William Henry Amerine was a pharmacist, newspaper writer, commercial railway agent, author, and Red Cross officer. He was born June 17, 1878, in Greenville, Butler County; son of Miles Henry and Cynthia Selena (Lee) Amerine.
Captain Amerine was educated in private and public schools of Montgomery, including the preparatory school of Prof. George W. Thomas, was a cadet at the U. S. military academy, West Point, N. Y., 1898-99; qualified by State board examination as a pharmacist and held a position with Steiner and Gordon, of Montgomery. He was later with the Plant system of railway hospitals at Waycross, Ga., and Montgomery, serving with that company during the yellow fever epidemic in the latter city.
He was a private in the “Montgomery greys,” 1897-98; second lieutenant, “Montgomery true blues,” 1908-09; captain, “First field company,” Signal Corps, Alabama National Guard, 1914-17, the latter was a wireless telegraph company organized and trained by him, the first of its kind in the national guard of the South.
For practical service to his company, he erected in 1915, a wireless telegraph station in Montgomery, communicating six hundred miles, the first of its kind in Montgomery. When the government ordered American soldiers to the Mexican border in 1916, Captain Amerine, with his command served there for several months. During the early part of 1917, the company served to maintain communication with and between the U. S. troops while engaged in action with Mexican bandits in Arizona, receiving high commendation from Jeneral Plummer for efficiency.
Owing to failure to meet the physical tests required for overseas service, Captain Amerine was rejected for active military duty upon America’s entrance into the European war, but being desirous to offer his services to his country in some active service he joined the Red Cross and served as an officer in that organization in Italy, Sicily, France, and Germany. He was attached to headquarters, Rainbow division, U. S. Army, on the Rhine, for several months after the armistice.
He was a reportorial writer on the “Montgomery Advertiser,” for several years prior to 1916. Before this, he had been a railway clerk and agent in Alabama and Georgia and upon his return to Montgomery from foreign service he resumed that calling, and later a commercial agent for the Seaboard airline railway. Author of “Alabama’s own in France,” being war stories of the 167th infantry regiment, the old 4th infantry regiment, Alabama national guard, Rainbow division, in the European War. This work was prepared under the authority of Col. W. P. Screws, commanding the regiment.
William Henry Amerine was a Democrat and unmarried and living with his brother Edward Porter in the 1930 census of Montgomery, Alabama.
SOURCES
History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Volume 3 By Thomas McAdory Owen, Mrs. Marie (Bankhead) Owen
1930 Montgomery, Alabama census
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