Dr. James Addison ABNEY

M, b. 6 November 1846, d. 29 July 1947
Relationship
5th cousin 2 times removed of John Kennedy BROWN Jr.
Dr. James Addison Abney (1846-1947)
     Dr. James Addison ABNEY was born on 6 November 1846 in Neshoba County, Mississippi, son of Paul Collins ABNEY and Margaret Elvira Fullerton. He was the oldest of twelve children.1 He was also known as "Big Jim".

"Big Jim" ABNEY joined the Confederate Army in the spring of 1864, under Captain H. G. Lane, in Company E, John Pelham Border's Battalion, Thomas Scott Anderson's Regiment. James served as a guard at Camp Ford near Tyler, Texas, a stockade for Union soldiers. At the end of the war he returned home penniless and barefoot.1

James married first Susanna Elizabeth Davis on 10 December 1868 in the courthouse square, Homer, Angelina County, Texas. She was a member of Confederate President Jefferson Davis' family. Together they had three children that survived to adulthood and one child who died at birth in 1869.1

After years of personal training from Dr. Manning, Angelina County's only doctor, James worked as a physician, and registered with the medical branch of Soule University in Galveston in October 1869. He received his diploma on 2 Mar 1871 and began his practice in Homer. In 1891 he completed post graduate coursework at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans.1

Susanna died on 15 October 1892 in Lampasas, Texas, In March 1892 Susanna's failing health had motivated the family to move to Lampasas in the hopes that the mineral springs would help heal her. leaving Dr. James Addison ABNEY as a widower.

James married second Almonta Huling Bartlett in 1893 in Texas. In 1895 Abney moved his new family to Brownwood to be near the 2,000-acre ranch estate in Blanket, Texas, Brown County, which Almonta brought into the marriage. James continued his medical practice there and later became owner of a 10,400-acre ranch on Brady Creek, near Eden, Texas, Concho County.

As a ranch owner, Dr. Jim worked in conjunction with the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Company (Frisco) to establish the town of Winchell, Texas. He organized the Citizens National Bank with his son, Frederick, in Brownwood in 1906. Dr. Jim spent the remainder of his career in the banking business.

Dr. James Addison ABNEY died on 29 July 1947 in Brownwood, Brown County, Texas, at age 100.

His obituary appeared 31 July 1947 in the El Paso Times, published in El Paso, Texas. Brownwood, Texas. (AP)-- One of Texas' last 13 surviving Confederate veterans, Dr. James A. Abney, 100, will be buried here Thursday. Dr. Abney, a pioneer Brownwood doctor, died in the home of his son, Fred S. Abney, here Tuesday night. He was born in Mississippi in 1846 and came to Texas when he was seven years old.
Last Edited=3 Dec 2020

Citations

  1. [S869] The Handbook of Texas Online, "James Addison Abney."

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