History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 109

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 109

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The family located on IIarpeth River, on the estate where Edward Hicks now resides. After serving his father faithfully on the farm, John located on the farm now known as " Belle Meade;" he subsequently had a home in Nash- ville, still retaining the above-named farm. In 1838 he bought a plantation in Louisiana, which he soon sold at 3 handsome profit. In 1840 he bought again, this time in Arkansas; which place, with large additions to the original purchase, he bequeathed to his grandchildren, in 1860.

John Harding was an early and firm friend of the cause of education ; on this account he took a deep interest in the prosperity of " The Nashville Female Academy." Not that the trustees favored his ideas, for they were mostly of re- ligious persuasions differing from his, but from a desire to have the daughters of Tennessee educated in the best pos- sible manner.

His sympathies were with the Christians, also known as the Campbellites. His liberality towards the clergy of this denomination was notorious ; in fact, he could not do too much to aid those of like faith with himself.

Mr. Harding's chief characteristics were energy and in- dustry. It was not the desire of acquiring rapidly, but a desire always to attain the best results, to make the most of everything.

Ilis fine pasturage he made profitable by taking horses and mules from Nashville to feed, and by supplying almost daily the city or town market with his choice hay ; no one raised better, for which reason he often had from one bun- dred and fifty to two hundred horses to pasture.

Then his mill was made profitable, and his excellent black- smith-shop had an immense run of business ; from all these sources, as well as others, came large revenues, which were invested in farming-lands. These added acres received the best of culture. His kind and paternal care of his slaves secured from them faithful services ; he never separated a family of slaves, never bought and sold them on specula- tion; the number left his son were the increase of a small number received from his father by inheritance.

John Harding married Miss Susannah Shute, who had come into Tennessee from Virginia with her brothers and sisters before him. The Shute family were from Carlisle, Pa., and of German origin.

His family consisted of six children, only three of whom grew to maturity,-viz., William G., Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Clay, of North Carolina, and Amanda, who married Frank McGavock, of Nashville.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

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BIOGRAPHIES.

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Joseph Philips served as ga's for the Continent forces and participated in the ban y of King's Mountain. Matthew Philips, brother of Josep Philips, was cifop. i e. menanding a regiment of troops, an ' died preceding the butde of King's Mountain, from an of sdraught of water.

William D. Philips was respected at & stormed for hi. s lid and many virtues by all who ko w him. His life was wholly a private life; he never heb or sought offer. bat gave his time, mind. and life to the os spation of farm. ing and agriculture. He inherited from . 's father about one thousand acres of land and several fas lies of -! x. x. He was get of age when he came into his p -sessions and government and control of his farm. Ilis ed . ation was as good and liberal as the times allowed ; for a tin a papel ... the Rev. Thomas B. Craighead. He was no, t man o' letters of literary taste, but of active life and de 3. ... "irm and its laborers were well governed and cond tee . 1; gave it his care, skill, and juden-nt, and it was I. p .1 and pleasure to the day of his death.

Wiliam D. Philips married early in life, as soon, . et age, Susan P. Chok, daughter of Themmas A. what ! South West Point, East Tennessee, a sister of Jany i. Clark, of Nashville, which led to a close, intimate fria ship between these persons, which was that of bro ... and Jasted as long as life, and continued to exist ! iw their families after the death of Mis. Philips, whose aporre life was of short duration, and died without issde.

In 182% he married Eliza Dwyer, daughter of 1. Dwyer, a merchant of Franklin, Tenn., a gerou! 1 ... gentleman, the herself being a native of Ireland :... type of the most beautiful Irish lady, cheerful, wer cheering all brought within her circle, always kimi ... and gentle. She became a model farmer's wife, youare w in person directing the household and its affilis in : :. All went well under her gentle but firm control and at . agement. She was happy herself, and always cordial " her husband's r \rives-a legge connection, and fings " visitors.

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BIOGRAPHIES.

John Harding died at " Belle Meade," where he had re- sided since about 1860; he was eighty-seven years old at the time of his decease.

He is remembered throughout this country as a brave, honest, enterprising, liberal, and loyal man.

WILLIAM D. PHILIPS .*

William D. Philips was born on the 10th of June, 1804, and died on the 15th of June, 1879, at his farm and resi- dence, six miles north of Nashville, Davidson Co., Tenn. He was born, raised, lived, and died on the well-known farm on which his father lived and died,-the " Philips" place. His father, Joseph Philips, was an early settler, and emigrated in 1791, with his wife, Milbry Philips, from Edgecombe Co., N. C., to Tennessee. His ancestry for several generations, both paternal and maternal, were natives of Edgecombe province under the Colonial govern- ment.

Joseph Philips served as guide for the Continental forces, and participated in the battle of King's Mountain. Matthew Philips, brother of Joseph Philips, was colonel commanding a regiment of troops, and died preceding the battle of King's Mountain, from an overdraught of water.

William D. Philips was respected and esteemed for his solid and many virtues by all who knew him. His life was wholly a private life; he never held or sought office, but gave his time, mind, and life to the occupation of farm- ing and agriculture. He inherited from his father about one thousand acres of land and several families of slaves. He was not of age when he came into his possessions and government and control of his farm. Ilis education was as good and liberal as the times allowed ; for a time a pupil of the Rev. Thomas B. Craighead. He was not a man of letters or literary taste, but of active life and deeds. His farm and its laborers were well governed and conducted ; he gave it his care, skill, and judgment, and it was his pride and pleasure to the day of his death.

William D. Philips married early in life, as soon as of age, Susan P. Clark, daughter of Thomas A. Clark, of South West Point, East Tennessee, a sister of James P. Clark, of Nashville, which led to a close, intimate friend- ship between these persons, which was that of brothers, and lasted as long as life, and continued to exist between their families after the death of Mrs. Philips, whose married life was of short duration, and died without issue.

In 1828 he married Eliza Dwyer, daughter of Daniel Dwyer, a merchant of Franklin, Tenn., a genial Irish gentleman, she herself being a native of Ireland, and a type of the most beautiful Irish lady, cheerful, warm, and cheering all brought within her circle, always kind, cordial, and gentie. She became a model farmer's wife, serving and in person directing the household and its affairs in-doors. All went well under her gentle but firm control and man- agement. She was happy herself, and always cordial to her husband's relatives,-a large connection, and frequent visitors.

William D. Philips was not a common, but an uncommon, man in his person and character. He had a good physique, was in stature six feet high, well formed, and developed in his person by active life in the open air. He was a prac- tical man wholly, dark hazel eyes, auburn hair, impulsive, quick in his movements, and withal impulsive temperament, yet self-controlled in a high degree. He went to bed early, rose before the sun, and regular in his habits, a very mod- erate eater at all of his meals for his active life and habits. Ile was very industrious and diligent in the management of his farm, and " all over it his foot-tracks were to be found and the effects of his eyes were to be seen." He was always glad to have his relatives, friends, and other persons to visit him, and made them welcome at an abundant old Virginia or North Carolina table spread with the best.

He was not an avaricious or ambitious man, had high self-respect and pride of character, had plenty, determined always to have plenty and to spare, and gave with unstinted generosity when real charity was demanded. Never sought to be popular in a popular sense, but placed a high value on character ; had great pride of character; desired to pos- sess the good will and respect of his fellow-citizens, but never sought it directly.

There was not a trace of guile or deceit or meanness in his nature or character; in fact, he despised all deceit, hypocrisy, and sham so much that probably it sent him in the other direction. It made him seem abrupt, harsh, and short in his speech and manners. He repulsed in manner, but always gave when a case was presented. He always gave, but there was not seemingly grace in his manner ; perhaps there was an imperiousness of slavery and master in his manner of which he was not conscious, and which is in the spirit of the institution itself, and from which no large slave-owner was exempt, not even Washington him- self. Notwithstanding this manner outside, there was in his heart much reul, genuine, warm, kind feeling and hu- manity. Many anecdotes are told to illustrate this kind- ness of his nature and seeming unkindness of manner.

His good wife understood him, and his sterling qualities were known to her. She respected and loved him, and, though different in manners, they lived a long life of entire harmony. He knew his wife, and fully appreciated and loved her gentle, winning ways and character. When she died, as she did some years before his death, her death brought home upon and within him a deep, inconsolable grief, which wont with him to his grave.

This man, the product of our times and society, was at the core of him a sound man, a real, genuine man, no sham or hollow man wearing the mask of goodness to cover up a false and selfish nature.

On Monday evening, June 16, 1879, his mortal remains were deposited in the family burial-place on his farm, and he sleeps with his father, his mother, and his beloved wife, mother of his children, and two children, on the farm upon which he was born, raised, lived, and died, and which he loved so well. He was the father of seven children by his wife Eliza Dwyer, of whom two sons and two daughters survive him. Ilis sister, Mrs. Martha Martin, the last of a large family of brothers and sisters, still lives, at the age of eighty-nine years, beloved by all who know her.

* By John Trimble.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

COL. WILLOUGHBY WILLIAMS.

Col. Willoughby Williams is a North Carolinian by birth, having been born near Snowhill, in what is now Greene County, on the 14th of June, 1798. His father was a Welshman and was a major in the Revolution, surviving through the war, and although his widow, the mother of Col. Williams, afterwards married Governor MeMinn, by some special legislation she drew a pension during her life. She lived to quite an advanced age, and died in 1856. She was the daughter of Col. James Glasgow, who was at one time Secretary of State of North Carolina.

Col. Williams married Miss Nancy D. Nichols, the daughter of Capt. John Nichols, a most estimable lady, with whom he lived, using his own words, "in the most perfect love and harmony for twenty-one years, when she died, causing such a shock to my feelings that I was only sustained by the consciousness that neither in word nor deed had I ever caused a tear to fall from her eye or a pang to cross her bosom." For thirty-five years he has remained a widower, preferring the sweet memories of a happy mar- ried life to the risk of experimenting in sacred relations. From the death of his wife, his life has been devoted- constant, unceasing labor-to the children of his happy marriage. Of nine children born six are still living, to wit : John H. Williams, Mary Jane McNairy, widow of Col. R. C. McNairy, Mclemore H. Williams, Willoughby Williams, Jr., Ellen, wife of Marion W. Lewis, Nancy D., wife of C. A. Nichol. Robert N. Williams married the daughter of Samuel D. Morgan, and died leaving a family of children. Andrew J. was killed in the late war. The other child died in infancy.

The highest point in the life of our subject is a virtue based on superior judgment, which has been developed in but few characters, to wit : that of persistently eschewing the allurements of office and firmly resisting all attempts to bring him into public life to the detriment of a loving and beloved family, and to the substitution of petty annoy- ances for the sweet enjoyment of a happy paternal home.

When a young man Col. Williams was for six years sheriff of Davidson County, and now in his declining years he remembers with the greatest pleasure that after going out of office he was never in a single instance called on to explain one of his many official acts.

At one time-about 1837-the president of the Bank of Tennessee having resigned, in his absence he, being at the time engaged in planting in Florida, was without his knowledge unanimously elected president of the bank, which was in suspension, and in the estimation of the board of directors imperatively demanded for its restora- tion his superior and well-known financial skill. This he, upon notice, promptly declined; but, coming home, his friends, Governor Carroll, George W. Campbell, and others, prevailed on him for the safety of the then comparatively new State bank and for the good of the Democratic party, for which he was always willing to work, to accept. Con- tinuing in this position only until he brought about resump- tion, he resigned and resumed control of his private affairs. Planting in Florida during the Seminole war was so haz- ardous that he broke up and moved most of his slaves to

Arkansas, where he remained planting until the war came. which emancipated his slaves. Having about five hundred slaves, he removed them to the Brazos Bottom, Texas, and remained with them during the war, and then brought them (free people) back to Arkansas.

The end of the war not only brought the emancipation of his slaves, but found him in debt, mostly as surety for his friends, about three hundred thousand dollars. Nearly all in a like situation went into bankruptcy ; but though nearly seventy years old he resolved to struggle through, and now he is entirely out of debt and one of the most successful planters in Arkansas.

Still making Tennessee his home, as he always has done, he spends about half his time on his plantation in Arkansas, looking closely after his large planting interests, and by his superior judgment is making the raising of cotton profitable to himself as well as large numbers of his former slaves. Ilis relations with them are of a most friendly character; he knowing their weaknesses and they knowing his worth, the rights of each are never infracted.

Col. Williams' father died when he was only four years old, at a camp near Dandridge, in East Tennessee, when the family were moving from North Carolina.

While very young, Willoughby went into a store at Knoxville, and worked as a store-boy on a salary sufficient to buy his clothes, and then for a time at Abingdon, Va. His mother having stopped in Roane County, in East Ten- nessee, after the death of his father, he came first to Nash- ville, riding on horseback in company with her to visit his two aumts, Mrs. Col. Donelson, whose husband was the brother of Mrs. Jackson, and Mrs. Judge Robert Whyte. Remaining for nearly a year that time, he was much at the house of Gen. Jackson, and, being a boy of quick pereep- tion, he imbibed many of his lifetime ways from that early visit to the coming great hero. ITis next visit to Nashville was in 1813, when he witnessed, and is the only living man now who did witness, the fight between Jackson and the Bentons. Nashville became his home in 1818. The con- nection between himself and the Jackson family brought him, at a very carly day, into close relations with the old general, and it can be said with absolute certainty that of all the men now living, none were so close to Gen. Jackson for so long a time. . A man of the greatest prudence, and himself of unbounded popularity, of good address and courtly manners, and firmly fixed in all the principles of a Democratic government, Gen. Jackson looked upon him through all his struggles as one of his staunchest and most reliable friends.

The relations between Col. Williams and Gen. Sam Hous- ton, at the time in the history of that great man when he resigned the office of Governor and put Tennessee's greatest secret under cover, of separating from his wife without tell- ing the world the cause, were of a most intimate and con- fidential character. It was to him that Gen. Houston perhaps first communicated his purpose, and to him were intrusted some of the details of this most extraordinary move; but it is due to the memory of the hero of San Jacinto that, so far as Col. Williams knows or believes, he never, through his long life, communicated to any living person the secrets of this domestic tragedy.

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Through a life now turning into the eighty-third year Col. Williams has been a man of strict temperance and uni- form habits, never intoxicated, and never playing even a game of cards for amusement. He attributes his success in life in a great measure to the advice given him by his life- time friend and adviser, Gen. Jackson. With him, next to the sweet memory of his wife and the love of his children, the name of Andrew Jackson is most sacred. He is a liv- ing evidence of what has become historic, to wit : that Gen. Jackson's friends were devoted to him in a wonderful man- ner, exceeding even the devotion of Napoleon's followers.

He has lately, with his own hand, written up the early events of Davidson County, giving families, their marriages and deaths, together with localities, roads, and many inci- dents of carly life in Davidson County, which for detail is without a parallel, coming from one man's recollection of old times.

Col. Williams is above medium size, remarkably erect, with a strong face full of decision as well as benevolence. He is one of the most companionable of men, quick of speech, accurate in thought, chaste in language, exceedingly neat in person, and in his memory of past events and people he has no peer. He is a living library of all that has taken place in Tennessee, of a public nature, since 1809.

ADAM GILLESPIE ADAMS.

Adam Gillespie Adams was born in County Tyrone, Irc- land, July 12, 1820. He was one of a family of twelve children, consisting of nine boys and three girls. His father, besides being a farmer, was a blacksmith. His mother's maiden name was Jane Gillespie; both sides of the family are of Scotch-Irish descent. This title means that the North of Ireland was largely settled by Scotch ; the descendants are therefore justly called Scotch-Irish.

His carly life was surrounded by the air of piety ; the religious influence of his mother is most gratefully acknowl- edged by the subject of this sketch.

Besides the advantages of a rudimentary school near home, Adam had town school privileges. ITe entered a wholesale establishment at the age of twelve years, and remained in this house till he was nineteen years old, when, with a younger brother, he emigrated to America.

It should be noted that he had acquired in his seven years' services with his first employer a wide experience in merchandise and men. The firm dealt in a great variety of domestic and foreign goods, and only in a wholesale way ; they handled grain, lumber, iron, groceries, liquors, and tobacco. But Adam had steadily carried out his mother's instructions, and never made habitual use of either of the two articles last named.

Landing in New York in 1839, Mr. Adams undertook the long journey to Nashville, Tenn., where he had two brothers and many relatives living. He arrived there July 1st, having refused then, as he always has since, to travel on Sunday.

He secured employment as a clerk with Eakin Bros., who, while they were in the wholesale line in Nashville, had two retail stores in Shelbyville, Tenn., where he spent over a

year. Returning to the wholesale house at Nashville, he remained with them until 1850, when, on the death of two of the firm, he became a partner.

His first year's salary with this firm was one hundred and fifty dollars, and, though it was advanced from time to time, he saved a larger percentage from this small salary than from that of any other year.

In 1858 a division of the business occurred, and Mr. Adams, taking the boots and shoes and clothing departments, withdrew, and bought the old Eakin & Bros. house, on the public square, and continued under the firm-name of A. G. Adams & Co.

In 1849, Mr. Adams made a trip to his home in Ireland. On his return he was strongly tempted to remove his busi- ness to New York City; but the sight of the glorious country and the noble people of Middle Tennessee, from which and from whom he had been so far absent, revived his admiration, and he resolved to live permanently in Nashville.

Mr. Adams was dedicated to God in baptism at the age of fifteen years; made a public profession of religion in the Presbyterian Church, and has always taken an active interest in her welfare.

In 1842 he was one of the first movers in organizing the Second Presbyterian Church ; he was elected an elder, and also superintendent of its Sabbath-school in 1843, and held the office till 1862.

In 1866, on his return from New York, where he had resided during the greater part of the civil war, he was elected superintendent of the Sabbath-school and a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church ; both of these positions he has held ever since.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 109

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