Madison County AlArchives Biographies.....Dement, John Jefferson 1830 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 19, 2011, 5:55 am

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

  JOHN JEFFERSON DEMENT, M.D., was born 13th May, 1830, in Madison County, Ala.,
and is a son of John and Celia W. (Lowe) Dement. John Dement was a native of
Sumner County, Tenn. He received a common-school education, became a good,
substantial farmer, and served as a justice of the peace. He was married in
1819, and came at once to Madison County, Ala., which was thereafter his home.
He died in 1848, and his wife in 1852. They raised eight children, viz.: Alfred
T., now dead; Susan, wife of G. B. Smith, of Phillips County. Ark.; John J., our
subject; Elverton F., Cornelia J., widow of Robert Herelford, and now wife of
Dr. R. T. Searcy, of Cullman; Mattie E., wife of L. B. Burnes, of Arkansas;
Kate, wife of B. R. Thompson, of Madison County; and Lowe, a soldier under
Breckinridge in the late war, and was killed at Jackson, Miss.

  John Dement was a son of Charles Dement, a native of North Carolina, and one
of the pioneers of Sumner County, Tenn. He raised a large family, viz.: Cader,
Charles, Abner, James, David, John, and two daughters, Mildred and Clara. There
is a tradition, that three brothers of this name came from France in the
Colonial days, and were soldiers in the Revolution. One settled in Tennessee,
one in Maryland, and the third went West.

  The subject of this sketch, John J. Dement, received his education in the
field. The early death of his father required him to stay on the farm and take
charge of the family, which fact precluded the possibility of his receiving as
good an education as he otherwise would have had.

  At twenty he began the study of medicine, at Meridianville, Ala., under Dr. G.
A. Wyche, now of Bossier Parish, La.

  He took his first medical course at Louisville, in the winter of 1851-52; went
to Philadelphia, and was graduated from the Medical Department of the University
of Pennsylvania, in 1853. He then located at Meridianville, where he practiced
with success until 1862, when he was commissioned surgeon in the Confederate
Army, and was assigned to the Twenty-seventh Alabama Regiment. He served with
this regiment until the surrender of Fort Donelson, when he was sent a prisoner
to Camp Chase, and, later, to Johnson's Island. He was released in June, 1862.
While the Doctor was in prison, his warm, personal friend, Judge Peter M. Dox,
of Huntsville, wrote to a former classmate of his own, Judge L. Bates, of Ohio,
to befriend Dr. Dement and relieve his wants; but when the hospitality of Judge
Bates' home was extended to him, in consideration of the circumstances he
declined to accept it and preferred to remain with, and minister to, the needs
of his sick and imprisoned comrades, and the Judge supplied him with money for
his personal needs. After the war was over the Doctor felt in honor bound to
repay Judge Bates with the first money earned; and did so, with heartfelt thanks
for his great kindness and magnanimous generosity.

  In August, 1862, Dr. Dement was assigned to the Forty-ninth Georgia Regiment,
at Gordonsville, Va., under General Jackson, and remained with this regiment
until it was surrendered at Appomattox, and during this time was surgeon of
General Ed. L. Thomas' Brigade. He was in all the battles in which his brigade
participated. After the war he came to Huntsville, and has practiced there until
the present time. He was, for a few years, a member of the American Medical
Association, and a member of the American Public Health Association. He is now a
member of the Medical Association of Alabama, and was its President in 1876. He
is a member of the State Board of Censors: has been a member of the Madison
County Medical Society since 1853, and is now its president; is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, Knights of Honor. Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order United
Workmen, and a Knight Templar. He is vice-president of the Home Protection Fire
Insurance Company, and has taken a part in every public-spirited enterprise in
Huntsville.

  For many years he has been president and an active member of the Board of
Trustees of Huntsville Female College, and has been since its foundation a
member of the Hoard of Trustees of Vanderbilt University. He was twelve years a
member of the Hoard of Trustees of Alabama Insane Hospital: was Surgeon-general
of Alabama Militia for eight years under Governors Houston and Cobb, and
declined to act longer. He was appointed by Governor Seay as one of the
examiners under the Color Blind Law. Dr. Dement has never sought office, but
when it has been tendered him he has considered it his duty to accept. He was
married January 27, 1869, to Miss Cornelia C., daughter of Dr. Henry A. Binford,
of Huntsville. They have seven children: Henry B., Robert S., Sarah B., John J.,
William R. and Susie.

  The Doctor and his wife are Methodists. Henry A. Binford, Mrs. Dement's
father, was a leading physician of Huntsville. He received an excellent
education, taking the medical part of it at Philadelphia. He died in 1875, aged
sixty-two years. He reared six children: William H., Peter, Thomas L., Henry,
Cornelia C., and Sarah E. Henry, a son of Peter Binford; married Grace Lee, a
near relative of Gen. R. E. Lee.

  Doctor Dement's mother was a daughter of Jesse and Susannah Lowe. They raised
the following children: George E., a farmer, who died in Virginia; Thomas, of
Mississippi: John J., who died in Arkansas; Mary, of West Tennessee; Martha, who
died in Alabama; and Celia W.


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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