USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. III > Part 98
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Walker, James Stone, a well known physician of Greenville, is a descendant of an old Virginia family, his ancestors being among the pioneers of Albemarle county. His grandfather, William Walker, settled in Kentucky at an early date. William Jason Walker, the
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father of Dr. Walker, was born in Madison county, Ky., grew to man- hood there and married Sarah Ann Stone, also a native of the county. James S. Walker was born at Richmond, Madison county, Ky., April 12, 1842. He was educated at B. B. Sayers' high school at Frankfort, Ky .; Centre college at Danville, Ky .; and in 1865 gradu- ated at the Jefferson medical college at Philadelphia. After prac- ticing for two years in his native town he located at Greenville, Miss., where he was engaged in active professional work for twenty-three years. During that period he was several times appointed chief health officer of Washington county. In 1890 he engaged in the banking business, which he followed until 1904. Since then he has been practically retired from the active duties of any particular business, though he still looks after his investments. In political matters he is a Democrat and was for ten years treasurer of the city of Greenville. In fraternal circles he is a prominent figure, being a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, the Mississippi Club, and while practic- ing medicine belonged to the State medical association and the Washington county medical society. He has been twice married. On March 29, 1870, he married Frances E., daughter of William H. Dye, a native of Virginia. She died on Jan. 18, 1871, and on May 16, 1878, he was united in marriage to Miss Belle Orvile, daughter of Dr. O. M. and Martha R. (Smith) Blanton. By his first wife he has one daughter, Frances Dye, born Jan. 4, 1871, and by his second wife two children, Sarah Stone and William Jason, the latter being deceased.
Wainwright, Melvin E., real estate agent and notary public, has his well appointed offices in the Century Building on East Capital street, Jackson, Miss., and at 88 North Main street, Memphis, Tenn. He has built up an excellent business in his line of enterprise, being one of the repre- sentative real estate dealers of the capital city. He was born in Tangipahoa county, La., on Dec. 30, 1873, being a son of Thomas D. and Sarah E. (Blue) Wain- wright, honored residents of that county, where his father is engaged in farming. The public schools afforded Mr. Wain- wright his early educational advantages, and as a youth he became identified with the lumber business in his native State, continuing in this line of enterprise until 1901, when he associated himself with T. M. Ferguson and engaged in the real estate business at Hattiesburg, Perry county, Miss., where he re- mained until 1903. He then came to Jackson and established his present business, in which he is meeting with gratifying success, handling city and country properties on commission and having represented on his books at all times investments of desirable nature, while he also gives special attention to rentals and is incumbent of
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the office of notary public. His business has reached an annual aggregate of nearly $2,000,000 and in 1905 the exact figures amounted to $1,600,000. His forceful and vigorous policy is causing the enter- prise to expand consecutively in scope and importance. He ista progressive business man and takes much interest in local affairs, while to him is largely due the organization of the Jackson board of trade, and he has been specially active in promoting the invest- ment of outside capital in Jackson, particularly in the line of com- mercial and manufacturing industries. He is a land agent for the Illinois Central railroad and is a member of the Iowa Land Agents' association. In his political adherency he is a stanch Democrat and in his fraternal relations is identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World.
Waddell, Rev. DeBerniere, rector of the Church of the Mediator, in the city of Meridian, is one of the prominent and highly honored clergymen of the Prot- estant Episcopal church in the diocese of Mississippi, and in his home city he has the confidence and unqualified regard of "all sorts and conditions of men," for his labors in this parish have been unabating, self-abnegating and marked with the ut- most charity and helpfulness. Mr. Wad- dell was born in Pittsboro, Chatham county, N. C., Jan. 31, 1838, and is a son of Haynes and Mary (Fleming) Waddell, the former of whom was born in Bruns- wick county and the latter in Wilmington, New Hanover county, that State, where the respective families were founded in the colonial era. The subject of this sketch is a direct descendant of Gen. Hugh Waddell a colonial officer of distinction in North Carolina, who marched his brigade to Wilmington and in open daylight drove the agent of the opprobious stamp act out of the State and burned up his instruments, thus bidding prompt defiance to the British crown. Mr. Waddell is also a great-grandson of Gen. Francis Nash, of North Caro- lina, who was killed while leading his brigade at Germantown, during the Revolution, and a monument to his memory is erected on that famous battleground. As a young man Mr. Waddell secured excellent educational advantages, having been a student in Caldwell institute, at Hillsboro, N. C. When the war between the States was precipitated, he entered the service of the Confederacy, enlisting as second lieutenant in the Sixth Alabama, afterward going to the Fifteenth Alabama infan- try, as adjutant in which he rose to the rank of captain of Co. G., and with which he participated in the battles of Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Richmond, and many others, continuing with his regiment until the close of the war. He then located in Russell county, Ala., and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, in which he was engaged from 1865 until 1869, while in the meantime he had been carrying forward
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his divinity studies. The orders of the diaconate in the Protestant Episcopal church were conferred upon him in 1869, and he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Wilmer in 1873. After enter- ing upon his ministerial labors he built churches in Union Springs, Troy and Auburn, Ala., and in 1SS7 he became rector of Grace church, in Sheffield, and St. John's church, in Tuscumbia, that State, retain- ing this dual pastoral charge until 1901, when he was called to the rectorship of the Church of the Mediator, in Meridian, where he has since labored with all of zeal and earnestness, infusing vitality into the spiritual and temporal affairs of the parish and gaining the affec- tionate regard of his people. Politically, Mr. Waddell is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and at the time of this writing he is commander of Walthall Camp, United Confederate Veterans, while he has taken the chivalric degrees of Masonry and is grand commander of the grand commandery of Knights Templars in Mississippi. On Aug. 25, 1859, Mr. Waddell was united in mar- riage to Miss Mary Bellamy, daughter of William and Eveline B. Bellamy, of Russell county, Ala., and the following is a brief record concerning their children: Claudia, born Feb. 4, 1861, is the wife of Bob T. Roberts, of Clayton, Ala .; William Bellamy, born July 23, 1863, resides in Alabama; George Thurston, born Feb. 22, 1866, died in February, 1888, in Denver, Colo .; Eveline, born March 31, 1868, is the wife of William E. Proctor, of Sheffield, Ala .; Catherine Isabelle, born Aug. 23, 1870, is the wife of Robert A. Chapman, of Montgomery, Ala .; Mary Havnes, born Oct. 24, 1873, is the wife of George B. Neville, of Meridian, Miss .; Henry DeB., born Oct. 2, 1876, resides in Sheffield, Ala .; he married, Nov. 7, 1906, Miss Marie Young, of Anniston, Ala., and is the chief clerk in the Southern rail- way office at Greenwood, Miss .; and Ina Weems, born Nov. 12, 1879, is the wife of Fred S. Elbidge, of Meridian.
Wainwright, Thomas L., president of the Stonewall Cotton Mills at Stonewall, Clarke county, is thus placed at the head of the oldest and most extensive cotton manufacturing concern in the State of Mississippi, having been actively identi- fied with the enterprise for a period of thirty-three years and being known as one of the most progressive business men of the State. Mr. Wainwright was born in Greene county, Miss., Nov. 30, 1851, and is a son of William D. and Mary A. (Taylor) Wainwright. When he was but two years of age his parents removed to Washington county, Ala., where he was reared, securing his preliminary educational training in the common schools and entering a boarding school when twelve years of age, while later he was a student in a well conducted private academy at Beaver Meadow, Ala., where he remained two years, devoting his attention more particularly to the study of Latin, civil engineering
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and bookkeeping. In 1873, at the age of twenty-one years, Mr. Wainwright returned to his native State and took up his residence in Stonewall as accountant for the Stonewall Manufacturing Com- pany, serving in this capacity until March, 1875, when he became superintendent and secretary of the concern, which dual office he held consecutively until his election to the presidency of the company, in 1903, while he still has the general supervision of the great business of the company, to whose interests he devotes his entire time and attention. Heis thus at the head of the oldest operating cotton mills in the State, and under his able administrative direction the indus- try has shown a magnificent growth in scope and importance, while the plant is equipped with the most improved machinery and acces- sories, giving employment to a large corps of operatives. The Stone- wall Cotton Mills was incorporated in April, 1870, under the name of Stonewall Manufacturing Company for a period of thirty years with a capital .stock of $100,000. In 1882 the stock was increased to $169,000, in 1889 to $200,000, where it remained until 1895 when the capacity was increased and the stock increased to $400,000. In 1875 the operating spindles in the mills numbered about 3,000 and remained so until 1882 when it was increased to about 5,000 and in 1889 it was increased to 7,000, while at the present time the aggregate is 21,000. About 8,000 bales of cotton are utilized each year in these mills, and the products are sold chiefly in the northern markets while a direct export trade of an important sort is also con- trolled. About the plant 500 persons are employed and the mills constitute the nucleus of what is now a thriving and attractive vil- lage with churches, schools and other evidences of advanced civiliz- ation and with good houses for the operatives, who constitute a contented and prosperous industrial community. In 1906 the man- agement of the cotton mills erected a commodious bath house for its employes. There are two churches-Methodist and Baptist- which the company assisted very materially in erecting. Mr. Wain- wright is a member of the advisory board of Lamb's Cotton Industry of the United States and is also president of the Yazoo Yarn Mills. He is also a stockholder in two mills at Selma, Ala., and until two years ago was the general manager and sales agent of the latter two. Mr. Wainwright is a broad-minded and enterprising business man, and the upbuilding of the industry of which he is the head stands in patent evidence of his executive and initiative ability and his upright policy in the handling of business affairs. He is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist church. In November, 1875, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wainwright to Miss Rosa Harvey, who was born in Holmes county, Miss., whence she came with her parents to Clarke county. The five children of this union are: Cecil who married Miss Jessie Kirk and resides at Stonewall; Helen, now deceased, who was the wife of Chas. A. O'Ferrall; Ralph, who married Mrs. Cornelia Thompson, is secretary and treasurer of the Kosciusko Cotton Mills; Orville and Zoe.
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Waite, Otis J., vice-president of the First National bank of Jackson, of which he was one of the organizers and incorpor- ators, is one of the prominent and popular business men of Mississippi's capital city. He comes of stanch old Puritan stock on both the paternal and maternal sides, the respective families having been found- ed in New England in the early colonial epoch and his mother having been a descendant of John Alden, of Plymouth colony, whose name is familiar in history and story. Mr. Waite was born near the city of Boston, Mass., April 20, 1850. and is a son of Lucius E. and Lucy A. (Pierce) Waite, both of whom were likewise natives of the old Bay State, where they passed their entire lives, the father having been a merchant by vocation. Otis J. Waite was reared to maturity in his native State and after leaving the the public schools continued his studies in Middleboro academy, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1865. For two years he was employed in the counting rooms of a banking institution at Lowell, Mass., and then went to Iowa and located in Webster City, where he became cashier of the local bank, retaining that position until 1879, when he came to Mississippi and assumed the office of cashier of the People's bank, which was later merged into the First National bank. He continued cashier of this institution until 1885, when he removed to Jackson and assisted in the organization and incorporation of the First Na- tional bank, of which he was elected cashier, and to the upbuilding of which solid and popular institution he has contributed in large measure. He held the office of cashier until the annual meeting of the stockholders in 1905, when he was elected vice-president, of which office he is now incumbent, still giving the major portion of his time and attention to the supervision of the affairs of the bank. He is also president of the Jackson Building and Loan Association, which controls a large business and exercises beneficent functions and is treasurer of the Jackson Opera House Company. Mr. Waite is affili- ated with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as well as with that popular local military organization of the State troops, the Robert Smith Rifles, of which he was com- missioned lieutenant in 1886, by Governor Lowry, and he is now on the honorary roll of membership in that organization. In 1874 Mr. Waite was united in marriage to Miss Marion Rickerson, who died in 1899, and in 1901, he wedded Miss Elizabeth Meacham, of Kansas City, Mo. They have no children. Mr. and Mrs. Waite are communicants of the Episcopal church and are prominent in the social life of the capital city.
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Waldauer, Joseph, M. D. Vicksburg has a full quota of eminent and successful physicians and among the most promi- nent of this number is Dr. Joseph Wal- dauer. The doctor comes of good German stock. His parents, Abraham and Hen- rietta (Rothchild) Waldauer, were both natives of Rheinfels, Germany, who early sought their fortunes in the New World. Their marriage occurred in Philadelphia, Pa., and in 1861 they moved to St. Louis. It was here, on March 18, 1863, that the son Joseph was born. When peace had been declared in 1865 Abraham Waldauer removed with his family to New Orleans and there worked at his trade, that of shoemaker. Two years later he was stricken with yellow fever and succumbed to the dread dis- ease, leaving a widow, four sons and three daughters, all of whom are still living, the widow being a respected resident of Greenville, Miss. The early educational advantages of Dr. Waldauer were very limited. At the age of twelve it became necessary for him to leave the common school which he was attending and assist in the main- tenance of the family. When he was fourteen he entered the drug store of A. B. Finley & Co., of Greenville. In 1883, before he had reached his majority, he received from a Louisville, Ky., institution a certificate as a graduate in pharmacy, graduating with honors. He followed this line for several years, becoming interested in the practice of medicine. Ten years after becoming a pharmacist Dr. Waldauer was graduated at the Louisville medical college. He began at once the practice of his profession and has continued in it since. The first scene of his labors was at his old home in Green- ville, starting as an under-graduate and later becoming a regular practitioner. In 1895 he removed to Vicksburg where he is now ranked not only a leading physician, but a most useful citizen. In June of the same year he married Miss Nettie Simon, of Shreveport. La., and to this union have been born two sons-Abe D. and Henry Simon. The doctor is well known in fraternal circles, being a member of the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1903-1904 he was first vice-president of the Mississippi State medical association and has served as secretary of the Vicksburg medical association and treasurer of the .Warren county medical society. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1897 he was employed by the State at Edwards, Clinton and Nitta Yuma and the following year the United States marine hospital service engaged him as yellow fever expert, his headquarters in June being in McHenry and later in the northern portions of the State. Dr. Waldauer is also a member of I. O. O. B. literary association and of the Jewish Temple, of which he is one of the trustees. For some time he has been one of the lecturers on surgery in the Vicksburg Training School for Nurses, and on chemistry at the Mississippi charity hos-
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pital at Vicksburg. Perhaps nowhere is the doctor better known than among his colleagues, due in part to his treatises on medical subjects. His first paper was read in 1885 before the Mississippi medical association on "The Chemical Examination of Water." Another paper, "The Chemical Examination of Urine" was read before the Delta medical association, as was an essay, "My Obstetric Misfortunes." The State Medical Association Journal has published Dr. Waldauer's papers "Fracture of the Patella" and "Preparation of Tinctures from Fluid Extracts" and an address before the Warren county medical association. He is at present a member of the marine hospital service yellow fever institute and on the commit- tee of conveyance, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The doctor is also the author of a paper on "The Efficacy of Quarantine and Fumigation in the Prevention of the Spread of Yellow Fever, without Molesting the Mosquito," published in the "American Medicine" of Philadelphia in 1901. In 1905 the doctor was elected an honor- ary member of the Tri-State medical society which includes Louisi- ana, Texas and Arkansas. The doctor delivered an address before this society in 1905 on the epidemic of yellow fever and it was so much appreciated that the society ordered 10,000 copies of the address to be printed for free distribution. In May, 1905, he was appointed chief health officer of Warren county by the State board of health and he still holds that position.
Walmsley, James Elliott, who occupies the chair of History and Economics in Millsaps college, in the city of Jackson, is one of the well known and popular educators of the State and comes of a stanch old Southern stock. He was born in Hanover county, Va., on June 24, 1872. His father. Rev. Columbus Steele Walmsley was born in Mingo, Va., June 3, 1849, and is one of the prominent and distinguished members of the clergy of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, still being identified with the Virginia conference. His wife, whose maiden name was Hattie See Stalnaker, was born in Elkwater, Va, Sept. 30, 1850, being a daughter of Hamilton and Mary (Arbogast) Stalnaker. Professor Walmsley is, therefore, a Virginian of Virginians, having been born and reared in the Old Dominion and being a scion of old and patrician stock in that section, where was enacted so much of our national history. As the family names imply, he is connected with the superior class of the people of a commonwealth that has furnished to other sections of the Union so many noble men and women, worthy of her reputation as the home of what is best in our American civilization. To this goodly heritage enjoyed by Professor Walmsley may be added whatever of distinction is conferred by a line of honorable descent traceable beyond the seas. Walmsley or Walmesley, is an old family name
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in Sussex, England, claiming antecedents back to the time of William the Conqueror. One of the family, Gilbert Walmsley, was evidently a man of position and culture, as is shown by the fact that he was one of the first patrons of Dr. Samuel Johnson. One of this family came to America and settled in Virginia early in the eighteenth century. The Hamilton family is also one of distinction in American annals, one of its most prominent representatives having been that great statesman. Alexander Hamilton. As a youth Professor Walm- sley thus had for culture the advantages of both heredity and envi- ronment, his father having resided for many years at Ashland, the seat of Randolph-Macon college and one of the prominent educa- tional centers of the Methodist Episcopal church. After a course of preliminary training received at home Professor Walmsley was matriculated in Randolph-Macon college, from which he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1894, receiving the degrees of both Bachelor and Master of Arts from this well conducted institution. His record as a student was exceptionally good. All honors seemed to centralize about him, the Shakespeare prize, the Greek prize and the scholarship medal having been successively won by him. After a year's service as assistant professor in his alma mater and two years passed in charge of a training school, Professor Walmsley accepted a chair in the Kentucky Wesleyan college, at Winchester, Ky., re- taining this incumbency for six years, until 1903, when he was called to fill temporarily the chair of history and modern languages in Millsaps college, its stated occupant, Prof. Bert E. Young, being absent for study in Grenoble, France. In 1904 he was chosen to his present office, as professor of History and Economics in Millsaps college. In the meanwhile, with characteristic energy and enthusi- asm, he was pursuing post-graduate studies in turn at Cornell, the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago. Professor Walmsley is a Democrat, liberal in his views but strictly Jeffersonian, while his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, under whose close and gracious influence he was reared. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and also with the Kappa Alpha college fraternity. With only such leisure as the busy teach- er's life affords, he has devoted himsef rather to acquisition than production, but his ability has been publicly recognized, in his elec- tion to membership in the American historical association, the Mis- sissippi historical society, the Methodist historical society and the National geographic society. He is the author of several valuable contributions to the reports of the Mississippi historical society and has made a number of contributions to leading magazines, his work in these lines standing to his credit as a scholar and writer. He has also rendered effective service as one of the editors of "Missis- sippi" a part of which this review forms. This work will no doubt give to his general knowledge of history a local coloring that will fit him eminently for success in arousing the enthusiasm and stimu- lating the zeal of Mississippi students in his department of college work. On Nov. 25, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Professor Walmsley to Miss Margaret Burks Kasey, of Bedford City, Virginia,
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and she has been an enthusiastic assistant in all his college work. She is a daughter of John Singleton Kasey and Fannie (Claiborne) Kasey, and is a granddaughter of Judge Edward C. Burks, who was for some time chief justice of the supreme court of Virginia. James Otey and Henry Buford, remoter ancestors of Mrs. Walmsley, were officers in the Continental army during the War of the Revolution. Professor and Mrs. Walmsley have one daughter, Margaret, who was born Dec. 9, 1897.
Walker, Jacob Columbus, the able and popular clerk and attorney of the town of Shaw, Bolivar county, was born in Franklin county," Tenn., May 3, 1880, and is a son of Newton R. and Annie (Leather- man) Walker. Newton R. Walker was born in Calhoun county, Ala., in 1859, being a son of Joseph Walker, who was likewise native of the same State and who served in Hood's brigade during the war between the States. The mother of the subject of this sketch was born in Ohio, Oct. 27, 1864, a daughter of Jacob J. and Christina Leatherman, the former of whom was born in Switzerland and the latter in Germany. In 1891 Newton R. Walker removed with his family to Ellis county, Tex., forty miles south of Dallas, where he remained for a number of years. He now resides in Indian Terri- tory, his wife having passed away Sept. 5, 1906. They became the parents of five children, all of whom survive the mother. The sub- ject of this sketch attended the common schools of Ellis county, Tex., where he was reared to maturity. In May, 1898, he joined the Joe Bailey Rifles, which became Company G, Second Texas Volunteer infantry, at the time of the outbreak of the Spanish- American war. He was with his regiment at Austin, Tex., and later at Mobile, Ala., being mustered out Sept. 10, 1898. He then re- turned to Ellis county, Tex. and afterward completed a course in stenography in a commercial college at Dallas, that State. In 1901 Mr. Walker came to Rosedale, Bolivar county, Miss., and for the following year he held the position of stenographer in the office of Charles Scott, of the firm of Charles Scott, Woods & Scott; for the ensuing year he was deputy clerk of that county. He then entered the law office of Moore & Clark, of Rosedale, where he remained until May, 1904. when he took up his residence in Shaw. For several years he had given close attention to the study of law and in March, 1904, he was admitted to the bar of Mississippi. Upon locating in Shaw he established himself in the general practice of his profession, and in June of the same year he was appointed clerk and attorney of the town, of which dual office he has since continued the efficient incumbent. Within his tenure of these positions he has succeeded in securing the action of the town council providing for the bonding of the town in the sum of $27,000 for water and light improvements. He is a stanch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, is a liberal and progressive citizen and successful lawyer, and is affili- ated with Rosedale lodge, Knights of Pythias. On July 23, 1902, Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Yerger, daugh- ter of William A. Yerger, of Rosedale, and they have two daughters, Malvina and Christine.
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