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 21
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than that of a cabinet officer. Upon Judge Somerville's resignation of his position on the Alabama supreme court bench, the bar of the city of Birmingham, the largest in the state, held a public meeting, and after tendering their congratulations at the high honor conferred upon him, resolved that they parted with him, as a member of the court, "with sin- cere regret, and with a full appreciation of his great ability as a judge, and of his purity of character as a man." The judicial opinions of Judge Somerville will be found embraced in the Alabama reports from the 65th to the 90th volumes, inclusive. They number between eleven and twelve hundred for the ten years of his judicial career, or considerably more than a hundred for each year. The average number of opinions rendered by the judges of our American state courts of highest resort is about eighty per annum. The American Law Review has characterized his judicial opinions as "masterly," and the late Dr. Francis Wharton once said. that they were not excelled for soundness or style by those of any other contemporary judge. The case which has, perhaps, given him more extended reputation, both in America and Europe, than any other, is that of Parsons v. the State, published in the 81st volume of the Alabama Reports, in the Medico-Legal Journal, the Chicago Law Journal, and other law and medical periodicals in Canada, England and France. The opinion in this case repudiates what has long been known as "the right and wrong test" of insanity, and vigorously announces the modern doc- trine that "insanity is a disease of the brain," and that one who commits a so-called crime under the duress of its influence, cannot be held culpa- bly liable; that the true test of criminal responsibility is found, not alone in the power to distinguish right from wrong in the abstract, or as applied to the particular act, but in the power to adhere to the right, and to abstain from the wrong, or, in other words, in the power of self-con- trol through the exercise of volition.
The Chicago Law Journal, of February, 1889, in commenting on the opinion of the Judge Somerville in the Parsons case, said: "This opin- ion is justly regarded by both professions, legal and medical, as being the clearest and ablest exposition of the law upon the subject yet given, and, in fact, the only decision in which a court has demonstrated its ability or disposition to place itself in harmony with the advanced thought of to-day, upon a matter so intensely involving considerations of justice and humanity." Dr. Buckham, the author of the treatise in "Insanity Considered. Its Medico-Legal Relations," said of this opinion that it "was the most able and advanced that had ever been pronounced by any court of justice in the world." The American Law Review, for May. 1889, in commending him as a suitable appointee for a vacancy in the United States supreme court bench, observed as follows: "The south has at present some very strong judges in the harness. If we are entitled to judge from the quality of their judicial work, we make bold to say that there is no stronger judge in the country to-day than Judge Somerville,
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of the supreme court of Alabama. We appeal to his masterly opinions in confirmation of the statement." As a trustee of the Alabama Insane Hospital for the past fifteen years Judge Somerville has taken great interest, not only in the practical study of insanity, but in reforming the legislation in this branch of the law. He is the author of the Alabama Law, enacted in 1887, creating in that state a commission of lunacy, and regulating the custody of the criminal insane, and the procedure for their trial. He has for many years been actively identified with the New York Medico-Legal society, and is now its first vice-president. The degree of doctor of laws has been conferred upon him by three separate univer sities in as many states. He is a member of the Peabody board of trustees, who are charged with the administration of the munificent charity of the late George Peabody, contributed for the advancement of the cause of education in the south. Among the members of this distin'- guished body are ex-Presidents Grover Cleveland and Rutherford B. Hayes, Chief Justice Fuller, of the United States supreme court, Senator William M Evarts, of New York, and Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts Since Judge Somerville's connection with the board of customs apprais- ers in New York, where he now officially resides, he has delivered many opinions on interesting and difficult questions of customs and constitu- tional law, which have been given general publicity throughout the United States. Among these may be mentioned the one involving the question of the constitutionality of Speaker Reed's famous rulings in the United States house of representatives of the fifty-first congress, and that of the constitution, has been affirmed by three different Federal circuit courts, and is now pending for consideration on appeal before the United States supreme court. The results reached in these cases are known to be strongly opposed to his own political predilections.
L. STEINER. of Montgomery, Ala., was born in Tachau, Austria. June 24, 1849, received his education in the old country, and came to America in 1867, settling in Montgomery, Ala., and clerked four years for M. Uhfelder, and then formed a partnership in the wholesale dry goods business with Nathan Lobman, which still continues. He was mar- ried February 12, 1873, to Susie Lobman, and to them were born nine children. of whom eight survive, as follows: Emma, Theresa, Michael, Maud, Rosa, Hattie. Katie and Gertrude. Michael Steiner, father of L. Steiner, was born in Tachau, Austria, in 1817. He married Babetta Leva. and to them were born six children, of whom five grew to matur- ity, as follows: Nathan, of Tachau; Katie, deceased wife of Nathan Weil; Emma, who died at the age of seventeen, unmarried: and Ignatz, of Vienna, Austria. Mr. Michael Steiner died in 1876. L. Steiner is a Freemason, a Knight of Pythias and a member of the B'nai, Brith. His standing socially is of the best, and business reputation without a flaw.
GEORGE WASHINGTON STONE, at present chief justice of the supreme court of Alabama, was born in Bedford county, Va., on October 24, 1811.
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Opportunities for the higher education in that early period of our history were limited, and he had no collegiate course. Studying law in the office of James Fulton, then a distinguished lawyer of Fayetteville, Tenn., he moved to Alabama and obtained a license to practice his profession in that state in May, 1834, just within the era of what is known as the "flush times" of the southwest. He was appointed judge of the circuit court in August, 1843, to fill an, unexpired term, and was elected to the same office in December of the same year for a term of six years. Judge Stone resigned his judicial office in January, 1849, and returned to the bar, becoming a partrer of the late Thomas J. Judge, afterward associate justice of the supreme court of Alabama. He was elected associate jus- tice of the Alabama supreme court by the state legislature in January, 1856, for a term of six years, and was re-elected by the same body in January, 1862. In 1865, he was defeated for the same office on account of political differences, and by a small majority .. He returned to the bar of Montgomery, the state capital, which at that time contained a brilliant galaxy of able lawyers, distinguished for their industry, forensic elo- quence and legal learning. Among these great jurists were Rice, Chil- ton, A. J. Walker and Goldthwaite, all ex-judges of the Alabama supreme court, Watts, Morgan, Elmore, Bragg and others. Judge 'Stone was admitted to be the peer of all the foremost of these. In March, 1876, he was again appointed by Gov. Houston to fill an unexpired term on the supreme court bench of four and a half years, and was elected by the people in 1880, for a full term of six years. In 1884, he was appointed chief justice by Gov. O'Neal, and in 1856 was elected to the same office for a term of six years, . not yet expired. When Judge Stone's present term of office shall have expired, in 1892, he will have been a member of the Alabama judiciary, with an interval of a few years only, either as a circuit or supreme judge, for a period of nearly fifty years. During this time he has been on the supreme court bench of Alabama for nearly a quarter of a cen- tnry, and he has delivered over 2.100 published decisions. These will be found in the twenty-eighth to the thirty-ninth, and fifty-third to the eighty-ninth volumes of the Alabama state reports, inclusive. It is believed that no other American or English judge of a court of highest resort has delivered so many opinions. Judge Stone justly ranks among the foremost of American judges, and his decisions have gone into nearly every American text book as acknowledged authority. His mind is pre- eminently judicial; his style is vigorous and clear, and his legal judgment remarkably sound. His career on the Alabama bench has imparted increased vigor to the administration of the criminal laws, and a spirit of sturdy morality to commercial jurisprudence in that state. One of his recent associates on the bench says of him that he perfectly fulfills the qualifications of the model judge as recited in the counsel which Jethro gave to Moses for appointing judges in that early day : "They shall be men of courage, and men of truth; fearing God and hating covetousness."
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The same associate, Judge Somerville, who was on the Alabama bench for ten years with the chief justice, in an address before the Alabama bar association, in 1888, when responding to a toast to "The Supreme Court," paid him the following tribute: "I have read in history," he said, "that the integrity and love of virtue which characterized the ancient city Tarretum, and exalted its inhabitants above their neighbors, was attributed to the residence of Pythagoras among them. In like manner I say that whatever of praise has been given the decisions of the supreme · court of Alabama, is due to no one more than to my learned friend, the chief justice. No judge in any age or country, in my judgment, has done more to elevate the jurisprudence of his state to a higher plane of learn- ing, or impressed it with nobler principles of honesty, or with a sturdier morality, than George W. Stone, the present chief justice of the supreme court of Alabama." .
HERMAN STRASSBURGER was born in Bavaria, Germany, November 12, 1837, and came to America, June 15, 1860, having received his education in the Franciscan convent in Bavaria. He traveled for a house in Han- over, Germany, from the age of sixteen to twenty three, when he located in. Montgomery, Ala., where he at once entered the house of Caim Albright & Co., and clerked for them until the war broke out, when he entered the Confederate service in the Gilmer Grays, a company organized in Montgomery, and commanded by Capt. D. S. Troy, which company · was assigned to Hilliard's Legion (Mr. Strassburger going in as fourth corporal). Mr. Strassburger was disabled. and left the company at Knox- ville, Tenn., in 1863, and when he came home soon after, he was elected lieutenant of the provost guard at Montgomery, and was frequently sent to Opelika, Greenville, and finally to Garland, Ala., where he took the rank of major, although he was not a citizen of America when he entered the service. After the war he settled in Montgomery, and established a family bakery, which he continued two years, and then went into the wholesale grocery business, which he carried on for some years,. and then engaged in the cotton business for two years, and in 1877, went into the wholesale grocery business with J. Loeb & Bro., which he still continues. He has served two years as alderman in Montgomery, from 1866 to 1868, when there were only two democrats in the council. He was one of the oldest directors in the Capital City Insurance company of Montgomery, but has now withdrawn. Mr. Strassburger was married November 2, 1864, to Fannie Loeb, daughter of Isaac Loeb, from Alsace, and to them were born seven children, of whom six now survive, as follows: Frances, wife of L. Plaut, of New York city; Gustav, of New York city; Lionel, also of New York city, where he represents his father's interests in the firm of S. Sterneau & Co .; Emil Houston. Montgomery; Homer, at home, and Ione, at home. L. Strassburger, father of Herman Strassburger, lived and died in Bavaria. His wife's maiden name was Frances Schloss, and to them were born seventeen children, Herman being next to the
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youngest. There are now five living, of the seventeen, as follows: Leo- pold, in America; Cathalina, widow in New York: Albert, of Montgomery ; Lisetta, Hanover. Germany; and H., of Montgomery. The father of this family died in 1857, and the mother in 1850.
REV. DR. HORACE STRINGFELLOW was born in Madison Court House, Va., August 6, 1827, and educated at Columbia college, District of Colum- bia, graduating in 1847; he then studied law with the late Judge David May, of Petersburg, Va., but, declining to be admitted to the bar, deter- mined to enter the Episcopal ministry, and entered the Theological semi- nary of Virginia, in 1847, and graduated, and was ordained deacon in 1850. He first went to Harper's Ferry, and was then, in 1852, called to St. Paul's church, Baltimore, Md., as assistant rector, and then was elected rector of St. Andrew's church, of the same city. He remained there until 1855, and then went to St. James' church, Hyde Park, N. Y. 'In 1869, he was called to Christ church, at Indianapolis, Ind., to succeed Dr. Tolbert, who had been elected the first missionary bishop in the north- west. The war coming on, and being of southern birth, Mr. Stringfellow resigned in 1861, and returned to Petersburg, Va. At the conclusion of the war, at the request of the late vice-president, T. A. Hendricks, Joseph McDonald, and others, he returned to Indianapolis, and organized St. Paul's parish, and built the Cathedral church. In 1869, he was elected rector of St. John's church, Montgomery, Ala., where he has since resided. Mr. Stringfellow received the degree of D.D., from William and . Mary college in 1872. He was married, in July, 1849, to Mary Green, daughter of James Green, deceased, of Alexandria, Va., and to them were born eight children, of whom five now survive. Mr. Stringfellow's father's name was, also, Horace Stringfellow, who was born in Spottsyl- vania Court House, Va .. in 1799. He was a lawyer until the age of thirty- five, when he entered the Episcopal ministry, and, in December, 1839, was made rector of Trinity church, Washington, D. C .; held that place until 1846, and then was called to St. Paul's church at Petersburg, Va., where he remained until 1855, when he retired from active service and died in December, 1884. He married Louisa G. Strother, daughter of William Strother. Grandfather Robert Stringfellow was born in Virginia. He was a farmer, and lived in Culpeper county. The family came from England about 1760, settling in Rappahannock county, Va.
BERRY TATUM, the well-known wholesale grocer of Montgomery, Ala., was born in Autauga county, March 26, 1829, and educated at Montgom- ery and at the Tuskegee military school, taught by Maj. Holdsby, and Maj. A. V. Brumby, the latter a West Point graduate. Leaving school when about eighteen years of age, Mr. Tatum went to clerking in Mont- gomery until 1849, and then farmed until 1854; next he went to Mont- gomery and went into the wholesale grocery business, which he has car- ried on ever since, except two years during the war (1863-4 and part of 1865) and in the latter year resumed business. Mr. Tatum was married
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November 15, 1849 to Francis Jennette Hogan, daughter of Griffin L. Hogan, of South Carolina, and to them were born seven children, of whom five survive, as follows: E. G., H. H., William, Griffin, and Berry, all residents of Montgomery. Mr. Tatum has served as president and vice-president of the Capital City Insurance company, as well as two terms as councilman in Montgomery, before the war, having had then, as he has now, the full confidence of the community. He is a K. T. Mason and a consistent member of the Baptist church. Peter E. Tatum, the father of Berry Tatum, was born in Greene county, Ga., about 1796, and came to Alabama with his parents when a youth. The parents first located in Old Town, Montgomery county, and afterward moved to Autauga county, and in 1836 moved back to Montgomery county. Peter E. Tatum was one of the commissioners appointed to convey the Seminole Indians from Florida to Arkansas. He was married about 1822 to Martha Gause, and to them were born eleven children, of whom four lived to maturity as follows: Mary, deceased wife of R. M. Hall, also deceased; Rebecca J., deceased wife of Alfred G. Hall, also deceased: Howell, of Belton, Tex., and Berry, of Montgomery, Ala. Peter E. Tatum died about 1836, and his widow in 1854. Howell Tatum, grandfather of Berry Tatum, was born in Georgia and was one of the first settlers of Alabama, coming with the Bibbs and others of that early day. The Tatum ancestors in America were three brothers who came from northern Ireland prior to the Revo- lution, two of whom settled in Virginia; one of these moved to Georgia and from him Berry Tatum has descended.
WILLIAM MARTIN TEAGUE, wholesale grocer of Montgomery, was born near White Plains, Calhoun county, Ala., December 7, 1843, and educated at Central institute, then located in Coosa county, Ala., and known as Bragg's gymnasium. Leaving school at the age of seventeen he joined the Third Alabama regiment, commanded by Col. Tennent Lomax, going in as a private in company I, May 5, 1861, and being mus- tered in at Lynchburg, Va. He served with his regiment until the bat- tle of Gettysburg, where he was badly wounded and captured and taken to Chester, Pa., near Philadelphia. where he was held three months, paroled and came home, and was at once transferred to the commissary department at Eufaula, where he served until the close of the war. Mr. Mr. Teague was in the following battles: Drewry's Bluff, Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, where he was wounded; South Mountain, Sharpsburg ( Antietam), Fredericksburg, Chancellors- ville and Gettysburg. After the war Mr. Teague farmed until August, 1866, and then to Greenville, Ala., where he went into the mercantile business. In January, 1883, he moved to Montgomery, and with H. M. Hobbie, formed the partnership of Hobbie & Teague, to which he has given his personal attention. In 1875, together with G. W. Barnett and J. W. A. Jackson. he went into the hardware business. and continued his interest therein until May, 1891. In February, 1892, he formed a part-
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nership with his three sons, Robert S. Abner J. and William M., Jr., in the wholesale hardware, under the name of Teague & Sons. Mr. Teague is a member of the K: of H., National Union and the Elks. He was married in December, 1864. to Isabella, daughter of John W. A. Jackson, of Montgomery, Ala., and to them have been born ten children, as follows: Julia F., wife of John F. Gay; Robert S, ; Abner J., Will- iam M., Jr., Bessie, Oscar, Eugenia, Ethel, Frederick W. and Edwin H. Abner A. Teague, father of William Martin Teague, was born in Abbe- ville, S. C., in 1819. He came to Alabama with his parents in about 1834, settling in Calhoun, then Benton, county, and was engaged in farm- ing. He was in the Home Guards in Alabama and Florida for a few months during the late war, being exempt from field duty. He married Julia F. Scarbrough, daughter of Lemuel Scarbrough, a native of North Carolina, and to them were born eleven children; nine now survive, as follows: Mrs. Eliza Holleman, of Paris, Ark .; William M., Nannie C., wife of George W. White, Claude, Tex. ; Harris T., Paris, Ark. ; Lemuel O., Montgomery, Ala .; Erostus A., Texas; Estelle, widow of Dr. McHenry, Jacksonville, Ark .; Alice, wife of Rev. George W. Hill, of Altus, Ark. ; Mrs. Julia F. Teague died in 1863, and Mr. Teague married again, his second wife being Mary Daniel, by whom he had seven children, all still living. Mr. Teague continues to make his home in Texas.
ALEXANDER ST. CLAIR TENNILLE, M. D., is the fourth child of Algernon Sidney and Louisa Dunbar (Roe) Tennille, and was born September 16, 1838, in Washington county, Ga. His father moved to Georgia in 1846, and purchased lands in Randolph county, now Clay, where he resided until 1864. In that year he moved to Jackson county, Fla. The reverses of the war left him only a plantation on the Chattahoocheer. The father and mother lived with this son until their deaths. The mother died July 6, 1888, the father March 4, 1890. Alexander St. Clair Tennille received his diploma in medicine and surgery at the university of Ten- nessee, in 1861, and immediately entered the war in a company from Fort Gaines, Ga. (the Fort Gaines guards), which was company D, in the Ninth Georgia regiment. He was appointed assistant surgeon of the same, in which capacity he served about a year. After resigning, he was appointed commissary to the Ninth Georgia regiment, and served as such through the various phases to the end of the war. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House, a member of Gen. Fields' staff. On his arrival home in 1865 he commenced the practice of his profession, which he continued with success in Jackson county, Fla., until 1871. On account of his position in politics, the scalawag government, existing at that date, thought him a bad element for the successful enacting of their purposes and plans, and on the eve of one of their elections, they procured a war- rant for his arrest on the charge of intimidating voters. Being a peac- able man, he left the state rather hurriedly, and arrived in Tray. Ala., March 15, 1872, thinking "he who fights and runs away, may live to fight
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another day." Returning to Florida on the 20th of March, he captured and triumphantly carried from that state, one of the prettiest ladies known in those regions, as his wife, Sarah Butior, daughter of William and Sarah ( Folsom) Butler. Attributable to this union there has been born three children, Ella Louise, Clara, and William Butler." In Troy, he established a drug store. in connection with the practice of medicine, but after three years he retired from the practice, to more closely pursue his large and growing business in other fields. He soon became a lead- ing spirit in all public enterprises; his progressive views caused his election as councilman, and afterward mayor of the city, in both of which offices he was fully alive to the best interests of the city and her people. While in the council of Troy he proposed a plan by which a bonded debt was settled. While mayor he introduced a water system for the city. He organized and successfully operated the Troy Fertilizer factory. which was a pioneer industry of that kind at an interior point. He was also the originator of the plan to build the Alabama Midland railroad, and was its first vice-president. In March, 1891, he moved to Mont- gomery, where he is engaged in industrial pursuits Dr. Tennille is original and inventive, and has made chemistry, as applied to agriculture, a thorough study.
WILLIAM S. THORINGTON was born in Montgomery, Ala., July 30, 1847. His father was Col. Jack Thorington, a distinguished citizen of Montgomery. William Sewell Thorington was educated at the private school of William F. Slaton at Oak Bowery. at Auburn, and at the state university. While he was still at the university the corps of cadets, of which he was adjutant, took the field for active service. Col. Thorington served about a year, being stationed principally at Mobile, at Blakely, and at points in north Alabama. He was engaged in forming a company of cadets to join the army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, when the war came to a close. Immediately after the war he began the study of the lary under the late Chief Justice Chilton, and in January, 1867, was admitted tn the bar of the supreme court after passing an examination, whose excellence is still a tradition of the court. He was associated at various times in practice with Judge W. P. Chilton, with Senator John T. Morgan, Hon. W. L. Bragg, and Hon. Lester C. Smith. Col. Thorington has held various offices of dignity and profit. He was for many years a trustee of the university of Alabama. He was judge-advocate-general on the staff of Gov. O'Neal, during that governor's administration, 1882-86. In 1886 he was elected city attorney of Montgomery, and by continuous re elections held the place until 1892, when he resigned to accept a much higher post. When Justice David Clopton, of the supreme bench, died in the early part of 1892 and Gov. Jones saw fit to appoint Col. Thorington to fill out his unexpired term, the appointment was received everywhere throughout the state as an eminently proper one to have been made. Judge Thorington's discharge of the duties of this high
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