Jefferson County, Alabama Biographies

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Jefferson County, Alabama
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J. C. ABERNATHYwas born in Marengo County, Alabama, September 6, 1836, where he was reared. His father, Rev. T. S. Abernathy was for over fifty years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Our subject studied medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1856-57, and graduated from the University of Louisiana, medical department, in the class of 1858-59.

In 1861 he entered the Confederate Army, as surgeon of the Thirty-second Alabama Regiment, and in the last year of the war was transferred to the Forty-third Regiment, and remained with them as surgeon until the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston, at Raleigh, North Carolina. During his service he was a portion of the time surgeon of General H. D. Clayton's brigade, and was chief surgeon of General Breckinridge's division, during his campaign in Mississippi.

General Joseph E. Johnston, at the surrender, at Raleigh, presented every officer and private with a silver dollar, as a token of faithfulness to the cause they had so gallantyly fought for. Dr. Abernathy was a recipient of one of these mementoes, and, it is needless to say, prizes it very highly.

After the close of the war Dr. Abernathy devoted himself assiduously to the practice of his profession, in Southern Alabama. In 1882 he came to Birmingham, where he has achieved a position in the front ranks of the profession in Jefferson County.

Dr. Abernathy is a gentlemen of culture, and is an enterprising and public-spririted citizen.

B. G. ABERNETHYwas born April 13, 1844 in Marengo County, Alabama, and is a son of Rev. T. S. and Ellen Abernethy, natives of Tennessee and Alabama respectively.

The early education of our subject was good, and at the age of sixteen he was prepared to enter college, but, upon the breaking out of the war, he enlisted in Company A, Forty-third Alabama Infantry, and served as a private until six months previous to the close, when he was appointed brigade assistant quartermaster, which position he held until the end of the struggle.

In May, 1865, he became a teacher in his native county, and subsequently engaged in buying cotton for Mr. R. M. Robertson, also assisting him in a drug store conducted by the latter. During this service he began the study of medicine. He subsequently purchased the drug store, and continued his studies, together with the business, for two years. He subsequently farmed a short period, and practiced his profession, in Hale County, and then entered the medical department of the Southern University, of Greensboro, and took a course of lectures. After three years of subsequent practice, in Hale County, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Baltimore, Maryland, and was graduated therefrom in 1880. Since 1880 he has been in active practice in Birmingham, where he has established an excellent reputation, both in his profession and in private life. Since 1886 he has had associated with him his brother, Dr. J. C. Abernethy. Dr. Abernethy was married November 7, 1867, to Miss Elizabeth R., daughter of Captain John Cocke, of Hale County. Four children grace this union, Benjamin C., Thomas S., May J., and John C.

ALDRICH, WILLIAM FARRINGTON, (1853—1925), (brother of Truman Heminway Aldrich and great, great grandfather of William J. Edwards), a Representative from Alabama; born in Palmyra, Wayne County, N.Y., March 11, 1853; attended the public schools of his native city; moved with his father to New York City in 1865; attended several schools, and was graduated from Warren’s Military Academy in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1873; moved to Alabama in 1874; engaged in mining and manufacturing; built up the town that bears his name; successfully contested as a Republican the election of Gaston A. Robbins to the Fifty-fourth Congress and served from March 13, 1896, to March 3, 1897; successfully contested the election of Thomas S. Plowman to the Fifty-fifth Congress and served from February 9, 1898, to March 3, 1899; again successfully contested the election of Gaston A. Robbins to the Fifty-sixth Congress and served from March 8, 1900, to March 3, 1901; declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1900; editor, owner, and publisher of the Birmingham (Ala.) Times; delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1904; engaged in the development of mineral lands until his death in Birmingham, Ala., October 30, 1925; the remains were cremated and deposited in the family vault in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present; contributed by Anna Newell.

TRUMAN HEMINGWAY ALDRICH, (1848-1932), (brother of William Farrington Aldrich), a Representative from Alabama; born in Palmyra, Wayne County, N.Y., October 17, 1848; attended the public schools, the military academy at West Chester, Pa., and was graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., in 1869; engaged in engineering in New York and New Jersey; moved to Selma, Ala., in 1871; engaged in banking and in the mining of coal, becoming vice president and general manager of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., in 1892; founder of the Cahaba Coal Mining Co.; successfully contested as a Republican the election of Oscar W. Underwood to the Fifty-fourth Congress and served from June 9, 1896, to March 3, 1897; was not a candidate for renomination in 1896; served as postmaster at Birmingham, Ala., by appointment of President Taft, from September 1, 1911, to December 15, 1915; delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1904; served as a dollar-per-year man on the War Industries Board during the First World War; after the war was engaged as a mining engineer and geologist; died in Birmingham, Ala., April 28, 1932; interment in Elmwood Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present, contributed by A. Newell.
JAMES A. ALLEN the head of one of the wholesale groceries of Birmingham, was one of the proprietors of the first wholesale house in the Magic City. He came from Southern stock, and is of English and Scotch extraction. His father, Edward Allen, was a native of North Carolina; his mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Williams, was born in Maryland.

James A. Allen was born in June, 1836, in Hancock County, Georgia, and his early education was commenced in private schools. At the age of twelve he came to Alabama, and was a farmer's boy, and at the age of thirty entered the grocery house of Joseph & Allen, and thoroughly informed himself with every branch of that trade. Subsequently he formed a partnership with James M. Smith, and was successfully engaged in the wholesale grocery line in Montgomery until 1871. In the-latter year he came to what is now Birmingham, and formed a partnership with A. Marree, one of the first citizens and business men to locate there. This firm started the first grocery house, their store being located on First Avenue and Nineteenth Street. Mr. Allen soon after purchased the interest of Mr. Marree, and conducted the business with remarkable success under the firm name of James A. Allen & Co., until 1883, when the present house of Allen, Scott & Co. was organized, by the admission of W. C. and B. C. Scott into the firm. Their business grew to such proportions that in 1886 Mr. Allen erected, on the south side of First Avenue, a three-story brick building, which extends from First to Morris Avenue, and is 27 ½ x l82 ½ feet. It is one of the finest business blocks in the city, and was designed to meet the demands of the immense business which this progressive firm has established.

Mr. Allen was a gallant member of the Sixth Alabama Regiment during the late war, enlisting as a private in Company E, in 1861. He was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville, in 1863, which disabled him from active duties, but he remained in the service until the close of the war.

Mr. Allen has been thrice married, and has two children living—Claude A. and James A. The family are members of the First Presbyterian Church, in which Mr. Allen has served as elder for several years.