Jefferson County, Alabama Biographies

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Jefferson County, Alabama
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WALTER W. DAVIN was born in New Orleans, October 24, 1859. His father was of French descent, and his mother of Irish parentage. His father has followed the sea as a steamship captain for many years. The subject of this sketch was reared in New Orleans, and was educated in the public schools of that city, graduating at the age of nineteen. He was then engaged as account-of-sales clerk in one of the largest cotton brokerage houses at that time in New Orleans,, Messrs. Hanna & Barnett, remaining with them one year, when he resigned for the-purpose of studying mechanics. He entered the New Orleans Foundry and Machine Shop, and after a course of study in the different departments of the foundry resigned and was engaged by W. L. Cushing, a large machinery dealer. Kemaining with Mr. Cushing several years, acting in the capacity of traveling salesman and constructing; engineer until the close of the Atlanta Exposition, then he was placed in full charge of the cotton machinery department for the Eagle Cotton Gin Company, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, whom Mr. Cushing represented in the South. Through Mr. Davin's skill and experience in operating this machine it was awarded the first prize. After the-close of the Atlanta Exposition he obtained a more lucrative position with H. Dudley Coleman & Bro., of New Orleans, who, at that time, were doing the largest machinery and mill manufacturing business in the South. Mr. Davin remained in the employment of the above concern for a number of years. Resigning this position, which was that of traveling salesman and collector, he was appointed chief clerk in the office of the United States Construction Department in the Custom House, at New Orleans. Wishing to-embark in business on his own account, he resigned this position and came to Birmingham, in order to see what the prospects were for a machinery house. Recognizing at once that such a business would pay handsomely, he immediately leased a small store on Twentieth Street, near Third Avenue, where he put in stock a small supply of general machinery. Through his energy and indomitable will he succeeded in selling considerable machinery.
He then took into partnership with him his old friend and office companion, Mr. Willis Shaw, of New Orleans. The business of this firm increased daily, and their store was inadequate for it. Mr. Davin made himself quite popular with every business man of Birmingham, and soon became one of the most enterprising citizens of the city. He has started several enterprises, which now net a very handsome income, and one of which is the American District Telegraph and Merchants' Police and Detective System. The entire city is strung with wires, all leading to his general business office. On each of the principal business corners he has a signal box, from which his patrolmen, constantly on duty, are required to send signals every half hour during the entire night. This system is recognized by every business man of the city. He is a favorite, both socially and in business circles. His manner impresses his hearers at once that he is a. man of business qualities and good judgment.

Mr. Davin married Miss Hattie L. Martin, of Brookhaven, Mississippi, November 18th, 1885, and their union is a happy one.
WILLIAM ELIAS BROWNLEE DAVIS was born November 25th, 1863, at Trussville, Alabama, and received his early education at that place. He is the son of the late lamented Dr. Elias Davis and R. Georgianna Davis, who resides in Birmingham with her two sons, her only children. Dr. Davis attended the high school at Trussville until he was prepared to enter the junior class at the University of Alabama. While at the Trussville High School he was considered the best student in his class, and made the highest average in the whole history of the school. His average for one year was 99 1/2 per cent, almost perfect. He taught school during tow of his vacations, and though a young man made a very enviable reputation as a teacher. He was required to go before the board of education of Jefferson County to procure a certificate, and at this examination he applied for a certificate to teach in the highest grade, and made the highest mark in that grade. He would often sit up the entire night rather than go to a recitation unprepared. He has been known to go almost an entire week without retiring, simply taking a short sleep in his chair, after which he would awake and resume his studies. In three years he advanced one year ahead of those who were one year in advance of him when he entered the school. At the time of his entrance to the university he was convalescing from a severe case of typhoid fever, which left him so reduced that the return to hard study produced a decline of health, that placed his life in the balance for several months. Being unable to take that high stand in his class to which he had been accustomed, he fell into a state of despair that again reduced him to skin and bone. He was persuaded by his brother to travel a few months and then return to a course of home study--the scanty means intended for college expenses having to be expended in traveling. After a course of home study directed to the commencement of the study of law, he began the study of the legal profession, but was persuaded by his only brother, Dr. J. D. S. Davis, to begin the study of medicine. In 1882 he began the study of medicine at the medical department of the Vanderbilt University. In 1883 he attended a course of lectures at the Kentucky School of Medicine. The following winter he entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, and was graduated from that institution in 1884, and located in Birmingham the same year. He was given a partnership with his brother, and in a very short time gained an extensive practice, which extends into the best families in Birmingham, having a consultation practice in all the surrounding counties accessible by railroad. He attended and became a member of the American Medical Association at its session in New Orleans, in 1885; was elected treasurer of the Jefferson County Medical Society in 1866; was one of the founders of the Alabama Surgical and Gynecological Association, and was elected its secretary for four years, and as secretary became chairman of the publishing committee. This being one of the most responsible offices in the Association, it made a wise selection in honoring this efficient worker, and one so capable of transacting the business of the office.

He is one of the founders of The Alabama Medical and Surgical Journal, and one of its editors. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and quite active in church work. He is one of the editors of the Young Men's Christian Association Journal, of Birmingham, and was a director of the Association until his departure for Europe, January 17, 1887, where he went to attend the surgical clinics in London, Berlin, and Vienna.

Dr. Davis is a man of great will power. During his course of study at the Vanderbilt and at the Kentucky School of Medicine, he received many compliments from the students and members of the faculties on his efficiency, and several letters from the members of these faculties to Dr. Davis and his brother show a hight estimation placed upon him while a college student of medicine. When speaking, he is expressive and effective. He is devoted to his profession, and especially attached to surgery. He proceeds to all duties with a conclusive determination, and the results show his power. While he is a fine diagnostician and takes much pride in the general practice, he will no doubt, on his return to this country, restrict his practice to surgery. He can not be prevailed upon to even participate in other pursuits, his reply always being, "Medicine is enough for me." He is ever awake to the interests of the profession, and as a journalist is fearless, saying always what he believes to be the truth. His motto is, "Defend the right, and denounce fraud wherever found."
WILLIAM W. DAWSON was born near Yorkville, South Carolina, July 23, 1841. His father, S. A. Dawson, was a native of South Carolina, and his mother, Mary S. Boggs, was a native of North Carolina, and was born near Greensboro. In his eighth year his father moved to Tennessee, near Knoxville, and farmed there until his death, carrying on, also, building as a contractor. There were five children born to his parents—Anna, Mary, William, Amanda, and Elizabeth. His father met a tragic death a few years ago in Tennessee, by falling from a wagon, and a younger brother was accidentally killed on the railroad.

The first schooling that William ever received was in his tenth year at Contumant Springs, in an old-fashioned log schoolhouse. In his twelfth year he left this school, and attended night school in Knoxville, where his father had moved in 1857. His education from this time was due to his personal efforts. He worked in the day and went himself to school at night. A noted part of his boyhood experience in Knoxville was the selling of Brownlow's famous work, The Great Iron Wheel Examined. As all readers are aware, this was a reply to the Great Iron Wheel. For some time he sold as many as he could carry in his arms as the result of a single evening's work. His companion in this predatory merchandise was James Brownlow, a son of the noted author, and he had the satisfaction of outstripping his competitor. At the age of sixteen he went into a foundry in Knoxville, and served an apprenticeship of more than five years, hut during all this time he continued to go to night school. At the end of this time he went to Chattanooga, and worked in a foundry and machine shop, and as this was in 1862, he did a great deal of work for the Confederate Government. He was in Chattanooga when the Federal General Buell shelled the town. In the fall of 1863, he returned to Knoxville, and worked there for a short time, and then started on a visit to relatives in Appanoosa County, Iowa. In passing through Louisville, Kentucky, and a favorable opportunity presenting itself, he went to work in an agricultural implement factory. Soon after this he was taken sick with the small pox, from which he was seriously ill for many weeks. After his recovery he worked in Louisville for a short time, and then went to Nashville and worked for several months, and during this time enjoyed the satisfying celebrity of receiving the largest wages of any foundryman or machinist in Nashville. He soon returned to Louisville and engaged to work for a stove manufacturing establishment, and continued to work at the stove manufactories in that city until 1870, and on account of the numerous strikes, which, of course, created confusion among the workmen as well as trouble with the proprietors of the factories, he quit the business for a period of ten years. During this time he followed various callings, but his principal business was the collection of debts. He organized one of the most successful collecting agencies in Louisville, and made a good deal of money.

In 1882 Mr. Dawson returned to his old business, and was employed with Phillips, Burttorff Company, of Nashville. He then returned to Louisville, and went to work for the John G. Baxter Stove Manufactory, and while in this establishment proved his great skill as a molder. At various times he was offered responsible positions but refused them. After the death of Mr. Baxter he was made general superintendent, and has continued with the same company ever since. On the organization of the John G. Baxter Stove Manufacturing Company in Birmingham, after its removal from Louisville, he was made general manager, and no officer connected with the establishment has more fully the confidence of the company.

Mr. Dawson was married in November, 1865, to Mrs. Emma Wallace, a daughter of Mr. J. G. Hewitt, one of the best known foundrymen of Louisville. He has two children—a boy. Clifford Preston, and a girl, Alice, who are to him the sacred relics of a happy wedlock.

Mr. Dawson is a member of the Methodist Church. He has taken all the degrees of the York Eight in Masonry, and belongs to the Knights Templar.
JOHN WITHERSPOON DUBOSE is a native of Darlington district (now county), South Carolina. His paternal ancestors were among those Huguenots who, escaping from the persecution following the revocation of the edict of Nantes, settled in the "low country" of that State. The talents, virtues, and graces of these colonists have given to its history a peculiar and enviable fame. The maternal ancestry of Mr. DuBose was the Witherspoon family, who also settled in the "low country," coming from Scotland.

The generation of both names, contemporary with the American revolution, were active partisans of the cause of the colonists, and since that period the records of the State attest their participancy in a prominent and honorable service to it. Isaiah DuBose, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was among the earliest of the immigrants to Marengo County, who brought with him a large number of slaves to clear its forests. K. C. DuBose, the father, married Elizabeth Boykin, the second daughter of Hon. John D. Witherspoon, a prominent lawyer and statesman of district. In 1850 he moved his family to the canebrakes of Marengo County, where he owned plantations.

The subject of this sketch was educated, in the classics and higher mathematics, at excellent neighborhood schools maintained by the wealthy planters, and by private tutors, Added to these opportunities he enjoyed the use of good libraries, and frequent travel in different parts of the United States. Arriving at manhood he began the occupation of cotton planting in the canebrake, by the labor of slaves inherited.

Senator Morgan, of Alabama, thus referred to Mr. DuBose's career, in this line of business, in a speech delivered from his place in the Senate: " It was but yesterday that I had a letter from a gentleman, who is a scientific cotton grower, as well as a practical cotton grower, perfectly sober in his habits, thoroughly studious; no more industrious man in the world than he is, no more intelligent man, I think, that I know of,"— the example being brought up to prove the profitless character of the business of "cotton grower" in the new era.

When the war between the States opened Mr. DuBose was commissioned quartermaster of the Canebrake Legion, the strongest and wealthiest independent military organization of the State. When the companies comprising it were separated, and mustered into different arms of the regular service, there was no place for his office. He, therefore, at once volunteered as a private. Several honorable discharges from the ranks, and a continuous line of duty in the recruiting and labor impressment departments of the army, comprise his military services.

From early manhood Mr. DuBose has been a regular or irregular contributor, as circumstances allowed, to the newspaper literature of the country. He has been regularly engaged on three of the leading papers of Birmingham, and is now on the editorial staff of the Age; has written a pamphlet of some two hundred pages, descriptive of the city; wrote the paper representing Alabama in the Report of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, for 1886, on Internal Commerce; wrote a large part of this volume; and has been appointed by the family of the great orator and statesman, William L. Yancey, to prepare his biography for publication.

Mr. DuBose is a communicant in the Episcopal Church.