Luke Pryor, distinguished lawyer, legislator
and citizen, Athens, Ala., was born in Madison County, this State, July 5, 1820, and his
parents were Luke and Aim B. (Lane) Pryor, natives of the State of Virginia, and descendants
of English ancestry. The senior Luke Pryor married in his native
State; came to Madison County, Ala., in 1820,
and into Limestone County in 1822. He was a
planter by occupation ; a quiet, unassuming gentleman : a good citizen, and died, mourned by all
who knew him, in 1851, at the advanced age of
eighty-one years. His widow survived him several
years. and died at Athens, in 1874. They reared
but two sons, John B. Pryor, now resident of New
Jersey, and a distinguished turfman, and the subject of this sketch.
It was at the common schools of Limestone
County, Luke Pryor acquired the rudiments of an
English education which he subsequently augmented at an academy at Washington, Miss. He
studied law under Daniel Coleman, at Athens:
was admitted to the bar in 1841. and gave to that
profession forty years of his life. His first law
partner was Robert Brickell, now the distinguished
Alabama jurisprudent. He was afterward at
different times associated with Egbert Jones,
General Walker, and lastly, the Hon. George S.
Houston.
Since coming to man's estate, Mr. Pryor lias
been identified prominently with every important
interest and industry of this community, and
every good work has received his heartiest encouragement and support. As early as 1854. he made
himself conspicuous as the friend and advocate of
what is now known as the L. & N. R. K., then,
we believe, spoken of as the North & South
Railroad. It is of history that enterprise, in
its inception, met with much strenuous opposition
at the hands of some of the leading men of North
Alabama, and particularly of Limestone County.
This should not be construed into meaning that
those men opposed the construction of the road
as such, but they objected to the means proposed, to-wit: that of subsidizing the corporation by taxation to be levied upon the common people. Stock
was issued for the involuntary subscription or
county taxes to the tax payer. Upon the other
hand, Mr. Pryor and other gentlemen associated
with him, took the ground that no moneyed company would find it sufficiently to their interest to
induce them to invest the large amount required
for the construction of such line of road at that
early day: for it was known that the product of
the country was then insufficient to make it a
paying investment, and that it would probably
remain so for many years. Therefore, he argued,
that as the road was to redound to the immediate
advantage of the people of that section of the
country by giving them an outlet to the world,
and access to markets, thus enhancing the value
of their property, and increasing the price of the
product of the plantation, it was but right that
the people, as a whole, should bear a part of the
necessary expense. It was upon this question that
the people differed ; and the history of the North
& South Railroad shows that Mr. Pryor and his
friends were successful, and that a majority of the
people of Limestone were with him to the extent
that they voted in aid of the enterprise $200,000.
It then became a question as to whether the legislature would pass a bill for this purpose, and Mr.
Pryor and Thomas II. Hobbs were sent to the
Legislature particularly in the interest of the enterprise. The bill as introduced and passed, was
vetoed by the Governor, but it was immediately
passed over his head by the required two-thirds
majority. under the leadership of Mr. Pryor.
Mr. Pryor remained with this railroad company, and as its friend and champion, for many
years, until, in fact, it became a through line of
road from Nashville to the Tennessee River, and
thence onward in the direction of Montgomery.
As this was one of the most important enterprises
of the South, and resulted in so much good to the
whole people, it is just that we should say that
there were associated with Mr. Pryor, and in its
behalf, many other good and true men, and among
them may be mentioned specially, Major Thomas
H. Hobbs, James loss, Geo. S. Houston,- Gilder, - Belser, et al. These men were,
many of them, identified later on with what was
known as the " Mountain Contracting Company,"
organized for the purpose of constructing this
road between Decatur and Calera. It is now
known that the road was in process of construction
at the outbreak of the late war. It is also known
that the three per cent, levy due from the State to
the trust fund established for the purpose of connecting the Tennessee River and Mobile Bay, was
appropriated to the North & South Railroad Company, and undoubtedly hastened the construction
of this road, which finally led on to Birmingham
and made that city possible. The bill providing
for this appropriation was largely the work of
Luke Pryor.
In 1880 (January) Governor Cobb appointed
Hon. Luke Pryor United States Senator, to fill
the unexpired term of the late George S. Houston.
This appointment was made not only in consideration of the warm friendship existing between
Messrs. Pryor and Houston during the lifetime of
the latter, but was also in response to a demand
on the,part of people that the great Houston be
succeeded by one most familiar with his methods
and his purposes, and by the man most fitted in
every way to prosecute them to completion. How
well Mr. Pryor discharged this great duty is now
known to the intelligent reader, and forms a part
of the history of the nation.
At the expiration of the term for which he was
appointed, Mr. Pryor refused to allow his name
to go before the Legislature for re-election. In
the fall of 1882 the people of his district, in convention assembled at Decatur, without any knowledge or solicitation on his part, nominated Luke
Pryor, by acclamation, as the Democratic candidate for the United States Congress. Mr. Lowe,
who was at that time the Greenback Republican
candidate, died quite suddenly during the canvass, and the Hon. David D. Shelby was placed in
his stead upon that ticket. Though at the preceding election Mr. Lowe had been returned by
a handsome majority, Mr. Pryor was elected by
over 500. At the end of the term Mr. Pryor
again declined further nomination.
Mr. Pryor, now in the sixty-eighth year of his age, the possessor of a sound physical constitution,
in the enjoyment of robust health and the exercise
of every God-given faculty, promises yet to live
many years of usefulness in a community where
he has spent a long life, and where he is known
and loved by all who can appreciate true worth in
a noble citizen. Kindhearted, generous to a fault,
never purposely inflicting a wound upon any
heart, Luke Pryor, when he shall have been gathered unto his fathers, will leave behind him a
name and reputation to be honored by those who
knew him, and worthy of emulation by the greatest
to succeed him.
Mr. Pryor was married in Limestone County,
August 20, 1845, to a daughter of John H. Harris,
a native of Virginia, and her given name was Isabella Virginia. To them has been born one son,
William Richard Pryor, now an extensive farmer
in this county. Their daughters are: Aurora
(Mrs. Robert A. McClellan), Memory (widow of
the late William S. Peebles, Ann P. (Mrs. Maclin
Sloss), Mary (Mrs. Thomas Leslie), Fannie Snow
and Hattie.
The family are somewhat divided in their church
relations, some of them being Presbyterians and
others Methodists.
Source: Northern Alabama Historical & Biographical
by T.A. DeLand and A. Davis Smith 1888
