WADSWORTH, JESSE BORING, banker, was born November 10, 1862; son of William L. and Rosie (Bowie) Wadsworth, the former of Georgia; grandson of Gen. John and Jane Eliza (Hamilton) Bowie, the former a native of Abbeville, S. C., waa commissioned a brigadier- general of the State militia, a cotton buyer, and at one time, about 1838, lived on his plantation, "White Hall," near Mobile; great-grandson of Andrew and Rosey Anne (Watt) Bowie, the former a native of Abbeville, S. C., later a wholesale merchant of Charleston, and of Andrew C. and Delphia Adelia (Middleton) Hamilton of South Carolina; great-great-grandson of Maj. John and Rosa (Reid) Bowie, the former a native of Scotland, who emigrated to America and located in Virginia where he engaged for several years in traffic with the Cherokee Indians, later removing to Long Cane Creek, Abbeville County, S. C., where he became a prominent planter, was captain of the 5th South Carolina regiment, Revolutionary Army, and after the war justice of the peace of Abbeville County, and of Maj. Andrew and Jane Hamilton, the former a distinguished Revolutionary soldier of South Carolina. Mr. Wads- worth was at one time teller of the Birmingham national bank; president of the savings banks at Blocton and Centerville, and was connected with the Swansea coal company, with headquarters at Birmingham. He served as grand prelate of the Knights of Pythias. Married: April 26, 1892, to Margaret Wilburn McCoy. Children: 1. Esther; 2. Jesse B.; 3. Rosa Bowie. Residence: Birmingham.
Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

---

WALDREP, HON. THOMAS CARNES

One of the youngest and at the same time most brilliant members of the Fifth Legislature was Thomas Carnes Waldrep, from Pottawatomie County. Mr. Waldrep was twenty-five years of age when elected to the Legislature in 1914, and after taking his seat in the Legislature carried on and finished his final studies preparatory to admission to the bar. It was his commendable ambition to secure experience that would prove specially valuable to him in his profession that led Mr. Waldrep to take advantage of his vacation in 1914 to make the race for legislative representative.

Thomas Cannes Waldrep was born February 16, 1889, at Birmingham, Alabama, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Murphy) Waldrep. Mr. Waldrep has a brother and sister: Lloyd C., who is engaged in telephone and electrical work in Shawnee; and Eva, who lives with her mother in Shawnee. The father, who died in 1893, was a planing mill operator in Birmingham, and the paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Confederate army, as was also the maternal grandfather, who died in 1902.

Thomas C. Waldrep was a student in the public schools as far as the fifth grade at the time his mother removed to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Soon afterwards, owing to the limited financial circumstances of the family, the father having died, he abandoned schooling in order to assist in earning a livelihood for the family. In 1898 his mother removed to Shawnee, and while there he attended night school and in the intervals of his regular work nearly completed the equivalent of a public school education. In 1909 Mr. Waldrep entered the Central State Normal at Edmond, spent three years there as a student, and displayed that talent in oratory and debate which has received a severe practice and discipline in subsequent years and has brought him much of his success in public life. During the last year in Edmond he was a member of the debating team and won the first individual place prize. In 1912 he entered the College of Law of the University of Oklahoma, and by working between terms paid his way until graduating in June, 1915. During his first year in law school he led the debating team of the college in a debate with the University of Colorado. In 1913 he won the first individual place prize in a tryout in which sixty-two students participated, and in the debate won the prize offered by George Butte, a Muskogee lawyer. In 1914 he was the leader of the debating team which defeated a similar team from the University of Colorado, the decision being unanimous for the Oklahoma team.

Mr. Waldrep made a characteristically vigorous and aggressive campaign for the Legislature. He was nominated by a plurality of 400, with six candidates running and three to elect. In the general election he won by 250 mere votes than were cast for any other man on the democratic ticket in the county. In the Legislature he was made chairman of the Committee on Municipal Corporations, and a member of committees on labor and arbitration, revenue and taxation, judiciary No. 2, legal advisory, criminal jurisprudence, and cotton warehouse and grain elevators. Mr. Waldrep was a joint author of a bill divorcing cotton gin companies from cotton seed oil companies, declaring a cotton gin to be a public utility. Another measure of his created a tax commission, and another conferred upon the state commissioner of labor the authority to demand that elevators in buildings be equipped with automatic lockers. He was also interested in legislation affecting good roads, and a member of the subcommittee of the committee on commerce and labor that drew a workman's compensation bill demanded by the State Federation of Labor. For a young man of his years he has already served his community, state and himself honestly and well, and the future gives promise of splendid usefulness. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of the Delta Sigma Phi college fraternity and the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. He is a member of the Young Men's Democratic Club at Shawnee, and is secretary of the state organization of Young Men's Democratic Clubs.
Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn, Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

---

JAMES LAWRENCE WATKINS, Editor-in-chief of the Birmingham Age, was born inPulaski, Tenn., October 21, 1850. His paternal grandfather was a native of Amelia County, Virginia, and descended from one of three Welsh brothers, who emigrated to Virginia in its earliest history. He went to Georgia early in life, and there married. Afterward he removed to the valley of the Tennessee, in Northern Alabama, near Courtland, where he made very large investments in the fertile lands of the valley, and became owner of large cotton plantations and many slaves. The father of James L., Robert H. Watkins, married Miss Carter, of Pulaski, Tenn., where he settled. She was the daughter of Dr. Benjamin Carter, a well-known physician in that country, who was of Scotch descent, though a native of South Carolina.

R. H. Watkins and family removed to Huntsville, Ala., in 1861, where he and his wife both died—one in 1863, the other in 1864. He had erected in that beautiful town one of the handsomest residences in the South.

The education, during the war, of J. L. Watkins was obtained, as circumstances permitted, at home from members of his family. He was placed at school, for several years after the war, to Dr. Carlos G. Smith, a well-known preceptor in this State. His scholastic training ended with a two years' course—1868-69—at the Virginia Military Institute. After this he engaged as clerk in a dry goods house at Huntsville, and studied law in 1870 in the office of Beirne & Gordon, Huntsville, and subsequently in St. Louis. He was admitted to the bar and began practice in St. Louis in the fall of 1871, in his twenty-first year. He practiced there until December, 1874, when, on account of severe illness, induced by the climate he returned to Huntsville. There he was married to Miss Matthews, in January, 1875. From 1875 to 1882 he engaged in farming pursuits in Madison and Limestone Counties.

Removing to Birmingham in March, 1882, he, with his brother, R. H. Watkins, bought and edited the Weekly Observer, until its consolidation, September, 1882, with the Weekly Iron Age.

Mr. Watkins is president of the Iron Age Publishing Company, which issues the Birmingham Age, a daily, and the Weekly Iron Age. He is a progressive journalist, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the New South, studious of great public questions, and always ready to lead in any practical enterprises adapted to the prosperity of Birmingham . He possesses one of the most valuable elements in the character of the editor of a daily newspaper—personal popularity, and the highest respectability of social position.

---

G. P. WILLIAMSON was born in New Richmond, Ohio, January 11, 1843. His father, Henry Williamson, came to Ohio from Pennsylvania, and settled at New Richmond. His mother, Julia Hough, came from Loudon County, Virginia. The former was of Welsh, and the latter English descent. His father was a river engineer for many years, and ran on different steamers in this capacity, and for a large portion of the time from Cincinnati to New Orleans, and then from Louisville to New Orleans. He continued to run in this trade until sustaining personal injuries in the burning of a steamboat. He then left the river, and in 1844 moved his family to New Albany, Indiana.

The educational advantages of the son were obtained at the public schools in New Albany, and, when not going to school he clerked in a book store. He continued thus engaged until fifteen years old, and then went to work in the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad Company's Shops, and remained in them until 1861, when he was elected second lieutenant of Company C, of the Sixteenth Indiana Regiment. His colonel was P. A. Hackelman. Young Williamson served in the Army of the Potomac thirteen months, until the winter of 1862, when he returned home to work in the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Shops in Louisville. He worked one year, and was then assigned to the pattern shops of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad, and filled the responsible position of foreman there for six months. At the end of this time he returned to Louisville and worked in a similar capacity for Davies & Co., engine builders. After five years' connection with this firm, he took charge of the shops of Sneed, Sayre & O'Bryan, who were architectural iron workers. He was, for the first year, foreman of the pattern shop, and was then promoted to the position of superintendent. He continued to work there, with great satisfaction to his employers, until the latter part of 1874, when he came to Birmingham to do the iron work on the First National Bank.

Going back a little, it is necessary to state that it was in the winter of 1871-72 that Mr. Williamson first came to Birmingham for the purpose above stated, but he had not then determined to live here. During the progress of the work already mentioned, Mr. Charles Linn made a proposition which culminated in his removal to the young town in January, 1875. He was, at the first, part owner and superintendent of the Birmingham Foundry and Car Manufacturing Company, now known as the Linn Iron Works. He continued in this position until March, 1879, and then retired from this establishment to build the Jefferson Foundry, of which he was the sole proprietor. These latter works were put in operation on the 1st of May of that year. The shop was then small and worked only about ten men. It has, however, had a prosperous career, and from a small beginning has grown to be one of the most important enterprises in Birmingham, and has worked up to its full capacity almost from the start. Of late years its capacity has been taxed to its utmost, which is the best evidence of the superior character of the work done. The pay-roll, carrying ten men to begin on, now has one hundred and fifty.

In July, 1885, Mr. Williamson was the prime mover in the organization of the new Williamson Iron Company. The building of their furnace was the beginning oŁ the present "boom" in furnace-building now going on in the Birmingham districts The new company was known as the Williamson Iron Company, and the Jefferson Foundry was merged into the new enterprise. The furnace thus far has had a similar experience to the foundry, and, with its capable management, there is no reason to suppose that any other fate than prosperity will befall it. Thus it is seen that Mr. Williamson has thoroughly established himself as one of the essentially representative men of this progressive city.

In 1864 he was married to Miss Mary Bligh, of Louisville, Kentucky. He has four children—Harry, Emma, Julia, and Mary. Harry is assistant superintendent of the Williamson Iron Company: Miss Emma was married to Mr. W. L. Woodruff, manager of the Birmingham Telephone Exchange, in 1886, and now resides with her husband in the city. All of the rest of the family also live here. He had two brothers, Braden and William. The former is dead, and the latter is farming in Illinois. His father and mother both died a few years since in New Albany.

Mr. Williamson is a member of the Methodist Church, and of Mineral City Lodge of Odd Fellows, of Birmingham, has taken most of the degrees in the order, and has filled many of the offices. He is also a member of the Knights of. Honor.

---

HENRY J. WINN was born in Greene, now Hale County, Alabama, February 10, 1836.  He comes of old Virginia stock.  His father, Asa B. Winn, who, previous to emigrating to Alabama, was a planter, resumed his occupation at the time of coming to Greene County, in 1830.  His mother, Anne E. Robertson, was also a Virginian.

Young Winn attended the ordinary schools of his immediate vicinity until he was sixteen years old, and then went to Dr. Henry Tutwiler, at Greene Springs, Ala., one year, and then to the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, until 1854.

On returning home he farmed, but, in the meantime, engaged in the private study of medicine, and in 1856-57 took medical lectures at the University at New Orleans, and in 1857-58 at the Medical University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, graduating in the spring of the last mentioned year.  Dr. Winn at first practiced in Marengo County, Alabama, and at the end of the first year went to Dallas County, and was engaged in practicing and farming until 1880.

During a portion of the time up to 1880, he, like most young Southerners, had his war experience.  It was in the spring of 1861 that he enlisted as private in the First Alabama Regiment of Cavalry.  In 1862 he was commissioned assistant surgeon, and served in this capacity until the close of the war.  As already stated, Dr. Winn remainded in Dallas County until the year 1880, and then came to Birmingham, and devoted himself exclusively to the practice of medicine.  During this time Dr. Winn has been a member of the State Medical Association, and the Jefferson County Medical Society, and has also belonged to county board of censors, and for several years was county health officer.

In 1886 he was appointed postmaster of Birmingham by President Cleveland, and, since his acceptance of the office, he has had the honor of seeing the free delivery of mails introduced in Birmingham, which, of course, has greatly facilitated the handling and disposing of mail matter.

Dr. Winn was married in March, 1859, to Miss Eliza E., daughter of Alexander W. and Catherine B. Ellerbe, of Chesterfield County, South Carolina.  He is the father of ten children--Alexander W., deceased, Julia R., Catherine E., Lucy L., Lillie J., deceased, Walter E., Annie C., Henry J., Jr., Herbert, and Eliza E.

In January 1887 Dr. Winn was married the second time to Mrs. Helen N. Boyle, of this city.

---

CHARLES W. WOOD is one of the progressive young men identified with Birmingham.  He was born in Pittsburg, Pa., Nov. 4, 1863, but in 1866 his father's family moved to New Orleans. His father, E. D. Wood, and his mother, Miss Mariam Widney, were both natives of Pittsburg. Previous to going to New Orleans his father was an extensive coal dealer, and has followed the same business ever since, and owns extensive coal yards both in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Young Wood's early life was spent in the former city, and his first educational advantages received there. On his mother's death, in 1873, he went to Pittsburg and spent four years at school. Returning to Louisiana he was four years a student at the State University, and devoted himself to those studies which bore especially on the subject of engineering. He finished his studies in civil engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., in 1884.

He then went into the coal business with his father, and here made practical application of his training as an engineer. He remained with his father from the fall of 1884 until the spring of 1886. In April of that year, he came to Birmingham on a prospecting trip, and returned the following month, and at once organized the Birmingham Bridge Company, of which he is the general manager.

The filling of so important a position is at once the highest testimony to his business capacity and ability. No enterprise from its inception has had a more flattering history, and more hopeful indications of its continuance.

Mr. Wood was married October 14, 1886, to Miss Ida E., daughter of Mr. P. W. Pettiss, of New Orleans. Her father is one of the leading business men. Mrs. Wood is a member of the Methodist Church.

---

WILLIAM H. WOOLDRIDGE was born in Memphis , February 13, 1853. His father, Egbert Wooldridge, came to Memphis from Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1845, and lived there until his death in 1859. His mother, Elizabeth White, was also a native of Woodford County, Kentucky. William was one of a family of eight children—five were boys, and three-girls, and he was the fifth child. He began when he was only seven years old going to-a private school in his native county, and during the war attended school one year. Subsequently, he went to Franklin College, in Middle Tennessee, one year, making a, sum total of his school life of four years.

After quitting school he farmed several years in the rich bottoms of Bolivar County, Mississippi, near Memphis, and then traveled for the large wood and willow warehouse of Wheeler, Pickens & Co., of that city, from 1872 to 1878. He passed through the yellow-fever scourge of 1873, but in the year 1878, when the city was well nigh depopulated by another visitation of the plague, he escaped to Louisville, Ky. There went into the-large stove manufactory of John G. Baxter. For awhile he traveled, and also acted as general manager of the entire establishment. When applying himself to the former class of work his territory embraced almost the entire South, covering a period of fourteen years. He thus became extensively acquainted in that section. He made many large sales, and greatly enlarged the business by his untiring energy.

On Mr. John G. Baxter's death, in 1884, the John G. Baxter Stove and Foundry Company was organized, of which company he was made president; W. D. Hill, vice-president ; and C. W. Sisson, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Wooldridge had made all of his arrangements to go into the stove manufacturing business in Birmingham early in 1884, and would have done so had it not been for the death of Mr. Baxter, which necessitated his taking full charge of the business in Louisville. It was not until August,, 1886, that he, in company with Mr. Hill, put this intention into practice. It was then that the present site was selected for the removal of the Stove Works to this city. The object that most engaged his attention was to get the Works established and in running order in their new location, and to accomplish this required not only much skill and forethought, but a thorough knowledge of the business and its requirements. It is considerably to the credit of Mr. Wooldridge that he drew the specifications and carried out all the plans of this large establishment, and very naturally ought to feel proud of his success.

A description in detail of the building will not be amiss in this connection: The main building, where all the molding is done, is two hundred feet square; the mounting and finishing rooms will be two stories high, and measure one hundred by one hundred and seventy feet; the storeroom, also two stories, will measure ninety by one hundred feet. The most elaborate finishing, electroplating, etc., are done in these works. The most skillful patternmakers will be employed, and the newest features will always be incorporated as a part of their stove-making. The number of men to whom this establishment will afford work will be four hundred, and the daily capacity is two hundred stoves. Some of the handsomest patterns used in this factory are due to the ingenuity of Mr. Wooldridge, he not only having designed but made them himself. Never having served an apprenticeship at any trade he has a thorough knowledge of machinery, and fully understands the use of all kinds of tools. On December 13th, 1886, the machinery of the John G. Baxter manufactory was put into motion in Birmingham, and thus another great factor added to her wealth-producing power.

Mr. Wooldridge's domestic relations have been fortunate. He had three brothers— Oscar, Charles A., and Egbert in the Confederate Army. They belonged to the Army of Tennessee, under the command of General E. Kirbv Smith. Their division commander was General Frank Cheatham. Charles was killed at the fall of Atlanta, and Oscar and Egbert died in Memphis since the war. Albert is now a cotton merchant in St. Louis. His sisters, Mrs. Judge T. J. Latham, Mrs. Harriet Simpson, and Mrs. Maggie Peters all reside in Memphis.

Mr. Wooldridge was married February 28, 1878, to Miss Mary, the oldest daughter of Mr. John G. Baxter, of Louisville, and has two sons, John Baxter and William Latham.

He is a member of the Christian Church, while his wife is an Episcopalian.

It is needless to add more to a career spent in such close compliance with the demands of active business. The prints of the labor we have before us are the highest encomium that could be expressed.