COLBERT COUNTY, ALABAMA
BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Robert Towns Abernathy

DR. ROBERT TOWNS ABERNATHY, son of John T. and Sarah (Ellitt) Abernathy, was born in Lawrence County, Ala., November 22, 1824.

John T., the senior Mr. Abernathy, was born near Lunenburgh Court House, Va., about 1806, where he received a limited education. He was a farmer and merchant in Virginia; removed to South Florence, Ala., and later on to Tuscumbia, before the Mexican War. From the latter place he went to New Orleans, where he was engaged up to the outbreak of the war, when he returned to Alabama and turned his entire attention to farming. He started in life comparatively a poor man, but succeeded in accumulating a handsome fortune. He reared a large family, and died a few years after the war. His father, David Abernathy, was of Scotch-Irish extraction. He was one of the early settlers of Virginia; served during the Revolutionary War, and later on became one of the pioneers of Huntsville, Ala.

The mother of our subject was a daughter of Richard Ellitt, a native of Virginia, and also a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was of Scotch ancestry.

The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and received an academic education from La Grange College, this state. He then began reading medicine, and graduated in March, 1849, from the University of New York. After his graduation he located at New Orleans, from whence he removed to Macon, Miss, and in 1851 located at Tuscumbia. For some time prior to the war, and while in the practice of medicine, he edited the Tuscumbia Constitution.

After the evacuation of Corinth, he enlisted in the Confederate service as surgeon of the Fifth Alabama Regiment, with which he remained until the surrender at Pond Springs, with Gen. P. D. Roddy’s command. After the surrender he returned home and resumed the practice of his profession. In connection with his lucrative practice he conducts an extensive farm.

Dr. Abernathy was married March 12, 1856, to Caledonia Carrol, daughter of George W. and Lucy H. Carrol, and has had born to him five children—Lucy, Willie, Tracy, George and St. Elmo. The doctor is a Presbyterian, and his wife is a communicant of the Episcopal Church.