History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 100

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 100

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Mr. Harris is a descendant on the maternal side from Christopher and James Avery,* and on the paternal side from Walter Harris. His ancestors, the Averys, were dis- tinguished in the early wars with the Pequots and Narra- gansetts, and, at a later period, in the war of the Revolu- tion. Some of them were at Bunker Hill, and with Wash- ington at Dorchester Heights, when the war began ; eleven of the name were killed and several severely wounded at the battle of Groton Heights towards the close of the war, on the 6th of September, 1781.

Mr. Harris became a journalist as soon as he was of age, and was the editor of influential periodicals in Connecticut and Massachusetts before he came to Tennessee. He had made his mark in Boston as a writer of ability, and his services were sought by the leading men of Washington, who were interested in bringing back the State of Tennes- see to the Democratic fold.

That his appearance and permanent location at Nashville may be the better understood, a page in the political his- tory of Tennessee should here be recited.

As the last Presidential term of Gen. Jackson was draw- ing to a close, Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, and Martin Van Buren, of New York, were spoken of by their friends respectively as the most suitable persons to be presented to the Democratic National Convention for nomination as its candidate for the succession. Gen. Jackson and Judge White having been personal and political friends for a long time, it was supposed by the friends of the latter that the

general would favor his aspirations to the Presidency, and would urge his nomination by the National Convention. But he had determined not to interfere in the deliberations of the convention; and his personal and political relations with Mr. Van Buren, as well as with Judge White, were of such a nature as to forbid any departure from his fixed purpose to abide the decision of the National Convention, whoever might be the nominee.

When Judge White was defeated in the convention, his friends-all believing he might have been nominated had Gen. Jackson said so-determined to run him, and did run him, for the Presidency on an independent ticket. The State of Tennessee gave him her vote by a very large ma- jority. Thus was the State which Gen. Jackson had nursed and christened in her infancy placed in antagonism to him, his party, and his principles. Up to that period there had in reality been but one political party in Tennessee, and that was the Jackson party.

It was unpleasant for the old chief when, after eight years in the Presidential chair at -Washington, he returned to the quiet shades of the Hermitage to realize the fact that the State which he had loved so much-his own Tennes- see-had apparently declared her hostility to him and bis party. It was unpleasant to hear from the lips of some of his old friends the erroneous allegation that he had dictated to the National Convention in favor of Mr. Van Buren and against Judge White, when he insisted that he had care- fully abstained from so doing. His old friends then in power at Washington entertained a lively sympathy with him, as did all his personal and political friends there, both in and out of Congress. For it was evident that his State had not only gone against him and his party, but had actu- ally gone over to his old political antagonist, Mr. Clay.

In the winter of 1838-39 it was determined at Wash- ington that the State, if possible, should be redeemed. Mr. Speaker Polk, on his return home after the 4th of March, was to declare himself a candidate for Governor at the State election to take place in August, and a larger and more in- fluential newspaper was to be established at Nashville at once to open and conduct the campaign. It was in pur- suance of this plan that Mr. Harris was invited by them to become the editor of the paper referred to. He reached Nashville early in January, 1839, and in the early part of February the Nashville Union, hitherto a small weekly sheet, was enlarged, furnished with new type, and issued three times a week, displaying new editorial tact and talent.

The Union took for its model the old Richmond En- quirer upon the Atlantic seaboard, and its circulation and influence in all the Southwestern States were soon said to

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. Waightsill Avery, one of the leading spirits of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in 1775, first attorney-general of the State of North Carolina, the patriarch of its bar, who had so much to do in establishing the first courts in East Tennessee, was of this family. He was the man to whom Gen. Jackson first applied for the pur; ose of studying law at Swan Ponds, near Morganton.

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be as great as those of Mr. Ritchie's Enquirer in the Middle and Southern States east of the mountains. The contest was ardent and exceedingly active. Judge Guild says, " It became the most ardent political conflict that had ever taken place in the State. Col. Polk rode on horseback from Carter to Shelby, making speeches in every county, and wherever the people had assembled at cross-roads and by the wayside to hear him. He was met everywhere by his competitor, Governor Cannon, and every inch of ground was manfully contested. Candidates for Congress and for the Legisla- ture were addressing the people every day in every county ; the newspapers were filled with crimination and recrimina- tion ; personal conflicts between differing partisans were almost an every-day occurrence ; and, indeed, it seemed as though difference of opinion in politics could not be tol- erated in Tennessee and personal friendship preserved and maintained."

When the votes were counted in August, it appeared that Col. Polk was the Governor-elect by a handsome ma- jority, and also that a decided majority of Democrats were returned in both branches of the Legislature. As Judge Guild says, " It was a joyous day for Gen. Jackson, as well as for his friends throughout the country. It was pleasant in those days to visit the old hero and hear him tell how much he was gratified that his own Tennessee had come back to him ; how he knew it would be so when the pco- ple should be made to see the mere partisan management by which they had been estranged from him; and what unbounded confidence he had in their virtue and intel- ligence."

It was admitted by all that no one in the State had con- tributed with more effect and energy to bring about this result than Mr. Harris. The contests of this period show that as a political editor he had no equal in Tennessee. In 1842 he married a daughter of James McGavock, of Nashville, and in 1843 he was commissioned by Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, United States commer- cial agent for Europe, and went abroad in that capacity. If we may judge from his voluminous reports to the State Department, of which so large a number of extra copies were printed by the United States Senate, as containing val- uable information respecting our tobacco trade, his services were highly appreciated. On his return home, carly in 1844, he consented to conduct his old paper, the Union, during the Presidential campaign, which resulted in the election of Mr. Polk to the Presidency, and then withdrew permanently from the press. Mr. Polk was pleased to invite him to become connected with the official paper at Washington, which he declined, as he had before declined to become editor of the Madisonian, the official organ of Mr. Tyler's administration.

Preferring a life-service in the navy to temporary civil service, Mr. Harris accepted, in 1845, a commission as dis- bursing officer of the navy, which commission, with promo- tions to the highest rank of his grade, he still holds on the list of officers retired for long and faithful services.

The official and personal relations of Mr. Harris in the naval service have ever been exceedingly happy. In Ham- ersly's " Records of Living Naval Officers" it is stated that Pay-Director J. George Harris was attached to the

Gulf squadron in 1846-47 and during the Mexican war; that he was a member of Commodore M. C. Perry's staff on all his shore expeditions ; that he was at the capture of Tuxpan, Tobasco, and Vera Cruz, receiving from the com- modore special letters of thanks for services rendered afloat and ashore when acting in that capacity ; that from 1850 to 1854, inclusive, he was attached to the Asiatic fleet, and again with Commodore Perry when he opened the em- pire of Japan to the commerce of the world. In his intro- ductory report of the Japan Expedition the commodore makes special mention of the aid he had received from Mr. Harris and Bayard Taylor in preparing his volumes for the use of Congress. After the treaty with the Japanese, concluded in April, 1854, in the tents that had been erected for the purpose on the beach of Yeddo Bay, was signed by Commodore Perry, he handed over to Mr. Harris the steel pen he had used in signing it, who still keeps it as a sourenir of the opening of that empire which had been hermetically scaled for so many centuries.

Mr. Harris spent two years on the western coast of Africa, in the fleet appointed to suppress the slave-trade, and his journals, made while on the shores of Liberia and Guinea, were copiously used by Mr. Gurley, the government agent at Liberia, in his report to Congress. For two years he was attached to the flag-ship of the Mediterranean squad- ron, visiting all the classic shores of that beautiful sea and journeying far into the interior. In that cruise he sent home to public institutions some rare and curious antiqui- ties that are considered the very best specimens of their kind, particularly remembering the Tennessee Historical Society, of which he was an active member for more than a quarter of a century.

Mr. Harris was placed in the navy by and from Tennes- see thirty-five years ago, and has ever remained true to the post assigned him. During the civil war he held some of the most responsible positions of trust in the navy, both afloat and ashore, disbursing many millions of public money without the slightest deficit or loss to the government.

He has not written for the press these many years, yet when he does touch the pen it is apparent that his " right hand has not forgotten its cunning." Returning home, by invitation, to participate in the Nashville centennial, the his- toric associations of the occasion found expression in the following beautiful carol from his pen, which has been highly commended by the press. We add a brilliant page to our history by reproducing it :

OUR HISTORIC CAROL. Nashville -- 1780-1880-April 24.

A century is past and gone. One hundred years ago to-day The star of empire halted here on its proverbial western way, And o'er the cedar-covered heights it glowed with dazzling brilliancy, For here a government was born of law and civil liberty.

Birthday of Nashville, then, all hail ! We greet it with exultant cheers, And reverence the memory of all the veteran pioneers

Who wandered through the pathless woods from early morn to eren- tide,

Until they reached these lofty bluffs that overhang the riverside.

Free men were they,-free as the breeze that blows abroad o'er land and sea, Free as the birds that fill the air with their unwritten melody ;

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And what appropriate realms were these where tyrant's foot had never trod,

For men resisting tyranny, as in obedience to God !

Grand common in the wilderness-range of the bison and the deer, Where Choctaws, Creeks, and Chickasaws, and all the tribes from far and near,

Were wont to meet and chase the game in winter, summer, spring, and fall,

Throughout these broad primeval parks where everything was free to all.

Here they encamped in pleasant shade, beneath the crowns of mighty trees,

And gave their chosen "Notables" the power to issue all decrees ; They came as had their fathers come from Britain's shores,-they came to stay,

One hundred years ago, and this is our Centennial Natal Day.

Remembering the days of old, according to divine command, We offer love and gratitude to God for blessings on our land, And on our ancestors, whose torch first lighted up these hills and streams,

Which still illuminates our path and to the future throws its beams.

Amid the fresh and mineral springs outgushing from the rifted rock, Upon the Warioto's banks they guarded well their little flock ; No shepherd's fold was ever watched with more fidelity than they Did watch the rustic resting-place with loaded rifle night and day,

Brave men were they,-but braver still their wives and daughters, who, 'tis said,

Were expert with the bullet-moulds and kept the powder and the lead,

For they were heroines at times in the defense of house and home, Evincing courage not surpassed by matrons of old Greece and Rome,

Spring in her blooming vernal robes, the sweetest season of the year, Had decked herself with forest flowers to give them cordial welcome here;

The woods were vocal with the song of mocking-bird and meadow- lark,

And marriage rites were solemnized by ROBERTSON, the Patriarch ;

For Cupid with his magic wand, before the summer months were gone,

Hlad charmned two youthful pioneers and consecrated them as one, And to the chaste affianced bride, from native home so far away, How full of hope and promise was that morning of her wedding-day !

Nor was it less a Feast of Love because of the rough puncheon floor On which they stood and made their vows inside the open cabin door, Then danced the merry hours away and shared the plain and simple cheer,

Forgetting their privations on the unprotected wild frontier.

With lively and abiding hope, with patient toil and constant care, They made their little settlement a scene of efficacious prayer, Till in the ample plenitude of well-deserved prosperity, It grew space, and now behold the Capitol of Tennessee !

Rome bought her freedom, it was said, with steel and iron, not with gold,

And valuable still are they as in the palmy days of old ; Our hills of iron and of coal are laden with more precious ores Than silver, gold, or diamond mines, or fish of pearls along the shores.

And what a grand inheritance in all the ages yet to come, These mines so inexhaustible within the regions of our home !- An heirloom that cannot be lost, nor spoiled by desolating wars, That to our children shall descend sure as the brightness of the stars.

We honor those who ventured o'er the mountain-ridges blue and green,

Along the first Watauga trace of Daniel Boone and William Bean, Up to the trackless wilderness through which their little pilgrim band Was bound, as were the Israelites, unto a bright and Promised Land.

We honor them for settling here beside our own Acropolis, Old Nashborough, so soon to be our Nashville, our metropolis, And here upon the solid rock, surrounded by these fertile lands, Shall our good heritage endure long as its firm foundation stands.

Here in the life-like bronze of MILLS shall ride on rearing martial steed

The hero of New Orleans, renowned for many a gallant deed,- His noble and imperial form poised in the saddle gracefully, As when he led our fathers to the fields of glorious victory.

Hail to the city of our sires, to which our best affections cling, Where our grandfathers pitched their tents that rosy morning of the spring,

Where with the sturdy woodman's axe they cleared their little plant- ing spots, And having fought and kept the faith lie sleeping in their garden- lots.

These scenes were theirs which now are ours-these streams that down the valleys run,

That sparkle on their winding way and shimmer in the summer sun, Meandering through the leafy woods, unruffled by the whispering breeze,

To join the river in its course off to the distant deep blue seas.

Home of our families and friends,-home of the faithful and the true, Of statesmen and of presidents, and home of handsome ladies, too,- Of warriors on the battle-field brave in a patriotic cause, Of men learned in divinity, in medicine, and civil laws,-

Whose city gates were never closed against the homeless refugees Of other places doomed to fly with their loved ones from fell disease, Where honest industry and thrift are sure highways to private wealth,

And wholesome sanitary care so well assures the public health.

Its High, Select, and Common Schools, of which we are so justly proud,

Its splendid Universities, by benefactions well endowed, Its Lecture and Historic Halls, its State and College Libraries, Give it position unsurpassed for classic opportunities.

And here forever may it stand, and be with Peace forever blest, Unfurling Education's Flag to the great valley of the West,- A seat of learning for all grades, in social life, in Church and State, And a great central rallying-point, where scientists shall congregate.

Then let the star of empire beam from sea to sea, from zone to zone- Since time and space are overcome by telegraph and telephone- Until the western continent in all its sympathies shall be Like a harmonious commonwealth,-the hope and home of Liberty.

EDMUND W. COLE.

Edmund W. Cole was born in Giles Co., Tenn., on the 19th of July, 1827. His father and mother, Willis W. and Johanna J. Cole, were Virginians, moving first to Ken- tucky, and afterwards to Giles County, where the subject of this sketch was born.

His father died when he was only three months old, leaving his mother with five sons and two daughters, and with extremely limited means. In his youth Col. Cole had little chance for obtaining an education. Working on the farm, he went to such schools as the country at that time afforded for a few months in each year after "the crop was laid by," but he educated himself. In early life he went to Nashville and commenced his career as a clerk in a clothing-store at a small salary, and by close application

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to business and the interest of his employers he advanced rapidly in position and salary, never being out of employment and in a few years receiving a large compensation. In after- years, when considered a very successful man, he was heard to say that no matter how commonplace his employment he always tried as carefully and exactly as possible to suc- ceed. After several years of clerking in stores and the city post-office, he was appointed in 1851 general book- keeper of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, which laborious position he filled with great satisfaction to the company until December, 1857, when he was elected super- intendent of the road, which position he held when the war broke out. Fort Donelson fell; Nashville was evacu- ated. Col. Cole, having. identified himself with the for- tunes of the Confederacy, sent his family South. After the war they returned to Tennessee, but, finding politics and society much changed, he went to Augusta, Ga., in the summer of 1865. In the fall of that year he was elected general superintendent of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, filling this position with credit to him- self and profit to the company until September, 1868, when he was elected president of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, and moved back to Nashville, retaining, however, his position as general superintendent of the Georgia Rail- road until May, 1875, when he resigned. Having added the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad to the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, thereby extending his line of road from Chattanooga to the Mississippi River, the corpo- rate name of the company was changed to the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway, of which line he was president nearly twelve years. How well he succeeded may be seen from the following resolution, passed unanimously by the stockholders on his tendering his resignation :

" Thomas C. Whitesides offered the following :

" Whereas, E. W. Cole was elected general bookkeeper of this corporation in August, 1851, and continued to fill that office until he was elected superintendent in 1857, and was elected president of the company in 1868, and has been annually unanimously re-elected to the office until the present time, and has this day tendered his resignation, in view of Col. Cole's long connection with this company, the efficient and faithful services he has rendered through- out his entire official life; his vigilance and faithfulness to every trust reposed in him; his prudence and foresight ; his wisdom and sagacity ; his urbanity and gentleness under trying and irritating circumstances,-we, the stock- holders and directors, deem it our duty to declare in this public manner our entire and emphatic confidence in him as a gentleman and faithful officer, worthy of the highest trust and confidence, of signal and marked ability as a railroad man, and assure him that he carries with him in the future of his life our best wishes for his happiness and success, and we hereby tender to him and his family a free pass over this road and its connecting lines for life."

During his administration the McMinnville and Man- chester, Winchester and Alabama, and Tennessee and Pa- cific Railroads were added as branches to the main line. He conceived the idea of a trunk line from the West to the Atlantic seaboard, believing such a line, with a trans- Atlantic line of steamers, practicable.

With this idea he went to work in May, 1879, forming his combinations by buying the Owensboro' and Nashville Railroad, and commencing to build a road from Evansville, Ind., via Owensboro', Ky., to Nashville, one hundred and fifty-five miles. Next he bought for his company, with the aid of his own and his friends' stock, a controlling interest in the Western and Atlantic Railroad, running from Chat- tanooga, Tenn., to Atlanta, Ga., one hundred and thirty- eight miles. His next purchase was the St. Louis and Southeastern Railway, from St. Louis to Evansville, Ind., one hundred and sixty-one miles,-in this way forming a trunk-line from St. Louis, Mo., to Atlanta, Ga.,-afterwards contracting for his company to lease the Central Railroad of Georgia, from Atlanta to Savannah, Ga., together with all of its branches and leased lines, about one thousand miles, and its steamships. He then had control of about two thousand miles of road, but, having flanked his rival, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, in the West and in the South, that company bought in New York a majority of the stock in the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway, thereby securing its control, and Col. Cole re- signed.

He has been vice-president and one of the lessees of the State road of Georgia since January, 1871, and still holds these relations to that road.

On the 27th day of May, 1880, he was elected president of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, vice R. T. Wilson, who resigned in his favor. Col. Cole will also have control of the Memphis and Charleston Rail- road, leased by the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad Company, the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad, and other branch roads, in all about eight hundred miles, under his general management.

Col. Cole has been twice married. To Miss Louise M. Lytle, daughter of Archibald Lytle, of Williamson Co., Tenn., one of the oldest families in the State. Mrs. Louise M. Cole died in 1869. He was married to Miss Anna V. Russell, of Augusta, Ga., on the 24th day of December, 1872. Miss Russell was called "The Pride of Georgia," and was considered the most beautiful and brilliant woman in the State. Her classic beauty, intellectual culture, rare dignity, and grace of manner have excited universal ad- miration wherever she has appeared in Europe or in this country.

Col. Cole is fifty-two years of age, over six feet tall, and weighs two hundred and ten pounds. In politics he is a Democrat, in religion a Methodist. His beautiful home in Nashville, " Terrace Place," is noted for its elegant hospi- tality. He has six living children,-three sons and three daughters.

In addition to the foregoing outline of Col. Cole's busi- ness and public life, perhaps we cannot better paint a pic- ture of him before our readers than to quote the exact words of a distinguished gentleman of Nashville who has known him many years :

" Col. Cole is a man of quiet, amiable manners, slow to speak and slow to act, but he never says the wrong word when he does speak, nor does the wrong thing when he acts. He is cautious and confiding, true in his friendship, and every way reliable. He is very truthful, and his word

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is as good as his bond. He bears no malice nor keeps up feuds with his fellow-men. His Christian character shines out in all the relations of life. Notwithstanding his calm, quiet way of transacting business, he accomplishes a great deal and neglects nothing. He is justly considered the best railroad manager in the South. He is an active mem- ber of the 'Tennessee Historical Society,' as well as the ' State Board of Health.' He entertained President Hayes when he visited Nashville in 1878, and no gentleman in the city was better prepared to receive that distinguished gentleman and the ladies of his party. Col. Cole is now in vigorous manhood; he came to Nashville a poor boy, with- out family influence, with little education, and has risen step by step to his present position."

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 100

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013