Barbour County AlArchives Biographies.....James J. Winn June 9 1842 - after 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 12, 2004, 11:50 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
   DR. JAMES J. WINN. - Among the prominent medical men of southern Alabama, Dr.
James Winn has but few rivals and certainly no superiors in Barbour county,
where his eminent abilities long since placed him at the head of the profession,
a distinction he still enjoys. Dr. Winn is descended from Revolutionary stock,
both his grandfather and great-grandfather on the paternal side having served
with gallantry throughout the seven years' struggle for American independence.
At one time they were both captured and condemned to suffer death by hanging,
but were rescued just as the nooses had been placed around their necks at the
place of execution. James J. Winn, father of the doctor, was an native of South
Carolina, born at the town of Winnsborough, in 1804. He was the son of Maj. John
Winn, of Revolutionary fame, whose ancestors came to America from Wales. James
J. Winn married Miss C. M. Johnson of DeKalb county, Ga., and became the father
of seven children, the eldest, of whom, L. J., for some years a well known
lawyer of Atlanta, Ga., is deceased; the other members of the family are as
follows: Mary E., widow of B. F. Caffee; Dr. James J., Prof. P. P. Winn,
president of Female college at Talladega, Ala.; Rev. S. K. Winn, Presbyterian
minis-ter at Petersburg, Va.; Katy L., wife of William Kirkpatrick and Marie L.,
wife of G. B. Scott, residing at Decatur, Ga. This family were mostly raised in
DeKalb county, Ga., where the father died on the 16th of April, 1892; and the
mother is still living at a good old age. Dr. James J. Winn was born in Monroe
county, Ga., June 9, 1842, and enjoyed the advantage of an academic education.
He began the study of medicine under the tutorship of Dr. N. S. Liddell and
afterward entered the Atlanta Medical college, where he made such rapid and
thorouugh progress in his studies that he was graduated in the class of 1860, at
the remarkably early age of seventeen and a half years-a record unprecedented in
the history of that or, perhaps, any other institution in the United States.
Receiving his degree, the doctor at once located for the practice of his chosen
calling at Clayton, but six months later enlisted in what was known as the
"Barbour Grays," a military company which went to Virginia as a part of the
Fifth Alabama volunteers, in which he served as a private for twelve months. He
then successfully passed an exemination for the position of assistant surgeon,
and receiving his commission was assigned to duty as acting surgeon of the
Forty-fifth Georgia volunteers, and at the end of three months, upon petition of
the regimental officers, was promoted to full surgeon and put permanently in
charge of the regiment. He remained with the regiment until the surrender at
Appomattox, and at the close of the war returned to Clayton, where he has since
been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. Dr. Winn is a physician
of reputation and his professional experience presents a series of successes
such as few medical men succeed in attaining. That he possessed much more than
ordinary skill is attested by the fact that of his having been made surgeon of a
regiment before reaching his majority, and that, too, after a rigid and
impartial examination and not by a system of favoritism which placed so many
incompetent members of the profession in responsible positions during the war.
He is also a leader in all enterprises for the benefit of the city, and the
public enterprises of Clayton have ever found him a friend and liberal promoter.
In 1888, he was instrumental in organizing the Clayton Banking company, of which
he became president, a position still filled by him, and for a period of twelve
years has been the popular and efficient mayor of the city. He is also president
of the Clayton Improvement company, and in addition to his professional and
official duties has large farming interests in Barbour county. In politics the
doctor is, and always has been, a democrat; fraternally, he is a member of the
Presbyterian church. The doctor was married in June, 1868, to Mary V. Crews,
daughter of W. B. Crews, a union blessed with the birth of ten children, five
sons and five daughters, namely: Mamie C., principal of Female academy, Clayton;
Guy W., law student; Pauline L., attending college at Decatur; Lochlan M., now
at Washington and Lee university, Va.; James J.; Nannie ; Condie K.; Samuel R.,
deceased, Minnie and Hattie.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama" Vol I, p. 475-477

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