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Walter Duncan Bellingrath Business Entrepreneur

 

 

Excerpt from “From Cabins to Mansions”,By Mary E. Brantley

 

“The father of Walter Bellingrath was a German immigrant, one of those thousands who fled the European autocracy of the 19th century, and who brought to the US their convictions of democracy, skills and willingness to work. ”

 

His mother was of the old Scotch-Irish stock of the South; she married Leonard Bellingrath at Fayetteville, NC, before the Civil War. The German immigrant moved later to Atlanta, engaging in selling hardware and plumbing supplies, and later, around 1880, the family moved to Castleberry, AL (Conecuh County), establishing a turpentine business.

 

Young Walter went to public school of Atlanta and Castleberry. When he was only 17 years old, he started to work for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, first at Castleberry as the telegraph operator and then to Anniston, AL. He was only 28 years old when he entered the Wholesale Merchandise Brokerage business in Montgomery; and only 34 years of age when in 1903 he and his brother, W.A. Bellingrath, acquired the franchise rights for a soft drink---Coca-Cola—for Montgomery, Mobile, Baldwin County, Thomasville, and Biloxi.

 

In 1917, Walter Bellingrath went to Fowl River (Mobile County), already a successful man, to relax at his fishing camp. He had met and married Bessie May Morse (1878-1943), who frequently went to the camp with her husband. In the early 20’ s, they visited Europe and enjoyed touring the majestic gardens of that country. When they returned to the US, they began planning and enlarging the garden of their Mobile home. In 1932, they began to invite friends to visit their gardens. Mrs. Bessie Morse Bellingrath died in 1943 and Mr. Bellingrath continued to live in their beautiful home in their gardens until his death in August of 1955. Both are buried in a family plot in the Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile.

 

 

Excerpt from Rev. B.F. Riley’s “History of Conecuh County”,Page 217

 

“Through the enterprise of Messrs. Bellingrath and Redwine, a turpentine manufactory has just been established at Castleberry. This article will no doubt become quite a commodity in the future commerce of the county.”

 

Excerpt from Conecuh Marriages, Volume I, Page 52

 

Leonard Bellingrath to Mary J. Castleberry, December 16 1890, By Rev. John Peterson

 

Submitted by: Sherry Johnston