Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 144

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 144

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liberally of their means. Mr. Thrasher is a man who has made his way to the front by sheer force of will and native talent, and it is acknowledged by competent judges that he ranks among the highest civilians. He is a stockholder in and president of the oilworks, and a stockholder in the brickyard and the bank at Port Gibson, and socially is a Knight Templar in the A. F. & A. M., in which order he has held various chairs. His uncle, J. B. Thrasher, with whom he was associated in the practice of his profession for some time, came to Mis- sissippi in 1826, and became very prominent in the legal circles of this section as well as in all matters of a public nature. He died of yellow fever in 1878, at the age of seventy-eight years.

Cassius L. Tillman, the popular treasurer of Adams county and the surviving member of the well known and reliable firm of I. Lowenburg & Co., the only exclusive wholesale dealers in groceries, tobacco, etc., in Natchez, is a man of good practical judgment and business acumen which are the cardinal points of success. This business was established in 1864, and has an extensive and rapidly growing trade, competing with many of the wholesale houses of the larger cities. Mr. Tillman was born in Natchez in 1852, and is the son of J. L. and Ricka (Deutsch) Tillman, both of whom were natives of Bavaria, Germany, where they were reared. The parents came to Natchez, Miss., in the years 1832 and 1848, respectively, were married in that city and there made their future home. Mrs. Tillman is still living, but Mr. Tillman died in New York city in 1869, while there temporarily. The father followed mer- chandising in Natchez for many years and was very successful in this pursuit. Of the five chil- dren born to this union, Cassius L. was the third in order of birth, and is the only one now living. He received his early education at Natchez, and in 1865 graduated from Gurkeini college, Bavaria, after which he attended Gerke institute in New York city. After com- pleting his education he connected himself with the firm of I. Lowenburg & Co., with which he has continued ever since. Since the death of Mr. Lowenburg Mr. Tillman has been the sole proprietor of this immense business. Although yet a young man he has long been recognized as identified with the business interests of the city, and the position he now oc- cupies in social as well as business circles is a very high one. He has taken an active part in every measure or enterprise for the good of Adams county, and being public spirited, enter- prising and intelligent by nature, his career has been both successful and honorable. He is a director in the First National bank, was city alderman one term, and since 1880 he has filled the office of treasurer of Adams county in a very efficient and satisfactory manner. He stands high in social orders, having held all the offices in Andrew Jackson lodge No. 2, A. F. & A. M., and is a member of Royal Arch Chapter No. 1; Binff city lodge of Knights of Honor No. 1145; the Knights and Ladies of Honor; the Knights of Pythias No. 3, and he is a member of the following Jewish orders: B'Nai B'rith and Kaisher. Mr. Tillman's wife, to whom he was married in 1880, was formerly Miss Mamie Hyms, a native of Charleston, S. C. They have four interesting children.

Henry Tindall, planter, merchant and lumberman, of Grenada county, Miss., and one of the most progressive, thoroughgoing business men of the same, is the eldest of nine children born to James and Sarah (Gant) Tindall, both natives of the Old Dominion. The parents were married in North Carolina, and moved from there to Bedford county, Tenn., at an early day. There they resided, with the exception of a few months in Illinois, until 1849, when they removed to what is now Grenada county. There the father died in 1885. He had been married twice, his first wife being our subject's mother. She died in 1850. Both were Cumberland Presbyterians for many years. Mr. Tindall followed the life of a successful planter, although in North Carolina he engaged in milling for some time, and

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never aspired to publicity. His father, James Tindall, lied when comparatively a young man. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Tindall were named in the order of their births as follows: Henry; Anderson, died before the war; William, resides near Carrollton, Miss., and is a mechanic and planter. He served all through the Confederate army, Fifteenth Mississippi infantry, company E, as a private, and was in the Georgia and Atlanta cam- paign; James, a planter of Grenada county, was in the Fifteenth Mississippi also during the war; Thomas, was in the same company in the Confederate army, and is now a planter of Grenada county; John, a planter of this county, was not in the war; George, was a private in the Thirty-first Mississippi infantry and was killed at Murfreesboro; Mary E., wife of Maxey Caffee, of Duck Hill; and Victoria, wife of William Bradford, of Walthall. Henry Tin- dall secured a fair education in the common schools of Mississippi and Tennessee, and when twenty-one years of age started out to fight life's battle's for himself. He first began as an overseer, continued this until the breaking out of the war. when he took about one hundred and sixty-three negroes and worked a few months on the fortification at Fort Pillow. He then returned home, and soon after joined company E, Fifteenth Mississippi infantry, Ten- nessee army, and engaged at Corinth and the siege of Vicksburg as commissarian. He was captured and paroled, and was in parole camp at Demopolis, Ala., for about two months. He was then ordered to join his command near New Hope church, and was in the Georgia and Atlanta campaign. He then went back with Hood to Tennessee; down to Tuscumbia, Ala., and then got a furlough and went home to look up clothing, etc. He was in Mississippi at the time of the surrender, and afterward returned to Carroll county, where he engaged in farming. In 1867 he embarked in the sawmill business at Duck Hill, and in 1869 built a mill at his present stand, then in the woods, and has followed this business ever since, now being the owner of four different mills: one steammill near Duck Hill, a watermill seven miles east of that town, a steammill at home, and a watermill in Webster county. He also owns a good gin at each place. For eight years he has operated a good store on his place, and does an annual business of about $12,000. He is the owner of three thousand one hundred and forty acres of land in Grenada county, three hundred and twenty acres in Mont- gomery county, one hundred and twenty acres in Webster county, and has a two-acre block and a business block in Duck Hill, all the fruits of his own labor since the war. He is now one of the most prosperous planters and business men of the county. He is thoroughgo- ing, public-spirited, and has a host of warm friends, He was married in 1870 to Miss Jose- phine Neal, a native of Carroll (now Montgomery) county, Miss., and the daughter of Robert Neal, who came from Tennessee to Carroll county, Miss., and followed the life of a planter. There his death occurred. To Mr. and Mrs. Tindall have been born twelve children, seven sons and five daughters, all of whom he has spared no pains to educate. He is postmaster at Misterton, which was established at his store about seven years ago. Mr. Tindall has often been urged to run for office, but as often refused.

Col. William Henry Haywood Tison, of Baldwyn, Miss., the subject of this sketch, was born in Jackson county, Ala., November 6, 1822. He was the son of Richard and Nancy Tison, natives of North Carolina, who first emigrated to Georgia, thence to Tennessee, thence to Alabama and finally to Mississippi. They both possessed iron constitutions, indomitable wills and untiring energy, which they transmitted to their son in whose home they spent their old age. The father was a soldier in the War of 1812; he died October 15, 1876. His mother, a most lovable character, died March 15, 1872. Col. Tison was a self- made man. He was reared without early educational advantages, and in his youth met and overcame impediments which an ordinary man could not have surmounted. The school

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facilities of the county in which he lived were poor, and his father was unable to give him opportunities above those known as old fieldschools. He served as an apprentice to learn the saddler's trade, in which he proved himself a master workman. While following this vocation in the now extinct village of Carrollville, he was married to Miss Sarah S. Walker, an estimable young lady, who showed her faith in the ambitious, rising young man, who even then was a hard student of books as well as men. How fortunate that he didn't spend his energy on material things! He entered the printing business in 1855 as editor of the East- port Republican, with D. C. White as publisher. In the winter of 1855 the paper was moved to Jacinto, and the name changed to the Republican. He continued the paper through the year 1856 and sold it. In the year 1855 the democratic party was confronted by a secret organization known as the know-nothing party, and the warfare was bitter and uncompro- mising. Colonel Tison wielded a trenchant pen, and was never so happy as when throwing shot and shell into the know-nothing camp. He fought know-nothingism to the bitter end, and contributed as much as any other man to its defeat and destruction in the state of Mis- sissippi. Being a democrat of the Jacksonian school, he soon became the leader of his party. His first canvass was for representative from Tishomingo county, and resulted in his election. He prosecuted his canvass with the same zeal that he ever displayed in all his undertakings throughout life. Upon his entrance to the legislature he took a leading part in all of the deliberations of that body, which numbered among its members some of the foremost intel- lects of the state at that time. He was repeatedly returned to the legislature before the war, and the journal of the house contains no record of service more faithful and more beneficial than his. In 1857 he was appointed, by President Buchanan, United States marshal for the northern district of Mississippi. In his application for the place he had the earnest and active support of Hon. Jacob Thompson, secretary of the interior, who was then, and ever remained his constant and devoted friend. When the war broke out he organized a company early in 1861, for the Nineteenth regiment of Mississippi volunteers, the Jake Thompson guards, which served under the gallant Mott in many of the battles of Virginia. After serving a year in Virginia, he was made colonel of the Thirty-second Mississippi regiment, and was transferred to Bragg's army in Tennessee. He participated in most of the prominent battles in that state and in Georgia, and was twice wounded, once at Resaca, and again at Franklin. As a soldier, he was as true and brave a man as ever drew a sword. His courage was Spartan, and his skill as an officer commanded admiration. His bearing on the field was superb. He was always at the front and dared to lead where any dared to follow. His spare slight figure, erect in his saddle, could always be seen where the battle raged fiercest. He became known throughout the army for conspicuous gallantry, and received from his commanding generals complimentary notices in their reports. At the close of the war he returned to his home and engaged in active business pursuits. Being disfranchised, he could not enter politics as an aspirant for office, but he took an active part in all that pertained to the wel- fare of his state, and exerted a controlling influence in the affairs of his county. He organized the democratic party and again became its leader. He was prominent in his opposition to the regime of that day (at the close of the war), but such was his honesty aud courage that he commanded and maintained to a conspicuous degree the respect of his adversaries. This was notable in the first legislature of which he was a member during that eventful period.

On the removal of his disabilities he was again elected to the legislature, and continued to represent his county till his death. At its last session he was elected speaker of the house, the duties of which he discharged with eminent ability. No man in the state has at-

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tained greater distinction as a legislator. The statute books show the imprint of his supe- rior wisdom in many of the measures of substantial benefit to the people, especially in those measures looking to retrenchment in expenditure of the public funds. He was gifted with a peculiar wisdom and acumen in this branch of legislation. In his death, the community in which he lived lost its most distinguished and useful citizen. As a husband he was gentle, faithful and true; as a father he was loving and kind; as a brother he was devoted and con- stant; as a Mason he lived up to the highest standard of the order. He was a proud man and erected a lofty standard to which he strove to elevate his family, and may his two sons and two daughters fill the full measure of his hopes. As a neighbor he was generous and consid- erate; as a friend he was warm hearted and true. When he once placed his friendship, it become lasting and steadfast, and under it his confidence was given without reserve. He was conspicuous in deeds of charity. It is said of him that there was scarcely a poor man within reach of him, whom he had not materially befriended. His character was marked by strong traits. To a casual observer he seemed austere and imperious. To those who knew him well he was yielding and placable. Nature made him an honest man, free from all dissembling and pretention. He abhorred all shams and alluring devices. He had no guide save principle; he was deep and strong in his convictions of right and duty, and obeyed them with earnest energy and unfailing courage. His will was inflexible and his nerve was iron. It was these noble traits that made him invincible before the people. He was truly a man of the people; he was ambitious, but subordinated his desire for preferment to a genuine respect for the people and their interests. In their behalf there was no task too laborious, no sacrifice too great for him to make. In their service he comprehended and felt the sternest and loftiest sense of duty and held in supreme contempt any allur- ments from its pathway. His large heart was always with them and its honest yearning was to serve them faithfully. In educational matters his views were broad and comprehen- sive. He was a leading advocate of measures designed to enlarge and build up that great cause, and bring its blessings within the reach of the whole people. The death of such a man is, under any circumstances, a sad event, but when so illustrious a citizen falls by the hand of violence, his death is a most deplorable calamity. The state has lost one whose deeds in her councils and on the tented field have shed luster on her fair name and added to her glory and renown. He was killed in Baldwyn, December 4, 1882. Like J. G. Holland he lived to accomplish his early wish: "To occupy a pure place in the popular heart; to be welcomed in God's name, into the affectionate confidence of those for whom life has high meanings and high issues; of being recognized as among the beneficent forces of society." We drop a tear to the memory of a wise statesman, a pure patriot and a noble Christian man.

Among the residents of Washington county, Miss., the name of Dr. R. Saunders Toombs has become almost a household word, for so often has he entered their homes in his pro- fessional capacity, and so successfully has he practiced the healing art, that their confidence in him has become unbounded. He was born in Copiah county, Miss., August 12, 1844, to George H. and Winnie (Green) Toombs, who were born in Georgia and North Carolina, respectively, the former being a planter by occupation. When a young man he came to this state, and was married here soon after to Miss Green, dying in Copiah county in 1851. The paternal grandfather and grandmother were from England and Ireland, respectively, and were pioneer settlers of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. The Toombs family became very well known throughout Georgia; Robert Toombs being in the United States senate from that state for about twenty years, and for some time was secretary of state for

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the Confederacy, during the early part of the war, but afterward resigned to take the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate army, distinguishing himself in the second bat- tle of Manassas. The maternal grandparents of the subject of this sketch were William . and Mary (Taylor) Green, natives of the Carolinas. Nearly all the male members of the (treen family were ministers of the Baptist church, becoming distinguished for their ability as divines, and for their sturdy habits and morals. They prided themselves upon main- taining a high standard of morals and Christian integrity, and possessed many of the charac- teristics of their Huguenot ancestors, who left their native land on account of their relig- ious belief. Dr. R. Saunders Toombs was reared in Mississippi, and received his education in Pleasant Hill academy, afterward pursuing his medical studies in Vicksburg, and graduating in medicine in the Washington university, of Baltimore, Md., in 1868, after which he began practicing, and has since been one of the leading physicians of the state. When he was six years of age his mother was left a widow, and as his father had become security for many friends, the most of his fortune was swept away, and his family was left with comparatively nothing to maintain them. For this reason the Doctor had not only to support and educate himself, but to assist in supporting his mother besides. There was no such word as fail in his vocabulary, and the success that has attended his efforts and his many accomplishments are due to his ambition and his indomitable energy. During a time that he should have been in school the war came on, and in 1862, at the age of eighteen years, he enlisted in the Confederate army, becoming a member of company K, Thirty- sixth Mississippi regiment, and soon showed himself to be a young man of undoubted cour- age and trustworthiness. Having manifested considerable ability as a scout, he was sent with important dispatches on various occasions, and at one time rode sixty-eight miles through snow and sleet, swimming his horse across three streams, nearly losing his life by his horse becoming entangled in driftwood. On this occasion he was bearing important news from Gen. Wirt Adams to Colonel Scott. He was at the battle of Jackson, but soon after entering the army ill health caused him to give up heavy service, and he was assigned to light duty, and was made hospital steward in field service, under Chief Surgeon John M. Allen, of the division of cavalry. He was the first to reach General Gohlson after he was wounded in the fierce fight near Jackson, but just prior to this was engaged as superintendent in the cart- ridge manufacturing department in the arsenal at Jackson.

While in Jackson he had a most miraculous escape from death in the terrible explosion which occurred in that city, killing every inmate in the building, in which about forty chil- dren lost their lives, he being the only one left to tell the cause, which he thinks resulted from recharging some old shell. He had only thirty minutes before been transferred to the state treasury, and he considers his escape as a special act of providence, for his transfer was effected by telegram by one of his friends in authority, who had a premonition of his danger. Dr. Toombs was married in April, 1876, to Miss Fannie Ray, a native of Carrollton, Miss., and a daughter of Capt. William and Mary (Latham) Ray, both of whom were born in Mis- sissippi. To their marriage four children have been born: William Ray, Percy Walthall, Robert Henry, and Frederick S. The Doctor is the owner of a large landed estate in Wash- ington county, and besides this he owns several residences and one business house on Walnut street, besides several vacant lots on the same street, and the most of Toombs addition to the city of Greenville .. He has property in Memphis and Chattanooga, Tenu., and in Sheffield, Ala. He is a stockholder in the Merchants and Planters' bank and Citizens' bank at Greenville. The Doctor came to this point just at the outbreak of the terrible yellow- fever epidemic of 1878, and was at once made secretary of the city board of health, and

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is now a member of the state board of health, and was appointed by Governor Lowry to represent that board in the inter-state quarantine convention, held in Montgomery, Ala., in 1889. His practice has been equal to that of any physician in the county, for he has acquired great proficiency in his profession, and has contributed many valuable articles to the medical literature of the day. In 1886 he was elected president of the State Medical association of Mississippi by acclamation, and is now vice president of the National Association of the Railway Surgeons of America. He and his wife are prominent members of the Baptist church, and were instrumental in the founding of the flourishing church of that denomination in Greenville. He has always taken great interest in church work, and was a liberal contributor to the endowment of Mississippi college (Baptist) at Clinton, which is one of the best and most prosperous institutions of the state. He is a member of the A. F. & A. M., the K. of H. and the A. L. of H. Dr. Toombs possesses perfect manners, and at all times manifests the instincts and training of a true gentleman. When engaged in conver- sation he at once impresses one as a gentleman of intelligence, for his ideas on all subjects are shrewd and sound.

John Torrey. Among the first pioneers to settle in the east part of Jefferson county, was the Torrey family, the date of their arrival being 1806. Dugald Torrey, father of John, was born in Robinson county, N. C., in 1.780, and in that state and county grew to manhood. marrying, in the month of September, 1804, Miss Flora Gilchrist, who was also of that state. and of Scotch parentage. Sometime after their marriage they removed to Tennessee, where they resided about one year, then came to Claiborne county, Miss., settling near Port Gibson, but at the above mentioned date settled in Jefferson county. Here he opened a very large plantation on which he reared his family, and on this farm, which he, himself, put in an ad- mirable state of cultivation, he breathed his last in 1853, his wife having passed from life ten years earlier. He was a son of George Torrey, a native of Scotland, who emigrated to the states, and was one of the pioneers of North Carolina, rearing his family in Robinson county. John Torrey is one of a family of three sons and six daughters, but is the only surviving member of the family at the present date. One brother, George Torrey, who died in Fayette, was well known, having been a former sheriff of Jefferson county. Wm. Torrey died on the Island of Cuba in 1843. After attaining manhood in this county, John Torrey was married in the month of October, 1846, to Miss Margaret C. Cameron, a native of the county and a daughter of Archibald Cameron, one of the settlers of 1810. Mr. John Torrey has been engaged in plauting his entire life, and in following this calling has met with a more than average degree of success. He has been a resident of the plantation on which he is now living since January, 1850, on which place was some open land that had been under cultivation for about forty years. Mr. Torrey commenced at once to clear more land and on this property erected a good residence, steam cottongin, and in other ways greatly improved it, making it one of the most desirable plantations in his part of the county. His land amounts to about one thousand acres at the present time, although he at one time owned over five thousand acres. He owned a large number of slaves during ante-bellum days, and over eighty-three were set free by the emancipation proclamation. Mr. Torrey is a man possess- ing much energy and decision of character and his judgment in matters of business, as well as upon all other topics, is shrewd, far-seeing and intelligent. A family of five children in time gathered about his board: Florah Ann, wife of John S. Gillis, a farmer of the county: Alice, wife of J. M. Riggs, a schoolteacher of the Lone Star state; Arlone Maddux, a widow; Dugald A. and Mary C. Like the majority of Scotch people. the Torreys are mem- bers of the Presbyterian church, and are frugal, industrious and acquisitive. although not in

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 144

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314