Jefferson County, Alabama Biographies

I

FRANK M. IRIONwas born in Corinth Miss., November 13, 1856. His. Father William M. Irion, came from Hardeman County, Tennessee, but at an early period in American history his ancestors came either from Alsace or Lorraine. His mother, Mary A Glasgow, was from the same county as his father, and her ancestors were Scotch. There were four children born to them— Thomas, James T., for some time a resident of Birmingham, but after leaving here was killed in the Black Hills, by the Indians, while in the employ of the Montana Herd Company; and Mary P. McEldery, living in Talladega County.

Among his very earliest recollections was hearing the booming of cannon during-the raging of the battle of Shiloh, which was not more than twenty miles from his home. Shortly after this his father was killed at the battle of Perryville, Ky.

His mother died at the beginning of the war. After this he and his brothers and sisters were members of the family of the noble and good Major Thomas Peters, until they were grown, and with them, during the war, they were refugees in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The first school he attended was in Marianna, Fla. He came back to Alabama six months before the close of the war, and lived in Selma, where he remained until 1868. He went to school at Munford, Talladega County, Alabama, and in 1869 came with Major Peters' family to Jefferson County, and for three years was a pupil, at Elyton, of Professor S. L. Robertson, an accomplished gentleman, and thorough educator.

In 1873 he attended commercial college in St. Louis for one session, and in 1874 went to Memphis, where he worked in the freight office of the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad until the fever epidemic in 1879. He returned there for a short time after that terrible scourge. Leaving Memphis he returned to Birmingham, and worked alternately at the freight office of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the land office of Major Peters most of the time up to December 17, 1885, when he was first appointed clerk and register of the city court of Birmingham. In August, 1886, he was reappointed for a term of six years.

In March, 1883, he was made captain of the Birmingham Rifles, and continued to be their captain until they were disbanded.

He is Past Chancellor of the Jefferson Valley Lodge, No. 7, Knights of Pythias, and. a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham.

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C. Anthony