DAVID BORDEN
GRACE, in ante-bellum days the canebrake
region ofAlabama was the garden of God’s creation. Each planter was a king,
and his children assumed the airs of royalty itself. Their habit of commanding
slaves bred within them a feeling of superiority. The people of the hill country
of Alabama
looked with longing upon this paradise. Now the conditions are reversed. It was
natural that Francis M. Grace should turn his eyes in that direction when he
returned from the Tennessee
University to his father's home in
Jefferson County, near the present site of Birmingham. He began
manhood as the pastor of the Methodist
Church, in Newberne, Greene County, Alabama. While there he wedded Mary Borden,
who united in mind and person the culture and beauty of Southern womanhood.
Their first-born was a son, David Borden Grace, the subject of this sketch, who
was born February 9, 1855. Here he lived until after the close of the war, when
his father concluded that, under the condition of affairs then existing in the
South, his children would imbibe false ideas of life, and grow up in idleness
and ignorance, decided to accept a professor's chair in the Tennessee University, and removed with his family to Knoxville. After receiving
a collegiate education at the Tennessee
University, Mr. Grace was sent to look
after his father's farm in Jefferson County. Becoming tired of farm life, in
the year 1875 he sought a more congenial field, by engaging in the newspaper
business in Birmingham, then a town of 2,500 inhabitants,
and became connected with the Iron Age. He afterward removed to Montevallo, and
published the Guide for three years. On the 1st of January, 1880, Mr. Grace
visited his father, in Tennessee, and purchased the Sweetwater
Democrat, which he successfully published for four years. During his residence
in Tennessee, the State debt excitement shook
the old volunteer State from the mountains on the east to the Mississippi on the west. Mr. Mr. Grace took a
bold stand in favor of the State credit, and opposed repudiation with all the
zeal in his nature. He had the honor of being placed upon the committee on
platform in the State convention of 1882, which virtually settled the vexatious
question, with credit to the State and justice to the bondholders.
The fame of
Birmingham, and its rapid strides began to be
noised about in Tennessee, and Mr. Grace was possessed with a
desire to return to the home of his fathers, where his grandfather and father
had edited papers, and where he himself first entered the profession to which he
has devoted his life. In January, 1884, he sold out his interests in Tennessee, removed to Birmingham, and aided in founding the Evening
Chronicle, of which he is now the successful manager. His subsequent success has
demonstrated the wisdom of his choice. His energy and devotion to duty places
him in line with the enterprising young men, for which Birmingham is noted. He
has never engaged in any other but the newspaper business, and has made a
success of every paper he has been connected with. He has won distinction as a
graceful writer, and when weightier matters do not press he often enlivens the
columns of his paper. In a new community like Birmingham, the question is
asked after every introduction: "Where are you from?" Mr. Grace can say, in the
memorable language of Ben Hill on the floor of the Senate, when Southern
statesmen again graced the halls of Congress after a long absence: "I am in the
house of my fathers; my companions are my brethren; I am at home, to stay
forever, thank God!"
JOHN F. GRADY is a native
of Ireland, and was born in the County Clare, April 29,1853. He came to
America when quite young with
his father and mother, who settled in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He lived there until he was thirteen
years old, and then went to New York
City with his parents. He attended the public schools in
both places until he was fourteen years old, and then bound himself as an
apprentice to learn the iron molder's trade, and served seven years'
apprenticeship. Since then he has worked in all the principal cities in this
country at his trade-.. He came to Birmingham in October, 1886, and was one of the
organizers of the Avondale Iron Works, in which he has an interest. He is a
molder of much skill, and will here, in this progressive city, find the best
field for his labors.
