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 150

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 150

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Dr. B. A. Vaughan's name has become almost a household word in Columbus, Miss., for he has been an active medical practitioner of that city since 1854, his many estimable qualities of heart and head drawing around him many warm friends and an extended medi- cal practice. He was born at Scotland Neck, N. C., September 18, 1829, to George W. and Felicia (Norfleet) Vaughan, who belonged to prominent families of Virginia and North Carolina. They were of Scotch-English descent. His father was a soldier in the War of 1812 as a surgeon, and lost a thumb and finger in the service, the same ball pene- trating his hip and causing a severe wound, from which he suffered all his life. In early manhood he emigrated to North Carolina where he practiced his profession until his death. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. To this union three children were born, of whom Dr. B. A. Vaughan is the only survivor. Dr. Vaughan's general education was received in Columbus, Miss., at the Franklin academy. He attended medical lectures at the University of Virginia and the Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, Penn., from which he graduated in 1854. Although practicing in every branch of his profession he makes a specialty of gynecology. He is a member of the American Medical association, the State Medical society of Mississippi and the Lowndes County Medical association, of which he was president in 1874-5, and is at present secretary and treasurer of a similar society. He was president of the State Medical society in 1877-8, and in 1876-7 was secretary of the section of practice of medicine and materia medica, of the American Medical association. He has written articles on the following subjects: Air as a physician; Water as a disease pro- ducing agent; Chemical thermometry; Quinine, its therapeutic characteristics (on which he has written a second paper); Uterine colic and improvement in the treatment of uterine dis- eases; Antagonism of remedies; Amblyopia caused by quinine, and other articles that have been widely read by physicians throughout this country. He was the principal of Franklin academy at Columbus, before he was grown, and has been alderman of the city. He held the position of chairman of the district executive committee (in 1873), and was a member of the same committee for Lowndes county in 1875-6, and was president of the board of school trustees of the city of Columbus. During the war he was surgeon of the Fourteenth Mississippi regiment, post surgeon at Macon and Lauderdale, Miss., surgeon in chief of the hospitals of Macon and Lauderdale Springs, and surgeon in charge of the camp of paroled and exchanged prisoners at Jackson, Miss. He was also chief surgeon of the Blind Asylum hospital at Jackson, Miss. Was surgeon for the state of Mississippi at Atlanta, Ga., and was medical director of the state of Mississippi at close of the Civil war. A

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volunteer company was organized at Columbus, August 11, 1837. This company served during the late war and is still in existence, being a company of the Second regiment, First brigade of national guards. The Doctor has been a member of this company for some forty-four years. He is chief health officer of Lowndes county, and is assistant surgeon general of the First brigade of national guards. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is a past master, past high priest, past commander and past grand commander of Knights Templar, Mississippi; and is a thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He also belongs to the U. S. B. fraternity. the K. of H., and is the president of the Tombigbee Railroad company. He was married, in 1853, to Miss M. Wade, a daughter of P. B. Wade, of Columbus, Miss., by whom he has one child, Jeannie. Doctor Vaughan is pursuing the practice of medicine among a people who have known his childhood, his boyhood and his professional life. He has lived in Columbus, Miss., since 1837.

Henry B. Vaughan, planter and stockraiser of Commencement plantation, near Kings- ton, was born here in 1849, and is the younger of two children born to his parents, Charles N. and Ann Eliza (Farrar) Vaughan, the former born in Southampton county, Va., in 1818, and the latter born in Kingston vicinity in 1827. The grandfather, John Vaughan, was a native Virginian, and a planter by occupation. Charles N. Vaughan was educated at Char- lottesville and the University of Virginia, being there at the time of the Turner insurrection, in which several members of the family were killed. The parents had died previous to this. Mr. Vaughan left college and joined the troops for the Mexican war, but at Vicksburg they were disbanded, and he, after stopping at various places in the state, finally came to Adams county, Miss., where he married about 1844. He settled in the Kingston vicinity, and there he carried on planting very successfully, until his death, in November, 1862. He was a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, and a man of wonderful energy, very industrious habits, and one who stood well in the community in which he resided. Mrs. Vaughan died in Septem- ber, 1889. After the death of Mr. Vaughan she had married Capt. George C. Comstock, deceased. To her first marriage were born two children, a son and a daughter, the latter, Ann Eliza, dying at the age of fifteen years. The son, our subject, was educated in the home schools at Kingston, and also attended school at Natchez for some time. At the age of fif- teen years he joined company C, Fourth Mississippi cavalry, and operated with General For- rest in many severe engagements, being frequently sent on light duty, on account of his youth. He surrendered at Gainesville, Ala., at the close of war, and in 1866 went to Europe, where he spent a year or two in France and England. After returning to the United States he passed a year in Bryant & Stratton's Commercial college in New Orleans, and subse- quently spent three years, or until 1871, engaged in merchandising. He then went to Clin- ton, La., where his mother was living, and resided there for twelve years. Ten years of the time he and his stepfather operated the Clinton & Port Hudson railroad, in which they had a controlling interest. Since that time he has resided on his estate, near Kingston, one of the finest upland plantations in Adams county. This magnificent plantation is well improved, and everything about the place indicates the presence of a thrifty and practical owner. He has one thousand three hundred acres in Commencement plantation, and one thousand acres in another tract, all the result of his own exertions, having started with nothing. In look- ing after the interests of his large plantation he does not lose sight of the stock industry, improving his cattle with the Holstein breed. He married Miss Bettie A. Slaughter, a native of East Baton Rouge parish, Louisiana, and the daughter of William and Elizabeth Slaughter, natives of Bowling Green, Ky., and East Baton Rouge parish, La., respectively. When a boy Mr. Slaughter went with his parents to Louisiana, and there he married, and

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spent the remainder of his days near Port Hudson, as a wealthy planter and merchant. He was a practical business man and was conservative and liberal in all his views. To Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan have been born three interesting children. In 1886-7 Mr. Vaughan served as a member of the board of supervisors of Adams county. He has shown his apprecia- tion of secret organizations by joining the Knights of Pythias, American Legion of Honor, the I. O. O. F. and the A. F. & A. M., all at Clinton, La. He has been through the chair in the I. O. O. F., and has held various offices in the Knights of Pythias organization. Mrs. Vaughan has been a member of the Presbyterian church from youth.

James Vaughan has been a resident of Yazoo county, Miss., since his birth in 1842, and is the seventh of a family of twelve children. His parents Henry and Emma (Reese) Vaughan, were natives of South Carolina, but emigrated to Mississippi in 1832, and settled on the plantation now occupied by the subject of this notice; there they spent the balance of their days; the father died in 1870, at the age of seventy years, and the mother passed away ten years later, at the age of three-score and ten years. Nine of their twelve children grew to maturity, and three of them are still living: Mrs. Mary S. Guion, Mrs. Margaret Moore, deceased; Betsey, who died in infancy; Dr. Henry Vaughan, deceased; John A., who died in childhood; Charles B., who was killed in the siege of Vicksburg; H. R. captain of company B, Eighteenth Mississippi volunteer infantry, who fell at Gettysbug; James; Mrs. Alice Burroughs of Yazoo county; Emma, deceased at the age of fourteen years; Frank, who died at the age of twenty-six years, and William R., who died at twenty-one years of age. James Vaughan grew to manhood in this county, and received a good education. He was a member of the sophomore class of Oxford university at the time the Civil war broke out, and left the schoolroom for the field of battle. He enlisted in company B, Eighteenth Missis- sippi volunteer infantry, and for one year served as sergeant; he then joined Wirt Adams' cavalry, and served until the end of the conflict. He participated in the first battle of Manassas, in the siege of Vicksburg, and many skirmishes both in Mississippi and Alabama. After the declaration of peace he returned to his home, and resumed his farming. The plantation consists of fourteen hundred and forty acres, one thousand of which are under excellent cultivation; cotton and corn are the principal crops, but Mr. Vaughan is planning to devote more of his time to the raising of livestock with a view to improving the breeds of the county. He was married in 1867 to Miss Mary E. Anderson, a daughter of John W. and Adaline (Newell) Anderson, who were early settlers of Yazoo county. By this union nine children have been born, seven of whom are living: Emma, wife of H. F. Russell of Washington county, Miss. ; John A., Samuel, H. Y., Mary, James and Charles. Mr. Vaughan is a member of the P. B. Tutt lodge No. - A. F. & A. M., and is also a Knight of Honor. He takes an active part in local politics, but is not an officeseeker. He and his wife are members of Bowman's chapel of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which they are liberal contributors. They have been foremost in all movements calculated to benefit the community in which they live, and are numbered among the leading familes of the county.

James Alexander Ventress was born in Robertson county, about twenty-five miles from Clarksville, Tenn., in 1805, and was the youngest son and second of the children of Lovick Ventress, who settled in that state in 1796. His paternal grandfather came from England about 1760, and settled first near Norfolk, Va., where several of his children were born, and removed thence to North Carolina. His mother, Elizabeth Stewart, was of the Stewarts of Scotland, of noble lineage. While James A. Ventress was yet a small boy (in 1809), his parents accompanied his uncle, Duncan Stewart, afterward lieutenant-governor, and other members of the family, to the territory of Mississippi, settling in what was

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known as the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, near what is now Centerville, Wilkinson county. After his removal to Mississippi, Lovick Ventress bought a plantation and engaged in planting, but, his health soon failing, he returned to Tennessee, where he died in the prime of life. His worthy widow survived him many years, and died in Wilkinson county, having been a faithful and affectionate mother and a worthy friend, guide and counselor to her fatherless children. Their eldest son, William C. S. Ventress, moved to Louisiana, and served his parish in the legislature of that state. He became a wealthy planter, his sugar plantations being very extensive and profitable. He lived to a ripe old age, and, dying, left two daughters, both of whom still survive him. He had two sons in the Con- federate army, and one, James A. Ventress, attained the rank of major in that service. Eliza A. Ventress, the only daughter of Lovick and Elizabeth Ventress, became the wife of Major A. M. Feltus, who was a prominent planter, merchant and banker of Wilkinson county and was at one time quite wealthy. He was a native of New York, and he and his wife became the parents of a large family of children, four sons having been soldiers in the Confederate army. One, Abram M. Feltus, Jr., held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Sixteenth regiment of Mississippi volunteers, and on May 12, 1864, was killed at Spottsylvania Courthouse, Va. Another, P. Gassner Feltus, being the senior officer present, commanded and surrendered two regiments at Appomattox. Major and Mrs. Feltus were residents of Woodville. The former died at a good old age in 1861, and the latter in 1889, aged eighty-two years.

After attending the schools which then existed in the county, and an academy in New Orleans, the subject of this sketch took passage for Europe, where he spent nine years in the prosecution of his studies, and with marked success. At the University of Edinburgh he was a pupil of the celebrated John Wilson-Christopher North-author of Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life; Noctes Ambrosiana, etc., who wrote of him that he was "an assiduous and successful student," and became so much impressed with his aptitude for philosophical studies that he urged him to remain and devote himself to that branch of learning, with a view of succeeding him in the chair of moral philosophy in that university. While a student in Scotland, he formed the acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott, and had the honor of being a guest at the banquet when Lord Meadowbank forced from that distin- gnished writer a confession of the authorship of the Waverley novels. After leaving Scotland, he spent several years in Paris, a student at the Academie and a pupil of Jean Baptiste Say, the political economist, through whose kindness and influence he made the acquaintance of and was enabled to receive instructions in his studies from Jeremy Bentham, for whose philosophy he ever afterward entertained a high regard. While in Paris he was a frequent visitor at La Grange, the home of La Fayette, whose friendship he gained, and to whom he was indebted for many courtesies. It was during his stay in Paris that the revo- lution of 1830 occurred, and, being an exceptionally fine rifle shot himself, he readily noted the inferiority of the French troops as marksmen. He often remarked, when speaking of that occasion, that the people who had ascended to the housetops for safety, were in more imminent danger that were those in the streets, at whom the muskets were aimed, and that a single company of Mississippi riflemen would have done more execution. During his stay in Paris Mr. Ventress had the distinguished honor of being elected by the Conseil d'Admistration, on account of his lumieres et zele, a collaborateur correspondent of the Revue des Deux Mondes. He was also a contributor to several of the English and French scientific and literary magazines and had papers read before the Institute of France, receiv- ing the commendation of the scientific lights of Europe. He also translated several

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works and wrote several plays, which were highly praised. After leaving Paris, he spent some time in Rome, and was a student for two years at the University of Berlin. Having already mastered the German language, he went there to continue the study of jurisprudence, carrying with him letters of introduction to Baron Humboldt. After his return from Europe, where he had devoted a large portion of his time to the study of juris- prudence, he prepared himself for admission to the bar, and received his license to practice law, in 1841, from that eminent jurist, Wm. L. Sharkey, then chief justice of the supreme court of Mississippi. Being in affluent circumstances, however, he practiced but little, devoting himself instead to his planting interests, and his leisure to the study of general literature and the development of his taste for mechanics. His study and experiments resulted in numerous inventions, some of which he had patented, but it being a lahor of love rather than of profit, he never attempted to make money out of them, though he per- mitted the use of some of them by manufacturers who were friends of his. While a student in Berlin, he presented to and received the thanks of the patriot government of Poland, then at war, for an improvement on the cannon then in use, and for a substitute for the cuirass worn by the soldiers of that unfortunate country. During the Civil war he invented a pat- ent bullet, which he presented to the Confederate government. While he was an omnivorous reader, he devoted himself principally to works on science, politics and history, and the library he collected and bequeathed to his children is probably the finest, if not the largest collection of rare works in the state. Endowed with a fine memory and unusal powers of ratiocination, he digested thoroughly and remembered accurately what he read. Mr. Ven- tress was a man of profound erudition, and throughout his useful and well-spent life he was a close and painstaking student. He was deeply interested in the political questions of bis day, and his brilliant intellect, which was strengthened and enriched by the highest culture, was admirably displayed while in the arena of politics. He was prominent in the counsels of his party, and no one's opinion and advice in political matters was considered more weighty, or was more sought after than his. He was a fluent, eloquent and convincing speaker and writer, and during his public career he had an opportunity of displaying the originality and versatility of his genius.

He became a presidential elector and state senator, was elected a member and had the additional honor of being chosen speaker of the house of representatives, at a time when it numbered among its members the brightest minds that have adorned the history of the state and nation. He was, at one time, also offered the nomination for governor. Stimulated by a laudable ambition to be useful in his day and generation, he was sometimes impatient of opposition, but invariably acted on principles which he believed to be founded on justice and truth, and from the defense of which he could never be swerved. This trait and a habit of expressing his opinions with the utmost freedom on all questions, regardless of consequences, doubtless, in a great measure, contributed to prevent the political preferment to which his eminent abilities entitled him. To the wiles of the politician he was a stranger. In public as well as in private life, he was a constant friend to education and to his exertions while in the legislature was probably due, more than to those of any other one man, the establish- ment of the University of Mississippi, at Oxford, of which institution he was a trustee from the time of its organization in 1844 until his death. In politics he was a states' rights democrat and Union man. While he believed and maintained that the constitution of the United States guaranteed the right of secession, he was very much opposed to the exercise of the right, believing it to be best that there should remain one country; best for the South and best for the North. As a member of the convention called by the legislature, in 1851, to take

John Clark

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measures for the redress of grievances, he labored earnestly for the preservation of the Union. While North, in 1860, he wrote an open letter to the mayor of Philadelphia, which was copied by the press throughout the country and pronounced by competent judges one of the most statesmanlike papers of the day. After the die had been cast, however, and his state had severed its connection with the Federal Union, true to his states' rights principles, he gave his allegiance to her and the Confederate states of which she had become a member. In private life Mr. Ventress was known as a man of integrity, high sense of honor and great kindness of heart, one whose charities were as generous as they were unostentatious, and whose friendship was as unselfish as it was lasting; socially he was a delightful companion, being a most interesting and instructive conversationalist and raconteur. In 1848 he married Miss Charlotte Davis Pynchon, daughter of Hon. Stephen Pynchon, of Massachusetts. On the paternal side, she was a lineal descendant of Col. William Pynchon, who came to America in 1630, was a charter member, first treasurer and assistant governor of Massachusetts Bay colony; was author of several theological works and the founder of Springfield, which was named in honor of his home in England; and of his son, John Pynchon, known as the worshipful major, commander of the troops of western Massachusetts in King Phillip's war, associate justice of the supreme court of the colony; one of the commissioners appointed by the British government in 1664 to receive the surrender of New Amsterdam, N. Y., from the Dutch, and a member of the council of King James II. The ancestor of the Pynchon family came to England in 1066, with William the Conqueror, and received, among other re- turns for his services, a grant of manors at Thorpet, in Kirby, Lincolnshire, In 1167, Hugh Pincheun held seven knight's fees in that county. The family drifted after several genera- tions to Northamptonshire and afterward to Essex. A grandson of one of them was Henry Chicheley, first privy councilor under King Henry VI; archbishop of Canterbury from 1414 to 1443; the founder of All Souls' college, Oxford, and who built the western tower of Canter- bury cathedral at his own expense. The branch of the family that emigrated to America was descended from Nicholas Pynchon, high sheriff of London in 1533, whose son, John, married Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Empson. From them were descended the earls of Portland, Sir Edward Pynchon and William Pynchon, the emigrant. On the paternal side, Mrs. Ventress was also a lineal descendant of Rev. William Hubbard, the early historian of New England, and of Gov. George Wyllys, colonial governor of Connecticut and owner of the celebrated Charter oak.

The mother of Mrs. Ventress was Miss Sarah Trask, daughter of Dr. Israel Trask, of Brimfield, Mass., a Revolutionary veteran and member of the Massachusetts constitutional convention. His wife was Miss Sarah Lawrence, daughter of Dr. James Lawrence, a descendant of Sir Robert Lawrence, of Ashton hall, Lancashire, England, who accompanied Richard Cœur de Lion to the Holy Land, and at the siege of Acre was the first to plant the banner of the cross on the battlements, for which he was knighted. Stephen Pynchon, the father of Mrs. Ventress, was a graduate of Yale college, receiving his diploma in 1789. He afterward studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1791, settling in Brimfield, of which place he was a citizen the balance of his life. In 1805 he was chosen a representative to the general court, and in 1819 was appointed by Gov. John Brooks chief justice of the court of sessions of Hampden county, Mass. He served his county for sixteen years in the state legislature, of which body he was a member at the time of his death in Boston, February 5, 1823. He was a prominent Free Mason. The order was then a social and political power, and under its rites he was buried. He was a noble, worthy and generous man, and for his day was exceptionally well educated and intelligent. HHH

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After completing her education in Springfield, Mrs. Ventress, at that time a beautiful and accomplished young lady, came to Mississippi with a cousin to make her home with her uncle, Maj. James L. Trask, who was a bachelor, and remained with him until his death. Major Trask settled in Mississippi in 1805. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, and served under General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. A man of remarkable energy and business tact, he amassed a large fortune, most of which he bequeathed to his niece. His brothers, Augustus and Dr. William P. Trask, also lived in Wilkinson county, and are buried in the family burying ground, as is also his eldest brother, Col. Israel E. Trask. Col. Trask was a man of considerable ability. Harvard university conferred on him the honorary degree of A. M. He represented his county in the legislature and constitutional convention of Massachusetts, and was one of the incorporators of Amherst college. As was the case with the planters throughout the South, the emancipation proclamation, and the amendments to the constitution passed in confirmation thereof, swept out of existence the slave property of Mr. Ventress, which constituted the major part of his wealth. Losing his property at an age when men usually retire from business, and worried beyond expression by the changed and unsettled condition of the country, his health, which had not been good for some time, gradually declined, and he at last succumbed to general bodily prostration, passing away quietly at La Grange, his home, on the 26th of June, 1867. His widow survived him until the 10th of May, 1877, when she, too, was called from a life of Christian excellence, having been for many years a worthy and honored member of the Presbyterian church. Their fam- ily consisted of five children, three of whom lived to manhood; a son and a daughter dying in childhood. Those living are Lawrence T., born Aug. 5, 1850, educated at home and in the State university at Oxford; James A., born February 14, 1853, and William P. S., born May 28, 1854, both of whom were educated at home in the Norwood high school and the Uni- versity of Virginia. After leaving college the latter graduated in law from the University of Mississippi, at Oxford. He is at present a practicing attorney of Woodville. These sons reside at the La Grange plantation, and give their friends a royal welcome to the luxuries and comforts of their magnificent home.

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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 150

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