History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 101

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 101

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Col. Cole is justly popular, liberal, and public-spirited, and ranks among the foremost of self-made men of the country, and his domestic life is a beautiful illustration of a happy home.

M. BURNS, ESQ.

The subject of this sketch was born in the County of Sligo, Ireland, in the year 1813, and is the eighth of a family of eleven children. His parents were persons of reputable standing in the community, possessed of ample means to support and educate their sons and daughters, each of whom received a fair share of scholastic training. During the greater portion of his life, and at the time of his death, his father was the agent of the large estate of Mrs. Fox, of England, lying in the County of Leitrim, Ire- land, the duties of which required all his time except that given to agricultural pursuits.

At the early age of nine years he was left an orphan by the death of his father, that of his mother following soon afterwards. Not long thereafter he was apprenticed to the saddlery business in the town of Sligo. Before the expira- tion of his term his employer resolved to emigrate to America, and his young apprentice determined to accom- pany him, and together they arrived in Quebec in July, 1831. Remaining there but a short while, young Burns removed with his employer to Montreal, where he remained some time. From thence he went to the city of New York, and in the year 1836 started West, arriving at Nashville in the autumn of that year. Here he remained until 1837, when he moved to Jefferson, in Rutherford Co., Tenn., where he lived during that and the succeeding year, return- ing to Nashville in 1839, which has since been his place of residence.

In March, 1842, Mr. Burns was united in marriage to Margaret Gilliam, daughter of William Gilliam, long a queensware merchant of Nashville, who, in a return voyage from Europe, was lost in the sinking of the steamship " Arctic" in September, 1854. The fruit of this marriage is ten children, eight of whom survive, as does also their mother. In that year, with a limited capital, he com- menced the business of a saddler on Market Street, Nash- ville. Through thrift and industry and the willing and cheerful aid of his wife his early struggle was successful,

and he soon was enabled to enlarge his business, and added dealing in saddlery hardware, coachware, and leather of all kinds, and became a prosperous merchant. In his line of merchandise Mr. Burns' establishment was the leading house for many years, and until his retirement. A leading trait in his mercantile character was the maintenance of friendly relations and honorable competitorship with rivals in the same business. The benefit of this policy, apart from its intrinsic propriety, not only increased his sales in business, but strengthened and enhanced his commercial standing greatly.

In 1853, on the accession of Andrew Johnson to the governorship of Tennessee, Mr. Burns was made a director in the Bank of Tennessee, that institution being then under the presidency of Hon. Cave Johnson. The confi- dence thus bestowed by Governor Johnson in the appoint- ment of Mr. Burns was never afterwards withheld, but increased as that extraordinary man advanced in station and influence. The Bank of Tennessee was at that time the fiscal agent of the State, and soon after entering the directory Mr. Burns was chosen by the president and his colleagues to manage the affairs of the bank in its connec- tion with financial institutions in Northern and Eastern cities. Negotiations involving millions in amount were en- trusted to his care, and these were conducted in so quiet, sagacious, and systematic a manner as to merit the warm approval of his colleagues, though his skillful labors in that respect were hardly known or mentioned out of the di- rectors' room. Mr. Burns was six years in this important trust, retiring with his colleagues upon a change in the State administration. Soon thereafter he was elected a di- rector in the Union Bank of Tennessee, and remained such, with an exceptional interval of two years, until its liquida- tion. During this time Mr. Burns was in the directory of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, which was com- pleted in 1854, and in that of the Nashville and North- western, which was in process of construction.

Mr. Burns' connection with the railroad interests of the State has been prominent, and as meritorious and honorable as that held by him in its fiscal institutions. At the out- break of the civil war he was vice-president of the Nash- ville and Northwestern Railroad, then only completed twenty-nine miles westwardly from Nashville, together with twenty-five or thirty miles west of the Tennessee River (the latter portion was destroyed by the ravages of the contending armies, subsequently, and the iron carried off ), and on the occupation of Nashville by the Federal forces, the president being without the military lines, he assumed charge of the interests and property of the com- pany. His first step in that emergency was to prevent its rolling-stock from being carried to the South and beyond its control, as the property of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad had been by order of the retreating Confederate authorities. With this view he promptly ordered it to be taken to the terminus of the road, whence it was subse- quently returned to the city of Nashville by the Federal authorities. It was through his instrumentality that the Nashville and Northwestern Road was constructed during the civil war to the Tennessee River, becoming as it did, during that distressful period, a source of great relief to the people,

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as it is at present one of the most important of the trade arteries of the State. This important object was secured by Mr. Burns in the following manner : The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was, during a considerable portion of each year, the chief reliance of the Federal forces for con- nection with its great base of supplies, and was frequently attacked and destroyed at various points by the Confeder- ate cavalry. At these times heavy requisitions for supplies were made upon the people. To avert this oppression Mr. Burns presented to Military Governor Johnson the im- portance to the Federal government of another route, and prevailed on him to consider favorably the building of the Northwestern road to the Tennessee River, and obtained from him a letter to President Lincoln in furtherance of the scheme. Armed with this, which contained a high indorse- ment of Mr. Burns' character and business energy, he went to Washington City and was enabled to secure an immedi- ate hearing, and successfully impressed the President with his views, who gave orders to the Secretary of War for the immediate building of the road projected. The Fed- eral commander of the Army of the Cumberland, Gen. Rosecrans, received instructions from the department to that effect, with whom Mr. Burns had a conference, at his headquarters, at Stevenson, Ala., on his return from Wash- ington ; and shortly after, the work was commenced by Mil- itary Governor Johnson. The cost of that portion of this important branch of railway was more than four millions of dollars, all of which was paid by the Federal government. Not a dollar of this amount was paid by the State of Ten- nessee, or afterwards required of it, and this substantial gift was directly due to Mr. Burns' efforts. The road was operated by and for the Federal government for military purposes until the close of the war, when it was abruptly surrendered to Mr. Burns, representing the company, the company being utterly without means to equip or operate it. Mr. Burns, however, divined the motives actuating the quar- termaster in charge, who thought suddenly to impose an impossibility and thus find a pretext to obtain orders from the seat of government which would retain him in control, and he dispatched a train in an hour after the receipt of official notice transferring to him the road. By this promptitude the road was securely acquired for the com- pany, and under Mr. Burns' energetic administration was completed to the Mississippi River. The railroad history of the State records no more efficient and salutary service than the skillful management of the Northwestern road under Mr. Burns' direction as its chief officer, from 1861 to September, 1867. The committee of the Legislature of 1870, which carefully investigated the condition of the rail- road enterprises of the State, in their official report bear high testimony to the ability which, with limited means for equip- ment, Mr. Burns brought to the arduous task ; his tireless energy and dispatch in constructing the immense bridge over the Tennessee River and the Obion and Big Sandy Rivers, and the ninety-eight miles connecting thence with the Mis- sissippi River ; the scrupulous fidelity with which he ac- counted for the proceeds of the State bonds placed in his hands, and the thrift and economy which characterized his administration. During that time, when reckless misman- agement was so generally imputed, the history of the North-

western road constitutes a record in which Mr. Burns and his descendants may take special pride.

On the 15th of September, 1865, a few months after the close of the civil war, Mr. Burns being president of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, the property was sur- rendered by the military authorities of the Federal gov- ernment to the company. Its treasury was empty, its track almost worn out by the severe use and casualties of its mil- itary management for nearly four years, and its depots and bridges dilapidated. An immense outlay was necessary to restore it to a proper working condition. The official re- ports of Mr. Burns for the years 1866, 1867, and 1868 exhibit in detail the measures required to reconstruct this important road and resuscitate its business. Laboring un- der every variety of disadvantage, the management was called upon to disentangle the confusion into which its affairs had fallen with the military authorities of the gen- eral government, and to emancipate it satisfactorily from that control. Mr. Burns spent a considerable portion of his time in Washington City in conferences with the Pres- ident, Secretary of War, and Quartermaster-General in securing these objects. His personal relations to President Johnson, whose confidence and friendship he enjoyed in a marked degree, enabled him to effect the extrication of the Chattanooga road from its complications with the Federal government and its restoration to the stockholders, and his successful administration for three years accomplished its entire reinstatement as the pioneer, and in many respects most important, line in the Tennessee railway system. Mr. Burns' influence with the authorities of the United States enabled him to purchase rolling-stock from the government on favorable terms and credit, with which to re-equip and operate the road. The period of his presidency was one of unusual difficulty. Though the road and its equipments were dismantled, it was operated with security to passen- gers,-not an accident occurring to life or limb,-and was reconstructed. Though oppressed with financial embarrass- ments, its business was made profitable. In a region suffer- ing from the impoverishment caused by the war, and in a period of general prostration, its affairs were skillfully ad- ministered. On the 10th of August, 1868, Mr. Burns resigned the presidency of the company, whereupon the following resolution was adopted by the directory :

"Resolved, That as our official connection with M. Burns, Esq., now and for three years past president of this road, is soon to cease, we deem it but an act of justice to express our appreciation of the interest, integrity, and efficiency which he has constantly manifested in the discharge of his official duty in directing the varied interests of this com- pany under embarrassments unequaled in the past history of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company, and we tender to him our best wishes for his continued health and prosperity."

In 1870, Mr. Burns was called to the presidency of the First National Bank of Nashville, and held that position for eight years, when he tendered his resignation, the ac- ceptance of which was accompanied by a resolution of the directory testifying the ability and integrity displayed in the administration of its affairs. His period of service here, as with the railroads whose affairs he had conducted,

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was one of unexampled financial depression and commercial disaster, but his conservative course upheld its credit and maintained its business, the date of his retiring being that of the commencement of a more prosperous financial era. He is now a director in the Third National Bank of Nash- ville, and in the Nashville Commercial Insurance Company. .

Mr. Burns' long prominence in connection with public enterprises has made him a wide circle of acquaintance within and without the limits of the State. The uniform success which has characterized his public and private ca- reer has attracted attention to him as one of the sterling, sagacious men of the times. While he has not labored for political preferment, on several occasions his name has been urged in connection with the governorship of the State. His indisposition to seek office restrained him from effort to reach this honorable position, but those who knew his capacity for public affairs have felt assured that in the hands of none of her citizens would the interests, honor, and true dignity of the State have been safer than in those of Michael Burns.

Since withdrawing from positions of public trust, Mr. Burns is devoting attention to his personal affairs and the fine estate amassed by his industry and skill. He is, never- theless, a public-spirited citizen, having a large interest in various corporate enterprises. The key to his success has been laborious application to business coupled with the strictest fidelity to financial obligations, never, in his large and diversified dealings, having compromised a debt or settled otherwise than at one hundred cents in the dollar. He has the full confidence of his fellow-citizens, as he has their respect and esteem for his warm-hearted and open- handed generosity. These characteristics found signal illus- tration in the trying period of the civil war. While candid and outspoken in his views and sympathies at that time, he yet had the general confidence of a number of the leading military officials with whom his public duties brought him in contact, but especially with the Military Governor of the State, with whom his personal relations were intimate and cordial. For relief or redress from the rigor of military exactions he appealed frequently in behalf of the worthy in all ranks of life, high and low, and never appealed in vain. Perhaps no man in the community enjoyed the op- portunity of doing so much of this character of kindness, and none did it more cheerfully and efficiently. Through his frank and affable manners, Mr. Burns is popular with all classes of his fellow-citizens. A true son of Ireland, he has never forgotten the fact, as is manifest in the attach- ment felt for him by his fellow-countrymen, to many of whom he is adviser and friend ; yet he is an American, and thoroughly identified in sympathy and principle with the land of his adoption. While tolerant and broadly catholic in his views, his sincerity of character is exhibited in his support of the religious principles of his fathers. In all respects, the subject of this sketch deservedly ranks among the worthiest of the leading citizens of the community in which he has lived so long, and is justly entitled to a place in its history now in preparation for the reading of posterity.

THOMAS SEWELL KING.

Thomas Sewell King, for many years an honored and most useful citizen of Davidson County, was born near Raleigh, N. C., June 29, 1786. His descendants have no accurate knowledge of the precise date of his removal to Tennessee, but it was not long after attaining his majority, probably about the year 1810. His parentage was of the sturdy stock of Carolina which furnished so largely the best elements of population coming to develop and give char- acter to the new State. They were not wealthy, as not many of that time and region were, and the subject of this sketch had slender foundation for the respectable fortune his industry afterwards acquired, but was well supplied with material for the sterling and justly reputable character which gave him prominence among his fellow-citizens and entitles him to mention in this history.

His father was John King, and his mother was Elizabeth Sewell. The former was of English birth, and came to America in the latter part of the year 1769. The historian of the Methodist Church in this country records that John King's name appears as one of the " four preachers compris- ing its little corps of Methodist evangelists" when America, in 1770, first appears in John Wesley's list of appoint- ments. The history proceeds to say that in this work he was energetic, zealous, and blameless, and so continued until his death. Another historian says of him, " It was the in- domitable and enterprising King who first threw the banners of Methodism to the people of Baltimore." He reached a very advanced age, and died near Raleigh, N. C.

Not long after his arrival at his new home Mr. King united in marriage with a cousin,-Susan Sewell. After his marriage he lived in Nashville, and was probably engaged in merchandising, either as a clerk or as proprietor. The building on College Street, near Union, now occupied by Newell, Duncan & Co., was at one time his residence. After a few years he removed to the village of Nolensville, about twelve miles south of Nashville, and was there asso- ciated in a general mercantile business with James Johnson, afterwards and long one of the most prominent cotton-mer- chants in the city of Nashville, and one of its worthiest citizens. While living at Nolensville, his wife having died, Mr. King married, on Aug. 17, 1817, Delilah Cantrell Nolen, a daughter of one of the first settlers of that place, and from whom it took its name. This excellent woman was his wife and true helpmeet until his death, and survived him a number of years. No sketch of him would be com- plete without reference to her. She was a person of re- markable characteristics, and exemplified the Christian matron of the highest type. Possessed of a strong, incisive mind and great energy, these were tempered by qualities of heart which endeared her to all. Her charity was large and overflowing, and her life was spent in doing good. Its end was serene and hopeful.

About the year 1830, Mr. King abandoned mercantile pursuits and removed to Davidson County, having purchased a fine farm five and a half miles southeastwardly from Nash- ville, on the line of the Nashville and Murfreesboro' Pike. This was afterwards the home of Dempsey Weaver, Esq., who was his son-in-law. Mr. King resided at that place

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until his death, which followed an acute attack of pneumo- nia, Feb. 6, 1851, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Though nearly thirty years have passed, the neighborhood of his home for so many years yet holds green in memory the ap- preciation of the manly and upright traits which made him its leading citizen and his name a household word in an extended circle.

Esquire King-that was the unpretentious, but in his day not unhonored, title which he long bore-illustrated signally all that is comprised in the term a good citizen. Without pretension to culture, his mind was vigorous and active and well informed in all matters of public importance and general interest. His superior intelligence, supple- mented by industry, rendered him successful both as mer- chant and farmer, and in the useful spheres in which he served the public. He had that combination of qualities which exacts confidence from his fellow-men, and to no man in his time and circuit of duty was it accorded in a higher degree. He was of that class of men who have but small regard for shine or show, but who are in everything solid and substantial. He was conscientious and conservative in his turn of thought, and prompt, methodical, and correct in all his dealings. He gave justice and a full measure, and quietly required it in return. He was the firm and trusted friend of many, and his counsel and advice were sought by men in all ranks of life. Respect was had for his opinions, and faith in his sincerity. As a citizen and neighbor he was the arbiter of disputes and the subduer of strifes, and his example and influence made the community better. Though his path was in the quiet and sequestered walks of life, he was filled with proper public spirit, and was an earnest advocate of his views in matters of public concern. In this respect he was frank and independent, yet withal liberal to those who differed. He was for many years a magistrate. His duties in that capacity, after the manner of those in private life, were performed with scrupulous fidelity and probity. As in the one his word was the synonym of reliability, so in the other his conduct was above question or impeachment.

In the social circle he was a pattern of deportment, and his home was the centre of a large hospitality, while he dispensed an ample charity to the deserving needy. He was a consistent and unobtrusive Christian in the faith of his fathers, and devoted to the spread of its ordinances and worship, maintaining for a number of years on his farm the place of annual religious services known as " King's Camp- Ground." His virtues are cherished as a valuable legacy by his posterity, and assert for him an honorable place in the records of the community adorned by his life.

DEMPSEY WEAVER.

Dempsey Weaver was born in Chatham Co., N. C., the 15th day of July, 1815; he removed to Marshall Co, Tenn., in 1825, and to Davidson Co., Tenn., in 1836. He was successful as a merchant and as a banker. He filled

with marked ability and unquestioned fidelity many offices requiring the execution of high and delicate trusts. He acquired friends, accumulated wealth, was twice married, reared a prosperous and happy family, and died Feb. 3, 1880, ere he had reached threescore years and ten.

His life is of a type rarely found elsewhere than in America. The tireless, ceaseless, sleepless effort, ending only with life, which seems to characterize our people, is said to strike thoughtful foreigners with astonishment. Perhaps in no life, even in America, of equal length, was more of effort condensed, or more or worthier ends accom- plished. Striking out for himself at twenty years of age, without education, wealth, friends, or influence, he won for himself such a position that when forty-four years thereafter he died the learned, the wealthy, the influential, the whole of the great city in which he had lived and labored, strove who should do most honor to his memory. He was neither a great scholar, poet, statesman, nor warrior, but to the people among whom his life was passed he was much more than any one of these could have been. He was one of those just, sagacious, far-seeing men, tenax propositi, who impress and serve as models for a whole community. Perhaps to no one man more than to him is Nashville in- debted for the solidity and integrity which mark its busi- ness transactions. He bore no conspicuous part in any great historical event, and yet it may be justly claimed that he did more for humanity-more that in its effects will live while his long sleep lasts-than many whose names shine on the pages of history. His philanthropy and his fortune were not wasted in sentimental, futile, yet ostenta- tious efforts to redeem China and the isles of the sea. The poor at his own door, the people of his own city, were in the largest measure the objects of his charities and his benefactions. His words of hearty approval, wise advice, and kindly caution were, like his purse, ever ready for those who sought his aid. His effort was to conceal, not to pub- lish, his good deeds. The sum-total of these can never be known. The very least of them were the large sums of money which from a full hand flowed to all worthy objects, and perhaps it may be justly said that the greatest of them were the moral support, the kind words of advice and en- couragement, and the ready promise, sure to be made good, of help, if effort failed, which renewed hope and gave strength to maintain the conflict to so many ready to faint by the way.

No history of Davidson County would be complete with- out him. He belonged to no particular sect. When he died every class in the community felt that it had suffered a special loss. Churchmen missed the practical wisdom that matured plans, and the hand that gave without count- ing to carry them to success. The rich missed the financial sagacity to which so many owed the safety or increase of their fortunes. The deserving poor missed the generous sympathy to which appeal was never made in vain. The young men missed the counselor to whom all questions of finance were submitted. And the strong and active missed the elder brother with whom communion renewed their strength and revived their courage.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 101

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