Escambia County AlArchives Biographies.....Drury, John F. January 10 1846 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 22, 2004, 9:20 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    JOHN F. DRURY, a successful merchant of Flomaton, is the son of Henry and
Susan Drury. The father was born in England, in the year 1808, and, coming to
the United States when young, located in Jackson, La. He was, by occupation, a
wheelright, and in after years acted as superintendent of a large manufacturing
company. He was a man of liberal education and many accomplishments, and is
remembered as a most exemplary citizen. In 1843, he married Mrs. Susan (Hunt)
Townsend, who bore him four children: John F., Sarah, widow of Robert Reagan;
Henry, deceased, and one which died in infancy. By a previous marriage, Mrs.
Drury had one child, William Townsend, and after Mr. Drury's death, which
occurred in 1854, she married J. D. Van Horn, by whom she had a daughter, Nora,
who resides at Flomaton, Escambia county. John F. Drury was born in Jackson,
La., January 10, 1846, and when quite young, was taken by his parents to New
Orleans, thence to Santa Rosa county, Fla., where the family resided some years.
At the age of fifteen he responded to the call of the Confederacy for troops,
and entered the service as cavalryman in Capt. Amos's company, which was
recruiting at Milton, Fla., for the Fifteenth regiment. With the command Mr.
Drury served throughout the war, mostly along the coast from Florida to the
Mississippi river. He was made a prisoner in 1863, at Oak Field, and taken to
Ft. Pickens, where he remained until his exchange, six months later, when he
rejoined his company and continued in the field until the cessation of
hostilities. On leaving the army, he accepted a position as bridge carpenter
with the Louisville & Nashville railroad company, in which capacity he continued
about five years, at the end of which time he became foreman of bridge
construction on a certain division of that system, and held the place until
1880. In that year he accepted a position as bridge foreman on the Houston &
Texas Central railroad, with which company he remained one year, and then began
contracting for the construction of bridges in an extension of the same line
from Cisco to Albany, Tex. After finishing contracts, he took another from
Garrett to a point in Hunt county, and., after completing the work, returned to
Florida in 1882, and contracted for the construction of railroad lines, which he
followed for only six months. Later, he took a contract to construct bridges on
the Mississippi Valley road, from Ethel to the state line, and after fulfilling
the same, gave up bridge building, and in partnership with his half brother,
William Townsend, under the firm name of Townsend & Drury, opened, in the spring
of 1884, a general mercantile house at Flomaton, Ala. After carrying on a very
thriving trade for two years, the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Drury
continuing the business at the old stand until December, 1891, at which time he
moved into his present commodious quarters, where he has since taken rank as one
of the leading merchants of Escambia county. He carries a stock representing a
capital of $5,000, and does a yearly business of from $14,000 to $16,000. Mr.
Drury was married February 1867, to Miss Selina A., daughter of William H.
Sizer, of Richmond, Va. Mrs. Drury was descended from a long line of English
ancestors, and the family history is directly traceable to some of the oldest
families of the English nobility. She died, the mother of the following
children: Susan E., deceased; John H., Emma; Willie L., deceased; Roberdean,
Anna and Ella.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 962-963
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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