Makers and Romance of Alabama History Part 10

His scholastic training in youth seems to have been largely private, though it is certain that he did attend one school outside his home. To his grandmother was this distinguished man indebted for the first scientific taste inculcated, for this remarkable woman led the promising grandson to study with diligence and with accuracy the science of botany, with which study it seems there was ever afterward a.s.sociated, on the part of Mr. Tuomey, a cherished memory by a grateful grandson for timely inspiration given in his boyhood days on the Emerald Isle. Along with this was borne the sacred recollection of a fond mother for the careful cultivation of the beautiful as displayed in the dreamy regions of his native isle, and in the magnificent landscapes which there abound.

Throughout his life Professor Tuomey bore the impress of the culture imbibed in those early days, and the earnestness of the instruction given by loved ones was a perpetual propelling force in all his subsequent studies and investigations.

His precocity was evidently taken advantage of by these affectionate instructors, for at the early age of seventeen we find him a.s.sociated with a friend in teaching at Yorkshire, England. The young genius, for such he was, girded by the panoply of a sacred a.s.sociation and thorough drill of mind, marked out for himself a course of scientific study into which his natural bent bore him, and his early training, as well.

We are left largely to conjecture as to the time of his emigration to America, but it must have been in the early twenties. A youthful immigrant, he appears in Philadelphia, a stranger among strangers, scarcely knowing whither to turn, till he buys a piece of ground to till, then ventures in connection with a partner on the purchase of an estate, finds agriculture ill-suited to his taste and ill-productive of results, disposes of his interest, and wends his way southward, often trudging weary and footsore for days together. He reaches the eastern sh.o.r.e of Virginia, and with a knack of friend-making and possessing a charming cultured manner, he procures a rural school, rallies about him a host of friends, later becomes a private tutor in the home of John H. Dennis, of Maryland, studying while he taught, but always winning the hearts of others, and supremely that of Miss Sarah E. Handy, a kinswoman of his private patron, which gifted young woman became Mrs. Tuomey.

His innate craving for scientific knowledge and his love of nature found slight chance for cultivation at a time when inst.i.tutions of science in America were scarce, but he sought the best within reach by a course in the Rennselaer Inst.i.tute at Troy, N. Y., whence he was graduated and became a civil engineer in the construction of one of the early railroads in North Carolina. The financial crash of '37 imposed a cessation on the railroad project, and with ready resourcefulness Mr. Tuomey betook himself again to teaching, by occupying a chair of mathematics and the natural sciences in a school presided over by Miss Mercer, in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Responding to an opportunity afforded at Petersburg, Va., to establish a seminary of his own, he and his gifted wife entered on an enterprise there. This opened a wide vista to the pent-up zeal of Professor Tuomey for the cultivation and enlargement of his scientific gifts. In Petersburg was abundantly vindicated the principle in the person of this indomitable young Hibernian, that success finally rewards the patient, plucky, and resourceful. It became his honor at Petersburg to entertain that eminent English geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, on the occasion of both his visits to America, and by correspondence and otherwise he came into touch of more or less intimacy with the learned scientists of the American continent, as well as with those abroad. Among those with whom he was brought by reason of scientific congeniality into touch were Aga.s.siz, James Hall, state geologist of New York, Professor Bache, Professor Dana, Dr. Gibbs, Edmund Ruffin, and Professor Holmes. It was a glorious company of savants in those early days of scientific militancy when men of eminence had to confront an inertia of stout popular opposition.

Impelled by a consuming zeal for scientific research and guided by his own keen judgment, while availing himself of all possible authoritative sources of information, Professor Tuomey was meanwhile a.s.siduous in study and diligent in the collection of rare specimens of geology, mineralogy and paleontology. His labors anon took permanent and valuable shape in scientific publications, and after years of labor in other states which cannot be mentioned here in detail, he was called in the heyday of his career, in 1847, to the professorship of geology, mineralogy, and agricultural chemistry in the Alabama university. Lest in a comprehensive sphere like this, large enough for several men, his leisure time might run to waste, he had imposed additionally the onerous task of state geologist of Alabama, in 1848, and lest his extravagance in the use of a narrow stipend might betray him into undue lengths he was given no compensation for this additional labor. For six years he labored for the state under conditions like these, when the legislature came to his rescue and appropriated $10,000 for a geological survey. This led him to relinquish his chair temporarily in the university in order to devote his energies to the field of survey, which he continued till the exhaustion of the fund, when he returned to his chair in the university.

It was Professor Tuomey who first awoke interest in geological science in Alabama, and he it was who first disclosed the mineral wealth of the state. In his pioneer work he fixed the boundaries of the different formations in Alabama, embodying his charts, maps and reports in permanent shape, so that after the lapse of more than half a century and in the blaze of the scientific investigations of later years, his work remains as a standard of authority.

It would be an occasion of much delight to speak at length of Professor Tuomey, the man, but the censorship of brevity must in this connection be respected. His dignity, his modesty, as an adjunct to his superior culture, his width of information, his charming power of conversation, his gift of instruction, illumined by the brilliancy of his native wit, his courtesy toward the humblest--all these and more he had to a degree the most fascinating. The life and labor of a giant like this would be worthy of the worthiest pen, and in a sketch such as this is, one gleans but an inkling of the man that Professor Michael Tuomey was. It was an honor to Alabama to have his name numbered in the chronicles of her worthiest sons.

The contribution made by him to the state is inestimable. Professor Tuomey died on March 30, 1857.

In the ripeness of full-orbed manhood and at a time when men usually reach the point of greatest usefulness, at the age of fifty-two, Professor Tuomey was struck down by the hand of death.

"No man is lord of anything, Though in and of him there is much consisting, Till he communicate his part to others; Nor doth he of himself know them for aught, Till he behold them formed in the applause Where they're extended, which like an arch, reverberates The voice again; or, like a gate of steel, Fronting the sun, receives and renders back His figure and his heat."

To have rescued from comparative forgetfulness the career of one so great--a career obscured by the smoke of war which interposed to check the results of labors so valuably and eminently rendered, is a task for the privilege of which any might feel profoundly grateful.

CHARLES C. LANGDON

Coming from New England to Alabama in the bud of manhood, Mr. Langdon gradually rose from a clerkship in a country store to a rank of distinction in his adopted state. The conditions of his early life forbade the acquisition of a thorough education, as on his father's Connecticut farm he had to perform the duties of a common laborer, and avail himself of what advantages were afforded in a winter school in his native New England. These conditions did not prevent, however, an early ambition to attain to something in life worth while, and though twice defeated for the legislature in Alabama, he was undaunted, but the rather encouraged, because in each instance he was defeated by a scratch. In his first defeat he lost the object of his aspiration by just eleven votes, and in the second race he was defeated by fourteen.

Mr. Langdon's early life was characterized by a series of misfortunes, but the grit with which he would each time face afresh the future, indicated the texture of his character. By means of rigid economy he succeeded in the acc.u.mulation of some capital, with which he entered into the cotton commission business in Mobile, in connection with the Honorable Martin A.

Lee, of Perry County, but his business was engulfed in the financial disaster of 1836-7.

In the first whig convention ever held in Alabama he became the nominee of that party for the legislature, and while again sustaining defeat he had conducted the campaign with ability so signal that his party purchased The Mobile Advertiser as its organ, and placed in control of it Mr. Langdon.

His facile pen won him fresh distinction, and in two successive terms he was chosen for the legislature from Mobile County, first in 1839 and again in 1846.

For a period of eight years he devoted himself to editorial work, and in 1848 was elected mayor of Mobile, to which position he was annually elected for a period of seven years, save one. Meanwhile he continued the chief exponent of the whig party for the state, and for the success attained by that party indebtedness was due Mr. Langdon.

He was the pioneer of scientific horticulture and agriculture in the state. Defeated for Congress in 1851, Mr. Langdon soon afterward sold his journal and retired to a farm in the western part of Mobile County to demonstrate his method of scientific farming, which, at that time, was a subject of ridicule. He was called from his seclusion by the stirring political scenes of 1860, and appeared on the hustings as an ardent advocate of Bell and Everett. Though a stout opponent of secession, when it came and brought with it its consequences he was just as ardent in his espousal of the cause of the South as was any. Both by pen and by word of mouth he supported the cause throughout, and came to be one of the most popular citizens of Mobile and one of the most conspicuous public men in the state.

He was chosen to represent the county of Mobile in the legislature in 1861, and in a trying period rendered most valuable service. In 1865 he was chosen to represent the Mobile district in Congress, but he was denied his seat by the party in power, and was shortly afterward disfranchised. Under these conditions he retired to his country seat near Citronelle, where he continued to demonstrate in a scientific way the results of horticulture and agriculture. In a period of rehabilitation in the South Mr. Langdon made frequent exhibition of the results of his efforts, and with patriotic zeal inspired the public with confidence in the capabilities and productiveness of the soils in a climate so bland, and insisted that if properly tilled, the fields of the South would make her more independent than she had ever been. In 1877 Colonel Langdon became a candidate for the governorship against Honorable Rufus W. Cobb, the latter of whom was chosen. It was remarkable the difference between the appearances of the two candidates before the state convention of nomination. Mr. Cobb wore a cheap colored suit of clothes, in ill.u.s.tration of his ardent democracy, while Colonel Langdon was arrayed in a beautiful suit of black cloth, with a Prince Albert coat, all fresh and costly from the tailor's hands. The one immediately following the other in speeches before the body, presented a contrast of appearance at once striking and remarkable. The scene thus presented became a subject of general comment among the members of the convention.

The frequent contributions of Colonel Langdon to the press relative to horticultural and agricultural processes and results had much to do, after the close of the war, with the reawakening of the spirit which has eventuated in the abandonment of old and worn methods of cultivation, and in the adoption of new ones, which have brought untold wealth to the state.

The wreck of our industrial system and the necessity of economy by contracting the old time plantation into a modern farm under intensive processes, led Colonel Langdon among the first to recognize the situation toward which we were tending, and he advocated a shift of accommodation to meet the inevitable. Though laughed at at first as a mere dreamer, the states of the South have gradually come to the methods advocated by him, and have emphasized them by the establishment of schools of agriculture to do just that which was once a matter of ridicule.

During a period of agricultural transition from the old methods to those of the new, Colonel Langdon was a popular contributor to the columns of the Mobile Register, and in a period when men were groping for a more substantial footing in things agricultural, Colonel Langdon was among the foremost to inspire confidence and hopefulness for the future. With the incisive penetration of a seer he forecast the return of a great prosperity, when there should come a readjustment to prevailing conditions. His was the vision of the genuine optimist, and the service then rendered, though not on the whole demonstrative, was conducive to the welfare of the state.

The quiet courage of Colonel Langdon in facing difficulties was never impaired by temporary defeat, nor was his ardor diminished by momentary failure. He supported his convictions with manly pluck, and invariably preserved a calmness of demeanor and an unchanged att.i.tude of respect for his opponents. His career throughout was one of sobriety and usefulness.

Men might differ with Colonel Langdon, but he compelled respect by his sincerity of purpose and uprightness of life, private and public, even on the part of his most vehement opponents. He was a practical patriot, a fact which was demonstrated by a long life of usefulness.

CHARLES T. POLLARD

One of the first to be touched by the new industrial energy of railroads in Alabama was Colonel Charles T. Pollard. He came to Alabama about 1840, and located at Montgomery, where he exhibited high qualities as a commercial genius and by his uniform courtesy came to impress the people of the capital city not only, but leading men elsewhere in the great world of business. He established a wide compa.s.s of business relations and the integrity of his character was such that he commanded financial confidence in the highest circles. Railroading was a new feature and the management of enterprises necessarily colossal, both with respect to executive ability and financial provision, and it therefore required the highest qualities of skill and sagacity. Few men of that type were to be found in those early days, and enterprises so vast, had by their very nature, to develop them. Men frequently expand under demanding conditions, and when qualified with latent endowments rise with the constant pressure of demand to the utmost limit of capability.

There can be little doubt that the decline in the statesmanship of the South is largely due to the drain which has been made on men of great capability to occupy positions in the expanding world of commerce.

Broad-brained, wide-visioned and many-sided men used to find their way into politics and command the heights of statesmanship, but in demand to existing conditions they are now found in the offices of presidents and managers of immense interests. As the industrial world has widened, inventive genius has found fuller play and stupendous enterprises have come to demand extraordinary headship. These men had to be developed by conditions, as enterprises grew and vast plans ripened.

For reasons already partly a.s.signed, railroads were in their initial stages bunglingly managed as compared with the gigantic grasp with which they are now manipulated. Only occasionally was one found in those early days who was capable of responding to the demands of stupendous enterprises. Colonel Pollard was one of the few. A manager of large interests and a successful conductor of enterprises through financial storms, while others went down under a terrible strain, he was logically called into requisition in the infant days of railroad enterprise. He had faced financial hurricanes when merchants and business men generally, bankers and managers of great interests, as they were then accounted, had been drawn into the maelstrom of ruin, and Colonel Pollard had safely piloted his affairs through.

Naturally enough, when the West Point and Montgomery railway was threatened with disaster, he was summoned from his private affairs to the rescue. It was he who revived this important public utility, infused into it new life, and placed it first on a basis safe, sound and solid. The excellent skill here displayed resulting in his being called into connection with Alabama's chief artery of commerce, the Louisville and Nashville railroad, and by means of his ability to command American and European capital, he was enabled to plant it on a permanent basis.

To know this giant king of finance was to confide in him. His judgment was as clear as amber, his power of adjustment in the management of vast concerns phenomenal, his skill in execution rare, his bearing that of one conscious of power; his courtesy toward his peers and subordinates always respectful, and his integrity unquestioned.

Facing a great undertaking he measured up to it. Thus rarely equipped he was a public benefactor at a time when such men were scarcely to be found.

With a penetrative sagacity he could see clearly at once the merits and demerits of a given proposal or undertaking, and to its utmost limit he could measure it and speak with accuracy of the possibility of its success or failure. Laden with weighty responsibility which grew commensurately with the expansion of the railway interests with which he was connected, it is extraordinary that he was able to preserve so remarkable a poise. A man of less ability would have chafed and worn under conditions like these, but with his head raised above the clouds of fret and commotion, he was invariably serene. It is with pleasure that his former subordinates today refer to his kindly courtesy and ever polite bearing, even to the humblest man. Under the heaviest depression no cloud was on his brow, no tang of tartness in his speech. Of untiring energy and an activity which would have overwhelmed most men, Colonel Pollard moved along the even tenor of his way, commanding the respect of all alike from the highest to the humblest.

Without precedents to guide, for railroads were new, Colonel Pollard had to rely on his own inherent qualifications in the manipulation of mighty interests. The most substantial qualities were needed to master conditions of vastness, and a creative genius was necessary to find methods of accomplishment. In Colonel Pollard these were inherent and needed only the occasion for their evolution.

Few are able to appreciate the pressure of the burden borne by one under conditions like these. With agencies moving in divers and remote directions, and yet moving toward a common end and purpose, one in Colonel Pollard's position had to dispatch business with electrical facility. A sudden juncture reached had to be promptly met. The busy brain of one in such circ.u.mstances had to be ubiquitous, directing, managing, suggesting, dictating, hour after hour, over a vast area of diversified interests. To lose one's poise under such conditions meant jar and jostle to the enterprises fostered, but to be able to grapple with problems which came trooping in every day, meant generalship of the highest order. These forces were happily combined in Colonel Pollard. He could turn from one interest to another with ease and facility, and his constructive genius would readily grapple with a grave situation, attended by a flash of suggestiveness that was phenomenal. To him official labors came easy, for he was built for a station like this.

For many years Colonel Pollard lived in Montgomery an honored citizen, and most fortunate for the young employes who came within the circle of his influence, he proved how one laden with grave matters could still be polite and courteous, and thus preserve universal respect, however unfavorable the environment.

SAMUEL F. RICE

Worthily in the muster roll of the prominent men who have contributed to the greatness of Alabama, must appear the name of Judge Samuel Farrow Rice. For many years he was conspicuous in the public affairs of the state and was in some respects a remarkable man. A native of South Carolina, Mr.

Rice was trained for the bar in the law office of the distinguished William C. Preston. He came to Alabama in 1838, and from that time till his death, was identified with the history of the state. His first service was that of an editor of a paper in Talladega, from which county he was twice sent to the lower house of the legislature. After this, for a period, he abandoned politics and was devoted to the practice of law, being at one time a partner to John T. Morgan.

Mr. Rice was not without congressional aspiration, which he sought to gratify several times, but was always defeated. Four different times did he sustain defeat in congressional races. General McConnell defeated him in 1845, Mr. Bowdon in '47, Alexander White in '51 and Hilary A. Herbert in '78. But he was never soured by defeat, and always accepted it in a jocular way. No one enjoyed a joke more at his own expense than Judge Rice. This was ill.u.s.trated by the good nature with which he learned that an old rustic in the cow country of southeast Alabama declined to support him at one time because, as he said, "Rice ain't got no stubbility."

Removing to Montgomery in 1852, Mr. Rice became a partner in the law firm of Belser & Rice, but two years later he was elected one of the justices of the supreme court of the state. He was on the bench in that exalted tribunal for four years, during the last three of which he was chief justice. In the early part of 1859 he resigned from the supreme bench and was chosen to represent Montgomery County in the legislature. During the following four years he served as senator from Montgomery and Autauga counties. After the close of the war Judge Rice never held office, though, as has been said, he ran against Mr. Herbert for Congress.

Possessed of an unusually brilliant intellect and of a wit as keen as a rapier, as well as a diction of remarkable smoothness, and a port of serene dignity, he was a formidable contestant on the stump and in the rough and tumble of the court room. Tall, and as straight as a flag staff, with a face of cla.s.sic mold, over which there was ever an expression of playful humor, he was always listened to with delight, especially since there were frequent flashes of merriment from his gifted tongue. A Democrat till the last years of his life, he became a Republican.

It is related of him that during the days of the reconstruction regime, he was at one time arguing with great earnestness some proposition before one of the incompetent judges of that period, for which judge he shared in the contempt experienced by the able members of the bar, when he was suddenly interrupted by the court and was told that the court had ruled on that point only the day before. Pretending not to hear the court, he continued until again interrupted in the same way by the court. Disdaining to notice him, Rice continued. He was then ordered by the court to take his seat, but still he proceeded as though he did not hear him. Addressing the proper official, the court ordered a fine of fifty dollars to be affixed, whereupon Judge Rice quietly sat down. The next day a case came before the court the nature of which was such that the presiding judge was ineligible to serve. Because of the prominence of Judge Rice, the court called on him to preside during the trial of the case. With characteristic dignity Judge Rice took the bench, looked quietly over the docket, and, straightening up, called to the official who had complied with the order of the judge the day before, and asked:

"Was there not a fine of fifty dollars affixed against one S. F. Rice here on yesterday?" Being told there was, he simply remarked:

"Well, the court will remit that fine today."