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Chambers County
Alabama
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BUCKALEW, MARION ROBY, son of William and Julia (Hart) Buckalew. "Buckalew is the name of an old American Colonial family familiar in several Southern states for many generations and not altogether unknown in the North, where on great state contributed a Buckalew to the National Congress for years and later sent a Buckalew to represent the United States in the court of a foreign land. The Buckalews of Alabama trace an unbroken ancestral line to that branch of the family that was long established in South Carolina, coming from there to Georgia and thence to Alabama, and to that branch belongs Marion Roby Buckalew, cashier of the Roanoke Banking Co. at Roanoke, AL.

"Marion Roby Buckalew was born in March, 1875, on a farm near Lafayette, in Chambers Co., AL, son of William Dorsey and Julia (Hart)Buckalew. The father of Mr. Buckalew followed agricultural pursuits in Chambers Co., where he was a man of sound reputation, a member of the Masonic fraternity and supporter of the Baptist Church. During the war between the states he was connected with the Confederate mail service. His death occurred in 1885, at the comparatively early age, as life terms are now reckoned, of fifty-six years. The mother of Mr. Buckalew was seventy years old at the time of her death, in 1896.

"But ten years old when he lost his father, Mr. Buckalew was doubly dependent upon his mother's care and guidance during his boyhood and school period, and he remained with her on the home until he was twenty-one years old. For one year afterward he served as a clerk in the country store of R. J. Combs & Co., near Lafayette, during which time he found himself well adapted for business, particularly along the lines requiring care, judgment and accuracy, and then followed a course in a business college at Lexington, KY.

"With this preparation alone Mr. Buckalew entered the employ of the Bank of Lafayette, with which institution he continued for ten years. During six years of this period he not only filled a position of trust and responsibility in the bank, but served also as treasurer of Chambers County. In 1906, when the Chambers Co. Bank was organized, he was made its first cashier. In 1918 he came to Roanoke as cashier of the Roanoke Banking Co., a position he has filled with extreme efficiency ever since. Mr. Buckalew's reputation for business sagacity has brought him many tenders of official relationship from important commercial bodies here and elsewhere, but he has mainly restricted his energies to the large and growing business of the Roanoke Banking Co. He is, however, secretary of the Roanoke Guano Go., and is manager of the Roanoke Warehouse Co.

"Mr. Buckalew married at Lafayette, AL, October 21, 1901, Miss Julia Moore, daughter of Anderson D. Moore, a prominent citizen and retired farmer of Jacksonville, AL. They have seven children: Vardaman, who is connected with the department of public accounts at Mobile, AL; Marion Roby, who is connected with the Fourth National Bank, Atlanta, GA; William D., who is a cadet in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md, under appointment of Congressman Bowling; and Juliette, Walker, Edwin and Frances, who are in school. Mr. and Mrs. Buckalew are active members of the Baptist Church at Roanoke, in which he is a deacon. Mrs. Buckalew is interested also in social life and belongs to musical and cultural clubs.

"Mr. Buckalew is a past president of the Roanoke Chambers of Commerce, was the first president of the Exchange Club, and is identified with other organizations, being particularly interested in athletics. During the World War he took an active interest in all the local patriotic movements and was officially connected with the Liberty Loan campaigns.
Source: History of Alabama and Her People, "Vol.3; The American Historical Society, Inc.; Chicago and NY; 1927; "Alabama Biography by Special Staff of Writers." Submitted by Christine Walters

BUCKALEW, WILLIAM DORSEY, husband of Julia Ann Hart, William D. Buckalew, born in Edgefield, SC, in 1795, immigrated to Chambers County, Alabama in 1830. Immigrating with the Bucklews were the families of Johns, Harts, Daniels, Grays and Culbreaths. The Buckalews settled in the Chambers County area known as Buckalew Mountains. (The significance of the Mountains may have been lost when Chambers County Lake was formed.) On December 13, 1852, William Dorsey Buckalew married Julia Ann Hart in Chambers County.

Their children were: William T., born July 23, 1855, in Cusseta, AL.; married Carrie Daniel April 8, 1880. A physician, he died in Blooming Grove, TX in 1925. Robert J., born January 6, 1859, in Cusseta, AL.; married Lilla Hart Dinkins January 12, 1888. Sallie, born January 1, 1861, in Cusseta, AL; married Thomas Jack, May 8, 1890. Mamie, born May 2, 1865, in Cusseta, AL; married John Willliams on January 14, 1893. Seaborn J., born February 3, 1868, in Cusseta, AL; married Edna Rice, February 1909, in Grapevine TX. An engineer, he graduated from Auburn and played on Auburn's first football team. Benjamin F., born October 23, 1872, in Cusseta, AL; married Harriet Whitaker on October 29, 1902. Marion Roby, born March 12, 1875, in Cusseta, AL; married Julia Ann Moore on October 23, 1901, in Lafayette, AL. Eva, born June 1877, in Cusseta, AL; married John T. Hart.

William Dorsey Buckalew followed agricultural pursuits in Chambers County; he was a man of sound reputation, a member of the Masonic fraternity and supporter of the Baptist church. During the War between the States he was connected with the Confederate mail service. He died in 1885.

Roby, the youngest of the five sons of William D. and Julia Ann Hart Buckalew, was only ten years old at the time of his father's death. He remained on the home farm until he was 21 years old. For one year afterward he served as a clerk in the country store of R.J. Combs and Co., near Lafayette. During this time he found himself well adapted for business, particularly along the lines requiring care, judgement, and accuracy, and then followed a course in business college at Lexington, KY. With this preparation Roby entered the employ of the Bank of Lafayette, with which he continued for ten years. During six years of this period he not only filled a position of trust and responsibility in the bank, but served also as Treasurer of Chambers County. In 1906, when the Chambers County Bank was organized in Lafayette, he was made its first Cashier.

Roby was active in civic, school, and church affairs. He served as Treasurer of the Lafayette unit of Sons of Confederate Veterans. He was a deacon and Church Treasurer of the First Baptist Church of Lafayette. In 1918 he moved to Roanoke, Alabama, to accept the prestigious position of Cashier of the Roanoke Banking Company, at that time the largest bank in East Alabama.

On October 23, 1901, Roby married Julia Ann Moore, daughter of Anderson D. and Nancy Walker Moore, in Lafayette, Alabama. Julia Ann was born in Lafayette on May 23, 1879. Julia Ann died in Roanoke on June 13, 1938, and is buried in West View Cemetery, Lafayette, Chambers County. Marion Roby Buckalew died December 13, 1940, in Roanoke, and is buried next to Julia in West View Cemetery.

Marion Roby and Julia Ann Moore Buckalew had seven children. The first six were born in Lafayette, Chambers County. The youngest was born in Roanoke, Randolph County. The children were: Vardaman Moore, born October 21, 1902; died in 1982, Mrion Roby, Jr., born July 6, 1905; resides at Merritts Island, FL. William Dorsey, born February 27, 1907; died in 1973. Juliette Ann Buckalew Forbes, born January 9, 1909; died in 1997. Meriwether Walker, born November 3, 1911; resides in Wilmington, DE. John Edwin, born August 18, 1918; resides in Van Buren, AR. Frances Pope Buckalew Henry, born March 21, 1921; resides in Bainbridge, GA.
Source: The Heritage of Chambers Co AL Page 86. Submitted by Christine Walters
JONES, REV. SAMUEL P., of Cartersville, Bartow county, Ga., son of Capt. John J. and Mrs. Queeny (Porter) Jones, was born in Chambers county, Ala., Oct 16, 1847. His paternal grandfather, Rev. Samuel G. Jones, was a Methodist preacher, who married a daughter of Rev. Robert L. Edwards, one of the pioneer Methodist preachers of Georgia. Four of the brothers of Mr. Jones' father are ministers of the Gospel, and for several generations the family on both sides have been prominent church members and preachers of the Word. When only nine years old Mr. Jones had the misfortune to lose his mother. Four years afterward his father married Miss Jennie Skinner of Cartersville, to which place he moved his family in 1859. In 1861 his father entered the Confederate army, and by reason of his absence and the disordered state of society, his son drifted into the company of the immoral and dissipated. Surrounded by and associating with this class, he found himself at the age of twenty-one, physically and morally wrecked and ruined. Until his mother died he had been a pupil under Prof W. F. Slaton, now the superintendent of the public schools of Atlanta. Here the groundwork of an education had been faithfully laid. During his father's absence he had neglected his studies, but soon after his return he entered the school of Hon. W. H. Felton, and later attended the high school at Euharlee, of which Prof. Ronald Johnson was the principal. Here his health broke down, which prevented his taking the collegiate course his father had intended for him. It was at this period he mistakenly sought relief in drinking. He also at this time commenced reading law and after due preparation was admitted to the bar. He, however, continued his life of dissipation until August, 1872, when, -on his death-bed. his father extorted from him a solemn promise to reform and meet him in heaven. He kept his promise and soon after his conversion began to preach the Gospel. The first sermon he preached was the week after his conversion at the old New Hope church two miles from Cartersville. He went there with his grandfather Jones, who was the pastor of the Bartow circuit, and the Rev. Sandford, who was to have preached, failing to keep his appointment, his grandfather prevailed upon him to preach. He now began to preach, and under the direction of Rev. George R. Kramer, began to prepare himself for the ministry. Three months afterward he applied for admission, was accepted and received into the North Georgia annual conference and entered upon the arduous duties of the itinerant Methodist preacher. His first appointment was on the Van Wert circuit, where he preached acceptably three years. His next appointment was on the De Soto ^circuit, with seven churches, in Floyd county, Ga., where he was unusually successful. From here he was sent to Newborn circuit, Newton county, Ga., where he remained two years, and where he was blessed with greater success than ever before. His next appointment was on the Monticello circuit, Jasper county, Ga., where he also served two years. During these and the three preceding years he had been instrumental, under God, in converting 2,000 people and adding them to the membership of his churches, besides doing a great deal of revival work in other circuits. In the first eight years of his ministry he was instrumental in converting 5,000 people, and preached not less than 400 sermons, a year. His first revival work that gave him any notoriety was in 1879-80. In January, 1881, he was appointed agent for the orphan's home of the North Georgia conference at Decatur, and doing revival work in Atlanta, Griffin, Macon, Columbus and Savannah. This work engaged him during 1881-82. His first revival work in Atlanta was at the First Methodist church, when General Evans was pastor. This was followed by work at St. Luke's in Columbus, St. John's in Augusta, Trinity and Monumental churches in Savannah, Mulberry Street in Macon, and at all the leading Methodist churches in Georgia. The first revival services which gave him newspaper notoriety were in Memphis, Tenn., in January, 1883. Since that time he has worked in more than twenty states, including the cities of Brooklyn, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, D. C, Indianapolis, St. Joseph, Mo., Waco, Tex., Mobile, Ala., Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn., and in Toronto and other cities in Canada. In no place where he has preached have the buildings or tents been large enough to hold the people. He has preached to congregations numbering 10,000 people, and at Plattsburg, Mo., he had an audience of 20,000. At his revival in Chicago, the Inter-Ocean, and Tribune, in Cincinnati the Commercial Gazette, and Inquirer, and in St. Louis the Globe-Democrat, having an aggregate circulation of 300,000, printed his daily sermons. Through the columns of these widely .circulated journals, he enjoyed the privilege of preaching to a million and a half persons every day. His first preaching, he says, was called "earnest exhortation," which, he claims, cannot be feigned,—and he contends that that which did so much for him will do as much for others. He has always had an inborn hatred for shams, and especially for religious shams. He says he would prefer to be an Ingersoll, and a disbeliever in the Book than to be a Methodist, professedly believing everything and yet being just like Ingersoll. In the fourth year of his ministry he began to preach to his people just as he thought, convinced that the preacher who fits the most consciences will get the most hearers—just as the shoemaker who makes the best fit will get the most customers. In preaching at the consciences he says there are three essential requisites—clearness, concentration and directness—and that when the conscience is aroused the alternative is left, of a better life or complete abandonment. When he first began to preach he was brought face to face with the fact that to succeed as a preacher one must either be a great thinker or a great worker—and after prayerful consideration he chose the latter. During the first eight years of his ministry he preached not less than 400 sermons a year, week after week, preaching oftentimes four sermons a day. He has never attempted to prove that there was a God—that Christ was divine—or that there was a heaven or hell. He made these things not an objective point, but a starting point—his idea being that Christ meant what he said in the command—preach the Gospel, not defend it; preach the Word, not try to prove that the Word is true. He is a believer in progressive theology, in aggressive effort, in agitation, in conflict, in conquest, and in the crowns which must follow this line of work. To the newspapers he concedes he owes much of his success, they having been very kind to him in their reportorial columns. The main object of all his preaching has been to make men realize fully that sin is hideous and righteousness attractive; to drive men from the former and attract them to the heights and beauties of the latter. Mr. Jones was married in November, 1869, to Miss Laura, daughter of John H. McElrain, of Henry county, Ky., and of the seven children which have blessed this union six survive: Mary M., Annie C, S. Paul, Robert W., Laura Henry and Julia Baxter. Since the above sketch was written, Mr. Jones died suddenly on Oct. 15, 1906.
Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Tracy McAllister

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