Coffee County AlArchives Biographies.....Brunson, J. Pinckney April 23 1839 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 15, 2004, 11:51 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    J. PINCKNEY BRUNSON, general merchant and postmaster at Victoria, was born
in Lincoln county, Ga., April 23, 1839. He was a son of Matthew and Sarah
(Blanchard) Brunson, also natives of what is now Lincoln county, Ga., where they
were liberally educated, were married, and whence they removed in 1842 to what
is now Lee county, Ala., locating near the present site of Auburn. Mr. Brunson
was one of those who named the town. He improved a good farm, upon which he
lived until 1853, when he removed to Coffee county, for the purpose of
purchasing more land for his children. He bought a long tract on the Pea river,
about nine miles above Elba, where he opened up a good farm upon which he spent
the rest of his life, dying in 1877 at the age of seventy-two. His widow is
still living and is now seventy-two years old. Mr. Brunson was a very
progressive and prosperous man. He was a man of rare attainments, cultured and
courteous and was very prominent in local matters. He was extremely well
informed, was a great reader, and profound thinker. He belonged to a very
prominent family and was very retired in his habits. One of his brothers, Dr. T.
W. Brunson, now of Society Hill, Macon county, is one of the most distinguished
physicians of the state, and has been in active practice in Macon county for
more than forty years. Another brother, Rev. L. H. Brunson, who came to Coffee
county, before the late Civil war, was a prominent Baptist minister for many
years. He died in 1877. Their father was from Edge-field district, S. C., but
removed to what is now Lincoln county, Ga., at a very early day, and died there
before J. Pinckney's recollection. He was of French ancestry and served in the
Revolutionary war. Grand-father Blanchard died in 1857, at Union Springs, Ala.,
while on a visit. His wife died in Lincoln county, Ga., aged ninety years. J.
Pinckney Brunson is the eldest of five sons and two daughters, viz: the subject;
Matthew, who served for about two years on the Florida coast, during the late
war; Anna, deceased wife of La Fayette Morgan; Silas, who served in the Home
Guards about a year; E. G., Sallie, wife of La Fayette Morgan; John F. Mr. J. P.
Brunson was reared on the farm with a good English education. When quite young
he left school to take charge of his father's affairs which he managed until the
war. In April, 1862, he joined company K, thirty-seventh Alabama infantry,
organized at Auburn, spent a few months in drilling at Columbus, Miss., and then
fought at Iuka, Corinth and in the Mississippi campaign with General Van Dorn.
He was in the defense of Vicksburg and remained there about a month after the
surrender as ward master and took away the last of the sick and wounded, going
via New Orleans to Fort Morgan, and turned them over to the Mobile hospital and
then went home. He soon after rejoined his command and was one of the first to
open fire on Lookout Mountain. Here he was captured, but made his escape and the
next day was wounded in the battle of Missionary Ridge. He was taken to the
Montgomery hospital, where he remained two months, after which he rejoined the
regiment at Dalton and fought all through the Alabama campaign except the last
few days, when he was ordered to Mobile and there built Spanish fort, where he
remained until a short time before the final surrender, when he went to North
Carolina in time to participate in the battle of Bentonville and to surrender
with Johnston. After the war he resumed farming and in 1867 he married Salome
R., daughter of James F. and Patience Coleman, natives of Georgia, near Atlanta,
whence they removed to Bullock county, and in 1857 came to Coffee county where
Mr. Coleman died in 1868, his wife dying at Fort Gaines in 1892, both being
members of the Baptist church. Mr. Coleman was a wealthy planter and of a very
aristocratic and cultured family. They had two sons in the late war - Thomas,
who was with Gen. John Morgan and S. D., now a wealthy planter and merchant of
Ft. Gaines, Ga. Mrs. Brunson was born in what is now Bullock county and has
eight children, viz: Thaddeus W., Anna, Eula, wife of John Faust, Patience,
Willie, James, Gurtie Lee and John Franklin. About four years after the war Mr.
Brunson located in Victoria, where he has since been engaged in merchandising
and during a considerable portion of the time has been postmaster. He owns about
500 acres of land in different tracts. He has spared neither pains nor expense
to educate his children, and, in order that he might the more thoroughly educate
them and keep them at home, he erected a school house at his own expense at
Victoria. While Mr. Brunson is not a politician he is an active supporter of his
party. Both he and his wife have been members of the Missionary Baptist church
for many years. He has the first piano that was brought to Coffee county,
hauling it from Montgomery in a wagon. From this brief sketch, it is evident
that Mr. Brunson's family is among the prosperous and prominent ones of Coffee
county.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 656-657

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