Greene County AlArchives Biographies.....Herndon, Harry T. 1851 - ************************************************ 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: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 15, 2011, 1:19 am Source: See below Author: Smith & De Land, publishers HARRY T. HERNDON, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Greene County, is a son of H. T. Herndon and Sarah (Inge) Herndon, both of whom are native Alabamians. The senior H. T. Herndon was born at Erie in 1826; received his earlier educational training at or near his home, and finished it by graduation at the University of Alabama in 1844. He was married, in 1846, to Miss Sarah J., daughter of Dr. Richard Inge, of Tishahee, Ala. There were born to this union, two sons and two daughters. Mr. Herndon died August 11, 1855. Our subject was born at Forkland, Ala. in 1851, and was reared at Eutaw. Having oompleted his education, he read law in Mobile with the firm of Smith & Herndon, but never engaged in the practice of his profession, as we find him shortly afterward merchandising in Eutaw, which he followed from 1873 to 1887. In the last named year, he was elected Circuit Clerk (also alderman of the town of Eutaw), by an overwhelming majority. The former position he has held ever since. Mr. Herndon was married October 28. 1873 to Miss Mary A. Watkins, daughter of Dr. R. E. Watkins and Anna (Oliver) Watkins, both of Eutaw. The latter is a sister of Judge William Oliver. By this union he had two children, only one of whom is living. Anna Mary Herndon. Mrs. Herndon died September 21, l886. Mr. Herndon is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the Masonic fraternity. Although it may be regarded as a digression, still it is highly appropriate to speak of another member of the Herndon family here, who indeed is worthy of the highest esteem among bright and honorable Southern names. We refer to the Hon. Thomas Herndon, for many years a resident in Mobile, and one of the most conspicuous characters identified with the history of the State. He was born at Erie, July 21, 1828, on the banks of the historic Black Warrior. Thomas H. Herndon was educated partly by Gen. Samuel Houston, partly at LaGrange, and the University of Alabama, where he graduated in 1847. He took the degree of Bachelor of Laws at Harvard University, in 1848. Co-incident with the year of his graduation he was married to Miss Mary Alexander, daughter of Dr. A. F. Alexander, of North Carolina. The youthful couple were aged respectively twenty and sixteen years. In 1851, he was defeated as the Democratic candidate for the Legislature; in 1853 he moved to Mobile, and in 1857, was sent to the Legislature. When the Secession Convention met at Montgomery in 1860, he was a member of it; nor was he of that class who preferred remaining at home away from danger and duty. He entered the Confederate Army as major, and rapidly rose to the rank of colonel. Though twice severely wounded, he faltered not in the performance of duty, nor was he ever known to shirk responsibility. The future recorder of the brave deeds of Alabama sons will rank his name among the very foremost. In 1872, when the hydra-headed monster of reconstruction was rampant in the South, he was nominated by the Democratic party for governor, but as the time had not come for the State to be rid of her worst foes, the miserable horde of political tramps who weighed upon her as a blighting curse, he was defeated. Future and greater honors awaited him, and he was a member of the 46th, 47th and 48th Congresses, successively, whither he was sent to represent the Mobile District. His devotion to Alabama was always ardent. He suffered for her and the whole South alike. The wounds which he received finally cost him his life. While, of course, we say he recovered, it must be remembered that the words are only used in an approximate sense, he came out of the struggle deprived of fortune and health. The one, he retrieved by courageous and persistent effort: to the other he succumbed as to the inevitable. Among other debts, than which there is no greater, that Alabama owes this her most worthy and noble son, is that for the important part he took in ridding her of the worst form of carpetbag rule, wresting her from adventurers, political thieves, knaves and ignorant negroes, and restoring her once proud name to the intelligent and good people, of the Commonwealth. Colonel Herndon's death occurred in Washington City March 28, 1883. Special proceedings of both the lower and upper houses of Congress were had in his honor on the 12th and 18th of April, 1884. Among the fitting tributes paid his memory none are more worthy of a place in this volume than the words of Mr. Culberson of Texas: "His name in camp and field was the synonym of all that is heroic in courage, noble in patriotic devotion to duty, magnanimous in victory, or hopeful in defeat. He loved his home, his native State, with more than filial devotion, and served her cause in peace and war with the energy of his tireless nature. When the noble deeds of the sons of Alabama in that great struggle shall be gathered up by the historian, there will be no brighter, purer or lovelier chapter than that which shall record the sacrifices, the unselfish love of home and country, the indomitable courage and fortitude of her gifted son whose virtues we commemorate, and whose death we now deplore." Additional Comments: Extracted from: Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land 1888 PART III. HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE. COTTON BELT. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/greene/bios/herndon939gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb