Marble Carver–A.J. Yancey, Birmingham, Alabama

Carver, Yancey

A.J. Yancey was the proprietor of City Marble Works in Birmingham during the latter part of the nineteenth century. He was the proprietor of Corinth Marble Works in Corinth, Mississippi as well.

The earliest advertisements found for Yancey were “Yancey & Kean” of Corinth, Mississippi by their Alabama agent J.L. Lockwood in the mid-1870s.

Carver, Yancey

The earliest signed stone found to date is for J N. Craddock in the Greenwood Cemetery, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Craddock’s date of death is 1854, and the style of the stone is mid-1850s, though it could have been commissioned after Craddock’s death.

Andrew J. Yancey, son of Lewis Nelson Yancey (1802-1892) and Letha (Worsham) Yancey (1806-1861), was born in Virginia in 1831. The family moved to Hardin County, Tennessee by 1840 and then A.J. moved to Corinth in Tishomingo (now Alcorn) County, Mississippi by 1858. Yancey married Cornelia Surratt in 1858. Cornelia died after giving birth to their only child Mattie in 1863. Yancey formed Corinth Marble Works before 1870 with a loan from his father. He was co-owner with William R. Kean. Yancey moved to Birmingham, Alabama by 1880 and continued in the marble business. By 1890 Yancey was a land owner in Henderson County, Texas and by 1900 his daughter Mattie Hagood had possession of the Texas property. It is not known when or where he died. A.J. Yancey’s signature has been found in Greene, Hale, Pickens and Tuscaloosa, Alabama counties on burials dated 1854-1883. Background information provided by Gary Clark.