He lived for many years afterward and passed away
in 1896, beloved and lamented by all.
Dr. Wm. P. Taylor came to
Birmingham from Montgomery in the early days of 1872, when the
city was but a few months old. He was a man of great culture
and polished manners, and with medical at tainments, which soon won for him a lucrative practice
and friends among every class of people.
He was among those who remained at their post
during the epidemic of cholera, which in1873 devastated our
town. He fell a victim to the disease himself but after
recovering began again his labors.
He lived and worked among us until 1883, when he
passed away at the age of 50 years.
Dr. James B. Luckie came to this
place while it was yet in its infancy from Montgomery. He
brought with him a reputation as physician and surgeon of rare
ability. He served during the Civil War as surgeon and for a
time was with the Forty-third Alabama regi ment. He was full
of fun and humor, a loyal friend and a good physician, whose
friends were legion and whose enemies none. He gave great
service during the cholera, working night and day without
thought or care for himself, until at the close of the
epidemic he was himself a victim, but fortunately after being
near death he recovered and after a long and useful life, he
passed away on December 4, 1908, at the age of 75.
Dr. Crawford was another faithful
and devoted doctor who gave his services night and day without
money and without price. He came to this place in 1871 from
Tuskegee, and lived here until about 1876, when he returned to
Tuskegee and died in 1883. I wish I knew more of the life and
works of this good and able man, who was such a good friend of
my husband, but as he left here early in his career I never
met him again.
Dr. Mortimer Harvie Jordan first
settled in Elyton, and practiced medicine until on
July 4,1872, he moved to Birmingham. He was a young man
of great energy and ambition; of a genial happy disposition,
devoted to his profession, in which he was even then though
only 28 years of age, rapidly forging to the front ranks. He
had served with distinction during the Civil War rapidly
rising from private to the rank of captain.
He remained during the dark days of the summer of
1873, working day and night over the cholera stricken people,
scarcely pausing for sleep or rest. He fortunately escaped
having the disease himself, but lived until 1889 when he
succumbed to that dreaded disease, tuberculosis, and passed
away at the early age of forty-four years, leaving a large
family and many friends to mourn his loss.
It may not be amiss here to mention that in the
year 1874 Dr. Jordan was called on by the Government to
furnish a history of the cholera in Birmingham, which he did.
It was published, and is now in the Congressional
Records.
