Judge Anderson Crenshaw was born in South Carolina, on May 22, 1783,
and died in Butler county, Ala., August 31, 1847. He was the first
graduate of the university of South Carolina, at Columbia, and entered
the legal profession and became distinguished as a lawyer in his
native state. He removed to Alabama about 1819, and settled at Cahaba,
the capital, and removed to Butler county about 1821. He was circuit
judge from 1821 to 1838, and the circuit judges constituted the
supreme court of the state until 1832; was chancellor of southern
division of Alabama from 1838 till his death, in 1847, and while on
the supreme bench became somewhat noted for rendering dissenting
opinions, which afterward became the law. He was a fine classical
scholar, and of considerable attainments and quaint learning. 

The following extract is from Garrett's Public Men of Alabama: "He was 
a whig in politics, but so moderate in his views and feelings, and so
devoted to the duties of the high places he occupied, that the
question of party politics was never brought to bear upon him, in
consequence of which he was retained in office under elections of the
legislature, when large democratic majorities existed. His virtues as
a man, and his abilities and integrity as a judge, gained the public
confidence from the beginning of his long administration of justice,
which he retained to the last. Nothing more need be added to such a
pregnant record of success." Crenshaw county, Ala., was named for him.