Tuscaloosa County Alabama Biographies

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LEACH, SYDNEY, physician, was born January 25, 1875, at Tuscaloosa; son of Sidney Fitts and Mary Lee (Peck) Leach, who lived at Tuscaloosa, the former a soldier in the C. S. Army, who served as a sergeant in Fowler's battery, Smith's regiment of artillery; grandson of Sewell Jones and Elizabeth (Faulcon) Leach (q. v.), and of Elijah Woolsey and Lucy (Randall) Peck, of Tuscaloosa. He was educated in the Tuscaloosa public schools; attended University high school at Marion, and Marion military institute; was graduated from the Alabama polytechnic institute, B. S., 1894 and from the University of Virginia, M. D., 1896. He served in various hospitals in New York, and was a member of the house staff of the New York polyclinic medical school and hospital in 1899; was appointed first assistant physician of the Alabama insane hospital, and served in that capacity, 1899-1904; since that time has been practicing medicine at Tuscaloosa. He is a Democrat, an Episcopalian, and a Mason. Married: April 25, 1900, at Tuscaloosa, to Nanieta Somerville McEachin, daughter of Archibald Bruce and Eudora (Somerville) McEachin, who lived at that place. Children: 1. Minturn Peck, d. 1904; 2. Mary Lee; 3. Sidney McEachin, d. 1905; 4. Archibald Bruce; 5. Eudora Somerville; 6. Randall Peck. Residence: Tuscaloosa.  Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

LINCECUM, GIDEON, naturalist and pioneer settler, was born in April, 1793, in Hancock County, Ga., and died November 28, 1873, at Long Point, Texas. He was educated in a country school in South Carolina; served in the War of 1812; studied medicine and taught school in Georgia, removed to Tuscaloosa which was then located in the wilderness, later went to Mississippi and finally located in Texas. He was the collector of many valuable specimens in natural history. Last residence: Long Point, Texas.  Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

LITTLE, GEORGE, teacher and geologist, was born February 11, 1838, at Tuscaloosa; son of John and Barbara (Kerr) Little, the former a native of Corry Hill, Dumfries, Scotland, a resident of Tuscaloosa from 1835-80. druggist there for forty years, teacher in Charleston, S. C., manager of the Iron works at Beatty'a Ford, N. C., and connected with a number of other business activities; grandson of William and Janet Little, of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and of George and Margaret (Pool) Kerr, also of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the former was for forty years a teacher in Tuscaloosa, and died there at the age of ninety-two, in 1864, whose daughter 'Barbara (Kerr) Little, taught in Tuscaloosa also for forty years. Dr. Little received his early education from his mother and his cousin, Miss Mary Irving, 'George Bell, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and other teachers of the period. He attended the University of Alabama, 1851-55, and graduated with the A. B. degree. During 1857-58, he attended the University of Berlin and in 1858- 59, studied at the University of Gottingen from which he received the Ph. D. degree. In 1906, the honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the University of Alabama. He taught in Tuscaloosa, 1855-57-65; was professor of natural science, 1860-61-66-67, Oakland college, Mississippi; professor of mineralogy, and geology and agriculture, University of Georgia, 1876-78; State geologist, Mississippi, 1870- 74; State geologist, Georgia, 1874-81; geological expert, Chattanooga, Tenn., 1889-92; geological expert, Tuscaloosa, 1892-1912; secretary Tuscaloosa board of trade, 1909-12. While a student at the University of Alabama, he held the rank of corporal and sergeant successively in the cadet corps. He entered the Confederate Army as a private in Lumden's Battery, 1861, and was promoted through the successive ranks of orderly sergeant, lieutenant, captain of artillery, major and lieutenant-colonel at the close of the war. He is a Democrat and Presbyterian. He is a trustee, Pontotoc, Miss., Presbyterian collegiate institute; fellow American association advancement of science. Author: inaugural thesis for degree of Ph. D., Gottingen, Germany, 1859; "Selenium and the Selenlurets;" "Reports of progress of the mineral, geological and physical survey of Georgia;" "Ores, minerals and woods;" "Handbook of Georgia;" "Cretaceous fossil;" in Philadelphia Academy of Science, part III, 1876; "Clays of Alabama," 1900. Married: May 13, 1869, at Sardis, Miss., to Caroline Patillo, daughter of Rev. Daniel Gillespie and Mary Ann (Patillo) Doak, who lived at Zion church, near Columbia, Tenn., the former was a native of Guilford County, N. C., the latter born in Person County, N. C., 1843; granddaughter of John Franklin Patillo and great-granddaughter of Rev. Henry Patillo, author of Patillo's sermons, and a soldier in the Revolution. Children: 1. Mary; 2. Daniel Doak, teacher, 1891-96, student Presbyterian theological seminary, Louisville, Ky., 1897-1900, pastor Presbyterian church, Montevallo; 3. George Kerr, U. S. engineer; 4. James Waddell, U. S. engineer; 5. John Goulding, ciyll engineer; 6. Margaret Carolyn. Residence: Tuscaloosa.  Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

SMITH, WILLIAM RUSSELL, 1815—1896,  In versatility of genius, varied and successful achievement, often  in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles, and in a broad and untrammeled grasp of public affairs, William Russell Smith takes easy rank among the first of distinguished Alabamians. Journalist, author, lawyer, and political leader, he was eminent in every field of endeavor in which he entered. He was born in Russellville, Kentucky, March 27, 1815, the son of Ezekiel Smith, a prosperous pioneer and planter of Kentucky, and Elizabeth Hampton, who were married at Bowling Green, Kentucky, August 8, 1806, both being descended from old colonial families who, having their American origin in Virginia, had migrated to Kentucky. The boy was named for Colonel William Russell, of Virginia, a kinsman, from whom the town of Russellville, Kentucky, took its name. After the death of her husband, the widow gathered the remnants of the patrimony and her slaves, and upon the advice of friends and relatives, and in their company, moved to Huntsville, in what was then the Territory of Alabama, with her six children, Sidney, the eldest; Louisa, Glovina, and Adeline, William, the fifth, and Joseph, an infant who died at Huntsville. There she built a stone house, near the great spring, which was still standing when the Civil War came on. After a sojourn of a year or two in Huntsville, the mother, for what reason is not known, but possibly on account of the dwindling family fortune, sold the house at Huntsville, and removed to Tuscaloosa. Here, in the autumn of 1823, during an epidemic, she died of a fever, leaving her five orphans (Sidney, aged sixteen, being the eldest) to face the battle of life far from relatives or old friends. She was buried in the graveyard in Tuscaloosa, near the spot where her distinguished son now lies.

The death of the mother wrought a great change in the condition of the children. A family named Potts — Mrs. Potts having nursed Mrs. Smith in her last illness — took charge of the children and of their little remaining property. The slaves ran away, the property was speedily dissipated, and the children were temporarily scattered among the neighbors, William remaining with the Potts family. Here, his little property being gone, he was mistreated by Mrs. Potts, deprived of his linen clothing, for which gingham and homespun were substituted, compelled to wait for his meals until the family had finished, and otherwise made to feel his dependent condition. He received severe whippings for trifling childish faults — perhaps the first and only blows he ever had felt. The culmination came when one night he crept out of his attic window and down the sloping roof to the ground, and ran away. After wandering about for two or three days, he was restored to his brother. About this time a cousin came from Kentucky and endeavored to persuade the children to return to the home of their birth; but Sidney, who had then obtained employment, opposed this. Shortly afterward his sister, Louisa, married William A. McDaniel, a tailor, in whose shop the boy was employed. It was not long, however, before it was discovered that the little orphan was an embryo genius; and kind friends of whom he always spoke with affection came forward to assist him, the most generous being General George W. Crabb (to whose memory and achievements Judge Smith paid tribute in his 'Reminiscences,') who advanced the money for his education, which his future law student afterward repaid him. In 1826 or 1827 he entered the school taught by Dr. Reuben Searcy, later one of the most distinguished physicians of West Alabama, and, in 1829, the school of the Rev. Nathaniel H. Harris, M.A., where he spent two years in preparing for college.

The sixteen year-old boy entered the University of Alabama on the opening day in the spring of 1831. Ambitious and diligent, young Smith, ably taught by earnest teachers, and emulating his brilliant fellow students, attained a high standard of scholarship in a thorough course of English, French, classical and scientific studies. Withal he assiduously cultivated the muses, as is attested by the publication of his first book while he was yet a student at the University. This little book of 112 pages, containing sixteen poems, unique in being, probably, the first literary production as such published in Alabama, is entitled 'College Musings, or Twigs from Parnassus,' printed by D. Woodruff at Tuscaloosa, in 1833. It was followed shortly afterward by 'The Bridal Eve,' an Indian romance in verse. Early in 1834, within a few months of graduation, young Smith was compelled, from the necessity of earning a livelihood, to leave the University. He entered the law office of General Crabb, his friend and patron, and so diligently did he pursue his studies that at the end of one year he passed the necessary examination and was  admitted to the Bar. He began practice at Greensboro in 1835, at the age of twenty. He was short of stature — about five feet, five inches in height — but with a sturdy, well-knit frame, capable of great and prolonged endurance, both physical and mental. He had dark brown hair, large eyes of the same color, and a large, expressive mouth, indicative of an affectionate and generous nature, and at the same time of unbending determination. In 1836 his elder brother, Sidney, joining one of the Alabama companies, which were raised for that purpose, went to Texas to aid the fight for Texan independence, and there he was killed in the Goliad massacre of March 27, 1836 — this being William's twenty- first birthday. In the mean time hostilities had broken out with the Creek Nation, and the young lawyer, fired with the military spirit inherited from his soldier ancestors of two wars, and nurtured by his mother's teachings, raised a company of mounted infantry, of which he was elected captain, and proceeded, in the regiment commanded by Colonel Joseph P. Frazier, to the seat of war. But, the Indian War having been just brought to an end, his company was disbanded and he returned home. There he met the news of his brother's death and of the destruction of the whole of Fannin's command by the treachery of Santa Anna; and he immediately set out, visiting several counties, and addressing audiences wherever he could find them, in an endeavor to raise a force to rally to the support of the Texans and to avenge the blood of the American patriots who had been so foully slaughtered at Goliad. The desire to avenge the untimely death of his brother, who had been father and mother to the orphan boy, who shared with him the inheritance of a brilliant mind, and for whom he entertained a passionate affection, must have dominated all other motives for this intended incursion into military fields. The company that he recruited went as far as Mobile, where the news of the battle of San Jacinto, and the subsequent success of the Texans, caused it to disband. Instead of returning home, young Smith remained in Mobile and for a year devoted himself to literature, soon establishing a magazine. This magazine was The Bachelor's Button, a monthly periodical, purely literary in its character, the first number of which was published at Mobile in December, 1836. It had the distinction of being the first periodical of the kind ever published in Alabama. The first four numbers were published in Mobile, but in 1837 Judge Smith returned to Tuscaloosa where the fifth and sixth — the latter the last — numbers were published. This magazine of 1836-1837, to which young Smith was a large contributor, as well as its editor, might well hold a prominent place in our Twentieth Century publications.

Upon the adjournment of the Convention in March, 1861, Judge Smith went home and raised the Sixth Alabama Battalion, which grew into the Twenty-sixth Alabama Regiment, of which he was commissioned Colonel; and at the same time he prepared for publication the 'History and Debates of the Secession Convention,' a work of the very highest value. He went into the camp of instruction; but was almost immediately elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, in which he served from the beginning to the end, in 1865. After the close of the war, he ran for Governor in 1865, but was defeated and entered the political field but once again, namely in 1878, when he was defeated for Congress. He resumed in Tuscaloosa the practice of law, and also devoted himself to literary pursuits, principally the translation into English couplets of parts of Homer's "Iliad." About this time Judge Smith began also the preparation, under a joint resolution of the General Assembly, of a condensation of the Alabama Reports, which were published in ten volumes, the first in 1870, and the tenth in 1879, covering all the reports from Minor to the Eighth Alabama Reports, inclusive. In 1870 he was elected president of the University, and served as such for about a year. The Board of Trustees was composed of Radicals, and it was thought that the election of Judge Smith would win over to the University the support of the people; but the antagonism to them was reflected on him, and seeing that he would be unable, under the existing state of feeling, to build up the institution, he retired.

In 1879 he removed with his family to Washington, where he resided during the remainder of his life, practicing law for several years, but devoting the greater part of his time, even until his death, to literary pursuits. In the early 'eighties he edited and published The Law-Central, to which he contributed a series of exhaustive studies in criminal insanity, including a study of the Guiteau case. In 1889 he published one of his most valuable contributions to the history and literature of Alabama: 'Reminiscences of a Long Life; Historical, Political, Personal, and Literary.' During the succeeding years of his life he prepared a second volume of the same character, but it was never published. In 1890 he published a humorous poem, in rhyming couplets, entitled " Was it a Pistol? A Nut for Lawyers," descriptive of a trial by jury for the carrying of a concealed pistol by an unsophisticated country youth, who was also a ventriloquist. He printed also, for private circulation, a number of poetical pieces, the principal one being  "Polyxena: A Tragedy," based upon the story of that character in the "Iliad." He retained the vigor of his intellect unimpaired to the very day of his death, which occurred in Washington, February 26, 1896, of an acute attack of bronchitis, the funeral services being conducted at the Roman Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist by the Bishop of Mobile. He was a man whose love for his kin never hesitated; whose affection and loyalty to his friends never wavered; a man singularly free from any taint of envy, jealousy, or malice, even toward an enemy; indeed, it seems that it might have been well for him politically had he cherished resentment.  Source: Thomas M Owen, Library of Southern Literature; Submitted by Janice Rice

(Note: Burial next to his mother Tuscaloosa Alabama)

WALKER, HICKMAN PIERCE, merchant, was born February 8, 1839, at Tuscaloosa; son of Robert B. and Frances Elizabeth (Spiller) Walker, the former a merchant, was born at North Port; grandson of Moses Walker, of North Port, and of Hickman and Sally (Payne) Spiller, of Danville, Va. He received his early education in the county schools at Taylorsville and attended the University of Alabama; entered the Confederate Army, July 13, 1861,-as 2d lieutenant, Co. G; made lieutenant colonel, 18th Alabama infantry regiment, in the retreat from Tennessee, under General J. B. Hood. He was a member first board of education of Tuscaloosa. He is a Democrat; Baptist; and a Mason. Unmarried. Residence: Tuscaloosa.  Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

WALKER, TANDY, pioneer blacksmith and woodsman, was born in Virginia and died in Alabama or Texas, in 1842. One of his grandmothers was a Miss Tandy. He removed to the Tombigbee Country, 1801, then an Indian frontier, guarded by military posts, and beginning to be occupied by white pioneer families. Mr. Walker was the government blacksmith at St. Stephens, then an army post, and was also interpreter between the whites and Indians. He was the hero of one of the most thrilling of the border incidents, preserved in Alabama history, the rescue of Mrs. Crawley, a Tennessee white woman, who had been kidnapped and brought to the "great falls" now Tuscaloosa, by "Little Warrior" to be burned at the stake. He was a fearless Indian fighter. Married: Mary Mays. Children: 1. Sarah New- step, m. Caswell Reynolds of Newbern; 2. Millie, m. Edward Easley.  Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

WALLACE, JAMES B., old time lawyer of Tuscaloosa. Deceased.  Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

WHITFIELD, LOUIS B. 1027 district 1876-1880; was re-elected in 1880 was re-elected in 1880 and 1886, serving in that office for sixteen years; and later became associate judge of the city court of Gadsden. He was a trustee of the University of Alabama for six years; is a Democrat; a Methodist, serving the church as secretary of the Eufaula district conference and as statistical secretary of the Southern Alabama Conference ; and is a Mason. Married : December 19, 1865, in Tuscaloosa. to Lillie Lawrence, daughter of William Haywood and Ildegerte Lucy (Anthony) Lawrence, of Tuscaloosa; granddaughter of Josiah and Charity (Haywood) Lawrence; great-granddaughter of Col. William Haywood, who was colonel of militia forces of Edgecombe District, N. C., a member of the provincial congress of North Carolina at Halifax in April, 1776, a member of the committee in that body which drafted the State constitution and the bill of rights a member of the council of state in 1776, and one of the commissioners who signed the Revolutionary currency of North Carolina; great-great-granddaughter of John Haywood who moved from New York to North Carolina, was a colonel of militia, a member of the Nortn Carolina assembly, 1746-1752, commissioner of coast fortifications in 1748, and surveyor to Earl Granville. Children: 1. Lawrence Haywood, m. Augusta Alston; 2. Vela, m. George W. Peach; 3. William Lovard ; 4 Charles W., m. Nettie Passmore; 5. Henry Pitzhugh 6. Alto Vela Residence: Gadsden. Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer