USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 107
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In 1855 he was chosen unanimously by the board of trustees chancellor of the University of Nashville. As agent of the building committee, he had in 1853 and 1854 superintended the construction of the stone collegiate edifice, still regarded by experts as the handsomest school-house in Tennessee. In view of the great multiplication of denom- inational colleges throughout the country, he urged the board to adopt the military system of government and exercise, and to merge the Western Military Institute, then flourishing at Tyree Springs, into its collegiate depart- ment. This was done, and with such practical success that the board determined to erect an additional building for students a year or two before the civil war desolated the land. For several years before this cataclysm the Univer- sity of Nashville, with an income from its endowment-fund of less than two thousand dollars, numbered in attendance between five and six hundred students, chiefly from a dis- tance, and received into its faculty treasuries between thirty and forty thousand dollars per annum. This fact is probably without a parallel in the educational annals of America.
During the war Chancellor Lindsley watched the build- ings and property of the university with ceaseless vigilance and with perfect success. In 1867 he organized the Mont- gomery Bell Academy in accordance with the designs of its beneficent founder, and upon a plan which at once estab- lished the high reputation it has always sustained. In 1867 he also brought forward the idea of a great normal college in connection with the Peabody Educational Fund. In 1870 he resigned, recommending Gen. E. Kirby Smith as his successor. His salary as chancellor was either directly or indirectly, through the building measures agreed upon with the board, returned to the university. In 1873 he took part in organizing the " Tennessee College of Phar-
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macy," in which, since 1876, he has been professor of materia medica.
In 1876, by solicitation of prominent physicians and citizens, Dr. Lindsley became a candidate for city health officer, and served as such for four years, during which time he gave Nashville a high reputation for sanitary progress, a diminished death-rate, and for firmly withstand- ing the panics and prejudices of 1878.
In June, 1880, he accepted the chair of "State pre- ventive medicine" in the Medical Department of the University of Tennessee. In October, 1876, he had taken part in the organization of the Nashville Medical College as professor of chemistry and State medicine, but speedily relinquished the position as not harmonizing with the duties of health officer.
Dr. Lindsley has always been a firm and resolute advo- cate of popular education. As such he served six years in the Nashville Board of Education, and was very active in founding the system which has given so much fame to that city. At a critical period, in 1866, he was superintendent of these schools, and so boldly faced opposition in the city government as to effectually warn ward politicians that the public schools were beyond their reach. In 1865 he warmly seconded the plan proposed by Governor Brown- low of organizing the "State Teachers' Association." Of this body he has been twice elected president, and nearly all the time an officer or on the executive committee. In 1875 he was appointed by Governor Porter senior member of the State Board of Education, of which he has been sec- retary since its organization.
Dr. Lindsley has given much time and labor to organiza- tions designed to promote the moral and material welfare of the community. He is president of the Robertson Asso- ciation of Nashville, which in times of cholera epidemics has done a notable work. For thirty years he has been active in the State Historical Society, and in 1874 pro- jected the civic centennial, which has recently given Nash- ville so much eclat. For two years, 1877-78, he was sec- retary of the unendowed State Board of Health. In 1845 he became a member of the State Medical Society, and is now its permanent secretary. In 1848 he was one of the Southern founders of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Numis- matic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia; an origi- nal member of the American Chemical Society; since 1851 a member of the American Medical Association, having at- tended the meetings at Charleston, New York, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Detroit, Nashville, Washington, Louisville, and New Orleans; a fellow of the American Academy of Medicine ; a director in the National Prison Association ; a corresponding member of the National Prison Association of France; and treasurer of the American Public Health As- sociation. Of the American Tract Society and of the American Bible Society he is a life member.
In 1856 the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, con- ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1870, after (as a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (Old School) which met in St. Louis, 1866) taking part in the measures which led to the reunion of the Old and New School Churches, he was received upon
letter into the Nashville Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Since 1873 he has contributed many articles to the " Theological Quarterly" of this Church. His article upon " African Colonization, etc." was reprinted and widely circulated, as was also another on " Prison Discipline." A series of articles upon " Cumberland Presbyterian Church History," eighteen in number, has received very high com- mendation from experts in and out of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Lindsley has published also a number of pamphlets in behalf of the University of Nashville; an introductory lecture upon " Medical Colleges ;" " Eulogy upon Robert M. Porter, M.D.," of which seven thousand copies were circulated ; four papers for the Nashville Board of Health upon sanitary progress, school hygiene, and prevention of epidemics, to be found in the second and third reports pub- lished by said board. Also, in 1868, an anonymous bro- chure, entitled " Our Ruin," which led to the formation of the " Taxpayers' Association," of Nashville, and through it to the law-suit which placed the city of Nashville in the hands of a receiver in July, 1869.
Dr. Lindsley has for years been engaged in collecting materials for a large work, entitled "The Medical Annals of Tennessee," and also for an " Encyclopedia of Tennes- see History." The latter is planned as an exhaustive and elaborate compendium of the civil and political, the com- mercial and industrial, the educational, literary, and relig- ious, the social and the military, history of a great State, which in historic interest ranks with Virginia and Massa- chusetts, both as it respects intrinsic interest and influence upon the nation.
He married, Feb. 9, 1857, Sarah, daughter of Jacob Mc- Gavock, Esq., and granddaughter of Judge Felix Grundy.
WILLIAM STOCKELL,
CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT OF NASH- VILLE, TENN.
Chief Stockell, of Nashville, Tenn., was born in Malton, Yorkshire, England, in 1815, and is, consequently, sixty- five years old. His father removed with his family to Balti- more, Md., when William was quite a child, where they resided until 1829. During the spring of that year they crossed the mountains to Wheeling, Va., and thence by river they went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where the family re- sided from 1829 to 1846. Soon after their arrival young Stockell, now quite a lad, was apprenticed to the bricklay- ing and plastering business. In due time he became a master in his profession. Before he had reached man's estate he imbibed a love for " running with the machine," and in 1840 assisted in the organization of the " Independ- ent Western" Fire Company of that city. In 1841 he was elected president of the above company, which position he honorably filled until 1846, when he resigned to remove with his family to Nashville. On retiring from the " Western" the company presented him an elegant silver speaking-trumpet, on which is wrought a female figure re- clining upon an anchor, over which is inscribed the words,
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. "Hope leads the Conqueror to Victory," and, beneath, the names of the apparatus, " Hope," " Conqueror," " Victory." On the reverse side is engraved, " Presented by the ' Inde- pendent Western' Fire Company to William Stockell, their late president, in remembrance of his services. 1846."
Shortly after his arrival in Nashville he connected him- self with the " Broad Street" Fire Company, No. 2, and in the fall of 1847 was elected the company's chief officer. He was re-elected each year until 1860, when the company disbanded to give way for the paid steam department.
During this term of service his old company, the " Western," of Cincinnati, paid him a visit, making the entire trip by steamboat. This was before Nashville had any railroad connections West. Upon their arrival here they received, at the hands of the entire Nashville depart- ment, a rousing welcome, and an old-fashioned " time" was had.
In October, 1857, the Nashville Fire Department returned the visit of the Cincinnati Department, and met with such a reception as only Cincinnati and her department could give.
Chief Stockell was presented by the " Broad Street" Company, No. 2, with an elegant gold-headed ebony cane during his connection with it; and on one bright Christmas morning was the recipient of an elegant silver salver with pitcher and goblets, on which was this inscription, "To Captain William Stockell, from the lady friends of the Nashville Fire Department. You have served us."
When the paid department was organized in Nashville, Chief Stockell was engaged in a lucrative business, which demanded his entire attention, hence he did not connect himself with it. He, however, continued to attend all fires, and was invited by those who were at the head of the de- partment to advise and assist them in the administration of its affairs. More than once have the citizens of Nashville had occasion to thank the old veteran for services rendered as " Citizen Chief."
In 1869 our city's affairs were in the hands of bad men, such as had been scattered over the South during the war. Every department of the municipal government was shame- fully abused and grossly perverted to serve the personal ends of those in charge of them, and at the expense and peril of the whole city. Under their rule it was not pos- sible to save even the fire department, which had become wellnigh worthless and wholly inefficient. In July of the above year a public meeting of citizen property-owners was held and an application made to the courts for relief. In response to this, John M. Bass, Esq., a prominent citizen, was appointed receiver. Soon after taking charge of the city's affairs, Mr. Bass, with other prominent citizens and representatives of the various insurance companies, called upon Mr. Stockell and requested him to assume control of the fire department. He at first declined to do so, as it would require his retirement from a profitable business, but, this being a day for sacrifices, the chief complied with the request of his fellow-citizens, and at once set to work to gather up the fragments of a fire department. With his indomitable energy and skill he very soon had everything in working order.
Chief Stockell has been re-elected by every City Council
from that day to this, and in all probability will be just so long as he is able to respond to an alarm. Notwithstanding he is now in his sixty-fifth year, he is as active and ener- getic as a man of half his age. With a well-preserved, naturally robust constitution, he bids fair to long serve the citizens who delight to honor him. Chief Stockell does not hold the position for the sake of the remuneration attaching thereto; for, besides possessing a reasonable com- petency, the result of long years of honest toil, he could, with his natural ability, succeed in any branch of business. But he continues at the head of the department purely from a love of the life and an ambitious desire to have a department a little better than any other, as well as for the love he has for his friends (which includes the whole State), and a regard for their lives and property.
Chief Stockell's department is small, but first-class ; what it lacks in size is more than compensated for in efficiency. It is composed of four steamers, four hosc-reels, three thou- sand six hundred feet of hose, one hook-and-ladder truck (on which is carried four Babcock extinguishers), city fire alarm telegraph, with twenty miles of wire and forty boxes, nine gongs, and three bell-strikers. His apparatus, when not in operation, is in just as good order as it is possible to be. His men have learned to love him, for he governs them by kindness, but firmly, and every man in his de- partment realizes that his word is law. They all delight in obeying his instructions, and not one of them but would peril his life for him or his people at any time. His office is neat and well kept. In it he is surrounded by relics, designs of various kinds of machinery and apparatus, with scores of pictures of his associate chiefs and friends. Among all these relics is one that he should and doubtless does highly prize. It is the charter of his old company, the " Independent Western," of Cincinnati, elegantly done in German text, dated " Columbus, Ohio, 1846," framed in a large gilt oval frame.
It will, doubtless, be in order to relate one or two inci- dents in connection with Chief Stockell's life as a fireman. While two companies from a distant city were on a visit to the Nashville Department, a grand parade was had, of which Chief Stockell was grand marshal. At night the visitors were banqueted at the opera-house, after which calls were given at the different engine-houses, and the guests went from house to house enjoying themselves in the merry dance until broad daylight. At three o'clock the next afternoon the department was called to assemble on the square to act as an escort to the visitors to their boat. While they were thus assembled a representative of one of the Nashville companies advanced and presented to the president of each of the visiting companies a beautiful banner, to be preserved as a memento of their pleasant visit to Nashville. The banners were received with appropriate remarks, after which the grand marshal (Mr. Stockell) called the department and citizens to order. He said that while he was captain of but one company, on that occasion he was chief of the whole department. He regretted very much that he had no fine banners to present to them on behalf of the whole department, but he said, " I remember to have read in Holy Writ where a certain widow came to our Saviour and said unto him, ' Lord, all I have I give
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unto thee, and give freely ;' therefore, in the language of that poor widow, I say unto thee (addressing himself to the officers of the visiting companies), here, take my hat" (giving it); to the other, " take my belt ;" then, to the first one, " take my sash" (giving an elegant satin sash) ; and again to the second one, " here, take my shirt !" And the old chief actually stripped himself of his handsome parade shirt and gave it to him. Immediately a general exchange of uniforms took place, and no visiting fireman returned with the same clothing he had when he left home. As to the Nashville boys,-well, they had the worst mixed uniform any set of men ever appeared in, not unlike Joseph's coat of many colors. All in all, it was one of the happiest occasions ever experienced by the Nashville fire- men.
One other incident. In July, 1876, while Chief Stockell was temporarily absent from headquarters (some one having designedly called him away), a tap was sounded from the alarm-bell, which called him back to his office, where, be- hold ! there was drawn up in line the entire department awaiting him. The object of all this soon turned out to be the presentation to him by the entire department of an elegant gold badge, as a token of the regard and esteem they had for their old chief.
Chief Stockell has occupied several important positions outside of the fire department, having been a member of the City Council, a member of the Board of Education, and, by the appointment of President Andrew Johnson, a di- rector of the Bank of Tennessee, also a director of the Ten- nessee State Fair. He was appointed by Governor A. Johnson, a member of the State Agricultural Bureau, in con- nection with Gen. Harding, F. R. Rains, Tolbert Fanning, and others, and held the position until the war. In all the public measures for the relief of suffering during the preva- lence of cholera and yellow fever he and his estimable lady have always taken a leading part in organizing relief for the distressed and suffering. Before the war he was several times elected president of the Mechanics' Institute, and since the war an active member of the board of directors who organized our State Exposition, and served a term as its president.
Chief Stockell is well known throughout the fire service of the United States as one of the most genial of men, a thoroughly good fireman, and a gentleman of profuse hos- pitality. He is the president of the National Association of Chief Engineers, and had the honor of presiding over their deliberations in 1878. Chief Stockell has been an occasional but valued contributor to the columns of the Fireman's Journal.
Capt. Stockell was chairman of the Centennial Board of Directors of the Nashville Centennial Exposition in 1880, which was the finest exhibition of the kind ever witnessed in the South.
Capt. Stockell has an interesting family of children, and a wife of whom he is justly proud. He holds a warm place in the hearts of the people of the capital city of Tennessee. His services to the public, not only in the fire deparment, but in other walks of life, are highly appreciated, not only at home, but all over the country.
Capt. Stockell married Rachel Wright, of Philadelphia,
May 3, 1840. His married life has been one of unusual harmony and happiness. His living children number five, -viz., Charles Henry, born April 3, 1841; Louisa Jane, born June 14, 1843; Albert Wright, born Aug. 8, 1848; George W., born April 2, 1862; Orville Ewing, born Sept. 14, 1855.
It is due to Capt. Stockell to state that the insertion of this biographical sketch is made at the written request of a number of the prominent business men of Nashville.
COL. JOHN C. BURCH.
The subject of this biographical sketch-Col. John C. Burch-has been a prominent and influential citizen of Davidson Co., Tenn., for more than twenty years, and is eminently entitled to mention in its history. He is a native of the State of Georgia, and was born in Jefferson County in 1827. His parentage was also Georgian, his father-Morton N. Burch-being a native of Hancock County, and his mother-Mary Ballard-of Jefferson County. His father moved to Fayetteville, Fayette Co., in that State, in the infancy of the son, and resided there for ten years, when he removed to the city of Macon, which was his residence until his death, in 1862. Mr. Burch was repeatedly a member of each branch of the Legislature of Georgia. He held the public confidence in a high degree, and maintained a superior social rank.
His son, of whom this history writes, received his early education in the best preparatory schools in the State, and entered the freshman class of Yale College, New Haven, Conn., in the year 1843. His course at that renowned in- stitution of learning was completed without a return to his home, and he graduated in 1847 with honor, and in a class numbering several gentlemen who have since attained dis- tinction. On returning to Georgia he immediately applied himself to the study of law in the office and under the tutor- age of Governor Charles J. McDonald, of Marietta, one of the most eminent jurists and estimable men in that State. Having been admitted to the bar in 1849, he opened an office at Spring Place, Murray Co., Ga., and began his pro- fessional career. He remained at that point for three years, when, recognizing the superior facilities for pro- fessional business afforded by Chattanooga, Tenn., and fore- seeing its future development as a city, he removed to that thriving town and entered upon a successful practice.
In 1855, having been but three years a citizen of the State, the confidence of his fellow-citizens and their appre- ciation of his talents for public affairs were manifested in his election to the House of Representatives of the Gen- eral Assembly of Tennessee as the member for Hamilton County. In that body, nearly equally divided politically, though one of the youngest members, he took a first place as a debater and parliamentarian, and was one of the recog- nized leaders of his party on the floor. The session of the General Assembly was a long and important one, and in addition to the many questions affecting the material inter- ests of the State which were considered-chief among which was the grunting of additional State aid to works of internal improvement then in progress-political excitement
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was great, having acquired intensity in the fierce canvass of that year in which Americanism or " Know-Nothing- ism" figured as a new phase in politics. Mr. Burch was a participant in all the interesting discussions of the body, and the reputation he achieved was co-extensive with the State.
In 1857 he was elected senator from the district com- posed of the counties of Hamilton, Bradley, Rhea, Bled- soe, Sequachee, and Marion. This district, as was his own county of Hamilton, was closely divided in political senti- ment, and his election by a decisive majority in each in- stance was esteemed as a personal triumph. Though barely of senatorial age, and his party having in its large majority a number of senators of ability and long experi- ence, he received the distinguished compliment of election to the Speakership of the body at its hands. The service of this session of the General Assembly, like the preceding, was long and of unusual interest and importance. The leading subject of internal improvements was again under consideration. The two fiscal corporations of the State most extensively connected with the business of the people -the Union and Planters' Banks of Nashville-were re- chartered at that session. The whole body of the statutes of the State was revised and compiled into the Code of Tennessee. Upon this General Assembly, also, the duty of electing a United States senator devolved, and upon the question of electing two-one to fill a prospective vacancy -- an acrimonious political debate was precipitated. The question was decided affirmatively, and two were chosen. In the discussions of the Senate its Speaker was frequently on the floor, and when in the chair his parliamentary skill and impartiality were so distinguished as to evoke from his fellow-senators, under the leader of the political opposition, the following more than formal resolutions of thanks at the close of the session :
" Resolved, That the thanks of the Senate are due and are hereby cordially tendered to the Honorable John C. Burch, Speaker of the Senate, for the able, dignified, and impartial manner in which he has discharged his official duties as presiding officer over its deliberations during the present session of the General Assembly,-his ability being evidenced in the unusual fact, in a legislative body, that no single decision made by him as Speaker of this body has been appealed from."
In 1859 the Nashville Union and American, for a fourth of a century the organ of the Democratic party of Tennes- see, suffered the misfortune to lose by death-one occurring a few weeks after the other-its leading editorial conductors, G. G. Poindexter and E. G. Eastman. To supply the serious loss of two men so capable, under counsel of the most prominent leaders of the party in the State, Mr. Burch was called to the chief editorship of that journal, and this responsible position he filled with ability through the ex- citing Presidential canvass of 1860 and the critical agita- tion which culminated in the civil war. His opinions and sentiments were warmly Southern, and his journal was aligned with the advanced views of resistance to sectional aggression.
When, in the rapid march of events, Tennessee was re- quired to assume a position in the contest ensuing upon the
fall of Fort Sumter, and she decided to unite her fortunes and join arms with the seceding States, Mr. Burch en- listed as a private in Company C, of the Rock City Guards, but was soon elected to a lieutenancy in another company. Before going to the field, however, he was appointed aide- de-camp to Maj .- Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, in command of the Provincial Army of Tennessee, organized to support the army of the Confederate States. He was soon pro- moted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. When Tennessee formally entered as a member of the Confederacy, and her troops were allied integrally with the army of that govern- ment, Col. Burch was made an assistant adjutant-general in the service, and continued in that capacity during the war, acting for two years on the staff of Maj .- Gen. Pillow, and subsequently on those of Lieut .- Gen. N. B. Forrest and Maj .- Gen. Withers. The duties of these positions were acquitted with fidelity and loyal zeal to the cause he had early espoused.
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