Milton Paul LeGrand was a physician and businessman who was born Nov 10, 1832, in Wadesboro, N.C to William C. and Jane (Paul) LeGrand His parents were natives of North Carolina and of Huguenot and English ancestry, respectively. They came to Alabama in 1837 and settled in Tuskeegee, Macon County, Alabama where they spent the remainder of their lives.
Milton Paul LeGrand received his early education at Tuskegee and as a preliminary step toward preparing himself for the medical profession, he entered a drug store at Marion. At the end of four years, he returned to Tuskegee, and opened a drug store for about three years, then opened a similar business in Montgomery on a much larger scale.
His failing health caused him to give up the drug business, and after a rest of a year or two, he entered the grocery and dry goods business and built up the largest trade in that line that Montgomery had ever possessed. He continued in that business until 1882.
He was one of the organizers of the Montgomery and Florida railroad company and was elected its president in 1881. In June 1886, finding other business affairs too pressing, he declined re-election to the presidency and was made vice president of the company. On the organization of the Commercial fire insurance company in 1876, Mr. LeGrand was made the president. In 1889, Milton Paul LeGrand organized the Bank of Montgomery, which he conducted until his death Sept 22, 1893. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.
He served two years in the C. S. Army and retired from active service because of his physical condition. He married Mary Louise Jones daughter of Dr. Erastus and his wife (Cotton) Jones, who lived at Tuscaloosa, Ala. She died August 21, 1891.
Their children were:
Milton Paul LeGrand, of Montgomery, was born March 25, 1861, at Tuskegee, Macon county, Alabama. He was educated in private schools of Montgomery and Park High School of Tuskegee, and in Vanderbilt University, where he was graduated with the degree of bachelor of sciences in 1883. He graduated with the degree of bachelor of laws in the law school of University of Alabama in 1894 and immediately began the practice of law with Horace Stringfellow, the two forming the firm of Stringfellow & LeGrand. In 1892, on account of the poor health of his father, he entered the bank of his father as vice-president, and on the death of his father he was elected president of the bank; holding this position till 1900, when this bank and the Merchants been vice-president of the Merchants & Planters Bank, which has a capital and surplus of $400,000. He was on Governor Jones’ staff four years, and Governor Seay’s staff four years, occupying the position of judge-advocate-general of State troops. He is identified with a number of business institutions but devotes his time especially to the banking business and his numerous farming interests. He was a member of Knights of Pythias, Red Men and Elks. He married April 27, 1893, Mary Virginia, daughter of Robert W. and Annie Paul Goldthwaite of Montgomery and they were both members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was a Democrat. Mr. LeGrand was a trustee of the University of Alabama. He died August 1913 at his summer home on Perdido Bay.
Eloise LeGrand who married J. Craig Smith, September 3, 1894, formerly a State Treasurer and they lived in Montgomery. They had one child Legrande Smith who married Davis Fonville Stakely son of Dr. Charles Averetett Stakely. Eloise Legrande died in 1900 and J. Craig Smith remarried Feb. 10, 1903, to Mignon, daughter of Gov. Braxton B. and Eva J. (Harris) Comer. They had two children James Craig Smith, Jr. and Jane Smith and were living in Dallas County ca. 1905.
SOURCES
History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie
Notable Men of Alabama edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
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MILTON PAUL LEGRAND
