Fitts and Alston Families Photographs

Samuel Fitts Alston was a Tuscaloosa banker. He was born January 6, 1859, in Selma, Alabama. The son of Joseph John and Louisa Josephine (Jones) Alston, both from North Carolina. When Samuel was fourteen years old family moved to Paris, Texas, where he began working. Whit in two years he became a deputy clerk in the district of Lamar County, Texas. He moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1879 where he worked for several years in the express office.

In 1881 he purchased a bookstore with Charles Fitts as a partner. Five years later Samuel sold out his share in the bookstore and joined C. N. Maxwell in the jewelry business. In the spring of 1887 he sold shares in jewelry business and became a member of the banking house of J. H. Fitts & Company, and one of the incorporators of the Tuscaloosa and Castle Hill Real Estate & Manufacturing Company. Later he was elected secretary and treasurer, and subsequently general manager of Tuscaloosa and Castle Hill Real Estate & Manufacturing Company. In 1896 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Tuscaloosa Cotton Mill. After 1897 Samuel was operating five vehicle and furniture stores in Tuscaloosa, Blockton, Brookwood, Cottondale, and Gordo. He served as vice president and later president of the City National Bank. He was the president of the bank at the time of his death in January 1922. He built Alston office building, known as “Tuscaloosa’s first sky scraper” in 1910.

Samuel was a member of the Episcopal Church. He married in 1883, Fannie Fitts, daughter of J. H. Fitts, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They have two children: James Fitts Alston (May 21, 1884 - September 2, 1953), and Marilou Alston (b. March 14, 1887). James Fitts Alston married Mary Hewell Nabors. He was President and Chairman off the Board of the City National Bank of Tuscaloosa. Marilou Alston married Charles Murry Rudulph on December 20, 1911 at Christ Church, Tuscaloosa. She was a graduate of St. Mary's School, New York City and A. B. Vassar 1909, member of the Alabama Historical Societies, member of the Cadmean Circle, the oldest Literary Club in Alabama. She was also President of the Southern Association of College Women in 1918 and was a member of the Little Garden Club, Garden Club of America and the American Orchid Society.

Samuel Alston Fitts died January 11, 1922 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His wife died January 30, 1949 in Birmingham, Alabama. They are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.