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 60
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
1096
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
.
COL. ANDREW COLEMAN HARGROVE, a native of Tuscaloosa county, Ala., was born December 18, 1837, and is a son of John and Martha (Hinton) Hargrove, the former a native of Georgia, and the latter of North Carolina. and both of English descent. Rev. Dudley Hargrove, the father of John Hargrove, was the son of a wealthy planter, and was an early settler of Alabama, residing first in Pickens county and then in Tuscaloosa county. At the age of twelve years, Andrew C. Hargrove entered the academy of Jacob Baker, in Jefferson county, where he pur- sued his preparatory studies until October, 1852, when he entered the university of Alabama, from which he graduated in 1856, in the fall of which year he taught school in Tuscaloosa for three months. The fol- lowing year he read law under Judge E. W. Peck, and in January, 1858. entered the Cumberland Law school, at Lebanon, Tenn., where he studied one session, and then entered the Harvard Law school, at Cam- bridge, Mass., from which he graduated in 1859, with the degree of LL. D. In the latter part of 1860 he began the practice of the law in Tuscaloosa, but what promised to be a bright and prosperous legal career was checked by the outbreak of hostilities between the states. Espousing the cause of his native section, he at once enlisted, in 1861, in the Warrior guards, under Capt. (afterward Gen.) R. E. Rodes, and for twelve months served as a private with the army of Virginia, when he was commissioned a lieutenant in Lumsden's battery of light artillery from Tuscaloosa, and served in the western division of the Confederate army, with this rank, until the close of the war. He took part, while in the army; in the battles of Farmington, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chick- amauga, Resaca, Peach Tree Creek, Franklin, Nashville, and many minor engagements with Gen. J. E. Johnston in his Georgia campaign, and, indeed, was with the western army all through its career under the leadership of Gens. Bragg, Johnston, Hardee, and Hood in Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama. In front of Atlanta, in 1864, he was seriously wounded by being struck on the forehead by a fragment of a tree which had been shattered by a shell, and at Spanish fort, in April, 1865, a minie ball pierced his head and rested at a point beyond the reach of the probe, and he still carries this missile in his cranium, but without any considerable pain.
-
December 5, 1865, Lieut. Hargrove was united in marriage with Miss Cherokee M. Jemison, the daughter and only child of the Hon. Robert Jemison, Jr., distinguished in Alabama history as a legislator and as a member of the Confederate States senate. Mr. Hargrove resumed the practice of law in Tuscaloosa in the spring of 1866, as a partner of the ·law firm of Hargrove & Fitts, the members of which were himself and Philip A. Fitts, now the Rev. Philip A. Fitts, of Anniston, Ala. In 1871 Mr. Hargrove became associated with the Hon. B. B. Lewis in the practice of law, under the firm name of Hargrove & Lewis, a partnership continued until the election of Col. Lewis as president of the university
1097
PERSONAL MEMOIRS-MISCELLANEOUS.
of Alabama, in 1881. Mr. Hargrove was elected and served as a member of the constitutional convention of Alabama in August. 1875. He was elected to the state senate from the district composed of Tuscaloosa and Bibb counties in 1576, and again in 1580 His period of service as sena- tor lasted for eight years. While in the senate he was chairman of the judicary committee and chairman of the committee on finance, while he was a member of the judiciary committee and chairman of the commit- tee on corporations. In 1834 he was a member of the house of represent- atives of Alabama. In July. 1884, Col. Hargrove was appointed by Governor O'Neal, together with Dr. E. A. Smith and Hon. I. Burns Moore, to select the 46,080 acres of the public lands granted by the act of congress of April 24, 1884, for the benefit of the university of Ala- bama. He is also land commissioner of the univerity of Alabama. In 1888 Col. Hargrove was again elected to the state senate from the eleventh district, and in November was elected president of that august body; in November, 1890, he was again elected to the same high office, and both times unanimously, the first instance of the kind in the history of the Alabama legislature. In 1888, also, he was elected pro- fessor of law in the university of Alabama, and still holds that exalted position. In December, 1890, he was appointed, by Gov. Jones, trustee of the State university, and in July, 1892, was elected president of the Alabama State Bar association. Col. Hargrove is now doing a law busi- ness under the firm name of Hargrove & Van de Graaf, which firm stands among the leaders of the Alabama bar. Col. Hargrove is a cultured, genial and an accomplished gentleman, and of distinguished and commanding mien. He is the father of two children, Miss Minnie Chero- kee, an accomplished young lady, and Robert Jemison, a graduate of the University high school.
HENRY BACON FOSTER was born in Tuscaloosa county, Ala., May 9, 1863, and was educated at the university of Alabama, graduating from the academic department in 1882, and from the law department in 1884, receiv- ing from the former the degree of A. M., and from the latter that of LL. B. In 1884 he was admitted to the bar. and since that time has been in active practice in the city of Tuscaloosa. He is associated with Hon. John Martin, ex-congressman, and Capt. A. B. McEachin, under the firm- name of McEachin, Martin & Foster. Mr. Foster conducts the loca business of this firm at Tuscaloosa, while Martin & McEachin have their office in Birmingham. Mr. Foster has filled the office of solicitor for Tuscaloosa county, and in 1890 was elected mayor of the city, and re-elec- . ted in December, 1892. He is a stanch democrat and has been delegate to several congressional conventions and also to several state conventions. in which he displayed marked ability. He is a captain of the renowned Warrior Guards-a company which did valiant service in the late Civil war. The father of H. B. Foster was Joshua H. Foster, a native of Tuscaloosa county, who for many years was professor of physics and
1098
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
astronomy in the State university, and who married Miss Frances Cor- nelia Bacon, a native of Georgia. To the union of Joshua H. and Fran- ces C. Foster were born eight children, Henry B. being the sixth in the order of birth. Seven of these children still survive.
JOHN W. CRENSHAW, now deceased, was a native of South Carolina and was born in 1818. His father, Joseph Crenshaw, was born in Virginia, and after residing in South Carolina for some years. brought his family to Alabama about the year 1820, and resided in Perry county the remain- der of his days. Two children survived him-John W. and Mrs. Carlos Reese. John W. Crenshaw was twice married. To his first marriage there were no children born, but his second wife bore him six. This lady was a native of Connecticut, was an intelligent and accomplished lady, . and for fifty years led a happy life with her husband, when he departed this life, she following him to the grave a little less than a year later. The eldest of the six children born to this couple was Fanny. who was married to Dr. J. O. Fox, of Mississippi, but is now deceased; the second in order of birth was John L .. and then were born Clarence and a twin sister, the latter of whom married Edward K. Carlisle. Jr., of Selma, and a member of one of the wealthiest families of Alabama. The remaining two children are named Joseph T., of Mississippi, and William T., of Atlanta, Ga. At the close of the late war, John W. Crenshaw was the owner of at least 400 slaves and over 2,500 acres of the richest land in the "black belt." Of course he lost all his slave property, and after the war entered into mercantile business, and later into the railroad business. He was clear headed and just in all his transactions; he attended strictly to his own business; never interfered with that of others, and died worth about 8400,000. His son, Clarence, lives in Marion, Ala., and is married to the handsome and accomplished daughter of Dr. M. G. Pritchett. of Marengo county. This union has been made the more happy by the birth of nine children. Clarence Crenshaw is renowned for his hospitality and genial disposition, and all callers at his residence are assured of a hearty welcome. In politics he is a stanch democrat.
WILLIAM STOKES WYMAN. LL. D., professor of Latin in the university of Alabama, was born in Montgomery, Ala., November 23, 1830. Dr. Wyman comes of a long line of Puritan ancestors-men of sterling busi- ness qualities in general. The great ancestor in the United States, Francis Wyman. came to Massachusetts in 1643. The celebrated Dr. Jeffries Wyman, for a time professor in Harvard, was a member of the same family, though of a different branch. Dr. Wyman's father, Justus Wyman, was a native of Massachusetts, whence he removed to Claiborne, Ala., in 1818, and in 1822 from there to Montgomery, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was engaged in mercantile pur- suits, and became a moving spirit in the business affairs of the then young town. He was actively identified with the leading enterprises of that time, and was one of the chief projectors of the Montgomery & West
1099
PERSONAL MEMOIRS -- MISCELLANEOUS.
Point (now known as the Western) railroad. He married Miss Mary Stokes, a native of Georgia and a descendant of the famous Stokes fam- ily of North Carolina. Dr. Wyman is the second of a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters, born to them. Dr. Wyman spent his boyhood days in Montgomery and there received his preparatory education in the old Montgomery academy. At the age of sixteen years he entered the freshman class of Harvard, where he spent one year. Finding the expense here greater than was consistent with his ideas of economy, he prevailed upon his father to allow him to enter the univer- sity of his native state, the sophomore class of which he entered in 1848. From this institution he graduated in 1851, at the head of his class and its valedictorian. By virtue of his standing he was also named orator of the class in French. Dr. Wyman had been educated with the view in end, from boyhood, of adopting the legal profession and becoming the associate in practice of his uncle, James E. Belcer, of Montgomery, an eminent lawyer of that period. Accordingly. immediately after gradua- tion he began reading law with his uncle, with whom he remained one year. During this time he was elected tutor of Latin and Greek at the university of Alabama, for one year, which position he accepted, an occurrence, as subsequent events show, which changed the nature of his life's service. Entering upon his duties at the beginning of the collegi- ate year, 1852-3, he continued his law studies under the guidance of Judge E. W. Peck, of Tuscaloosa, a distinguished lawyer and ex-justice of the state supreme court. His services as tutor, characterized by the whole-souled energy and enthusiasm which has marked his life's labor, were so eminently satisfactory that at the end of the year he was impor- tuned by the entire board of trustees and the faculty to continue his services for another year at an increased salary. This mark of appreci- ation and the congeniality of the work induced him to accept. During the year the health of Prof. Saint M. Safford, of the chair of Latin and Greek, suddenly failed and Dr. Wyman was elected his successor. When, in 1859, Latin and Greek were made separate chairs, Dr. Wyman was elected professor of Latin and continued on the chair until the university ceased work, on account of the buildings having been burned in 1865. When, in 1867, it was decided to reconstruct the buildings, the finances of the university of the state were in a deplorable condition. Prompted by a zeal born of deep interest in the institution to which he has devoted the energy of his life, Dr. Wyman. associated with Mr. George M. Figh, took the contract for the erection of the buildings. and not only devoted his energy, but appropriated a considerable amount of his private funds to the consummation of the work. Upon the re-organization of the insti- tution in 1868, Dr. Wyman was elected president. Upon Alabama's admission to the Union, under the new constitution the same year, the university passed into the control of a board of reconstruction regents. who proceeded to nullify all previous acts of the board of trustees. though
1100
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
they unanimously re-elected Dr. Wyman president an honor which he promptly declined. Out of the turbulent state of practical affairs exist- ent in Tuscaloosa county, as well as the whole state, during the recon- struction era, grew in urgent need for a man of ability and sterling parts to represent the people in the state legislature. In Dr. Wyman was recognized these qualities. Though never a political aspirant. Dr. Wyman consented in this hour of need to serve state, and, being elected in 1870, remained in the legislature for a term of two years. His devotion to educational interests is manifested in the bill introduced by him. provid- ing for the sale of scrip, under safe conditions, and the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical college, intended by him to become an adjunct to the State university, though in this he did not realize the consummation of his plans, owing to reasons understood by those familiar with the sub- sequent establishment of the school at Auburn. In July, 1871, Dr. Wyman was again elected professor of Latin in the university. Commodore M. F. Maury was at the same time elected president, but having resigned before the opening of the school, Dr. Wyman was elected his successor, but again declined to accept. Upon the resignation of Dr. Lupton, 1874, Dr. Wyman was once more tendered the presidency, but, as before, declined the honor. In February, of 1879, Gen. Gorgas' health suddenly failing, Dr. Wyman was elected by the faculty president pro tem. for the remainder of the term. As it was evident that Gen. Gorgas' health would not permit his resumption of duties. Dr. Wyman was again elected by the board, but could not be induced to accent. The board then elected Hon. Burwell B. Lewis, at the time a member of congress. He accepted. but was unwilling to retire from congress before the expiration of his term, and Dr. Wyman consented to serve as president pro tem. until the president elect should return from Washington. As has been the case in every capacity in which he has acted, Dr. Wyman's term of service was marked by ability, fidelity and devotion. The work commanded the whole strength and energy of his strong intellect, rendered broad and versatile by extended research. Shortly after the opening of the fall session, 1885, President Lewis died and again the board honored Dr. Wyman by electing him president. But in the language of Hon. Willis G. Clark, in his excellent "History of Education in Alabama." "his modesty equaled his often recognized ability, and he courteously, · but firmly declined to accept the presidency." He consented, however, to act as president pro tem. until the end of the scholastic year. Since this time, Dr. Wyman has devoted himself to the chair of Latin and at the same time kept up an extended research in various fields of learning. He is by nature as gentle and modest as a woman: in fact, his extreme modesty has doubtless kept him from the wider field of work for which he is so eminently fitted. His friends are many. and thus friendship amounts to almost adoration.
-
.
5219
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.