March 9 1911

Another veteran gone

The venerable William McConnell answers his last roll call

The death of William Thomas McConnell marks the passing of a landmark in this section. He was not one of those who had accumulated money, but he was rich in the good will of his neighbors and those who knew him best. The McConnells came to Alabama from Georgia, but indirectly from Tennessee. The home of Tilford McConnell, the father was at Maryville TN an it was here that W.T. McConnell was born Oct 10 1830. Six years later the family moved to Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County GA., where the youth and young manhood of W.T. McConnell was spent, and where on the last day of the year 1852 he was married to Araminta M Adams who is now his widow. In 1859 they removed to Alabama and settled in that part of Blount county that was then almost a wilderness. In May 1862 he answered the call of his country and wore the gray until the close of the war. He saw active service in the field until the Battle of Mission Ridge, where he was captured and after which time he was confined in that terrible war prison known as Rock Island until the close of hostilities in 1865.

After the close of the war he returned to his old home in Blount county and engaged in farming there and later in Etowah and attending quietly to his own affairs until the date of his death Feb 22nd ultimo. Notwithstanding the weight of more than eighty years that rested on him, he remained in full possession of his faculties to the last, and he died as he had lived, an affable, sunny tempered, christian gentleman.

He was a consistent member of the M.E. church south, in which he was a licensed exhorter for almost forty years, and the members of Old Pleasant Hill Church out in Blount county will not soon forget his good works among them. Besides a widow, two sons and four brothers survive him. The sons are Dr. R.F. McConnell the well known physician of our town, and A.M. McConnell who became well known through the Alkahest and Lyceum Bureau established by him several years ago.