John Anthony Winston, governor of Alabama, was born in Madison county, Ala., Sept. 4, 1812; son of William and Mary (Cooper) Winston; grandson of Capt. Anthony, a Revolutionary officer, and Zekie (Jones) Winston and of Edmund and Martha (Jackson) Cooper of Brunswick county, Va., and great-grandson of Anthony and Alice (Taylor) Winston, the former a son of Isaac (immigrant) and Mary (Dabhey) Winston, of Hanover county, Va., and the latter a daughter of James Taylor, of Caroline county, Va. He attended La Grange college, Ala., and the University of Nashville, Tenn. In 1834 he located as a cotton planter in Sumter county, Ala. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1840 and 1842, and was elected state senator, 1843, 1847 and 1851, three successive terms, serving as president, 1847. He organized two companies of volunteers for the Mexican war in 1846, and was appointed one of the field officers of the 1st Alabama volunteer regiment, but did not see active service. He was governor of Alabama, 1853-57, being the first native born Alabamian to hold that office; and he vetoed bills granting state aid to railroads, and providing for the re-issue of state bank notes as a loan to railroad companies, as well as many other bills, from which he was styled "the veto governor." He was delegate to the Charleston Democratic National Convention, 1860, and a candidate for presidential elector on the Douglas ticket in the same year. He was commissioner from Alabama to Louisiana in 1861 to urge the prompt secession of the latter state. In 1861 he joined the Confederate state army and was appointed colonel of the 8th regiment, the first Alabama command that enlisted "for the war." He commanded a brigade in the Peninsular campaign, but on account of ill health resigned his commission as colonel and returned home. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1865, and in 1866 was elected U.S. senator from Alabama, but was denied his seat. He was a fearless officer and a high-minded political leader. His wife was Mary Agnes, daughter of Joel Walker Jones, of Limestone county, Ala. He died in Mobile, Ala., Dec. 21, 1871.

The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans 1904

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