Chambers County AlArchives Biographies.....Dowdell, J. R. April 2 1847 - living in 1893
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 15, 2004, 5:07 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
   J. R. DOWDELL, judge of the fifth judicial circuit, is a son of James F. and
Sarah (Render) Dowdell. James F. Dowdell was born in Harris county, Ga.,
November 26, 1818. His father was a Virginian of Irish descent, and a wealthy
planter, and his mother was a distant relative of Henry Clay. The Dowdell
ancestors came from Armagh county, Ireland, in colonial times, and its history
can be traced back more than five hundred years. It was often prominent in
governmental positions. Judge J. R. Dowdell has a family tree complete extending
back into the thirteenth century. Upon coming from Ireland the Dowdells settled
near Spottsylvania, Va., and became connected with the best people of the state.
Lewis J. Dowdell, father of James F. Dowdell, was born in Virginia, removed to
Jasper county, Ga., with a brother, returned to Virginia, and there married a
Miss Elizabeth Farley, returned to Georgia, settled permanently in Harris
county, and there lived the remainder of his days. He reared three sons and one
daughter, and died in 1848. James F. Dowdell was reared to manhood in his native
county. He graduated at Randolph-Macon college, at Ashland, Va., and read law in
the office of General Hugh Haralson, in LaGrange, Ga. He was married in
Menriwether county, Ga., and lived there from that time, in 1841, to 1845, when
he removed to Chambers county, Ala. Here he lived some years and then removed to
Auburn, Lee county, for the purpose of educating his children. Here the family
lived until it was broken up by the scattering of the children and by death.
James F. Dowdell was a prominent democrat in his day. In 1851 he was a candidate
for the legislature, but was defeated. The next year he was an elector on the
Pierce and King ticket and in 1853 he was elected to congress, defeating the
Hon. Thomas G. Garrett of Calhoun county, by a majority of 3,115. In 1855 he was
again elected to congress, defeating the Hon. Thomas H. Watts, and in 1857 he
was once more elected, defeating the Hon. Thomas J. Judge. He then voluntarily
retired and took no further part in politics until 1861, when he represented
Chambers county in the secession convention and voted for the ordinance of
secession. In the winter of 1861-62 he raised the Thirty-seventh Alabama
infantry, and led it to the field as its colonel. He served in the western army
until 1863, participating in the battles of Corinth, of Iuka, the siege of
Vicksburg, and other battles. The exposure was however too severe on his
constitution; his health gave way and he was compelled to retire just before the
Georgia campaign, and did not again actively participate. He however refused to
resign, thinking it a bad example to set, but he was retired by a medical board.
He was a man of fine education and in 1866 he was elected president of the East
Alabama Male college at Auburn, which position he held until 1870, when he was
compelled to resign on account of feeble health. His death occurred in
September, 1871. In 1858 he became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church,
and after the war he was regularly ordained. He then devoted much of his time to
preaching the gospel. He reared a family of seven, four sons and three
daughters, viz.: A. G., of Opelika, Ala.; Elizabeth, wife of A. H. Reed, of
Opelika, Ala.; J. R.; L. A., of Houston, Texas; Susan A., deceased wife of Harry
Brown; M. C., wife of George E. Driver, of Opelika, Ala.; Joshua S., of La
Fayette, Ala. The mother of these children died in December, 1887. J. R. Dowdell
was born April 2, 1847, in Chambers county, four miles south of La Fayette. He
entered the university of Alabama in June, 1861, and participated in all the
exciting events connected with the burning of the institution by the Yankees.
The cadets were in the service at times during the war at Mobile and northern
Alabama. His education was completed at the Auburn school in 1867. The next year
he entered the school room as a teacher in a private school at La Fayette, and
afterwards at Opelika, for a period of two and a half years. During this time he
read law and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1869, at Opelika. He began
practice the next year at that place. In 1876 he was elected solicitor of the
ninth judicial circuit, which office he held four years. In 1878 he removed to
La Fayette, and when his term of office expired in 1880, he resumed the practice
of law which he continued until appointed judge of the fifth judicial circuit in
1888. Since then he has devoted himself to the performance of the duties
pertaining to his office. He was married in La Fayette, in 1878, to Miss Ella
Ware, daughter of Jonathan Ware, a member of a prominent family in the county.
Jonathan Ware represented the county in the legislature several terms. Two
children have been born to their marriage, Annie Love and Sarah. Politically
Judge Dowdell is a democrat. He is a master Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a
Knight of Honor, and he and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal
church, south. The Render family, to which Mrs. Dowdell belongs, is an old
Georgia family, Mrs. Dowdell being a daughter of Judge James Render, county
judge for many years of Merriwether county.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 628-629

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