The 194-page spiral-bound volume highlights two remarkable families with Marion, MMI & Judson College connections. The photographic collection of the families pictured in the book is truly outstanding, providing a wonderful look at two white upper class families in Mississippi and Alabama around the turn of the Twentieth Century.
Two notable MMI alumni highlighted in the book are Thomas Clay (T. C.) Carter, Jr., MMI 1908, and William Cochran Crumpton, MMI 1889. Yes, I’ve written about Carter before. You’ll remember that he attended MMI (1906-1908) and the University of Virginia before enlisting for service in World War I. As acting company commander of the 320th Machine Gun Battalion, 1LT Carter was killed in 1918 in the Argonne Forest while checking for enemy gun emplacements. He was buried nearby. In 1921, his remains were removed to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. T. C. Carter never married. The American Legion Post # 21 in Meridian, Mississippi, is named in his honor. They also have the American flag which covered his casket at Arlington.
(Note: All images courtesy of Ward Calhoun and the Lauderdale County Department of Archives and History, Meridian, Mississippi.)
Thomas Clay (T. C.) Carter, Jr.
Carter’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery.
William C. Crumpton attended MMI prior to T. C. Carter, serving as a cadet company commander in 1889. He then went to Howard College in Birmingham, and finally graduated from Cornell University in 1896. Crumpton married T. C. Carter’s sister, Mamie, a 1893 graduate of Judson College in Marion. A prominent lawyer, staunch prohibitionist, State Senator, member of the State Democratic Executive Committee, and Governor B. B. Comer’s Judge Advocate General, Will Crumpton and Mamie Carter Crumpton lived out their lives together in Evergreen, Alabama. Will died of a heart attack at age 43 in 1915, and Mamie lived to be 102 as a matriarch of the Carter-Crumpton Families, passing in 1978. Will Crumpton is buried with the Crumpton family in the Marion City Cemetery across from Judson College, and Mamie is buried with the Carters in Magnolia Cemetery in Meridian, Mississippi.
Will Crumpton as Judge Advocate General on Alabama Governor B. B. Comer’s staff.
The Crumpton home in Evergreen, Alabama.
Grave of Will Crumpton in the Marion (AL) Cemetery.
This very interesting book by Ward Calhoun is for sale by the Lauderdale County Archives in Meridian, Mississippi. We thank Ward for donating copies of his book to the Alabama Military Hall of Honor, MMI Archives, and Judson College.
