Bio William Redwine Meriwether

William Redwine Meriwether
TMSI #6437

William R. Meriwether, a prosperous business man of Pensacola, is a native of Georgia, where he was reared and received his early training. At the age of twenty-one he removed to Pensacola and engaged in the furniture business, in which he has continued since. At the recent election he was chosen a member of the city council for a term of four years. He is the son of William D. Meriwether, a planter of Georgia, who served three years in the Confederate army, and a member of the famous Meriwether family, one of the oldest in the United States. During the persecution of Wales, in the time of Charles II, three brothers, Nicholas, William and David Meriwether, all young and unmarried men, to avoid the oppression of the government emigrated to the colony of Virginia. From them sprang the various branches of the family destined to be widely scattered and celebrated in the annals of many states. It has been said that on one ever looked at or talked with a Meriwether but that he heard something which made him look or listen again. Thomas Jefferson remarked of Nicholas Meriwether that he was the most sensible man he ever knew. William H. Crawford, another excellent judge of character, made the same remark about Frank Meriwether.  There is perhaps no family in America which has numbered more members who became distinguished. They have gained fame as lawyers, physicians, statesmen and warriors. Among the descendants of the three Welsh brothers can be named, Meriwether Jones, of Richmond, a celebrated political writer more than half a century ago; Gen. Walter Jones, a distinguished lawyer of Washington, D.C.; Gen. Roger Jones, of the regular army, and Commodore Catsby Jones, of the navy; Col. David Meriwether, of Georgia, member of the Federal congress; Gabriel Jones, distinguished lawyer of Augusta, Ga. To those might be added many other names belonging to various branches and offshoots, such as the Frys, Vaughns, Lewises, Matthews, Jamisons, Dabneys, Thompsons and other prominent families of Virginia, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas, whose sons have ornaments all branches of society and every walk of life and contributed more than their due share to the historic records of State and nation. William R. Meriwether is justly proud of his ancestry and connected with business and doing his part to build up the city, he also finds time for social and fraternal duties. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Woodmen of the World. He has two children, one son and one daughter, and the family enjoys a wide circle of acquaintances and friends.

 


Source: Rerick, Rowland H.. Memoirs of Florida: embracing a general history of the province, territory and state, and special chapters devoted to finances and banking, the bench and bar, medical profession, railways and navigation, and industrial interests. Vol. 1, Atlanta: Southern Historical Association, 1902.

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