USA > Tennessee > A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume V > Part 35
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Alfred Armstrong Adams was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, April 9, 1865. Alfred A. Adams, his father, born in Davidson county. this state, in 1840, was educated for the profession of medicine but never became a practitioner, taking up instead the business of a druggist at Nashville and following that line of endeavor during his brief business career. He was remarkably successful and in a very few years of busi- ness activity he accumulated considerable wealth. At the opening of the war between the states he took service in Company E (Buchanan's com- pany) of the First Tennessee Cavalry (Wheeler's regiment) by enlist- ment at Donelson, Tennessee, on February 23, 1861, and remained in the service until discharged at Guntown, Mississippi, on August 29, 1862, on account of wounds received in battle. He never fully recovered from those wounds and from that time until his death in 1867, at the age of twenty- seven, was practically an invalid. He wedded Margaret J. Gleaves, who was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, in 1843, and is yet living, a resident of Lebanon. She is a daughter of Guy Trigg Gleaves, formerly of Mt. Juliet, who was a native of Tennessee and who resided near the Hermi- tage in Davidson county, and she is a granddaughter of Absalom Gleaves, an immigrant to this state from Virginia. Alfred A. Adams, son of Rich- ard Kane Adams, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this review, was a native of Pennsylvania, born in the city of Carlisle, Cumberland county, that state, and came to Tennessee in 1813, locating at Nashville. He was an architect and civil engineer by profession, and was one of the argonauts that sought the gold fields of California in 1849, but he remained there only a short time and then returned to Tennessee, where he passed away in 1854 from cholera. He was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity in this state, was a member of Cumberland Lodge
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of Masons at Nashville and was grand treasurer of the Masonic order in Tennessee from 1828 to 1849. Two sons came to the union of Alfred A. and Margaret (Gleaves) Adams : Alfred A., Jr., and Edward E.
Alfred A. Adams, our immediate subject, acquired his earlier edu- cation in the public schools of Wilson and Davidson counties and grad- uated from the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville in 1884, as val- edictorian of his class. Following his graduation he entered the govern- ment service in the auditing department at Washington, D. C., where he remained eight years and during that time pursued the study of law in Georgetown University and in Columbian, now George Washington, University in that city. He was admitted to the bar in 1891 in the District of Columbia and entered upon the practice of law in 1897 in Lebanon, Tennessee, where his ability soon placed him in the front rank of attorneys, admitted to practice in all the courts, and where as years have passed he has become one of the eminent citizens of the community and widely known in politics as a stanch and influential supporter of Democratic policies. The bar has always seemed a stepping stone to political preferment under our American system. It was not long until Mr. Adams' aptitude for public business was discovered, and in 1901 he was elected to the popular branch of the state legislature as the represent- ative of Wilson county. The state still had further need of his services and in 1903 and again in 1911 he represented his district, Wilson and Smith counties, in the state senate. As a legislator he was liberal, high-minded and discreet and took a broad and intelligent view of all public ques- tions. He was also a constructive legislator and his achievements in that connection have been of an important nature. As chairman of the peni- tentiary committee during his service as state senator he secured the passage of a number of laws for the benefit of prisoners and he was the author of the '' Adams law" that put saloons out of all the counties in Tennessee except four. He is not only an able lawyer and a forceful man in public life, but his keen business instincts have made him a man of large and substantial properties, and as a citizen he is of the pro- gressive stamp, alive to every local interest which looks to renewed in- dustry in his community and state. Mr. Adams was one of the original stockholders and is now vice- president and a director of the American National Bank of Lebanon, organized in 1900, which has a capital of $50,000, surplus and profits of $20,000 and deposits averaging $350,000. He also owns a good farm and is interested in live stock. Mr. Adams is distinctly a self-made' man and has builded in life out of the resources of his own genius and abilities. He is prominently affiliated with the Masonic fraternity in this state as a Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Knights Templar and of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He represented the Middle Tennessee Shriners at the national meeting of Shriners at Los Angeles in 1912, and he is called the father of Al Menah Temple at Nashville by reason of his having led
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in securing its establishment. He has been treasurer and trustee of his commandery of Knights Templar for twelve years and has been a trustee of his Masonic lodge eight years. He also sustains membership in the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias and has been a trustee of his local lodge of that order for eight years.
The marriage of Mr. Adams took place in Washington, D. C., in 1889, and united him to Miss Mary Dove Albright of that city. Mrs. Adams is a daughter of Thomas Jefferson Albright, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who served as secretary and confidential clerk of Presi- dent James Buchanan and for a while as commissioner of the general land office in the Department of the Interior. Mrs. Adams is a member of the Reformed church, while Mr. Adams is identified with the Pres- byterian denomination.
WILLIAM ROSCOE MOORE, a young physician who has but recently located in Tennessee as a medical practitioner at Allen's Creek, Lewis county, has made a thorough preparation for his life work by a full col- legiate education and complete medical training, including a year of hospital work. Tennessee is well favored in the number of men of attainments that are to be found in its professional ranks and ever ex- tends a hearty welcome to the young man of ambition and character, and such a one Dr. Moore has proved to be.
He was born April 18, 1885, in Colbert county, Alabama, a son of Dr. Riley Jackson Moore, who was for many years a practitioner at Riverton, Alabama. After completing his literary studies in the Ala- bama State Normal School at Florence he entered the Memphis Hospital Medical College for his professional training and was graduated in 1908 with the degree of M. D. Following his graduation he served one year as a hospital interne to add practical experience to his preparation and then he returned to his home town of Riverton, Alabama, where he prac- ticed one year. From there he came to Allen's Creek, Tennessee, as physician for the Bon Air Coal & Iron Company, which relation he yet sustains, being also a general practitioner in the village and immediate vicinity. He is a Democrat in political allegiance and his fraternal associations are as a member of Overton Lodge No. 652, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and of White Oak Camp of the Woodmen of the World. Dr. Moore was married in 1909 to Miss Cecelia Hastings, of Sheffield, Alabama.
Dr. Moore springs from an old family of Alabama, he being a repre- sentative of the third generation native to its soil. Dr. Riley Jackson Moore, his father, was born in Alabama in 1851 and passed away in that state in 1908. He wedded Dina B. Terry, who was born in Alabama in 1863 and is yet living, a resident of her native state. To the union of these parents were born nine children, of whom Dr. William R. Moore
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is fourth in order of birth. Dr. Riley Jackson Moore was educated at the University of Louisville for the profession of medicine and spent his whole career as a practitioner at Riverton, Alabama. He was a Demo- crat in political views, a member of the Baptist church, and in line with his profession he was affiliated with the American Medical Association.
CAESAR THOMAS. One of the most prosperous business men of Wilson county is Caesar Thomas, who about twenty years ago located at Water- town and opened an office for insurance. The enterprise and energy which he has directed into this business has had very fortunate results, and although he started out in life with nothing, and has had to acquire everything by dint of his own labors and energies he is now enjoying a place among the most influential and prosperous citizens of this county.
Caesar Thomas was born at Statesville, Tennessee, March 1, 1868, a son of Samuel Newton and Drusilla (Sneed) Thomas. The paternal grandfather was James Thomas, a native of North Carolina, who came to Tennessee during the early days and became a settler in Wilson county, where he combined his profession as a minister of the Presbyterian church with the occupation of farmer. The Thomas family is of Welsh descent and has been long represented in America. The maternal grand- father was John Sneed, who was born in Wilson county of parents who had been among the earliest settlers here, and he spent all his life in the county as a farmer and one of the well known citizens.
Samuel N. Thomas, the father, was born in Wilson county in 1820. and died in 1896. His wife, also a native of this county, was born in 1830 and died in 1895. Farming was the occupation which he followed, with more than usual success, throughout his active career. His civil life was interrupted twice by war, and he served in the Mexican conflict during the forties, and subsequently on the Confederate side during the Civil war. He was affiliated with the Masonic order, was a Democrat in poli- tics, and a member of the Presbyterian church, while his wife was a Missionary Baptist. There were four children in the family, and of these James T. lives at Gulfport, Mississippi, while Woods T. is a resident of Batesville, Arkansas.
Caesar Thomas spent only the first fifteen years of his life on the paternal homestead, and during that time he had only meager advantages in the way of schools. At the age of fifteen he ran away from home, and from that time on had to depend on his own efforts to gain a livelihood, and to advance himself into higher places of business activities. On leaving home, at the early age mentioned, he located on the Mississippi gulf coast, where he began to work for himself. He lived there for some years, and it was there he met his wife. He was married in 1892 to Miss Dasie Cropper of Woodville, Mississippi, whose father was Nathan- iel Cropper of Woodville, Mississippi. The three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are as follows: Reid N., who is a graduate of the .
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Columbia Military Academy, and is now associated in business with his father; Cornelia, at home, she having been born in 1897; and Inez, born in 1900. All the members of the family are communicants of the Baptist church.
Mr. Thomas located at Watertown in 1895, in which year he opened his office in the insurance business. He is state agent for the National Union Fire Insurance Company, and spends a large part of his time in travel and in looking after the interests of the business of this company, which he has built up until it is one of the leading fire insurance com- panies in the state. Mr. Thomas is a stockholder and one of the directors in the bank of Watertown. For two terms he served as mayor of Wat- ertown, and has also been clerk in the chancery court of Wilson county. He is an influential Democrat in politics, and is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks and the Masonic order. He is past grand patriarch for the state of Tennes- see in the Odd Fellows, and is the present grand representative of the state in the same order.
ALFRED HESTER. From the telegraph key to the presidency of a financial institution known as one of the most substantial in Sumner county, and the ownership of large farming and business interests, the career of Alfred Hester, of Portland, has been one of steady and con- tinued advancement. Although handicapped in youth, in that he lacked capital, influential friends or special educational advantages, he pos- sessed the much more valuable and desirable gifts of industry, determi- nation and inherent business ability, and with these as a capital has pro- ceeded to work out his own success through the medium of well-directed effort. Mr. Hester was born in Sumner county, Tennessee, July 28, 1871, and is a son of Robert M. and Mary (Groves) Hester.
Robert M. Hester was a native of Kentucky, where he was born in 1843, a son of Martin Hester, a farmer of the Blue Grass state. Edu- cated in Kentucky, as a young man he came to Tennessee, and is now engaged successfully in the drug business at Mitchellville. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Hester has served for twenty-four years as magistrate, being now in his fifth term, and has the distinction of being a veteran of the war between the states, through which he served as a Confederate soldier. He is fraternally affiliated with the Masons and his religious belief is that of the Christian church, while his wife belongs to the Meth- odist denomination. Mr. Hester was married to Mary Groves, daughter of Alfred Groves, a farmer, merchant and tobacco dealer in Sumner county, and they have three children: Lena, who married Sam Arnett, and lives at Mitchellville; William, who resides in Portland, and Al- fred M.
Alfred Hester's educational advantages were limited to those that could be secured in the country schools, and as a youth he learned the
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trade of telegrapher, and for twelve years had charge of a key for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Being industrious and ambitious, he carefully saved his earnings, invested them wisely and with rare fore- sight, and eventually felt able to enter the produce business. Since 1902 he has been engaged in shipping produce to New York, and this enter- prise has.proved decidedly successful. The poor boy who started out to fight his own battles with the world but comparatively a few short years ago, is now the owner of three large farms and president of the Portland Bank, and has numerous other interests, and for ten years has acted in the capacity of postmaster at Portland, at this time being engaged in serving his third commission. In political matters Mr. Hester is a Republican, and his religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his wife and children are also members. Fraternally he holds membership in the Odd Fellows and the Loyal Order of Moose.
On September 25, 1895, Mr. Hester was married to Edna Chisholm, daughter of John Chisholm, an early settler of Simpson county, Ken- tucky, and to this union there have been born six children : Harold T., Robert V., Mary E., Douglas N. and Hattie Eudora, all attending school, and Edna Estelle, deceased. Mr. Hester has been the architect of his own fortunes in a marked degree, and has always been able to see an opportunity and be able to grasp it, but he has also respected the rights of others, and his operations have been so conducted as to win him the entire confidence of his fellow citizens. In a wide acquaintance gained through many years of business dealings, he numbers numerous friend- ships, and his reputation in business, society and politics is remarkably high.
BENJAMIN J. TARVER. Judge Tarver passed virtually his entire life in Wilson county, Tennessee, and here gained a distinguished place as a jurist and lawyer of splendid talent, the while he left a definite and beneficent impress upon the history of the county, both along civic and material lines. He was a man of exalted integrity of character, broad and tolerant in his judgment, of kindly and sympathetic personality, and entirely free from intellectual bigotry. He made his life count for good in its every relation, was one of the representative and honored citizens of northern Tennessee and it is thus most consonant that in this historical work be entered a tribute to his memory and a brief review of his career.
In Warren county, North Carolina, Judge Tarver was born on the 1st of July, 1827, a son of Silas and Nancy (Harris) Tarver, and was but three years of age at the time of the family immigration to Wilson county, Tennessee, where he passed the residue of his life, his death having occurred at his attractive old homestead in the city of Lebanon, on the 19th of September, 1905, at which time he was seventy-eight years of age. His father became one of the prosperous pioneer agriculturists of Wilson county, was influential in public affairs of a local order and
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was one of the loyal and honored citizens of the county until the close of his life, his cherished and devoted wife likewise having been a resident of this county at the time of her demise. Both were natives of North Carolina and both representatives of fine old colonial stock. Benjamin Tarver, grandfather of Judge Tarver, served in the battle of Guilford Court House, North Carolina, in the war of the Revolution, and was but sixteen years of age at the time. Five of his brothers were patriot soldiers of the Continental line in the great struggle for national inde- pendence. The lineage of the Tarver family is traced back to stanchi Welsh origin, and genealogical records extant in England and America give family data from the time of Oliver Cromwell, the great dictator.
In the common schools of the pioneer era in northern Tennessee Judge Tarver succeeded in gaining a symmetrical literary education, which was effectually amplified by self-discipline and constant devotion to the best of literature. In 1849-51 he pursued his course in the Lebanon Law School, a department of Cumberland University, and in this in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1851, in which year he received his degree of bachelor of laws and was admitted to the bar of the state. He forthwith opened an office in Lebanon, and though he initiated his professional career with capitalistic resources of only ten dollars, he had the self-confidence, the ability and the ambition that are invariably the concomitants of success, and he soon built up a substantial and profitable law business, in connection with which he became known as a specially resourceful trial lawyer and as a counselor whose opinions were based on thorough knowledge of law and precedent and upon wise discrimination in determining the points of equity and justice. It was these same qualities that later gave him much of distinc- tion in his service on the bench. From 1852 to 1878 he was most pleasingly associated in practice with the late Edward I. Golladay, and their rela- tions were ever marked by mutual confidence and esteem and by the closest personal friendship. They controlled a large and representa- tive practice, as leaders at the bar of Wilson county, and their alliance was severed only when Judge Tarver was called upon to serve on the chancery bench.
In the year 1878, Governor James D. Porter appointed Judge Tarver chancellor of the Sixth chancery district of the state, to complete an unexpired term, and he presided on the bench of this tribunal with all of ability and fidelity. In his law practice he had confined himself principally to the civil code, in the presentation of causes in the chancery court, and thus he brought to his judicial office not only marked technical ability but also large and varied experience in this department of judicial procedure. He was a man of great business acumen and gained sub- stantial financial success within the course of his long and useful career, and he was one of the early stockholders and directors of the Tennessee
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Pacific Railroad Company, as well as a member of the directorate of the Second National Bank of Lebanon.
Prior to the Civil war Judge Tarver was an old-line Whig in his political allegiance, advocating the policies and principles that had been those of Henry Clay and John Bell, distinguished leaders in the ranks of that party. In the climateric period leading up to and culminating in the war Judge Tarver was vigorously opposed to secession on the part of the southern states and he earnestly labored to prevent the with- drawal of Tennessee from the Union, having made many speeches in behalf of this cause and having urged the same insistently in the private walks of life. When, however, his state gave its decision in favor of the Confederacy, Judge Tarver was loyal to the decision of the majority of its people and laid aside his personal opinions concerning the policy of secession to tender his aid in defense of the cause of the Confederate States. He enlisted as a private in the Seventh Tennessee Infantry Regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Hatton, and in 1862 he was promoted to the office of lieutenant, while the regiment was in camp at Trousdale, Sumner county, Tennessee. He participated in the spirited campaigns in Vir- ginia and Tennessee, took part in the battle of Murfreesboro and many other important engagements, and proved a gallant soldier and officer. In 1863 impaired health incapacitated him for further service in the field, and he was granted an honorable discharge. In later years he manifested his continued interest in his old comrades by maintaining affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans Association.
In 1866 Judge Tarver was chosen a delegate from his congressional district, in company with Governor William B. Campbell, to the Phil- adelphia convention called to organize a national political party with which the southern states might consistently affiliate. He took part in the deliberations of that convention and thereafter continued as a stanch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party until the time of his death.
Judge Tarver was a man of broad views, well fortified opinions and utmost civic loyalty. He did all in his power to foster enterprises and measures projected for the general good of the community, took a lively interest in the social, moral, educational and industrial affairs of his home county, and was a frequent contributor to local newspapers, on topics touching political, religious and industrial affairs. He received the three degrees of ancient craft Masonry in 1865 and was also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His life was guided and governed by the dictates of a specially acute conscience, the approval of which he demanded for his every motive and action, and no man has ever manifested a higher sense of personal stewardship. He was a zealous and liberal member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the same his widow likewise has long been a devoted adherent.
On the 28th of July, 1875, in Wilson county, was solemnized the
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marriage of Judge Tarver to Miss Sue White, who was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, and who is a daughter of the late Dr. James D. and Lucy (Shelton) White, both natives of Virginia and representative of sterling colonial families of the historic Old Dominion. Dr. White was a prominent physician and agriculturist in his adopted state, and upon his removal to Wilson county, Tennessee, he continued to devote his attention to the same lines of endeavor. Both he and his wife passed the closing period of their lives in this county, secure in the high regard . of all who knew them. Mrs. White was a daughter of James Shelton and was a sister of Rev. William Shelton, who was a distinguished clergy- man of the Baptist Church, South, and who removed from Nashville, Tennessee, to Kentucky, in which state he passed the residue of his life. Another brother was David Shelton, who was a prominent member of the bar of the city of Jackson, capital of the state of Mississippi, at the time of his demise. The genealogy of Mrs. Tarver is of distinguished order, with collateral kinship with the historic Marshall, Jefferson and Barron families of Virginia. Mrs. Tarver is a woman of distinctive culture and most gracious personality, and she has long been a loved and valued figure in the social activities of her home city. She was grad- uated in the excellent academy conducted in the city of Nashville by Rev. Collins D. Elliott, D. D., and she has ever continued to devote her- self to the best in standard and periodical literature, with a marked familiarity with that of classical and historical order. Deploring all ten- dencies to pretensions founded merely on family prominence, Mrs. Tarver very highly appreciates the historic insight and realization that is sure to result generally and universally from a study of ancestral records and historic events. She has been especially interested in historic rec- ords and to her was due the organization in Lebanon of a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Of this local chapter she has been historian since 1904, and she is most active in promoting the society and the objects for which it was organized. She still resides in the beautiful old homestead in Lebanon, and the same is not only a center of gracious hospitality but is also endeared to her by the hallowed memories and associations of past years. Judge and Mrs. Tarver not being blessed with children, have fostered and reared many orphaned members of their families. Both Judge Tarver and his wife have, during their whole lives, honored and valued above all else, simplicity of char- acter and humble Christian usefulness.
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