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 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
1
E-
WM. S. THORINGTON.
:
757
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
office was marked by his customary devotion to a high ideal of duty, and his work marked him out as one who is more than likely to be called upon to assume judicial honors in the future. He was not a candidate to succeed himself, and after the expiration in November, 1892. of the term he was fulfilling, he returned to the practice of the law in Montgomery. His services on the supreme bench merely followed repeated designa- tions of him by various governors to act as a special judge of the court where one of the judges was disqualified to hear the particular cause. Judge Thorington was married on October 24, 1867, to Miss Chilton, daughter of the late Chief Justice Chilton. He has a large family of children. This brief sketch ought not to be brought to a close without a tribute to Judge Thorington's exceptionally high character. He is a man of scrupulously sensitive integrity, and is universally esteemed for the entire probity of his nature. He has throughout life acted on the knightly principle, that, when his honor was concerned, a stain was a wound. No man in Alabama is better entitled to the designation of being the state's Chevalier Bayard, sans peur et sans reproche.
DANIEL SHIPMAN TROY, president of the Dispatch Publishing company of Montgomery, was born October 9, 1832 .. He read law with his brother- in-law, William Hunter, at Cahaba, and in 1851, at the age of nineteen years, was admitted to the bar. He was admitted to practice in the supreme court in 1854. He lived at Cahaba until 1860, and from there came to Montgomery. In January, 1861, he joined the Montgomery "True Blues," as a private, in an expedition against Fort Barrancas, Pensacola. After this he recruited a company, known as the "Gilmer Greys" and went out as its captain. The "Blues" were mustered into and became a part of the Hilliard Legion early in 1862. In the fall of 1862 Captain Troy was promoted to major, and in 1863 the infantry of the legion was reorganized into the Fifty-ninth and Sixteenth Alabama regiments, and he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Sixteenth. He took part in Long- street's attack upon Knoxville, siege of Cumberland. Gap, battle at Mean's Station, Drewry's Bluff and Bermuda Hundred. He was wounded at Drewry's Bluff and on the 25th of March, 1865, near Petersburg, he was shot entirely through the left lung, and left upon the battle-field for dead. He fell into the hands of the enemy, where he remained to the close of the war. Some time after the cessation of hostilities he resumed the practice of the law, at which he has been remarkably successful, both as a lawyer and in the accumulation of wealth. He is now at the head of the law firm of Troy. Tompkins & London. He was a member of the state senate from 1878 to 1856: was an active democratic worker during the period of reconstruction but is now entirely out of politics. Col. Troy is president of the Alabama Fertilizer company and is a director in the Elyton Land company. He was converted to Catholicism while being nursed in a Federal hospital for his wounds, and is now a consistent member of the Catholic church.
44*
-
758
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
HENRY CLAY TOMPKINS was born in Essex county, Va., September 14 1842. He was educated at the schools and academies of Virginia. Early in 1862 he entered the Confederate service, enlisting in the Forty-fourth Virginia cavalry as a private. He remained a private until March, 1864, when he joined the Twenty-second Virginia infantry, with the rank of lieutenant, commanding company F. He was captured at Sailors' Creek just before the surrender at Appomattox. Returning home, he engaged in saw milling and farming, and continued so employed until the fall of 1886, when he removed to Montgomery county, Ala. He taught a neigh- borhood school in the southeastern portion of the county for two years, devoting his spare time to the study of the law. He was admitted to the bar in February, 1869, at Union Springs, in Bullock county, where he began the practice. He displayed from the start, marked aptitude for the bar. He advanced steadily, aiding materially by extra professional labor as chairman of the democratic county executive committee in redeeming his county from the scalawags and carpet baggers. While living at Union Springs, he was elected lieutenant-colonel of the Second ยท regiment of Alabama state troops, which position he held for several years. In 1878, he received the distinguished compliment of a nomina- tion to the office of attorney-general of the state, and was elected. He was re-elected for two additional terms. The acceptance of this office compelled him to remove to Montgomery, and he formed there a partner- ship with Col. Daniel S. Troy, one of the ablest and best known prac- titioners in the state. The firm, during its continuance, did a very large and paying business. On the retirement of Col. Troy from business, the firm became Tompkins & Troy, the junior member being Mr. Alexander Troy. Col. Tompkins has, ever since he came to the bar, been active in politics. He was, for many years, a member of the state executive com- mittee of the democratic party, and in 1886, he was elected chairman of that committee, in which position he continued until the spring of 1892, when he resigned. He was a delegate-at-large to the national conven- tion of the democracy, in 1884, and 1888, and in each convention served on important committees. Col. Tompkins has been repeatedly mentioned for the United States senate, and he is singularly well equipped for that high post. There is no man living in Alabama, who can be said to be an abler lawyer than he is, and to his power and skill, as a lawyer, he adds a wide familiarity with the constitutional history of this and other coun- ties. Col. Tompkins was married, in April, 1869, to Annie Baldwin, daughter of Marion A. Baldwin, attorney-general of Alabama for eight- een years. They have living, two children, a girl and a boy. Col. Tompkins's father was Joseph Temple Tompkins, who was born in King William county, Va., April 7, 1792. He was a farmer and a soldier in the war of 1812. Col. Tompkins's mother's maiden name was Jane Ford, who was a native of Fredericksburg, Va. His grandfather was Christo-
---------
1
1
1
. :
-
761
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
.
pher Tompkins, a Virginian, a captain in the continental army, and a participant in the siege of Yorktown. Col. Tompkins's ancestors, on his father's side, came to America from England in the seventeenth century; those on his mother's side are of Scotch and English stock.
HON. HAMILTON MCINTYRE, of Le Grand, Montgomery county, Ala., a farmer and dairyman, was born in the city of Macon, Ga., in August, 1837. He is a son of Peter and Ann (Seale) McIntyre. His father, a native of Richmond county, N. C., was born in 1801, and his mother in Marl- boro district, S. C .. in 1802. They were both well educated, especially Mr. McIntyre, who made a profession of school teaching. In Macon, Ga., he taught a high school, with an average attendance of 140 pupils, assisted by his wife, and others. He was regarded as one of the best educators of his day-some of the most celebrated men of Georgia receiving their earlier training under him. While in Georgia, his lectures upon chemistry and botany gave him a wide reputation. In the meantime, having studied medicine, he removed to Alabama, in 1849, locating in Montgomery, where he practiced homoeopathy with marked success, giving the new system an impetus which it feels to this day. He was not a graduate, but is a self-made man. In his youth, he plowed dur- ing the day to earn his board, and studied his books by the light of pine knots. He possessed decided talent. great industry, was thorough and persistent in his work, and knew no such work as fail. A hard student -- a veritable "book-worm"-he was one of the best informed men of his time, ever ready to sustain his views with tongue or pen. His parents came from the Highlands of Scotland. He never participated in active politics. Was a Mason, and a Methodist, and was buried with Masonic honors, in Montgomery, in 1856. His wife, Ann, was buried in Troy, Pike county, Ala., in 1889, a devout Christian, and member of the Protestant Methodist church. The Hon. Hamilton McIntyre was the youngest child but one, of a family of five sons and two daughters, only three of the sons reaching the years of maturity. The older daugh- ter married Wiley Cozart, of Atlanta, Ga., and the youngest, Capt. Frank Pennington, of Pike county, Ala., both of whom are now liv ing. The eldest brother, Edward L., came to Alabama in 1846, taught school a number of years, attended law school at Augusta, Ga., and opened his law office in Pike county. Ala., in 1852. He soon rose to the front rank of the profession, with such able advocates as Watts, Cochran, Pugh, Bullock, and others, in regular attendance upon the courts of that county. After the outbreak of the war, Capt. Ed. McIntyre, at the head of a com- pany, joined "Hilliard's Legion," and saw his first service at Cumberland Gap. He was state senator during the war, and took an active part in the discussions which continually arose before that body, in those memor- able days, and speedily won a reputation as an eloquent and forcible debator. In politics he was a devoted whig, loved the Union, participat- ing in all the political campaigns of those stirring times, preceding the
.
762
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
war. He opposed secession, but loyally followed the fortunes of his beloved Alabama, serving her faithfully and well. He died in 1869. The second brother, Archibald C., stood pre-eminent in Alabama as a photo- graphic artist. He commenced the busmess at the age of sixteen, and followed it continuously for nearly forty years, often visiting New York city to catch the latest ideas in his line. He was very successful in his chosen pursuit, making a large amount of money. He died in 1891. Ham- ilton came with his father to Alabama in 1849, a lad of twelve years. He received a fair education, but was not a graduate. He inherited much of his father's fondness for books, and devoted the leisure of youth to read- ing and studying. In 1859-60, he attended the law school of Chancellor Wade Keys, in Montgomery, and was admitted to the bar in the supreme court of the state in the latter year. He removed to Pike county, and commenced the practice of the law with his brother. The war between the states breaking out, he joined Clanton's famous First Alabama cavalry, in August, 1861, as a private. In March, 1862, the regiment was ordered to Cor- inth, Miss., while Mr. McIntyre was in Pike recruiting troops. A few days after the battle of Shiloh he rejoined his command at Corinth, and for gal- lant conduct out on the front was soon thereafter promoted to a lieutenancy in company H. He was not in the Kentucky campaign, but, the day before the army left Chattanooga, was summoned into the presence of Gen. Bragg, and was specially commissioned by him to return to Montgomery, Ala., accompanied by two other officers, and seek recruits, while looking up absentees in that section of the state. He rejoined his command at Murfreesboro, Tenn. In the meantime company H, under the lead of the gallant Capt. Reese, having been selected by Gen. Wheeler, then in com- mand of all the cavalry, as his body guard, Mr. McIntyre was called upon to aid his adjutant-general in his office work; but this duty being very confining and distasteful he was excused for more active service. He received a severe flesh wound in the shoulder at the battle of Mur- freesboro, and was on furlough for three months, rejoining his command at McMinnville, Tenn. After Chickamauga he took an active part in the great "Sequatchie valley raid," where 800 wagons, heavily loaded with supplies for Rosecrans' army, shut up in Chattanooga, were captured and destroyed. This feat was rendered possible by Mr. McIntyre's dis- covery of a wagon load of spirits of turpentine. A few weeks later his leg was broken by a minie ball on Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, which disabled him to the close of the war. The war ceasing, he again resumed the practice of the law in Pike, and removed to Montgomery in 1867 and opened an office. Remaining there till 1870, he abandoned the law on account of poor health. removed to the country, and engaged in cotton planting. Raising cotton becoming more and more precarious as the annual crop steadily increased, and the price declined, he became interested in stock raising, and, at the suggestion of his wife, took up dairying and selling fine table Jersey butter. ' This enterprise proved
-
-
1
763
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
a great success, and. aided by his good wife, he stands without a rival in the production of fine butter in his section. This butter readily com. mands 40 cents per pound for all that can be produced. Modern methods are pursued, and the dairy is equipped with the best machinery, every detail receiving their personal attention. Aside from his law practice and farming, Mr. McIntyre has been engaged somewhat in politics, hav- ing been state solicitor for Montgomery county in 1867 and 1868, and enjoys the distinction of being the only man in his county ever nominated for office against his protest and expressed wishes. He was nominated and elected as a representative of Montgomery county in the state legis- lature of 1882 and 1883-the office literally "seeking the man." Here again poor health interfered with the discharge of his legislative duties, he being seldom in his seat the last half of the session. He was the the author of what is popularly known as the " McIntyre Road Law," by which the public roads were vastly improved. He had other important bills pending, but was not able to press them to a successful issue. At the next nominating convention he was so resolute in his determination not to serve again, his friends forego putting his name before it. He served continuously for more than ten years as a justice of the peace, road overseer, postmaster, etc., thus evincing a willingness to discharge every public duty imposed upon him. He was married in December, 1870, to Miss Mattie A. Mastin, of Montgomery, Ala., a daughter of Peter B. and Mary A. Mastin, the former a native of Tennessee, the lat- ter of South Carolina. Mr. Mastin was a man of great native ability, and possessed of extraordinary courage, energy, and industry. With a limited education, and starting life with nothing, he achieved success in his business pursuits, and before his death, at the age of fifty-four, he had secured the princely income of $25,000 per year. He was extremely liberal with, and tender in his regard for his large family. An ardent politician and devoted democrat, he spent money lavishly for campaign purposes, and served one term as sheriff of his county. His widow survives him at the age of seventy-four years. Mrs. McIntyre was born in Montgomery county, Ala., in sight of what is now known as LeGrand, a station on the Ala- bama Midland railway, and is the mother of five children, three of whom are living - Annie L., Peter M., and Mary P. Mrs. McIntyre received an excellent education, at Salem, N. C. She has ever been noted for her refinement, superior business sense, and devotion to her duties as wife and mother. She early impressed upon Annie the duty of doing some- thing in life-of not being a mere "butterfly of fashion," a "drone in society." And believing that the profession of teaching offered greater advantages than any other vocation open to her sex, she laid a solid foundation at home, and at eleven years of age, Annie was sent away to school; remaining three years in Montgomery, followed by a three years' course at the Normal college, located at Florence, Ala .. for the purpose of fitting her to teach. At the age of fifteen, she stood at the head of
764
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
the junior class of thirty-seven, at the Normal, and the next session led the seniors, graduating with distinguished honor. Elected a teacher in the public schools of Birmingham, Ala., under the famous Dr. Phillips, and re-elected. the second year, such entire satisfaction was given her super- iors, a third election followed. Preferring to be nearer home, she accepted a position in the public schools of Montgomery. Her life promises to be a most useful one, and for this she is indebted to a devoted mother. Peter, a mere boy, is now attending Ramer high school, under Prof. Boyd, at Ramer, Ala. He is well advanced in his studies, and hopes to be pre- pared to enter college as a junior in one more year. His studious habits, good moral character and gentlemanly deportment have won for him the esteem and best wishes of his principal and fellows.
JOHN R. TYSON, lawyer of Montgomery, was born in Lowndes county. Ala., November 28, 1856, and educated at Howard college, Marion, Ala., which he graduated in 1877, and at Washington and Lee university, Va., from which he graduated in 1879 and returning to Lowndes county, Ala., commenced to practice law. From 1880 to 1882 he served his native county in the state legislature, and in 1884 came to Montgomery, Ala., and formed a law partnership with Tennent Lomax, which still continues, and is regarded as one of the strongest in the city. Mr. Tyson was in 1889 elected a member of the Montgomery city council, and two years thereafter was elected by that body as its presiding officer and mayor pro tem. of the city. He was married, in 1879, to Miss Mary Jordan, daughter of Dr. J. R. Jordan, of Lexington, Va. The father of John R. Tyson was John A. Tyson, who was born in North Carolina, and his mother's maiden name was Matilda Warren, of Alabama. John A. Tyson served in the late war and died in 1884. In August, 1892, he was elected as a democrat to the office of circuit judge of the second judicial circuit, which position he is now filling, having been elected for a term of six years.
BEN W. WALKER was born in Macon county, Ala., in 1850. He was educated in the common schools of his native county. Leaving school he engaged in farming, and continued in this business until 1889. In 1886 he served one term in the legislature, representing Macon county, the first republican elected from that county in twelve years. In 1889 Mr. Walker was appointed by Prest. Harrison United States marshal for the southern and middle districts of Alabama. In his new office he brought to the discharge of his duties a determination to represent the interests of the government and through the government the interests of the people. Timber depredations of government lands had been a crying evil for years and Marshal Walker was especially vigorous in breaking up the unlawful industry of these land pirates. The government has lost millions of dol- lars in this way. In the first three years of Marshal Walker's incum- bency of his office, the expense of prosecuting timber thieves, that had before been thousands of dollars annually in the middle district, was reduced to less than $500 for three years, and the proceeds of
- ------
1
765
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
stolen timber reclaimed was sufficient to defray the expenses of his deputies and leave a handsome balance for the government. Mr. Walker's father was a native of Lynchburg, Va., and was born in 1812. He removed to Alabama in early life. He served one term in the Alabama leg- islature in 1858, having removed in the meantime to Tennessee, and there died in 1858. Mr. B. W. Walker was married in October, 1891, to Miss Alsop, of Montgomery.
JUDGE RICHARD WILDE WALKER, now the junior member of the Ala- bama supreme court, was born in Florence, Ala., on March 11th, 1857. His father, Judge Richard Wilde Walker, whose name he bears, was a learned and distinguished judge of the same court for many years, resigning the position to accept that of senator in the Confederate States government in 1863. His uncle. Gen. Leroy Pope Walker, was a noted lawyer and a great advocate, being generally known as the first secretary of war for the Confederate government. Another uncle, the Hon. Percy Walker, was also a lawyer and politician of renown and prominence in Alabama. Young Walker attended Washington and Lee college, Lexing- ton, Va., one year. and afterward went to Princeton college, New Jersey, where he achieved scholarly distinction, graduating with the class of 1877. His father and paternal grandfather had each graduated in the same institution, way back in the past generation. After attending the Columbia Law school in New York city, one session, he was admitted to the bar at Huntsville, Ala., in the fall of 1878, which had been the chief theater of his father's and uncle's greatest forensic triumphs. He practiced law in St. Louis, Mo., for about one year; went to New Mexico, but remained 'only two or three months, and in 1881 went to New York city, where he engaged in the practice of his profession for more than two years. Mr. Walker in these three years was engaged in storing his mind with a wealth of knowledge. With his great industry and power of legal discrimination, he laid the sure foundation of a predestined success. Not being impressed with a fondness for life in so large a city as New York, where his modesty of manners, probably, contributed to conceal his merit so as to prevent his success from keeping pace with his ambition, he left New York and returned to Huntsville, Ala., early in 1884. Here he devoted himself assiduously to the practice of law, each year adding to his growing repu. tation, until his success was so complete that he was retained as counsel on one side of nearly every important litigated case. His arguments before the supreme court were models worthy of imitation. Pleasant and persuasive in address, earnest in manner, thoroughly conversant with the law and the facts of his case, and logical in his presentation of them, he always commanded the attention of the judges. They felt, when he had finished talking, that a flood of light had been turned into every dark corner of an often voluminous and uninviting record. On February 23, 1891, he was appointed by the governor to the office of associate justice of
1
766
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
the supreme court of Alabama, being then not quite thirty-four years of age. He is probably as young a judge as occupies such a position in any of the forty-four states of the Union. The present chief justice of the Alabama court. the Hon. G. W. Stone, was an associate justice of the same court the year Judge Walker was born, and the present supreme court reporter also occupied the position of reporter at the same time-in 1857. The father of Judge Walker was on the bench at the same time with Judge Stone. The mantle of Elijah thus gracefully falls upon the young Elisha, who bids fair to prove as mighty a prophet as his illustrious predecessor.
JAMES RANEY WARREN, grocery merchant of Montgomery, was born in Caswell county, N. C., in 1837, and was educated in his native county. Leaving school at the age of eighteen, he lived in Caswell county until the age of twenty-two, clerking, and then commenced to travel through the south, selling tobacco for Graves, Burnham & Co., of Grantville, N.,C., making his headquarters in Montgomery, Ala., keeping this up for three years, and in 1863, he started into the tobacco business in Montgomery, together with W. W. Burch, and carried that on until 1878, when Mr. Burch retired, and Mr. Warren carried on the business alone until 1881, when the firm became J. R. Warren & Co. Mr. Warren is a director in the Capital City Insurance company, and in the Central railroad company, and is a thorough business man. He was married. in 1866, to Fannie Leak, daughter of Judge Tilman Leak, of Wetumpka, and to them were born eight children, of whom but two now survive, as follows: Lucy, wife of Dr. Glenn Andrews, and William Warren. Mrs. Fannie Warren died in 1884, leaving Mr. Warren in a state of disconsolate widowhood. William Warren, father of James R. Warren, was born in Caswell county, N. C., in 1802, and there died in 1845. He was a farmer and tanner. He mar- ried Sarah Henshaw, a native of North Carolina, and to them were born nine children, as follows: Henry A., who was in Price's army and was killed in the service in 1862; Bartimus H., who served all through the war in the army of northern Virginia under Gen. Lee; William Boswell, who served through the war in the western army of the Confederacy and died just after the war; James R., Bedford B., Elizabeth, widow of Bent- ley McKee; Caroline, now Mrs. Malone; Eliza, wife of Sidney Malone, and Nancy, deceased. The mother of this family died in 1843. The Warren family came originally from England, located first in Virginia, and then moved to North Carolina.
THOMAS HILL WATTS, "Gov. Watts," as he was familiarly known to almost every man, woman and child in the state of Alabama, was born in Butler county, this state, January 3, 1819. His parents were natives of Fauquier county, Va., and settled in Butler county in 1818, while Ala- bama was yet a territory. It is a coincidence worth noting that young Thomas Hill Watts came into the world the same year the state in which he was born was admitted to the Union, thus presaging, in a sense, the strong and enduring ties that bound the son to the august commonwealth
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.