MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
The author of the ensuing publication was born in Effingham county, Georgia. His grandfather, Dr. Soda, was a native of Cologne, an ancient city on the Rhine, in Prussia. Here educated to the science of physic, he afterwards became a practicing physician. Rather early in life, he came to the United States of America, and settled in the city of Savannah, Georgia, where the remainder of his life, some thirty years, was spent. Here, and during this time, he practiced in the medical profession with success and distinction. He married an American lady, the issue from which consisted in only one son and one daughter, Robert and Jane Rosettah.
About the year 1830, the latter, with J. G. W. Pitts, were married in the city of Savannah, Georgia. The result from this nuptial union is the existence of the “author.” With him, in 1834, his parents removed from Georgia to Rankin county, near Brandon, Mississippi; but the wife and mother did not long survive afterward, as will be seen from the following record found in the family Bible:
“Mrs. Jane Rosettah Pitts, wife of J. G. W. Pitts, departed this life the 7th day of January, A. D., 1835, in the 21st year of her age, after severely suffering under a complicated disease of two years’ standing, which battled the skill of the best physicians.”
The author was left an orphan at a very early age—only two years old. He was consigned over to the guardian care of an affectionate grandmother, who performed the charge both creditably to herself and in perfect accord with the welfare of the infant entrusted to her charge.
He was sent to school as early as convenience would permit, and, at intervals, continued until the age of twenty-one, when his friends brought him out for Sheriff of Perry county. At this period he left the school-room, and forthwith entered on the canvass, which resulted in his successful election by a handsome majority.
For some four years he continued in this office, during which time the painful duty devolved on him of executing James Copeland, the subject of the present work. Next came his memorable trial in the city of Mobile, Alabama, to answer an inveterate prosecution for libel—a trial which involved the best talent of the bar, and resulted in the conviction of the author by such means as truly gave only the shadows of victory to the straining prosecution, and triumph in real substance to the defence.
At a very early age, the author manifested a preference for the study of medicine, and in his capacity of Sheriff, his leisure hours, apart from the requirements of his office, were spent in making proficiency in his favorite science; and still more so after his trial—immediately following which he attended a medical college with ardor and assiduity, and ever since has been engaged in the practice of his profession.