Vintage

AUGUSTIN C HOWZE

BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY

(1846-aft. 1921)

Perry and Jefferson County, Alabama

Augustin C. Howze was attorney at law in Birmingham, Alabama.. He was born in Athens, Georgia, Aug. 17, 1846, the son of John Howze and Claudia (Clayton) Howze. His father was a native of Franklin county, N. C, and his mother of Athens, Ga., she being the daughter of Hon. Augustin S. Clayton, who attained distinction as judge and congressman from that State. Some of the Clayton family were in the War of 1812 and also in the Revolutionary war.

BOOKS AVAILABLE

His father, John Howze, came toAlabama about 1831 and settled in Perry county. He was a merchant and planter. For a time he was a cotton merchant in Mobile and was a Confederate captain of Alabama State troops in the Civil war. He was a prominent man in Perry county and wielded great influence, although he never sought political office. He died April 26, 1902, in his eighty-first year and his widow died Oct. 3, 1902.

Augustin C. was the eldest of eight children and was reared in Marion, receiving his early education in the district schools and at Howard college. The war coming on, he enlisted in September, 1863, in Selden's (afterward Lovelace's) battery and served until the close of the war. He surrendered and was paroled at Meridian, Miss., May 11, 1865. He was in all the battles under Johnston and Hood. Returning home, he remained to assist his father in his business for a short time and then entered the University of Georgia at Athens, graduating in the class of 1869. In this class were graduated some who are now the most prominent men of Georgia.

He studied law at Marion in the office of Gov. A. B. Moore, was admitted to the bar in 1869 and began the practice in that place. In 1871 he was appointed judge of probate and held office four and one-half years. He then practiced law there until the fall of 1886, when he removed to Birmingham, where he resided and practiced his profession. He was a delegate to the Constitutional convention of 1901 from the ninth congressional district and served in that convention as chairman of the committee on exemptions. He was also a member of the committee on suffrage and elections.In 1902 he was appointed by President Roosevelt as a member of the board of visitors to the United States Military academy at West Point.

Judge Howze represented a number of corporations and banks as their attorney. His law firm was styled White & Howze, being composed of himself, his son, Henry R. Howze, and Capt. John White.

Judge Howze was first married in 1870 to Miss Vallie Long, of Athens, Georgia, a daughter of Dr. H. R. J. Long and a niece of Dr. Crawford W. Long, the discoverer of anaesthesia. By this union were six children, five of whom were living in 1921; Henry R.Howze practiced law in Birmingham; Susie Howze, wife of Preston H. Haskell, a grandson of Gen. Wade Hampton, resided in Tennessee; John Howze, was living in Los Angeles, California in 1921; Marion W. Howze, graduated in June, 1903, at the West Point Military academy, and was a lieutenant in the Sixteenth battery of field artillery, United States Army; and Gerald Howze, was a student at the Naval academy at Annapolis.

The first Mrs. Howze died in September, 1887, and Judge Howze married Nannie Dillard, daughter of James R. Dillard, of Montgomery, Alabama, in December, 1889. They were membersof the First Presbyterian church of Birmingham, of which he was an elder. He was one of Birmingham's most highly esteemed citizens in 1921.