MWPGM Archives - Page 12 of 12

John C. Hicks, PGM 1836-1839

“JOHN C. HICKS was born near Richmond, Virginia in 1792 and at the age of about 18 years located in Davidson County, Tennessee. He was an aide, with the rank of major, to GENERAL JACKSON, and had command of the post of Mobile while Jackson was at New Orleans.”

He married MARIA WATERS and after his marriage he studied medicine. In 1830 he moved to Lawrence County, Alabama and lived there nine years then moved to Sumter County, Alabama.
In 1833 he was a resident of St. Clair County, as he was enrolled on April 15, 1833, under act of Congress of June 7, 1832 to receive an annual allowance $26.66; for his service. transferred from Georgia. Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.

In 1836, JOHN C. HICKS was Worshipful Master of Davis Lodge No. 28 in LaGrange. He was a member of a committee to form a new Grand Lodge and was elected Grand Master in 1836.
Later, he moved to Carroll County, Mississippi where he lived until his death on August 1865 at the age of 73 years. “He was a planter, and accumulated considerable property while in Mississippi. He was Grand Master of Freemasons for many years while in Alabama and was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church” JOHN and MARIA raised a family of six children: SARAH HICKS( Mrs. JUDGE JAS.. J. CHEWNING, of Mississippi); B. M. HICKS, a physician; David W. HICKS of Tuscumbia, Alabama; MARIANNE W. HICKS (Mrs. A. J. TIDWELL, of Mississippi); JOHN W. HICKS. of Memphis; and ROBERT H. HICKS. Of Mississippi.

His son DAVID W. HICKS was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, July 31, 1830 and received his education at Eureka College, Richland, Mississippi. In 1853, David went to Gonzales, Texas where he was engaged in the dry goods business for seven years. In 1860, he went to Tuscumbia and married Miss SARAH A. HOBGOOD, daughter of JOHN HOBGOOD and MARTHA A. (ALSOBROOK} HOBGOOD of Tuscumbia.

After his marriage, he engaged in planting and in 1862 entered CAPTAIN KUMPIE’S Company for six months. The Company was re-organized and known as Company K, Eleventh Alabama Regiment and DAVID was elected second lieutenant. He participated in the first fight at Decatur, the battles of Fishing Creek, Sulphur Trestle, Tennessee, Moulton and Selma and was in Forrest’s command at the time of the surrender. After the war he resumed farmed and owned a large plantation near Tuscumbia. He and his wife had eight children viz: JOHN C. HICKS; MARTHA A. HICKS., wife
of W. T. ELAM, of Mississippi; DAVID B. HICKS, ANN M. HICKS. LOTTIE H HICKS, SARAH B. HICKS, MCREYNOLDS HICKS, and EDGAR W. HICKS

The HICKS family came originally from England, and the Waters are descendants of Scotch ancestry.

[Grand Masters of The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons The State of Alabama 1821-2008 by Donna R. Causey]

William Leigh, PGM 1833-1836

“WILLIAM LEIGH was born in Amelia County, Virginia, October 4th 1790; died in Florence, Alabama July 31st, 1873; aged 82 years, 9 months, and 27 days. He connected himself with the Baptist church at Sandy Creek, Amelia County, Virginia, Aug. 1807. He was licensed to preach Aug 5th, 1810, and was regularly ordained to the Gospel ministry June 16th 1821. He continued to preach until his death, 63 years from the date of his license, and 52 years from the date of his ordination. As early as 1823 he advocated in the Muscle Shoals Association, the missionary doctrine, and although unsuccessful at first, mainly through his perseverance and great zeal the Association finally adopted it.

Your committee cannot find, after careful inquiry, when, or where he was made a Mason; but find that he was elected Junior Grand Warden in 1828, Grand Master in 1833 and 1834. In 1851 he published his book—“The Ladies Masonry or Hieroglyphic Monitor.” He was a member of the order up to his death, being a member of Florence Lodge No. 14 when he died.

In his general intercourse and character in the community, he was esteemed as energetic, charitable, and humane, illustrating in his life the principles of our order, universal charity and benevolence; being ever ready according to his ability to aid and assist the needy and distressed.

No man in the State was more devotedly attached to our order, or more active in his zealous discharge of Masonic duty. He was ever ready to aid, assist, and work. Your committee in the facts and preparation of this history are indebted to Past Grand Master Felix G. Norman for all the details, and would recommend the adoption of the following:  Resolved, That a memorial tablet be erected in the printed proceedings, with the name and date of his death, and that a copy be furnished the family of our deceased Brother and Past Grand Master.”

William J. Mason, PGM 1831-1833

William J. Mason was a representative to the Alabama Legislature in 1832 from Limestone County, Alabama. Ix

“Member Of Athens Lodge No. 16, Limestone County, Alabama and was a large landowner He died in 1834.” X [1834 Pro] *Current research indicates that William Mason may have been the son of William Mason and Mary Gilliam of Limestone County, Alabama. He was born about 1775 and died Dec. 24, 1835 in Limestone County, Alabama. He married (1) Tabitha Wynne Tuell May 16, 1799; married (2) Rebecca Richardson August 14, 1800 in Greensville, VA.

Thomas Bivin Creagh, PGM 1828-1831

“Thomas Bivin Creagh, farmer, was born at Donerail, County Cork, Ireland, son of John and Sarah O. (Moore) Creagh, of Donerail, County Cork, Ireland. He died Feb., 1842 at Boiling Springs, Wilcox County, Alabama. The founder of the name was a son of King O’Neil, of Ulster, who commanded a body of troops in the Castle of Limerick at the time the Danes invaded Ireland. He defeated the Danes with great slaughter, and when he returned to the castle, the population turned out to greet him, placing laurel in the horses’ bridles. Laurel in Irish is known as “creagh,” and he was known from that time on as Creagh O’Neil, until O’Neil was dropped and Creagh alone used. The street in Ireland leading from that castle to the river is known as Creagh Lane to this day.

Mr. Creagh came to America as an English officer with Gen. Braddock before the Revolution. He was an educated man who later held office under the British government, but he did not return to Europe. There is a tradition that it was to Capt. Creagh that George Washington spoke, when he said that Braddock could not fight the Indians by the method he was then pursuing. He settled in Lynchburg, Va., after retiring from the army, and was married there. He moved to North Carolina for a short time, then located in South Carolina, near the Georgia line. He was a farmer and a large slave owner. He lived in Abbeville, S.C. until after his wife died, then broke up his home and followed his son, George Creagh, to Alabama, settling near Suggsville. His home was made of lumber sawed with a whip saw by hand before there was a mill. He was a Master Mason, and was high priest of his chapter and a Democrat.

He married (1) at Lynchburg, Va., Rebecca Walthall, daughter of Gerard Walthall and Eliza Ann (Davis} Walthall, who lived on a plantation at Lynchburg, Va., a descendant of the Davis family of Salisbury, N.C., of Scotch-Irish ancestry, who emigrated to America, settling first at Salisbury and later moving to Lower Peach Tree; (2) Winifred Davis, of Clarke County. Children from the first marriage; (1) John G. Creagh. b. 1787, in South Carolina, was educated in Dr. Waddell’s academy, was an early settler in Alabama, a lawyer and farmer, who was elected to the State legislature five times from Clarke County, and served one term as probate judge, d. in 1830, married Clara Howze who later married Judge A. B. Cooper, had one child, Clara who died in childhood;(2) Richard P. Creagh, attorney general of Mississippi, who was killed in a rencontre in 1823 while occupying that position; (3) Gerard Walthall Creagh (q.v.); (4) Edward A. Creagh., who came from South Carolina to Alabama, d. unmarried; (5) Lorenzo Creagh; (6) Memorable Walker Creagh (q.v.); (7) Milton Alexander Creagh, m. (1) Ann Howze, deceased, child John Wesley Creagh, m. Lizzie Simmons, of North Carolina. (2) Willie H,. Glover, daughter of Ben Glover, who lived near Dayton, children, Clara Creagh, Hughes Creagh, Sallie Creagh and Willie Creagh. Thomas Bivin Creagh’s last residence was Boiling Springs, Wilcox County, Alabama.”

Nimrod Earle Benson, PGM 1825-1827

NIMROD EARLE BENSON, one of the earliest white settlers of Montgomery, was born at Greenville, South Carolina, May 10, 1794. His mother’s name was Earle and he was from a very respected family in South Carolina. He was educated at Columbia College and was enrolled as an attorney in S.C. He soon acquired a high rank in his profession and was present around the period of the formation of Territorial Government in Montgomery, Alabama. NIMROD was the second lawyer that located in Montgomery and in 1821 and 1823, he was intendant of the town. In 1825, he represented the county of Montgomery in the legislature, and was re-elected in 1826. Nimrod was elected judge of the county court in 1827, and held the office a short time. In 1846, he was mayor of Montgomery. He was appointed Receiver of Public Moneys in the land office of Montgomery when the last Creek cession was thrown on the market. Nimrod had just returned from Mobile where he had gone to make his periodic deposits in September 1854, when he sickened and died suddenly from yellow fever. Yellow fever was prevalent in both Mobile and Montgomery in 1854.

“While his body was in the parlor of his home, awaiting the time of interment, an Irishman, a stranger to all the family, walked in, and after a tearful gaze of the face, remarked, ” A good man, and a friend of the poor, is gone,” and retired. This was the tribute of a poor and “unknown stranger to the virtues of JUDGE BENSON, more eloquent and truthful than is found on monuments, or in eulogistic biographies.” He was a prominent Mason, and foremost on many good works, and his character for integrity is irreproachable.

“He was a Democrat of the old Jackson school, but was so prudent and respectful where differences of opinion existed, that his personal and fraternal relations were strong and harmonious. He was the oldest Mason in Alabama at the time of his death, and had filled the office of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge in the infancy of the Order in the State, besides occupying honorable positions in the Grand Chapter.”

“In estimating JUDGE BENSON, it would be enough to say that he was the legal patron of GOV. FITZPATRICK, JUDGE HENRY GOLDTHWAITE, GOV. GEORGE W. TOWNS, of Georgia, and SENATOR GEORGE GOLDTHWAITE, all of whom, if I have been correctly informed, studied law under his direction, and took from him their first lessons in legal knowledge. For many years, indeed from the time I first knew him, he had abandoned the bar and had engaged in other pursuits more suited to his taste as he advanced in age. GOV. FITZPATRICK very properly nominated him as one of the Directors to take charge of the assets on the liquidation of the Branch Bank at Montgomery; and in all the public trusts which he held, I never heard a whisper of distrust of his ability and integrity.

JUDGE BENSON was not, nor did he try to be, a showy man. His attainments were solid, and his character was based upon the principle of right and justice in his transactions with his fellow-men, and in the discharge of public trusts; and in the practical exhibition of these, he was equal to any gentleman I have known in the State. Alabama has had few such citizens, in all the attributes of an upright man, and a true Mason as NIMROD E. BENSON. He represented a class of men who have pretty much passed away leaving the savor of a good name and example for the men of this fraternity.

William B. Patton, PGM 1823

WILLIAM B. PATTON was an early settler of Mobile County, Alabama. He was on a list of taxable property for Mobile County in 1817 and his name was on a petition of residents living on the Mobile River to Congress. The petition was made to stop the extension of Mississippi Territory into the
Alabama Territory because it would “retard the admission of the Alabama territory into the union as an independent state and will considerable augment the burdens of government, when it is admitted.

Current research on William B. Patton:
He was Attorney at Law in Claiborne County, Alabama—Lived at Claiborne, 1825, listed as one to be invited to LAFAYETTE Celebration April 1825.—JAMES DELLET Papers, Alabama Military Archives.
(Revolutionary War Soldiers in Alabama)

Thomas Wadsworth Farrar, PGM 1821-1823 1824-1825

Major General Thomas Wadsworth Farrar 1821-1825

MAJOR GENERAL THOMAS WADSWORTH FARRAR resided in Elyton, Jefferson County, Alabama in 1821. He was born in South Carolina in 1784 to LT. COL. THOMAS and MARGARET (PRINCE) FARRAR His father, LT. COL. THOMAS FARRAR was born Oct. 1, 1754 and married MARGARET PRINCE in South Carolina Oct. 7, 1777. MARGARET PRINCE was born March 4, 1756. THOMAS WADSWORTH’S father died on August 24,1833, and his mother on Nov. 8, 1830. Both died in Claiborne County, Mississippi.

MAJOR GENERAL THOMAS FARRAR served as in the War of 1812 and was one of the earliest settlers of Jefferson County. He was a lawyer and one of the first to belong to the Jefferson County Bar. He was described as “about forty years old, corpulent, big-hearted, genial, and an epicure. No dinner party was complete without him. His appetite always relieved any deficiency of the caterer. He had little energy, but, withal, was a good lawyer.”

As usual with new counties Jefferson County was sparsely settled, and the administration of justice was begun, and for several years prosecuted, in the crudest and most primitive manner. There was no courthouse and the first court was held in a log hut about one mile east of Birmingham. This seat of justice was never dignified with a name, and after three or four terms of the court were held there, Carrollsville (four miles south of where Birmingham now stands) was selected as the place to hold the courts. Here, too, the court accommodations never exceeded the limits of a log cabin, in which two terms of the court were held, and then the county seat was removed to Elyton, about two miles south of the present flourishing city of Birmingham.

MAJOR GENERAL THOMAS FARRAR served as a member of the Legislature, representing Jefferson County in 1822. THOMAS WADSWORTH FARRAR married SERAPHINE FELICITE BAGNERIS June 23, 1814 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Among the guests at his wedding was the Territorial Governor of Louisiana and Mississippi, WILLIAM COLES CLAIBORNE, FARRAR’S death occurred in November 1832 in New Orleans, and he is believed to be buried in that city.” THOMAS and SERAPHINE had the following known children: (1) DUVALMONT FARRAR b. Oct 2, 1823 Elyton, Jefferson Co., AL (2)SERAPHINE MELANIE FARRAR b. Dec 29, 1829 Elyton, Jefferson Co., AL (3) CATHRINE FARRAR b. 1831 Louisiana (4) HENRY THOMAS FARRAR b. Jan 6, 1832 New Orleans, Louisiana. SERAPHINE died after 1850 Louisiana census.

*note:: 1838 Grand Lodge Proceedings list the death of the following:

Perry Lodge, No. 34, Marion – G. .T. W. Farrar