USA > Tennessee > A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume V > Part 26
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Mr. Hardison married, October 29, 1867, Martha G. McLean, who was born in Marshall county, Tennessee, a daughter of Andrew and Eliza- beth (Denney) McLean. Mr. and Mrs. Hardison have two children living, namely : Elizabeth MeLean, widow of M. A. Montgomery; and Humphrey, who succeeded his father in business. Blanche, their eldest child, lived but one year, and William T., their youngest son, died at the age of twenty-one years. Humphrey Hardison married Elizabeth E. Escott, and they have two children, William Thomas Hardison, the second; and Frances Scott Hardison. Mr. and Mrs. William Thomas Hardison united with the Presbyterian church when young, and have reared their children in that faith.
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E. B. CHAPPELL, D. D. As Sunday school editor for the Methodist Episcopal church South, Dr. Chappell has the distinction of writing for more people than any other editor or writer in the entire South. He is one of the senior men in southern Methodism, has been connected with the ministry and official work of the church for more than thirty years and now occupies one of the most responsible places in the church service.
Dr. E. B. Chappell was born in Perry county, Tennessee, December 27, 1853, a son of W. B. and Elizabeth (Whitaker) Chappell. The Chap- pell family came from England and settled in Virginia in the year 1635, and has been represented in southern civic and professional life for many generations. The paternal grandparents were William and Sallie (Palmer) Chappell, both of whom were born in Virginia, moved out to Tennessee in 1827, locating on a farm in Maury county near Columbia. The grandfather was a man of ability, both in business and public affairs, owned a number of slaves and conducted a large plantation. Nearly all his active life he was a class leader in the Methodist church.
Mrs. W. B. Chappell, the mother, was born in North Carolina, in 1831, and is now deceased. Her husband was born in Tennessee in 1828 and died in 1900. He was educated in this state and spent all his life here. By occupation he was a farmer, and was a man of more than usual edu- cation for his day. He filled the office of county surveyor and was very influential in his community. For many years he was officially con- nected with the Methodist church and took much part in Sunday school work. In politics he was a Whig and later a Democrat. He was twice married, and by the first marriage there were four children. After the death of his first wife he married a Miss Gillham, and there were five children by that union. E. B. Chappell was the oldest child. The others are as follows: W. W. Chappell, who resides on a farm near Nashville; Sallie, wife of E. S. Gillham, a resident in west Tennessee; Anna, wife of H. A. Grimes, of Oklahoma. The children of the second marriage were : Charles P., a merchant of Tupelo, Mississippi ; Summers. a farmer in Wayne county, Tennessee; Mrs. Grady Jones, of Waverly, Tennessee; Rev. A. C. Chappell, in the ministry of the Methodist church South at Waco, Texas; Rev. C. G. Chappell, also a minister of that denom- ination and stationed at Gatesville, Texas. Both the latter are prominent in the ministry and have excellent charges. The maternal grandparents of E. B. Chappell were James Whitaker and wife, the latter being a Lyon. They were born in North Carolina, came to Tennessee in 1846, settling in Wayne county, where the grandfather was a farmer and pros- perous planter.
E. B. Chappell received his education at the Webb School, at that time at Culleoka, Tenn., and was graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1879. The first two years after his graduation he spent as principal of a conference school and in 1882 took up the active work of the ministry in the Texas conference. He preached in Texas for nine years. being
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stationed at LaGrange, San Antonio and Austin, having the best appoint- ments in the state. Then removing to St. Louis he served two of the leading churches of that city, and in 1898 came to Nashville, where he was pastor of the West End church for four years and of McKendree church for four years. In May, 1906, he was elected to his present office as Sunday school editor of the Methodist church South. He is also chairman of the Sunday school board of the church.
Mr. Chappell married Miss Jennie Headlee, daughter of Rev. J. H. Headless, of the St. Louis conference. The marriage was celebrated in 1880 and four children have been born, namely : F. W. Chappell, a civil engineer, who makes his home at Dallas, Texas; Ethel, who married W. A. Smart, and lives at Portsmouth, Virginia, her husband being a pastor of the Methodist church there, and his father one of the distinguished ministers of the denomination; Helen, at home; and E. B. Chappell, Jr., in business at Houston, Texas. Mr. Chappell is prominent in the Masonic Order, having attained thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite.
JOSEPH D. HAMILTON. Treasurer of the Board of Missions for the Methodist Episcopal church South, Mr. Hamilton has held this respon- sible position for the past fifteen years, and is one of the ablest men con- nected with the business organization of the church. He is a native of Nashville, and for many years was in business in this city, previous to his election as treasurer of the Board of Missions.
Joseph D. Hamilton was born at Nashville, December 15, 1845, and the family had been identified with the country west of the Alleghenies for more than a century. His parents were Mortimer and Emeline (Hill) Hamilton. 'His paternal grandparents were Joseph D. and Sallie (Mor- gan) Hamilton, the former a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia, whence he moved into Kentucky as an early settler, and for many years was cashier of the bank of Russellville. Joseph D. Hamilton was a man who enjoyed unusual success, although his life came to a premature end. The maternal grandparents were Thomas and Sallie (Woods) Hill. The former was a native of Kentucky, and was a first cousin of General A. P. Hill, of Confederate fame. He followed business as a merchant and was owner of a line of steamboats and previous to the war owned many slaves.
Mortimer Hamilton, the father, was born in Russellville, Kentucky, in 1816, and died in 1879. His wife was born at Nashville in 1816, and her death occurred in 1907. The father was educated in Kentucky, but when a young man moved to Nashville where he was in the drug business during the remainder of his life. He and his wife had eight children, only three of whom are now living, the two daughters being Mary and Emeline, both unmarried. The father was very prominent in the affairs of the Methodist church South, serving as an official in his church until death. He was a Democrat in politics, and a Mason who took all the
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degrees of the York Rite, including the Knights Templar, and held the various chairs in his lodge.
Joseph D. Hamilton received his education in the public schools, and just before the close of the war enlisted and saw brief service with the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment of Infantry. Returning from this ex- perience he engaged in the hardware business with his uncle, J. M. Hamilton, at Nashville, the firm being known as J. M. Hamilton & Com- pany. Some time later he became identified with the manufacturing of paper and bags, under the name of Morgan & Hamilton Company. This was his active business line until 1898, when he was elected treasurer of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal church South. Mr. Hamilton has the important responsibility of handling a million and a half dollars every year, and has charge of the funds collected in all the churches of the Southern Methodist denomination for missions. He gives his whole time to this business and has no other commercial interests.
In 1891 he married Miss Mary G. McTyeire, oldest daughter of Bishop H. N. McTyeire, whose name was for years a household word in Method- ism and who was the founder of Vanderbilt University at Nashville.
Mr. Hamilton is a Democrat in politics, and is a steward in the Me- Kendree church at Nashville, being also a member of the official board.
DAVID R. PICKENS, M. D. Representing one of the oldest families of Marshall county, Dr. Pickens has been extending the recognition of the name in the field of medicine and surgery, and is accounted one of the ablest young surgeons of Nashville, where he has had prominent connec- tions and a large practice.
David R. Pickens was born in Mooresville, in Marshall county, Ten- nessee, August 9, 1882, a son of Z. R. and Nannie L. (MeKibbon) Pick- ens. The founder of the Pickens family in Tennessee was Hamilton Pickens, great-grandfather of the doctor, who came from South Caro- lina to this state and was one of the early settlers in Marshall county. His brother served as one of the early governors of South Carolina, where the name is particularly well known. Grandfather David B. Pickens was born in Marshall county, Tennessee, in 1812, more than a century ago, and lived to be eighty-five years of age. He was a successful farmer and trader. Z. R. Pickens, the father, was born in Marshall county, in 1860, had a high school education at Mooresville, became a farmer and stock dealer, and for the past fourteen years has resided at Belle Buckle, where he has built up a large business in buying and selling mules, being probably the best known dealer in these animals in the state. He is a member of the Presbyterian church in which he has taken considerable interest, and in politics is a Democrat. His wife was born in Maury county, in 1863, a daughter of J. Van Mckibbon, who was a native of Maury county, and a substantial farmer there. Z. R. Pickens and wife had five children, namely : David R .; Xennie, wife of William Bonner, a
Chad Gilbert
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merchant at Belle Buckle; William F., a farmer at Mooresville; Mackie, wife of Lesley Davis, of Belle Buckle, and Z. R., Jr., who is in the same business as his father, and the two are associated.
Dr. Pickens when a boy attended Webb school, and later took two years in the literary department of the Vanderbilt University. From that he began the study of medicine, and was graduated M. D. in 1907. His first experience was in the city hospital at Nashville, and he also spent two years with Dr. R. E. Fort, in the latter's private hospital. In 1910 he established himself in independent practice, and has since enjoyed unusual success. He has made a specialty of surgery, and is at the present time instructor in surgery in the Vanderbilt University. Dr. Pickens is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and the Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraterity. He belongs to the Elks Lodge No. 72, and is a member of all the medical societies and associations. In politics he is a Democrat. He gives all his time to his profession, in which he has already won a high place.
HON. CHARLES C. GILBERT. One of the most progressive members of the present legislature is Charles C. Gilbert of Nashville, in which city he has been well known for his success in the automobile business, and as the enterprising assistant secretary of the board of trade. Mr. Gilbert is young, came up through the ranks, has a keen conception of modern tendencies, and requirements of business and civic life, and his influence and creative activity in the legislature have been directed to measures of the most practical character and affecting broad and vital interests in the state.
In Bethel, Giles county, Tennessee, Charles C. Gilbert was born March 12, 1877, a son of John C. and Tranquilla (Gracy) Gilbert. His grandfather, Calvin G. Gilbert, came from North Carolina, settling in Giles county, and was the founder of the Gilbert family in this state. The maternal grandfather was J. A. Gracy, for many years a Presby- terian minister, and one of the organizers of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, his home during most of his life being in Lincoln county, where his daughter, the mother of Mr. Gilbert, was born. The mother now lives in Texas. The father, who was born in Giles county, was educated there, was a farmer, and provided well for his family. When the war broke out, he organized a company, and as captain in the Twenty- Third Tennessee Regiment went through the struggle from beginning to end. He was wounded in three different battles, was captured and spent several months in Federal prisons. After the war he returned to Giles county. He was an active member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and prominent in Masonry, having taken thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite in that order. In politics he was a Democrat. He and his wife were the parents of thirteen children, six of whom are now living, and the Nashville legislator was ninth in order of birth.
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In the schools at Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Charles C. Gilbert received his first training, and continued in the public schools of Nash- ville. To earn his way during the early stages of his career, Mr. Gilbert learned and practiced stenography, an avenue through which so many young men have reached a useful place in commercial affairs. He kept up that work for twelve years, and eventually engaged in the automo- bile business, organizing the Southern Automobile Company, a concern which his vitalizing energy made very successful. He also has the dis- tinction of having organized the Nashville Automobile Club, and was its first secretary. On returning from that place he became assistant secre- tary of the Nashville Board of Trade, with which important organization he has since been connected.
Mr. Gilbert is one of the most vigorous exponents in Tennessee of the good roads movement. He has attended conventions all over the United States, and on many different occasions, has spoken and argued the material benefits to be derived from well made and serviceable highways. In politics he is Democratic, and served two years in the city council. Later he was nominated to the assembly, but refused the nomination. In 1912 he accepted this honor when again proffered him, and was elected. During his legislative career he has introduced the banking law for state banks; has brought in the measure providing for a highway department in the state; has been one of the chief movers in a general law, providing for commission government in the cities of the state; another bill of which he is the author allows counties to issue their own bonds without previous legislative permission. Mr. Gilbert fought hard against capital punishment, but lost the bill abolishing that institution.
In June, 1900, Mr. Gilbert married Miss Alma Badford, of MeMinn- ville. To their marriage have been born three children: Mary L. who is in school ; Charles C., Jr., and Elizabeth, the latter being one year of age. The family worship in the Presbyterian church of which Mr. Gilbert is an elder, and for thirteen years has been superintendent of the Sun- day school. He is a member of the Masonic Order and of the Knights of Pythias. He has done much work as a speaker for the Boys Corn Club and for the promotion of agricultural improvement.
REV. WARNER T. BOLLING, D. D. Dr. Bolling was one of the dis- tinguished members of the clergy of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and in his high calling has labored with all of consecrated zeal and devotion. It is needless to say that he was a man of fine intellectual attainments, and further than this, he was a most effective pulpit orator and possessed of an executive ability that has enabled him to further the temporal, as well as the spiritual prosperity of the various churches which he served. He was at time of his death, April 16, 1913, pastor of the church of his denomination at Clinton, the judicial center of
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Hickman county, Kentucky, this attractive little city being situated about fourteen miles distant from the boundary line between that state and Tennessee. There is all of consistency in according to him specific consideration in this publication, for though he was not a resident of Ten- nessee, he was a member of one of its gallant regiments in the Confed- erate service in the Civil war, and had otherwise been concerned in various ways with Tennessee affairs.
Dr. Bolling was a scion of staunch and patrician old southern stock and a representative of families that were founded in Virginia, that cradle of much of our national history, in the colonial epoch. He was born in Greene county, Alabama, on the 25th of May, 1847, and was a son of Warner T., and Harriet E. (Smith) Bolling, both of whom were born and reared in Virginia. Warner T. Bolling removed from the Old Dominion state to Alabama when a young man and in the latter state he became a successful planter, his operations having been carried for- ward on a somewhat extensive scale. He suffered great losses through the ravages of the Civil war, as did most of the planters of the southern states, and both he and his wife continued to reside in Alabama until their death. They were devout and zealous members of the Episcopal church ; they lived "godly, righteous and sober lives;" and they ever commanded the high esteem of all who knew them. Of their children, three sons and one daughter attained to years of maturity none of whom are now living. Dr. Bolling, of this review, was the youngest in the family and the only one of the number to enter the ministry. One brother, Robert P. Bolling, was engaged in mercantile business, and an- other brother, George S., served in the quarter-master's department of the Confederate army of the Civil war.
On the old homestead plantation Dr. Bolling passed the days of his childhood, under the conditions and influences of the fine old southern regime,-a patriarchial system that gave to American history its only touch of generic romance. He was a lad of about fifteen years at the inception of the war between the states, and his youthful loyalty to the south was shown forthwith and in an insistent way. He tendered his service in defense of the cause of the Confederacy, by enlisting in May, 1861, and was attached first to the Harris Zouave Cadets, in Memphis, Tennessee, as Company D of the 154th Sr. Tennessee Regiment. Then he re-enlisted as a private in Company C, Second Tennessee Infantry, and with this gallant command he served from May, 1861, to May, 1865, the entire period of the great conflict between the north and the south. It was his to participate in many important engagements, besides innum- erable skirmishes and other minor conflicts, and he proved a valiant and faithful young soldier in battling for a cause which he believed to be right and just and the story of which is written in words pregnant with the evidences of devotion, suffering and sacrifice. The Doctor took part in the battles of Shiloh, Perrysville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga,
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Ringgold Gap-the entire Atlanta campaign from Dalton to Jonesboro- Franklin and also Lost Mountain and Nashville, and in the last men- tioned engagement he received a severe wound in the right arm. At the battle of Nashville, he was captured by the enemy, in December, 1864, and he was held a prisoner at Camp Chase, Ohio, until the close of the war, his parole having been granted in May, 1865. Dr. Bolling ever retained the deepest interest in his old comrades in arms and signified the same by his affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans' Asso- ciation.
In the schools of his native state Dr. Bolling gained his preliminary education, which was supplemented by a classical course in historic old Emory and Henry College, at Emory, Virginia, an institution main- tained under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. His theological education was acquired in the conference course of studies, and in 1868 he was ordained in the ministry, at Paris, Tennes- see. In 1886 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from St. Charles College, Missouri, in recognition of his high attainments and exalted service in the church, and in 1909, the same degree was con- ferred upon him by Peabody Institute, at Nashville, Tennessee.
Dr. Bolling labored in his high vocation for more than two score years, within which he garnered a generous harvest in the aiding and uplifting of his fellow men and in making his angle of influence con- stantly expand in beneficence and zeal, as an earnest worker in the vineyard of the divine Master. He joined the Memphis conference in 1868 and for nearly twenty years was one of the distinguished and influential representatives thereof, the while he had the affectionate regard and high esteem of the various communities in which he held pastoral charges, including those at Lexington and Covington, Ken- tucky ; Hannibal, Missouri; Centenary Church, Fayette, Missouri; St. Paul's, Denver, Colorado ; Columbus, Mississippi ; Shreveport, Louisiana ; Jackson, Mississippi; the Central Methodist church in Memphis, Tennes- see ; the Broadway church in Paducah, Kentucky; and the church at Fulton, that state. He was transferred to the West Virginia conference in 1880 and remained in other conferences to do special work directed by different Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, returning to the Memphis conference in 1904, where he remained until his death. The Kentucky towns he lived in, are included in the bounds of the Memphis conference. He held the pastorate of the church of his denomi- nation in Clinton, Kentucky, from November, 1912, to April 16, 1913, on which date he died. He was buried in Forest Hill cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee, his former home, on April 17, 1913.
Dr. Bolling was first married to Miss Mary Coley, of Milan, Tennes- see, in 1870. Robert E., Margaret E., and Cora were children of this marriage, Cora dying in infancy, in 1873.
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Dor RitBaylor
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At Huntington, West Virginia, on the 5th of September, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Bolling to Miss Willie R. Jeter, who was born and reared in Virginia and who is a daughter of the late William Ryland Jeter, an honored and representative citizen of that state. Mrs. Bolling is a woman of most gracious personality and in her gentle influence she has effectively supplemented the endeavors of her husband in his pastoral work. Of the nine children of Dr. and Mrs. Bolling, two are deceased: Warner Tapscott, who passed away at the age of five years, and Arthur Davis, who was three years of age at the time of his death. The surviving children are: Margaret E., Robert E., Louise, Mary, Helen Meade, Gladys and Randolph P. Robert E. is a bachelor living in Detroit, Michigan; Margaret E., married E. H. Mullen of Columbus, Mississippi, and is now living in Los Angeles, California ; Louise L., married John W. Fitzhugh of Jackson, Mississippi, and now lives in Memphis, Tennessee ; Mary Randolph married Dudley Porter of Paris, Tennessee, where they live; Gladys Garland married George L. Alley of Fulton, Kentucky, where they now reside; Helen Meade resides at home; Randolph Peyton, thirteen years, also resides at home.
The late Rev. Dr. Bolling during nearly the last eight years of his life was a regular correspondent for the Sunday Commercial Appeal, writing for a number of years under "Reflections."
DR. ROBERT H. BAYLOR. A veritable dean of physicians is Dr. Robert H. Baylor, of Erin, Tennessee. The incidents of his life have covered numerous states, and some of its experiences have been scarcely less than romantic. His native state was Virginia, where his father, John Baylor, born just on the threshold of the nineteenth century, had come as a pioneer from North Carolina. In the Old Dominion state John Baylor had followed the combined vocations of wagon-maker and farmer, and had become quite successful. He was a member of the historic Whig party and of the Methodist church. To the same religious fold be- longed his wife, Elizabeth Young Baylor, also a native of Virginia. They were the parents of eleven children, the fifth of whom was christened Robert H. He was born on September 24, 1836, and was destined to carve for himself the varying fortunes that have made his life a successful one.
In one of the little log school houses that were once numerous in Virginia, Robert H. Baylor received his elementary education. He was a studious youth, whose love of learning caused him to carry "his book" with him when he followed the plow in the fields of his father's farm. Thus growing into habits of agricultural life, he continued in such occu- pation until he was a young man of twenty-four years of age. At that time he left his home, going to Mobile, Alabama, where he entered the Confederate navy. He continued in the service about two years, on the steamer Selma, being that ship's hospital steward. He was made a
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prisoner of war on August 5, 1864, at Mobile, during the battle of Mobile Bay. He was transferred to New Orleans and later to Ship Island, re- maining there until the close of the war, after which he went to Vicks- burg, Mississippi, and thence to Galveston, where he engaged in selling drugs. While thus engaged in the southern city he took advantage of lectures given at the medical college there, although he did not matricu- late in said institution. Later plans led him to go to Louisville, where he pursued a regular course of study in the Louisville Medical College. He had left a reserve supply of money in the hands of a Galveston acquaint- ance who was to hold the sum in trust, but who failed in business and lost the funds entrusted to his care. There was nothing for the newly fledged physician to do but to attempt to return to Galveston without resources. He therefore undertook to make the journey on foot.
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