FIGURES, WILLIAM BIBB, publisher and editor, was born March 6, 1820, at Coffeeville, Clarke County, and died October 1, 1872, at Huntsville; son of Thomas and Elizabeth Walker (Coleman) Figures, who came to Alabama in 1810 and settled in Coffeeville, where they lived for the rest of their lives. The former was a major in Gen. Coffee’s command in the Indian War of 1816, and the latter lived in Elbert County, Georgia, and later in Maury County, Tennessee, before her marriage. He was the brother of Charles Coffee Figures, who was born in Fort St. Stephens, where his mother had fled for protection from the Indians.
William Bibb Figures was the grandson of John and Mary (Walker) Coleman, who moved from Virginia to Elbert County, Georgia, then to Maury County, Tennessee, and finally to Alabama. John Coleman was born March 6, 1765, and Mary Coleman, June 30, 1767.
Mr. Figures received his education at an old log school in the country near Coffeeville. At twelve years old, he went to Huntsville to live with his uncle, John James Coleman, serving an apprenticeship in his uncle’s newspaper office. During this time, he read a course of law, and at nineteen, bought the paper from his uncle, becoming sole proprietor and editor.
The paper was issued under the name Southern Advocate before the War of Secession, and after the war was known as the Huntsville Advocate. Mr. Figures remained the editor until his death in 1872, except during the war when Federal troops occupied Huntsville and the publication was suspended.
He served as mayor of Huntsville before the war and for two terms after the war, and was a State senator from Madison County during the Confederacy. He was a presidential elector on the Douglas ticket for Alabama and was registrar in chancery at the time of his death. Though ill health restrained him from active participation in the War of Secession, he gave his eldest son to the Confederate cause.
An old-school Whig, he accepted the provisional government during President Grant’s first term but opposed Reconstruction policies, supporting Horace Greeley for president in the next campaign. He was a member and elder in the Presbyterian Church.
Married: February 1, 1843, at Huntsville, to Harriet Stokes Mitchell, daughter of William and Mattie (Powell) Mitchell of Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Children:
- Henry Stokes – served in the C.S. Army, killed in the Battle of the Wilderness
- Otey – married (1) Helen Steele, (2) Minnie Steele, Tuscumbia
- Claude – married Carrie Dill, Savannah, Georgia
- Mattie – married James Sanders Allison, Huntsville
- Frank – Lexa, Arkansas
- Norman Gayle – married Addie Noble, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Daisy – married A. Ewing Echols, Huntsville
8–12. Five others – deceased
Last residence: Huntsville
