the death of four lovely children, in a few weeks. Two splendid sons'in the vigor of early manhood, inheriting the chivalric instincts of their sire, died in the Confederate service. One son only survived him. When Dr. Nott ceased to breathe, a noble spirit left its earthly tabernacle. During the long period of his useful manhood, he was the type of a southern gentleman-a grand man who. like Bayard, was sans peur et sans reproche. No one ever doubted his courage, his honor or his chivalry. This lofty unquestionable character made him a great favorite with all classes of people, and although he was looked upon as a free thinker on religious matters, yet, strange to say, he was greatly beloved by the clergy of all the churches. and to most of them held the post of confidential friend and family physician. He was buried with distinguished honors, and a great concourse of people attended his funeral. This sketch of Dr. J. C. Nott is condensed from the memoir, written by Dr. William H. Anderson, and published in the transactions of the Alabama State Medical for 1877.
SAMUEL R. OLLIPHANT, M. D., a practicing physician of Mobile, was born in Holmes county, Miss., August 26, 1828. His father, Robert Olliphant, was a native of Scotland, and a farmer by occupation, who died in South Carolina in 1841. The mother of Dr. Olliphant was Miss Abigail Davenport, also a native of Scotland, who died the same year her husband died, her death occurring on July 12, and his on August 17, the former being fifty-nine years old, and the latter seventy-one. What made the coincidence of their deaths more noticable, was this-that on the day she died, there was born a daughter to one of her sons, and on the day he died there was born a son to one of the daughters. Dr. Olli- phant received a common school education, and he entered upon the study of medicine in 1847, under Dr. R. K. Goodloe, of Pendleton, Sabine county, Tex. During the winter of 1847-48, he took his first course of lectures, in 1851-52, he took his second course, and in 1854-55, he took his third course, all in the medical department of the university of Lou- isiana, at New Orleans, from which he graduated in 1855. Meanwhile in 1849, he had entered upon the practice of his profession in Holmes
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county, Miss., and in 1857 he removed to Enterprise, Miss., where he resided seventeen years, constantly engaged in the practice of his pro- fession, with the exception of the four years of the Civil war. in the early part of which he entered the service of the Confederate States as a private soldier. But he was almost immediately detailed as contract phy- sician, and in the fall of 1861 he was made surgeon by the surgical board of the Confederate army. Shortly afterward he was made a member of the army board and was elected its president in 1852 .. He continued to . act in this capacity in the departmnet of the Mississippi until the close of the war. In 1872 he removed from Enterprise, Miss., to Mobile, Ala., where he has practiced his profession constantly ever since. In this city he has attained a high place in the profession. He is president of the Mobile county Medical society, and is serving his second term. He is also president of the board of health of Mobile county, and he is sec- retary of the board of censors of Mobile county. He is the medical exam- iner of the American Legion of Honor, of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and he is the state medical examiner of the Knights of Honor of Alabama. In politics he is a demcorat. and in religion a Baptist. He has been married three times, the first time on July 26, 1849, to Miss Laura Lovisa King, of Holmes county, Miss., who died January 7, 1863, leaving seven children, of whom four sons are living. Two of these four sons are physicians, located in New Orleans, and a third son is a lawyer, of Pensacola, Fla. On October 14, 1863, Dr. Olliphant married Miss Mollie .E. Boothe, of Enterprise, Miss., who died in 1880, after having borne three children, one of whom died previously to her death, the other two, daughters, still surviving. One of these daughters is Mrs. H. R. Moseley, a Baptist missionary in Saltillo, Mex. The other is Miss Willie Olliphant of Mobile. In 1881 Dr. Olliphant married Miss Virginia J. Tayloe, of Gallion, Ala., who is still living, and who is the mother of one son, aged nine years.
GIBSON YOUNG OVERALL, attorney-at-law at Mobile, Ala., was born in Shenandoah county, Va., July 12, 1825. His father was John Fro- man Overall, a relative of Joist Hite, one of the noted old settlers of the northern part of the great valley of Virginia, and who helped build the first Protestant Episcopal church in that romantic region. John Froman Overall, like his ancestors, was a farmer, yet promptly responded to the call of President Madison for cavalry to defend Virginia against the British in 1812-14. His grandfather, John Overall, came from Thack- sted, Essexshire, Eng., where the family of his name settled in the reign of Henry the Eighth. He was a direct descendant of John Overall. Lord Bishop of Norwich. England, one of the surviving translators of our present Bible, author of the celebrated Convocation Book spoken of by Macaulay, and with Bishop Cosin, compiler of the Book of Common Prayer. He · settled in what was afterward known as Shenandoah county, about the year 1740. His son, also named John, was for many years one of the
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justices of the quorum under colonial law. The mother of G. Y. Overall was Theresa Douglas Young of Virginia, a daughter of Edwin Young of the same state, and grandson of John Young of England, the companion of Lord Baltimore in the settlement of Maryland, and Catharine Bruce of Scotland, who is said to have descended from the victor of Bannockburn. The father of G. Y. Overall died at Mobile in 1857. and his mother died in 1850 at Columbus, Miss. Gibson Y. Overall was educated at a then widely known academic institution at Columbus, Miss., called the "Frank- lin Academy." The curriculum included thorough English and classical instruction. His parents had removed from Virginia to that flourishing town in 1833. An unusual compliment was paid to our young student at the academy by the trustees in appointing him, at eighteen years, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of one of the teachers. On the first of January, 1848, he went to Mobile, where he studied law, was licensed, and has ever since successfully practiced his profession. It was a maxim of his father that his sons should have something prac- tically tangible to fall back on in case of need, and hence G. Y. Overall acquired a knowledge of printing, which proved in his struggles for pro- fessional eminence in his early life in Moblie, the wisdom of the parental opinion before he opened a law office in October, 1850. In 1856 he was admitted to practice in the supreme court of Alabama, and the reports bear testimony to the importance of the cases in which he was engaged before that tribunal. He is also a member of the State Bar association. For several years he was city attorney for Mobile. Although a general practitioner, Mr. Overall has given, and still gives, especial attention to the chancery branch of the law, which, as every lawyer knows, deals with exceptions to the common law rule. The firm of which he is the principal member by seniority, is composed of 'Overall, Bestor & Gray, and are counsel for a number of important corporations. Incidentally it must be mentioned that Mr. Overall was elected to the legislature in 1859 from the county of Mobile, and served one term, during which he was an able and conscientious worker for the benefit of his constituents and the state at large. So confident were the people of Mobile that he could serve them and the state with credit to himself and honor to them, that he was elected a member of the state constitutional convention in 1865. He did not disappoint the electors. It may, also, be stated that he is a Jeffersonian democrat, but has never sought office as a reward for his life-long poiltical convictions and fidelity to party. The law has been the love of Mr. Overall, who, exempted from military duty during the late war between the states, on account of physical disability con- tracted in youth, found refuge, comfort and profit in the student life, which opened to him its profound philosophy and princpiles of eternal justice. Mr. Overall was married April 23rd, 1857, to Anna Louisa Tal- bot, of New Orleans, by whom he has one son living, Francis E. Overall, who married Miss Bessie Randall of Mobile. Two little girls are the
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fruit of this union. Their daughter, Mrs. Price, and Dr. Walter Burnett Overall, who was a medical prodigy of unusual brilliance and promise, died several years ago. Mr. Overall has outlived his contemporaries of the bar of Mobile. He is still in prime intellectual vigor, and still bears the reputation of being one of the best jury lawyers in Alabama, who is not only a fluent and logical speaker, but noted for the clear-cut pres- entation of cases. Besides these things, no citizen of Mobile is more influential, honored and progressive. He is a conspicuous member of the Episcopal church. The family of Overall is brightened not only by the subject of this sketch, but by several ministers of the gospel, by the reputation of Maj. Abram Overall of the United States army, who was in his day famous as one of the most gallant officers in the Creek war, under Gen. Jackson, and by John W. Overall, an elder brother of G. Y. Overall, now and for many years past a member of the press of New York city, and regarded as the best editorial exponent of the Federal constitution in the metropolis.
FRANK PETRINOVICH, tax collector of the city of Mobile, was born in Mobile, July 2, 1857. His father is Antonio Petrinovich, a native of Aus- tria, who has resided in Mobile for fully forty years. Frank Petrinovich was educated at Barton academy of Mobile. In his youth he assisted his father in the restaurant business, and later he acted as clerk for Peter Burke, a wholesale tobacconist. In 1886 he engaged in the tobacco business for himself, and followed it one year. He was then again engaged with his father some time. He has taken a great deal of inter- est in politics, ever since he was old enough to vote. In 1884 he was made a member of the democratic executive committee of Mobile county, serving in that capacity four years, and as secretary of the committee the last two years of that time. In 1888 he was a candidate for the office of city tax collector before the democratic primaries, but was defeated by Mr. W. A. Shields. Four months later Mr. Shields died and Mr. Petrinovich was elected by the general council to fill the vacancy. He served in this capacity the rest of the term for which Mr. Shields had been elected. In 1891 he was elected by the people to the office for a term of three years, and is now serving out that term of office. Mr. Petrinovich is a member of the Catholic church, of the Catholic Knights of America, and of the American Legion of Honor. He was married April 19. 1882, to Miss Mary Anderson, his present wife, by whom he has four children, two sons and two daughters.
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