History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 102

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

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Judged by the standard of years his death was prema- ture; by the standard of his labors, his success, and his

* By Thomas H. Malone.

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benefactions it was timely, for in this view his life was com- plete and rounded.

A community is happy to have had such a man live and die in its midst. All that is mortal of him rests at Mount Olivet, near the beautiful city that he loved best, but sages, poets, Holy Writ will have prophesied in vain if his honor- able, brave, just, generous life shall not for many recurring years continue its beneficent influence.

The writer knew and loved Mr. Weaver. He was re- quested to write a short sketch of his life. It has turned out-it could not have been otherwise-a panegyric.

ELBRIDGE GERRY EASTMAN.

Elbridge Gerry Eastman was born in Bridgewater, N. H., Feb. 27, 1813. He was the son of Timothy and Abigail Eastman.

His educational advantages in early life were limited. Having been the inheritor of no fortune, dependent on his own exertions, he was in early life apprenticed to the print- ing business,-a profession of which he was always proud.

Having gone to Washington soon after he had reached manhood, James K. Polk, whose estimate of men was sel- dom at fuult, discovered in him those evidences of intellect and character which have since won for him golden opin- ions with all honorable men.

Mr. Polk invited him to Tennessee in 1839, and under his auspices he established the Knoxville Argus, the publi- cation of which Mr. Eastman always regarded as the most brilliant part of his editorial career.

He evinced a talent for newspaper discussion of a high order, and was regarded as the leading Democratic editor of East Tennessee until Col. Polk was elected President, when, to better his pecuniary condition, he accepted an office at Washington, which he filled with credit to himself and satisfuction to the department. His services were soon needed, however, at Nashville, and he was called by the leading Democrats of the State to take charge of the Nash- ville Union.

During the spirited contests of 1839, '41, '43, and '44 he became celebrated for the terseness and pungency of his style and as a writer of vigorous and spirited paragraphs.

Strong in all respects as an editor, in this rare quality he had few superiors, and perhaps never an equal, in Ten- nessee. His principal forte as an editor was his excellent judgment in determining the course and policy of his paper. His talents and usefulness were not confined to politics. He was the ardent, earnest, working friend of agriculture and the mechanical arts. His reports, suggestions, and papers on these topics are public property, and are held in high esteem by those whose interests he thus labored to advance.

In efforts to advance the cause of education and all pub- lic enterprises, he was equally zealous. He was a man of great candor, fairness, and sincerity ; his political principles were matters of conscience with him. He was remarkable for his evenness of temper and disposition ; he had his dis- likes, but was incapable of malice. As a friend he was kind, confiding, and true.

In his domestic relations-as a husband and father-

words cannot express his tenderness. He appeared nowhere in a character so admirable as when surrounded by his family ; there centred all his pride and all his hopes.

He was in 1849-50 clerk of the House of Representa- tives, and of the Senate one year. He was editor of the Knoxville Argus, then of the Nashville Union, and lastly of the Union and American. Secretary of the agricultural bureau of Tennessee,-able and indefatigable promoter of agricultural fairs throughout the State.

He was an originator and active assistant in organizing " loan and building associations," and always regarded as the friend of the mechanic and laborer.

At a large public meeting (beld Nov. 24, 1859), called to express the regrets of his fellow-citizens,-Mayor Holling- worth, in the chair, Rev. Dr. Hoyt and R. C. Mc.Nairy, Esq., secretaries,-resolutions expressive of respect and sorrow were supported in glowing terms by Hon. Andrew Ewing, John Hugh Smith, Esq., Hon. W. F. Cooper, Col. G. C. Torbett, R. C. McNairy, Esq., and C. W. Nance, Esq.

Similar action was taken in both the State Senate and House of Representatives, in the Masonic fraternity, the Typographical Union, and in the Agricultural Bureau.

Mr. Eastman left a widow, who, before her marriage, was Miss Lucy Ann Carr, of New Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. She married Mr. Eastman Oct. 11, 1832, at Baltimore, Md. He also left nine children of ten born to him ; these nine all at present reside in or near Nashville,-Mary T., now Mrs. Dr. J. H. Curry ; Carrie C., now Mrs. W. M. Duncan ; Lucy C., now Mrs. L. K. Hart; and six sons,- viz., Charles H., William E., Lewis R., Elbridge G., John W., and Roger.

Nashville would gladly welcome many such families from New Hampshire or any other State.

ALEXANDER LITTLE PAGE GREEN, D.D.

Alexander Little Page Green was born in Sevier Co., Tenn., June 26, 1806. He was the seventh son-one of sixteen children-of George and Judith Green, who were devoted Methodists of blameless reputation, industrious and thrifty ; they were pioneers in Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama, and brought up their children in virtue and piety. George Green fought under the American flag in the war for independence.

Alexander was pious from his childhood. He was made a class-leader at the age of sixteen, an exhorter at eighteen, and before he was nineteen he was licensed to preach, and admitted on trial into the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which Conference he con- tinued till his death, July 15, 1874.

He spent much time in his early life with the Creek and Cherokee Indians, was employed by the traders as an inter- preter, and frequently preached to them. His biographer says " that for months at a time during his stay with the Indians he was without a covering of any sort for his head."

These short and simple annals extend over half a century of extraordinary ministerial service. He labored efficiently

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on circuits and districts, in stations and in special agencies. He took high rank in all the ecclesiastical courts; he was consulted on all questions of ordinary and extraordinary interest. The polity of the church was largely modeled by his counsels. The questions at issue between the Northern and Southern branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the time of the division in 1844, and subsequently dur- ing the pending of the memorable church suits, were ad- justed to a great extent by his prudent and unremitting attention.

He was always among the foremost in developing the mis- sionary, Sunday-school, educational, publishing, and other interests of the church. He was a tower of strength in these regards, and was looked up to by his associates as one in whose judgment they might confide.

He was first stationed in Nashville by his Conference in 1829. We are informed by his biographer "that great success attended his labors this year. At the close of his second year he was married to an estimable lady,-Miss Mary A. E. Elliston. McKendree Church was completed during his administration, in 1833. While the whole family of Methodism was dear to him, he had a peculiar love for old Mckendree, which love was fully recipro- cated. He served this congregation six years, and was pre- siding elder on the Nashville district twelve years. While other ministers accomplished great things, Methodism in Nashville and Davidson County owes more to Dr. Green than to any other man.

He fell in love with Nashville at first sight, and adopted it as his home. He was devoted to its progress, and had unbounded confidence in its final success. The claims of Nashville as an educational and commercial centre he never neglected an opportunity to advance. He was proud of its history, solidity, and culture, and predicted great things for it in the future. He proved his faith by his works. He was a stockholder in Nashville's first railway,-the Nash- ville and Chattanooga,-also a stockholder in the Nashville and Louisville Railway. He was an original director and stockholder in the Nashville Gas Light Company. Aided by John M. Bass, Esq., and Joseph T. Elliston, Esq., he opened, by private enterprise, Union Street, in Nashville, from College to Market Street. In all building contracts- and he had many-he employed Nashville mechanics and used Nashville material, even when it necessitated a change of his plans.

He took great pride in everything about and in the city of Nashville, but was sorry to admit that the beautiful and romantic Cumberland was not reliable either for navigation or angling. .

He was mainly instrumental in locating the Southern Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, which has been a great moral and pecuniary blessing to the city. He was the chairman, and, indeed, the Mentor, of the Methodist Book Committee.

Besides the many institutions of learning under the direction of his own church, he was interested in all enter- prises in his adopted city looking to the moral and intel- lectual improvement of the rising generation. He was a trustee of the University of Nashville, from which he re- ceived the honorary title of Doctor of Divinity. He was

very proud and fond of the old Nashville Female Academy, of which he was a stockholder and trustee. He was also an original trustee of the Tennessee School for the Blind. Last, but not least, he was specially interested in the per- manent establishment of Vanderbilt University, of which he was treasurer and member of its board of trust at the time of his death. For this institution he consulted, planned, and labored. It was his last enterprise and his chief joy, and, he being dead, it speaks for him. Sur- rounded by honorable associates in beneficence and labor, his life-size portrait adorns the western wall of the beautiful chapel.

In all the positions of trust and honor in which he was placed, and which required so much of his time, it is a remarkable fact that they were all alike positions in which there were no pecuniary returns.

He was remarkably disinterested as a preacher,-ready for any service with or without pay.

The secret of his great preaching power was that he knew men, came down among them, arrested their atten- tion, touched their hearts, and drew tears from their eyes. His language, modeled after the English classics, was chaste, strong, simple, and pathetic.

He wrote a good deal, especially for the church papers and periodicals. His biographer has devoted considerable space to the " Papers of Dr. Green," written in prose and poetry, and full of interest to the general reader.

He was charitable and catholic in his sentiments, judi- cious and unostentatious in his benefactions, kind to all, especially to the young, who greatly enjoyed his society. He was fond of working with his hands in his garden and on his farm. It is pleasant to walk over the grounds at " Greenland," five miles north of Nashville, and note his " improvements" and see his pleasant haunts ; for, like Uzziah, King of Judah, he loved " husbandry" and com- muned with nature in farm and field, in garden and grove.

He was a model father, happy in the conjugal relation, and his children, devoted to him in life, continue to honor his memory and imitate his virtues.

The soil of Tennessee holds the remains of few of her sons who have done her so much honor as Alexander Little Page Green.

REV. JOHN BERRY MCFERRIN, D.D.

Rev. John Berry McFerrin, D.D, was born in Ruther- ford Co., Tenn., June 15, 1807. His father, Col. James McFerrin, was a native of Virginia, and removed to Ten- nessee in 1804. His grandfather, William McFerrin, was born in Pennsylvania, but removed with his father to Vir- ginia when he was a child ten years old. William McFer- rin was the son of William McFerrin, Sr., one of three brothers who emigrated from Ireland about one hundred and sixty years ago. He settled temporarily in York Co., Pa. Here the families divided. One portion remained in the State of Pennsylvania, and settled about Philadelphia and New Jersey. Another portion went westwardly, and settled in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh. William's family went to Virginia and branched off into Tennessee,

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Kentucky, and farther west. The descendants are to be found in nearly all the Western States as far as Oregon.

William McFerrin, John B.'s grandfather, was in the Revolutionary war, and was at the battle at King's Moun- tain in the command of Gen. Campbell.

Col. James McFerrin was an officer in Gen. Andrew Jackson's army in 1812-13. He was a brave and well- skilled soldier and officer. At the age of thirty-seven he became a Methodist preacher, and spent the remainder of his life in the work of the ministry.

John B.'s mother was the daughter of John Berry, a Presbyterian elder, who died in Virginia ninety-five years ago. Ilis maternal grandmother was Jane Campbell. She was born in what is now Rockbridge County, and belongs to one branch of the extensive Campbell family of the " Old Dominion." Her grandmother on the father's side was Jane Laughlin, the daughter of James Laughlin. The Laughlin family were from the neighborhood of Belfast, Ireland, and emigrated to America in 1753. The whole family on both sides were descendants of Scotch-Irish Pres- byterians, and were inveterate Protestants.

John B. McFerrin, whose name stands at the head of this article, was the eldest son of his parents. IIc was born when the country around Nashville was newly settled. The cabin in which he was born was surrounded by cane and unbroken forests. Ilis carly advantages were limited. A respectable English education, obtained in the common schools of those carly times, was all of which he could boast. He, however, learned to read in very early life, and was a student at home, reading whatever books-especially theological works-came in his way.

At the early age of cighteen he entered the work of the ministry, and was admitted into the Tennessce Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the autumn of 1825. He has been a member of that body till this date without any intermission. Ile has filled many positions in the church ; he has traveled circuits ; has filled city stations; has been a presiding elder ; an agent for a literary institu- tion ; a missionary to the Indians; editor of the Christian Advocate at Nashville for nearly eighteen years; book- agent twice; and spent nearly three years with the Con- federate army in the late unfortunate war, as a missionary under the direction of his church.

Thus it will be seen that Dr. McFerrin has devoted nearly forty years of his life to the interests of his church outside the pastoral work. He has preached, however, through all the land, from New York to California, and visited nearly every important town and city in the South and Southwest. Ile has devoted much time to literary pursuits, considering that he has been all his days actively employed in the work of his church. He has written much for the periodicals of the church, has published several sermons, and has written an elaborate history of Methodism in Tennessee in three volumes of about five hundred pages each. Ile has been a member of every General Conference of his church since 1836, and has been present at more than two hundred Annual Conferences. His physical constitution was strong, and his powers of endurance in youth and middle age were remarkable. He seldom became weary of work or travel. IIe grew rapidly

to manhood, and attained to a stature of six feet in his boots; average weight, two hundred pounds. He was no politician,-that is, he never took any part publicly in the political issues of the great parties in the country,-but he was always a Democrat and a strong Southern man in sen- timent. He was the friend of President James K. Polk, baptized that eminent statesman, took him into the Meth- odist Church, closed his eyes in death, and preached his funeral sermon.

Dr. McFerrin took a prominent part in the great con- troversy between the Northern and Southern wings of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844. He was a member of the convention in 1845 which took steps for the com- plete reorganization of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and worked with diligence for its permanent estab- lishment and future prosperity. When the war had ended and propositions were made for a restoration of fraternal relations between the two branches of the church, North and South, he was among the first to step forward and extend the hand of brotherly love. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by two literary institutions in 1851.

Nashville has been the headquarters and home of Dr. McFerrin since the autumn of 1831. IIe has been mar- ried twice,-first to Miss Probart, a native of Nashville, and- secondly to Miss McGavock, of Davidson County. He has at this writing six living children and fourteen grand- children.

Such are the salient points in the life of Dr. McFerrin. To give the details of that busy and useful life would be to give a large part of the history of the Methodist Church in the South, during the period of his active ministry. He has borne a prominent part in its deliberative assemblies, its connectional work, and in its pulpit. The elements of his power, popularity, and success may be briefly noted.

His zeal .- Having chosen the ministry of the gospel as his life-work, he has pursued it with a concentration of purpose rarely equaled. He has been a man of one work, putting all his energy and enthusiasm into the service of the church. Flowing always in this channel, the current of his life has been deep and strong, illustrating the wise aphorism that " concentration is power."

His courage .- This is a conspicuous quality of Dr. Mc- Ferrin's nature. It was in his blood, derived from the strong and fiery race of which he came. Inheriting a powerful physique, with immense impelling force, he has the self-poise and boldness that are imparted by the con- sciousness of strength. His latent resources, under the stimulus of difficulty and opposition, have always been equal to the demands made upon him in meeting the heavy responsibilities and bearing the heavy burdens imposed upon him by the church. His moral courage, tried in many emergencies, has never been found wanting. He never shirks a duty or an issue. Neutrality is impossible to him. On all important questions he has an opinion which he is not ashamed to avow or afraid to defend. Though his battles have been on the bloodless arena of po- lemics and questions of ecclesiastical policy, he has a knightly love of the combat where fair and manly blows are given and taken.

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His pathos and humor .- Dr. McFerrin illustrates the oft-mentioned fact that these elements of oratory are closely allied and seldom disjoined. He has sown the land with laughter and tears. On the platform he sweeps the chords of feeling with a master-hand, stirring immense audiences to the profoundest depths of their sensibilities, and kindling in their bosoms responsive enthusiasm under his impas- sioned appeals. Ilis wit is instantaneous in its flash. In repartee he has no superior, and in the thrust and parry of debate it is doubted whether he ever came off second-best.

His pulpit power .- Many attempts have been made to analyze the elements of Dr. McFerrin's power in the pul- pit, but in vain. The great secret is in the personality of the man,-that indefinable atmosphere surrounding him that engages attention, commands confidence, and arouses sympathetic mental action and feeling. His grasp of a sub- ject is firm, his manner intensely carnest, his treatment of it logical, going in a direct line to the point in hand, pre- senting religious truth in concrete forms, and illustrating it by figures taken from nature and from real life. All classes love to hear him, and the writer who called him "the people's man" described him well. But the extraordinary effects produced by his preaching in his most notable pulpit efforts can only be explained by the afflatus of the IIoly Spirit that rests upon the man called, commissioned, and anointed of God to proclaim the glad tidings of the gospel. Ilis sermons are pervaded by a deep spirituality, und, though varied by sparkles of wit and quaint sallies that make his hearers smile, they rarely fail to awaken their consciences, stir their sensibilities, and kindle their hopes.

His elasticity .- This has been the source of his marvel- ous endurance and the wonder of his friends. In his prime he actually seemed almost incapable of fatigue, and did an amount of work under which most men would have broken down at once. Ilis mind was a battery always charged, his animal spirits a fountain that never failed. When his his- tory shall be fully written, it will disclose a career in which fidelity to duty and capacity for labor were equally remarkable.

PHILIP LINDSLEY.

OUTLINE OF HIS LIFE.

Philip Lindsley was born near Morristown, N. J. Ilis parents were both of English extraction, the Lindsleys und Condicts being among the earliest settlers of Morris- town, and influential Whigs of the Revolution. His early youth was spent in his father's family, at Basking Ridge, N. J., and in his thirteenth year he entered the academy of the Rev. Robert Finley, of that place, with whom he continued nearly three years. He entered the junior class of the College of New Jersey in November, 1802, and was graduated in September, 1804. After graduating he became an assistant teacher, first in Mr. Stevenson's school, at Morristown, and then at Mr. Finley's, at Basking Ridge. He resigned his place with the latter in 1807, and about the same time became a member of Mr. Finley's church and a candidate for the ministry under the care of Presbytery. He was then for two years Latin and Greek tutor in the

college at Princeton, where he devoted himself to the study of theology under the direction of the president, Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith. On the 24th of April, 1810, he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. Continuing his theological studies during the next two years, and also preaching a while at Newtown, L. I., where he declined overtures for a settlement, he made an excursion into Virginia, and afterwards to New England, and in November, 1812, returned to Princeton in the capacity of senior tutor in the college. In 1813 he was transferred from the tutorship to the professorship of languages, and at the same time was chosen secretary of the board of trustees. He also held the offices of librarian and inspector of the college during his connection with the in- stitution. In October of this year he was married to Mar- garet Elizabeth, only child of the Hon. Nathaniel Lawrence, attorney general of the State of New York.

In 1817 he was twice chosen president of Transylvania Uni- versity, Kentucky, but in both instances declined. In the same year he was ordained, sine titulo, by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, and was also elected vice-president of the College of New Jersey. In 1822, after Dr. Green's resigna- tion, he was for one year its acting president. The next ycar he was chosen president of Cumberland College, Ten- nessee, and also of the College of New Jersey, but he de- clined both appointments. The same year the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Dickinson College, then under the presidency of Dr. J. M. Mason.

After refusing to consider overtures concerning the presi- dency of Ohio University, at Atliens, he was again offered the presidency of Cumberland College, and finally induced to visit Nashville ; the result of which was that he at last signified his acceptance of the office in 1824. During his absence the board of trustees of Dickinson College had sent a deputy to Princeton to induce him to consent to become president of that institution. On the 24th of December he arrived in Nashville with his family, the college having been in operation a few weeks, with about thirty students. Hle was inaugurated with much pomp and ceremony on the 12th of January, 1825. His address delivered on the occasion was published and very widely circulated. It was a noble effort, and was regarded as auspicious of an emi- nently useful and brilliant career. The corporate name of the college was changed the next year to " The University of Nashville."

In May, 1834, Dr. Lindsley was unanimously elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, then holding its sessions at Philadelphia. He was elected a member of the " Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians," at Copenhagen, in 1837.

In 1845, Mrs. Lindsley was taken from him by death, after a most happy union of about thirty-two years. In 1849 he was married to Mrs. Mary Ann Ayers, the widow of a kinsman,-Elias Ayers, the founder of the New Albany Theological Seminary,-a daughter of the late Maj. William Silliman, of Fairfield, Conn., and a niece of the venerable Professor Silliman, of Yule College. In May, 1850, he was elected professor of ecclesiastical polity and biblical archeology in the New Albany Theological Semi-

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 102

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