Covington County AlArchives Biographies.....Diamond, John M. 1829 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 17, 2004, 4:59 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
   JOHN M. DIAMOND, a planter of Beat No. 6, was born, where he now resides in
1829. He is a son of Reuben and Elizabeth (Dixon) Diamond, natives of South and
North Carolina respectively. In 1819 they came to Alabama, married, and moved to
Monroe county in 1820. In 1823 they removed to what is now Covington county.
They settled in the woods near to where Fairfield now stands. Mr. Diamond
improved his farm, started a saw mill, and raised a great deal of live stock,
including cattle, sheep, hogs and horses. He remained there the rest of his
life, dying October 7, 1853, aged seventy-four years. He was one of the very
first white settlers in the country, his nearest market being Pensacola, ninety
miles away. He became familiar with the customs and habits of the Indians, and
fought against them in 1836. He also enlisted in the war of 1812, but did not
fight. He was a very industrious and prosperous man, and accumulated
considerable property. He lived among his neighbors, wealthy and happy, liberal
and charitable; dishonesty among the people was unknown at that early day; but
he shared the hardships and privations of pioneer life. His father, William
Diamond, died in South Carolina, but the rest of the family came to Alabama. The
eldest son, William, was killed in the McDade massacre by the Indians. The
mother died in Conecuh county. The mother of John M. was a daughter of Jeremiah
Dixon, an Englishman, who served in the Revolutionary army at the battle of
Banker Hill. He came to Alabama in 1819, died in 1839, and was buried in
Covington county. John M. Diamond was the fourth of three sons and five
daughters, viz.: William, served in the cavalry during the war, and died in
Florida; Elizabeth, deceased; Anna, wife of Henry Padget; John M. Diamond;
Margaret, wife of Samuel Tynes; Clarissa, of Texas; Reuben, served in the
Virginia army three-years, and Lucy J., wife of William Mosely, of Texas. John
M. Diamond was raised in the wilds of Covington county, with no education. He
learned to read by catching the name of a letter now and then, and being in
company of those who could read; being a close observer, he in this way learned
to read and write. He remained at home until his father died, and then with his
mother till she died, but had been working for wages at home. In 1856 he married
Melissa J., daughter of Lewis and Sarah Smith, natives of Georgia, whence they
came to Pike county, Ala., and later to Covington county, where they died; he in
1880, and she in 1887. He was a farmer by occupation, and served in the late war
a short time. Mrs. Diamond was born in Pike county, and is the mother of twelve:
children, of whom three sons and seven daughters are still living. Mr. Diamond
has spent all his life in the neighborhood of his birthplace, engaged in
farming, stockraising and milling, and has lived on his present farm since 1862.
He owns about 400 acres of land in all. He volunteered his services to the
Confederate cause, but they were not accepted on account of his disability.
However, he cared for the families of those who went to the field. During that
time he worked hard and divided his earnings among his neighbors. While his
boyhood days were spent amongst the Indians, and he was thus compelled to grow
up without educational advantages, yet his experience with the world was in
itself a school that has supplied him with a certain amount of practical
knowledge that has been of great value to him, and which he could not have
obtained from books. He is one of the men that believe that honesty should be
practical as well as theoretical, and has a thorough contempt for crooked ways
in the business or social world.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 748-749



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