Bankhead was born on September 13, 1842, at Moscow, Marion County, Alabama. His father, James Greer Bankhead, was a farmer and Indian-fighter of South Carolina; his mother, Susan (Hollis) Bankhead, was descended from a favorite aide of the Revolutionary general, Marion. The actual settler in Alabama was his grandfather George, who moved from South Carolina to the piney woods of Marion County and built the first mill.
John Hollis was brought up on the farm, with little schooling, but this he made up for by diligent reading.
He was not twenty-one when the Civil War began, and he emerged from the war a captain. From 1865 to 1868 he was a member of the Alabama legislature. He was one of Gen. Forrest's Ku Klux, designed to control the unruly freedmen during Congress's military Reconstruction; was again in the legislature; and was warden of the penitentiary. He attracted little public notice, however, as Brewer's Alabama and Garrett's Public Men of Alabama, published about 1872, do not mention him. In 1886 the sphere of his activities was widened by election to Congress, where he joined in the passage of the anti-trust laws; but his principal work concerned the Post Office Department and the canalization of the Tombigbee River. This stream rises in the coal regions of Alabama and then waters cotton-fields in that state and in Mississippi before joining its sister river, the Alabama. By its improvement it has become one of the most useful water systems of the Union, but it must not be supposed that Bankhead effected this alone, for he was aided if not inspired by interested activities originating from Mobile.
In 1906 a singular situation carried Bankhead yet higher. It was so evident that both Morgan and Pettus, long-time senators, were failing from age that the party adopted a succession primary to fill probable vacancies. Bankhead was successful for the first, and on the death of Morgan next year was elected his successor. His principal service, however, was in improving the roads not only of Alabama but of the whole country. He first secured a trial appropriation of $500, 000 for demonstration, and this was so beneficial that on July 11, 1916, he procured the passage of an act whereby the United States should aid the states in the construction of rural post-roads. This carried an annual appropriation through 1921 of $5, 000, 000 to $25, 000, 000, and was amended, after Bankhead's death, by granting even larger sums.
As a memorial a private association in several southern states has planned a Bankhead Highway, starting at Washington and ending on the Pacific, and much of this has been built.
As a memorial a private association in several southern states has planned a Bankhead Highway, starting at Washington and ending on the Pacific, and much of this has been built.
On November 13, 1866 he was married to Tallulah J. Brockman.
