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SCOTT, SUTTON SELWYN - (1799-aft. 1904) |
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| By JOEL CAMPBELL DUBOSE,
on 11-03-2010 00:00 
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Favoured : None |
Published in : News, Biographies |
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
SUTTON SELWYN SCOTT
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1799 VA.-aft. 1904 AL)
HUNTSVILLE, FLORENCE,
ATHENS,
DECATUR, TUSCUMBIA,
RUSSELL COUNTY, ALABAMA
SUTTON SELWYN SCOTT was the son of
JAMES GREENE SCOTT and wife, ANN (BIDDLE) SCOTT. JAMES GREENE SCOTT
was born in Dinwiddie, near the line of Brunswick county, Virginia in
the latter part of November, 1799. When but little over nineteen
years of age he left his home in the Old Dominion and came to
Alabama. His education was imperfect, being only such es could be
obtained at "the old field school" of pioneer days; but he
was able to make the most of it, as he was a man of quick and
vigorous parts. He was in fact what might be termed a mechanical
genius, for, while he never served an apprenticeship to a trade, he
could do almost any kind of work, from the making of a bureau or
carriage to the building of a house. He therefore found an easy and
ready support for himself at Huntsville, a village then just
beginning to grow in what has since become the garden spot of
Alabama—the Tennessee valley.
Here, soon after his arrival, he met
and married ANN BIDDLE, who had come out to Alabama with her brother,
JOHN BIDDLE, from Raleigh, N. C. She died during the forties in the
prime of life, having been for many years a faithful member of the
Methodist church. His death occurred fully fifty years afterwards,
when he was about ninety years old; at Huntsville also, where he had
continuously resided since coming to the State. He was a plain,
unpretending and peaceful citizen; a man of integrity and
uprightness, and, in his latter years, a member of the Baptist
church.
The homestead in Virginia, where he was
born, was also the birthplace of his father, JOHN SCOTT. The place was
the one settled by the father of this JOHN SCOTT (named JOHN also),
who had immigrated to this country from Scotland. There seems a
probability, however, of his having come by way of England, after a
brief residence therein, as he gave to his Virginian home a
distinctively English name, "Old London." It may interest
some to know that the birthplace of WINFIELD SCOTT was in the
immediate vicinity. These two JOHN SCOTTS, father and son, were
planters, and had considerable property in lands and slaves, which,
it should be noted, during the lifetime of the latter, were sadly
reduced by a lax and somewhat profuse Virginian hospitality. PROF.
CHAS. C. THACH, president of Alabama Polytechnic institute, wrote of
COL. SCOTT and his literary productions: "The subject matter of
COL SCOTT'S books is concerned largely with these stirring times
(times just before the great war) ; and in this varied drama it can
be said without exaggeration that the author knew intimately most of
the great actors, and himself played no inconspicuous role in the
inner circle at the making of much of that history. And so it results
that his sketches of Southern life are of peculiar value and
interest, being as they are, not mere pictures of fancy, or the vague
shadows of tradition, but an accurate and vivid portrayal of the
manners, customs and sentiments, with which he had come in contact.
Prominent as moulding influences upon
COL SCOTT'S life and writings, the most cursory historian will detect
the influences of that section of Alabama, in which he was born and
spent his early days—the valley of the Tennessee. Throughout his
early life, this entire section, in the lap of which rest Florence,
Tuscumbia, Athens, Decatur and Huntsville, was famous for a high
degree of education and social refinement. Huntsville especially was
the center of marked intellectual activity and culture. Some of the
most powerful orators and brilliant leaders of Southern thought and
letters made the beautiful little city their home: C. C. CLAY, RICHARD
WALKER and POPE WALKER, ROBERT BRICKELL, EGBERT JONES, JERE CLEMENTS,
NICHOLAS DAVIS and a host of others, whose names have become
household words in Alabama. A literary atmosphere pervaded the place,
while at the bar and on the hustings could be enjoyed exhibitions of
an oratory that was not only burning with passion, but expressed with
artistic grace and elegance.
Naturally such influences for a
talented young man were full of inspiration and attraction, and they
enlisted the ambitions of COL. SCOTT, when a mere youth, in an
undying attachment to the achievements of literature and political
life. Nor should one ignore the influence upon him of the natural
scenery by which he was surrounded. The pastoral loveliness of the
Tennessee valley is scarcely surpassed if it be matched by any other
section of Alabama. Its broad fertile fields,, its orchards, its
superb forests, and, in the county of Madison, the deep blue slopes
of mountains and hills rolling away in placid lines of beauty, soft
as a dream; with a noble river flashing in the distance like a girdle
of burnished silver: the whole picture is one of surpassing
loveliness, tranquillity and peace. Evidently these influences were
gathered like a rich distillation into the early experience of the
author; for his sensitive and affectionate treatment of the beauties
of forest and field and sky is one of the most distinguished
qualities of his attractive style."
COL SCOTT was graduated in 1850 at East
Tennessee University (now University of Tennessee) near Knoxville,
and read law with ACKEN & HALE, prominent attorneys of North
Alabama. In 1857 he was elected to the legislature, defeating JOHN T.
HADEN, one of the strongest men of that section—the man who had
defeated JERE CLEMENTS for the legislature m 1855. Young SCOTT was
re-elected in 1859 after a most exciting canvass. His speech in this
canvass at Huntsville, upon the vote of which the election hinged,
was said to have been one of great eloquence and power, so much so as
to call forth the wildest applause. GEN. L. P. WALKER, the great
lawyer, at the close of the speech, lifted his hat and exclaimed,
"That was the finest speech ever made in the Huntsville
courthouse."
COL. SCOTT was a member of the extra
session of the legislature called by Gov. A. B. MOORE about the time
the States seceded from the union. He was a member with BULLOCK,
MORGAN, WATTS, MEEK, CLENTON, PHELAN, POLLARD and others of the
committee that met PRESIDENT DAVIS at West Point, Ga., in 1861, en
route to his inauguration at Montgomery. In 1863 he succeeded HON.
DAVID HUBBARD as Confederate commissioner of Indian affairs, and
spent much of his time in the Indian Territory, working to keep the
Indians quiet, and prevent depredations upon the exposed frontiers of
Arkansas and Texas.
In 1864 he married MISS LULA M. HURT,
of Columbus, Ga., daughter of WILLIAM HURT, planter of Russell
county, Ala., who was a son of WILLIAM HURT, of North Carolina, a
gallant soldier of the Revolution. At the close of the war COL. SCOTT
settled upon his plantation in Russell county, Alabama. His adopted
county sent him to the convention of 1875 that framed the
Constitution of the State, and to the legislatures of 1884 and 1890.
He was a delegate to the Cincinnati Democratic convention of 1880;
was appointed by MR. CLEVELAND, in 1884, a commissioner to adjudicate
depredation claims in New Mexico, and appointed by the same
President, in 1895, a commissioner to the Ute Indians of Utah. He was
chairman of this commission.
COL. SCOTT was a voluminous writer to
periodicals over different pen-names, and had been quite active as a
speaker upon the hustings and the rostrum. He did much vigorous and
eloquent canvassing in behalf of good government in Alabama, and
generously responded (and with effect) to the many calls made upon
him for public addresses, literary as well as political. In 1880 he
published "Southbooke," a small volume of tales, sketches,
etc., illustrative of Southern manners and life. High tributes to the
literary merits of the book were tendered by such men as S. S. COX,
ALBERT PIKE, BISHOP McTYIERE, B. F. MEEK and other men eminent in
letters. COL. SCOTT'S style is crisp, nervous and graphic; it is
marked by scholarly precision and polish; is frequently distinguished
by a neat antithesis that suggests a loving study of MACAULAY; and is
always characterized by a lucidity that delights the reader, for it
never demanded a second perusal in order to be understood.
His sketches of Southern life display
an accurate rendering of its typical phases and abound in humor and
exciting incident. As an orator COL. SCOTT was most effective and
convincing. He preserved the very best traditions of that fine school
of oratory for which our section was once so justly famous, but
which, alas! like so many of the admirable things of the olden time,
is being ruthlessly obliterated and put to scorn by the new light and
gospel of progress. Commanding in person, widely read upon all
questions of the day, and familiar with all that is best in our great
literature, with a rich, but chaste, vocabulary, and a resonant
voice, COL. SCOTT never failed to carry his hearers with him. He was
never merely grandiloquent; he indulged in no cheap extravagant
humor; but by his profound earnestness, broad fund of information,
and scholarly knowledge, appealed to the highest qualities of heart
and mind of his audience. COL. SCOTT was a resident of Auburn,
Alabama — stout, healthy and vigorous—and apparently had many
years of useful life before him in 1904i
iNotable
men of Alabama: personal and genealogical, Volume 1 By Joel
Campbell
DuBose 1904
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
Last update: 26-02-2010 02:39
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| Keywords : free biography, photograph, genealogy, SUTTON SELWYN SCOTT, Madison, Russellville, Lee county, ALABAMA, JAMES GREENE SCOTT, ANN BIDDLE, JOHN BIDDLE, JOHN SCOTT, WINFIELD SCOTT, PROF. CHAS. C. THACH, C. C. CLAY, RICHARD WALKER, POPE WALKER, ROBERT BRICKELL, EGBERT JONES, JERE CLEMENTS, NICHOLAS DAVIS, JOHN T. HADEN, ACKEN AND HALE, GEN. L. P. WALKER, BULLOCK, MORGAN, WATTS, B. F. MEEK, CLENTON, PHELAN, POLLARD, PRESIDENT DAVIS, HON. DAVID HUBBARD, MISS LULA M. HURT, WILLIAM HURT, MR. CLEVELAND, BISHOP MCTYIERE, ALBERT PIKE, S. S. COX, MACAULAY |
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DUNCAN, GEORGE WEBSTER -Franklin, Lee, Macon County, Alabama |
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| By JOEL CAMPBELL DUBOSE,
on 09-03-2010 00:00
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Favoured : None |
Published in : News, Biographies |
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
GEORGE WEBSTER DUNCAN
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1866-aft. 1904)
Franklin, Lee County, Macon counties, Alabama
GEORGE WEBSTER DUNCAN was born Oct. 12,
1866, at Rockwood, Franklin county, Ala. His father, THOMAS ALFRED
DUNCAN, was born July 21, 1841, and lived at the same place. He was
in the army of the Confederacy four years as a soldier and was the
son of ROBERT DUNCAN and MARTHA (HARGETT) DUNCAN, who lived near
Russellville, Alabama.
GEORGE WEBSTER'S mother, MARGARET
HARGETT was the daughter of RICHARD HARGETT and wife, ELIZABETH
HARTIS, who lived at Charlotte, N. C. His ancestors came to America
from Scotland about 1783 and lived successively in Virginia, Kentucky
and Tennessee. They removed to Alabama about the time the State was
admitted to the Union. They settled in Franklin and Marion counties.
The HARGETT ancestors (maternal) came to Alabama from North Carolina
at an early date in the history of the State.
GEORGE W. DUNCAN was prepared for
college in a private school at Russellville, Alabama, which was
taught by COL. JACKSON HARRIS; graduated at State Normal college,
Florence, Alabama in 1890 and took two years post-graduate course at
the Alabama Polytechnic institute, receiving the degree of master of
sciences in 1900; also took a special course in law at the University
of Virginia in 1892. He taught three years as principal of the city
school of Florence, Ala., and seven years as principal of the Auburn
Female institute, Auburn, Ala.; first vice-president of the Alabama
Educational association, 1902 to 1903; was on the staff of THOMAS M.
OWEN, commanding Alabama division of the United Sons of Confederate
Veterans.
He was a Democrat, a Baptist and a
Knight of Honor, and member of the American Historical association.
On Jan. 19, 1893, he married at Lowndesboro, Alabama, JULIA
ALEXANDER, the daughter of EDMUND ALEXANDER and wife, EMILY (YOUNG)
ALEXANDER who lived at Lowndesboro, Ala. They were living in Auburn, Alabama in 1904. JULIA ALEXANDER graduated at
the State Normal college, Florence, Alabama in 1892.
iNotable
men of Alabama: personal and genealogical, Volume 1 By Joel
Campbell DuBose 1904
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
Last update: 26-02-2010 02:38
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| Keywords : free Alabama biography, genealogy, GEORGE WEBSTER DUNCAN, FRANKLIN, LEE, MACON COUNTY, ALABAMA, ROBERT DUNCAN, MARTHA HARGETT, RICHARD HARGETT, ELIZABETH HARTIS, COL. JACKSON HARRIS, THOMAS M. OWEN, JULIA ALEXANDER, EMILY YOUNG, EDMUND ALEXANDER |
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ROBINSON, JUDGE WILLIAM CARLISLE - CHAMBERS, LEE, MACON COUNTIES, ALABAMA |
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| By JOEL CAMPBELL DUBOSE,
on 07-03-2010 00:00
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Views : 5 |
Favoured : None |
Published in : News, Biographies |
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
JUDGE WILLIAM CARLISLE
ROBINSON
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1839 AL - aft. 1904)
CHAMBERS, LEE, MACON COUNTIES, ALABAMA
JUDGE WILLIAM CARLISLE ROBINSON, of
Opelika, Ala., was born November 27, 1839, in Chambers county, Ala.
His father was JESSE B. ROBINSON and his mother MARTHA A. (CARLISLE)
ROBINSON. His grandparents were THOMAS ROBINSON and W. W. CARLISLE.
On December 9, 1857, JUDGE ROBINSON led to the altar GEORGIAN V.
TURNER of Chambers county, Alabama. By this marriage two sons were
born, viz.: MACK ROBINSON and GEORGE SANFORD ROBINSON, both of whom
were progressive citizens of Opelika.
From this period until 1862 was passed
by W. C. ROBINSON in farming, when in response to the call for troops
to preserve the Confederacy he entered the army as a lieutenant in
Company I of the Forty-seventh Alabama regiment. He was compelled
finally on account of ill health to leave the army and recuperate; in
1864 he re-enlisted and served until the surrender. JUDGE ROBINSON'S
early education in the public schools, enlarged by study and close
observation fitted him for life's duties. He re-assumed farming and
merchandising until 1869, when he removed to Macon county, Alabama.
Then engaging in farming and milling.
In 1872 he moved to Lee county and
engaged in farming and school teaching. In 1880 he was elected clerk
of the circuit court of Lee county, Ala., serving six years. In 1886
he was elected judge of probate of Lee county for six years and in
1892 was re-elected to the same office. He was also ex-officio judge
of the county court, trying all misdemeanor cases. In 1894 he was
nominated for Congress by the Populist party of the third
Congressional district and thinks he was elected, but was debarred
from office by the Democratic party. As an evidence of the
progressive spirit of the judge it was largely through his
instrumentality that a substantial modern jail was erected for the
county, having steel cells and strong furnishings; likewise the
beautiful county court house, the pride of Lee county.
After the expiration of his term of
office he pursued farming and merchandising. He was in 1904, the
superintendent of the Opelika Sewer Company. JUDGE ROBINSON endeared
himself by a life free from ostentation to a host of friends. He was
honest and upright in his daily life. He was a Mason and a member of
the Baptist church of Opelika.i
iNotable
men of Alabama: personal and genealogical, Volume 1 By Joel
Campbell DuBose
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
Last update: 26-02-2010 02:37
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| Keywords : free biography, genealogy, JUDGE WILLIAM CARLISLE ROBINSON, CHAMBERS, LEE, MACON, ALABAMA, JESSE B. ROBINSON, MARTHA A. CARLISLE, THOMAS ROBINSON, W. W. CARLISLE, MACK ROCINSON, GEORGE SANFORD ROBINSON, GEORGIAN V. TURNER, |
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SMITH T. BARTOW - 1861 - OPELIKA, ALABAMA |
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| By JOEL CAMPBELL DUBOSE,
on 05-03-2010 00:00
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Views : 6 |
Favoured : None |
Published in : News, Biographies |
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
BARTOW SMITH T.
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1861- aft. 1904)
Opelika, Lee County,
Alabama
BARTOW SMITH T., of Opelika, Ala., was
born Nov. 15, 1861, near Opelika. His father was JOHN SMITH T., who
died during the Civil war; his mother was FANNIE PENDERGRASS, of
Jackson county, Georgia. BARTOW SMITH T. and JOHN SMITH T. were the
only children of the family.
JOHN was three years younger than
BARTOW and was a wholesale grocery merchant at Opelika. BARTOW SMITH
T. received his early education in the public schools at Opelika.
Possibly his mental and physical vigor may be accounted for by the
fact that he assisted on a farm until fourteen years of age. Leaving
the farm he entered the grocery store of RENFRO Brothers of Opelika
and often assisted at the livery stable, warehouse or bank.
Persistent industry added to a noble honesty won to him many strong
friends.
By careful attention he gained a
thorough insight into commercial life. For thirteen years he remained
with RENFRO Brothers. Leaving RENFRO Brothers he entered the cotton
warehouse business and his status among the farmers was seen very
forcefully when out of 21,000 bales of cotton housed in five
warehouses in Opelika, he received 7,000 bales. In addition to
running a cotton warehouse he conducted a dray line, was a dealer in
sewer pipe and a manufacturer of brick, and cultivated a large farm
on the outskirts of Opelika.
He was a member of the Pythian order
and also of the Methodist Episcopal G1urch South, of Opelika. His
friends were numerous, his intimates many, and his enemies none.
Excessively modest, unpretentious and genial he quietly strengthened
by deeds of unrecorded kindness, the cords of affection that bound
man to man. Opelika had no more noble citizen in her long list of
eminent men. i
iNotable
men of Alabama: personal and genealogical, Volume 1 By Joel
Campbell DuBose
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
Last update: 26-02-2010 02:37
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SHOAFF, REV. JAMES WATTS D.D. - (1852) Mobile, Greensboro, Selma, Opelika |
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| By JOEL CAMPBELL DUBOSE,
on 03-03-2010 00:00
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Views : 10 |
Favoured : 1 |
Published in : News, Biographies |
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
REV. JAMES WATTS
SHOAFF, D. D.
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1852 VA. aft. 1904)
MOBILE, GREENSBORO,
SELMA, OPELIKA, ALABAMA
REV. JAMES WATTS SHOAFF, D. D. was
born April 28, 1852, near Blue Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier county,
West Virginia. His father was REV. DAVID SHOAFF of the Baltimore
conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, who affiliated with the
Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1866, in the memorable conference
over which BISHOP EARLY presided, making the last address immediately
before the vote was taken.
His mother was MARGARET ANN WATTS,
daughter of REV. JAMES WATTS, one of the earliest pioneers of the
Baltimore conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. She was
related by blood to DR. ISAAC WATTS, the great hymnologist. She and
her father inherited something of the kindred poetic genius.
Owing to the Methodist itinerant system
changes of school followed in natural order the changes of pastorate,
so that the youthful JAMES W. was educated as follows: at Frostburg,
Allegany county, Md., under REV. FRANK MASON, a local preacher who
did not "spare the rod to spoil the child," but JAMES W.
SHOAFF happily escaped punishment; in York, Pa., under PROF.
HEFELFINGER, where his father's profound Southern sympathies created
natural alienation between JAMES W. and other boys; at Abingdon,
Hartford county, Md., under PROF. ROBERT HENRY, a noted educator, in
an academy built on a part of the campus of Cokesburg college, the
first institution of learning built by Methodism in America, now in
ashes; at Great Falls, under PROF. TUCKER; at Hereford, Baltimore
county, Md., under PROF. PARRISH; at Hedgesvillc, under PROF.
VALERIUS WILSON, an educator of great genius and skill; at Leesburg
academy, London county, Va., under PROF. THOMAS WILLIAMS; two years
under private tutorship of PROF. JAMES BAKER in the special study of
mathematics and the languages; at Randolph-Macon college during the
presidency of the great pulpit orator, REV. JAMES A. DUNCAN. His
father died in 1871.
Though licensed to preach, his delicate
health kept him from the regular ministry, and with his sister he
took charge of a school in Newton, now Stephens City. About this time
he was in the first of three terrible railroad wrecks; this one on
the Baltimore & Ohio railroad; the second, the "Garland
disaster'' in 1896 on the Louisville & Nashville between
Montgomery and Mobile; and the third on Dec. 16, 1902, on the Rome
and Selma division of the Southern railroad, when he and MRS. SHOAFF
were both severely injured. Escape from terrible death in these
wrecks he believes to be granted by the divine interposition of
Almighty Providence, who makes "man immortal till his work is
done." He was junior preacher with REV. L. G. MARTIN on the
Gainesboro circuit, about fifteen miles northwest of Winchester, Va.,
and REV. J. C. JOYCE on Fairfax circuit, Va.
He married MISS R. NETTIE FRASHER,
daughter of JOHN FRASHER and CATHARINE FRASHER, at Green Hill
Mansion, near Brucetown, Frederick county, Va., a lady related to the
BRUCES, FRASHERS and MONTGOMERYS, of the Scotch Highlands. Four
children are the issue of this marriage, two sons and two daughters,
viz.: GERTRUDE WATTS SHOAFF, MABEL BRUCE SHOAFF, DAVID EARNES SHOAFF
and PAUL STEVENSON SHOAFF.
His first appointment, after entering
the Baltimore conference, was to Union, Monroe county, W. Va., but
the climate disagreeing with MRS. SHOAFF, he was sent three years to
West River charge, on the western shore of the southern peninsula of
Maryland; Braddock street church, Winchester, Va., one year; Calvary
church, Baltimore, three years; Salem Station, Va., two years;
Emanuel Station, Baltimore, four years; St. Paul's, Baltimore, where
he became a charter member of (Edmund) Shaftesbury College of
Expression, this being a branch of the Martin college at Washington,
D. C., of which EDMUND SHAFTESBURY was president.
He believed the human voice superior to
any instrument of art, and devoted much effort to the mastery of the
art of oratory. Seeking health in the forests of Maine, and caught in
a storm on the lower Wilson, he injured his lungs by the great
efforts he made to save his son and boatman; was transferred to the
Alabama conference, where he was appointed to St. Francis Street
church, Mobile, four years, and then to First church, Selma, three
years; filled the chair of mental and moral philosophy in the
Southern university at Greensboro; upon the death of DR. H. D. MOORE;
he was appointed to First church, Opelika, where he served in 1904.
DOCTOR SHOAFF had remarkable ability to
illustrate and illuminate any subject he handled. He was genial and
modest, and possessed that suavity of manner and old time Southern
frankness and simplicity which for long years were the special
heritage of the South. He was in touch with man, and to lift him
above error and bring him home to God was the ambition of this gifted
divine.i
iNotable
men of Alabama: personal and genealogical, Volume 1 By Joel
Campbell DuBose
Biographies of Notable and Not-so-Notable Alabamia
Last update: 26-02-2010 02:36
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| Keywords : free Alabama Biography, genealogy on Rev. James Watts Shoaff, oF Mobile, Greensboro, Selma, Opelika, REV. DAVID SHOAFF, BISHOP EARLY, MARGARET ANN WATTS, REV. JAMES WATTS, DR. ISAAC WATTS, REV. FRANK MASON, PROF. HEFELFINGER, PROF. ROBERT HENRY, PROF. TUCKER, PROF. PARRISH, PROF. VALERIUS WILSON, PROF. THOMAS WILLIAMS, REV. JAMES A. DUNCAN, GARLAND DISASTER, REV. L. G. MARTIN, REV. J. C. JOYCE, MISS R. NETTIE FRASHER, JOHN FRASHER, CATHERINE FRASHER, BRUCES, FRASHERS, MONTGOMERYS, SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, GERTRUDE WATTS SHOAFF, MABEL BRUCE SHOAFF, DAVID EARNES SHOAFF and PAUL STEVENSON SHOAFF, EDMUND SHAFTESBURY, DR. H. D. MOORE |
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