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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

Last update: 26-02-2010 02:37

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

Last update: 26-02-2010 02:37

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

Last update: 26-02-2010 02:36

EDWARD N. AMOS

BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY

(1845 FL - aft. 1904 AL)

Brooklyn, Alabama

EDWARD N. AMOS was a leading merchant of Brooklyn. He was born in Milton, Florida on Sept. 21, 1863. His parents were LAWRENCE N. AMOS and ADDIE (HARDER) AMOS, both natives of Alabama. While EDWARD N. AMOS was yet a babe his parents removed to Brooklyn. His father engaged in merchandising and EDWARD ably assisted him until his father's death in the early eighties.

EDWARD N. AMOS succeeded in the business and conducted it successfully. He had a large and well stocked general store and his trade extended for miles tributary to Brooklyn. In 1892 he married FANNIE CARY, daughter of ORLAND CARY and ABBIE (TURK) CARY both natives of Alabama, the former a son of JUDGE CARY, of Sparta.

ⁱMR. and MRS. AMOS had three known sons and three known daughters: LAWRENCE C. AMOS, SIDNEY R. AMOS, HATTIE AMOS, VELMA AMOS, GLADYS AMOS, and a son unnamed. MR. and MRS. AMOS were both members of the Baptist church. He was a member of the Masonic order. He never sought political office, but devoted his whole time and attention to his business. He was in the prime of life, prosperous and progressive in 1904.

Last update: 26-02-2010 02:34