Andrew Coleman Hargrove papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS-0630

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of personal and business correspondence of Andrew Coleman Hargrove, (b. 18 December 1837; d. 6 December 1895) noted attorney and politician of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The letterbooks and other correspondence go from 1866 through 1896. The collection also includes account books for the Oak City Club as well as the family's plantation.

Dates

1835-1911

Creator

Hargrove, Andrew Coleman (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

None

Conditions Governing Use

None

Biographical / Historical

Andrew Coleman Hargrove was born 18 December 1837 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the son of John and Martha (Hinton) Hargrove, the former a native of Georgia, and the latter a native of North Carolina. An 1856 graduate of the University of Alabama, he read law under Judge E.W. Peck in Tuscaloosa, then entered Cumberland Law School at Lebanon, Tennessee in 1858. He transferred from there to Harvard Law School, receiving his LL.B. in 1859. He began practicing law in Tuscaloosa in 1860 in partnership with James Fitts. In 1861, he enlisted in the Warrior Guards, later transferring to Lumsden's Battery, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant and in which he served until wounded at Spanish Fort, Alabama, in April 1865, by a minie ball to the forehead which doctors were unable to remove. Increasingly severe headaches over the next thirty years caused him to take his own life on 6 December 1895.

Postwar, Hargrove practiced law with Philip Augustus Fitts (ca. 1866-1869) and was later in partnership with Burwell Boykin Lewis (1872?-1874?) and his son-in-law, Adrian S. Van de Graaff. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1875 and was a State Senator, 1876-1884. He served in the State House of Representatives, 1884-1885, and returned to and was President of the Senate, 1888-1892. He served as land commissioner to the University of Alabama, 1885-1895, and as professor of law at his alma mater, 1888-1895. In 1890, he was appointed a trustee to the Alabama State Asylum and in 1892, was elected president of the Alabama State Bar Association.

Hargrove was a Democrat, a steward in the Presbyterian Church, and a member of the Knights of Honor. On 5 December 1865, he married Cherokee Mims Jemison, daughter of Robert and Priscilla Cherokee (Taylor) Jemison. They had two children, Minnie Cherokee (1866-1930) and Robert Jemison (1874-1909).

Source: Thomas M. Owen, "History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography." Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1921. Vol. 3; the Tuscaloosa "Times," 1872-1874; the "Crimson White," December 12, 1895.

Extent

2.4 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Overview

Personal and business correspondence, class notes, and financial records of attorney and politician, Andrew Coleman Hargrove of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Custodial History

The Andrew Coleman Hargrove papers were originally part of the Robert Jemison, Jr. Papers, which also contained papers of Hargrove's son-in-law, Adrian Sebastian Van de Graaff, and papers of Edward Bressie Vaughan, Jr., possibly a relation of Hargrove's. The papers were acquired by the University of Alabama during the mid-1900s. At an early date, some of Hargrove's ledgers, a scrapbook, and his letterbooks were separated from the original donation of the papers and designated as the Andrew Coleman Hargrove Papers, though most of his business records remained with the Jemison papers. In 1996, the remaining Hargrove material was removed from the Jemison Papers and consolidated with the Hargrove Papers. The letterbooks and other papers of Adrian S. Van de Graaff and E. B. Vaughan were also separated from the Jemison Papers and designated the Adrian Sebastian Van de Graaff Papers and Edward Bressie Vaughan, Jr. Papers, respectively.