Walker-Shelby County AlArchives Biographies.....Gamble, Franklin Asbury 1830 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 13, 2011, 3:26 pm

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

    FRANKLIN ASBURY GAMBLE, Director of the Jasper Land Company, is a son of
John R. and Jane (Mills) Gamble, and was born September 23, 1830, in Shelby
County, this State, near where Calera now stands. His father moved to Walker
with his family and goods in a wagon, in 1837. His early advantages were poor,
and his education was principally obtained by hard study at home. He left the
farm in 1855, and clerked for two years. He was elected Judge of the Probate
Court in May, 1859, and March, 1862, was captain of Company F, Twenty-eighth
Alabama Regiment Infantry, and served with that regiment in Bragg's campaign
through Kentucky. The hardships of the army proved too severe for him. His
health failed, and he was sent home in the latter part of that year, and saw no
more service in the army.

    From 1865 until 1868 he served as County Administrator, and directed the
management of a farm. In 1869, he embarked in mercantile business, and followed
that for four years. In 1874 he took charge of the Mountain Eagle, a weekly
paper at Jasper, and edited it until July, 1877, when the Eagle office and other
buildings, including the Walker County Court-House were burned. Soon after this,
Judge Gamble was appointed Judge of the Probate Court by Gov. George S. Houston,
an old and warm personal friend of his, and he retained that office by election
until November, 1886. During his term of office, he dealt to some extent in real
estate, and has continued that business. He was one of the originators of, and a
stock-holder and director in, the Jasper Land Company, and has had much to do
with its management from its inception. He also owns and controls large and
extensive mining interest in Walker County.

    Judge Gamble was first married in November, 1857, to Miss Jerusha A.,
daughter of Rev. James H. Freeman, who was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, for about sixty-two years, and was extensively known in Walker,
Fayette and Tuscaloosa Counties. By this marriage, the Judge had five children
born to him, of whom but one (Lelia J.), is now living. Mrs. Gamble died in
April, 1874, and the Judge was again married in April, 1877, to Miss Mary A.,
daughter of Judge Thomas Owen, one of the pioneers of Tuscaloosa. By the second
marriage the Judge had a family of five, of whom two sons only are living: Frank
A. and Foster K.

    The Judge's father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
for many years, and held some county offices. He was a soldier under General
Jackson in the War of 1812, and died in 1863. Judge Gamble's two grandfathers,
Robert Gamble and James Mills, were both soldiers in the Revolutionary War, and
Robert Gamble was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. He came from Ireland
at an early date. James Mills was one of the few survivors of the Continental
Army at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was bayoneted in that conflict by a
British soldier, knocked into a deep ditch by the blow of the bayonet against
the buckle of his sword belt, and left there for dead, as he feigned to be, but
his life was saved by the buckle, and when opportunity offered he made his
escape. About thirty years after this he met Joseph Crawford, a comrade,
messmate and most intimate friend before the battle of Bunker Hill; each one of
them having long been confident that the other had been killed in that battle.


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.
MINERAL BELT.


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