Jefferson
County, Alabama Biographies
The following biographies
were extracted from:
Jefferson County and Birmnigham, Alabama: Historical and
Biographical, 1887, Author: John Witherspoon
Dubose.
A
J. C. ABERNATHY
was born in Marengo County, Alabama, September 6,
1836, where he was reared. His father, Rev. T. S. Abernathy was for over
fifty years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Our subject
studied medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1856-57, and graduated from the
University of Louisiana, medical department, in the class of 1858-59.
In
1861 he entered the Confederate Army, as surgeon of the Thirty-second Alabama
Regiment, and in the last year of the war was transferred to the Forty-third
Regiment, and remained with them as surgeon until the surrender of General
Joseph E. Johnston, at Raleigh, North Carolina. During his service he was
a portion of the time surgeon of General H. D. Clayton's brigade, and was chief
surgeon of General Breckinridge's division, during his campaign in
Mississippi.
General Joseph E. Johnston, at the surrender, at Raleigh,
presented every officer and private with a silver dollar, as a token of
faithfulness to the cause they had so gallantyly fought for. Dr. Abernathy
was a recipient of one of these mementoes, and, it is needless to say, prizes it
very highly.
After the close of the war Dr. Abernathy devoted himself
assiduously to the practice of his profession, in Southern Alabama. In
1882 he came to Birmingham, where he has achieved a position in the front ranks
of the profession in Jefferson County.
Dr. Abernathy is a
gentlemen of culture, and is an enterprising and public-spririted
citizen.
B. G. ABERNETHYwas born
April 13, 1844 in Marengo County, Alabama, and is a son of Rev. T. S. and Ellen
Abernethy, natives of Tennessee and Alabama respectively.
The early
education of our subject was good, and at the age of sixteen he was prepared to
enter college, but, upon the breaking out of the war, he enlisted in Company A,
Forty-third Alabama Infantry, and served as a private until six months previous
to the close, when he was appointed brigade assistant quartermaster, which
position he held until the end of the struggle.
In May, 1865, he
became a teacher in his native county, and subsequently engaged in buying cotton
for Mr. R. M. Robertson, also assisting him in a drug store conducted by the
latter. During this service he began the study of medicine. He
subsequently purchased the drug store, and continued his studies, together with
the business, for two years. He subsequently farmed a short period, and
practiced his profession, in Hale County, and then entered the medical
department of the Southern University, of Greensboro, and took a course of
lectures. After three years of subsequent practice, in Hale County, he
entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Baltimore, Maryland, and was
graduated therefrom in 1880. Since 1880 he has been in active practice in
Birmingham, where he has established an excellent reputation, both in his
profession and in private life. Since 1886 he has had associated with him
his brother, Dr. J. C. Abernethy. Dr. Abernethy was married November 7,
1867, to Miss Elizabeth R., daughter of Captain John Cocke, of Hale
County. Four children grace this union, Benjamin C., Thomas S., May J.,
and John C.
JAMES A. ALLEN
the head of one of the wholesale groceries of Birmingham,
was one of the proprietors of the first wholesale house in the Magic City. He
came from Southern stock, and is of English and Scotch extraction. His father,
Edward Allen, was a native of North Carolina; his mother, whose maiden name was
Rebecca Williams, was born in Maryland.
James A. Allen was born in
June, 1836, in Hancock County, Georgia, and his early education was commenced in
private schools. At the age of twelve he came to Alabama, and was a farmer's
boy, and at the age of thirty entered the grocery house of Joseph & Allen,
and thoroughly informed himself with every branch of that trade. Subsequently he
formed a partnership with James M. Smith, and was successfully engaged in the
wholesale grocery line in Montgomery until 1871. In the-latter year he came to
what is now Birmingham, and formed a partnership with A. Marree, one of the
first citizens and business men to locate there. This firm started the first
grocery house, their store being located on First Avenue and Nineteenth Street.
Mr. Allen soon after purchased the interest of Mr. Marree, and conducted the
business with remarkable success under the firm name of James A. Allen &
Co., until 1883, when the present house of Allen, Scott & Co. was organized,
by the admission of W. C. and B. C. Scott into the firm. Their business grew to
such proportions that in 1886 Mr. Allen erected, on the south side of First
Avenue, a three-story brick building, which extends from First to Morris Avenue,
and is 27 ˝ x l82 ˝ feet. It is one of the finest business blocks in the city,
and was designed to meet the demands of the immense business which this
progressive firm has established.
Mr. Allen was a gallant member
of the Sixth Alabama Regiment during the late war, enlisting as a private in
Company E, in 1861. He was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville, in 1863,
which disabled him from active duties, but he remained in the service until the
close of the war.
Mr. Allen has been thrice married, and has two children living—Claude A.
and James A. The family are members of the First Presbyterian Church, in which
Mr. Allen has served as elder for several years.
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