John Thomas Ashcraft

JOHN T. ASHCRAFT

          John T. Ashcraft was born in Clay Co., Ala., on October 15^th, 1859. He received his primary education in the common schools of the neighborhood, and at the Lineville Academe, afterwards entering the State Agricultural and Mechanical College at Auburn, Ala., from which institution he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Engineering with the class of “80.
         For nine years after he left college he taught school, coming to the city of Florence, Ala., in the summer of 1889, where, in September of the same year, he was admitted to the bar of his State.
         As a lawyer he quickly pushed to the front rank. While he does general practice, Mr. Ashcraft has given special attention to corporation law and industrial problems. At the present time he is the general counsel for and a director in many of the corporations in his section of the State; such as the Florence Wagon Works, Tennessee Valley Fertilizer Co., Ashcraft Cotton Mills, Florence Ice and Coal co., and the Merchants’ Bank.
         Mr. Ashcraft is a member of the Committee on Publication of the Alabama Bar Association, was a member of the late Constitutional Convention, where he occupied positions on the committees on “Education” and “Judiciary.” He is an ex-member of the city council of Florence, is President of the Lauderdale Educational Association, and has been Secretary of the board of Education here for the past seven years.
         On December 21, 1886, he was married to Miss Annie Hendrick (a graduate of the Judson Institute), daughter of Gustavus Hendrick of Brundige, Ala., and their union has been blessed with five children, four girls and one boy.
         In all probability it would be hard to find a citizen of Lauderdale county who gives more of his time, energy and money for the advancements of her best interests than John t. Ashcraft. He yearns to see the city and county of his adoption in the front rank of the educational and industrial sections of the South; and no project of worth can be promulgated in their behalf but that he can always be found ready to do his best by deeds as well as words. He is a Master Mason, and a deacon of the Florence Baptist Church. He believes the church has a practical place in the moral and social growth of the individual and the community, and takes an active interest in its work.  [Source: The Florence Times, 1901. Florence As She Is [Special Edition]

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