Alachua County FlArchives Biographies.....Pickett, Henry Arline 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 12, 2008, 9:53 pm

Author: B. F. Johnson (1909)

Henry Arline Pickett

    It is perhaps true that the young men of no generation in history ever had
greater difficulties to surmount upon their entrance into the active work of
life than the youth of the Southern States who grew up during and immediately
after the great Civil War. In proof that they have acted their parts well, the
present conditions in these States, which are the results of their labors, is
ample evidence. One of these men who has made good in every direction is Henry
A. Pickett, merchant, banker and cotton buyer, of Newberry, Fla. Near the close
of the Civil War, his mother found herself a widow with ten small children
dependent upon her efforts for the necessities of life, as well as for training.
In those dark days there were no rich neighbors to render assistance to the
feeble folk.

    Henry A. Pickett was born in Georgia, from which State his parents moved to
Florida and settled near Alachua in 1858. His father, William W. Pickett, was by
occupation a farmer, who married a Miss Chestnut. The Picketts are of English
descent and long settled in Virginia, the first location of the American family.
When General George Pickett led his division of Virginians to the immortal
charge at Gettysburg he placed the family name high on the roll of fame for all
time to come. Young Pickett had absolutely no educational advantages,
notwithstanding which he managed in some way to get the rudiments of an
education, on which he has built until he is now a well-informed man. After a
hard struggle in early youth, 1880 found him engaged in the sea island cotton
business in the county where his life has been spent. The hard conditions of his
boyhood had taught him both industry and thrift. Having strong natural
abilities, he applied these to his business enterprises, and steadily grew.
After thirteen years of mercantile experience and dealing in sea island cotton,
in 1S93 he took hold of the fertilizer business, and sold the first car of
cotton fertilizer ever delivered in Alachua county. This business has grown
steadily and he now sells every year a number of cars. Backed by his hard work
and his capacity his various interests grew, and the establishment of a bank in
Newberry found him the most suitable man for the position of president, which he
now fills with ability, in addition to looking after his other interests, and
the bank has prospered under his management. A Democrat in his political beliefs
he has never been an office seeker, but is content with the position of a
private citizen. A persistent reader of agricultural papers, which aside from
the other journals, has been his preferred reading, he has come to the
conclusion that the best interests of Florida are to be served through more
diversified and better farming.

    In 1877 he married Miss Elizabeth Higginbotham, a daughter of Joseph
Higginbotham. Of the seven children born of this marriage five are now living,
as follows: Mary, Alice, Melissa, William and Clem Pickett.

    Mr. Pickett is a communicant of the Baptist Church. The Civil War with all
its stories of heroism can show nothing finer than the development of the
Southern States along industrial lines by her sons who at the close of that
gigantic struggle were penniless. Old and young all faced a situation as
desperate as any which ever confronted any people, with an heroic courage born
of the blood of the men who had conquered a wilderness. Their ancestors who came
from the old country seeking homes in the wild lands of the West and who went to
their fields with rifles on their shoulders to protect themselves and families
against wily savages had no higher order of courage than these men who faced
evil conditions, neither repining nor whining, but buckled on their armor, and
in the short space of one generation have built up a dozen great Commonwealths,
rich in the present, and destined to be much richer in the future. Among these
men, Henry A. Pickett deserves an honorable position. He has been and is one of
them. He has overcome every possible obstacle and achieved a position of
financial independence, the respect of his neighbors and the reputation of a
good citizen.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

FLORIDA EDITION
MAKERS OF AMERICA
AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS
VOL. III.
Published under the patronage of 
The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida

ADVISORY BOARD:
HON. W. D.  BLOXHAM
COL. FRANK HARRIS
HON. R. W. DAVIS
SEN. H. H. McCREARY
HON. F. P. FLEMING
W. F. STOVALL
C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY

1909
A. B. CALDWELL
ATLANTA, GA.

COPYRIGHT 1909
B. F. JOHNSON

Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/alachua/photos/bios/pickett82gbs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/alachua/bios/pickett82gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/

File size: 5.3 Kb