Robert W. Huffman

Robert Wiseman Huffman (born November 30, 1814 in Fairfield District, South Carolina; died February 6, 1891 in Huffman) was a pioneer farmer, Confederate soldier, and namesake of the settlement which is now Birmingham's Huffman neighborhood.

Huffman traveled from South Carolina to Jones Valley in company with his father, Daniel Huffman Jr, in 1819 and 1820. He grew up on his father's farm near a large spring near where Eastern Valley Road crosses Cooley Creek, just north of Tannehill Ironworks.

He married the former Sarah Noland on October 26, 1843 near Gadsden. In 1861 he and two of his sons reported to Fort Jonesboro to muster into Company G of the 18th Alabama Infantry, which fought in the Army of the Tennessee. After the war, Huffman became the Postmaster of the Oak Grove settlement in eastern Jefferson County. The community was renamed "Huffman" in his honor.

Huffman died at his home there in 1891 and was buried alongside his wife at the Huffman Methodist Church cemetery. He was survived by four of his ten children.

References

• Geier, Gary W., "Robert Wiseman Huffman" in The Heritage of Jefferson County, Alabama (2002) Clanton: Heritage Publishing Consultants. ISBN 1891647547, p. 523