Bethune Beaton McKenzie (1837-1915)

Portrait from the Memorial Record of Alabama, Vol. I, 1893.

  Lifelong Alabaman Bethune Beaton McKenzie was a Confederate soldier and farmer prior to his brief foray into politics, being the youngest delegate to the Alabama state constitutional convention of 1865. Following his service, he was the director of a large lumber company in Eufaula, and later assumed ownership of the Chewalla Cotton Mills. Born of Scottish descent in Barbour County on October 11, 1837, Bethune Beaton McKenzie was the son of Daniel and Amanda (Burch) McKenzie. 

   A student at the Louisville Academy in Barbour County, McKenzie later enrolled at Howard College in Birmingham, where he graduated in 1858. In that same year, he married to Caroline Elizabeth "Bettie" Flournoy (1840-1927), to who he was wed until his death in 1915. The couple's near sixty-year union saw the births of ten children, Amanda (died in infancy in 1861), Callie (1862-1899), Georgianna (1866-1893), Amanda Burch (1866-1904), Daniel Burch (1870-1950), Frances Flournoy (1872-1948), Mary Lou (1874-1951), Kenneth (1875-1952), Jennie (died in infancy in 1877), and Susan (1888-1974).

  Originally planning to follow a career in law, ill-health compelled McKenzie to take up farming, which he continued until the outbreak of Civil War in 1861. Siding with the Confederacy, McKenzie enlisted in Co. H., 7th Alabama Infantry as a private, and after twelve months of service with that regiment entered Co. C. of the 39th Alabama Infantry, where he was promoted to first lieutenant. Ill health and physical limitations later compelled McKenzie to resign from service and he later returned to service after raising a cavalry company that joined the Jeff Davis Legion in the Department of Virginia. McKenzie and his company saw action at the second battle of Cold Harbor, Reams Station, Bell Field, Bentonville. McKenzie would also be present at the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to Gen. William T. Sherman in Durham, South Carolina on April 26, 1865.

   Several months following his discharge from service Bethune McKenzie was elected as a delegate from Barbour County to the Alabama Constitutional Convention that was to begin in September 1865. Remarked as being the youngest delegate to attend the convention (being 27 years old at the time), McKenzie's convention service proved to be uneventful, with the Memorial Record of Alabama noting that

"While his diffedence and inexperience prevented his taking a prominent part in that convention, he was an active worker, and although two conventions have been held since, our present constitution contains many clauses grafted thereon by his watchfulness."

   Bethune B. McKenzie's life following the state constitutional convention saw him undergo a career change, foregoing farming to become a surveyor and civil engineer. He would hold the post of chief engineer for the Georgia Central Railroad and later was the assistant engineer for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad "having charge of the track department from Decatur to Mobile." He remained in their employ until 1881, when he entered into the lumber business, and by 1882 had partnered with  H.S. Perkins and W.S. Morton to form the lumber firm of McKenzie, Morton & Co., which existed until 1884. 
   McKenzie and Perkins later purchased their partner's interest and established the Durham Lumber Co., which through the succeeding years accumulated vast land holdings, including "10,000 acres of timberland, sixteen miles of standard gauge railroad" as well as a sawmill. Late in his life, he assumed ownership of the Chewalla Cotton Mills in Eufaula, Alabama, with which he was affiliated until his death. Bethune B. McKenzie died in Barbour County on June 29, 1915, aged 77. He was survived by his wife Bettie, with both being interred at the Fairview Cemetery in Eufaula.