Dr. John Walter Grimes, of Talladega Springs, was a son of Thomas Martin Grimes. He was born in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, April 24, 1868. With a good high school education he matriculated in the medical department of the University of Alabama, and three years later became a student at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. Here he graduated in pharmacy, Dec. 8, 1898, and the medical department Jan. 17, 1899. He then took post-graduate work at the New York Polyclinic and New York Post-Graduate school in 1903.
For a time he was a teacher, but began practice at Juniata, Alabama, in 1899. After two years he changed his location to Talladega Springs, where success has attended his efforts.
Doctor Grimes was alive to the needs of his profession and kept in touch with his brother physicians as a member of the Coosa County Medical society and the State Medical Association. He was a surgeon for the Alabama Midland division of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad company.
He deserved the success which is attending him, for he has had his own “row to hoe” in the world—was a self-made man—in the truest sense of the term. Doctor Grimes voted the Democratic ticket, was a Knight of Honor, and he and his wife were members of the Baptist church.
He married Jan. 24, 1899. His wife was Sarah Lavinia Darden, daughter of William Stephen Darden and Sallie Mitchell (Carlisle) Darden, her birth occurring in Coosa County, Feb. 1. 1879. Her parents are also natives of Coosa County, the father being a son of U. A. Darden and Mary (Logan) Darden, who were very early settlers in that county. Her maternal grandparents were John B. Carlisle and Nancy (Craddock) Carlisle, also early pioneers in the State. To the marriage of Dr. and Mrs. Grimes have been born two children,
Clyde Grimes
Bruce Grimes.
Dr. John Walter Grimes died Nov. 25, 1914, and is buried in Weogufka, Coosa County, Alabama.
SOURCES
Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
![He wanted to split Dale County in two, even if it had to be done with a broad axe [old pictures]](https://www.alabamapioneers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Graduating-class-at-Haw-Ridge-Rural-School-in-Dale-County-Alabama-ca.-1900-Principal-Mrs.-Read-stands-on-the-right-Alabama-Department-of-Archives-and-History-400x150.jpg "He wanted to split Dale County in two, even if it had to be done with a broad axe [old pictures]")
