Covington County AlArchives Biographies.....Gantt, Preston J. 1854 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 17, 2004, 7:38 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    PRESTON J. GANTT, a planter and lumberman of River Falls, was born in
Lexington district, S. C., in 1854. He is a son of Alfred and Sarah Anne
(Jackson) Gantt, both of whom were natives of the same district in South
Carolina. There they were educated and lived until 1867, when they removed to
Covington county, Ala., and lived at Hamptonville for some years, but are now
living at Evergreen. Mr. Gantt is about sixty-four years of age, and his wife
about fifty-five. He is a Presbyterian, and she a Baptist. In South Carolina he
was engaged in the manufacture of lumber for some years, but is now principally
engaged in farming. He has always been energetic and prosperous. Early in the
war he volunteered in the Confederate army as a private soldier, and
participated in many of the most important battles of the war. On October 19,
1363, he was captured in northern Virginia and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Md.,
till June, 1865. He was neither wounded, nor captured, nor diseased while in the
service. Upon his return home he found everything dilapidated and to a great
degree destroyed, it having been in the line of Sherman's march to the sea. His
father, Zebulon Gantt, died in Lexington district, when the subject of this
sketch was a boy. He was of Scotch descent, was a lumberman by occupation. He
had two sons and six daughters, the two sons both serving in the war. Clement
Jackson, the maternal grandfather, was also a native of Lexington district, was
a farmer and merchant, raised a large family, had four sons in the late war, and
died in Barnwell district, S. C. James, who now resides in South Carolina,
served all through the war, was shot in the left leg, and lost its use;
Middleton was shot through the shoulder, and died in the hospital in Virginia;
J. P. was shot in the left arm and lost its use. He now resides in South
Carolina. Preston J. Gantt is the eldest of three sons and six daughters, viz.:
Anne, wife of Lawrence J. Salter; Eliza J., wife of Shehane Gant, of Evergreen;
Anderson; Donie, wife of Harry Burt, of Evergreen, and three others who died
young. Mr. Gantt was securing a good education, which was cut short by the war.
He came with his parents to Alabama, and remained with them till he was
twenty-three years old, when he began working at the timber business, and is now
superintendent of the shipping department of the Frierson mills. He also is
engaged in farming, owning 1,200 acres of land, covered for the most part with
fine pine timber. In 1879 he married Lena, daughter of William and Mary Dunson,
natives of Georgia, where Mr. Dunson died. Mrs. Dunson afterward removed to
Alabama, and died in Troy. Mrs. Gantt was born in Georgia, and has three
children. Mr. Gant is a. member of the Andalusia lodge, No. 434, F. & A. M. He
was a charter member, and was treasurer a good many years. He is of good family,
and stands high amongst his neighbors and friends.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 751-752



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