USA > Tennessee > A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume V > Part 20
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William Edgar Jolinson was married September 10, 1902, to Miss Lillian Williams, a daughter of Sep Williams, of Montgomery county, Tennessee. To this union have been born three sons, Malcolm, Edward and Philip. Mr. Johnson is a Democrat in political views, and in a fraternal way is associated as a member of the Hohenwald Lodge No. 607 Free and Accepted Masons and of Hohenwald Lodge No. 293 Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.
DR. HOWARD K. EDGERTON, of Lebanon, Tennessee, one of the most prominent and popular physicians of Wilson county, is a native of North Carolina but has spent full twenty years in Lebanon in the useful and noble work of his profession. His value to his community is not limited to that of his medical ability, however, for he is also identified with the commercial life of Lebanon and is recognized as one of the town's most public-spirited and useful citizens. On the side of his paternal progeni- tors Dr. Edgerton is of English lineage and is descended from May- flower ancestry, three of the Edgertons having been passengers on that famous ship. With the other colonists these immigrants first settled in Massachusetts but later removed to Connecticut, and from thence mem- bers of the family migrated South and established the North Carolina branch of the family.
Dr. Edgerton was born in North Carolina on October 22, 1865, a son of Gabriel G. and Harriett (Copeland) Edgerton. The father, born
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in North Carolina in 1842, passed his life in Johnson county, that state, as a farmer, in which pursuit he was quite successful, and passed away there in 1896. He was a stalwart Democrat in political belief and for a number of years was a commissioner of Johnson county. He was a son of William Edgerton, a North Carolinian by birth and a Quaker who spent his business career as a farmer and cotton manufacturer and was a man of substance for his day. Harriett (Copeland) Edger- ton, born in 1844 in North Carolina, was also of English descent. She departed life in 1906. Both parents were devoted members of the Metho- dist Episcopal church South.
Of their family of nine children, Dr. Edgerton was eighth in order of birth and is one of seven yet living. He received his earlier educa- tion in Guilford county, North Carolina and made his professional pre- paration at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, from the medi- cal department of which he was graduated in 1889. For the first three years thereafter, or until 1892, he practiced in North Carolina; then he came to Lebanon, Tennessee, where twenty years have now been spent in the earnest, attentive and skillful application of his medical knowledge. As a physician he excels, has reaped the reward of a most successful practitioner, and is recognized as of the foremost rank of his profession in this section of Tennessee. Dr. Edgerton has builded his success out of his own energies and ability and the lucrative prac- tice he commands and the very comfortable estate he has accumulated have come to him by no magician's wand but represent the rewards of his own merit. He is a member of the Wilson county and the Tennessee State Medical Societies and of the American Medical Association.
On January 1, 1890, he was married to Miss Willie Pate, daughter of Stephen Pate. Mr. Pate, a native and for years a farmer in Putnam county, Tennessee, now resides with Dr. and Mrs. Edgerton. He is a Confederate veteran of the Civil war and gave four years of loyal service to support the cause of the Southland. The family circle of Dr. and Mrs. Edgerton has been broadened and brightened by the advent of two children, Lucile and Howard, both of whom are now attending school. Mrs. Edgerton is a member of the Christian church, while Dr. Edgerton is a Methodist. Politically he is a Democrat. In a business way he holds a large interest in the woolen mills at Lebanon being president of the Lebanon Woolen Mills, and also has extensive real estate holdings there. He and his family enjoy one of the most beautiful homes of Lebanon.
AMZI W. HOOKER. Conspicuous among the foremost business men of Lebanon, Tennessee, is Amzi W. Hooker, president of the Lebanon National Bank and an influential citizen of this community in other than business relations. He is a college man, a graduate of law, ener- getic, capable and resourceful, a representative of that type of citizen
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that not only sustains the prosperity of a commonwealth but pushes its development.
Born at Lexington, Mississippi, December 25, 1865, Mr. Hooker is a son of Judge John J. and Catharine (Beall) Hooker, both natives of Mississippi. The mother, born in 1833, was a daughter of Otho Beall and passed away in 1866, leaving two sons: John J. Hooker, now engaged in the railroad business in Mississippi, and Amzi, who was then but an infant. Judge John J. Hooker, the father, was born in 1823 and died in his native state in 1873. He was educated in Mississippi, was admitted to the bar when about twenty-five years of age and passed a very successful career in law, accumulating a large estate from the remunerations of his professional labors. For a number of years he served as a chancery judge. After the death of his first wife he contracted a second marriage and to that union was born a daughter, Eva B., who is now Mrs. S. S. Hudson, of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Mr .. Hudson is one of the prominent men of his state and was formerly state's attorney of Mississippi. Both parents of Mr. Hooker were devout members of the Baptist church and Judge Hooker took a leading part in the work of that denomination in Mississippi. He was of an open-hearted, charitable disposition and substantially supported his religious sentiment by large donations of money for church work. In political belief and adherency he was a Democrat.
Amzi W. Hooker spent his boyhood in Mississippi and in a prepara- tory school there he laid the foundation for his subsequent collegiate training. After two years of study in Richmond College, Richmond, Virginia, he entered the University of Mississippi and concluded the junior year in the latter institution. He then took a course in a busi- ness college at Cleveland, Ohio, and following that he matriculated at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, where he completed a course in law and was graduated in June, 1887. Instead of becoming a law practitioner, however, he engaged in the general insurance business and continued in that line ten years. He then embarked in the lumber business and has continued his identification with this line of business to the present time, his lumber sales extending all over this section of the state. As previously mentioned, he is president of the Lebanon National Bank, one of the solid and popular financial institutions of this section of the state, and he is also a part owner of the interests of the Castle Heights Training School at Lebanon and has extensive real estate holdings. With keen business acumen Mr. Hooker has employed his inheritance, both in the way of mental traits and of money, to the best of advantage so that what he has accumulated represents the rewards of his own ability and endeavors.
Mr. Hooker has been twice married. His first marriage occurred in June, 1887, and united him to Miss Gertrude Kirkpatrick, who was born in Lebanon and resided there until her death in 1894, when she
NoBurton MS.
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left a daughter, Katherine. She was a member of the Presbyterian church. In 1901 Mr. Hooker married Alice, daughter of Judge W. H. Williamson, a prominent attorney of Lebanon. Mrs. Hooker's mother, prior to her marriage to Judge Williamson, was the widow of Gen. John Hunt Morgan, the famed raider and Confederate soldier of the Civil war. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hooker has been born one son, John J. Hooker, now attending school. Both are members of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Hooker is the elder of his church and is secretary of the board of trustees of Cumberland University. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.
W. P. BARTON. Although now practically retired from active life, and giving most of his time to his farm, W. P. Barton, of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, led an active professional life for many years. As one of the most prominent physicians in the various localities in which he practiced he attained a high standing in his profession and became so skilled in diagnosis and the cure of disease that his services were in constant demand and he made a fortune in his professional career. Dr. Barton is now content to rest, or rather to lead a less strenuous life. His interest in public affairs remains unabated and his opinions, ripened by contact and knowledge of many kinds of humanity, are always lis- tened to with the greatest respect, for he has gained wisdom with the passing years.
W. P. Barton was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, on the 12th of May, 1856, the son of J. W. and Sarah C. (Neal) Barton, both of whom were born in Tennessee. J. W. Barton was born in 1819, and grew up in the county where he was born, receiving his education in the country schools. He taught for a few terms and then settled down to farming, in which occupation he spent all of his life. He owned a few slaves and had a good farm, and was accounted one of the success- ful men of the county. He married Sarah C. Neal on the 11th of March, 1852, she being the daughter of Seth Jordan Neal and Frances (Kimbro) Neal, who were both born in Rutherford county, Tennessee, and spent their entire lives on a farm in their native state. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Barton, of whom five are now living, W. P. Barton being the third in order of birth. All of the children live in Wilson county, and are all successfully engaged in farming. Mrs. Barton is living with her son, W. P., having reached the venerable age of eighty-five. The father died in 1910, at the age of ninety-one. Both of the parents belonged to the Baptist church, and his political affilia- tions were with the Know-Nothing party when that party first came into existence, but he afterward became a Democrat. The father of J. W. Barton, was Stephen P. Barton, and his mother was Ellen (Baird) Barton, both of whom were natives of North Carolina. They came into
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Tennessee and settled on a farm in Wilson county, about 1800, and here they lived during the remainder of their lives.
W. P. Barton received his first education in the country schools and then was sent to Mount Juliet, Tennessee, for a course in private instruction under T. H. Freeman. He was prepared for college under the tuition of this man, and entering Vanderbilt University was grad- uated from the institution in 1882. Going thence to the University of Tennessee he completed the course and was graduated from there in 1885. In 1893 he received a degree from the University of Nashville. Most of his studies had been in the scientific or medical field and after leaving college he began the practice of medicine. He first located at Silver Springs, Tennessee, and practiced there for three years. Then he moved to Texas and was located for a time at Fate, later removing to Roy City. He was very successful in his practice here and made a small sized fortune. In 1895 he moved back to Wilson county and gave up his practice. He has not been able to escape entirely from the duties of a physician for a number of his friends simply will not consent to having any one else attend them when they are ill. He owns four hun- dred and fifty acres of land comprising his home farm, besides two hundred acres nearby, also three thousand eight hundred aeres in Rockwall, Collin, Hunt and Deafsmith counties, Texas, and is worth about one hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. Barton and his family are members of the Baptist church, and in polities he is an independent Democrat. He takes much interest in fraternal affairs, belonging to the Masons, in which order he is a Royal Arch Mason.
On the 19th of December, 1889, Mr. Barton married Lou May Me- Dowell, but she only lived a few months, dying on June 29, 1890. In February, 1895, Mr. Barton married again, his second wife being Gela Curd, a daughter of Dr. J. M. Curd, who lives in Wilson county. She died May 5, 1897, leaving two children; Lon Ellen, who lives at home and W. P. Barton, who is at present attending the Webb School at Bell Buckle, Tennessee.
Mr. Barton began life with little or nothing, but with the determina- tion to succeed, and considering that the first step along the road to success was the acquiring of a good education, he saved rigorously in order to make this possible, teaching school part of the time to pay for his medical education. He feels that the time and money was well spent and certainly no life could be better proof than his that an educa- tion means success, provided it is used in the right way.
RUFUS P. MCCLAIN. The legal career of Rufus P. McClain, of Lebanon, covers the long period of forty-five years and has been of that character that he has long been recognized as one of the strongest and ablest members of the Wilson county bar and as one of the foremost
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men of his profession in this section of Tennessee. He holds a no less honorable standing as a citizen, has represented this county in the state legislature, and through different other professional and public serv- ices and an upright walk in life has become one of the best known and highly regarded men of Wilson county. It is his native county, the date of his birth being February 28, 1838, and the whole of the nearly three-quarters of a century since then, except while he was serving the Southland as a soldier of the "gray," has been passed in the vicin- ity where he was born. His parents, John A. and Minerva (Ross) McClain, also were both natives of Wilson county, the former's birth having occurred in 1801 and that of the latter in 1808. John A. Mc- Clain passed his career as a farmer and was very successful in that pursuit, being the owner of a fine estate of 400 acres at the time of his death in 1866. His wife survived him two years, joining him in death in 1868. They reared nine of the ten children born to their union and of this family six are yet living, the subject of this sketch being the fourth in the family in order of birth. John A. McClain was a Whig in politics until the breaking up of that party, after which he was a loyal adherent of the Democratic party. Four of his sons, Wil- liam A., Rufus P., Henry Harrison and John Bell, fought during the Civil war to sustain the Confederacy. He was a member of Cumber- land Presbyterian church. William McClain, his father, was a native of North Carolina and passed from the Old North state with the early tide of emigration to Tennessee, settling in Wilson county, where he became an extensive farmer and large slave holder. The family was originally of Irish lineage. Minerva Ross McClain, the mother, was a daughter of Allen Ross, also a North Carolinian, who came to this state in an early day and participated in the warfare against the Indians that then were in this locality and menaced the settlers. He lived to be over ninety ears of age and reared a family of twelve children.
Rufus P. McClain was brought up in Wilson county and was grad- uated from the literary department of Cumberland University in 1859. In 1861 the Civil war opened and, as previously mentioned, he and three of his brothers entered the Confederate service, Rufus P. becoming a member of Hatton's regiment, which was assigned to Archer's brigade, Hill's divison of the Army of Northern Virginia, and fought under the peerless "Stonewall" Jackson. This was one of the bravest regiments of the Confederate army and saw long, hard and active service. Its opening engagement was at Seven Pines and it participated in the series of battles from Warrenton ford to Shepherdstown, including the cap- ture of Harper's Ferry, and it afterward fought at Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness campaign and in many other battles of lesser note. Mr. McClain entered the army as a private and was successively promoted to be corporal, quarter- master and finally paymaster for Hill's division, surrendering with his
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remaining comrades at Appomattox in 1865. On returning to Tennessee he took up the study of law in Cumberland University and was grad- uated from the law course in 1867. He then commenced the practice of his profession in Lebanon and from that time to the present has been extensively engaged in professional labors, his practice extending to all the courts and establishing for him the reputation of an able, conscien- tious and successful lawyer. He is and has been for some time attorney for the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Company. He served as clerk of the county court four years, as clerk and master in equity in the Wilson county court eight years, and sat as special judge of the circuit court twelve months. His public service has also included one term in the state legislature as the representative of Wilson county, his services in that body being of a character alike honorable to him- self and satisfactory to his constituents. A first class business man also, he has accumulated a very comfortable estate and is a stockholder and a director in the American National Bank at Lebanon. Another prominent citizen of this name was Josiah S. McClain, an uncle of Rufus P., who served as county court clerk forty years and was one of the best known men of Wilson county.
In 1867 Mr. McClain was united in marriage to Miss Hester Mac- Kenzie, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, who was a native of Scotland and died in Nashville, Tennessee. Mrs. McClain passed away August 15, 1910. To this union came four children: Jennie M., now Mrs. Joseph Anderson, of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Minnie, who became Mrs. Ewing Graham and resides at West Palm Beach, Florida; Hester, who became the wife of Joseph Brown and resides in Chattanooga, Ten- nessee; and Alexander M. McClain, who is a traveling salesman. Mr. McClain is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, of which his wife was also a member. Mr. McClain is a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar Mason and has served as worthy master of his lodge. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. Politically he is a stalwart supporter of Democratic policies.
DANIEL HILLMAN GOODRICH. A well known citizen of Waverly, Tennessee, is Daniel Hillman Goodrich, a loyal Tennesseean who wore the "gray" in the days of 1861-65 and who is now serving his third term as county clerk of Humphreys county. By paternal descent he comes of New England ancestry, while the Hillmans, his mother's people, were originally a New Jersey family. His birth occurred near Old Dover furnace, Stewart county, Tennessee, October 14, 1837. Justice B. Goodrich, his father, born in Connecticut in 1801, came to Kentucky as a young man and there was married to Jane H. Hillman, who was born in New Jersey in 1811. He had learned the trade of a moulder and fur- nace man and after his marriage he went into Alabama with his father- in-law, Mr. Hillman, to prospect in iron ores. At Mobile, Alabama,
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Justice Goodrich cast the first steamboat shaft cast in the South. While they were in Alabama Mr. Hillman died and Mr. Goodrich then returned to Tennessee. Being of a roving disposition, he followed his occupation first in one locality and then another where there were furnaces, and finally passed away in 1849 in Kentucky, where he died of cholera. During his later years, however, he had taken up the study of medi- - cine, making his professional preparation at the Louisville College of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, where he received his degree of M. D., and had practiced medicine in Kentucky and Missouri several years prior to his death. He was a Mason, a Whig in politics, and in religious faith and church membership was identified with the Christian denom- ination. His wife, who survived him until 1863, also was a member of the Christian church. To these parents were born eight children, of whom four grew to maturity.
Daniel Hillman Goodrich, the fifth of this family in order of birth, was educated in a seminary (Union Academy) near Triune, William- son county, Tennessee. In 1855, when yet a youth in his teens, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he entered the iron and heavy hardware business at No. 15 North Levee. On the 23d day of March, 1861, he joined Company H, Second Missouri State Guard, and was captured at Camp Jackson, on the 10th of May, 1861, by the forces of General Lyon, commanding the Federal forces, and was paroled with the rest of his command, and the members of the First Missouri State Guard, on the night of the 12th of May, 1861. Remaining in St. Louis, Mis- souri, until July, 1861, he came to Nashville, Tenn. A few days after the battle of Belmont, Missouri, he went to Columbus, Kentucky, and made application for an exchange, through General Polk, commanding the Confederate forces at Columbus, Kentucky. General Polk ordered him back to Nashville, Tennessee, to await an exchange.
Just before the fall of Nashville, Tennessee, 1862, he went to Knox- ville, expecting to join Company B, Rock City Guards, First Tennessee (Manny's Regiment) but having nothing to show that he had been exchanged, was not accepted, but was told to follow the regiment until an exchange could be arranged. He continued with the regiment (doing camp service) until after the battle of Shiloh. While in Corinth, he met Maj. H. W. Williams, of General Price's staff, who asked him if he had been exchanged. Answering in the negative, he was ordered to Atlanta, Georgia, to await exchange. Remaining in Atlanta and Mar- ietta, Georgia, about sixty days, hearing nothing from Major Williams, and having no means of getting a living, Mr. Goodrich accepted a position as agent of the Navy Department, to get up iron to make gunboat plates for the vessels under construction, at Mobile, Selma, and Columbus, Alabama, and Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, and Wil- mington, North Carolina, occupying this position until the retreat of General Joseph E. Johnston from Dalton, Georgia, when he was placed
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in charge of the Macon & Western Railroad, as headquarter railroad agent, at Atlanta, Georgia. After the fall of Atlanta, he was sent to Griffin, then to Lovejoy Station, Jonesboro, and then back to Atlanta, Georgia, at which place he was at the close of the war.
Returning to Nashville, Tennessee, he engaged in the hardware and iron business until July, 1866, when he came to Humphreys county, Tennessee, locating at Hurricane Mills, remaining there until September, 1875, when he came to Waverly, Tennessee, where he has remained, being engaged in the dry-goods and other business, until 1893, when he was appointed postmaster, under Cleveland's second administration and served four years, then going into the mercantile business and remained in that until he was elected county court clerk, which office he has occupied ever since.
Mr. Goodrich is a firm Democrat in belief, a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, a member of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and one of the oldest Masons in the state, having been made a Master Mason in 1858 in St. Louis, Missouri.
On May 19, 1881, he married Miss Sallie C. Hancock, of Wilson county, Tennessee, from which union have been born the following children : Lev. Hancock, now a resident of Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Sophia D., now Mrs. Harry D. Scott, of Memphis, Tennessee; Ellen Louise, Daniel H., and Sarah Hilda (twins) who are at the parental home. The family, except Lev. H., are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church, South, of which church Mr. Goodrich has been a steward for thirty years.
REV. SAMUEL A. STEEL, D. D. Dr. Steel, who is now pastor of a large church in Columbia, South Carolina, has long enjoyed the repu- tation of being a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. He has been in charge of the largest churches of his denomina- tion in the cities of Richmond, Virginia, Columbus, Mississippi, Mem- phis and Nashville, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, and Kansas City, Missouri, and has filled important positions in the editorial and educa- tional work of his church. His career has been marked by fidelity and earnestness, and he has had his full share of the "heat and burden of the day." Samuel Augustus Steel was born near Grenada, Mississippi, on October 5, 1849. His father was Rev. Ferdinand Lawrence Steel, a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and of staunch Irish ancestry ; and his mother was Miss Amanda Fitzgerald Steel (nee Hankins), who was born at Paris, Tennessee, a representative of one of the old and honored families of the state. Rev. Ferdinand L. Steel moved from North Carolina to Mississippi in 1845, and soon after entered the min- istry of the Methodist church, and was a pioneer preacher all over North Mississippi and West Tennessee. He fell a victim to an epidemic of cholera in Memphis in 1873, in the sixtieth year of his age. His widow
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