Elmore County AlArchives Biographies.....Penick, William S. October 7 1826 - living in 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, 11:24 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    WILLIAM S. PENICK, ex-circuit clerk of Elmore county, Ala., and an attorney
at law at Wetumpka, having practiced his profession both before and after the
Civil war of '61 and '65, was born twelve miles from Yorkville, in York
district, S. C., October 7, 1826. He is the son of William C. and Elizabeth
(Byers) Penick, natives of Cumberland county, Va., and York district, S. C,
respectively. William C. Penick was educated at Hampden-Sidney college, Va, and
graduated in medicine at Transylvania college, at Lexington, Ky., about 1824. He
came from Virginia to South Carolina in 1825, and settled in York district. He
soon after married, and continued the practice of medicine there until 1835,
when he moved to Alabama and settled at Wetumpka, where he was engaged in
merchandising until about 1839, when he resumed the practice of medicine, and
continued in the practice with great success until the fall of 1846, when he
bought a considerable farm near Wetumpka, and continued in the business of
agriculture until his death, which took place on the 16th day of October, 1872.
He was a public-spirited and prominent man in his day. He was a strong unionist
in 1833, and an ardent secessionist in 1861. He was a delegate to the Baltimore
convention in 1860 from Alabama, and assisted in nominating John C. Breckinridge
for president. Prior to his death he had acquired a large property in slaves and
lands. His father, Nathaniel Penick, was a well to do planter of Cumberland
county, Va., living on the Appomattox river, four miles from Farmville. He was
sheriff of his county for some years. He was a strict member of the Presbyterian
church. He and his wife, Zillah (Allen) Penick, died in said county of
Cumberland. David Byers and Mary Byers (nee Gordon) were both born and both died
in York district, S. C. They well to do people, and both lived to quite an old
age. Elizabeth N. Penick, the mother of William S. Penick, was born in York
district, S. C., in 1807, and died in Wetumpka, Ala., in 1887. She was the
mother of six sons and four daughters, of whom one son, William. S. Penick, and
one daughter, Sallie E. Samuel, are now living. William S. Penick was reared on
a farm, and received a good education. He graduated at the university of Alabama
in 1848, with the degree of A. B.; he afterward, from the same college, received
the degree of A. M., and in 1856 he graduated from the law school of Cumberland
university, at Lebanon, Tenn. He taught school for six years, four years in
Louisiana, and two years in Alabama. In 1862 he entered the Confederate service
in company C, Fifty-third regiment of Alabama cavalry, and served until the
close of the war. Was orderly sergeant most of the time, and with his company
and regiment operated in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and South
Carolina, and during the year 1863, under Gens. Roddy and Forrest, was engaged
in many skirmishes and battles. In March, 1864, his command joined Johnston's
army at Dalton, Ga, and continued with this branch of the Confederate army in
its march to Atlanta and Savannah, up to the time of the surrender of Gen. Lee.
Around Atlanta and on the march to Savannah, his command, under Gen Joe Wheeler,
was engaged in many skirmishes and battles. In these it was his good fortune
never to be wounded nor captured. After the close of the war he returned to the
practice of law at Wetumpka, Ala., and so continued until January, 1876, when he
was appointed clerk of the circuit court of Elmore county, and was re-elected,
without opposition, in 1880 and in 1886. In 1892, at the primary election, he
was nominated by a large majority, but was defeated at the August election by
the people's party, then in the majority in Elmore county. He has about 2,000
acres of land in Elmore county, a good portion of which is rented out yearly to
tenants. He is one of the oldest citizens of Wetumpka, his father having moved
here in December, 1835. On the 5th day of March, 1856, just after his graduation
at the Lebanon school, he was married to Miss S. J. Bell, daughter of Robert and
Elizabeth Bell, of Wilson county, Tenn. To them were born eight children, as
follows: William B., who died in September, 1863; Juliet B., who was married to
Charles Lansdale, a prominent hardware merchant of Wetumpka, Ala.; Robert Lee,
now of Montgomery, Ala.; Edward N., who has a prominent position with the
Louisville & Nashville railroad, and the East Tennessee & Virginia railroad, at
Calera, Ala.; John H.; Nellie A.; Hugh R., and Mary A. Mr. Penick and his wife
are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Mason of high
standing, having held some of the highest offices in the gift of his local
brotherhood. He has been secretary of the Masonic lodge at Wetumpka, Ala., for
about thirty-one years, and is probably the oldest subordinate lodge secretary
in Alabama. In politics he is an earnest democrat, his first vote for president
being for Lewis Cass, and his last vote being for Grover Cleveland.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 944-945
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 5.6 Kb