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 59
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superintendent of this institution, the corner stone of which had been laid amid great ceremonies seven years before, but which had just been completed with a capacity fit to accommodate only about one-third of its present number of inmates. Among the trustees of that day were the Rev. Basil Manly, the president of our State university. Dr. Reuben Searcy, and Dr. James Guild, both physicians of great eminence, and others well known to the people of our state during the generation that has just passed away. Dr. Bryce came before the board with the earnest recommendation of the famous Miss Dorothea Dix, the Howardess of her day, whose sound judgment had quickly detected his remarkable aptitude for this work, and who, at that time, was doing so much to alleviate the condition of the insane in England, on the continent of Europe, and in this country.
Dr. Bryce held many positions of honor and trust, which attested the the high esteem in which he was held as a man, a scholar, a physician, and a scientist. He was, at the time of his death, president of the Ameri- can Medico-Psychological association, which was a recognition of his national fame; and first vice-president of the Medico-Legal society of New York, a society whose membership embraces some of the foremost scholars and alienists of America, England and Europe. He was many years president of the Alabama Historical society, a worthy tribute to his . literary culture; and also president of the Medical association of Alabama, a position evincing the esteem in which he was held among the members of the medical fraternity. At the time of his death he was president of the commission of lunacy established by the Alabama general assembly about five years ago, in reference to the custody and trial of the criminal insane; and was also a member of the state board of health, and board of censors. About ten years ago the university of Alabama conferred upon him the title of LL. D. Dr. Brice was not only a man of letters. but of versatile information and acquirements. He read every book which he believed would afford him any rays of light to dispell the darkness of of human ignorance, and always discussed what he read in a manner to entertain and instruct. Especially was he well versed in philosophical and scientific subjects, and his conversation had a constant tendency to take color from views he had acquired from that interesting realm of thought. As a writer he was graceful, lucid and pleasing in style, rather than vigorous; and in his oral discussions he was ready of speech, persuasive in manner, and ever entertaining to his auditors. He contributed occasional articles to the medical and scientific magazines of current literature, and to the medico-legal journals of the country, some of which attracted wide- spread attention and discussion in both continents. His annual reports as superintendent of the insane hospital. extending back through more than a quarter of a century, are models of literary style, as well as conspicu- ous examples of professional learning, and especially of expert knowledge in psychological medicine. It is worthy of particular mention that in
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these reports he lent the weight of his great name against the juridical heresy which is commonly known as the "right and wrong test" of insanity, as applied to the so-called criminal insane. He entirely adopted the modern view, that the true test of criminal responsibility in persons afflicted with the disease of insanity is found not alone in the power to distinguish right from wrong in the abstract, or as applied to the partic ular act. but in the victim's power to adhere to the right, and abstain from the wrong; or in other words, in the power of self-control through the exercise of volition. He was summoned as an expert to testify in the celebrated trial of Guiteau for the murder of President Garfield. but was prevented by circumstances from responding to the summons. The subject, however, upon which the doctor most delighted to dwell in his official reports, as well as in conversation, and in his frequent con; ferences with visitors who came from afar to inquire of his management, was that of the mechanical restrain of the insane. About the year 1879 or 1880 he introduced in the Alabama hospital the system of absolute non-restraint, by which he abolished all mechanical restraint of the patients by the use of straight jackets, camisoles, bed straps, crib beds, and other like appliances known as restraining apparatus. After ten years' experiment with this new and more humane system, he wrote. in his biennial report for the years '1889, and 1890, as follows: "During this long period," he observed, "with a household averaging nearly a thousand patients, there has been no resort whatever to any species of mechanical restraint, for either surgical or other purposes. Not a vestige of restraining apparatus of any kind is to be found about the premises, nor has there occurred a single case, in the wards of the hospital during this long period, which seemed to justify or require its use. Instances have occasionally occurred which to others might have appeared to call for such applications: but in no single case have they failed in our hands to yield to milder measures." In 1891 an interesting paper on this subject from Dr. Bryce's pen was read before the Medico-Legal society of New York, and became the chief basis of a symposium on the system of mechanical non-restraint, in which the leading alienists and superintend- ents of insane hospitals in England and America participated, either by written communication or in person., This learned discussion, lasting for many months, will be found published in various numbers of the New York Medico-Legal Journal, extending from December, 1891, to June, 1892. Among those who participated in this discussion were Doctors Henry Maudsley, and William Orange, of England, and Doctors Carlos McDonald and James McBride of this county, all distinguished as alienists of ex perience in the treatment and management of the insane.
The last public discourse of Dr. Bryce's life was delivered in April, 1892, before the Alabama Medical association, at Montgomery-a scientific body that had been often instructed by his learning on former occasions. He was then in rapidly failing health, the fatal disease that finally con-
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· quered him making swift and visible inroads in his physical frame, thus warning him and his friends that this was probably the last occasion on which he would ever stand before them. It was announced that he had not been able, by reason of bad health, to prepare the paper assigned him on the subject of general paresis, known to belong to his specialty in medicine, and to constitute one of the most entertaining developments among the diseases attendant on the march of modern civilization. So anxious were those present to hear bim that he was prevailed on to speak extempore, which he did while seated in his chair. He discoursed in a conversational style with an exuberance of learning that impressed all who heard him, so that while they listened they seemed to fear nothing so much as that he would cease to speak. On this occasion Dr. Bryce was subjected to numerous categorical questions by his medical brethren, and is described as drawing a pen photograph of his subject so luminous with learning as to delight his auditory by an inspiration of knowledge. It is an interesting fact that he himself, in mentioning this discourse to a friend a short time before his death, described it as the most satisfactory effort of his life. Few men, in public or private life, possessed the fac- ulty of winning the confidence and affection of his friends as did Dr. Bryce. He was blessed with those charming manners which Lord Ches- terfield declared should always "adorn knowledge and smooth its way through the world." He had in a marked degree that true politeness that never exists unaccompanied by a kind heart, and which always evinces itself in an instinctive regard for the rights and feelings of others. Pure in character and conversation, genial in manner, and lovable in disposi- tion, he was a man upon whose brow nature herself had legibly written, Gentleman. His charity for the faults of others was as broad as the uni- verse of heaven, and this noble quality so entered into his nature as to make him ever kind, not alone to his equals, but to all around him, includ- ing the hospital patients under his supervision, and his employees. ' Dr. Bryce especially won the affection of his patients, and they always wel- comed with a smile his coming to the wards, and they seemed to feel better and happier that he had come.
The world is fortunate in having from his own pen a description of those qualities of head and heart which must needs be mingled in a man so as to make him fit to adorn the high office of hospital superintendent. having the care and treatment of those unfortunate victims of disease whose lives are clouded by the shadows of confinement in an insane asylum. In the preface to the rules and regulations of this institution, so excellently prepared by himself, he unwittingly mirrors the portrait of his own characteristics, which his splendid administration of over thirty years nobly illustrated. After observing with catholic christian charity that within the walls of an insane hospital "the hungry are to be fed, the naked to be clothed, strangers to be received and welcomed. and that those who are sick and in prison are to be visited," and that the
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"work has need of all the kindness and gentleness and unselfishness of which we are capable," he adds: "The health, comfort, and humane custody of this unfortunate class of sufferers must therefore receive the first and highest consideration. alike of the trustees, officers, and employees of the institution. . There can be no higher or nobler work than the care of these afflicted creatures, and no work which requires a more special fitness for its successful prosecution. In exactly what this fitness or pecul- iar adaptation consists, it would be difficult to define; but superadded to a large measure of general intelligence, professional skill, tact, industry, and general integrity, there are other traits of character which are abso- lutely indispensable to success. No one who is high tempered, irritable, resentful, or fault-finding-no one who has not perfect control of his temper, and who is not endowed by nature with a kind, sympathetic heart and loving disposition, can ever hope to attain the highest useful- ness in the treatment and care of the insane. Under the most favorable circumstances, the work will require the most constant self-denial and control; and no one should enter upon it who does not in a large degree possess these requisite qualifications." To this picture he subscribes, with appropriate embellishment, the golden rule of inspiration as the highest duty of the superintendent to his patients. "The simplest of all rules, " he concludes, "is also the best:" . "Do as you wish to be done by." . "Do to your associates, above and below you in authority, as you would wish them to do to you if your places were changed. Above all, do to every patient as you would yourself like to be done by if you were away from home and deprived of your freedom by loss of your reason." It is a difficult task to speak of our honored friend without the appear- ance of excessive eulogy. But who, we may venture to ask, in all the past history of our public men, has more faithfully than himself filled every measure of duty attached to his office, as thus described by his own pen? Who has more satisfactorily fulfilled the highest expectations of an exacting public, with its proverbial proneness to censorious criticism of men in high places? Dr. Bryce met the summons of death, when it called him from the sphere of earthly duty, without fear. For more than two months before his departure he knew that he must soon go. His mind was unclouded and his reason clear up to within a few hours before his spirit left its corporal tenement. On July 15th, about one month before his demise, he dictated a letter by the hands of his devoted wife, to a member of the board, a life-long friend, in which he spoke of his rapidly declining strength and of his approaching end. He then knew that Death, that "lays his icy hands on kings," was near and yet he had no fear to meet him, and to take an allotted chamber in his silent halls, as each of us must shortly do. He then wrote as follows upon that oldest of all subjects, which is yet ever fresh with novelty: "If. as I appre- hend," he said, "I am approaching the close of life rapidly, I have every
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reason to be thankful that its course is so smooth and pleasant. Death has never had any terrors for me, especially of late years. I feel that I have done my work. and hope, without self-praise, to be-permitted to say I have done it well." And so, we may add, will it be the verdict of gen- erations yet to come. Not only did Dr. Peter Bryce do his work well, but he did it in a manner to write his name high on the scroll of those who loved their fellow men. It is a matter of pride to the trustees of the hospital, as it was a fact always gratifying to Dr. Bryce, that the fame of his excellent management, scientific and administrative alike, has spread abroad, not only through the various states of the Union, but in England and the countries of the European continent, where are found some of the finest and the best regulated hospitals in the vast .universe of charitable edifices for the care of the insane. It was but a few years ago that this institution of our own was visited by an Australian physician, who, under the authority of the English government, crossed the seas to examine the insane asylums of North America of the highest repute for good management. When he had finished his examination of the Alabama Insane hospital, he declared with enthusiasm that he had found no similar institution in the world, which, in his judgment, was under more economical and excellent management.
Dr. Bryce died at his residence within the walls of the hospital on the 14th of August, 1892, being fifty-eight years of age.
A list of his principal writings here follows: Biennial Reports as superintendent of the hospital for thirty years. These would make two large volumes. Presidential Message to the Alabama State Medical asso- ciation, printed in the transactions for 1878, and in pamphlet, 55 pp., octavo; The Mind, and How to Preserve It, Transactions of the Alabama State a Medical association, 187-, and in phamphlet, 54, pp., octavo; Alcohol as Medicine and a Beverage, A Plea for Prohibition, Transactions of the Alabama State Medical association, 1884, pp. 12, octavo; Annual Address, A Short study of Some of the Phenomena of Mind, Transactions of the Alabama state Medical association, 1882, and pamphlet pp. 25, octavo; Clinical Jurisprudence, Medico-Legal Journal, 1888, pp. 8; Moral and Criminal Responsibility, Alienist and Neurologist, 1888, pp. 22. [This sketch of Dr. Bryce is condensed from the memoir prepared by Judge H. M. Somerville, and published in the Report of the Hospital for 1891-92.
JAMES HARRIS FITTS was born in Clarke county, Ala., October 12, 1830. In 1833 his mother removed to Marengo county, Ala., and from there. August, 1836, to Tuscaloosa county, where Mr. Fitts has since resided. He is a descendant of Harry Fitts, who settled in Warren county, N. C., prior to the American revolution, and who was most likely a descendant of Robert Fitts, who had plantations in Virginia as early as 1614. Oliver Fitts, the father of James Harris, was a native of Warren county, N. C., an extensive planter, a member of the North Carolina house of commons in 1797-8, and territorial judge of Mississippi under James Madison by
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appointment confirmed April 18, 1810. Mr. Fitts' mother was Rebecca Emily (Alston) Fitts, a daughter of Samuel Thomas and Elizabeth (Faulcon) Alston, both natives of North Carolina. The Alston family is of English cavalier stock, and have all been noted for their gentility and the royal style in which they lived. James Harris Fitts is the ninth of a family of ten children, five brothers and five sisters, of whom he and three sisters are now the only surviving members. Mr. Fitts received his preparatory education in Tuscaloosa, and in 1849 graduated from the Alabama State university, with the degree of A. B. In 1850-51 he taught school in Foster's settlement, Tuscaloosa county, and in the city of Tuscaloosa in 1852, in which year he received the degree of A. M. from the university. At the spring term of the circuit court of Tuscaloosa county, in 1853, Mr. Fitts was licensed to practice law, being the first person admitted to the bar in that county under the act requiring the applicant to be examined in open court. After admission to the bar, Mr. Fitts began practice in Tuscaloosa, and was elected city attorney in 1854. The first codification of the laws of the city was made by him that year, and the people's interests were guarded, in his official discharge of duty, with the jealous care which has characterized his services in every public capacity. Mr. Fitts practiced law until 1861, and after the war in the years 1865 and 1866, during which time he was associated with the follow- ing well known lawyers: Col. Lucien Van Buren Martin, under the firm style of Martin & Fitts; Hon. N. L. Whitfield, under the firm style of Whitfield & Fitts; and P. A. Fitts, now a minister of the Episcopal church at Anniston, Ala., under the firm style of J. H. & P. A. Fitts. The firm of Whitfield & Pitts were bank attorneys under the Hon. John Whiting, bank commissioner, and as such assisted in winding up the affairs of the bank of the state of Alabama. In this service Mr. Fitts acquired a knowledge of state banks, since augmented by extended research on the subject, which makes him one of the best living authori- ties on the subject. In connection with his practice in 1859 and 1860, Mr. Fitts bought and sold exchange as the agent of Walsh, Smith & Co., of Mobile, transacting a very large business for them. As a lawyer, Mr. Fitts was very successful. Possessed of a vigorous, well trained mind, coupled with splendid physical strength and intense energy, his cases were always well prepared, and his arguments logical and lucid. Though he rarely attempted the ornate. when wrought up by his subject he grew eloquent in the intensity of feeling displayed. In the celebrated case of the State vs. Bryant & Dobbins for murder, Mr. Fitts was the leading counsel. The case had as wide spread notoriety, growing out of the fact that the murderers, men of previous high standing, burned the extensive iron foundry of Leach & Avery to conceal the body of their victim, who was a watchman at the foundry. Throwing the whole energy of his nature into the case, Mr. Fitts, thread by thread, suceeded in weaving the web of circumstantial evidence which caused Dr. Bryant's conviction,
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with the sentence of life imprisonment. In 1863 and 1864 Mr. Fitts was - Confederate States depository at Tuscaloosa, Ala., elected by the con- gress of the Confederacy. On April 3, 1865, while attending a wedding, he was captured by the Federal soldiers. who sacked his office, which contained $100,000 in .Confederate money and $2.000,000 in vouchers. While practicing law in 1865 he established the banking house of J. H. Fitts & Co., which was the first bank organized in Tuscaloosa after the failure of the state bank in 1837. The bank is still owned by him and his children, and with two national and another private bank doing business in the city, is doing its full ratio. From 1870 to 1890, when he retired from active business, Mr. Fitts, though giving his chief attention to his banking interests, was connected with and assisted in organizing a number of enterprises which have done much for the city and county. Prominent among these were the plow factory and foundry of Leach. Avery & Co., the tan yard and shoe factory of Fitts. Maxwell & Jasper; the Tuscaloosa cotton mills, and the Tuscaloosa street car line from the depot to Lake Forraine. The Tuscaloosa cotton mills was a company organized under the laws of the state with a capital of 840,000, the presidency of which Mr. Fitts accepted in 1880, when the assets were but $33,000. For eight and one-half years, as president, he devoted much time to this enterprise, during which time the company paid to its stockholders $41,000 and expended 822,000 in improvements. From 1865 to 1868 Mr. Fitts was, by appointment of the governor, a trustee of the university of Alabama. The close of the war left the university encumbered with a debt of $30,000, her librairies, cabinets and dormitories in ashes; and such was the condition of the finances of the state, that the interest on the endow- ment fund could not be collected in current funds. This was the state of affairs when the board of trustees elected Mr. Fitts its secretary, and also fiscal agent of the university and a member of the building committee. In the "History of Education in Alabama, " published by the United States bureau of education in 1889, Mr. Fitts' services to the university are thus ackrowledged: "When the contract was let for this new building (Alva Woods Hall) in the latter part of 1866, there was not a dollar either in the treasury of the state or in that of the university. For the successful completion of this first structure on the campus after the war, the university and the people of the state owe a lasting debt of gratitude to two eminent citizens, one of whom has gone to his reward: and the other still lives to honor the alma mater that nourished him. These are Robert M Patton, who was. then governor, and James H. Fitts. Esq., a banker of Tuscaloosa, who was at that time a member of the board of trustees, chairman of the building committee, and fiscal agent of the university. The governor pledged his personal credit and the credit of the state that no contractor or other creditor of the university should lose by any - default of the state to make due payment of any just claim against the university. Mr. Fitts, during the eighteen months in which the work was
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going on to completion, used all the resources of his bank to maintain at par, in Tuscaloosa, the state certificates of indebtedness, there known as 'Patton certificates,' by which the work of rebuilding was carried on." When the reconstructionists asssumed control of the state the govern- ment of the university was transferred from the board of trustees to a board of regents. Before transferring their trust the board passed aresolu- tion thanking Mr. Fitts "for the gratuitous services, which he has, with com- mendable public spirit, and with a praiseworthy devotion to the alma mater of which he is an honored son, rendered in the rebuilding of the institu- tion." Under the reconstruction régime Mr. Fitts declined to act as treas- urer of the university. although he was urged to do so, and offered a large salary. He gave as his reason for declining, that he did not wish to be in a position to witness the profligate waste of funds, when he was
powerless to prevent it. Upon the reorganization of the university in . 1873, he accepted the treasurership, which position he still holds. The Montgomery Advertiser, in its issue of December 8, 1885, speaking of his connection with the university says: "During the seventeen years he has served the university he has been faithful and painstaking and skillful, and has given his time, money and credit freely. Indeed, it would not be overstating the case to say the university owes more to him for its rebuilding, reorganization and financial prosperity than to any man living." At the first meeting of the alumni after the close of the war, the resident alumni of Tuscaloosa county gave a banquet, over which Mr. Fitts presided as master of ceremonies and delivered the address of welcome. In 1886 he delivered the alumni oration, in which he eloquently urged the enlargement of the educational fund for the education of needy young men by means of loans for six years at the rate of six per cent. interest. Mr. Fitts has for many years been a devoted and active member of the Episcopal church, in which he has been a constant officer; has attended many conventions, state and national, as a delegate, and has always given freely of his plenty to the work of the church.
JAMES FLEMING WADDELL, deceased, came to Alabama in 1857. Born at Hillsboro. N. C., in 1826, he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Twelfth United States infantry in 1846, and served in Mexico with that regiment. In 1849 he was appointed consul to Matamoras and was wounded by Caravajal's troops in their attack upon the town in 1851, while attempting to save the property of Americans. He served a year as captain of a company in the Sixth Alabama infantry, then organized a light battery. He served his guns at Baker's creek and at the siege of Vicksburg, where he was captured. Promoted to major, he commanded an artillery battalion consisting of Barrett's, Bellamy's and Emery's bat- teries, and did faithful service in the Dalton-Atlanta campaign, and his guns roared on the banks of the Chattahoochee when Girard was assaulted. In 1865 he was appointed judge of the probate court of Russell, was elected in 1866, and served till 1-68. Major Waddell had very consider- able ability as a speaker, was a fearless officer, and a popular man.
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