Lauderdale-Lawrence County AlArchives Biographies.....Sherrod, William C. 1831 - 
************************************************
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 21, 2011, 7:08 pm

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

  WILLIAM C. SHERROD is a native of Lawrence County, this State; son of Col.
Benjamin and Talitha (Goode) Sherrod, and was born August 17, 1831.

  The Sherrods came originally from England and settled in North Carolina, and
the Goodes, also English, went from the Bermuda Islands to Richmond, Va., as
early as 1760.

  The subject of this sketch was prepared for college at Edgefield, S. C., and
received his supplementary education at the University of North Carolina. In
early life he engaged in cotton planting in Lawrence County, Ala., extending his
planting interests into Arkansas, where in DeShay County, on the Arkansas River,
he is the owner of an immense plantation which annually yields him many bales of
the fibrous fabric. He also owns and manages the old homestead in Lawrence
County, one of the finest plantations in the Tennessee Valley. As was his
father, in his lifetime, Colonel Sherrod before the war was one of the most
extensive planters and slave-owners in Northern Alabama. He represented Lawrence
County in the Legislature, sessions of 1859 and 1860, and was a delegate to the
Charleston Convention of the latter year. In the Legislature he was a Union man,
and distinguished as one of the three members that refused to sign the ordinance
of secession. In the Charleston Convention he supported Stephen A. Douglas, as
he did at Baltimore. where he was also a delegate. Notwithstanding his
opposition to secession, after his State withdrew from the Federal Union, he, as
did every other true man, espoused the cause of the South, and at once
volunteered his services in her defense. He was appointed Captain of Commissary
for Patterson's Brigade of Cavalry, and was connected with the service from the
first to the last, participating in many hotly-contested battles in Alabama and
other Gulf States. At the close of the war, he returned to Lawrence County and
to cotton planting, and spent his time thereat until 1880. He was a member of
the Forty-first United States Congress, and had charge of the Southern Pacific
Railway Bill, and conducted it to its final passage. During his term in
Congress, the records show that he devoted his time and his talents to the
advancement of internal improvements, to the exclusion of political discussion;
and the history of legislation during that period attests the fact that he was
one of the most useful members of that body.

  In 1879 he represented the Second Senatorial District in the upper house of
the State Legislature. and as a member of the Finance Committee assisted in
framing the revenue bill that piloted the State out of its indebtedness. He came
to Florence in June, 1883, for the purpose of schooling his children, and in
June, 1886, in connection with the Hon. W. B. Wood, formulated the idea of the
Florence "boom." He was one of the originators of the Florence Land, Mining,
etc. Co.; of the W. B. Wood Furnace Co., of which he is vice-president; also of
the Florence Coal, Coke and Iron Co.; of the Florence, Tuscaloosa & Montgomery
Railroad Co.; of the Tennessee & Alabama Railway; the Alabama, Florence &
Cincinnati Railway; the Florence & St. Louis Railway, in all of which he is of
the several boards of directors.

  To recur to his Congressional record, we find that the Southern Pacific
Railway bill was turned over to him after it had been abandoned by all others,
and that it was placed in his hands at the special request of General Fremont.

  Colonel Sherrod knew almost intimately every leading man in the Forty-first
Congress, and was upon terms of amity with them without regard to politics. To
his credit, it may be said that he had at all times labored to promote and
rebuild the country and that he participated not in political dissensions.

  He was married at Nashville, Tenn., October 21, 1866, to Miss Amanda Morgan,
the accomplished daughter of Samuel D. Morgan, whose body lies in the Capitol by
order of the Legislature. Colonel Sherrod's five sons are: Charles Morgan, a
lawyer; William C., a planter; St. Clair M., in the iron business; Benjamin and
Eugene, students; and his two daughters are named Lilian and Lucille.


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.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/lauderdale/bios/sherrod155nbs.txt

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

File size: 5.0 Kb