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 3
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HARRY PILLANS. a prominent attorney of Mobile, Ala., was born in Bonham, Tex., June 27, 1847. His father is Palmer J. Pillans, a native of South Carolina, and a civil engineer by profession. He served as major in the army of the Texan republic, and as a lieutenant-colonel in the Civil war. He removed to New Mexico in 1849 and to Mobile in 1833, and his home now is in Dallas county, Ala. For about twenty years after his settlement in Mobile, and up to the reconstruction period, he served
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as city engineer of Mobile. He was a son of John C. Pillans, a native of South Carolina, and a planter by occupation. The latter was a son of a Scotchman of Huguenot extraction, who, upon coming to the United States, located in Charleston, S. C. The maternal ancestors of Harry Pillans were English and Welsh, who, upon coming to this county, located in North Carolina and Georgia. Harry Pillans mother was Laura M. Roberts, a native of Cahaba, Ala., who died in 1883. Her father. Dr. Willis Roberts, was a native of Georgia, and a physician by profession. Harry Pillans received a good early education, and, although not a graduate of a college because of the war prevailing in his early manhood, he obtained a knowledge of many of the sciences, and to some extent a knowledge of the classics in the higher schools of Mobile. At the age of seventeen, or in May, 1864, he enlisted in the Sixty-second Alabama infantry, and served until the close of the war, being in one engagement. After the war he was employed as a civil engineer and draughtsman. In 1868 he turned his attention to the law, and was admitted to the bar at Mobile in 1870. He was admitted to practice before the supreme court of the state in 1873, and the supreme court of the United States in 1884. Ever since his admission to the bar he has practiced his profession in Mobile, and he now ranks as one of the leading lawyers at the bar of that city. He was at one time associated in the practice with George N. Stewart, the early Alabama reporter. He is a member of the State Bar association, and was twice recently urged strongly by the bar of Mobile, and many members of the state bar, for appointment by the governor to the supreme court of the state. The firm of Pillans, Torrey & Hanaw, to which he belongs, is counsel for a number of important business concerns and corporations, and does an extensive admiralty practice. Mr. Pillans has also been admitted to practice law and has practiced in the supreme and inferior courts of the state of Mississippi, the date of such admission being about 1882. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Medical college of Alabama. and though in politics he is an earnest democrat he devotes his entire attention to his profession. He was married April 28, 1875, to Miss Elizabeth H. Torrey, of Claiborne, Ala., by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters.
JACOB POLLOCK. dry goods merchant of Mobile, Ala., was born in Canton Aargan, Switzerland, 1847. He was educated in part in his native country, and came to the United States with a relative in 1860. For two years he lived in New York city and attended the public schools there, and in 1862 he went to Port Gibson, Miss., and entered the dry goods store of his uncles, S. Bernheimer & Bro., in order to learn the business. He remained with them about three years, and in 1866 removed to Mobile; where he engaged in the dry goods business and has been so engaged ever since. By close attention and hard work he has been enabled to build up one of the largest jobbing dry goods houses in the south, under the present firm name of J. Pollock & Co. Mr. Pollock is a director
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in the Factors & Traders' insurance company of Mobile, and president of the Commercial club. He was married in 1877 to Julia Forcheimer, daugh- ter of M. Forcheimer, of Mobile, by whom he had three daughters: Blanche, Clara and Antonette Pollock.
MAJ. SYDNEY T. PRINCE, a prominent attorney of Mobile, was born at Bladen Springs, Choctaw county, Ala., May 20, 1847. His father was Col. Thomas McC. Prince, who was a native of North Carolina, a planter by occupation, by which occupation he accumulated a considerable for- tune, and he served for many years as a member of the Alabama state senate. Prior to this service in the senate, he had been a prominent cot- ton factor at Mobile, the firm of Prince & Garrett, to which he belonged, being a very strong one, and having a branch house in Liverpool, Eng. Besides being a member of this, the largest cotton commission house in Mobile, he was a director in the Mobile bank. His death occurred in October, 1871. Paternally our subject is of Scotch-Irish descent. His mother was Lucy, A. Trotter, a native of Tennessee, whose first husband was Flavel Vivian. She died in 1868. The Trotter family removed from Virginia to Tennessee. Maj. Prince was educated at the univer- sity of Alabama, which institution he left in his junior year, during the winter of 1864-65, to enter the service of the Confederate States. At col- lege he had been educated in military tactics, and was a cadet officer. He and two other cadets organized a company of cavalry from the college cadets, of which company he was elected second lieutenant. On account, however, of the absence of the captain, he commanded the company until the close of the war. This company was with Gen. Forrest when he was fighting Gen. Wilson, during the latter's famous raid through Alabama. It was disbanded upon the final surrender, and Lieutenant Prince was paroled at Meridian, Miss., in April, 1865. For a number of years after the close of the war, he followed mercantile pursuits at Mount Sterling, Ala. In 1873 he was admitted to the bar, having pursued the study of the law while engaged as a merchant. He at once began the practice of his profession at Butler, the county seat of. Choctaw county, still, however, retaining his home at Mount Sterling. He soon built up a lucrative practice, which steadily grew until 1882. His first partner was George W. Taylor, the firm name being Taylor & Prince. Later he became the partner of Thomas W. Coleman, at present one of the jus- tices of the supreme court of Alabama, the firm name in this case being Coleman & Prince. This was the leading legal firm in Choctaw county, its practice being both extensive and profitable. In 1882 he removed to Mobile, and at once formed a partnership with H. T. Toulmin and George W. Taylor, the former resigning the office of circuit judge, which he then held. to enter this new firm, and the latter being Mr. Prince's first legal partner at Butler. This new firm, under the name of Toulmin, Taylor & Prince, continued until 1887, when Mr. Toulmin was appointed judge of the Federal court at Mobile, and hence a dissolution became a
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necessary consequence, and since then Maj. Prince has practiced alone. He has now an extensive practice, and ranks among the leading lawyers of the Mobile bar. In politics he is a democrat, and he was a member of the constitutional convention of 1875, which formed the present constitu- tion of the state. He was the youngest member of that body, being then only twenty eight years old, and he took a prominent part in its deliber- ations. He was a presidential elector on the Tilden ticket in 1876, and also on the Cleveland ticket in 1884. In 1882 he was a candidate for the nomination for congress by the democratic party, and came within a few votes of receiving the nomination. He is now a-member of the demo- cratic executive committee of Mobile county, and he is a Mason and a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was married in May, 1873, to Helen Rhodes, of Livingston, Ala., who died in April, 1887, leaving five children. two sons and three daughters. all of whom survive. It should' be added that, during the gubernatorial term of George S. Houston, Maj. Prince served upon that governor's staff with the rank of major.
REV. DAVID A. PLANCK, pastor of the Jackson street Presbyterian church, of Mobile, was born in Fleming county, Ky., April 5, 1846. His father is Isaac Planck, also a native of Fleming county, and a farmer by occupation. He was the son of Andrew Planck, who was of German descent. David A. Planck's mother was Nancy Howe, a native of Ken- · tucky, and daughter of David Howe, a South Carolinian, and a soldier of the war of 1812. He was a farmer by occupation, and of English ances- try. David A. Planck was reared on a farm in Fleming county, Ky., and graduated from the Elizabethville, Ky., high school at the age of seven- teen. He then entered Center college, of Danville, Ky .. from which he graduated, as bachelor of arts, in 1869. He took second honors in his class, and was its salutatorian. During his senior year he acted as orator of his literary society at the exercises commemorating Washington's birthday. Immediately after completing his studies, he took up theology, and, in 1873, he graduated from the Princeton Theological seminary. He had already accepted a call to the First Presbyterian church at Port Gibson, Miss., and he immediately proceeded to that place after receiving his diploma, and entered upon his duties as pastor. He was ordained by the presbytery of Mississippi, October 10, 1873. He remained pastor of the church named sixteen years, and, in 1889, he accepted a call to the Jackson street Presbyterian church of Mobile, and has since been the pastor of this church. For several years during his residence at Fort Gibson, he was instructor in biblical history in the Chamberlain-Hunt college, and, in 1885, he published a book entitled a "Bible Course of Study." During his pastorate he has received many important calls: but has preferred to remain in Mobile. He has twice represented the presbytery of Mississippi in the general assembly of the church. Rev. Mr. Planck was married January 5, 1875, to Miss Blanche Hopkins, of Fort Gibson, by whom he has five children, four of whom are daughters.
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JOHN F. POWERS, clerk of the city court of Mobile, Ala., was born in that city, December 5, 1843. His father was Richard Powers, and his mother's maiden name was Ann Kennedy. They were born, reared, and married in Ireland, and upon coming to the United States located in Mobile. Both are now dead, the father dying of cholera in 1852, and the mother was killed by the explosion of the steamboat, Ocean Wave. Mr. Powers has resided in Mobile all his life. From the age of eight until the age of seventeen he was a news boy. In April, 1861, he enlisted in company I, Eighth Alabama infantry, as a private soldier, and served with that regiment throughout the war, being, however, promoted to be a sergeant. He participated in the following battles: Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Salem Church, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, besides others. He was wounded four times, at Seven Pines, Gettysburg, Wil- derness and Spottsylvania Court House. He was also captured there, but two months later he was exchanged and immediately rejoined his regi- ment. After the war he returned to Mobile and for fifteen years engaged in the retail liquor business. In 1868 he was elected a member of the board of aldermen and served three years. In 1880 he was elected clerk of the city court of Mobile, and he has held that office ever since. In politics he has been a democrat all his life and has once been a dele- gate to the state convention and twice to the congressional conventions of his party. He has served four years as a member of the democratic executive committee of Mobile county. In religion he is a Catholic, and a member of the Catholic Knights of America. He has been a trustee of the St. Vincent branch of the C. K. of A., No. 389, ever since it was organized in 1885. He is a member of the "Can't Get Away Club," a well known charitable organization, and is also a member of the American Legion of Honor and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a sergeant of company A, Alabama state artillery and is vice-president of the R. E. Lee association of Mobile. He is also a member of the Con- federate veterans' association, of the Mobile fire department, and of the Commercial club. He was married November 28, 1868. to Miss Annie J. Martin, of Mobile, a native of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Powers have seven children living, six of whom are sons.
DUDLEY CRAWFORD RANDLE. physician and surgeon, of Mobile, Ala., was born in Oktibbeha county, Miss., January 8, 1857. His father was Frederick D. Randle, a native of Virginia, and a farmer. He served in the Confederate army during the late war. He was but two years old when his parents removed to Mississippi in 1835. His father was Wyatt Randle, a native of Virginia, and a farmer, who came to the United States from Scotland. The mother of D. C. Randle. was Margaret E. Blackwood a native of Tennessee, who died in 1867. Her father was Hugh Black- wood, a native of England, but of Irish parentage. D. C. Randle received
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a common school education, and for some years, in youth, acted as clerk and bookkeeper, making sufficient money in this way to complete his edu- cation in medicine, and to assist in educating a brother and two sisters. In 1877 he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. W. H. Harrington, of Crawford, Miss., and took his first course of lect- ures in the Kentucky school of medicine. at Louisville, during the session . of 1879. During the four years which followed. he practiced medicine in Lowndes and Noxubee counties, Miss., and in Pickens, Lamar. Fayette and Walker counties, Ala. In 1882, he was appointed surgeon of the construction company, of the Georgia Pacific railroad, and acted as such, between one and two years. In February, 1884. he removed to Mobile county, Ala., and located at Whistler, where he practiced his profession until November 1, 1887, when he removed to Mobile. Dr. Randle is a member of the Mobile county Medical society, and he has served as health . officer of the county three years. He is also a member of the Alabama state Medical association. For one year he was visiting physician to the Mobile city hospital. In October, 1884, he entered the Medical college of Alabama from which he graduated in 1885. In politics, Dr. Randle is a democrat, and he is a Knight of Honor, and a Knight of Pythias. He was married December 28, 1886. to Miss Margaret Ramsey Howland, of Mobile, by whom he has two children. a son and a daughter. Dr. Randle is a member of and surgeon to the Mobile cadets. First Lieutenant and assistant surgeon of the First regiment Alabama state troops, and is now county health officer.
G. W. ROBINSON, lumber and coal merchant of Mobile, was born in New York city, July 1, 1834, but was brought to Mobile in 1838 by his parents, Edward and Sarah. (Pikle) Robinson. Edward Robinson was born in Manchester, Eng., in 1812, and was there married in 1832. coming to America the same year. He engaged in the clothing business in New York until his removal to Mobile in 1838, where he engaged in the same line of trade. Mrs. Robinson died of yellow fever in the latter part of 1838, and Mr. Robinson. the following year, moved to Stockton, Baldwin county, where he erected a saw mill. In 1843, he married a Mrs. Bryant, widow of N. P. Bryant, and the same year united with the Presbyterian church; in 1853, he was ordained a minister. and filled several important pulpits, doing a great deal of missionary work. He also entered into a partnership with his son. G. W., and for many years carried on a lucra- tive lumber business, and then followed planting and preaching until his death, in 1886. He was a worshipful master in the Masonic order, was a democrat, and for several years was past master of Stockton lodge. Mrs Sarah Robinson was also born in Manchester, Eng., was possessed of an unusual talent for music, and was married in her eighteenth year. She became the mother of two children, one of whom is now deceased. G. W. Robinson, at the age of twenty-one, took charge of his father's store at Stockton, later bought it. and when the Civil war broke out had invested
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$15,000 of his savings in slave property, which was of course swept away. He enlisted in the Confederate service, was elected first lieutenant of company I, Wirt Adams' cavalry, and was attached to the army of Kentucky. He took part in many of the hard-fought battles of his com- mand, embracing Corinth, Iuka, siege of Vicksburg in 1863, Shiloh, Baker's Creek; was with Gen. Armstrong on his raid, and was with Gen. Forrest in Tennessee. In a skirmish near Jackson, Miss., in October, in 1863, he received a wound in the thigh, which necessitated his confine- ment to the hospital for four months. He was then sent home on a litter and is still suffering from his injury. During the latter part of the war, the Federals passed through Stockton, drove off all the live stock and confiscated everything in the way of provisions, leaving the country utterly destitute. With no money, no subsistence, no slaves, and with the use of only one leg, Mr. Robinson made his second start in life. He formed a partnership with a neighbor, Mr. Ben. McMillan, bought an ox team on credit, and, with the aid of a negro boy, who still remains with him, sawed the trees down while his partner would haul them to the river, and then all hands would raft them to the mill, and in this manner Mr. Robinson realized $1,000 the first year. He then built a mill, opened a general store, and also engaged in planting, and has thus restored his fortune. In 1868, he was elected to the state legislature without opposi- tion, and was re-elected in 1870. On retiring from office, he devoted him- self strictly to business, which was very prosperous until 1884, when a financial panic spread through the county, owing to extensive mercantile failures-in Mobile, which led to Mr. Robinson and his partner turning over individual and company property to the amount of $130,000; but they were immediately backed by friends with 875.000, which enabled the firm to resume business, which they conducted until 1890, when Mr. Robinson sold his interest to Mr. McMillan and moved to Mobile and became a member of the Mobile Coal company, of which he is now the vice-president. He has also recently organized the Mobile Lumber com- pany and erected a mill three miles above the city, with machinery for the manufacture of every grade of lumber, the capital invested amount- ing to $50,000, and of this company Mr. Robinson is the president. The marriage of Mr. Robinson took place in 1864 to Miss M. A. McMillan, daughter of M. M. McMillan. Mrs. Robinson was born in. Baldwin county, and was married in her eighteenth year. She has had five children, as follows: Edward, now studying law at the university of Virginia; George, secretary of the Mobile Lumber company: Sarah M., Kate E. and May. Mrs. Robinson is a member of the Presbyterian church; Mr. Robinson is a Freemason, is an elder in the Presbyterian church, and one of the representative men of Alabama.
FRANCIS J. B. ROHMER, M. D., physician of Mobile, Ala., was born in Alsace-Lorraine, that portion of France since ceded to Germany, August 14, 1812. He was educated at Strasbourg, and in 1832, came to .
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the United States, locating in New Orleans. In 1836 he graduated from the Medical college of Louisiana. During the last session of his attend- ance and the one next following his graduation, he acted as demonstrator of anatomy in the same institution. He was appointed assistant surgeon of the Charity hospital, New Orleans, in 1836, and acted as such about one year. He was for several years corresponding member of the New Orleans academy of natural sciences and physio-medical society. He practiced his profession at Jackson, La., then removed to Baton Rouge, where he continued his professional labors until 1857. While there he was a fellow of the physio-medical society of that city, which society he himself had organized. In 1856 he was appointed by Gov. C. Wickliffe of Louisiana, surgeon- general upon the governor's staff, a position which he resigned in 1857, and removed to Mobile, Ala., where he has since resided. In 1861 he was appointed by the Confederate States government, botanist for the gulf states, his duties being to collect plants for the manufacture of medicines. In 1862 he was appointed by the same govern- ment to establish a laboratory in Mobile for the manufacture of medicines, and he established this laboratory and conducted it until the close of the war. Since 1865 he has devoted himself to the practice of his profession in Mobile, and has met with unusual success, until within a few years, when his advanced age forced him to restrict his practice to his imme- diate neighborhood. He is a member of the Mobile county Medical society, and also of the Alabama State Medical association. He is a member of the Catholic church, and in politics he is a democrat. He was married in 1839 to Miss Helena Bell of Louisiana. She died in 1866, leav- ing three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom are living. In 1869 Dr. Rohmer married Miss Thecla Von Czarnowski of Mobile, who is his present wife.
WILLIAM HENRY Ross, one of Mobile's leading citizens, and who is engaged in selling cotton, was born at Saint Stephens, Washington county, Ala., December 8, 1819. He is the son of Jack F. and Amelia (Fisher) Ross, both natives of North Carolina, the former born in 1782, the latter in 1788. The father served under Gen. Jackson, in the war of 1812, as a captain. In 1812. he was sent by Gen. Jackson to pay off the troops at Mobile, and having completed that duty he resigned his com- mission in the army and located at Saint Stephens, where he engaged in mercantile business, removing his family to that place soon afterward. About 1821, he removed to Mobile and engaged in business there, and remained there until his death, in 1837, from yellow fever, his wife hav- ing died from the same disease in 1826. William Henry Ross was reared in Mobile, and was educated at Spring Hill college. Leaving that school, in 1836, he began life for himself as a clerk in Mobile, and, in 1842, he established himself in the grocery business, which he continued until the breaking out of the Civil war. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army, as commissary of Gen. Wither's division, and subsequently he was
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ordered to duty as assistant commissary on Gen. Bragg's staff. At the close of the war he returned to Mobile, and became engaged in the cot- ton factorage business, and he has ever since been thus engaged. Maj. Ross has many and diversified business interests. He is a stockholder in the Magnolia Cotton press, the Mobile Brewing company, and in several of the banks, insurance companies, and railroads. He was married, in 1845, to the daughter of Hon. Frank S. Lyon, of Demopolis, and by this marriage he has seven children. He is a member of Christ church (Protestant Episcopal), at Mobile.
SANTOS S. RUBIRA, president of the Mobile gas-light and coke com- pany, and a prominent business man of Mobile, was born in Spain in 1832. He received a collegiate education, and went to Cuba in 1851. He remained in Cuba until 1857, when he went to New York city and there engaged in the import and export business with Spain, Cuba and Mexico, under the firm name of Rubira & Company. This business he still car- ries on in New York, the name under which it is carried on now being S. S. Rubira. Mr. Rubira has been identified with Mobile since 1876, at which time he became a director in the Mobile gas-light and coke com- pany. He was chosen president of this company in 1885. He is also vice- president of the electric lighting company of Mobile, to which position he was elected in 1887. In this same year he became one of the pro- moters of the Progress electric light and motor company, of which he was chosen president. Mr. Rubira is a member of the Manassas club and the Athelstan club of Mobile. He was married to a Mobile lady, and resides in Mobile most of the time.
EDWARD LAFAYETTE RUSSELL, attorney-at-law of Mobile, Ala., was born in Franklin county, Ala., August 19th, 1845. He lived in Franklin and Lawrence counties, Ala., until 1853, when his father moved to Pon- totoc county, Miss! During the years 1854 and 1855, he attended an old field country school, and during the years 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, and until the autumn of 1861, he worked in the field, raising cotton and corn, and performing all other labor incident to farming in the south. In October, 1861, he joined the Confederate army as a private soldier in the company commanded by Capt. Thomas Ashcraft, of the Forty-first Mississippi infantry, commanded by the gallant, fearless and lamented Gen. W. F. Tucker. He participated in the battles around Corinth, when besieged by Gen. Hallock, in the celebrated campaign of Gen. Bragg through Tennessee and Kentucky, and was in the hotly contested battle fought in the beautiful plains around Perryville, Ky. He was engaged in the battle of Murfreesboro, and was wounded December 31st, 1862. He was also wounded at the battle of Chickamauga. He was engaged in all the battles around Chattanooga, including the great battle of Missionary Ridge. He was also in all the battles of the famous campaign between . Gen. W. T. Sherman and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, from Dalton to Atlanta, and in all the battles fought by Gen. Hood around Atlanta. He
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