Vintage

JAMES AIKEN

BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY

(1882-aft. 1921)

Randolph, Marshall and Etowah County, Alabama.

James Aiken, lawyer and judge, colonel 13th Alabama infantry, C. S. Army, was born August 8, 1882, in Fairfield District, S. C., and died at Gadsden, June 22, 1908; son of William Aiken and Elizabeth (Stitt) Aiken, both of Scotch-Irish descent, the former was born about 1800, came with his parents from County Antrim, Ireland, to South Carolina, locating in Fairfield District. The Stitt family came from Ireland also, and were farmers in South Carolina.

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James Aiken was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools of Fairfleld District, and at the South Carolina military academy, Charleston, where he graduated in 1851. After graduation he taught for one year in his alma mater, and in 1854 removed to Randolph County, where he taught school until 1856. In the meantime he read law and was admitted to the bar; practiced in Randolph and adjacent counties; and removed to Gadsden in 1869 where he practiced his profession until his death.

He was a member of the legislature of 1861; of the constitutional convention of 1875; appointed judge of the ninth judicial circuit in 1885 by Gov. E. A. O'Neal; and appointed special judge of the circuit court of Marshall County, October 7, 1902.

He entered the War of Secession as captain of Co. D, 13th Alabama infantry regiment, in 1861; promoted major, 1862; lieutenant colonel in January, 1863; and colonel in 1864, serving as such until he was captured and taken as a prisoner to Johnson's Island. Lake Erie, where he remained until the end of the war.

He was a Democrat and a Presbyterian. James married: January 25, 1877, at Weavers, to Mrs. Lou N. (Weaver) McClelland, daughter of Linsey Weavers and Lacinda (Pace) Weaver, of Weavers, Calhoun County, the latter a granddaughter of Rev. Richard Pace, a Baptist minister of North Carolina. Children: 1. Lucy Alice Aiken, m. R. C. Comer, of Enterprise; 2. James Aiken, Jr., d. young; 3. Robert Stitt Aiken resided in Gadsden in 1921; 4. Annie Elizabeth Aiken resided in Gadsden in 1921. His last residence was Gadsden,. Alabama.