Cherokee-Talladega-Jefferson County AlArchives Biographies.....McSpadden, Samuel K 1821 - May 1896
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Richard Reed Fleming rfleming@whnt.net May 8, 2007, 4:08 pm

Author: Coosa River News

  Samuel K McSpadden was of Scotch Irish descent and his people settled in 
North Carolina when they came to America and drifted to the mountain country of 
Tennessee, probably because it was like Scotland in it's mountains. Samuel was 
born in McMinnville and was reared a Presbyterian. His father was a minister of 
the Cumberland church, having joined the Presbyterians, who abandoned 
presbyterial for congregational government in a modified form.
  Samuel McSpadden was apprenticed to a saddler when he was old enough. He had 
sound primary education and liked to read. He was ambitious and did not like to 
be an apprentice and what money he made, he used to buy his freedom. He worked 
for himself at his trade and came to Alabama in 1842, when he was 21. He worked 
at several places until he got to Talledega with no means but his trade, which 
was profitable. He worked industriously and studied law and Judge Sam F. Rice 
became interested and helped him. In 1848, he was ready to be admitted and 
stood a creditable examination. He went back to Cherokee to practice, because 
he had friends there, and the bar was not crowded as it was at Talledega.
  Mr. McSpadden was not a man to fail and he succeeded. In 1856 he was elected 
a general of militia, but the title did not stick. In 1857, he was elected to 
the state senate and in 1860 was elected again. He was in office when the state 
seceded and he at once enlisted as a private. When the regiment was organized 
he was made a major of the Nineteenth Alabama and went to the front. Of that 
regiment, Joseph Wheeler was a colonel and later rose to fame as a general of 
calvary. Cherokee had six companies in the regiment and Jefferson county had 
one. Of that William F. Hamby was captain until wounded and then Rufus H. 
Hagood became captain.
  In 1862, Major Mcpadden was promoted to colonel and commanded the regiment to 
great battles to which it participated. He was captured at the battle of Resaca 
and was in prison till the war closed.
  In 1865 Colonel McSpadden was elected chancellor of the Northeastern Chancery 
division and he resided at Talledega where he had worked as a saddler. He was 
ousted by the reconstruction acts and was in retirement for several years but 
at the death of Chancellor N.S. Graham, also of North Carolina Scotch blood, he 
was appointed chancellor of nearly the same division. He was elected for the 
full term at the next election and again six years later and died in office in 
May, 1896. He made a good and painstaking chancellor and held the respect of 
the bar and public. He made as much of the talents given him by nature as any 
man who ever lived in the state. 

Additional Comments:
  Special thanks to John C. Awbrey and his compilations of the Coosa River 
News. Col McSpadden and wife (Charlcie d: Dec 29th, 1906) are buried at Garrett 
Cemetery in Centre.

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