Dr. Auguston ALSTON, a prominent physician of Haywood County, was born May 26, 1825, in Warren County, N. C., and is the son of Auguston and Martha (Macon) Alston, who were both Natives of North Carolina. The father died in his native State at the age of twenty-seven, and 1829 the mother married Rev. James S. SMITH, a very popular minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a native of Virginia, and a member of several years of the Virginia Conference. In 1831 Mr. and Mrs. Smith came to Haywood County, and settled ten miles north of Brownsville, where the village of Brooklyn now stands. Mr. Smith continued to preach, but never entered the itinerant work after coming to this State. He died in 1834, and Mrs. Smith in 1881.
Dr. Alston, after receiving a thorough literary education and selecting medicine as his profession, entered the medical university at Louisville; after graduating, he returned to Haywood County and commenced practicing; in 1849 he located at Brownsville and soon established an extensive practice, and for sixteen years was regarded as one of the most able and successful physicians of West Tennessee. In 1865 he went to Memphis, and was appointed clerk and master of the chancery court, which office he filled with credit to himself and satisfaction to the people, for six years. In 1871 he returned to Haywood County and purchased a farm near Brownsville, building a handsome residence on it. A unique summerhouse in the fount yard adds very much to the beauty of the place. He has named his home Haymouret.
In is political views Dr. Alston was a Whig before the war and is now a stanch Republican. While not a member of any church, he is a firm believer in the Christian religion and a regular attendant of the Methodist Church. September 15, 1847, he married Mary B. HAY, daughter of David Hay, a native of North Carolina. Dr. Alston has one daughter, who in May, 1870, married Mr. Tiff SMITH, a native of Haywood County, who died August, 1885. Judge W. M. Smith of Memphis is a half-brother of Dr. Alston’s.
Goodspeed Pub. Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood and Crockett Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, Etc., Etc. Nashville: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1887.
Editorial note: “Brooklyn” is now Tibbs.