Hale County AlArchives Biographies.....Drake, R. W. July 13 1842 - living in 1893
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 26, 2004, 4:30 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    R. W. DRAKE, sheriff of Hale county, was born in Nash county, N. C., July
13, 1842. He is a son of John H. and Polly R. S. (Williams) Drake, the former of
whom was a native of Nash county, N. C., and the latter of Pitt county, same
state. The Drake family is of English ancestry. The earliest representative of
the Drake family in this country was William Drake, who came over to the
colonies with his brother, Sir Francis Drake, who landed at Jamestown, Va.,
while John Smith was governor. The family afterward moved to Halifax county, N.
C., where his descendant, James Drake, did good service during the war of
independence. His son, J. H. Drake, who was the grandfather of R. W. Drake, came
to Alabama in 1845, when an old man, to live with his daughter, and died in
1859, more than ninety years of age. He was a member of the North Carolina
legislature several times, and was a man of sterling qualities. His son, John H.
Drake, was reared and educated in North Carolina. He graduated in medicine at
Philadelphia, and like his father, represented his native county in the North
Carolina legislature several times. He married and came to Alabama in December,
1857, settling at Auburn, now in Lee county, and lived there until his death, in
1872, when he was seventy-one years old. He practiced his profession up to 1870.
His widow survives, and now (1892) lives at Opelika, at the age of eighty years.
They had four sons and two daughters that lived to mature years. R. W. Drake was
about fourteen years old when his parents came to Alabama, and he was educated
at the A. & M. college, at Auburn, Lee county. He left school to enter the
Confederate army in June, 1861, becoming a member of company F, Twelfth Alabama
infantry, in which he served about twenty months, and about the same length of
time in the Twelfth Georgia. On March 25, 1865, he was captured in front of
Petersburg, and taken to Point Lookout, Md., and held a prisoner until the close
of the war. He was with Stonewall Jackson's command. After the war was over he
returned to Alabama, and located in Hale county and devoted his attention to
farming and also to merchandising at Laneville. He has served as justice of the
peace for about eighteen years, and as a democrat he was elected sheriff of Hale
county in 1892. In 1877 he married Miss Hattie Osborn, daughter of Dr. T. C.
Osborn, then of Greensboro. By this marriage he has four children. His wife died
in 1890. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and is a master Mason.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 1058-1059
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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