History of Jackson County Alabama United States of America

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Biographies:

John Benjamin Rector, jurist, was born in Jackson county, Ala., Nov. 24, 1837. He removed with his parents to Texas in 1847, prepared for college and was graduated from Yale in 1859. He was admitted to the bar; established himself in practice in Austin, Texas; served throughout the civil war in Terry's Texas Rangers, and in 1865 removed to Bastrop, Texas, and resumed his law practice. He was attorney of the 2d judicial district of Texas, 1866?67; judge of the state court, 1871?76; engaged in private practice in Austin, 1876?92, and was judge of the U.S. court for the northern district of Texas, 1892?98. He died in Austin, Texas, April 9, 1898.

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

James Henderson Berry, senator, was born in Jackson county, Ala., May 15, 1841. In 1848 the family removed to Carrollton, Ark., where the son attended school and worked on the farm and clerked in a store. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army as lieutenant in the 16th Arkansas infantry, fought at Pea Ridge and Iuka, and lost a leg at Corinth in October, 1862, while under Van Dom in his attack on Rosecrans. When Port Hudson surrendered, in 1863, he was sent to Texas and Arkansas, and when the war was over retired to his home in Carrollton. He was elected to the legislature of Arkansas in August, 1866, and admitted to the bar the same year. In 1869 he removed to Bentonville, and in 1872 was elected to represent Benton county in the state legislature, and was speaker of the house during the extraordinary session of 1874. In 1876 he was chairman of the state Democratic convention, and was judge of the circuit court in 1878. He was elected governor of Arkansas in 1882, and in March, 1885, was elected to the United States senate to fill a vacancy, caused by the resignation of Senator Garland. He was re-elected in 1889, and again in 1895 and in 1901, serving 1885-1907.

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

John Hancock, representative, was born in Jackson county, Ala., Oct. 29, 1824. He attended the University of East Tennessee for two years; studied law at Winchester, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. He removed to Texas in 1847, and the same year was elected state's attorney. He was judge of the 2d district court of the state, 1851-55; a representative in the state legislature, 1860-61, and was expelled in 1861 for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy. To prevent being conscripted he went to Mexico in 1864, and thence to New York, and to Kentucky. At the close of the civil war he returned to Texas and was a prominent factor in reorganizing the state government. He was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1866, and represented the ninth district of the state in the 42d, 43d and 44th congresses, 1871-77, and again in the 48th congress, 1881-83. He acted with the Democratic party and secured the regular issue of rations to Indians, prohibition of hunting parties on the plains unaccompanied by U.S. troops and the establishment of a military telegraph on the frontier. He died in Austin, Texas, July 19, 1893.

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

History of Jackson County Alabama

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