presents
Mississippi Genealogy Trails
presents
Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. I. Boston, MA, USA: The Biographical Society, 1904
BARRY, William Taylor Sullivan, representative, was born at Columbus, Miss., Dec. 12, 1821. He was graduated at Yale in 1841; studied law, and engaged in practice in Columbus. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1849-51, and speaker of the house in 1855; was elected a representative in the 33d congress from Sunflower county, and was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in 1860, withdrawing with other slave-holding members. He was president of the state secession convention in 1861; a member of the confederate provisional congress from February, 1861, to January, 1862, and became colonel of the 35th Mississippi volunteers in 1862. He took part in the defence (sic) of Vicksburg and in the Georgia campaign, and was captured at Mobile, April 25, 1865. He died at Columbus, Miss., Jan. 29, 1868.
The biography below is from the "Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, submitted by Jo Ann Scott
BARRY, William Taylor Sullivan, a Representative from Mississippi; born in Columbus, Lowndes County, Miss., December 10, 1821; was graduated from Yale College in 1841; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1844 and commenced practice in Columbus; also engaged in planting; member of the State house of representatives 1849-1851; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1855); again a member of the State house of representatives and served as speaker in 1855; president of the State secession convention in 1861; member of the Provisional Confederate Congress; during the Civil War entered the Confederate Army and raised the Thirty-fifth Regiment of Mississippi Infantry, at times acting as brigade commander; captured at Mobile April 12, 1865; resumed the practice of law in Columbus, Miss., where he died January 29, 1868; interment in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
The biography below is from "The Bench and Bar of Mississippi", By James Daniel Lynch, ©1881 - Submitted by Janice Rice:WILLIAM S. BARRY.
The distinguished subject of this memoir was born in the then village of Columbus, on the 10th day of December, 1821. His early educational advantages were good, and after the usual academical preparation, he was sent to Yale College, and graduated with distinction at that institution about the year 1845. On his return to Columbus, he entered, as a student of law, the office of Messrs. Harrison & Harris, and soon attracted attention by the earnestness of his application, the courtesy of his manners, the polished fluency of his language, and by the remarkable eloquence which he displayed in a debating society composed of the best speakers and most intelligent men of the town.
On obtaining his license, Mr. Barry began the practice of law in copartnership with Judge J. S. Bennett, and soon manifested a brilliancy of talent and a rare aptitude for his profession which furnished flattering indications and promise of future eminence, but, becoming weary of professional monotony, he retired from the bar in 1847 and settled as a planter on his farm in Oktibbeha County. Here, however, his talents soon commanded notice, and in 1849 he was elected from that county to a seat in the lower House of the State Legislature, and was re-elected in 1851. While in the Legislature Mr. Barry participated actively in the promotion of all the leading measures of his party, and in the discussion of the exciting questions of that period, in which his manly bearing and oratorical powers commanded much respect and influence.
In 1852 he removed to that portion of Sunflower County afterwards included in the county of Leflore, and in 1853 was elected to a seat in the National House of Representatives. While in Congress Mr. Barry was noted for his alertness and penetration, and for his skill and eloquence in debate. He took strong grounds in opposition to the party denominated " Know-Nothings," and in his speech on " Civil and Religious Toleration," delivered in the House of Representatives on the 18th of December, 1854, he exposed the policy and principles of that party in a lucid, searching, and effectual manner.
At the expiration of his term in Congress, Mr. Barry declined a re-election and resumed the practice of his profession in Columbus, in copartnership with Thomas Christian, Esq. This firm continued with an increasing command of business until 1855, when the political admirers of Mr. Barry would no longer dispense with his abilities in the arena of politics, and he was again induced to come forth from the retirement of professional life; and in the midst of the fierce political contest of that year he became the leader of the Democratic party in his section of the State. He was again elected to the Legislature, and was made speaker of the House, over which he presided with an energy and ability that fully comported with his reputation.
From this time Mr. Barry became absorbed in the contemplation of the great question of disunion, whose rapid approach his sagacity even now foresaw; and as it rolled its huge proportions to the brow of the political horizon, he became more and more convinced that, though beast it might be, it was far preferable to that monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, of Northern fanaticism, whose ravages threatened the destruction of every Southern interest and Southern right; he therefore boldly and firmly embraced the alternative, and on taking his seat as a delegate from the county of Lowndes in the Mississippi Secession Convention of 1861, he was immediately chosen the president of that body. In this convention were assembled, par excellence, the wisest and best men of the State, and the lofty bearing and sublime attitude maintained by Mr. Barry as its presiding officer gave a dignity, steadfastness, and solemnity, to its proceedings, full worthy of the momentous event. So impressed was he with the importance of the occasion and the great object which had been achieved, it is said, that it was with the most powerful manifestations of the mingled feelings that throbbed and swayed within his bosom, with faltering voice and tearful eye, that he announced the decision of the convention, that Mississippi was no longer a member of the Federal Union, but a Sovereign and Independent State. It is said that he never again used the pen with which he signed the Ordinance of Secession, but carefully laid it away with its half delivered ink, and left it to his only son, a namesake, with the injunction that it should be preserved as an heirloom in the family.
Mr. Barry was not a disunionist per se, and had used his best endeavors to stay the storm, so long as he considered an effort to do so consistent with manhood and honor. If, as a member of the Charleston Convention of 1860, he seceded with others from that body, it was for the purpose of procuring the nomination of a person for the presidency who would possess the confidence of the Southern people, and whose character would give assurances that would allay their excitement and discontent; and with this view he participated actively in the nomination of Breckenridge and Lane in the subsequent convention at Baltimore.
Mr. Barry was chosen by the Mississippi Convention as one of the seven delegates to the convention of the Southern States at Montgomery, and was afterwards elected a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, but as soon as the war was fairly begun he conceived that his duty was in the field, and having obtained authority from President Davis to raise a regiment for the war, he resigned his seat, returned to Mississippi, and in the spring of 1862 organized and mustered into service the 35th regiment of Mississippi infantry. This regiment was led by Colonel Barry through some of the bloodiest scenes of the great struggle, and he was regarded as one of the best volunteer officers in the Confederate Army. His regiment took an active part in the conflicts with the army of General Grant in Mississippi and in the defence of Vicksburg, where it was surrendered. It subsequently shared in the Georgia campaign and participated in the battles around Atlanta. In the beginning of the expedition of General Hood, Col. Barry was wounded at Altoona, and rejoined his regiment in the vicinity of Mobile, where he was captured in the assault on Blakely on the 9th of April, 1865.
As an officer Col. Barry was characterized by an unswerving devotion to duty, a courage which knew no odds or disparity, a coolness which no danger could perturb, and by a stern justice blended with kindness. He was greatly admired and beloved by his men, and they would have followed him into the mouths of the guns of Balaklava.
Returning from the war, Col. Barry retired to the seclusion of his home, and on being asked by a friend in what manner he employed his time, he replied that as far as he could, he was living in a state of vacuity, that the present was all gloom and there was no promise in the future. " My thinking in the past," said he, "has not been profitable—my hopes for my country have all been blasted, and as far as I can, I will quit thinking and for a while lead a negative existence."
His naturally feeble constitution, which his heroic nature had sustained through the hardships and trials of war, became burdened with a despondency which induced a rapid decline of his health, and soon his friends beheld with silent sorrow and commiseration the ravages of the fatal malady that had fastened its inexorable grip upon his emaciated frame ; yet he maintained to the last that independence of spirit and sublime sentiment of patriotism which had been the ruling passion of his life. In answer to a solicitation made by the authorities of Yale College a short time before his death for a biographical report, he denominated himself "originally a Democrat, then a States Rights man, during the war a conscientious rebel (so called), and at that time a pardoned reconstructed Johnson man.'' He reported himself "practising law in Columbus, trying to gather from the wreck which the war made of all our fortunes whatever may be left, and to make a support for my family by my profession. As to religion, by education a Presbyterian ; by taste, an Episcopalian ; in practice, nothing."
It has been said that all great passions are born in solitude, that they are tamed and degraded by the common intercourse of society, and utterly lost and extinguished in public companies, crowds, and assemblies ; but here we have a brilliant light, kindled in the blaze of the forum, in the halls of legislation, and in the smoke of battle, waning away and extinguishing itself in the damp of seclusion—the noblest passions that ever swayed the heart of mortal mouldering in the rust of inaction and the canker of despondency. Col. Barry saw no hope for his country, and that dread reflection obscured every light and cast the gloom of darkness over his existence. He died in Columbus, at the residence of his sister, Mrs. J. D. Bradford, on the 29th of January, 1868.
Col. Barry possessed a superior order of talents, which rendered him at an early age an ornament to his profession and the idol of his party. His combined elegance of manner and eloquence of diction rendered him one of the most accomplished and popular orators of his day. It is said that his speech at Montgomery in answer to the call of the people on the day of the inauguration of President Davis, was more happily conceived, more eloquently delivered, and more highly applauded, than that of any of the distinguished gentlemen who spoke on that inspiring occasion. As a lawyer he possessed all the qualities of a successful advocate ; full of sensational and perceptive energy, his comprehension was rapid and his retort ready, while his logical powers were adapted to the most subtle and abstruse reasoning. His imagery was copious and fascinating, and his art of suasion conquered the sternest obstinacy and soothed into sympathy the bitterest rancor of prejudice. While his knowledge of the law was drawn perhaps more from the hastily and promiscuously gathered crops of genius, than from the more solid stores of profound research and experience, so potent were the combined powers of his mind that he seemed to possess, by intuition, resources adequate to any emergency. His strong and lively imagination, fine taste, faultless expression, and elegant vein of humor, rendered him an interesting companion, and a favorite.of society—a circumstance which, so far as it allured him from the dull routine of professional life, and from the monotonous path of professional distinction, to the dazzling arena of politics, was not conducive to that eminence which his genius had fashioned for him at the bar.
Col. Barry was unswerving in his adherence to the line of his duty, and whether amid the carnage of the sword, the encounters of parliamentary debate, in the conflicts of the forum, or in the concerns of private life, he permitted no circumstance to intervene, and no obstacle to stand unassaulted between him and the performance of a moral obligation.
He possessed a sublime reverence for justice and truth, and abhorred duplicity and evasion in whatsoever garb they might be arrayed, or 'whatever may have been the plea that invoked them. His judgment was formed calmly and deliberately, and he was always ready to defend his positions by honest argument and logical illustration. While his disposition was exceedingly amiable, he was scathing in his invectives against injustice, fierce in his denunciation of wrong, and eloquent in the defence and advocacy of right.
Col. Barry was a warm friend, and a devoted husband and father. He was married on the 20th of December, 1851, to Miss Sally Fearn, daughter of Dr. Thomas Fearn, of Huntsville, Alabama. This lady is yet living, and is entitled to more than an ordinary share of the credit and esteem due to the amiable, the accomplished, and the faithful wife and widowed mother. Her maternal devotion awakened in her bosom an energy and determination which have woven the web of prosperity from the weeds of desolate widowhood.
Col. Barry was affectionate and sincere in his attachments, and could see no fault in his friends. He was the soul of honor, and knew no feeling of envy or sentiment of jealousy. He delighted in aiding his younger brothers of the bar, and maintained towards all a frank and generous attitude. His kindness of heart and consideration for the comfort of his friends were beautifully exemplified on the night of his death. They knew that his end was nigh, and many of them had gathered in attendance on the final scene, and a few minutes before the fatal hour arrived, he turned to his sister, Mrs. Bradford, of whom he was the dying guest, and asked what friends were in the sitting-room. On being told their names he-charged her to express to each of them his grateful appreciation of their kindness in calling to see him at such an hour, and to convey to them the highest assurance of his friendship and good-will. He then said :
" Sister, those friends will remain during the night, and yon must not forget about midnight to provide them with some refreshments. Go out and direct that coffee be ready for them at that hour." But before the hour arrived for this last appointed feast of friendship, the spirit of William S. Barry had taken its flight, and his cup remained unsipped upon the hallowed board. But down to the end of time his name will glitter in the annals of Mississippi in glaring association alike with the brightest days of its prosperity and the darkest hours of its adversity ; in the former, he was an honor to its glory, and in the latter, the glory of its gloom.
Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. I. Boston, MA, USA: The Biographical Society, 1904 - Submitted by Debora Reese
BROWN, Albert Gallatin, statesman, was born in Chester district, S.C., May 31, 1813. He removed with his parents to Mississippi, where he received an academic education. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, in 1835 was elected a member of the state house of representatives, and was returned to that body by successive election until 1839, when, having been elected a representative in the 26th Congress, he took his seat in that body. During the years 1841-'43 he was judge of the circuit superior court. In 1843 he was elected governor of Mississippi, and held the office by continuous re-election for five years. In 1848 he was elected as representative in the 31st Congress, and was re-elected to the 32d and 33d congresses. In 1853 he was elected to the United States senate. He was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia in the 35th Congress, and a member of the committee on Indian affairs and that on enrolled bills. He was re-elected in 1859, but served only until the breaking out of the civil war, when he was expelled and entered the Confederate army, where he was given the rank of captain, and in 1862 was elected a Confederate states senator, serving in the 1st and 2d congresses. His speeches were collected and published in 1859. He died at Jacksonville, Miss., June 12, 1880.
Biography From "The Bench and Bar of Mississippi", By James Daniel Lynch, 1881
Submitted by Janice Rice:
ALBERT G. BROWN.
Albert Gallatin Brown was born in Chester District, South Carolina, on the 31st day of May, 1813, but in 1823 his father moved his family to Mississippi and established his home in the county of Copiah. He was a plain, honest, and industrious planter, and confined himself to the practical views of life and to the study of good husbandry; consequently his son was early indoctrinated in. the principles of domestic economy and in the just and correct notion of the realities and verities of life, which became the mould of his future character. He was early insured to those habits of honest toil which brought him into sympathy with the great mass of struggling humanity, and he cherished a life-long effort for its elevation.
Having obtained such education as his circumstances and the common schools of the country at that period afforded, young Brown entered the law office of Hon. Ephraim G. Peyton, afterwards Chief Justice of Mississippi, and before he had reached his majority was admitted to the bar and became the partner of his distinguished preceptor. He was therefore immediately engaged in an extensive practice, to which he devoted his energies and talents with such vigor, fidelity, and skill, as attracted popular notice and admiration, and stamped his early manhood with unmistakable indications of future eminence. His great popularity and rapidly growing distinction at the bar took, however, evoked a summons to another sphere, and in 1836 he was chosen to represent the county of Copiah in the Legislature; but, having caused some dissatisfaction among a portion of his constituency by his vote for the admission of members from the counties lately formed out of the territory ceded by the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, he resigned his seat in 1837, announced himself a candidate for re-election, and was triumphantly returned.
In 1839 he was nominated and elected by the Democratic party to a seat in the National Congress, where, in conjunction with Hon. Jacob Thompson, he served the interest of his party and section with a vigor and efficiency that justified the confidence and expectations of his constituents and gave him repute throughout the country.
At the expiration of his term, in 1841, he declined a renomination for Congress, and became a candidate for the office of circuit judge in his district, to which he was elected by a large majority. His career upon the bench was characterized by a conscientious uprightness and an unswerving integrity, and by a dispatch which was greatly promotive to the ends of justice and conducive to the interest of society. His comprehensive views, uncommon firmness of mind, strong powers of reason, intuitive discernment and love of justice, rendered him eminently fitted for the duties of a judge, and he brought to the bench the same personal qualities which had endeared him to the people as a lawyer, as a politician, and as a man.
In 1843, when he had just ascended his thirtieth year, he was elected Governor of Mississippi. During the canvass of that period the public mind was greatly agitated upon the question of paying or rejecting the bonds of the Union Bank. Judge Brown was in favor of the repudiation of these bonds, while his Whig opponent, Hon. George R. Clayton, contended for their validity and binding power upon the faith of the State, because their issuance was an act authorized by a majority of the people. But on referring to this question, Governor Brown in his inaugural address said that " to set up the will of a majority as being superior to the Constitution of the State as a measure of power was virtually making one acknowledged wrong a pretext for committing a still more grievous wrong."
In 1845 Governor Brown was re-elected, and during his second term as Governor, in 1847, appointed Hon. Jefferson Davis as United States Senator, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. Jesse Speight, and which was approved by the unanimous election of Mr. Davis by the Legislature in 1848.
In 1847, before the expiration of his second gubernatorial term, Governor Brown was again elected to a seat in the National House of Representatives, and was re-elected in 1849. In 1853 he was elected to a seat in the United States Senate, which he held by re-election until 1861, when he resigned, in company with the other Southern Senators, to share the fortunes of his people and the new Confederacy.
It would not comfort with the province of this work to follow commentingly this remarkable man through his long and brilliant political career. Its features belong to the brightest pages of our national history, and should be studied in full for the great lessons of principle, of patriotism, and of true greatness, moral, social, and political, which it teaches. It resembles the glow of some brilliant star steadfastly pursuing its course and shedding its benign and untarnishable beams amid the wreck of constellations and the Phaetonic confusion of the firmament.
Governor Brown saw no remedy for the difficulties that beset the pathway of his people but in the throes of revolution and secession, and he considered the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency upon a purely sectional platform as the final and consummating act of justification. With this honest conviction he returned to his constituency. He had used his best efforts to stay the solemn alternative, but when the State had seceded and he saw the skeleton hand of war rolling up the Federal Constitution and unfolding in its stead the banners of subjugation and vengeance, he promptly girded himself for the contest, and raised a military company known as the " Brown Rebels," of which he was made the captain. He was no stranger to the drill and discipline of a soldier: he had in early manhood manifested an interest in the military organization of his State, and had been made a brigadier-general of its militia. His company was assigned to the Eighteenth Mississippi Regiment, commanded by Colonel E. B. Burt, and was among the first troops sent to Virginia. There he participated in the battles of Bull Run and Manassas, and soon afterwards at Leesburg, where Colonel Burt was killed.
But notwithstanding that his services in' the field were as conspicuous for ardor and gallantry as his civil services were brilliant and eminent, his people felt the need of his able and faithful counsel, and on the convening of the Legislature in December, 1861, he was elected to the Senate of the Confederate States, and took a leading position among the eminent gentlemen of that brilliant assembly.
At the termination of the war, ex-Governor Brown retired to the privacy and seclusion of his farm, but, like Cincinnatus, he was ever ready to answer the call of his people, and devoted himself in his retirement to plans and efforts to ameliorate their sufferings, and to secure some remnant of hope from the apparent wreck of every prospect. These meditations and purposes led him to assume positions in advance of his people, and which they were not yet prepared to occupy; but time vindicated his wisdom and prescience, and proved the grand old patriot to be as true in adversity to the best interest of his State as he had been in the brightest days of its prosperity.
The domestic life of ex-Governor Brown was all that the sweets of conjugal affection could render it. During his first session in Congress, in 1841, he was married to Miss Roberta Young, of Alexandria, a lady of rare and fascinating accomplishments, who administered the affairs of his household with all the felicity of intelligence and amiability, and who still survives to cherish his memory and observe the reverence in which it is held by his, countrymen. His death occurred on the 12th of June, 1880, and was attended by the following circumstances:
He had ridden on the evening of that day to the village of Terry, a short distance from his residence, to procure the attendance of a physician for Mrs. Brown, who was suffering from the effects of chills, and, after having spent a short time in attending to business and in making social calls, he returned, accompanied by Dr. Rawles, his family physician. On reaching his residence he requested the doctor to walk in, while he would ride to the pond to water his horse. In about twenty minutes from that time the horse was observed returning riderless, and search having been made immediately, the ex-Governor was found lying dead in the pond, and in shallow water, with his face downward. Dr. Rawles repaired immediately to the scene, and upon examination pronounced that his death was occasioned by a sudden attack of apoplexy or congestion, as there were none of the usual symptoms of death by drowning.
His remains were conveyed to Jackson on the next day, where they were to be interred, and were laid in state beneath the rotunda of the Capitol. Here they received every token of honor and respect which the sorrow and sympathy of a whole people could offer, and on the next day the distinguished gentlemen who bore his pall to the grave and tossed with solemn reverence the cold clods upon his coffin, consummated the last act which the honors of this world could perform for the mortal parts of greatness. But, turning away from these, we find him still living in the good which he has accomplished, in the grandeur of his record, in the glorious example which he has left as a legacy to coming generations, in the prosperity of his country, and in the affections of his people. His name will gather the tribute of honor as it passes down through the generations, and so long as there is a Mississippian, a heart will quicken with reverence for the memory of Albert G. Brown.
© Copyright Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.