William Aubrey

 
The Free Press
Cartersville, Georgia
April 29, 1880, Page 3
 
Transcribed by:  
 

MR. WILLIAM AUBREY.
Death of a Quiet But a Very Remarkable Man.

Mr. William Aubrey departed this life after a long and painful illness at 5 o’clock Monday afternoon, at his residence eight miles north of Cartersville.

Mr. Aubrey’s life was an eventful one.  As he was a retiring man, loth to speak of himself, or his past history, even to his family, many of its leading incidents and features may never become known.  He was born about the year 1806 in Wales, near Cardiff, and was the son of an English gentleman.  At the age of sixteen he came to America and settled at Mobile, where he entered mercantile pursuits and in a very short time amassed a fortune.  At the outbreak of the Texas war for independence his love for adventure induced him to give up business and enlist with the Texans whose ranks he entered as an officer in the volunteers.—For eight years he was in Texas, and it was during these eight years that but little is known of his history.  He rose to the rank of colonel and papers in the possession of his family show he must have held positions of high trust there.  By some misfortune he lost his fortune and returned to Mobile to again build it up.  He shortly afterwards led to the altar Miss Rosa Forsyth, daughter of the distinguished John Forsyth and, after this event, he, with his young wife, spent several years in England.  Returning to America, he settled in Baltimore where he again entered mercantile pursuits, there making his second fortune.  His property, which is said by those who knew him in those days, to have been very large, was confiscated by the United States government during the late war.  In 1873 he came to Bartow county and purchased the farm whereon he died.—His life with us one of quiet and retirement.  His circle of acquaintances was quite small but these few held him in the very highest esteem.  He leaves his wife and five children, the oldest, George, in California, William and Llewellyn in Texas, Harry and a daughter, Miss Kate, the youngest children at home.

As we have stated, Mr. Aubrey was ill for several months before his death.  He accepted dissolution as inevitable and made all arrangements concerning his burial several days before his demise, which were carried out minutely by the surviving ones.  A plain coffin, made by a neighbor, held his remains, which were borne by four colored men living on the place to the grave yard about three hundred yards in the rear of the house in a little wood, where Maj. Chas. H. Smith, his neighbor, read the burial service of the church.  These details were all his requests.  There were but few at this simple but impressive burial, because it was his desire that it should be conducted as quietly and with as little inconvenience to the world as possible.

Maj. Chas. H. Smith (Bill Arp) has promised us to gather together as many fragments from the past history of the deceased as he can and weave them together, that we may give the, to our county people.  The remarkable career of the deceased will afford a subject upon which the major can prepare a most interesting sketch.

 

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