McCORD

Dr. Russell

BIRTH 5 JUNE 1833 • Underwood, Sand Hills, Calhoun, South Carolina, USA

DEATH 8 JANUARY 1885 • Selma, Dallas, Alabama, USA

Married: 19 Oct 1858 • Bibb County, Alabama, USA

Anne Elizabeth Ferguson

BIRTH 4 APR 1834 • Alabama, USA

DEATH 26 JUNE 1930 • Selma, Dallas, Alabama, USA

The Selma Times, Friday, January 9, 1885, Page 1.

Death of Dr McCord.

A shadow of gloom was thrown over this community yesterday morning by the sad announcement of the death of Dr. Russell McCord, which occurred at his home in this city at 9 o’clock. Dr. McCord was a native of South Carolina, but moved to this city first, while yet a young man. He studied medicine in New York and in Paris. From New York, he came to Selma, married Miss Ferguson, a member of one of our first families, and entered upon the practice of his chosen profession. In the year 1861, he moved with his family to Cahaba, then a flourishing place, and went from there to the late war. In 1862.

He was regimental surgeon of the 42nd Alabama, and was highly esteemed as a kind hearted man and worthy officer. After the war he did a drug business in this city, and latterly about 1866, went to Brazil, where he remained eighteen years, and returned to Selma. Last fall. His health was rapidly declining when he came home and nothing relieved him until death came. He died from dropsy of the heart and the end came suddenly. He was possessed of many admirable qualities, and was universally beloved and esteemed by family and friends. We joined the community in extending sincere sympathy to the grieved family.

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The Times-Journal. Selma, Alabama, Sunday, August 29, 1920. Page 14.

Crinoline Belles, About Whose Gracious Presence Lingers

Romance and Chivalry From the Olde, Golden Days of Selma.

---Ann Ferguson. McCord.

Chivalry and Hoop skirts reached the zenith of their development at about the same time, without doubt, chivalry was encouraged by the wide, spreading crinoline, for a man could not ignore a bewitching beauty hampered by a hoop skirt and not being able to ignore her, he was perforce, obliged to pay court to her to fetch and carry, and make himself her devoted slave. So long as such conditions existed, suffrage was undreamed of. Women were to burdened with the awful penalties which the dress imposed upon them in the crinoline period, to give thought to unshackling their minds. Susan B. Anthony’s triumph might have come years earlier if a dress reform had swept the country.

Romance and color.

But we are glad on the whole that we stately ladies in their tilters with tiny sunshades, evidently to keep the tip of the nose from freckling were not taught that trailing skirts were germ laden, or that tightly laced waists were not conducive to perfect bodily development. They were the largest contributors to a period of romance and color, and when we meet them in the pages of delightful historical novels, they exact our homage. Linking us of the modern day to that gracious golden time prior to the War Between the States are charming women whose lives have enriched Selma for four or more generations. These are the “Crinoline Belles.” Their silvery white heads and thin, fragile hands are now filled with thoughts of and work for their children's children. And the present claims them for its own. They are too busy to dwell in the past, but by their silence the people of Selma are missing much in an historical way. The writer, therefore, considers it a privilege to present a series of interviews with some of Selma's “Crinoline Belles, and as an earnest wish for the good things in store, the recollections of Mrs. Russell McCord (Ann Ferguson are given first.

Ann Ferguson

Ann Ferguson was born in Selma, April 4, 1834, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Ferguson. From her mother, she received a wonderfully retentive mind, which, combined with the qualities of wit and wisdom, gained from her father endowed her with a more than ordinary heritage. Mr. Ferguson was one of the big merchants of Selma, with a store where Tillman's drug store now stands. A part of town then but sparsely built up as the center of the retail district was situated near the L and N depot on Water Street. Everyone in the pleasant little tree shaded community considered themselves part of a happy and contented family, and as Ann grew up here, she had the wonderful experience of seeing the town grow too. Culture and refinement cast deep and wide ramifications about the city. Selma held little attraction for persons seeking homes unless they were able to appreciate that intangible yet delightful atmosphere, which, with the years have grown so marked as to be termed characteristic.

Old School Days

Contributing largely to the prominent place which Selma assumed as one of the most delightful towns in Alabama, and which to live were the schools, which early attracted scholars from Distant counties. Mrs. McCord remembers vividly her school days. Miss Bartlett taught in the basement of the Episcopal Church on the corner where Snider's drugstore now stands, and she learned her earliest lessons there. Later., Mr. and Mrs. Lucius Brutus Johnson operated a school for a short while in the Knight's home, now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Knight on Mabry Street, and later moved to Selma and Church Streets, where the old Dallas Academy was established on land given by Mr. Billie Johnson.“Numbers of pupils from Dallas and surrounding counties were enrolled,” said Mrs. McCord, “ To accommodate these scholars. Many persons took boarders into their homes and I remember quite well that Mrs. Horne came to Selma with thirty young people from Sumter County, and kept house for them just across from the Dallas Academy in a large old structure, standing about where Mrs. Vaughn's house now stands. Beside this home, there were only one other on the block, the Goodwin. House on Mabry and Selma, and big garden plots were in between. “I went to school each morning from my home down on Green Street by a narrow little path, fringed with hogweeds and coffee weeds, which grew as high as my head which led over a flat common, which is now the heart of the retail district, but at that time we could Imagine Indians and all sorts of dangers lurking about us as we trudged along to school.

Slid Down the Pillar.

Although school hours were long in those days, lasting from 830 in the morning to sundown, with an hour and a half for recess, many enlivening happenings are remembered by Mrs. McCord, proving that the days were not given over to “all work and no play”. She recalls the following incident vividly. “One day, the whole class was kept in. Sundown came and no relief. So Ann Ferguson daringly suggested that the class climb out the window and go home. So it was agreed, but with the stipulation that she was to go first. Out onto the upstairs porch, she climbed and slid down a pillar to the lower floor. there she waited for her schoolmates, but panic had seized them, and they were willing to remain rather than “fly to terrors that they knew not of”. Examination time at the Dallas Academy amounted to an annual outing for the families of the five hundred or more boys and girls from Selma and distant parts of the county. Many would come and camp about the city for the whole week. The examinations began on Friday and lasted to the next Friday, with concerts, contests and spelling matches galore. The pupils were examined in public in the old warehouse on the river bank. No other building would accommodate the crowds.

Weaver party, 1848.

Dignity marked the entertainments of the day and Selma's social life was taken very seriously. The “rounded dances” were becoming less of a novelty, but were frowned on by many and the schuttische and quadrilles were in high favor. The homes of Selma were thrown open once or twice a year as a matter of custom. “The biggest party ever given in Selma”, says Mrs. McCord, was that of Christmas, 1848, when Philip Weaver entertained for his wife, throwing open at the same time a recently completed part of the Weaver home, the same old building which was torn down some months ago. The fashionable world of Selma was present, and the most lavish hospitality was dispensed in typically Southern fashion. The supper room was upstairs, and after the guests had eaten, Mr. Weaver called his man Jack, and instructed him to invite to the feast the Blount County Apple drivers who camped on the river bank across from the Weaver home, after coming through the country with wagon loads of apples.“Getting to and from a party was a ceremony in itself”, Mrs. McCord smiled, remembering in what state a “Crinoline Belle” occupied the entire back seat of the carriage while her escort sat in front with the driver. And if there were two ladies in the family, the carriage was obliged to make two trips.

Ann Ferguson and Dr. Russell McCord were married in 1858. They took a wedding trip, going from Montgomery to Charleston, a matter of three days, traveling as the trains stopped running at night. When the Civil War opened, several years later, Dr. McCord entered as a surgeon, and at the close, he proposed to emigrate to South America with a party of 225 Southerners.

Guests of Empress.

Showing the indomitable spirit which above all else, might be termed characteristic. Both of her earlier and later life, Mrs. McCord proposed to accompany him, taking her two small daughters, aged five and seven. Ssuch and unheard of move provoked much discussion among friends of the McCord’s in Selma. Dr. and Mrs. McCord remained in Brazil four years, where Dr. McCord’s knowledge of French and German gained by his five years in Paris, were readily supplemented by Spanish. There they made numbers of friends, just 38 years ago, they returned to Brazil for the second time and were guests of the Empress., the last Monarchial ruler of that country.

Interest in people and events have attracted to Mrs. McCord many friends through her long and active lifetime. She was in an indefatigable letter writer, and among her correspondents are men of affairs and writers whose utterances she has closely followed through the press and magazines, to numbers of which she subscribes. Politics always exerted a powerful attraction for Mrs. McCord’s mind and she laughingly says that she has every intention of living to see Cox elected to the presidency. At the same time, she has no wish to vote in the presidential election, as she is an anti-suffragist. Her alert, sparkling mind filled to the brim with much that makes entertaining a long talk with her a constant well- spring of refreshment and power to her friends.

She is of the past and the present, with emphasis on the present, please, for Mrs. McCord is of today.. She had laid away her memories of the past, along with the rare old Lace which fringed her wedding veil, of the crinolines of the fifties. She belongs to us of 1920, with her wisdom and her beauty of mind and character and we of this generation are proud to pay tribute to her.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….......………..

The Selma Times, Selma, Alabama, Thursday, June 26, 1930, Pages 1 & 3.

Oldest Citizen of Selma, Taken by Grim Reaper.

Mrs. Anne Eliza McCord Dies Early Thursday.

Funeral Services Set for Friday Afternoon.

End Comes Quickly After Sudden Illness.

Mrs. Ann McCord, 96, oldest citizen in Selma and a native of Dallas County died at 3:50 a.m. Thursday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. B. Parke, 628 Selma Avenue., after an immediate illness of only a few hours, induced in part by the extreme heat and her advanced years.

Married before Civil War.

Her marriage to Dr. Russell McCord took place just before the Civil War, in which Dr. McCord volunteered as a surgeon in the Fourth Alabama Regiment. at the close of the war in 1867 she accompanied Dr. McCord to Brazil with a group of 350 emigrants who left Alabama for South America seeking to rehabilitate their fortunes in a slaveholding state. The return to Selma was made in 1884, followed the succeeding years by Dr. McCord's death, and since that time Mrs. McCord has lived here continuously. Mrs. McCord, remarkable mentality and eager interest in the affairs of the world remained predominant characteristics to the end, and brought to her. during her last years much of the stimulus which she always enjoyed and eager curiosity to witness new developments in the constantly changing mechanical age, the dawn of which she had viewed as a young woman and a speculative wonder of what the future might bring, kept Mrs. McCord's mind alert to a remarkable degree.

Rich Stores of Information

At the same time, she cherished a rich store of information on the city's life for almost 100 years past, gleaned from her own observations and those of her parents. She had come to this section when Selma was a small cluster of houses on Moore's Bluff. Her memory was remarkably accurate and was relied on many times by lawyers and businessmen by settling boundaries and property limits. Mrs. McCord was a member of the Episcopal Church, and during her earlier years had been active in many phases of the city's life. She leaves besides her sister Miss Ferguson, three daughters, Mrs. J. B. Parke, Mrs. George Wilkins, both of this city, and Mrs. W. F. Bailey of Tampa, Florida. Injuries sustained by Mr. Bailey in an automobile accident some months ago make it impossible for Mrs. Bailey to come to Selma. Mrs. A. J. Adkins is an only grandchild and three great grandchildren of Mrs. Adkins also survive; these being George Atkins, Carrie Atkins and A.J. Atkins.

Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at 5 o’clock from the residence of Mrs. Parke. Mr. Parke, who was absent from the city on the coast, will reach Selma by Friday morning. Interment will be in Live Oak Cemetery where Dr. McCord is buried. Arrangements by Judge Breslin.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....………….

The State Columbia, South Carolina. April 26, 1926, Sunday, Page 16.

Mrs.. Anne Eliza McCord, Vigorous at 92.

Beloved Woman, Resident of Selma, Alabama,

Is Widow of South Carolinian, Late Dr. Russell McCord of Columbia.

A recent issue of the Selma, Alabama Times-Journal contained the following article:

“Sunday, April 4, marks the 92nd birthday of Mrs.. Anne Eliza McCord, Selma's oldest citizen, both in point of age and in years of residence, for Mrs. McCord was born in this city in 1834, when it was a village. Her home was in the old brick house that still stands on the corner of Green and Alabama streets. Her father was Hugh Ferguson and her mother, Caroline Minter Ferguson, Mrs. McCord was married October 19, 1859, to Dr. Russell McCord of South Carolina, a prominent physician, and all her life has been spent in this city, with the exception of two brief periods which she spent with her husband in South America, she has lived in all eighty-five years in Selma, and her memory goes back to the days when virgin woods covered the section of Selma that now bordered Lauderdale and Church Streets, and when the neighborhood now occupied by the Purity Creamery and adjoining blocks was a cornfield enclosed in a rail fence.

Mrs. McCord has seen four cemeteries, wax and wane in Selma. The first one was where Church Street Methodist Church now stands. She remembers the building of every church in this city and not only does her memory hold in its golden Strand churches, cemeteries and corn patches, but glitters with recollections of the prominent citizens who have held sway in civic, business and professional life through all these years , and with the brilliant social life from the time the belles of the forties and fifties tripped to their beruffled crinolines to the present day, when it takes but two yards and a half of crape de shine, to make a gown for the 20th century flapper. . A valued compliment. The Times-Journall claims for itself is that Mrs. McCord is its staunch friend and its constant reader. Up to a year or two ago, she scanned its pages for herself - Now that her eyesight is dimmed, her daughters read it to her every day. She has helped the paper out in many a tight place. When a point of legal history was in dispute, and it always flatters the force to have Mrs. McCord phone down for a special article, which she has noticed in the day's news. On this glorious Easter Day, April 4, 1926, The Times-Journal joins with our entire citizenry in wishing its oldest citizen, Mrs. Anne Eliza Ferguson McCord, peace and joy and a springtime Eastertide in her noble heart.

Older residents of Columbia will remember the family of which this venerable lady is a valiant representative at 92. Her husband, Russell McCord, was a son of David J. McCord, a prominent lawyer, one time intendant of Columbia, well known to the legal profession of South Carolina by McCord's Reports, a man of bright and versatile talent and gifts, and known in a wider range beyond the state as a contributor To the Southern Quarterly Review and to Debow's on questions of political economy.

David J. McCord was the son of Captain John MacLeod of McCord's Ferry of some revolutionary distinction. D.J. McCord was twice married. His first wife was Emmeline Wagner. Their children were, not in order of their age, Lorraine, who died in youth, Junius, who went west, Turquand, Mary, who married Judge, A. J. McGrath, Emma, who married Captain Edward Parker, C.S.A.., and left surviving one daughter, wife of Judge Bennett Gordon of Virginia., Julia, who married Colonel Henry Belden of the British Army, who served as a volunteer in the Confederate service throughout the sixties, saw service in India and the Arctic and in the Boer War, and was friend and intimate neighbor of Rudyard Kipling and recruiting officer for the British Army in Sussex during the World War, dying without surviving issue and Doctor Russell McCord, a notable surgeon- physician , whose surviving widow is the subject of the preceding comment in The Times-Journal.

Dr. Russell McCord was born in South Carolina, but had become a very successful and eminent practitioner of surgery and medicine in New York City prior to the Confederate War. Immediately upon the secession of the state of South Carolina, he threw over his affairs in New York and entered the Confederate service as a surgeon. At the close of the war, feeling it impossible to reside under the domination of the federal Union, he left the country with his family and settled in Brazil, whence he sent his family home, but himself remained, self- exiled until near the close of his life, when he returned to South Carolina to die. His family very naturally had gravitated toward Selma, Alabama, where dwelt the family of his uncle, Russell McCord, brother of D.J. McCord, who had departed from South Carolina years before.

This was the family of David J. McCord and Emmeline Wagner. After the death of his first wife, Mr. McCord married. Miss Louisa S. Chivas, daughter of Langdon Cheves. Their children were Hannah Turquand, who married John Taylor Rhett of Columbia; Captain Langdon Cheves McCord, who married Charlotte Reynolds, daughter of Dr. Reynolds of the South Carolina College and Louisa Rebecca, who married Augustine T. Smyth of Charleston. Colonel and Mrs. McCord divided their residences between Columbia and Mrs. McCord's own home Plantation, the former Lovell Place, “Lang Syne” near Fort Motte, now the residence of Mrs. Julia Peterkin, the well known author. Langdon Cheves McCord was captain of the South Carolina Zouaves, afterward Company H. Hampton Legion, a company raised by himself and equipped by his mother, a gallant officer and a brilliant young man of greatest promise. Captain at 23, died of wounds received at the Second Battle of Manassas.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..............………………………

OFF TO BRAZIL

....Dr. Russell McCord was a migrant from Alabama who settled in the town of Macaé. Saldaña Mariño signed McCord’s Masonic certificates for the years 1872, 1874, 1875, and 1879. These documents comprise the best records of the U.S. Confederate Masonic–Brazilian partnership. Scottish Rite Masons will be particularly attracted to Saldaña Mariño because of his activity in the mid-1860s in the cause of separation of church and state.

.Dr. McCord’s Masonic documents are historic in another way. A second signer was the eminent José Maria da Silva Paraños, best known as the Visconde do Rio Branco. He was Grand Master of the Grande Oriente do Brasil, and he was the author of the first emancipation legislation that led, 17 years later, to the abolition of slavery in his nation.

What was life like for former Southerners in Portuguese-speaking Brazil? In fact, half the Confederate North Americans quit and went home within ten years. But the rest stuck it out nobly and left a heritage that lives today, albeit as a small minority among the 170,000 citizens of Americana.

SOURCE: Washington Lodge Freemasons

Former Selma resident,

Dr. Russell McCord his wife and three children resided North of Rio

Mrs. McCord, who died in Selma in June 1930, in her 96th year, widow of Dr. Russell McCord, a physician, was an early settler. The Doctor, his wife, and three children resided North of Rio, some distance in the country. He was employed by a wealthy plantation owner, a widow, and a close relative of the Emperor.

For most of their stay of 18 years, they lived with the family of the Countess and it cannot be said that their experiences were like those of the other families who went down. Dr. McCord was Medical Officer for a large plantation, had a lucrative practice and good income. They returned to America only when his health failed. He passed away in 1885 is buried in Live Oak Cemetery in Dallas County, Alabama.

SOURCE: ALABAMA PIONEERS https://www.alabamapioneers.com/brazil-alabama-confederacy/

.................................................................................................................................................................................

Source:

A Confluence of Transatlantic Networks

Laura Jarnigan Pages 219-220

Excerpted

…Russell Paul McCord was an Alabamian who migrated to Brazil with his friends the Gunters. …. McCord and his wife, the former Ann Eliza Ferguson, lived for a while in Macae, a part of the sugar-growing Campos region of northern Rio province where Furquim de Almeida had close ties with the local planters and Laes held properties. Later, McCord moved to nearby Campos. Many members of the Ferguson family from South Carolina were among the southerners who were in Brazil, and although no firm connections between them and Ann Eliza have been established, the probability that there seems high. (Webmasters note: Hugh Ferguson was originally from Chester District, South Carolina, where the other Ferguson emigrants also hailed from – very likely these Ferguson families were related). The fact that Russell McCord was originally from Columbia, South Carolina, further strengthens the possibility of a kinship linkage. McCord received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1853 and was licensed to practice in Brazil by the Faculdade de Medicina in November 1866. His first Brazilian Masonic certificate was dated 1872 and his 1879 certificate indicates he had been a member of the Scottish Rite in the United States. The McCords returned to Alabama in 1884 and lived in Dallas County, where Russell renewed his license to practice medicine not long before his death in 1885.

Among the surviving McCord papers is an 1861 invitation from Mr.& Mrs. Edward C. Peronneau of Georgia requesting that the McCords visit them at their home, Dungannon, in April. The Peroneau’s daughter Clelia’s father-in-law, Benjamin Edward Stiles (1794-?), was a close associate and friend of Godfrey Barnsley, father of Brazil migrants George and Lucien Barnsley. The Peronneaus were members and planters of Huguenot descent whose members lived variously in Charleston and Goose Creek, South Carolina. Located on the Santee River region, the latter community included a knot of other Huguenots families, including the prominent Bonneau family. Floride Bonneau and John Ewing Colhoun, who married her cousin, the influential southern politician John C. Calhoun.

The Russel McCords counted Joao Jose Carneiro de Silva (another Sao Paulo law school graduate) and his family among their friends in Brazil. In 1879, Ann McCord wrote a letter of condolence to Joao Jose following his mother’s death. He replied and thanked her for “this proof of friendship and you believe we also keep an agreeable remembrance of your stay here, of your good and interesting daughters.” This question is not a translation, Carneiro de Silva’s English was nearly flawless.

The Carneiro de Silvas of the Campos-Macae area was one of the most prominent nineteenth-century sugar-growing clans in Brazil. They were modernizers in the sugar cultivation and mechanization industries and played a major commercial role in the international sugar market. In the late 1870s the Carneiro de Silvas and the Costa Pintos (also of Rio province), and a few northeastern sugar producers constructed the first sugar refineries in the country. Te Carneiro de Silvas was the first to have their engenho central, Quissama, up and running. They were the innovators in project financing, employing an open corporate system that used family capital to start construction but welcomed external investors. A corporate arrangement between the clan and the shareholders reduced individual financial risk while increasing investment in technology and labor, thereby minimizing losses to all in the aftermath of abolition. The family’s pride in its accomplishment is captured in a letter from Joao Jose to Ann McCord: “You must know perhaps we have established a large central Factory for making sugar from the canes of all fazendas belonging to the family. It was a great impulse for the progress of this facility…..

The Brazil Story

THE BRAZIL FAMILY

SECTION IN PROCESS

xx

Today - less the two-storey wing and outbuildings

Quissamã Farm, near Campos, Rio de Janeiro. Lithograph from a photograph by Victor Frond, 1861. Public domain, National Digital Library (COLORIZED)

Quissamã Farm

Historical Summary

QUISSAMÃ FARM 1826

It was built on the initiative of José Carneiro da Silva, the first baron and viscount of Araruama, who passed it on as an inheritance to one of his sons, João Caetano Carneiro da Silva, baron and viscount of Quissamã. Previously, the future first baron and viscount of Araruama lived in the house on the Mato de Pipa farm, built by his grandfather around 1777, and which is preserved to this day.

This headquarters shows the enrichment of the rural aristocracy of northern Rio de Janeiro with the sugar mills in the 19th century, a fact that would be even more visible in the following generation, when the sons and grandsons of the first baron and viscount of Araruama built the mansions of the Mandiqüera, Machadinha, São Manuel and Santa Francisca farms, and urban dwellings such as Chácara São João.

The chronological sequence of construction of the Mato de Pipa Farm House (1777), the Quissamã Farm House (1826, expanded in 1860) and the Mandiqüera Farm House (1875) exemplifies the enrichment of the rural oligarchy of the Carneiro da Silva family and the diverse tastes and architectural styles prevalent in each era.

The house hosted Emperor D. Pedro II and his entourage in 1847, when they were visiting the northern region of Rio de Janeiro and inspecting the construction work on the Campos-Macaé canal. The occasion was used to hold the wedding of Bento Carneiro da Silva, future second baron, second viscount and count of Araruama, and eldest son of the first baron and viscount of Araruama, with the daughter of the Baron of Muriaé. Emperor D. Pedro II was the godfather of the religious ceremony.

Since there was not enough room for everyone in the main house, many had to sleep in the farm's slave quarters and warehouses. The house received Emperor D. Pedro II a second time, in 1877, for the inauguration of the Engenho Central de Quissamã. In 1925, the son of the Baron and Viscount of Quissamã, Joaquim Carneiro da Silva, inherited the manor house with the lands of the Quissamã farm. After his death in 1942, the manor house was vacated and closed.

The Quissamã farm was then sold in the late 1950s to the Cia. Engenho Central de Quissamã, which was only interested in planting sugar cane on its land, but carried out extensive renovations on the house and demolished other external dependencies, such as the two-story house on the right side of the mansion. Like many other imposing properties built in the 19th century in the region, which were acquired with their lands by the Cia. Engenho Central de Quissamã, the manor house was abandoned for several decades. To our delight, it was acquired by the Municipal Government of Quissamã, restored and transformed into the Casa de Quissamã Museum.

.......................................................................................................................................................................

Below is a transcribed letter that Dr. McCord sent his sister Mary Eliza of Charleston (she was married to the former Govenor of South Carolina - Andrew McGrath). Blanks are unreadable words.

Quissama Brazil, March 28th 1868

My dear sister Mary

How entirely separated and lost from each other we seem to be, and I hear so seldom even of you that you scarcely seem to be any more in existence, but what reminded me mostly of you tonight was a glance at the picture in the Julia London views of Trieste in Italy when I imagined myself as on the day we went from Venice to Trieste, I on the upper deck, a sick day with another sick tech, groaning Miss Gott in my care and you and poor Julia below like two female rags with a man waiting on you, And although the first scene in the book of my remembrance was not of the most refreshing kind it produced still a glow of pleasure for I went over many pleasant scenes of travels and before that we have passed through together and have I longed for a good chat with you about old times, and to think that Julia perhaps at this time is in India, if not on the Red Sea sailing over the bones of Pharaoh and his host.

She and I seemed destined to see the world before we die and I expect to switch? up with her suddenly some day in the Sandwich Islands or at the Bering Straights. But if I go this way I will never tell you anything of my present self and mine. We are five in the family (just to think of it!) Annie and myself you know already. The same as you saw us last but somewhat older and I hope more attached for old acquaintance and more charitable towards each others faults.

Emma is our oldest girl 7 years old a beautiful girl, large blue eyes and curly brown hair, a beautiful complexion like Julia’s and more healthy, for she is large for her age and very healthy. Sings like a nightingale and has a very quick perspective for every thing. She is quite a companion for me and loves to walk with me in these woods? And notices everything loves books also dearly and reads very well for her age. She’s learning Portuguese rapidly.

Carrie also is a plump lively pretty curly haired girl of 5 very affectionate and the buffoon of the family. And when I try to correct her in any of her gambols makes so much fun of me that I’m obliged laugh and and leave her only half corrected. She tries to do every thing that Emma does and is very smart.

Our youngest Hugh Ferguson is now ten days old a strapping boy with dark hair and dark blue eyes and whose talents yet are confined to sleeping, eating, squalling frequently but not much a time and already drinks out of a cup to the astonishment of the older Brazilian -------- women.

Annie is doing well and talks of getting up tomorrow. We fortunately through Jesus are blessed with reasonable health. The greatest of all blessings.

Now that you know who we are I’ll tell you where we are and what we are doing. I made $3000 in the city the first year but found it would cost more to live there with my family ———- perhaps the pleasantest is place in the country in Brazil as far and society and accessibility is concerned. Where I have a certainty of $2000 a year with a good house furnished and almost all my possessions except wine. Coffee, sugar, meat come and all such things as are produced in the country are furnished. We are over stocked sometimes with preserves and tropical fruit sometimes.

They eat preserves here like we eat batter cakes and I wonder sometimes they don’t crystalize. The principle people who employ and furnish me belong to the same family. Are sons and sons in law of a viscountess. One son is a Baron and one of the most refined people in Brazil, very kind and pleasant and well educated great Catholics but don’t bother themselves about other people’s religion. They have amongst them a thousand slaves and are all sugar planters, but raise everything for consumption except wheat.

The climate here is splendid 9 months of the year is cool like out early spring and fall, trees are blossoming all the year but each one has its season. 3 months are warmer but the thermometer never raises scarcely above 90. I have not yet seen it over 88. It is not as hot as our summer and I do not mind ———-as at home. Here are constant breezes blowing, which makes it very pleasant and very healthy. I succeeded in establishing a planter from Louisiana near us on a fine plantation with one hundred negroes and another family will be here soon and perhaps Geoff Dave’s brother. Gen Davis, so that we will have American neighbors. Cal Stuart is the planter ——here and is performing wonders for these people who are very much behind in agriculture. He has made such bargain that without capital that in five years he becomes the owner of a magnificent sugar plantation and over 100 negroes. I had to do all the talking for him. A great many have been here and returned disgusted with false impressions because they are not able to speak. I think it is the finest country in the world, with a present the most liberal government and the most hospitable people. I scarcely find —— of a neighbor —- them, but Annie finds great difficulty in learning the language and on that account is debarred? from the enjoyment of society. In the manners and customs of the people amongst whom we are there are scarcely any material difference from our people except that they talk more freely refer very delicate subjects in front of you and are at liberty to converse with a lady on any subject, but they seem to be as pure in their morals as any people.

Our location is in the Province of Rio de Janeiro 120 miles north of the City of Rio near one of the largest lakes in Brazil called Lagoa Feia or Ugly Lake. The sea is 9 miles——the county is very flat and mostly with immense mountains rising abruptly 30 miles from the coast and about where we are appear like an immense wall with towers on it 7 or 8000 feet high, between us and the sea is an immense bed of ———- with a thick low growth of various fruit trees and huckleberries, the only fruit that I have found here that I had seen before in our woods. But there is no end to the native fruits here. I prefer living nearer the mountains, but on account of Annie and the children — home where we have good carriage roads and water commutations with Rio and mails every 3 days which advantages are hard to find further in the interior. Most of the traveling in Brazil is done on horseback and ———— on mules. But on the level levels along the road. They are more advanced coaches and carriages.

There is a carriage from here to Rio and the journey can be made in 3 or 4 days. We live in a small village called Quissama consisting of a church in the center of a square. 2 stores and a large school the priests house his brother the the apothecary’s house —- and one other with various small sheaities in the —-distance is of the Vicountess’s in the distance about a quarter of a mile. A tremendous— with sugar mill and two long rows of negro houses on each side of the house and not a tree except a few palin trees and a pretty garden in the front with fountains and aquatic birds.

Brazilians don’t like trees about their houses which is very strange in a warm climate. But fortunately the Dr who preceded me was an exception and left me a very shady place, A large tree just in front of this house like a live oak, ——but at this season covered with large pink flowers. The forests here are very graded ?but not a tree that grows in the United States.

There are a great many going —-myrtles and the trees are covered with the most magnificent p ——sita.

I been not found more pests here than in our country ————- they are left ——— venomous.- For I have——— seasonal caring of similar bites and all get well.

I am very glad that I came to Brazil. For I can be better now in the South but I would say that I prefer the society of my dear camatagqrms who have much more independence both of mind and ———. Whose people are government more by custom than by principle and their religion do not but of conviction importance,

But a kinder and more hospitable people don't exist and very strong relatively their fault with hesitation are anxious to be my —- to be taught but are capable of self improvement although quicker to imitate what they see in others. I suppose—— have heard C—‘s` death, it was very sad but the consequence of his own follies.

Julia, I supposed you know has gone to India where Captain Feilding has a very fine appointments form the government. I cannot write more at present but ——have from you. Love to Leslie C’s family, my best regards for —— and all friends. How are the Wiles?

Believe me as ever your our affectionate brother

Russell McCord

.....................................................................................................................................................................

The Selma Times and Messengers. Selma, Alabama, Sunday, November 11, 1866, Page 2.

Brazil Letter From Dr. McCord.

We have been permitted to take the following extract from a letter from our fellow townsman, Dr. McCord, now in Brazil to his family in this city. Dated Rio de Janeiro, September 23, 1866.

“I am more pleased with this country every day and have no idea of returning to the United States. I would like to see Dr. G. and all our friends come out, but would not like to persuade them, for they may not see things with the same eyes that I do; but my honest belief is that an industrious man can make a fortune here in a few years planting, and my impressions are founded upon facts and observation. Suffice to say that the soil will produce anything with one-tenth of the labor and trouble that it requires in the United States. For instance, once plant sweet potatoes in a piece of ground and they will keep growing and Prix doing perpetually and forever. Cabbages and almost all kinds of vegetables grow spontaneously and with hardly any work.

The climate is delightful and varied. In Rio, it is a little warmer than in Mobile in the winter, but cooler in the summer. Rio is a handsome city of 400,000 inhabitants, situated on the most beautiful harbor in the world and surrounded by magnificent mountain scenery.

The old and business portions of the city is very closely built up, and the streets very narrow, but in the newer portions Where almost all the dwelling houses are situated, it is spread out into magnificent gardens. The streets are wider well paved, and elegantly set with grass. There are some of the most beautiful dwellings here I have seen in any city; many covered with porcelain outside and elegantly frescoed inside. There is a home near where I live, where decorations alone inside cost $100,000. There is as good society here as anywhere, and the people are extremely affable and hospitable and lives splendidly. Strangers coming here who don't speak the language are extremely prejudiced and learn very little about them. I have become acquainted and intimate with the best people here. They are more like Southern than any other people. The ladies do not run about the streets alone as much as they do in America, but ride a great deal. It is a mistake that ladies do not occupy the position in society that they do with us. I find they do, but in conversation they are very free, like the French. Dinners are in the old Southern style. Forty times as much on the table as the guests can eat. There is, indeed, everything here that there is anywhere else, and lots besides. Crime is less common than in the United States, and Bowie knives and revolvers are almost wholly unknown. I have not heard of a murder since I have been here."

Col. l Matthews and Mr. Coleman, who left the United States with Dr.. McCord and who penetrated who pretty extensively., the Dr. says, were daily expected at Rio and would immediately return to Alabama.

Time Line

About Hugh Ferguson, Father of Annie Eliza Ferguson (Next door neighbor of the McCord Family

The Selma Times-Journal. Selma, Alabama, Sunday, June 12th, 1938, Page 3.

Hugh Ferguson Hugh Ferguson was born December 9, 1800, in Chester District, South Carolina, and was the son of James and Elizabeth (Porter) Ferguson, natives of Scotland, who came to America early in the 17th century. Hugh Ferguson received his education in his native state and taught school for a while there, in the days when penmanship was one of the fine arts. He was sought because of his talent along this. Line.

He came to Selma in 1819 and was one of the first settlers and business men of the place. Upon arriving in Selma, he obtained work as a clerk in the dry goods house of Wycoff and Pickens, and by diligent attention to business, rose to a partnership in the firm. He prospered as a merchant, acquired land and slaves, and entered upon the life of a planter. On account of his sterling integrity, he was highly esteemed by his fellow citizens and services were sought as secretary treasurer of the Dallas Academy. This office, held for many years. Much of his time, was given to various schemes and plans calculated to develop the interest and growth of Selma.

Among them was the efforts to construct a railroad from Selma to the Tennessee River. He was secretary and treasurer of the Selma and Tennessee Railroad Company from incipieny of that work until it was changed in 1848 to the Alabama and Tennessee Rivers Railroad Company. It was to his persistent efforts that the Selma and Tennessee Railroad Company was revived, and succeeded by the Alabama and Tennessee Rivers, which proved so successful in the construction of a first class railroad. To quote Hardee's history:

“Mr. Ferguson was a prudent and upright man in all his business transactions and the consequence of such a course in life, resulting in his leaving at his death, a handsome fortune to his family.

On the 19th day of January 1832, he married Miss Caroline Minter, daughter of Col. A. M. Minter of Dallas County, and to them were born nine children, five sons and four daughters. He died on the 31st day of May, 1868. The children were: Mrs. Russell McCord, Miss Emily Ferguson, Mrs. P. D. Barker, Mrs. R. M. Robertson, Anthony Minter Ferguson, T. C. Ferguson, John James Ferguson. Joseph. Pickens Ferguson, Gray Chandler. Ferguson.

CSA Military

Source: Find A Grave

Father: David James Russell
Mother: Emmeline [or Emmiline] Wagner
Stepmother: Louisa Susannah Cheves
1840 - Lived, Columbia, Richland Co., SC
1852-1853 - Attended, University of Pennsylvania Medical Department (from: Columbia, Richland Co., SC; preceptor: Dr. E. Geddings)
1853 - M.D. degree, University of Pennsylvania Medical Department, Philadelphia, PA (from: South Carolina; thesis: "Aneurism")
10/19/1858 - Married, Ann Eliza Ferguson (1834-1930), Bibb Co., AL
1860 - Druggist, Selma, Dallas Co., AL (living with wife, A. E. McCord)
04/29/1862 - Enlisted, Pvt., 42nd AL Infantry, Mobile, AL
05/16/1862 - Mustered in, Columbus, MS
07/00/1862 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, Columbus, MS
08/00/1862 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, Columbus, MS
09/12/1862 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, A.V.C. [Alabama Volunteer Corps]
09/26/1862 - Appointed Asst. Surgeon, Provisional Army of the Confederate States, to rank from 05/12/1862
09/26/1862 - Confirmed as Asst. Surgeon by the Confederate States Senate
10/00/1862 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, Camp Rogers, MS
10/03-05/1862 - Present, Corinth, MS
02/01/1863 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, Vicksburg, MS
04/27/1863 - Passed Confederate Army Board of Medical Examination for the position of Surgeon, Vicksburg, MS
07/09/1863 - Appointed Surgeon, Provisional Army of the Confederate States, to rank from 04/27/1863
08/22/1863 - As Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, Selma, AL, signed a requisition for a tent and a fly - on the requisition he wrote, "On account of the surrender of Vicksburg [MS], my tent was lost"
10/01/1863 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, Demopolis, AL
12/15/1863 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, A. V. C [Alabama Volunteer Corps]
01/30/1864 - Confirmed as Surgeon by the Confederate States Senate
05/31/1864 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry
08/15/1864 - Surgeon, Division Hospital, 42nd AL Infantry, Baker's Brigade, Clayton's Division, Atlanta, GA
08/31/1864 - "Transferred from Dept. with Command"
10/00/1864 - Promoted to Division Surgeon [?Liddell's Division]
10/13/1864 - Surgeon, Blakely Island, near Mobile, AL
10/23/1864 - Assigned to duty as Chief Surgeon, Gen. St. John R. Liddell's Division, District of the Gulf
03/00/1865 - Surgeon, 42nd AL Infantry, Baker's Brigade, Liddell's Division, Army of the Gulf
04/09/1865 - Captured, Ft. Blakely, AL, as a Surgeon, East Division, District of the Gulf, Confederate States Army
04/00/1865 - As Chief Surgeon, E. D. D. Gulf [East Division, District of the Gulf] on a list of [captured] Surgeons sent to Vicksburg, MS, to Gen. Hospital, via New Orleans, LA, from Spanish Fort, AL
04/16/1865 - Received as a prisoner, Ship Island, MS
04/28/1865 - Prisoner, Ship Island, MS
04/30/1865 - Prisoner, New Orleans, LA
05/01/1865 - Exchanged
05/09/1865 - Paroled, Meridian MS
Late 1860's - Emigrated to Brazil and practiced medicine as a Medical Officer for "a very large plantation [north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil] owned by a close relative of the Emperor of Brazil"
11/22/1867 - Received a visa from the United States Consulate to Brazil
1872,1874,1875,1879 - Lived and was a Mason, northern portion of the Brazilian province of Rio, in the vicinity of the town of Macaé
1880 - Lived, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1880 - Wife, A. E. McCord, lived in Selma, Dallas Co., AL, with 3 daughters Dr. McCord is not listed as living with them in the 1880 U.S. Census
Early 1880's - Returned from Brazil to Alabama because of failing health
01/08/1885 - Died, Selma, Dallas Co., AL
08/00/1909 - Ann Eliza McCord, widow, received an Alabama state pension

John Coon, Jr. provided input to this biography.

This biographical sketch is from:
Hambrecht, F.T. & Koste, J.L., Biographical
register of physicians who served the
Confederacy in a medical capacity.
09/05/2014. Unpublished database.

The Selma Times, Tues. Jan 8, 1885 Page 4 SECTION IN PROCESS

McCORD

Children:

1. Emma McCord

2. Caroline "Carrie" McCord

3. Russell McCord

4. Hugh Ferguson McCord

5. Mary Russell McCord

The Selma Times. Selma, Alabama, Wednesday, July 27, 1881. Page 4

Married

Wilkins-McCord, Iin the city this morning at 530 o'clock at the boarding house of Mrs. J. M. Tillman, by Reverend R. W. Barnwell. Mr. George Wilkins, to Miss Emma McCord, leaving on the 6:15 train of the Virginia and Georgia Railroad. The handsome and happy couple will accompany Mrs. McCord and her daughters to New York and see them safely started on their South American voyage. Thence they will return to Selma. Miss McCord is well known as one of the most beautiful and gifted ornaments of the society of our city, while Mr. Wilkins is a trusted and promising businessman, as we know, We join with their many friends in wishing them all we happiness that life promises.

...............................................................................................................................................................................................................

The Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, Friday, January 1, 1897, Page 1.

George Wilkins Dead

The Strain Too Great

Shot Himself In The Church Where He Loved To Worship.

A Pure Young Life Is Ended.

No one can know the agonies he endured while resting within the chancel of St. Paul's before the fatal shot was fired--

No expression except of sympathy for the dead man.

Selma. December 31. (Special). George A Wilkins, vice president of the Commercial Bank, which assigned yesterday, shot himself in St. Paul's Church at an early hour of this morning after spending the night at the altar alone. He died shortly after two this afternoon. Selma is sad today--sadder than she has been for twenty years past. No laughter is heard on the streets or in the stores.

Everyone wears a sad expression and all talk of the awful tragedy in subdued and earnest tone. Everyone loved George Wilkins, and we and all were shocked when, at an early hour this morning, they learned that he had shot himself and that he could not recover. All day long, the details of the tragedy and the probable causes leading up to it were discussed, but not one unkind word has been said. There is not a man or woman either in the city of Selma who believes that there was the slightest wrongdoing behind it. No one believes that George Wilkins was capable of a wrong act. No one ever enjoyed the implicit, unshakable confidence of the community in which he lives as does he. All agree that overwork and the intense mental strain proved too much for him, and that the act followed many hours of agony in darkness and alone.

The strain on the bank officials for the last three weeks has been intense, and Mr. Wilkins, on whom a large portion of the work fell, has not, during the entire three weeks, allowed himself sufficient food and rest, and he was not in a condition physically or mentally, to withstand the shock when the crash came in the bank’s affairs. However, through it all, he appeared to be a casual observer f the same handsome, genial, well-balanced man he has always been. Beneath this always pleasant outward appearance, he was suffering intense mental anguish. This is known by a few close friends to whom he talked.

He was treasurer of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, of St. Paul's parish of the St. Andrew's Brotherhood, of the. Odd Fellows and of the Young Men's Christian Association. More or less funds belonging to each of these offices were deposited in the bank, and it is known that when the crash came, it was suggested to him that he withdraw these or certain of these funds, and he replied regretfully that it was impossible. Besides those monies he had individual funds on deposit, and his friends and relatives were heavy depositors, and owned stock in the bank. It is known that one, a lady reproached him bitterly for not advising her of the bank's condition, a thing which he could not honorably as an official of a bank, have done. These things weighed heavily upon him.

Last night at 7:30, Mr. Wilkins, Mr. H.H. Stewart and Mr. Fred Peterson were alone in the bank when Mr. Wilkins suggested that all go home and get some rest and return to work at 9:30 this morning. He was first to leave, saying that he was going home and to bed. He said “good night” cheerfully, and closed the door behind him.

A short time after leaving the bank, Mr. Wilkins stepped into the E. Scott’s store. He and Mr. Scott had been intimate friends for years, and they had a long conversation together about the bank and Mr. Scott, in order to cheer him up, told him of the pleasant things he had heard said about the bank and the faith and confidence he had heard expressed for the officials. From the first of the conversation until he bid his friend good night, he seemed more cheerful than he had for three weeks. Always considerate of others, he urged Mr. Scott to go up and call on Captain Nelson before bedtime, and, reiterating his intention of going home and going to bad. He left the store about 9 o’clock. He was in a cheerful frame of mind, and Mr. Scott was more shocked, perhaps, than anyone else when he learned of the awful tragedy at 4 o’clock this morning.

What transpired between 9 o’clock and 2:30 this morning? No one but George Wilkins and his God will ever know. But circumstances indicate that something happened between the store and St. Peter's Church that turned his thoughts from their hopeful path and that his overtaxed brain became unbalanced. He was for many years a member of St. Paul's choir, as well as of the vestry of the church, and he carried a key to the door leading to the choir. Through this, he went into the darkness within and throughout the long hours of the night he wrestled alone, perhaps in prayer.

His wife sharing her husband's anxiety, sat up for him, waiting anxiously for his footsteps. At 2 o’clock he had not returned, and growing uneasy, she awakened her brother-in-law, Mr. Julian Parke, and requested him to go to the bank and see if Mr. Wilkins was there. He found the bank in darkness and filled with fear lest something had happened to him, he hurried to the home of Captain R. M. Nelson, president of the bank, thinking, perhaps, he was there or that Captain Nelson knew his whereabouts. Getting no news from him there, he continued to search in company with police Officer Holt. Knowing his attachment and love for the church, he went there but could not get in. All of the doors were locked. He left and tried to obtain a key, but failed and securing a light the two returned to the church, determined to force an entrance. Going to the window back of the organ, they succeeded in forcing it open. Mr. Parke mounted to the window sill and peering into the darkness. Called “George. George”.

At the same instant there was the report of a pistol near the altar, and jumping in, Mr. Parke, with light in hand, rushed towards it to find the object of his search lying full length upon the floor beside the chancel railing, a pistol ball wound behind the right ear, and the pistol with which the act was committed, still smoking and grasped in his hand. No sooner had the pistol fired than the policeman blew his whistle, and a moment later Mr. J. H. Lumpkin, who lives across the street from the church, was on the scene. Physicians were soon on the scene. Mr. Wilkins was still alive, though, unconscious and breathing heavily, the brain oozing from the terrible wound.

Soon the family, who had heard the report of the pistol, for his home is but a block from the church and who later had heard the heartbreaking news hastened into the church. At 4:30 an hour after the shooting, he was removed to his home. By this time word had been sent to various friends and quite a number were on hand to assist with the removal. From the first, the wound was pronounced necessarily fatal.

All through the morning the house was thronged with anxious men and ladies who came and went with tearful faces.

Death came at 2:10 in the afternoon. The wounded man, not having regained consciousness, he spoke no word after the shooting and left no writing of any kind.

Mr. Wilkin was born in Virginia forty years ago, and has been a resident of Selma since his boyhood. In 1881, he married Miss Emma McCord of this city. He leaves a widow and one daughter, Carrie, 12 years of age. He has been connected with the bank of which he was elected vice president last year for fifteen years, and throughout his life has proved true to every trust. The funeral will take place from St. Paul's Church at 330 tomorrow evening.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….................................................................................………………………

The Selma Times. Selma, Alabama, Sunday, January 3, 1897, Page 2.

New York Report About George A. Wilkins

Having Floated Fraudulent Paper Utterly False.

The report in the New York Evening Post, reflecting upon Vice President George A. Wilkins of the Commercial Bank of Selma floating fraudulent or forged paper is absolutely false. The president General R.M. Nelson, upon being interviewed on this subject yesterday, states that Mr. Wilkins had no connection whatever with any such transaction at any time, and should be entirely exonerated from said imputation. If such a transaction was made, it was made by himself in the usual way, with every element of legitimacy. Mr. Wilkin’s character and memory are highly cherished here, and the entire city mourns his death and regrets the terrible strain that, overtaxed his brain and caused his death.

............................................................................................................................................................................................

The Selma Times. Selma, Alabama, Wednesday, July 27, 1881. Page 4

Married

Wilkins- McCord, Iin the city this morning at 530 o'clock at the boarding house of Mrs. J. M. Tillman, by Reverend R. W. Barnwell. Mr. George Wilkins, to Miss Emma McCord, leaving on the 615 train of the Virginia and Georgia Railroad. The handsome and happy couple will accompany Mrs. McCord and her daughters to New York and see them safely started on their South American voyage. Thence they will return to Selma. Miss McCord is well known as one of the most beautiful and gifted ornaments of the society of our city, while Mr. Wilkins is a trusted and promising businessman, as we know,. We join with their many friends in wishing them all we happiness that life promises.

................................................................................................................................................................................................................