History of Sumter County Alabama United States of America

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Robert Burwell Fulton, educator, was born in Sumter county, Ala., April 8, 1849; son of William F. and Elizabeth (Frierson) Fulton. This branch of the Fulton family intermarried in 1754 with the Osgoods, who came from Dorchester, England, to Dorchester, Mass., early in the seventeenth century and thence to Dorchester, S.C., in 1695. The Osgoods removed to Liberty county, Ga., in 1752. The Friersons and Fultons came from the North of Ireland to South Carolina in the early part of the eighteenth century. The father of William F. was born in Liberty county, Ga., moving to Maury county, Tenn., in 1805 and to Greene county, Ala., in 1821. William F. settled in Sumter county, Ala., in 1845. Robert Burwell was prepared for college at Archibald's school, Greene county, and under the Rev. C. M. Hutton in Sumter county, Ala. He was graduated at the University of Mississippi, A.B. in 1869, first of the three honor men of the class. He was a teacher in the high school, Pleasant Ridge, Ala., 1869-70; in the Presbyterian parochial high school, New Orleans, La, 1870-71; tutor in the university, 1871-72; adjunct professor of physics, 1872-75; professor of analytical physics and astronomy from 1875, and chancellor of the university from 1891. He received the post-graduate degree of A.M. on examination from the University of Mississippi in 1874; was elected a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science in 1880; and an active member of the University extension association. He was elected president of the National association of state universities, 1897, 1898, and 1899, was in 1897 president of the Southern association of colleges and preparatory schools, and in 1899 was president of the department of higher education of the National educational association. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of Nashville in 1894. On Dec. 20, 1871, he was married to Annie Rose, daughter of Landon C. and Louisa (Garland) Garland.

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

John Matthews Manly, educator, was born in Sumter county, Ala., Sept. 2, 1865; son of the Rev. Charles ,and Mary (Matthews) Manly. He was prepared for college at the Staunton, Va., and Greenville, S.C., military academies and was graduated at Furman university, S.C., A.M., 1883, and at Harvard A.M., 1889, and Ph.D., 1890. He was acting principal at Green's high school, S.C., 1884; tutor at Palmyra, Va., 1884-85; assistant at William Jewell college, 1885-88; instructor in Anglo-Saxon at Radcliffe college, 1890-91, and at Harvard summer school, 1891; acting assistant professor of English language and literature, 1891, associate professor, 1891-92, and professor of English language, 1892-98, at Brown university, R.I. In 1898 he was elected professor and head of the department of English in the University of Chicago. He was elected a member of numerous scientific societies. He is the author of: The Language of Chaucer's Legends of Goode Women (1893); Shakspere's Macbeth (1896); and Specimens of the Pre-Shakesperean Drama (3 vols., 1902).

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

History of Sumter County Alabama

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