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 55
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. MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
mark, and was soon elected to represent Monroe county in the state legislature as a whig, and served two terms. In 1847, he went to New Orleans, La., where he practiced until 1849, when ke went to California, remained there until 1851, and then returned to Alabama, locating in Mobile, where he practiced his profession and edited the Evening News, the organ of the "know nothing" party. In 1855 he represented Mobile county in the state legislature as a "know nothing, " and in 1856 located at Camden, Wilcox county, where he practiced law until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he entered the Third Alabama cavalry as a private until the cessation of hostilities. From 1865 till 1868 he was solicitor for what was then the eleventh judicial circuit of Alabama, and at the close of his term resumed the practice of law in Camden. Col. Howard married Miss Elizabeth O. Gaillard, a native of South Carolina, who is now sixty-six years of age, and has surviving with her a son and daughter. Col. Howard died at his residence, near Camden, October 15, 1876. after a practice and residence at Camden of twenty years. His mind was of an elevated order and capable of taking in at one grasp the most compre- hensive propositions, and at the same time mastering its most minute details, while his imagination was capable of soaring to the loftiest heights. As a lawyer, his learning was profound and accurate, his eloquence bold, impressive and persuasive. He was one of Alabama's most successful advocates, and in the political arena he was no less dis- tinguished. Whether as a lawyer or as a politician, honor was ever his guiding star, and from the path which it pointed out he never permitted his steps to swerve. But this gifted and accomplished gentleman -- this eloquent and successful advocate-this pure, and exalted patriot, though death has silenced his silver tongue and extinguisheded his light-yet lives in an affectionate memory. As eminent as he was as a public man and lawyer it was in the private walks of life, in the relations of husband, father, friend and neighbor, that the best and most beautiful traits of his character shone with peculiar luster. His disposition was as gentle and affectienate as a woman's, his charity exhaustless, his disinterestedness unbounded and his forgetfulness of self proverbial.
JENKINS .-- James and John Jenkins came to Alabama from the Caro- linas in the early part of this. the nineteenth century. They were both in Fort Mims just before the massacre. On the day before that terrible event, they left the fort (on account of sicknees in their families) and crossed over to Chickasaha, in Clarke county. From Clarke they moved up the river to what is now Wilcox county. James Jenkins settled near the center of the county, about five miles east of Barboursville (now Cam- den). Of his family, the only surviving member is Dr. Thomas G. Jenkins Dr. Jenkins is one of the most progressive farmers in the county, and has long been noted for his fine judgment. industry and piety. John Jenkins settled in east Wilcox, in what is called the prairies. He is one of the first settlers (if not the first settler) in this part of the country. John Jenkins
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J. PAUL JONES.
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was one of the commissioners appointed in 1820 to select the county site for Wilcox county; Canton on the Alabama river was selected. He was one of the commission or committee to contract for the public buildings and was also tax collector of the county in 1820. Joseph D. Jenkins, son of John Jenkins, was the eldest of eight brothers. Graduating with dis- tinction from the state university, he was fast forcing his way to the very top of his chosen profession -- the law -- when all his hopes, ambitions and finally his life, were destroyed by that insidious disease, consumption. Joseph Jenkins represented his county in the legislature in 1847; he was for years a trustee of the state university. Just a little while before his death, Gov. Collier appointed him circuit judge. Dr. L. W. Jenkins, another son of John Jenkins, after graduating in medicine at New Orleans, located at Camden, Ala., where until the breaking out of the war he enjoyed a fine practice and amassed considerable wealth. He was one of the brightest Masons of his time and went up step by step from master of Dale lodge, in Camden, to grand high priest of the state chapter. Thomas F. Jenkins, the only surviving son of Rev, John Jenkins, moved from Wilcox to Geneva county in 1882.
JOHN PAUL JONES, M. D., was born in Brunswick county, Va., June 21, 1837, and is a son of John Cargill Jones and Mary Ann Jones, his wife, née, Walker. His parents were cultured, and reared in affluence in Virginia, where their ancestors had resided for generations, and inter- married with the best people of that state. At the age of seven years (1844), his parents removed from Brunswick county, Va., to Alabama, and · settled in Camden, where Dr. Jones has since that time resided. He was prepared for college in the schools of Camden, and in 1839 graduated from the university of Alabama with the degree of A. B. and with a high grade of scholarship. He is an A. M. of that institution. In his junior year he was awarded a gold medal for the best written and delivered oration on commencement day. In March, 1861, he graduated from the New Orleans school of medicine with second honors in a class numbering seventy-five. In June, 1861, he joined the Wilcox mounted rifles, which was mustered into the Confederate army as the escort of Gen. Bragg. In 1862 he was assigned to the staff of Gen. Jones M. Withers, as assistant surgeon in charge of his escort, with the rank of captain. At the battle of Murfreesboro, Dr. Jones acted with great skill and intrepidity in reliev- ing, while under fire, Gen. Dan Adams and numbers of others who were wounded, and he displayed the highest order of courage as aid-de-camp of Gen. Withers, who several times sent him down the line of battle during the engagement, with messages to his brigade commanders. A few months later. at his own request, he was transferred to the Academy hospital at Chattanooga, then in charge of Dr. Frank Hawthorn, of Alabama, a dis- tinguished surgeon in the western army. When Dr. Hawthorn's eyes failed him, Dr. Jones succeeded him, and was in charge of the Academy hospital the last year of the war between the states, and both as assistant
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and as surgeon in charge, his devotion and fidelity to the Confederate wounded and sick, and his ability as a physician and surgeon, gave him a prominence in his profession second to no man of his age in the Con- federate army. From a private letter written Dr. Jones by Dr. D. D. Saunders, surgeon P. A. C. S., in charge of the hospitals at Memphis. Tenn., and dated, Lithonia, Ga., May 4, 1865, we make the following extract: "Had our whole country been actuated by the same spirit as you have manifested in the discharge of your duties. we should have now been a free and independent people." When the war ended, Dr. Jones returned to his home in Camden and continued the practice of his pro- fession, and for the past twenty years he has had the most lucrative and extensive practice of any physician in this county. In different cases in counties adjoining Wilcox he has been frequently sent for in consultation. While his practice has been remunerative, he has cheerfully furnished medicines and medical attention without charge to those in the bounds of his practice who had not the means to purchase med- icines or to employ a physician. He is highly esteemed by the membors of his own profession as well as by the public. He has been president of the Wilcox county Medical society, and for two years was vice-president of the State Medical association of Alabama. Dr. Jones has exhibited great financial ability, and although he has an income from his real estate in Wilcox county, and other investments in Alabama, his devotion to his profession is such that he is still in active practice. On February 14, 1866, Dr. Jones was united in marriage to Camilla Hunter, daughter of Maj. Frank Boykin of South Carolina, but at that time a resident of Camden, Ala. The union has been blessed with seven sons and two daughters-the daughters now deceased. His sons are: Thomas Warburton Jones, aged 24, who was educated in the Camden Male school, and afterward a student at the university of Alabama for three years, and in June; 1890, graduated from the college of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, and since his graduation has practiced medicine as a partner of his father in Camden, Ala., where he has already taken a prominent stand in his profession. Frank Boykin Jones, aged 20, and has received the same preliminary educational advantages as his brother, and is now attending the college of Pharmacy of New York; James Heustis Jones, aged fifteen years; John Paul Jones, Jr., aged thirteen; Winstan Boykin Jones, aged twelve; Richard Channing Jones, Jr., aged ten, and Clement Richardson Jones, aged five years. Dr. Jones had five brothers and five sisters. but now has only two brothers and two sisters living. His deceased brothers were: John Walker Jones, who died young; Dr. Thomas Warburton Jones, who died at the age of twenty-five, an accomplished physician and gentleman; Virginius Walker Jones, who was killed as first lieutenant of company B. Forty-fourth Alabama, at the battle of the Wilderness, aged nineteen years, having been previously twice promoted for gallantry in other engagements. His
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JOHN Y. KILPATRICK.
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brothers now living are: Edward Nathaniel Jones, a prominent attorney at Camden. Ala., and Gen. Richard Channing Jones, president of the uni- versity of Alabama. His deceased sisters were: Mrs. Lucy C. Matheson, wife of John P. Matheson; Martha B. Bell, wife of Joseph Bell, and Mary E. Blackman, wife of Dr. Benjamin F. Blackman. His sisters now living are: Mrs. Kate Richardson, wife of W. C. L. Richardson, of Tus- caloosa, and Miss Sallie Cargill Joues, who resides at Camden, Ala.
HON. JOHN Y. KILPATRICK .- This successful and prominent lawyer of Camden, Wilcox county, Ala., was born in Rowan county, N. C., Jan- uary 18, 1835, a son of Rufus H. and Eliza (Young) Kilpatrick. both natives of Rowan county, also, and of Scotch-Irish extraction, their ancestors having been among the early settlers of the county named. Rufus H. Kilpatrick, a graduate of Hampden Sidney college, Va., came to Alabama, with his children, in 1844, his wife having died in her native state some short time previously. He first located at Dayton, then moved to Clarke county, and finally settled in Conecuh county, where he ended his days, about the year 1858. . He was a school teacher of recog- nized ability, and under him, his son. John Y., enjoyed splendid educa- tional advantages, and attained to a classical education. John Y. Kil- patrick himself became a teacher at the age of seventeen, and thus earned the means to defray the expenses of his legal education under a private preceptor. In 1860 he was a sub-elector on the Breckinridge tic- ket. April 1, 1861, he was mustered into the Confederate service, as a private, for the war, refusing a commission, but in September, of the same year, without his solicitation, was commissioned first lieutenant of cavalry, and, in a short time after, was promoted to the captaincy of company I, Adams' regiment of cavalry, and served with this rank until the termination of the struggle. During this period of the service he was elected, in 1863, to the state legislature from Clarke county, and, in 1863-64, passed a month each year in the house, in full military uniform. In 1860, he had refused to act as a delegate from Clarke county to the secession convention, and, at the close of the war; refused to act in the same capacity in the reconstruction convention. In 1865, however, he consented to represent the district composed of Clarke, Monroe, and Baldwin counties, in the state senate. In 1866, he moved to Camden, Wilcox county, and continued to represent his district in the state senate until ousted in 1868 under reconstruction legislation, since which time he has ignored public office, although he is still an active and prominent democrat. Capt. Kirkpatrick has large landed interests in Wilcox and other counties, which he rents, and also carries on farming to some extent himself, while at the same time he allows no detail of its extensive legal practice to escape his personal attention. Capt. Kilpatrick has been four times married. His first bride, Miss Carleton, died during the late war, a month after her wedding day; his second wife was a Miss Phillips, of Dallas county Ala., who became the mother of two children,
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and with them passed to the grave; his third wife was also a Miss Carle- ton, a cousin of his first, who died four years after marriage, leaving two children, who yet survive; the present wife is a sister of the third, and has borne four children. Capt. Kilpatrick was an elector on the Tilden and Hendricks democratic ticket in the fourth congressional district in Alabama, in 1876.
JOHN RUSSELL LIDDELL .- Among the leading merchants of Camden. Wilcox county, Ala., J. R. Liddell takes a foremost position. He was born in Wooster, Ohio, November 16, 1848, the son of David and Chris- tina (Russell) Liddell, who were both born near Glasgow, Scotland. David was a young man when he came to the United States and settled in Wayne county, Ohio, then the far west. He met and married Miss Rus- sell of Pennsylvania, who had been brought by her parents to America when she was a child, they having settled in Pennsylvania. Three chil- dren were born to the union of David and Christina Russell, and were named William G., John R .. and Christina A. The daughter is now deceased; William is residing in Dalton, Ga., and the second born is the subject of this sketch. David Liddell devoted his life to the pursuit of agriculture, and both he and his wife ended their days on the homestead in Wayne county, Ohio. John Russell Liddell received a liberal education in his native town. In 1871, he came to Alabama and located at Prairie Bluff; in 1876 he moved to Camden and entered into partnership with a Mr. Richards, under the firm name of Richards & Liddell, in general merchandising; in 1885 the style of the firm was changed to J. R. Liddell & Co., and so remains. Mr. Liddell is also largely interested in planting and in a grist mill and ginnery, at Camden, and holds, beside, an inter- est in the firm of Henderson & Liddell, at Black's Bluff. Mr. Lidkell has always conducted his business affairs on strictly business principles, and for this reason has made a success of them, as he began on a limited capital, and it is owing to his excellent qualifications for mercantile trade alone that wealth is his. He is a deacon in the Presbyterian church, and lives fully up to its teachings. His activity in Sunday school work is untiring and he is looked upon as a most able superintendent of the Sab- both school attached to the church to which he belongs. His marriage took place, in 1885, to Miss Mary H. Rickey, of San Diego, Cal., to which happy union have been born two children-Roy H., and John R., Jr.
RICHARD ERVIN MCWILLIAMS, the enterprising dealer in general mer- chandise at Camden, Wilcox county, Ala., is a native of the county and was born December 3, 1842. His father, the Rev. Miles McWilliams. was born in Orangeburg district, S. C., in 1803, and died in Wilcox county, Ala., in 1877. He was of Scotch extraction, his great-grandfather having been the progenitor of the family in , America. Miles L. was early · ordained a Baptist minister in South Carolina, and in that state he mar- ried Miss Eleanor Melton, of Orangeburg, who bore him four sons and two daughters that reached maturity. In 1835 the reverend gentleman
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brought his family to Alabama and settled in Wilcox county, where he was engaged in farming and ministerial duties until the end of his days. In 1857, his wife, the mother of Richard E., passed away at the age of forty-five years. Rev. Mr. McWilliams then married Miss Elizabeth Martin, of Wilcox county, who by him became the mother of six sons and two daughters, and is still living. Richard Ervin McWilliams was reared and educated in Allenton beat, Wilcox county. In 1862 he entered the Confederate army as a private in company B, First Alabama infantry. He was taken prisoner at Island No. 10, and confined at camp Butler near Springfied, Ill., until the first general exchange at Vicksburg, Miss. Being released from captivity, he rejoined his regiment and was stationed at Port Hudson, La., at the siege of which, in 1863, he was again captured, but released on parole. After having passed a short time at home, he was again exchanged, and returned to duty. He was vith Johnston and Hood in middle Tennessee and in Georgia, and finally was again captured at Franklin, Tenn., and confined at Camp Douglas, Chicago, until the close of the war. Returning to Wilcox county, Ala., he settled in Camden and entered into mercantile business, in which he has met with much success. He is also considerably interested in planting. and is, indeed, the sole maker of his fortune, having begun his business career on a very limited capital. He has given office-seeking a wide berth, although he . takes an active interest in the welfare of the democratic party. November 9, 1869, Mr. McWilliams married Miss Amelia L. Coate, of Camden, and ten children have blessed the union, as follows: Eleanor Amelia, Madie Coate, Annie Ervin, Richard Edward, Minnie Sue, Mabel, Richard Coate, Kate, Marguerite and Amelia Maud. Mrs. McWilliams is the only child of James M. and Susan C. (Bogg) Coate, of an old and highly respected family of Wilcox county. The father died many years ago, but the mother, a devout Christian, beloved by all who knew her, made her home with her son-in-law and daughter for over twenty years, and diel April 27, 1892, at the age of sixty-one years. Mr. McWilliams is an elder, and his family are members of the Presbyterian church, and enjoy the respect of the whole community. Mr. McWilliams is a com- mandery Mason, a K. of P. and a K. of H.
JOHN MILLER, D. D., deceased, was born in York district, South Carolina, June 24, 1825, and was a son of Joseph Miller, also a native of South Carolina, of Scotch-Irish descent. Mr. Miller was a graduate of Erskine college, South Carolina, which conferred upon him the degree of D. D. He came to Alabama, as a young minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, and settled in Wilcox county, where for thirty years he was pastor of one congregation; for seven years he was also proprietor and president of the Wilcox Female institute at Camden. He was a learned divine and scholar and a sincere Christian. In 1858 he was elected president of Erskine college, South Carolina, but declined the 61*
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position, being strongly urged to remain in Wilcox. He married, in Wilcox county, Miss Sarah Pressly, daughter of Samuel Pressly, M. D. This lady was born in Abbeville district, South Carolina, and came to Wilcox county, Ala,, with her parents in 1834. Here her father, who was also a native of Abbeville district, South Carolina. died in 1836. The family in South Carolina was a distinguished one in letters, in the law, and in the ministry. It was remotely of English extraction and proxi- mately of Scotch-Irish, as, generations ago, a member of it left London and went to Scotland, whence his deccendants went to Ireland, and from these sprang the branch that settled in South Carolina. To the marriage of Rev. John Miller were born five sons and three daughters, and he was spared to watch over and instruct them until June 3, 1878, when he was called to his final place of rest. Joseph Neely Miller, of high rank as a lawyer and citizen, is a resident of Camden, the seat of justice of Wilcox, his native couuty. He was born July 14. 1849. Mr. Miller was reared in the rural districts, but since 1873 has resided in the town. Receiving in Wilcox his preparatory education, he was sent to Erskine college, South Carolina, the alma mater of his father, and from this institution he was sent forth a graduate in 1869. In. 1873 he was admitted to the bar, and since that date he has continued in the active practice of his profession at · Camden. His success as an advocate has placed him in the front rank of his profession. He has not only won an enviable reputation at the bar, but has also secured as a citizen the esteem and respect of his fellow-men. As a democrat in politics he has figured with no little prominence in the political struggles of his county. He is largely interested in agriculture, in which he is less successful, however, than he is at the bar. Mr. Miller is an elder in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, of which he has been a member since early life, his father having been an able min- ister in that church: in fact he has been a member of the church since childhood. Mr. Miller is a member of the K. of P. order. and to him is accorded a high social station. In 1877. he married Miss Minnie Bonner, of Wilcox county, and unto that marriage there have been born four daughters and three sons.
HON. B. MEEK MILLER .- This prominent young lawyer and eminent educator of Wilcox county. Ala., was born at Oak Hill, March 13, 1864, Wilcox being his native county. His academic education was acquired at Oak Hill and at Camden, and in 1881 he entered Erskine college, S. C. While in the junior class of this institution, he read an essay which met with the warmest commendation, and stamped him as a young man of talent and ability. He graduated in 1984. sharing the highest honors of the class with two others, and receiving a gold medal for the best com- mencement oration. In July, 1844. he was elected principal of the Lower Peach Tree male and female high school. Wilcox county, and for three years filled the position with great acceptability. In October, 1887, he entered the law department of the university of Alabama, and in June,
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1 -- 9, graduated in law with honors on the honor-roll of five out of ten speakers at commencement. It was at the time he was pursuing his studies at this institution, that the democrats of Wilcox county placed him in nomination for the state legislature, and in August, 1889, he was triumphantly elected to that body, in which he served two years. to the entire satisfaction of his constituents and credit to himself. This nomi- nation of Mr. Miller to so high a position while yet a student, was a deli- rate compliment to, and yet an emphatic expression of confidence in, the young man's ability and integrity, the more especially so, as the nomin- ation was the result of the action of his friends at Lower Peach Tree, where he had been engaged in teaching, and where he had made his mark as an educator. Mr. Miller is now located at Camden, in the prac- tice of his profession. and is rapidly rising in the esteem of his fellow- members of the bar and the general public. Mr. Miller is a member of one society only, the Kappa Alpha fraternity of his alma mater.
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HON. LEROY BREWER. - The task of a biographer is an easy one and simple, and withal, a very pleasant one, when the details of the life require neither shading nor trimming, nor any suppression. They who begin to read this sketch are assured that no flattering or overdrawn embellishments will tire their patience, or offend good taste. It is the story of a simple, honest, earnest life, which, in its last years, has given and does yet give, pleasure to those who contemplate it. Leroy Brewer was born in a log cabin, built by his father, on the banks of Murder creek, near its head waters in Conecuh county, Ala., on the 19th of Feb- ruary, 1818. His birth was premature by two months of time. The first fourteen years of his life were spent there in the piney woods, with the old log cabin as his home, with four brothers older than himself, and one brother younger. His father was a farmer, a man of untiring industry, with an ambition to provide well for his family, and to train and educate his children properly. Consequently, Leroy was sent to school as soon as he arrived at a proper age. When the crop had been worked and laid by in summer, he was sent to school. When in the winter the crops had been gathered, he returned to the school. So his education began, three months in the summer, and three months in the winter, with the other six months of the year spent in the fields, at work with his father and his elder brothers. The school house was a log cabin in the woods. His first teacher, John Chapman, was not merely a teacher of the elementary branches. His teaching of strict morality, and purity, and truth, and honesty, went along with all his other instruction. His scholar has not forgotten the precepts so diligently taught. The hard drudgery of farm life neither broke his spirit nor soured his temper. With these early experiences of hard work there came to him from his parents' influences and instructions of which Mr. Brewer now speaks thus: "My father taught me industry. economy, and honesty; my mother taught me all hat, and religion too. All that my mother taught me about religion has come true." In the year 1832 the family moved from Conecuh county to that part of Sumter county called the "Choctaw Nation," to a farm
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