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CHARLES WESLEY HILLIARD
BIOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY
(1837-1905)
Pike County, Alabama
Charles Wesley Hilliard, one of the best-known physicians of the State of Alabama, was born near Florence, Stewart county, Georgia, July 5, 1837. His father, William Hilliard, a native of North Carolina, born Dec. 6, 1786, was for most of his life a resident of Wilkes and Stewart counties, Georgia, but after 1851 lived at Hilliard’s Cross-Roads, Pike county, Alabama.
He represented Stewart county in the Georgia legislature. In Pike county, Alabama, he became a large slave holder, the owner of valuable land, and a typical prosperous planter of the old regime. Declining to hold office in Alabama, he became nevertheless an influential local leader of the party known at that time as Hickory Jackson Democrats. His last official act was to vote for Jefferson Davis in 1863.
In August of that year he died. He was a consistent and liberal member of the Methodist Protestant church. He was the son of Major Hilliard, planter, near Sandersville, Washington county, Georgia. His wife, the mother of Charles W., was Polly Daniels, daughter of Ezekiel Daniels, of Washington county, Georgia. Dr. Charles Wesley Hilliard received his early education in Stewart county, Georgia., and then studied at Hilliard’s Cross-Roads academy under Prof. Robert Rabb. His professional education was obtained at the Reform Medical college, of Macon, Ga., where he was graduated in the class of 1861. He began practice at Hilliard’s Cross-Roads and continued there until 1863, when he joined the Confederate army as assistant surgeon, with the rank of captain, in the Fifty-seventh Alabama infantry, Col. J. W. P. Amerine commanding, Scott’s brigade, Loring’s division, Polk’s corps, C. S. A. He participated in the series of battles from Dalton to Atlanta, and subsequently was on post duty at La Grange, Ga.
After the war, Dr. Hilliard resumed the practice of medicine. He lived in Troy, Alabama in 1904. He was a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Protestant church since 1856. He was a master Mason and was secretary of Brundidge lodge, No. 158. He married, in Novembe 1857, in Stewart county, Georgia, Mary Elizabeth Patterson, daughter of James Pickens and Martha (Hardy) Patterson, of Lumpkin, Stewart county. James Pickens Patterson was born in Georgia, Feb. 14, 1806, and his marriage took place Feb. 13, 1831. He was a son of Alexander Patterson, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to America in the eighteenth century and married Elizabeth Pickens, of Georgia. Dr. Hilliard and his wife were the parents of seven children.
- The eldest of these, William Lochrane Hilliard, married Kate Henderson, of Troy, and was a prosperous farmer and capitalist and he had three children: Fred Hilliard, Charles LaFayette Hilliard and Catherine Hilliard in 1904, who married Arthur Pelzer Folmar
- The eldest daughter, Michel Sahoy Hilliard, married Wiley Barron Finney, a large turpentine operator of Holmes county, Florida, and had five children: Carrie Hilliard Finney Willis Cleveland Finney, William Lamar Finney, James Albert Finney and Mary Hilda Finney.
- Lizzie May Hilliard married William Ray, of Worthy, Pike county, Ala., and had six children: Alta Hilliard Ray, William Osman Ray, Charles Bird Ray, Otho Martin Ray, Albert Marvin Ray and James Wesley Ray.
- James Barnes Hilliard, was a leading young business man of Troy and an agent there for the Standard Oil company. He married Susie Henderson, of Troy.
- Charles Wesley Hilliard, Jr., was a leading physician of Milo, Alabama He married Rebecca Wolff, of Tarpon Springs, Florida.
- Albert McNeill Hilliard, now a prosperous druggist of Grand Saline, Texas, married Ida Hays, of that place, and had one son in 1904, Wesley Hilliard.
- Annie Irene Hilliard, the youngest daughter, was unmarried in 1904.
Dr. Charles Wesley Hilliard died April 5, 1905 in Pike County, Alabama. He and his wife Mary E. (Patterson) Hilliard are buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy, Pike County, Alabama.
SOURCES
- Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
- Find A Grave Memorial# 5868424# 5868423# 5837603# 5837606# 14118826# 5917828# 5917831# 5835313# 5835310# 46586499# 46586545
