Chambers County AlArchives Biographies.....Bledsoe, William Carey 1823 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 15, 2004, 4:30 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    REV. WILLIAM CAREY BLEDSOE, D. D., is pastor of the Baptist church at La
Fayette, Ala. The Bledsoe family came from England in colonial times and settled
in Virginia. After the Revolution, in which several of the family actively
participated, William Bledsoe, the great grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, removed from Virginia and settled in Edgefield district, South Carolina.
His eldest son, also named William, married in the last mentioned state, and
among the children of this marriage was John F. Bledsoe, the father of Rev.
William Carey Bledsoe, who was born in 1823. While yet a boy, the family in the
early part of the thirties, removed to Chambers county, Ala. John F. Bledsoe was
educated at Brownwood institute, La Grange, Ga., and shortly after he left
school was married to Miss Mary U. Birdsong in 1846. He soon entered the
ministry of the Baptist church, and as long as he lived was an able and faithful
preacher. He was for many years one of the leading educators in east Alabama,
and was president of the La Fayette Female college during its brightest history.
He devoted the last twenty years of his life almost exclusively to preaching,
and died in October, 1885, while on a preaching tour, at Marble Valley, in Coosa
county, Ala. His wife, a woman of many excellent qualities, survives him. Rev.
John F. and Mary U. Bledsoe had nine children - two died in infancy, the others
are yet living, to-wit: Wiliam Carey, Fannie S. Ramsey, widow of John Ramsey;
Camp Hill, Ala.; Robert H., farmer, Camp Hill, Ala.; Bettie D., wife of W. M.
Dozier, farmer, Quitman county, Ga.; Charles W., railroad contractor,
Greensboro, Ga.; James O., farmer, Camp Hill, Ala. ; J. Frank, who graduated at
Howard college in 1892, and holds a fellowship in the university for training
teachers for the deaf and dumb, Washington, D. C. William Carey Bledsoe was born
at the old homestead near La Fayette, Ala., October 11, 1847. He was attending a
select school at Dalton, Ga., when the war between the states broke out, and
when the school disbanded, most of the pupils joining the army, he returned to
his father's home at La Fayette and entered the office of the Chambers Tribune
and learned the printer's trade. In 1864, in his seventeenth year, he enlisted
in the Confederate service, joining company F, Sixty-first Alabama regiment,
Battle's brigade, Gordon's division of the army of Virginia, and served until
the close of the war, surrendering with Lee at Appomattox. During a short
furlough spent with the Bledsoes of Fluvanna county, Va., in the fall of 1864,
he was converted and united with the Old Fluvanna Baptist church. After the
surrender he was employed by Mr. John K. Spence and issued the initial numbers
of the Greensboro Herald at Greensboro, Ga. In the winter of 1866-67 he entered
the university of Mount Lebanon, La., but after one session, entered Georgetown
college, Ky., where he graduated with the class of 1888. During the last year of
Mr. Bludsoe's college life he determined to devote himself to preaching the
gospel, and in the spring of 1888 he was ordained by the Baptist church at
Georgetown and the following October took charge of the Cane Run church near
Lexington, Ky. In August preceding he was married to Miss Rena L. Cason, a
lovely and gifted lady, well suited to be a helpmate in his life work. In one
brief year, however, she died, leaving an infant daughter, Rena L., who is now
(1893) the wife of Mr. W. E. Riordan, a merchant of Dawson, Ga. Failing health
forced Mr. Bledsoe to a more temperate climate, and in 1870, he removed to his
old home in Alabama, locating in La Fayette where he at present (1893) resides.
On October 11, 1871, he married Miss Sallie E. Higgins, daughter of Col. Harvey
J. Higgins of La Fayette county, Mo. She is a woman of sterling worth,
possessing many noble qualities of mind and heart. Four children are the fruits
of this marriage; two died in infancy and two survive. The elder, a son, John
Harvey, who is (1893) a cadet at the Marion Military institute, Marion, Ala. the
younger, a daughter, Mary Susan, is a member of the graduating class of 1893 at
La Fayette college. In 1890, Howard college conferred upon Mr. Bledsoe the
degree of D. D. Since 1889, he has been vice-president for Alabama of the
Foreign Mission board of the Southern Baptist convention. He served his
denomination, also, for some years as a member of the state board of missions,
and of the Bible and Colportage board. Dr. Bledsoe has been pastor of the
Baptist church at La Fayette sixteen out of the twenty past years. In 1890, he
succeeded in building a new house of worship, which is one of the prettiest in
the state. He is greatly loved by his flock and is one of the prominent
ministers of the Baptist denomination in Alabama; he is an eloquent preacher as
well as a popular gentleman. Dr. B. is a stanch friend of the cause of
education, having been for a number of years superintendent of education for his
county. He is also prominent in Masonic circles, having been for more than a
dozen years grand chaplain of the grand lodge of the state.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 624-625

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