History of Columbia, (Richland County) South Carolina United States of America

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Biographies:

John Edwards Holbrook, naturalist, was born in Beaufort, S.C., Dec. 30, 1794; son of Silas and Mary (Edwards) Holbrook; grandson of Daniel Holbrook, and a descendant of Thomas Holbrook. He was graduated from Brown university, A.B., 1815, and from the University of Pennsylvania, M.D., 1818. He studied in England and Scotland, 1818-20, and on the European continent, principally in Paris, making a special study of natural history, 1820-22. He was a physician in Charleston, S.C., 1822-61; professor of anatomy, South Carolina Medical college, 1824-55; and head examiner, board of surgeons, C.S.A., 1861-65. He gained a high reputation as a naturalist, and was a friend of Louis Agassiz. He planned and commenced the serial publication Southern Ichthyology to include Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, but after two numbers changed the name and field to Ichthyology of South Carolina, of which ten numbers appeared, 1854-60. The civil war interrupted the publication, and after the war he spent his summers in Massachusetts. He was married, in May, 1827, to Harriott Pinckney Rutledge, a granddaughter of Governor Rutledge of South Carolina. She died at Columbia, S.C., in November, 1863, without children. Dr. Holbrook was a member of the American Philosophical society and an early member of the National Academy of Sciences. He published: American Herpetology (5 vols., 1842). He died in Norfolk, Mass., Sept. 8, 1871.

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

Thomas Cooper De leon, journalist and author, was born in Columbia, S.C., May 21, 1839; son of Dr. M. Hendricks and Rebecca (Lopez) De Leon, and brother of David Camden and Edwin De Leon. When a child he removed with his guardian, Edwin De Leon, to Washington, D.C, where he was educated at private schools and at Georgetown college. He was audit clerk in the bureau of topographical engineers from 1858 to 1861, when he resigned to join the Confederacy. From 1865 to 1867 he was contributor to magazines, editor and correspondent in Baltimore and New York. He was managing editor, as colleague to John Forsyth, of the Mobile Register, 1867, and on the latter's death in 1877 became its editor-in-chief. In 1878 he was editor of The Gulf City, and later of The Gossip, Mobile. He was lessee of the Mobile theatre, 1873-85, and president of the Gossip publishing company, Mobile, 1885-97. His published works include, novels: Cross Purposes (1866); Juny (1876); Creole and Puritan (1889); A Fair Blockade Breaker (1890); John Holden, Unionist (1893); The Puritan's Daughter (1894); Crag Nest (1897); Pride of the Mercers (1897); A Novelette Trilogy (1897); An Innocent Cheat (1898); Out of the Sulphur (1898). Historical sketches: ,Four Years in Rebel Capitals (1878, rev. author's auto. ed., 1895). Burlesques: The Rock or the Rye (28th ed., 1891); Society as I have Foundered It (1894); Schooners that Bump on the Bar (1895). Plays: Hamlet, Ye Dismal Prince (1870), the first American play to run 100 nights, played by G. L. Fox, New York city; Pluck (1871); Jasper, or Mystery of Edwin Drood; Paris, or Days of the Commune (1872); Bet, or through Fire and Water (1873). He is also the author of numerous contributions to magazines and newspapers.

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

Stephen Russell Mallory, senator, was born at the home of his mother's sister in Columbia, S.C., Nov. 3, 1848; son of the Hon. Stephen Russell and Angela (Moreno) Mallory. His mother returned to her home in Key West, Fla., soon after his birth. He entered the Confederate States army in Virginia in 1864 and was appointed midshipman in the C.S. navy in 1865, serving until the close of the war. He was graduated at the University of Georgetown, D.C., in 1869; was instructor in Latin and Greek there from September, 1869, till July, 1871; studied law in Washington and New Orleans, and was admitted to the bar at New Orleans, La., in 1873, and practised there about six months. Soon after the death of his father at Pensacola, Fla., he took up his law practice there. He was elected a representative in the Florida legislature in 1876; a state senator in 1880 and 1884; was a representative from the first district of Florida in the 52d and 53d congresses, 1891-95; and was elected in 1897 to the U.S. senate for the term ending in 1903.

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

Alexander Beaufort Meek, jurist, was born in Columbia, S.C., July 17, 1814; son of the Rev. Samuel and ??? (McDowell) Meek. His father was a physician, as well as a Methodist, clergyman, and removed his family to Tuscaloosa, Ala., when Alexander was a boy. He was graduated at the University of Alabama, A.B., 1833, A.M., 1836; was admitted to the bar in 1835, and practised in Tuscaloosa. He served in the Florida war in 1836, and was appointed attorney-general of Alabama by Governor Clay in 1836 to fill a vacancy, and served one year; was editor of the Flag of the Union, Tuscaloosa, 1835-39, and of the Southron, a literary magazine, 1839-42. He was judge of the probate court of Tuscaloosa county, 1842; assistant secretary of the U.S. treasury, 1845-47, and U.S. attorney for the southern district of Alabama, 1847-49. He was an associate editor of the Mobile Daily Register, 1851-58; represented Mobile in the Alabama general assembly, 1853-55, and as chairman of the committee on education secured the establishment of a system of free public schools in the state. He was judge of the probate court of Mobile, 1854-55; a presidential elector on the Buchanan and Breckinridge ticket in 1856, and a representative in the general assembly and speaker of the house, 1859-61. He was married, first, to the widow of Hope Hull Slatter of Mobile, and secondly, to Miss Cannon of Columbus, Miss., to which place he removed and devoted himself to literature. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from the University of Georgia in 1884, and was a trustee of the University of Alabama, 1862-64. He prepared a supplement to Aiken's "Digest of Alabama" in 1842, and is the author of: Red Eagle (1855); Songs and Poems of the Southron (1857); Romantic Passages in Southwestern History (1857), and an unfinished History of Alabama. He died in Columbus, Miss., Nov. 30, 1865.

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