The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-12-24

sketch of B. H. Wilkerson, county
superintendent of education of La
| mar county, Alabama:
Bowling Hammond Wnkerson. the
present county superintendent elect
of education of Lamar county, Ala,
with residence at Vernon. and one of
the leading educators of the State of
Alabama, was born in Marion county,
Ala, on March p. 1852, the son of
B. H. and Elizabeth (Ray) Wilker-
son. The father was a native of Put
nam county, Ga, where he was born
October 2, 1927. At the outbreak of
the civil war he lived near Sulligent,
Ala, where he was justice of the
peace and schooImaster. He was one
of the first to enlist, and he did val
liant services in the Sixtieth Alabama
until the bloody battle of Shiloh Dill
igent search at the time failed to dis
cover any trace of him, and it is sup
posed he lies in an unmarked grave
on the field he so bravely defended.
His widow survived him until the 5th
OA oCptC1AOCA VI LLC PISSCnL year.
when she died near the old home
stead in the seth year of her age
Mr.. Wilkerson was a son of Lemmel
and Nancy (Bowling) Wilkerson, who
were pioneers to Western Alabama
from Putnam county. Ga. His wild
ow is the daughter of David Ray and
Susan Pickle. David was one of the
Andrew Jackson boy soldiers during
he Florida-Indian war, the Rays hav-
ing moved to Huntsville, Ala, from
Tennessee prior to that time. The
Wilkersons removed from Virginia
to Georgia, where they became prom
inent in the public life of the State,
Grandfather Lemmel Wilkerson hav-
ing been on the bench for years as
circuit Judge. The maternal great |
grandmother of B. H. Wilkerson was
Polly Mangrum, daughter of the |
noted Revolutionary soldier, Daniel |
Three of the six children I
born to B. H. and Elizabeth Wilker- |
beth. G. B. Wilkerson is a promi- |
nent farmer, living near Newburg, |
Elizabeth is the wife of /
r. w. Jaggers, a worthy farmer, re
siding near Sulligent, Lamar county,
Ala B. H Wilkerson was reared in |
Marion county, Ala. (now Northern /
and worked every year on /
a farm until his twenty-fourth year,
when he left the farm without a dol
lar in 1875, and entered the Mill |
tary Academy in Lamar county, the |
then only high school in the county, |
and remained a pupil for three years. |
being out each year long enough to |
teach a three-months' school, when |
he would pay up and re-enter, grad |
uating from the Vernon Institute in /
1890, with the highest honors of his |
class. He has been elected seven |
times by the popular vote of the peo-
pie of his county as superintendent |
of education of Lamar county, hay-
ber election without opposition. He
is now principal of the Ayres district |
state public school in Lamar county, )
and will begin his seventh term as |
superintendent of education |
on October 1, 1909. He holds a life /
teachers certificate from the state
board of examiners of Alabama. A |
Jacksonian Democrat in politics Prof. /
Wilkerson is yet quite liberal in his /
views on public questions, willing TO 4
credit the opposition with what of |
good is accomplished for the country. /
He is now local preacher in the |
affiliates with those of the Oldest so
cieties, the Masons, the Odd Fellows /
and K. of Ps. On May Z, 1878, he /
Miss Willie, daughter of AL
exander and Mary Elander (Cole-
MANI Atkins, family of prominence |
in the county, living near Fernbank.
To the marriage have been born the /
children: Mary Elizabeth,
William Matthews Atkins, a
machinist OF Columbus, Miss; Min
ME Laurie, married Rev. L. NJ. Har-
ris, pastor OF the First Methodist
church, Cordova. Ala; Martha East
man, married DIR. A. c. Branyon, OF
Pinson, Ala; Ellie Adine, a student
in the Lamar county high school;
Rowland Miner. q student in the
Vernon Institute. and Oliver Alexan-
der, lad of six and a half years.
Dan"