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JOHN GASTON AIKIN

BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY

(1803-1865)

TUSCALOOSA and BALDWIN COUNTY, ALABAMA

John Gaston Aikin, lawyer, was born November 29, 1803, in South Carolina, and died November 29, 1865, at Stockton, Baldwin County; son of Robert Aikin and Esther (Gaston) Aikin, who lived in South Carolina and later at Tuscaloosa, the former of Scotch and Puritan stock, and a manufacturer of cotton gins.

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His wife, Esther, was a descendant of Huguenot ancestry. He received his preparatory education in Tuscaloosa; and graduated at Yale college. He received his legal training at the latter institution also, and entered upon the practice at the age of twenty-one. In 1832 he was residing in Tuscaloosa; afterwards practiced law in Mobile some years; and later located at Stockton where he spent the remainder of his life. He had large land holdings, and many slaves. He saw service in the Mexican War. He was a man of fine physique, six feet four inches in height and weighed two hundred forty pounds. He was a Democrat; a Methodist; and a Mason. In 1833 he compiled the second "Digest of the Laws of Alabama," and in 1836 it was reprinted with a supplement.

In 1865 his home was burned by the federal soldiers. John Gaston Aikin was married: in Mobile to Clarissa Amanda Kennedy, daughter of Joshua Kennedy, Sr. and Susan (Kitchen) Kennedy, Sr., of that city, one of the largest land owners of Mobile and Baldwin Counties, granddaughter of William Mansfield Kennedy, a native of Scotland, and of royal connections, banished to America because of political conditions, and of Samuel Kitchen and Mary (Smith) Kitchen, the father of German descent, and the mother of Welsh stock. The father of the latter was John Smith, an officer in the Revolutionary War.

Their children were 1. Alma Aikin, who resided at Stockton; 2. Leila Aikin, deceased by 1921; 3. Norma Aikin, resided at Stockton; 4. Clara Aikin, d. in infancy; 5. Adelaide Augusta, Aikin deceased by 1921.; 6. William Gaston Aikin, a physician, graduate of the medical department. University of Alabama, m. Katie May Brooks, of Century, Fla.; 7. John Gaston Aikin, graduated as captain. New York nautical school, 1882, licensed chief mate, ocean steamer, 1890, chief mate and captain sea vessels 15 years, inventor of various mechanical and nautical machines and instruments, m. Irma Belt, of Baldwin County, and had four children: John Gaston Aikin, William Kennedy Aikin, Clara Alma Aikin, and Evelyn Esther Aikin by 1921.

John Gaston Aikin's last residence was Stockton, Alabama.