William SPORT Monograph

William Sport Monograph

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 18, 2004, 12:52 pm Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)

WILLIAM SPORT, farmer and miller of Beat No. 8, was born in Marion district in 1822. He is a son of Jonathan and Margaret (Bailey) Sport, both of whom are natives of South Carolina and lived in Marion county till 1842, when they came to what is now Crenshaw county, Ala., settling in the woods near where William Sport now lives. Here they spent the rest of their lives, Mr. Sport dying in 1856 and Mrs. Sport in 1858. He was at the time of his death about eighty-one years old. Mr. Sport was a farmer all his life and a hard-working, honest, and respected man. Both he and his wife were for many years members of the Methodist Episcopal church. His father was William Sport, a Scotchman, who came to America, a young man during the Revolutionary war, and served in the Light Horse Guards. He afterward married in South Carolina and lived in the state the rest of his life. The maternal grandfather of William Sport Bailey probably died in South Carolina. William Sport was the eldest of a family of one son and three daughters, viz.: Mary Amanda; Sarah Anne, widow of Joseph Boykin, deceased; Thaney, deceased wife of Abel Boykin. William Sport was reared on the farm and remained with his parents till he was twenty-four years old. In 1847 he married Sarah Jane, daughter of Solomon and Elizabeth Singleton, natives of South Carolina, but who removed to Florida when Mrs. Sport was an infant. Here Mr. Singleton died, while Mrs. Sport was still a child, and then Mrs. Singleton came to Alabama and died in Clarke county during the war. Mrs. Sport was born in Marion district, S. C., and is the mother of twelve children, two of whom died in infancy. The names of the others are as follows: John Solomon; William G.; Thomas Benjamin; Malachi; Daniel W.; Joseph Nathaniel; Sarah Anne, wife of Andrew Hardidge; Amanda E., widow of Gabriel Wallace, deceased; Martha, deceased wife of William E. Strippling; Eliza, died a child. Mr. Sport has made three settlements in this neighborhood and has improved three farms. Since 1870 he has lived on his present place on Conecuh river, where he owns over 600 acres of good farming lands. In 1884 he erected a water power or grist mill which he has since operated. During a portion of the war he served in the state troops on the coast near Mobile. Mr. Sport was one of the earliest settlers in Crenshaw county, where he is well known and highly respected. He has always been hospitable, charitable, generous, and kind to the poor. Beside raising a large family himself he has reared and educated several orphans, having had under his care twenty-two children in all. He is a whole-souled and good-hearted man, and his wife possesses the same good qualities, and hence it would not be possible for them to be otherwise than highly respected by the entire community.

Additional Comments: from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 794-795 Published by Brant & Fuller (1893) Madison, WI This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 3.4 Kb

I copied this off the GENWEB site because that is easier than transcribing, but I have other copies of the same article from this book.