USA > Tennessee > A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume V > Part 9
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Oliver D. Moore, our subject, was born November 20, 1867, and received his education in the rural schools of his native county of Sum- ner. He began business life as a merchant and followed the mercantile business twenty-two years, or until his election as county clerk in 1910. This was a contest that drew the attention of the whole state, as his opponent was H. Brown, who had served in that office for twenty-four years. As a man of sterling principles and integrity Mr. Moore has very capably and acceptably performed the duties of his office and is num- bered among the popular officials of the county.
On December 26, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moore and Miss Jennie Moss, who was born in Sumner county and is a daughter of W. F. Moss, a well known and successful farmer of this county who passed away in February, 1912. He was a Confederate veteran of the Civil war and in that conflict served under Gen. John H. Morgan of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have three children : Charles D., Mary and W. F., aged respectively seventeen, twelve and four years. Charles D. and Mary are now attending school. Mr. Moore is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and in political faith is aligned with the Democratic party. He was a prosperous business man when active along that line and owns a comfortable home in Gallatin.
GEORGE W. BODDIE. Notably successful as a lawyer and a former clerk and master of the chancery court of Sumner county, George W. Boddie has been a member of the Gallatin bar for a quarter century. His own career has been chiefly passed in Sumner county, of which he is a native, and his family is one that has been identified with the state for a century or more.
He was born in Sumner county, January 14, 1852, a son of Charles E. and Evalina (Douglas) Boddie. His paternal grandparents were Elijah and Maria (Elliott) Boddie. The former, a native of Nash county, North Carolina, crossed the mountains into Tennessee early in the last century, and spent most of his life in Sumner county. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, and fought with General Jackson at New Orleans.
Charles E. Boddie, the father, was born in Sumner county in 1818,
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and his death occurred in 1896. His active years were spent in farming, and his homestead was located six miles from Gallatin. His first wife, Evalina Douglas, was a daughter of James Douglas, who gives special distinction to this family history as having been the first male white child born in Sumner county, where he spent all the rest of his life. Evalina Boddie died in 1856, the mother of seven children, of whom three are still living, including George W., who was the second in the family. Charles E. Boddie married for his second wife Susan A. Maney, and they had six children, of whom four are living. The father was a member of the Methodist church, South, was an Odd Fellow, and a Democrat in politics.
George W. Boddie spent his early life on the farm, and was gradu- ated in law from the Cumberland University in 1875. In 1887 he located at Gallatin, and during the subsequent twenty-five years has enjoyed a liberal share in the legal business of the local courts and office practice. From 1894 to 1906 he was clerk and master in the chancery court. Politically he is a Democrat. Mr. Boddie has been prominent in Odd- fellowship, having passed the chairs of his local lodge, and has served as delegate to the state Grand lodge. His church is the Methodist South.
He was married February 25, 1875, to Miss Alice Davis of Wilson county, Tennessee. Six years later she passed away, in 1881. Of her three children one is- living, Mina. In 1885 Mr. Boddie married Miss Willie Davis, daughter of W. C. Davis, a Wilson county farmer. Five children have blessed this union, and the four living are: James B., of Columbia ; and Rufus F., Sarah and Portia, all at home.
WALTER SANDERS FAULKNER. A candidate at the primaries in 1912 for the Democratic nomination for governor of Tennessee, Mr. Faulkner has become one of the state's public leaders. He possesses many of the qualities that are most valued in political life, and his popularity and capacity for services are not likely to become less. By profession he is a lawyer and has gained distinction in the bar of his home county, and has twice been honored with the district attorney generalship. He worthily upholds the prestige of a family which has been prominent in Tennessee for several generations.
Walter Sanders Faulkner is a native of Lebanon, Wilson county, Tennessee, a son of J. J. and Nora (Sanders) Faulkner. The Faulkner family was originally from Scotland, coming to America in a very early day and locating in the colony of Virginia. Grandfather Asa Faulkner spent the activities of his honorable career in Warren county, Tennes- see, where he was quite a wealthy manufacturer. He owned and. operated several cotton and woolen factories before and after the Civil war. He was much interested in public affairs, and represented Warren county in the state senate several times. J. J. Faulkner, the father, was a busi- ness man, and had considerabe genius as an investor, his enterprises usu-
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ally being successful and extending to a wide field of commerce and industry.
Nora (Sanders) Faulkner, the mother, is a daughter of Col. Richard C. Sanders, whose great-grandfather came from England and settled in North Carolina. James Sanders, this original ancestor, had a son also named James, who in his time came to Sumner county, Tennessee, locating near Castalian Springs, where he married Lettie Carey. They became the parents of Col. Richard C. Sanders. Col. Sanders at the beginning of the Civil war enlisted, was elected lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-eighth Tennessee Regiment, and served with distinction for the full four years of the struggle. Following the war he represented Smith county in the legislature, and after taking up his residence in Wilson county repeatedly was sent from this county to the legislature. By profession he was a lawyer, and as such commanded a large practice over several of the counties of middle Tennessee.
Walter Sanders Faulkner, whose ambition has been fo make the best of his own talents and individual ability and at the same time to do credit to his honored forefathers, was reared in his native county, and was chiefly educated at the Cumberland University of Lebanon, attend- ing both the literary and the law schools in that institution. From almost the beginning of his practice he has enjoyed a liberal share of the legal business in the courts of this county, and at the same time his personal popularity soon led him into the field of practical politics. He served as Democratic elector in 1900, and in 1902 was elected district attorney general. In 1910 he was re-elected to this office. As already stated, in the campaign of 1912 he stood for the Democratic nomination for governor of Tennessee, and though he ran a good race in the field of candidates he was defeated. Mr. Faulkner is not mar- ried. He has his church membership in the Christian denomination, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Besides his law practice he has a prominent place in business affairs, as president of the Union Bank & Trust Company of Lebanon.
A. OSCAR ESKEW. The Eskew family has furnished Wilson county, Tennessee, prominent physicians for three generations. The first repre- sentative of the family in Tennessee was Dr. Andrew Eskew, a native of North Carolina, who came to this section with the early tide of immi- gration from the old North State and was one of the first physicians in Wilson county, where he thereafter continued to practice until his death. His son, Dr. John C. Eskew, one of the best known and esteemed men of Wilson county, has been a successful medical practitioner in this county for the remarkable period of fifty-one years, and his grandson is he whose name initiates this review and who in every respect is most
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worthily upholding the honor and professional prestige of the name he bears.
Dr. John C. Eskew, above mentioned, was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, in March, 1841, and during the more than half-century of his professional labors and his long life as a citizen of this community has so ordered his course as to command a secure place in the esteem of his fellowmen and to permit his name to go down in history supported by all the attributes of a well spent life and an honorable career. He has always enjoyed a large practice and is a member of both the Wilson county and the Tennessee state medical societies. At the opening of the Civil war he was appointed regimental surgeon for the Forty-fifth Ten- nessee Infantry and served in that position and with that command throughout that long struggle. He is staunch Democrat in political be- lief, He wedded Martha C. Rogers, who was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, in 1846, a daughter of James Rogers, an early settler of Wilson county and during the remainder of his career one of its ex- tensive and successful farmers. Both Dr. and Mrs. Eskew, residents of Lebanon, are members of the Christian church. Five children came to their union and of this family Dr. A. O. Eskew is third in birth and is one of three yet living.
Dr. A. Oscar Eskew was reared in Lebanon and received his first collegiate training in Cumberland University, graduating from that institution with the class of 1893. He then entered the University of Tennessee, where his progress was most rapid, speedily developing those qualities of mental acquisition and retention so essential to a broad and comprehensive knowledge of the profession he had chosen. So well did he apply himself in this direction that he was graduated from the medi- cal department of that institution in 1897 as salutatorian of his class, as a reward for which high honors he was given charge of the Davidson county asylum for one year. At an early age he had developed those qualities of cool judgment, kindness of heart and strength of mind so essential to the success of a good physician and having now completed his professional training he entered upon the active practice of medicine in Lebanon in connection with his father. This association was contin- ued two years and since then our subject has practiced independently, rising steadily in professional prestige and becoming recognized as an able, conscientious and in every respect reliable practitioner, with a large and increasing clientèle.
In 1904 Dr. Eskew was married to Miss Carrie Harris, daughter of Joseph Harris, a native and well known farmer citizen of Wilson county who is also a Confederate veteran of the Civil war. Mrs. Eskew died in 1908. She was a most estimable lady and was a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. Dr. Eskew affiliates with the Christian denomi- nation. In politics he is a Democrat. He has served four years as as- sistant city health officer of Lebanon and keeps abreast with the advances
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of his profession as a member of the Wilson county and Tennessee state medical societies and the American Medical Association.
EDWARD E. BEARD. A prominent citizen and financier of Lebanon, Tennessee, and one of the leading and older members of the Wilson county bar, Edward E. Beard bears further distinction as a scion of two of Tennessee's worthy pioneer families. He has devoted over forty years to law with that success that has won him rank among the best legal talent of the state, and as president of the American National Bank of Lebanon and in other financial relations he is well known in the business circles of this section of Tennessee, where he is recognized as a shrewd and forceful business man. He has been a member of the Tennessee state legislature, and as a warm and earnest advocate of the church, of liberal education and of general public advancement he has rendered valuable services in these different directions.
Edward E. Beard was born at Princeton, Kentucky, August 27, 1850, his parents being Rev. Richard and Cynthia E. (Castleman) Beard, both of whom were natives of Tennessee, the former born in Sumner county and the latter in Davidson county. The Beard family originated in this state with John Beard, the grandfather of Edward E., who was a North Carolinian by birth and migrated to Tennessee in an early day, settling in Sumner county, where he spent a number of years as a school teacher. He finally moved to Arkansas and passed away in that state. The Cas- tlemans were of Virginia stock, the founder of the family in Tennessee being Andrew Castleman, the father of Mrs. Beard, who came to Ten- nessee from the Old Dominion with General James Robertson, of pioneer fame in this state, and became a well-to-do farmer and the owner of 640 acres of land near Nashville. He was one of the well-known men of Tennessee in his day. Rev. Richard Beard, the father of our subject, received his earlier educational discipline in Tennessee and was a school- mate of J. C. Jones, the great Whig governor of this state. He was well educated and took up the profession of teaching, with which line of en- deavor he was thereafter prominently identified for over fifty years. After teaching in West Tennessee for a time he went to Princeton, Ken- tucky, to add collegiate training to his qualifications, and was graduated from Cumberland College there. Later he became president of that in- stitution, and from there he came to Lebanon, Tennessee, to become an instructor in the theological department of Cumberland University. He was also a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian church for a num- ber of years and was one of the foremost leaders in the work of this denomination in Tennessee, his learning and ability, superior mind and unbending integrity making him an effective power in the direction of church work and of advancing and uplifting society. He was first a Whig and then later a Democrat in his political allegiance. Death closed his useful career in 1880. Rev. Richard and Cynthia E. (Castleman)
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Beard reared six children, of which family Edward E. was the youngest in birth and is one of three yet living. Both in the arts and in law Ed- ward received the excellent educational advantages of Cumberland Uni- versity and was graduated from the literary department of that insti- tution in 1870 and from the law department in 1871. He began the practice of law at Lebanon. Fitted by natural gifts and education for the profession of his choice, he soon displayed marked aptitude and ability in this direction, rose rapidly at the bar and early acquired a large and lucrative practice. Each succeeding year has but strengthened his legal reputation and he is admitted to practice before all the courts. He is no less able as a business man than as a lawyer, and as president of the American National Bank at Lebanon that institution has the services of a very wise and capable directive head. For twenty-five years he has also been treasurer and a trustee of Cumberland University. In political views he is a Democrat and in 1885 gave public service as the representa- tive of Wilson county in the state legislature, the duties of which hon- orable office he discharged with ability and with fidelity to his constitu- ents. Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias and is a past chancellor commander of his lodge.
In 1876, in a house built by Andrew Jackson and near his old home, The Hermitage, Mr. Beard was joined in marriage to Miss Sarah Liv- ingston, a daughter of James Livingston, who was a prosperous merchant of Nashville. To this happy union were born three daughters: Mary E., now Mrs. Thomas Pierce, of St. Louis, Missouri; Emma, who became the wife of B. R. McKinnie, a wholesale merchant at Nashville, Tennessee ; and Edna, who is now Mrs. Wever Harris, and also resides in Nashville.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Beard are active members of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Beard served as a member of the committee that in 1906 effected the union of the Cumberland Presbyterian branch and the mother church. Mr. Beard's life has been a useful and worthy one. Not alone in his profession and business relations has he proved himself one of the world's useful workers, but his upright, intelligent, conservative and consistent course as a citizen, both in public and in private life, has made him worthy of recognition as one of the representative men of Tennessee.
CLAUDE V. YOUNG, M. D. Well established in the successful practice of his profession in the old and beautiful little college city of Lebanon, Dr. Young takes rank among the leading physicians of this section of the state, and for his useful services in behalf of suffering mankind and as a native son of this commonwealth, he is well deserving of mention among the representative citizens of Tennessee.
Born in Wilson county on June 16, 1867, he is the only son and is the eldest of four children of William H. and Bettie (Vivrette) Young, now residents of East Nashville, Tennessee, but formerly well known and
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highly respected farmer residents of Wilson county. Both parents are natives of Wilson county, where the father's birth occurred in 1842 and where the mother was born in 1847, and both have long been faithful members of the Baptist church. William H. Young followed the pur- suit of farming in Wilson county a number of years but subsequently re- moved to Nashville, where he engaged in the hardware business for a time. He is now residing in East Nashville, retired. He is a Confed- erate veteran of the Civil war and throughout that conflict fought as a member of Company I of the Seventh Tennessee Regiment. This regi- ment, one of marked bravery, saw long active and hard service in Vir- ginia and fought under "Stonewall" Jackson from the battle of Seven Pines in 1862 to the fall of that brave general. With the Seventh Ten- nessee Mr. Young participated in many of the hardest fought battles of the eastern campaign, as well as in many of less importance, among the severer engagements being that of Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chan- cellorsville, Gettysburg and the battles of the Wilderness campaign. At Fredericksburg he was severely wounded, suffering wounds also in two later battles, and shortly before the war closed he was captured. Re- turning to his home in Tennessee he began life anew and became a suc- cessful man in business. His father, William L. Young, had been a farmer of considerable competence up to the time of the war, but suffered heavy financial losses during that conflict. The latter was a native of London and had immigrated to this country shortly after attaining his majority, settling in Wilson county, Tennessee, where he continued a resident until his death. He was well known in this county, having served as chairman of the county court for over twenty years, and he lived to be nearly ninety years old. Mrs. Bettie (Vivrette) Young, the mother of Dr. Young, is a daughter of Buchanan Vivrette, who was born in Tennessee and spent his life at Greenhill, Wilson county, as a success- ful farmer and trader. The sisters of Dr. Young are Ruby Lee, who now resides in Los Angeles, California, and whose husband, H. E. Her- rin, is a hardware merchant there and also has similar interests at Nash- ville, Tennessee; Floy Belle, now Mrs. Jesse W. Rives, of East Nash- ville, Tennessee, whose husband is a bookkeeper; and Nancy Elizabeth, who became the wife of Eugene Johns, a theatre manager at Nashville.
Dr. Claude V. Young spent his boyhood in Wilson county and there was prepared for his entrance in the college at Santa Fe, Maury county. At the conclusion of his collegiate studies he matriculated at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, to prepare for the profession of medicine, and was graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1893. He began the practice of medicine in the country in Wilson county, continuing thus until 1906, when he removed to Lebanon, where he has since steadily built up a rep- resentative and profitable practice and has become recognized as one of the most successful representatives of his profession in Wilson county. His professional interest is indicated further by his membership in the
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Wilson County Medical Society, the Tennessee State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Dr. Young has good business ability as well as medical skill and his financial accomplishments have paralleled his professional success.
In 1898 he was joined in marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. James M. Donnell, a Presbyterian minister who has followed his honor- able calling many years and is yet living, a resident of Lebanon and in advanced years. Rev. Robert Donnell, the grandfather of Mrs. Young, and a pioneer clergyman of the Presbyterian church in Tennessee, built the first church in Lebanon and was one of the leaders in the founding of the Cumberland Presbyterian branch of this denomination, his minis- terial labors also covering a long period of years. Mrs. Young is affiliated with this denomination, while Dr. Young sustains membership in the Baptist church. They have one son, William D. Young, now attending school at the Castle Heights Training School, Lebanon. In politics Dr. Young has identified himself with the Democratic party.
HOUSTON F. STRATTON. It is most gratifying to note by means of the personal reviews appearing in this publication that a very representative percentage of the native sons of Tennessee who are accorded recognition have found in this commonwealth ample opportunities for the achieving of success along the various lines of business, professional, official and industrial endeavor, and that through their character and services they are honoring the fine old state which they may well be proud to desig- nate as their native heath. Such an one is Mr. Stratton, the efficient and popular incumbent of the office of circuit court clerk of Wilson county, and one of the highly esteemed and progressive citizens of Lebanon, the judicial center of his native county.
A scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of southeastern Ten- nessee, Houston F. Stratton was born at Lebanon, Wilson county, on the 20th of December, 1866, and is a son of S. G. and Alice (Fisher) Strat- ton, of whose two children he is the elder; the younger son, Frank C., is the incumbent of an executive position in the Lebanon National Bank. S. G. Stratton was born in Wilson county, on the 30th of January, 1844, and here passed his entire life, his death having occurred in 1909. On the 9th of November, 1865, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Alice Fisher, who likewise was born in Wilson county and who was a daughter of Houston and Ann C. Fisher, who also were natives of this state and representatives of families that were here founded in the early terri- torial epoch, the subject of this review having been named in honor of his maternal grandfather. Mrs. Alice (Fisher) Stratton was summoned to the life eternal in October, 1877, and in August, 1879, S. G. Stratton wedded Miss Leila Owen, who survives him and still maintains her home in Lebanon. Three children were born of this union, all daughters and married. The father of the subject of this sketch was long num-
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bered among the prominent business men and influential citizens of Wilson county and so ordered his life in all its relations as to retain the inviolable confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was for many years identified with the banking business and was one of the organizers of the Bank of Lebanon, which was eventually merged into the present Lebanon National Bank. He was one of the substantial capitalists of his native county, was the owner of valuable farming prop- erty and city realty, and was specially influential in public affairs of a local order. He was called upon to serve in nearly all of the various county offices and also represented his county in the state legislature. He was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, as were also his first and his second wives; was a prominent and appre- ciative member of the Masonic fraternity, and also was affiliated with the Lebanon lodge of Knights of Pythias. He gave unqualified alleg- iance to the Democratic party and was prominent in its local councils and activities. At the time of the Civil war he was in the Confederate service for a short period, and two of his brothers likewise gave valiant service as soldiers of the Confederacy, both having been wounded in action. S. G. Stratton was a son of Thomas Jefferson Stratton and Car- oline (Golladay) Stratton, the former of whom was born in Sumner county, this state, on the 5th of August, 1817. Thomas J. Stratton was one of the representative citizens of Wilson county, where he was a pioneer banker and merchant of Lebanon and the founder of one of the first banks in the county. He owned also a large landed estate and a number of slaves, was a stalwart in the camp of the Democratic party and continued as one of the leading men of Wilson county until his death. The brief data here incorporated show that the name of the Strat- ton family has been most conspicuously and worthily identified with the civic and material development and upbuilding of this county, and he who figures as the immediate subject of this sketch may well take pride in the ancestral record.
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