“A native of Putnam County, Georgia, David Clopton was born Sept. 29, 1820 to and Miss Kendrick and Dr. R. Alford Clopton, a Virginian by birth and several times a member of the Georgia legislature. Dr. Clopton practiced medicine in Georgia many years. His parents settled in Macon County in 1843 where his father was President of the Bank and then became a planter. Dr. Clopton died Feb. 1870 in Montgomery at eighty-three years of age.

David graduated from Randolph-Macon College, read law under Hon. Absalom H. Chappell, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. After practicing a short time in Georgia, he relocated to Tuskegee in 1844. His first associate was Mr. Solomon L. Pope; his second was Hon. R. F. Ligon, a partnership that lasted nineteen years and made profitable to both. David’s name was before the legislature once or twice for Justice of the Supreme Court but he was not elected. In 1859 he was nominated by his party for Congress against his written remonstrance and was elected after one of the hottest canvasses ever witnessed in the State, defeating Hon. T. J. Judge of Montgomery 221 votes. He served till his State seceded from the Union and then retired with his delegation. Soon after his return home, David volunteered as a private in the 12th Al. Infantry, and served till the close of 1861. After his election, David took his seat in the first Confederate Congress. In 1863 he was reelected over Mr. John H. Cadenhead of Macon and remained in Congress till the downfall of the Confederacy. Afterwards, he only took a quiet interest in public affairs and practicing his profession in Montgomery since 1866.”

“In the early history of the Alabama, after the conclusion of the treaty of Fort Jackson, people poured into the state from Virginia, the two Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. The state was so quickly populated that the State Government felt that an Immigration Board was needed. David Clopton was a Director appointed to the First Board of Immigration in 1875.”

In October 1884, Governor O’Neal appointed Judge Clopton to the Supreme Court Bench. Judge Clopton was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Sheffield, also of the Sheffield Coal and Iron Company and was director in each of the corporations.

Mr. Clopton was a frail figure. His hair was black, complexion and eyes dark. The intellectual in him was predominant. He was a close student and an indefatigable worker. All his arguments were pointed, precise and perspicuous. His oratory was chaste, scholarly and finished. The purity of his life was exceptionable even among pious persons and he was exemplary in all the walks of a Christian gentleman.

Mr. Clopton’s first wife was a sister of Gov. R. F. Ligon of Macon. She died in 1867. His second a Mrs. Chambers of Columbus, Georgia. One of his daughters married Mr. Clifford A. Lanier of Montgomery Co, author of “Thorn-Fruit” and “Two-hundred Bales,” two volumes of romance. She died in 1885. He married a third time the widow of Clement C. Clay, Nov. 29, 1887 in Huntsville.