William
Henderson Standifer
From: Northern Alabama - Historical and
Biographical; 1888 by Smith and DeLand; p. 374:
William Henderson Standifer is a native of Cherokee, Ala., son of Lemuel J. and Sarah F. (Underwood) Standifer, and was born in December, 1850.
The senior Mr. Standifer is a native of Tennessee, came to Alabama when a young man, read law, was admitted to the bar at Rome, Ga., practiced a while in Floyd County, that State, married at Cold Springs, returned to Alabama, and was a farmer in Cherokee County until 1860. In that year he was elected probate judge; soon afterward entered the army, served a short time, was discharged for disability, came back to his judgeship, and filled that office until 1868. From 1868 to 1874 he gave his time to the practice of law, and, at the age of sixty-nine years, located at Gadsden, where he served as United States Commissioner several years. He is at this writing (1888) retired from all business. Of his eight children we make the following memoranda: Leoni (Mrs. John L. Daughdrill), L. V. (widow of H. C. Harrison), Augusta G. (Mrs. John H. Disque), Walter S., Florence (Mrs. William W. Stevenson), John H., Ada, and the subject of this sketch, who was the second in order of birth.
The Standifers migrated from Georgia into Tennessee probably in the person of William H. Standifer, and settled in Bledsoe County. He was a merchant and farmer; married a Miss Hogue, and reared seven sons and three daughters. From Bledsoe, at a very early date, he moved into Cherokee County, Ala., and there died in 1860, at the age of seventy years. His wife died in 1882, at the age of eight-eight years. They were the grandparents of the subject of this sketch. They were nice old people, strict Presbyterians, and wielded a marked influence for good in the neighborhood.
The Underwood family were Georgians.
The subject of this sketch was reared in the country, educated at the common schools, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in DeKalb County, this State. He began the practice at Gadsden, where he has since resided. He has been three times Mayor of this city, and in 1882 he was appointed Justice of the Peace, to which office he was elected in 1884. He declined the office of United States Commissioner in 18?5, and is, at this writing, discharging the duties of Justice. It is recorded of him that he made one of the best Mayors that Gadsden ever had. The water-works were established under his administration; a system of street improvement was inaugurated, and really the foundation of what has since become known as the Gadsden boom was laid while he was Mayor.
