History of Spring Hill, (Escambia County) Alabama United States of America

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Richard Hooker Wilmer, second bishop of Alabama and 72d in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Alexandria, Va., March 15, 1816; son of the Rev. William Holland and Marion H. (Cox) Wilmer; grandson of Simon arid Anne (Ringold) Wilmer, and of Richard and Jane (Ross) Cox, and a descendant of Edward Taylor, the immigrant, who settled in Monmouth county, N.J., in the seventeenth century, inheriting much property from his brother, Matthew Taylor. He was graduated from Yale in 1836, and from the Virginia Theological seminary in 1839; was ordered deacon in 1839 by Bishop Channing moore, and ordained priest at the Monumental church, Richmond, Va., on Easter day, 1840, by the same bishop. He was married, Oct. 4, 1840, to Margaret, daughter of Alexander and Lucy Shandon (Rives) Brown of Albemarle county, Va., the former a native of Perth, Scotland, and the latter a sister of Hon. William Cabell Rives, the Virginia statesman. He was rector of the following churches in Virginia: St. Paul's, Goochland county, 1839-40; St. John's, Fluvunna county, 1840-42; Grace and Wickliffe, Clark county, Emmanuel, Loudoun county, and St. Stephen's and Trinity, Bedford county, 1842-59, and Emmanuel, Henrico county, 1859-62. In 1862 he was elected bishop of Alabama and was consecrated, March 6, 1862, in St. Paul's church, Richmond, Va., by Bishops Meade, Elliott and Johns. In 1865 he issued a pastoral letter stating that no such thing as government existed in the South, and recommending the omission of the prayer "for those in civil authority." In consequence of this letter, General Thomas in a military order suspended the bishop and clergy and closed the churches in the state, and they remained closed until the order was revoked by President Johnson. The degree of A.M., was conferred on him by Yale in 1846; that of D.D., by William and Mary in 1857; by the University of the South, 1878, and that of LL.D. by the University of Cambridge, England, in 1867, and by the University of Alabama in 1880. He is the author of: The Recent Past, from a Southern Standpoint: Reminiscences of a Grandfather (1887 and two later editions), and a GuideBook for Young Churchmen, besides a large number of pamphlets and miscellaneous writings. He died at Spring Hill, Ala., June 14, 1900.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Spring Hill, (Escambia County) Alabama

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