COLBERT COUNTY, ALABAMA
BIOGRAPHIES

ARCHIBALD HILL CARMICHAEL

ARCHIBALD HILL CARMICHAEL, attorney-at-law and solicitor for the district composed of Colbert and Lauderdale counties, was born in Dale county, Ala., June 17, 1864. He was reared in Dale county and received his early education at the common schools of that county. He then attended the university of Alabama, entering the University in 1882 and graduating from both the academic and law department in 1886. During the session of the legislature of 1886, he served as engrossing clerk of the house. In 1878 he had served in the office of Probate judge of Dale county and then upon the election of his father as state auditor of Alabama he served as his clerk for two years. during that time he read law, and after leaving college in 1886 he was admitted to then bar in September, of that year, in Henry county. In March, 1887, he located in Tuscumbia and began the practice of the law, meeting with gratifying success. During the sessions of the house of 1888-89 and 1890-91, he was assistant clerk of the house. In 1891, upon the creation of the district court for Colbert and Lauderdale counties, he was elected solicitor of the district for the term of two years and was re-elected, without opposition in 1892. Mr. Carmichael was married in January, 1890, to Miss Annie Sugg, of Tuscumbia, daughter of T. H. Sugg, deceased. The father of Mr. Carmichael is Judge Jesse M. Carmichael of the third judicial circuit of Alabama. Judge Carmichael was born in Georgia and came with his father to Alabama when a boy. His family settled in Coosa county, where he was reared on a farm, and subsequently removed to Dale county, where his educational advantages were limited. He served in the Fifteenth Alabama Infantry in the army of northern Virginia, and lost an arm at Sharpsburg. After the war he read law and was admitted to the bar in Dale county, He was a member of the legislature in 1870, and in 1872 he was elected to the state senate, and in 1876, he was elected secretary of the Alabama senate. He was appointed probate judge of Dale county by Gov. Houston to fill the unexpired term of Judge Richards about 1876, and served two years. In 1880 he was elected state auditor for two years and was re-elected in 1882, thus serving in that office four years. He was presidential elector for the third congressional district of Alabama, elected in 1884. He then practiced law until 1886, in which year he was elected judge of the third circuit. He was to have taken the office in November, 1886, but Judge Chilton resigning he was appointed to fill out his unexpired term, and afterward entering upon the term to which he was elected, which expired in November, 1892. He was re-elected in August, 1892, to the same office for a term of six year. Judge Carmichael was married to Amanda Smith, a native of Georgia, who died in 1870, and he has been twice married since that time.

[SOURCE: Memorial Record of Alabama. A concise account of the state’s political, military professional and Industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. In Two Volumes. Illustrated. Brant & Fuller, Madison Wis., 1893. Volume I. pp. 691 – 2.]