History of Huntsville, (Madison County) Alabama United States of America

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Biographies:

Clement Claiborne Clay, senator, was born at Huntsville, Ala., in December, 1817; son of Clement Comer Clay. His mother was a sister of Gen. Jonas M. Withers. He was graduated at the University of Alabama in 1834, studied law at the University of Virginia, and was admitted to practice in 1840. He was a member of the general assembly of the state legislature in 1842, 1844 and 1845, and was judge of the Madison county court, 1846-48. In 1853 he was elected to the United States senate, where he was an earnest advocate of the theory of state rights as enunciated by Mr. Calhoun. He was elected for a second term in 1859 and withdrew on the secession of Alabama, in February, 1861. He was a member of the Confederate senate, and visited Canada in 1864 as a secret emissary of the Confederate government. After the war he escaped to Canada, but a reward was offered by the U.S. government for his capture, and he surrendered his person and was incarcerated in Fort Monroe from May, 1865, to April, 1866. Upon his release he returned to the practice of law at Huntsville, Ala. He was married in 1843 to Virginia, daughter of Dr. Payton R. Tunstall, of Baldwin county, Ala. He died in Huntsville, Ala., Jan. 3, 1882.

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

William Birney, abolitionist, was born near Huntsville, Ala., May 28, 1819, the second son of James G. Birney. He was educated at Centre and Yale colleges and was admitted to the Ohio bar, practising law at Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York city, and in Florida. At the age of eighteen he was an antislavery lecturer. He passed five years in Europe, beginning with 1847, in the prosecution of advanced studies in law, languages and history, supporting himself meanwhile by writing for the New York and London journals, and for the English magazines. In 1848 he was a successful candidate at a government competitive examination, for one of the new professorships of English literature in the University of France and performed its duties for one year in the Lyc?e at Bourges. He then resigned and went to Berlin to pursue his studies. In the French revolution of February, 1848, being in Paris and a member of a students' political society there, formed to promote Republican ideas, he commanded at a barricade in the Rue St. Jacques, and was one of the first to enter the Tuilleries after the flight of Louis Philippe. Having returned to this country he raised, at the outbreak of the civil war, a volunteer company in New Jersey, was elected its captain, and rose through all the grades to the rank of brevet major-general. For the last two years of the war he commanded a division which was gradually increased to sixteen regiments. In 1863, having been detailed by the war department to organize colored troops, he enlisted, equipped, drilled and sent to the field seven regiments, in doing which he opened three slave prisons in Baltimore and freed a large number of slaves belonging to Confederate officers. His numerous enlistments left few able-bodied slaves in Maryland, and hastened the abolition of slavery in that state. After the defeat of the Union troops at Olustee, Fla., being placed in command of that district, he made a secret and rapid movement by Black Creek to the rear of the Confederate stronghold at the Baldwin railroad crossings, forced the troops holding it to retire by night into Georgia, and took the works with military stores and arms. He took part in numerous skirmishes and in the principal battles in Virginia, including the first and second Bull Run, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Chantlily and Chancellorsville. In the army he was known as a skilful tactician, a vigilant and trustworthy officer, and a disciplinarian, effecting the best results by strictness without severity. In 1853 he founded and for two years edited the Register, a daily paper at Philadelphia, and led the successful movement for the consolidation of the numerous separate "liberties" of that city into one municipal government. He appeared about that time on the lecture platform in the best courses in several of the large cities. He was for about four years attorney for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. His numerous anonymous contributions to the press include the fortnightly letters from Washington, signed "Escort Holt," published for several years in the New York Examiner. He was a collaborator in "Waite's History of the Church, for the First Two Centuries of the Christian Era." In January, 1890, he published "James G. Birney's Life and Times, the Genesis of the Republican Party," politico-biographical work.

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

William Manning Lowe, representative, was born in Huntsville, Ala., Jan. 16, 1842; son of Gen. Bartley M. and Sarah Sophia (Manning) Lowe, and grandson of Dr. James and Sophia (Thompson) Manning, He attended school at Florence, Ala.; was graduated at the law department of the University of Virginia in 1860, and was attending the law department of the University of Virginia in 1861 when he entered the Confederate army as a private in the 4th Alabama infantry. He was seriously wounded at the first battle of Manasses; was appointed on the staff of Governor John G. Shorter with the rank of colonel, and engaged in organizing companies for the field. He was appointed captain on Gen. Jonas M. Withers's staff, serving through the Kentucky campaign and being wounded before Murfreesboro, Tenn. He was afterward transferred to Gen. J. H. Clanton's staff and served with him in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee until captured at the battle of Franklin. He was imprisoned at Camp Chase and at Fort Delaware until after the close of the war, and then returned to Huntsville, Ala. He was solicitor of the 5th judicial circuit of Alabama, 1865-68; represented Madison county in the Alabama legislature in 1870; and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1875. He was a representative from the eighth Alabama district in the 46th congress, 1879-81. He died in Huntsville, Ala., Oct. 12, 1881.

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

Lewis Baxter Moore, Afro-American educator, was born near Huntsville, Ala., Sept. 1, 1866; son of Henry and Rebecca (Beasley) Moore, natives of Virginia, who removed to Alabama about 1855. He attended the public schools and the American Missionary Association school at Florence, Ala., and was graduated from Fisk university, A.B., 1889, A.M., 1893. He was licensed to preach by the Central South association of Congregational churches at Nashville, in 1888, and supplied churches at Nashville and Goodlettsville, Tenn., Fayettesville, Ark., and Florence, Ala. He was called to Philadelphia, Pa., by the Young Men's Christian Association; organized the south east branch of the Y.M.C.A., and continued as general secretary, 1889-95. He was assistant to F. P. Woodbury, secretary of the American Missionary association of New York, in 1895; was called to Howard university, Washington, D.C., as instructor in the preparatory department in September, 1895; was elected assistant professor in 1896; professor of Latin and pedagogy in the college department in 1898, and dean of the department of pedagogy in 1899. The degree of Ph.D. was conferred on him by the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, after four years of resident study. He was married, Dec. 19, 1895, to Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Bishop B. T. Tanner of Philadelphia, Pa. He is the author of: Short Outlines of Linguistic Method (1897) and Syllabus of Pedagogy (1898 and 1899).

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