Barbour County AlArchives Biographies.....John W. Tullis October 3 1839 - after 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 12, 2004, 10:25 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    JOHN W. TULLIS. - Among the names conspicuous in the commercial circles of
Barbour county none has added more luster to the city of Eufaula than that of
John W. Tullis, for a number of years one of the leading cotton merchants of the
southern Alabama. Mr. Tullis was born in Edgefield district, S. C., October 3,
1839, and is the son of P. T. and Mary A. (Beall) Tullis, both parents natives
of the same state. P. T. Tullis, a planter by occupation, moved his family to
Macon county, Ala., when John W. was but six months old, and after residing in
that part of the state until 1859, moved to the county of Pike, where he died in
1882, and his wife four years later. John W. Tullis spent the first sixteen
years of his life on a farm. The educational advantages afforded him in youth
were not of the best nor were they meager, but through the avenues of subsequent
years of wide business experience, and being naturally of strong intellect and
keen discerning powers, he has become possessed of a well informed mind,
recognized wisdom and sound judgment. He had the honor of holding a lieutenant's
commission in the first company accepted by the Confederate government,
Hardway's battery, which he joined early in the spring of 1861, and immediately
thereafter departed for the seat of war in Virginia, where he received his first
baptism of fire in the bloody battle of Bull Run. Subsequently he took part in
all the principal battles of the Virginia campaigns, including the seven days'
fight around Richmond, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness and
Gettysburg, Penn., in the last of which his left foot was shot away at the
ankle, leaving him helpless upon the field and a prisoner in the hands of the
enemy, after the Confederate army had retired from the scene of conflict. He was
sent first to the hospital at Gettysburg, thence to Fort McHenry, and later to
Point Lookout, where he was exchanged after a confinement of nine months'
duration. Returning to Columbus, Ga., Mr. Tullis was placed in command of an
artillery company raised for home protection, and at the close of the war
engaged in the warehouse business at that place until the fall of 1866, at which
time he came to Eufaula and began dealing in cotton, which he still carries on.
He is the largest buyer and exporter of that commodity in Barbour county, and
one of the most extensive dealers in the south-eastern part of the state, and
his flattering success since locating in Eufaula bears unmistakable testimony to
the superior business qualifications which he possesses. Mr. Tullis has always
been identified with the public movements of his city and county is public
spirited and active in everything of a progressive character, and Eufaula owes
much of its present prosperity to the lively interest which he has ever
manifested in the promotion of its leading enterprises. He was the prime mover,
and is now the principal stockholder, in the electric light and gas work, was
the leader of the agitation which resulted in the establishing, at Eufaula, of
the cotton factory of which he is president, and no one has borne a more
prominent or untiring part in the work of bringing about and placing upon a
solid foundation the present efficient system of free schools, the pride of the
town and the equal of any educational system in the state. He is chairman of the
educational board of Eufaula, and also a director in five of the lines of the
central railroad system. This in brief is the story of a long and very active
business life, in which the record is untarnished by a single dishonorable
transaction. Success has attended all of Mr. Tullis' efforts, and a comfortable
future is the result of a long and honorable consecration to the business
enterprises in which he haste been engaged. He takes an active part in political
affairs, and though not a place seeker himself, has been untiring in behalf of
friends whom he considers worthy of official preferment. Mr. Tullis is the
father of three living children, of whom he feels deservedly proud, and it is
but justice to observe that no finer family lives within the boundaries of
Eufaula. The names of these children are as follows: Charles D., member of the
cotton firm of Chaffin & Tullis, Ozark, Ala.; John W., graduate of the
university of Alabama, and Clayton L., in the hardware business at Eufaula, the
last two being twin partners. A fourth son, Robert W., died in infancy. The
mother of these children, Mary C. Woods, whom Mr. Tullis married in 1867, is the
daughter of Clayton R. Woods, a member of one of the old and respectable
families of Eufaula. Mrs. Tullis was born and reared in Barbour county, and is a
lady of many noble qualities of mind and heart.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama" Vol I, p. 466-468

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