USA > Tennessee > A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume V > Part 19
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Lytle Dalton was born near Hartsville, Tennessee, March 4, 1869, the day President Grant was inaugurated for the first time. He was educated in the public schools and at the Hartsville Masonic Institute. after which he taught for six years in the public schools. His work as a teacher commended him to the authorities, and in 1900 he was elected county superintendent, which office he held for six years, when he re- signed. By his own efforts he has achieved success in a financial way. and is universally recognized as "a man of affairs." He owns a fine farm of four hundred acres, as well as property in the city of Hartsville,
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holds stock in both the banks of that city, and is a director in the Bank of Hartsville.
Upon arriving at his majority Mr. Dalton adopted the political faith of his honored father and cast his lot with the Democratic party. His fidelity to Democratic principles and his activity in winning victories for his party marked him as a leader, and in 1906 he was elected to the office of county court clerk. It was this election that caused his resignation as county superintendent of schools. At the close of his first term as county clerk he was reelected and is now serving his second term. Whether as private citizen, teacher, superintendent of schools, or clerk of the court, Mr. Dalton has always been diligent and conscientious in the discharge of his duties, and his reelection was but the natural reward of his faithfulness and executive ability. Mr. Dalton is a Knight of Pytlias and a past chancellor of his lodge.
In 1905 he married Miss Ada, daughter of Henry Dalton, a farmer of Trousdale county, and they have two children-Lillian and Lois. Mr. and Mrs. Dalton are both members of the Christian church.
EDWIN S. PAYNE. Shakespeare tells us that "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Whatever degree of greatness or success that may have come to Edwin S. Payne has been the result of his own well directed efforts and the exercise of sound business judgment and sagacity. He was born in that part of Sumner county, Tennessee, which now constitutes Trousdale county, April 30, 1844, a son of Edwin L. and Sallie D. (McAllester) Payne. His father was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, in 1812, came with his parents to Tennessee in 1818 and passed the remainder of his life in that state, his death occurring in 1872. He was twice married. His first wife was a Miss Haynes, and to this union four children were born, all now deceased. After her death he married Sallie D. McAllester and this marriage was blessed with eight children, five of whom are yet living, the subject of this sketch being the second in the order of birth. The mother of these children was born in Smith county, Tennessee, and died in Trousdale county, Tennessee. Mr. Payne knows but very little regard- ing his paternal ancestry further than that his father was a lifelong Democrat in his political affiliations and for a number of years held the office of magistrate. He was a quiet, unostentatious farmer all his life, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, his second wife having been a Baptist. Garland MeAllester, Mr. Payne's maternal grandfather, was an early settler of Tennessee. He married a Miss Flower. Both grandfathers were slaveholders prior to the Civil war.
Edwin S. Payne's early life was that of the average farmer's son. The summer months were passed in assisting in the farm work, and in the winter seasons he attended the country schools, where by close ap- plication to his studies he managed to acquire a good, practical education.
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At the age of seventeen years he enlisted in Company D, Second Ten- nessee Confederate Cavalry, and served with that organization for nearly four years, taking part in the battles of Shiloh, Iuka, and a number of other engagements. He was paroled at Gainesville, Alabama, May 11, 1865, and returned home to build up his shattered fortunes. At that time his total capital consisted of $1.35, but with courage and determina- tion he went to work upon the farm, where he continued for two years. He then accepted a position as clerk in a store and followed that occupa- tion for two years, at the end of which time he went into a small store with his father. Here he laid the foundation of his fortune. From that time to the present he has been interested in mercantile pursuits, and for forty-three years he has occupied the same site at Castalian Springs, where he has a large and well assorted stock of general merchandise, and is regarded as one of the successful merchants of that section. He is also extensively interested in farming operations. His first purchase of land was that of one and three-fourths acres, but he now owns an excel- lent farm of 550 acres in one body, having recently sold two hundred acres. Mr. Payne was for several years president of the People's National Bank, and is now one of the directors of that institution. He holds stock in the Montgomery & Moore Company and the Armistead- Mckinney Company, of Nashville, and is also one of the stockholders in the Willard Tobacco Company. In addition to these holdings he owns property in the city of Gallatin, Tennessee, and is considered by those who know him best to be one of the wealthiest men in Trousdale county. In the accumulation of his fortune he has been guided by principles of fairness and square dealing, believing that "A good name is greater than great riches."
Mr. Payne is a member of the Masonic fraternity and has been hon- ored by being elected worshipful master of his lodge. He is a stanch supporter of the Democratic party and its principles, but has never been an aspirant for public office.
In 1872 Mr. Payne was united in marriage with Miss Ellen, daughter of Baxter Lipscom, one of the pioneers of Sumner county, Tennessee, and to this union were born four children, two of whom are yet living, Thomas S., residing in Nashville, and Henry C. in California. Mrs. Payne died November 27, 1897, and on April 24, 1900, Mr. Payne married for his second wife Mrs. John T. Reynolds, who was Miss Lizzie Martin, of Maury county, Tennessee. Three children have come to bless this second marriage. Allie May and Lewis Carr are attending school, and Frayola F., three years old, is the baby of the family. Mrs. Payne is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
HUMPHREY BATE, M. D. For a period of about forty-five years Sum- ner county has had the services in professional capacity of a father and son named Bate. The family name has many other distinctions to make it notable in local history, and in good citizenship, in business and
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military life the members of the family have always made good records. The present Dr. Bate well upholds the high standing of the family, and is one of the leadiig practitioners of medicine in the county.
Dr. Humphrey Bate was born in Sumner county, May 25, 1875, a son of Humphrey H. and Nancy (Simpson) Bate. The maternal grand- father Simpson came from his native state of North Carolina into Suni- ner county, Tennessee, as one of the early settlers. The paternal grand- father, Humphrey Bate, also came from North Carolina, and spent most of his active life on a farm in Sumner county. He had the distinction of being the first master of the Masonic lodge at Hartsville.
The education begun in the common schools of Sumner county, Dr. Bate continued in the University of Tennessee and was graduated in medicine from the University of Nashville in 1897. His medical prac- tice began soon after, but in 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish- American war, he entered the United States army as surgeon and con- tinned until the close of the war. All his time is devoted to the demands of a large and lucrative practice. He is a member of the county and state medical societies, and has a nice farm property near his residence at Castalian Springs.
Dr. Bate was married in 1898 to Miss Gertrude Brown, a daughter of C. H. Brown, who is a retired farmer now living in Gallatin. Dr. Bate by his first wife had two children, namely: Nell and Edna, both of whom live in Gallatin. Mrs. Bate, the mother of these daughters, died in 1909. She was a member of the Christian church. In June, 1910, Dr. Bate was united in marriage with Miss Ethel Hesson, a daughter of Harvey Hesson, who was born in Smith county, this state. By this marriage there is one child, Alcyone. Mrs. Bate has member- ship with the Baptist church. Dr. Bate is a Democrat, but takes no active part in politics.
ANDREW J. SPARKMAN. The organizer of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Bethpage, of which he is now cashier, Mr. Sparkman is one of the vigorous and enterprising business men of Sumner county. He has been farmer, banker and public official, and his career up to middle life contains all the elements of substantial success.
On the paternal side the Sparkman family originated in Ireland, where the great-grandfather of the Bethpage banker was born. Coming from that country, he settled first in North Carolina and then in Ten- nessee. The grandfather, whose name was George Sparkman, was born in North Carolina, whence he came to Tennessee with his parents and spent his life in this state as a farmer. During his time and among his contemporaries, he was one of the wealthiest men in Van Buren county. The largest slave owner in his section, he used their labor in the cultivation of his broad estate of a thousand acres. Besides raising all the crops of the fields, he specialized in stock. His family consisted
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of ten or twelve children, and to each of them as they grew up he gave a fine estate, so that each one was comfortably fixed at the beginning of his career. On the maternal side the grandfather was Solomon Spark- man, of North Carolina, whence he came to Tennessee at an early day, and the maiden name of his wife was Goddard. She attained to the great age of one hundred and two years.
The father of Mr. Sparkman was long a successful farmer in Van Buren county. His name was Solomon Sparkman, and he was born in Van Buren county in 1842, and died in 1904. His wife, Martha Jane (Sparkman) Sparkman, was born in 1844 and died in 1907. During the Civil war he favored the Confederate cause, but instead of going to the front on actual military duty he remained at home and assisted in the manufacture of ammunition, which was just as necessary to the service as that of carrying a musket. He and his wife were parents of eight children, four of whom are now living, named: Moses, Andrew, George and Wiley. The old homestead in Van Buren county is still owned by three of these sons, who bought out the other heirs. The parents were both members of the Baptist church, and in politics the father was an independent.
Andrew J. Sparkman was born in Van Buren county, Tennessee, March 20, 1872. Reared in the country, at an early age he determined to acquire a better than ordinary education. In order to pay his way through Burritt College at Spencer, where he was graduated in 1897, he worked for some time as janitor, this service paying his tuition there. He also taught school for four years, and then for a year was at work on a farm. His next promotion in life was his election to the office of county court clerk of Van Buren county, a position in which he rendered efficient service for eight years. From this state he then moved out to California, from there came back as far as Oklahoma, where he bought a farm. Then in 1909, locating at Gallatin, he purchased the Judge B. D. Bell place. In the same year he bought the old James Head farm, which he sold in 1910. The latter year he undertook the organization at Bethpage of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, of which he has since been cashier. This is one of the solid institutions of Sumner county, and has had a very prosperous career during its first two or three years existence. There is at the present time a surplus of $10,000 with profits of $2,500, and the deposits amount to more than $40,000. During his residence in East Tennessee Mr. Sparkman dealt to a considerable extent in coal lands, and his career has been a money-making one in nearly every venture which he has taken up.
He is active in Democratic politics, although he is at the present time not an aspirant for any official honors. His fraternal affiliation is with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while he and his wife are members of the Baptist church.
In 1900 occurred his marriage to Miss Myra Safley, a daughter of
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Lawson Safley, who was a farmer of Warren county for many years and in connection with his agriculture was a. minister of the Baptist church.
RICHARD C. OWEN. One of the representative business men of Harts- ville is Richard C. Owen, who is the proprietor of a large tobacco manu- factory and an active public spirited citizen. He is one of the fourth generation to reside in Tennessee, his great-grandfather having come from North Carolina at an early date and settled in Williamson county. His grandfather, Richard C. Owen, for whom he was named, and his father, Robert Owen, were both born in Tennessee and there passed their entire lives. Robert Owen was born in Williamson county in 1840. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh and after some time in the hospital returned to his farm in Rutherford county, where he became interested in the tobacco business. He was successful in his business ventures and left an estate valued at some $50,000 upon his death in 1909. He married Miss Powell Dobson, a daughter of Baker Dobson, both she and her father having been born in Williamson county, Ten- nessee, and to this union were born five children, two deceased, the subject of this sketch being the second in order of birth. Henrietta married Robert Brown and lives in Rutherford county, Tennessee, and Mary married Condon Covington and resides in Williamson county. The mother of these children is a member of the Baptist church, to which her husband also belonged during his lifetime. He was also a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Richard C. Owen was born in Rutherford county, Tennessee, July 28, 1870. He was educated at Eagleville, Tennessee, and upon arriving at manhood embarked in the tobacco business, which he has successfully followed from that time to the present. The Owen family is of Welsh descent, and from his Welsh ancestors Mr. Owen has inherited those traits of industry and foresight which have contributed in no small degree to his financial success. For several years he was at the head of a tobacco company at Eagleville, but in 1904 he removed to Hartsville, where he established his present factory. Here he uses from four hun- dred thousand to five hundred thousand pounds of leaf tobacco every year and places upon the market eight different brands of manufactured tobacco. Every process of manufacture is constantly under his personal supervision and great care is exercised to see that his goods are kept up to the proper standard. The result of this policy is a large number of satisfied customers and a steadily increasing patronage. Mr. Owen classes himself as an independent Democrat politically, though he has never been an active political worker. He keeps himself well informed, however, on all questions relating to public policies, and always does his duty, as he sees it, on election day. His fraternal relations are with the Knights of Pythias and he is a member of the Baptist church.
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In 1895 Mr. Owen married Miss Anna Bell, daughter of Leonidas D. Bell, a successful farmer of Williamson county and a veteran of the great Civil war. To this union have been born six children-Robert, Hainey, Carter, Dean, Roy and Ralph-all at home with their parents or attending school. Mrs. Owen holds membership in the Christian church.
JOHN E. EDGERTON. It has fallen to the lot of John E. Edgerton to carry on the business of the establishment founded by his brother, Dr. H. K. Edgerton, in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1909, and he is conducting the activities of the plant of the Lebanon Woolen Mills with a progress- iveness and enterprise that bids fair to make it one of the solid and sub- stantial manufacturing concerns of the South. Mr. Edgerton is a native North Carolinian, born in Johnston county, on October 2, 1879, and is the son of Gabriel G. and Harriet (Copeland) Edgerton, both of whom were born in North Carolina.
Mr. G. G. Edgerton was born in 1842, and passed his life in that state, where he was all his days occupied with farming interests and there died in 1897. He was a son of William Edgerton, also a native of the state of North Carolina, and a Quaker, who was interested in the manufacture of cotton and in farming, and was a man of some posi- tion in his time. Gabriel and Harriet Edgerton reared a family of nine children, of which number seven are yet living.
As a boy in the home of his parents, John E. Edgerton attended the common schools of North Carolina, and later entered Vanderbilt Univer- sity, where he took his B. A. degree in 1902 and his master's degree in 1903. Thereafter he taught one year at Castle Heights, in Lebanon, after which he went to Memphis, and taught one year in the University school at that place. His next move took him to Columbia, where he founded the Columbia Military Academy at that place, and there he remained for seven years. His brother, Dr. Edgerton, had in 1909 founded the Lebanon Woolen Mills, with a capital stock of $100,000, and was the first president of that concern, and, indeed, its only president thus far, for he still maintains that important relation to the plant. In 1912 Mr. Edgerton was called from his work in Columbia Military Academy to assume the duties of secretary, treasurer and general man- ager of the new and flourishing enterprise, and he is now the incumbent of those offices. The concern has experienced a steady and luxuriant growth in the short time of its existence thus far, and gives promise of taking a high rank in manufacturing circles in the South, at its present rate of development. Its trade comes from all sections of the United States, and the output of the factory is being constantly increased to meet the demands of the woolen blanket market.
Mr. Edgerton and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church South. He is a member of his college fraternity, the Kappa Vol. V-11
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Sigma, and is also affiliated with the Masonic order. He is a Democrat, but finds little time to devote to the politics of the county, the demands of the business of which he is so important a factor making drafts upon his time and energies that permit of no dallying with outside interests.
On December 15, 1909, Mr. Edgerton was united in marriage with Miss Harriet Figuers, the daughter of T. N. Figuers, a successful mer- chant of Columbia, Tennessee, and one of the more prominent men of that city.
JAMES H. FERGUSON. Among the fine country homesteads in Mont- gomery county, up near the Kentucky line, is that of James H. Fer- guson, who for thirty years or more has been one of the prosperous producers of the staple crops of this locality and a citizen of standing and influence in his community.
Mr. Ferguson was born in Todd county, Kentucky, August 5, 1850, a son of John D. and Nancy M. (Meriwether) Ferguson. Both the Fergusons and Meriwethers have been families of distinction and worth in Todd county for many years. Robert Ferguson, the paternal grand- father, who married a Miss Babcock, was a native of Scotland, who early in the last century came to America and lived in Massachusetts and Virginia and finally in Kentucky, where he died. He was a minister of the Christian church, and his family have furnished several valued servants to that denomination. One of his sons, Jesse B. Ferguson, gained a reputation throughout the South for his power as a preacher. John D. Ferguson, the father, was also a minister of the Christian church. He was born in Massachusetts in 1816, accompanied his parents to Virginia, where he was liberally educated in the William and Mary College, and then took up the work of the church, to which he gave most of his years until his death. He also conducted a farm during his residence in Todd county. His first wife, Nancy Meriwether, was a daughter of Charles N. Meriwether, a Virginian who spent most of his active life in Todd county, Kentucky, where he was a wealthy farmer and stock-raiser. Nancy Ferguson had two children, James H. and Carrie D., who married Douglas Meriwether, and resides in Kentucky. The father's second marriage was to L. Vaughn, and of their three chil- dren only one is living, R. V. Ferguson, of Todd county. John D. Fer- guson died in 1892, and his first wife passed away in 1857.
After getting the fundamentals of an education in the common schools of his native county, James H. Ferguson took up farming as a regular vocation, and as he has made it a business and devoted the best energies of his lifetime to it his success has been more than ordinary. In 1880 he moved to Montgomery county, Tennessee, where he acquired five hun- dred and twenty acres. Every year since then his tobacco, corn, wheat and hogs have been no small contribution to the productive resources of this county and have brought him a regular revenue.
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In 1877 Mr. Ferguson married Miss Parthena Kimbrough. Her father, Garth Kimbrough, a native of Virginia, settled in Tennessee many years ago, and was one of the successful farmers of the state up to the time of his death. Mr. Ferguson and wife have four children: Mildred C., at home; John D., a resident of Nebraska; Kittie, the wife of T. M. Anderson, who lives on Mr. Ferguson's farm; and James, a daughter, living at home. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson are members of the Christian church, and he is affiliated with the Elks Lodge No. 601. He has always taken an active interest in local Democratic politics, but has never sought any official honors for herself.
WILLIAM EDGAR JOHNSON. One of the live, wide-awake and progres- sive business men of Lewis county, Tennessee, is William Edgar John- son, of Hohenwald, mayor of the town and a successful contractor and builder there who is a worthy representative of Tennessee's energetic younger generation of business men and industrial workers. He was born in Perry county, this state, June 23, 1878, and received his public school education in Maury and Hickman counties, later attending the Dickson Normal College. Since entering upon his independent busi- ness career he has been identified with various enterprises, was engaged for a time in the mercantile business at Hohenwald and also in the planing mill business at the same place, and the while was engaged more or less in building and contracting, to which line of business endeavor he now gives his whole attention. He is interested in his work from a personal business standpoint and also because he takes a real pride in what is accomplished in that manner toward the material upbuilding and development of his town and community and he very loyally claims that Hohenwald is one of the livest, most progressive towns of Tennessee. This same spirit is evinced in his activities as mayor of Hohenwald, to which office he was elected in July, 1912, for any project that means the progress and prosperity of the town receives his cordial and hearty support. Mr. Johnson himself owns several fine buildings in Hohenwald, among them being a fine concrete business block, and he is also heavily interested in real estate in Lewis county.
He comes from an energetic and enterprising family that has held a worthy place in the business and industrial circles of this section of Tennessee for upwards of a century. Andrew Jackson Johnson came into Tennessee from his native North Carolina about 1820 and located in Maury county, where he married Median Cook. He was a tanner by trade and had a farm and tan yard in Maury county, from whence he later removed to Hickman county, continuing in the latter location to be extensively engaged in tanning. He was a Confederate soldier during the Civil war and while in that service was captured by the Federals and held a prisoner for some time. After his discharge as a prisoner he went to Arkansas to investigate some properties he owned
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there and while in that state, which was in 1865, he died of pneumonia at the age of sixty. He and his wife were the parents of four children, the youngest of whom was William Brantly Johnson, the father of William Edgar, born in Maury county, Tennessee in 1850. William Brantly Johnson grew to manhood in Maury county, receiving there but limited educational opportunities as the public school advantages of that day were not such as are afforded the present youth of Tennessee. After his marriage he was engaged in the mercantile business at Sawdust Valley and at Beardston, Perry county, later removing to West Tennessee, where he continued in the same line of business. From there he went to Texas and took up farming, but subsequently returned to Tennessee and passed away in Hohenwald in 1900, at the age of fifty. Politically he was a Democrat, and fraternally he was affiliated with the Masonic order. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church South. The latter, who was Miss Martha Pipkin before her marriage, was born in Maury county, September 9, 1858, and is yet living, being now a resident of Texas. To these parents were born six children, of whom William Edgar was second in birth and the eldest son and of whom five are now living, namely: William Edgar, our sub- ject ; Howard, now a resident of Texas; Jesse, who is located at Hohen- wald; Burton, now residing in California; and Maude, whose home is in Texas.
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