Makers and Romance
of
Alabama History
Embracing Sketches of the Men Who Have BeenLargely Instrumental in Shaping the Policies and inMolding the Conditions in the Rapid Growth of Alabama—TogetherWith the Thrilling and RomanticScenes With Which Our History is Resplendent
By
B. F. RILEY, D.D., LL.D.
Author of the History of Conecuh County; Alabama, As It Is;
History of the Baptists of Alabama; History of the Baptists
of the Southern States East of the Mississippi;
History of the Baptists of Texas, and The White
Man’s Burden; Ex-President of Howard College,
and sometime Professor of English
Literature and Oratory in the University
of Georgia.
“History is neither more nor less than biography on a large scale.”—Lamartine.
“All history is but a romance, unless it is studied as an example.”—Croly.
“Biography is the only true history.”—Carlyle.
DEDICATED
To The Women of Alabama—
The Mothers, Wives, Daughters, and Sisters, without the fidelity,kindness, and devotion of whom this proud commonwealth could not haveattained its present magnificent proportions, and on whose future loyaltymust largely depend the perpetuation of the grandeur of Alabama; whothough not conspicuous in the glare and tumult of the struggles which haveeventuated in the erection of Alabama into a giant state, have yet madepossible the successes of others by the quiet and wholesome force of ourhome life; to these, our worthy women of the past and present, this volumeis most cordially dedicated by
The Author.
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
The present volume is intended to be a substantial contribution to thehistory of Alabama, by giving expansion to the recorded lives of itsforemost citizens—men who alike on the field and in the forum, on thebench and in the sphere of commerce, in the lecture room and in thepulpit, on the farm and in the court, in the field of development as wellas in the ordinary walks of life, have shared conspicuously in theerection of one of the proudest of the American commonwealths.
The distinction achieved by these eminent citizens in various orbits areworthy of perpetual record, and their respective deeds and accomplishmentsdeserve more than a bare reference in the current chronicles of the state.Along the successive eras through which Alabama has passed, first as aterritory, then as a state, for a period exceeding a hundred years, eachof these worthies made a contribution to the construction of a mightycommonwealth, and sheer justice requires that the specific task soworthily wrought by each should be a matter of permanent record. Theeffort is here made not to follow the beaten path of chronologicalbiography, so much, as to seize on the salient points in the life of eacheminent leader, show who and what he was, and that which he did. By meansof a method like this, these distinguished men become reflectors of theperiod in which each lived and wrought.
[Pg viii]In addition, is a series of romantic sketches which lie outside thechannel of ordinary history, and yet they serve the function of impartingto its pages a zest and flavor that relieve it largely of