Dallas County AlArchives Photo person.....William E. Wailes 1893 ************************************************ 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: Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 20, 2004, 6:40 pm Source: Brant & Fuller (1893) Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/dallas/photos/gph392williame.jpg Image file size: 127.8 Kb WILLIAM E. WAILES, cotton factor of Selma, Ala., was born at Salisbury, Somerset county, Md., August 12, 1837. His parents were Dr. William Handy and Sarah Ann (Leonard) Wailes. The former, a native of Maryland, was a son of Benjamin Wailes, who married a Miss Anna Handy, a descendant of Samuel Handy, who was born in England and who settled in Maryland as early as 1675, sailing from London in the bark Assurance. He had a descendant who was a signer of the Maryland declaration of independence, July 26, 1775. Benjamin Wailes was a native of Scotland, and settled in Somerset county, Md., about 1770. Dr. William H. Wailes was reared and educated in Salisbury, Md., graduated from the Baltimore Medical college, and was a prominent and successful practitioner of medicine for many years. His wife, Sarah Ann Leonard, was born in Somerset county, Md. Her ancestors came from the north of Ireland. Her ancestor, Joseph Leonard, was a protestant, and came to Maryland, that land of religious toleration, in 1731, settling in Somerset county. The plantation he purchased and settled on has never been out of the possession of the family. He had a great grandson whose name was Ebenezer Leonard, who was the maternal grandfather of William E. The wife of Ebenezer Leonard was a Miss Elizabeth Stanford, who was a daughter of David Stanford, born in Somerset county in 1741. Thus has been traced with perhaps more particularity than has ever been done before the ancestry of William E. Wailes, who was himself reared and educated in Salisbury, Md. He was one of a family of five sons and two daughters. He received an academical education at private schools in his native village, and at the age of fifteen became a clerk in a dry goods store in Salisbury. He passed his nineteenth and twentieth years clerking in a store in Baltimore, Md., and after spending a part of a year at home, came to Selma, Ala., on January 8, 1860, securing a position as bookkeeper, which position he retained until the breaking out of the Civil war, and in November, 1861, he enlisted in Captain S. J. Murphy's cavalry company as a private soldier. In May, 1862, he was made second lieutenant of his company, which had become Company F, Third Alabama cavalry. After the battle of Murfreesboro he was promoted to the rank of major on the staff of Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, having been from November, 1862, acting assistant adjutant-general on the same general's staff. He was wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro, at Ring-gold Gap, and on October 20, 1864, near Gadsden, Ala., while guarding the movements of Hood's army into Tennessee. After the battle of Bentonville, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel and chief of staff of Gen. Wheeler, but his commission, being in some way intercepted, never reached him. He was paroled with his command at Charlotte, N. C. He was always a brave and gallant soldier, and was highly complimented by his superiors in command. Since the war he has been vice-president of the Dallas county Confederate veterans' association, and served one year as president and one year as vice-president of state association of Confederate veterans. He is now serving his second year as member of the board of control. He has manifested great interest in politics, and has served twelve years as chairman of the second ward democratic club of Selma. He is a trustee of the Dallas academy and. of the board of education of the city of Selma. He is a dimitted Mason, and is a prominent member of the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he has been for years a trustee and director. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, for forty years, and a steward of his church twenty-five years. In November, 1866, Col. Wailes embarked in the dry goods business as a member of the firm of Waller, Wailes & Co., which firm was dissolved in January, 1873. He then formed a partnership with Thomas D. Cory, which continued until the death of Mr. Cory, in 1890, the firm, however, in the meantime, in 1882, changing its business from that of dry goods merchants to cotton commission merchants, which it has since then continued. On January 1, 1891, William S. Driskell was admitted to partnership, and the name of the firm was then changed to William E. Wailes & Co., which it is at the present time. Col. Wailes was for several years a director in the City National bank of Selma, and for thirteen years of the Central City Insurance company. He was married December 22, 1864, to Miss Georgia E. Driskell, daughter of Thomas S. and Emily E. (Stanford) Driskell, of Plantersville, Ala., who was born in Dallas county in 1840, and who died in September, 1888, leaving two sons and three daughters, viz.: Laura S., Sarah E., Will D., Catharine E., and William E. Additional Comments: from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 924, 925-927 Published by Brant & Fuller (1893) Madison, WI This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb