Cleburne County AlArchives Obituaries.....Hunnicutt, William Randolph October 19 1900 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Candace Gravelle tealtree@comcast.net September 22, 2004, 3:08 pm The Cleburne New Era NEWSPAPER ARTICLE FROM "THE CLEBURNE NEW ERA", Heflin, Cleburne County, Alabama of the Tribute to Judge William Randolph Hunnicutt NEWSPAPER Issue of November 3, 1900 TRUBUTE TO JUDGE HUNNICUTT, by Wilson P. Howell It has become my melancholy task to record the death of another life-long friend and brother, and to pay a merited and loving tribute to his memory. William Randolph Hunnicutt, sixth son and twelfth child of John and Rebecca Hunnicutt, was born in South Carolina, January 11, 1834 and died at his home in Heflin, Ala., Oct 19, 1900 in his 67th year. honored and beloved while living by hundreds of friends and neighbors who sincerely mourn his death. He descended from good blood on both sides; his mother was a Thompson. He came to Alabama with his parents who settled on Muscadine Creek in section 30, when William was but an infant. Under the benign influence of a christian home, his young heart responded to the divine command and sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and thereby secured to himself and family all necessary temporal good up to the day of his death. His parents were both raised and taught under the wholesome discipline of the Wesleyan Methodist of the 18th century from whence came his intense loyalty to his church, as well to every good word and work. His father and mine were neighbors and devoted friends early in the forties, when as boys we first knew each other and between us there sprang up a friendship and intimacy which ripened into brotherly devotion and remained unbroken till the day of his death. Judge Hunnicutt was much above the ordinary of his day in native and acquired ability although his literary opportunities, living as he did in a new country, were meager, but his strong will power, together with his commendable ambition for knowledge, overcame the adverse circumstances and he acquired a fair English education. About the time he reached manhood he went to West Alabama, which was then a faraway country, two of his older brothers having preceded him there, one of whom, Flurnoy, had married a Miss Hargrove, of a distinguished family in that part of the State and a sister of Dr. Robt. K. Hargrove, now of Nashville, Tenn., one of the honored Bishops of the M.E. Church South. This brother was killed in the forefront of the hard fought battle of Resaca, GA in May 1864. Remaining there a few years, he went on a prospecting tour into Texas. About the year 1858 or '59 he returned to Muscadine, his childhood home, to care for his now old and devoted parents. His father in February 1860 came to a very sudden death. He had gone out one cold morning in usual good health to his corn crib nearby with a basket to get corn to shell for the mill and just as he had reached the front door of his dwelling on his return he suddenly sank to the ground and expired in a few minutes. Judge Hunnicutt remained at the old homestead and tenderly cared for his dear old mother until 1862 when that fearful war cloud broke in all its fury on this South land and although not in accord with the then dominant political party which carried Alabama out of the union in 1861, he, as a loyal citizen of the state responded to his country's call and bid farewell to mother, kindred and home and shouldered his musket and heroically followed the immortals Lee and Jackson through the historic and bloody campaigns of Virginia. Just before leaving for the field of conflict, he was happily married to Miss Phoeba A. Brown, daughter of the honored and well known Wm. R. Brown of Muscadine and who was a woman eminently worthy of the heart and hand of such a man. He was not long in the army until he was promoted to a Lieutenancy in an Alabama Regiment. At the close of the war he returned home and applied himself in rebuilding his devasted home and country. Upon the organization of Cleburne County in 1867, he was called to the chief clerkship in the office of Hon. A.D. Chandler, who was Cleburne's first Probate Judge. Judge Chandler died the second year of his uncumbency of that office and W.R. Hunnicutt was appointed by the Governor of Alabama as his successor and to Judge Hunnicutt more than any one else devolved the arduous and delicate work of organizing the new county and putting legal matters in shape. Well and truly did he meet the responsibilities and discharge the difficult duties as Judge of Probate of the new county. He built, I believe, the first residence in the town of Edwardsville after its location in 1867. The house was built from logs cut nearby but has been replaced by more modern and commodious residences. When his term of office expired in 1874 he purchased a part of that famous farm on Tallapoosa River known as the Bell Farm, where by his industry and economy, he accumulated good property. When the Georgia Pacific railroad was built he was a leading factor in the laying off and building of the town of Heflin where he built a commodious residence and where he lived continuously to the time of his death. He and his good wife were blessed with three sons and six daughters, two of the sons died in their boyhood; John his only son, is a leading business man in Bibb County, Alabama. His oldest daughter, the only one married, is the wife of Mr. A.E. Carruth, the popular and efficient tax collector of Cleburne County. Five precious daughters remain at home to cheer and comfort the bereaved wife and mother. In all the relations of life, Judge Hunnicutt acted well his part, as husband, father, citizen and neighbor. Unlike many prominent men of his day he was not always feeling the pulse of a vacillating public opinion as a guide to his conduct but his acute sense of justice and right, under the light of the law and God and the approvals of his enlightened conscience, he maintained his convictions of duty with commendable courage. In his death the State lost a good citizen, the church a faithful, loyal and consistent member, the community a good neighbor and above and beyond all his family an affectionate and devoted husband and father. We shall not soon see his like again. He was confined to his room only a day or two. I am informed he had kidney trouble which often does its sad work very soon. He had been for many years a faithful and devoted member of the Masonic fraternity and from his childhood a member of the Methodist Church and at the time of his death the leading member of the M.E. Church in his town. More than fifty of his Masonic brethren, under the solemn and impressive burial ritual of that order joined in the last sad rites, together with the hundreds of sorrowing friends and kindred. Reverand J.M. Mason, the honored and beloved pastor of his church and others made touching and appropriate remarks at the funeral. Alas, how sad to part with thee, friend of my happier days. Wilson P. Howell, Oak Level, Ala., Oct 28, 1900. __________ File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/cleburne/obits/gob249hunnicut.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 7.6 Kb