Etowah-Randolph County AlArchives Biographies.....Aiken, James 1830 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 11, 2012, 3:18 pm

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

  JAMES AIKEN, prominent Attorney-at-law, Gadsden, Ala., native of Fairfield
District, S. C., son of William and Elizabeth (Stitt) Aiken, was born August 8,
1830. The senior Mr. Aiken was born in County Antrim, Ireland, toward the latter
part of the last century, and with his parents migrated to America in 1820. The
family settled in Fairfield District, and there the two old people spent the
rest of their lives. They, William and Elizabeth, reared four children, two of
whom, Robert S. and William M., died from wounds received in battle during the
late war. The Stitt family came also from Ireland, away back in the present
century, and settled in South Carolina, where they became highly respectable and
substantial farmers.

  The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm until he was seventeen years
of age, and received during that period, at the common schools, a good English
education. In 1847 he was appointed cadet to the South Carolina Military Academy
at Charleston, graduated from that institution in 1851, and taught school for
several years, probably until 1856. In 1854 he came to Alabama, settled in
Randolph County, taught school two years, read law in the meantime, and was
admitted to the bar in November, 1856. From the time of his admission to the bar
he has been continuously to the present identified with the profession. In July,
1861, he raised a company of volunteers for the Southern Army, and upon its
organization, was made captain. It was known as Company D, Thirteenth Alabama,
and Captain Aiken led it gallantly in many a hotly-contested battle. He was
seriously wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, and did not rejoin his command
until the fall thereafter. He was also wounded at Chancellorsville, and again at
Kristow's Station. After the battle of Seven Pines he was promoted to major,
after Chancellorsville to lieutenant-colonel, and within a very short time was
promoted to colonel. With this rank, he remained in the service until Lee's
surrender, at which time he returned home and resumed the practice of law. He
located in Gadsden in 1860, and here he has since made his home. In 1875 Colonel
Aiken was elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and in February,
1885, was appointed Circuit Judge by Governor O'Neal.

  During the war, from captain to major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel, in
regular order and rapid succession, the subject of this sketch rose upon his
merits, and without any solicitation upon his own part; so in civil life, by
merit, by real worth, he has risen in his profession until he is recognized as
one of its leaders. His appointment to the judgeship was without solicitation
upon his part, and was in keeping with the wisdom exercised by Governor O'Neal
in all of his appointments. While in the army, and at the front, the people of
his county elected him to the Legislature, and he left the service long enough
to serve one session.

  Judge Aiken was married January 26, 1877, to Mrs. L. N. McClelland, daughter
of Linsey and Lucinda (Pace) Weaver, of Calhoun County, and has had born to him
four children: Lucy A., James, Robert S. and Annie.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART IV.
MONOGRAPHS OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALABAMA,
TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MANY OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVE PEOPLE.


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