Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-04

Then the summons came to Col. Alburto
 Martin in the very prime of his life, and be- who had never yielded to any man, could not put off nor delay his going
 The learned lawyer. the fearless and up right judge. the Hon. William $. Mudd,
 was then called to leave us. In few
 months a young man, L. L. Polk, after a brief illness, gave up his life, and ceased to labor with us. The next or our number to be taken was the Hon. John T. Terry; the Hon. Judge John T. Hehin, a veteran of the bar. soon joined him. The remorseless reaper then claimed the Hon. John C. Morrow. In short while Capt John Phelan, Robert H. Sterrett, Judge $. J. Cummings, Berry Earle, William J. Cahalan, F. E. Hamit and Virgil Murphy bade us farewell and took their places on the other shore. It was not long till Tipton Bradford was taken; then soon David D. Smith and Louis L. Dean fell victims to the re-
 morseless reaper; and in quick succession
 we were called to mourn the loss ot Col. ]. J. Jolly, Hon. Thomas B. Wet more, Peyton c. King, Jackson F. Long, Bayliss E. Grace, Jr., the Hon. William M. Brooks, F. E. Webb, Col. w. D. Bull ger and today we have met to pay our respects to the memory of the Hon. Goldsmith Whitehouse Hewitt who, on the 27th day of May, 1895, departed this life.
 He is the twenty-eighth member of l our Dd1 WHO, III lIle SHOlb opS1NS VI ANSAi ty-four years. has died-a most remark | able record of mortality and one that should cause those of us who have been so mercifuily spared to consider that we. too, are hastening to the graNe-the goal of all humanity, and record which shows that death is no respactor or per sons, fo" from among us he mas taken l the young man, strong, active ana run of hope: the man of middle age, full of experience, and well fitted for the ac- tive duties of life, and men who had long passed the meridian of life, and | who had become Wearied with. age young men on life's threshold, strong men in the thckest of life's conflicts, and old men who had passed through these and were faithfully working and
 watching. well knowing that their days were few. They all died with their harness on" Among them were those | who had been leaders of men, true and tried whose names are often and indel- 1 ibly written upon the pages of the his | tory of our state and nation, giving to 1 it a lustre that will grow brighter and | brighter as the years roll away. And | our friend whose death we today lament, and whose memory we commemorate, was during his short life history maker Col. G. w. Hewitt was a self made man. His humble birth; his early struggles to get an education; his de- | termination to be a success; his grand triumph, are proofs that he was no common man. His energy knew no flag ging; his will was unconquerable; his courage both moral and physical, was unbounded. His success in life was an exception. if there can be such an ex- cepton. to the saying of Him who spoke as never man spoke. that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own coun- | try" and among his own people. Here, 1 in the county of his birth and among l his own people. he received his best and | highest honors, both civil and military; | a fitting compliment to his integrity, | his purity and his fitness for all the hon. l DTS conferred upon him. And be it said | to the good judgment of this people and 1 his own ability that he filled to the full l measure every office and every trust he received at their hands. He was em- | phatically man of the people.
 While a member of the state legisla- | ture or of congress he was never o | busy as to neglect or forget to answer any communication addressed to him by | the poorest and most obscure of his con- stituents and to promptly attend to their | demands. He was, while a member of congress, ever alert to the interest of the | poor and friendless, and he was mainly | instrumental in the passage of the law | granting pensions to the survivors of | the Mexican war and to the widows of | those who are gone, and the few old sol diers and the few widows. who are in the 1 borders of the ShadoWland. throughout | our southern country are today the re- | cpients of his labors in this regard, and are receiving a competency, thus re- ieving them of gnawing care and pinch ing want in these, their last years. have never heard any act Of his as leg isla tor or congressman receive other than q favorable criticisn.-a most re- markable record and one that stamps our friend man, pre-emtlently, Of prln- ciple As lawyer he had no superior at | this bar In the preparation of his cases | he was panstaking and methodical, careful and thorough in his investiga- | tion of the law and facts. He enjoyed | to a marked degree the confidence of thd | courts, who never suspected any clap | trap or deceit or any effort to deceive | or attempt to mislead. He planted his | cases squarely upon the law and the l facts. Before jury of this people, and | especially if it were made up of those
 who had known him longest and most | intimately, he was almost irresistible, | such was their confidence in the fairness | and truthfulness of his every statement. l As a county man he was alive and active 1 in the building up of her waste places, keeping pace with and assisting in every 1 improvement and forward movement. | He lived to see this county, the place | of his nativity, develop from one of | the poorest in our state to the first in | the list of counties in point of material l wealth and population and he was no | small factor in promoting this growth | and development. He did all he could,
 and what he did was well done. He did | not, when prosperity came to our city | and others were absorbed with it's ad- | vancement, forget the people in the rural l precincts. They were his friends, and he was always ready to assist, and did assist them. His advice, | given out of the kindness of a