interest the intrepidity of this pioneer hero in contributing to the
moral and spiritual side of the early days of our history. His
punctuality in meeting his appointments, and his devotion to the gospel
and to the people, won for him a confidence supreme. In those days when
courts were not, and yet where conflicting litigants were, cases for final
adjudication would be held in abeyance "till the preacher comes." Causes
were submitted, but he would never consent to a consideration of them till
the contending parties would agree to abide amicably his decision. Such
was the clearness and saneness of his judgment, the fairness of his
spirit, and his profound sense of right, that every litigant would
promptly accept this condition. He was jury, advocate, and judge, all in
one, and for many years, in that interior pioneer region, he acted in this
threefold capacity, while he rendered unrequited service as a missionary.
His was a strange, strong, romantic life, spent for the good of others to
the neglect of his own personal comfort. That class has dwindled to a list
so small and rare that today, when similar devotion is shown, the world
knows no higher designation for such a man than that of "crank," yet it is
the crank that turns things.
In later years and under better conditions, Mr. Travis came to ride the
wide regions through on horseback, with his leathern saddle-bags beneath
him. Under the tall pines which then grew in those southern parts, he
would frequently stretch himself at night, on the green grass, tired and
sleepy, with his head pillowed on his saddle-bags, and beneath the stars,
he would be wooed to sleep by the moaning pines above him. His faithful
horse was tethered close by to browse the wire grass and the native
peavines, while the missionary would sleep and await the coming of the
dawn. Without a cent of compensation, Alexander Travis labored through
many eventful years, creating the means with his own hands with which to
sustain his work, and uncheered by aught else than the consciousness of
duty to humanity and to God.
With the expansion of population, and with the growth of prosperity, Mr.
Travis came in the second half of his life to possess a measurable degree
of wealth, but from a steady purpose of doing good, he never wavered. He
was a man of commanding appearance, of natural dignity of port, and
possessed of the natural assertion which these give; yet he was modest,
and commanded esteem by his unquestioned qualities of leadership. There
was no element of flabbiness in his character, no cant and drivel in his
utterances, but in all that pertained to him he was a nobleman by nature.
His judgment was incisive and discriminative, his poise collected, and
while without the least exhibition of violence, he was courageous in his
entertainment of views, and pronounced in their expression. In nothing did
his courage so manifest itself as in his stoutness of spirit in the face
of difficulty. Nothing that he regarded as possible baffled him, and while
never stern, he was immovable from that which he conceived to be right,
whether reinforced by others or not. He was a benediction to the state
while living, and, being dead, he yet speaks.
JOHN A. WINSTON
John A. Winston enjoyed the distinction of being the first native born
governor of the state. He was a native of Madison County, where he was
born in 1812, and received his collegiate training at LaGrange College and
the University of Nashville. His grandfather was an officer in the army of
the Revolution from Virginia. The family name of Anthony was preserved in
that given the governor.
Governor John Anthony Winston first devoted his attention to planting. He
removed from the mountain region to west Alabama in 1834, and bought a
fine plantation in Sumter County, one of the counties of the famous black
belt. Six years after his settlement in Sumter County he was chosen its
representative to the legislature. To this office he was re-elected and
then chosen for the state senate, which position he continued to hold for
ten consecutive years, becoming the presiding officer of that body in
1847.
The ability of Governor Winston became more generally recognized in 1848,
when he went to Baltimore as a delegate to the national convention which
nominated General Cass for the presidency. Mr. Winston made a speech
before that body in the vindication of the national Democracy, which
attracted widespread attention and brought him into prominence before the
entire country.
During his senatorial career he entered into the cotton commission
business in Mobile, which commercial relation he continued till the close
of his life. While not engaged in official duty his attention was divided
between his planting interest and his business in Mobile, where he spent
much of his time. The sterling worth of Mr. Winston, his clearness of
judgment, range of comprehension, force of character and exact
practicalness, together with his undoubted leadership of men and
statesmanship, served to win for him an augmented public confidence, and
in 1853 he became the candidate for governor of the state, and was elected
without opposition. Two years later, at the expiration of his first
gubernatorial term, he was opposed by Honorable George D. Shortridge. The
campaign was one of unusual energy and even of bitterness. The state was
agitated throughout, both candidates appearing before large and excited
audiences in every part. Governor Winston was the democratic candidate,
while Mr. Shortridge espoused the cause of the Know-Nothing or American
party. Mr. Winston defeated his opponent by a majority of about twelve
thousand.
Conditions had now conspired to make the farmer-governor the great leader
of the Democratic hosts in the state. No man who has lived in Alabama ever
had a completer grasp on a party organization than that had by Governor
Winston at this time. Happily for the state, it was a power wisely used
with disinterested patriotism. The direction of affairs was as devoid of
the alloy of personal aggrandizement as was possible, and this was duly
recognized by the public. Governor Winston went as a delegate-at-large to
the Charleston convention in 1860, and after the nomination of Mr. Douglas
he led the electoral ticket in the state. On the outbreak of the war he
became the colonel of the Eighth Alabama Regiment, and as such served for
twelve months, when he was forced to retire from the service by an attack
of rheumatism which physically disabled him. His career as a soldier in
the army of Virginia was in harmony with his general reputation as a
civilian. His regiment was fiercely engaged at Seven Pines, because, being
at the front, it was brought into sharp contact with the enemy. The fight
was hand to hand, with odds in numbers against the gallant Eighth Alabama.
Colonel Winston was at the head of his regiment, and, placing his bridle
reins in his teeth, he led his force with a large pistol in each hand.
When commanded to surrender his reply was that he had not joined the army
to surrender and that was not his business. On his return home he devoted
his attention to planting, and with unabated patriotism aided in every way
possible the fortunes of the Confederacy.
In 1865 Governor Winston was sent as a delegate from Sumter County to the
constitutional convention of Alabama, and was afterward chosen for a seat
in the National Senate, but his seat was denied him, and he was afterward
disfranchised by the radical forces then in control of the government.
This closed his career of public service. He never recovered from the
rheumatism contracted while in the service in Virginia, and died in Mobile
on December 21, 1871, at the age of fifty-nine.
The combination of qualities entering into the character of Governor
Winston was more than ordinary, all of which characteristics were based on
a clear, solid foundation of remarkably good sense in all that he did and
said, privately and officially. He was altogether devoid of pretense or of
assumption. He moved on a straight line of impartiality and of unbiased
thought. He did his own thinking and reached his own conclusions. When a
conclusion was reached it was evident that he had gone over all the
ground, had weighed and measured every possible consideration, after which
was done it was futile to seek to dislodge him. His scrupulous firmness
sometimes bore the aspect of sternness, and in the absence of a diplomacy
to soften it a decision would sometimes offend the sensitive; but in view
of duty, none of these things moved him. He was not without the element of
gentleness and of profound sympathy, but above these rose his conscience,
the dictates of which he would not disregard.
While governor he was not in accord with much of the legislation enacted,
especially with respect to appropriations of the public funds, and there
was now and then friction between the executive and legislative branches
of government, but he did not hesitate to invoke the power of the veto
when he deemed it necessary. Because of this he won the sobriquet of "the
veto governor," but to him principle overtopped popularity, and the
protection of the common interest was a matter of graver concern than the
good will of the general assembly. While not possessed of oratorical power
on the stump or on the legislative floor, having a strident, rasping voice
and the mannerism of a man of business rather than that of a trained
speaker, he nevertheless won the populace by his directness and
sincerity. He retired from public life without the slightest tarnish on
his conduct or reflection on his career. An indication of his solid
popularity is found in the fact that the name of the county of Hancock was
changed in honor of Governor Winston to that of his own.
DANIEL P. BESTOR
In its phases Dr. Bestor's character was many-sided. He was at once a
planter, statesman, philosopher, educator and minister of the gospel.
Richly favored by nature, his gifts had the polish of the classical
lapidary and the expansion which comes of research, thought and
experience. He towered immensely above the ordinary man and the babble of
the multitude. Like Goldsmith's ideal preacher, Dr. Bestor rose--
"As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."
There was nothing of the maudlin or mediocre type in his character. Every
movement and utterance, his face and bearing, all bespoke the man that he
was. Dr. Bestor was a native of Connecticut, where he was born in 1797.
Removing to Alabama by way of Kentucky when he was twenty-four, he began
at once a career of usefulness which extended practically through a half
century, a period which embraced all the great revolutions through which
the state has passed. In none of these was he an idle spectator nor
uninterested agent.
His educational advantages were the best the period could afford, and
these afforded him the buttress of an ever widening sphere of knowledge.
Possessing an intellect at once readily receptive and retentive, he was a
diligent student in a number of fields of research. From surface facts he
probed toward the bottom of principles and reached conclusions at first
hand. If occasion arose for a modification of opinion on any matter, he
yielded to new evidence, though it bore him to a position diametrically
opposite to that originally held. It is the small man who never changes a
viewpoint. The two classes represent respectively obstinacy and
consistency. Obstinacy is the inflexibility of pride; consistency, the
inflexibility of principle.
On reaching Alabama Dr. Bestor was impressed more by the lack of
educational facilities than by anything else. In the valley of the
Tennessee there were multitudes of young folk growing rapidly toward
manhood and womanhood with scarcely any facilities of instruction. He at
once became the pioneer champion of general and public education in the
state, and was the first to agitate the question in a comprehensive way.
He sought to supply the deficiency in the northern part of the state by
founding the once famous school in those parts known as the LaFayette
Female Academy. The school was patronized by the wealthy planters of that
region, and became the initial means of contributing to the womanly
culture of which the section was remarkable. Dr. Bestor was the principal
of the school and devoted the culture of his young manhood to its
promotion. Founded about the time of the last visit of General LaFayette
to America, Dr. Bestor derived its name from that of the famous Frenchman,
while to the cultured village which sprang up on the plateau on which the
school was located the name of LaGrange was given, in honor of
LaFayette's chateau in France.
This was the first school incorporated in Alabama. To the school the
legislature of Alabama in 1824 deeded a half section of land. Though
called an academy, the grade of the school was high and did advanced work.
At that time Dr. Bestor was everywhere alluded to as the great educator,
and his fame was spread throughout the state. Later, in 1830, the
Methodist Conference of North Alabama, Middle Tennessee, and North
Mississippi founded a school for young men in the village of LaGrange,
which also became a famous institution. Three years later Dr. Bestor
removed to Greensboro, taking with him as far as practicable all that
pertained to LaFayette Academy, and in that chief town of the canebrake
established another school and remained at its head for a number of years.
Still later he removed to Sumter County, where for ten years he divided
his time between preaching and planting.
It was while serving as a legislator from Greene County in 1837 that Dr.
Bestor revealed the first vision of a comprehensive public school system
for the state. His study and investigation of the subject led him to see
that with prevailing conditions unchanged, Alabama could never emerge from
its gloom of illiteracy. The scant facilities afforded by local or
denominational interests were altogether inadequate to existing demands.
Schools dotted the state over at favored points, but the ignorance in
large areas of the state was little short of the dismal.
Stirred by conditions like these, Dr. Bestor sought to go to the
legislature that he might acquaint the representatives of the people with
the results of his disinterested investigation. His plan was that which
actually came to prevail many years later, but after he had passed away.
In the legislature he threw his cultured being into the single cause of
education, procuring for it a special committee, of which he was made the
chairman. He prepared with great pains and labor an elaborate report and a
bill to be offered, and in due time it was submitted. The measure met with
stout opposition, especially at the hands of B. G. Shields, of Marengo,
the chairman of the general committee on education, who resented the
policy of a special committee as a reflection on himself and his
committee. In the opposition Mr. Shields was supported by Judge Smith, of
Madison. But general committees had never done anything, and for that
reason Dr. Bestor asked for a special committee.
The occasion was made a memorable one on the floor of the house by the
contest which it provoked. Dr. Bestor husbanded all his resources and
skill in the conduct of the contest and proved himself a giant in debate,
and, though met by much passion, he preserved his coolness and dignity
throughout the debate. He failed in his effort at that time, though his
labor was not in vain, for the array of facts presented respecting the
illiteracy of the state awoke wide interest which gave an impulse to the
educational spirit of the state which has not ceased to this time.
Coupled with all his immense work was that of an active pulpit ministry.
He was a great leader in the Baptist denomination and rendered signal
service in the thorough organization of the Baptist forces. With the
exception of a few years spent in Mississippi, Dr. Bestor's career was
confined to Alabama. He died at Mobile in 1869.
F. W. BOWDON
There is much more in unwritten history that affects the destiny of the
race than there is in that which is recorded. Gray's "gem" in his Elegy,
and his "flower" "born to blush unseen," illustrate the fundamentals of
the history of the race, wherein the bulk of worth is frequently
unmentioned, and, if so, often scarcely. While Franklin Welsh Bowdon was
by no means unknown, and while his worth was not altogether unrecognized,
who that knows him in retrospect today as one of the most matchless
orators of southern history? Who knows of his clearness of demonstration
in presenting the most tangled and abstruse of problems? Who today knows
not alone of the power already alluded to, but who that knows that his
ability before a jury has never been surpassed in the state, or that he
was peerless as a popular speaker before a promiscuous audience? Who that
has learned of his subtle force of illumination of difficult problems or
of knotty questions, in speech that glittered in its own chaste delicacy
and beauty of phraseology after having passed through the crucible of his
brain?
The history of others is perhaps more iridescent, because the drift of the
currents into which they auspiciously fell bore them into fuller and more
applausive view before the public eye, in which event it is the condition,
and not the man who happens to be its representative, that deserves
consideration. The force inherent in Frank Bowdon, and his superior
ability to wield the elements already named, really make him a prodigy
among the men who have made famous the history of the state. He was not
ambitious to be showy, nor sought he special occasion to flash his
powerful gifts, but when occasion did logically and legitimately come, he
was prodigious.
Many men fall just short of accorded greatness because of the needed
stride across the boundary over which others bound and catch the loud
plaudit of the crowd and are borne to the crest of eminence. Many another
receives undue applause because he boldly thrusts himself on public
attention and forces recognition, while others, far superior perhaps,
stand in manly disdain of bald tawdriness and the impudence of ignorance
of which certain competitors are the innocent victims. Gifted men are
usually, though not always, men of delicate taste, which is itself an
element of real greatness. It is the ripest and heaviest ear of corn that
hangs lowest. Mr. Bowdon, with the consciousness of his own power, which
every strong man has, eschewed the cheap clatter of the flatterer, and
always appeared in public to advantage because he was summoned thither.
This, at least in part, affords an explanation of the absence of the fame
which was justly his because of the possession of the vast powers already
named.
Frank W. Bowdon was a native of Chester district, South Carolina, and was
brought by his father to Shelby County, Alabama, while his gifted son was
still a child of only three years. On the farm of a thrifty planter and in
a home of piety and of hospitality the youth was reared. It was one of
those old-time southern homes where ease and elegance, culture and
refinement were, and where children were reared free from over-exaction
and with just sufficient freedom to develop real manliness.
Mr. Bowdon was educationally prepared for entrance on the State
University, which he in due time entered and from which he was graduated,
and entered at once on the profession of the law. He was admitted to
practice and settled at Talledega. His ability as a speaker was equally
suited to the court room and the forum. During the years of 1844-5 he
served as a representative in the legislature from Talledega County. His
ability in debate and his power of oratory brought him promptly to the
front. Nor was he ungifted in the manipulation of conditions by skillful
management in the execution of his chosen purposes. He was easily the peer
of the foremost of a legislative body graced by such choice spirits as
Thomas H. Watts, John Gill Shorter, Thomas A. Walker, James A. Stallworth,
W. O. Winston, Joseph W. Taylor, William S. Mudd, Thomas J. Judge, and
others. His reigning trait was decisiveness of conviction, which when once
possessed did not lack the underpropping courage of expression, and in
turn this expression was not wanting in the most radiant demonstration and
persuasion. No haughty spirit nor arrogant port entered into his
forensics, but, on the other hand, there was a refreshing repose that lit
up the whole with a confidence that was serene and assuring.
Two legislative sessions terminated his career in the general assembly of
Alabama, and on the occasion of the untimely death of General McConnell,
as the representative in congress from the seventh district, a special
election was ordered, with Thomas A. Walker and Franklin W. Bowdon as the
candidates for the vacancy. The result was the election of Mr. Bowdon.
This was followed by his re-election over Honorable Samuel F. Rice for the
term next succeeding, and over General Bradford for the next following
term.
For five years he held his seat in congress, a giant among giants. In a
wider sphere there was ampler scope for the play of his power, and it was
duly exercised. Brewer states that an English peer was present on one of
the occasions when Bowdon spoke, and the Englishman pronounced the effort
the ablest to which he had ever listened, and he had heard the greatest of
both English and American orators.
Nor was Mr. Bowdon's power confined to his oratory. It was abundantly
illustrated in his law practice, and in the preparation of his briefs.
Here were met, as elsewhere, the same logical incisiveness and clearness
that distinguished his utterances while on his feet.
In his person he was most commanding. He was fully six feet high, of
symmetrical build, and his handsome features, especially in the sweep of
oratorical passion and fervor, were a study for the artist. Zealous in
temperament, and confident of his footing in advance of any deliverance,
he shrank not to meet in mental combat anyone who might desire to brook
his views. He retired from congress voluntarily in 1851, and after a few
years removed to Tyler, Texas, where he soon after died. Bowdon College,
in Georgia, derived its name from this distinguished Alabamian.
ALEXANDER B. MEEK
For versatility, brilliancy, and general usefulness, few Alabamians have
surpassed Judge Alexander B. Meek. His was an unusual combination of
powers. He was a poet, author, orator, editor and jurist, and was
inconspicuous in none. One of the earliest graduates from the University
of Alabama, where he received the master's degree, he found full exercise
for his varied gifts during a career which extended through thirty-two
years.
Choosing the bar as a profession, Judge Meek entered on the practice of
the law in 1835. During the following year, 1836, he enlisted along with
others to serve against the Creek Indians in Florida, Mr. Meek going in
the capacity of a non-commissioned officer.
On his return from the Florida campaign, Mr. Meek was appointed by
Governor Clay attorney general for the state. At the expiration of his
term of office as attorney general, Mr. Meek sought gratification of his
literary tastes by creating a new local journal at Tuscaloosa, which he
called "The Flag of the Union." Later he edited in the same town a
literary journal called "The Southron."
The limited resources at his command compelled him to deflect his course
into channels other than those purely literary, and in 1842 he was
appointed county judge of Tuscaloosa, and during the same year published a
supplement to the Digest of Alabama.
Being appointed law clerk to the solicitor of the treasury at Washington,
he gained an insight into the life of the national capital, and perhaps
his residence there had some connection with his being made United States
attorney for the southern district of Alabama, which position he held for
four years, living meanwhile in Mobile. From this position he went to the
associate editorship of the Mobile Daily Register.
In 1853 we find Judge Meek representing Mobile County in the legislature,
where, as chairman of the committee on education, he reported the bill to
"establish and maintain a system of free public schools in the state of
Alabama." The bill providing for the scheme, together with a voluminous
and exhaustive report on education, excited profound interest in the
legislature, and the documents were so appreciated that five thousand
copies of the bill and ten thousand copies of the report were ordered to
be printed.