History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 116

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 116

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" The barren field which Dr. Sheffield found in Nashville is, as we have shown, no longer barren. It has been well cul- tivated, and is yielding golden fruit. His friends pray that he may long live to enjoy the reward of his labors and the gratitude of his fellow-men whose maladies he has healed or alleviated."

JOHNIVY MONROE SHARPE.

Jolinvy Monroe Sharpe, son of Silas Davidson Sharpe and Mary (Feimster) Sharpe, is of Scotch-Irish stock, and claims descent from Archbishop Sharpe, of Scotland. His paternal line of ancestry settled in Maryland at an early period of colonial history, and, at a date not much later, was carried to North Carolina, where, at Liberty Hill, Iredell Co., Nov. 29, 1832, Dr. Sharpe was born. His name was originally " John Ivy," but fearing that the initials " J. I. M." would lead to the application of the nick-name, " Jim," Dr. Sharpe coined, in early boyhood, the union of the two in one name as now written.

Dr. Sharpe's paternal grandmother was a Davidson, niece of Gen. William Davidson, of Revolutionary fame, who fell in action on the banks of the Catawba. Davidson County received its name from him. His maternal grand- father was Capt. William Feimster, also a participant in the Revolution. Capt. Feimster removed from South Carolina to North Carolina shortly after that war. He was a quaint, peculiar old man, and the first school Dr. Sharpe attended was under a teacher employed by him. This school was free to all the neighborhood and supported by the pension money of the old veteran, which was all used in this man- ner.

After taking the ordinary course of the old field schools and two years' instructions of the able Rev. Dr. Millon and Messrs. Campbell, in his seventeenth year he went to East- ern Carolina and engaged in teaching, going to school, and occasionally preaching. After four or five years spent in this diversified manner, he was appointed tutor at Emory and Henry College, Virginia. Here the energy and resolu- tion of his character were shown in a very conspicuous man- ner. He taught three or four hours daily, and kept up with his college class in its regular course. Dependent on himself, without means, he used second-hand books, second- hand clothes, anything that with honor and the most rigor- ous self-denial would tend to carry him to the successful termination of a studious student-life. Thus he passed this formative period of life working, striving, struggling against obstacles which weaker men would consider not to be over- come. Winning some distinction in passing through the course, he reached the goal for which he was striving, and was enrolled an alumnus of Emory and Henry.

In 1856 he married Miss Kate Hammond, and imme- diately removed to Tennessee to engage in the profession of teaching, which he followed for several years with marked ability and success.

The anarchy and confusion of the late civil war drove students and teacher alike from the school-room, and, this source of revenue being gone, the necessaries of life for a dependent family compelled him to try trading. In this new sphere he, at first, was troubled by accumulated debt: of other days, which harassed his mind and tried his in- tegrity. But with him the only motto was " persevere." This energy brought financial success, and success confidence, and at the close of the war he had won a fine position and was worth ten or fifteen thousand dollars. Thus was first brought to light the business talent which the sedentary life of the school-room might have kept always hidden.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

After the war Dr. Sharpe returned to the school-room, but the new-found business man demanded more active em- ployment. Engaging in merchandise, he continued in trade for eight years, and success crowned his exertions. The Edgefield and Nashville Manufacturing Company was or- ganized at this period. Dr. Sharpe became interested in it, and was nominated for its first president. This he declined, accepting the position of treasurer. After two years' ser- vice in this capacity he was elected president, and, for the four years past, has held both offices. The success of the company has been very gratifying. The business is now one hundred per cent. above that done when Dr. Sharpe took charge. His character of firmness and decision is im- pressed on the entire establishment, and the discipline among officers and men is harmonious but positive. In this field Dr. Sharpe has found his forte. His qualifications for success are energy, pluck, firmness, common sense, and in- tegrity, combined with the drill acquired in the school-room. His post is where his presence is demanded, night or day. His work is never done, laboring, perhaps, fourteen hours a day on the average through the entire year. His ambi- tion is to succeed honorably. What is to be done he does, his salary being his least consideration. He regards manu- facturing as the highest grade of merchandise, creating values as well as fixing them. He believes it the great desideratum of the whole South, as it stimulates and em- ploys both head and hands, wakes the idle, develops latent energy and resources, and produces thrift, wealth, and happiness.

Dr. Sharpe is nervo-bilious in temperament, fair com- plexion, auburn hair, with beard almost red,-both slightly mixed with gray ; height, five feet nine and one-half inches. His politics are conservative, he having been reared an old- line Whig.

His religious views are decidedly Methodistic, yet ever advanced, liberal, and independent. He was early ordained a minister. As a preacher his work has been incidental, but productive of good. The successful organization of West End Methodist Church, Nashville, resulted largely from his efforts, and for four years he was chaplain of Ten- nessee State Prison. Here his faithfulness and attention met with reward and secured encomiums from the highest officials of the State. Among his circle of ministerial as- sociates few have warmer friends, and his counsel is ever sought, as valuable in church matters.

The leading business men of Nashville consider him a conservative and successful business man of high commer- cial standing, sound judgment, and sterling integrity.

All in all, as a manufacturer, as a clergyman, and as a citizen, he is a representative man, enjoying the confidence of all who know him, and ever the friend of progress, improve- ment, and education.

Dr. Sharpe and wife have lived to see four of their five children live to maturity,-Mora H., who is now secretary of the Underwriters' Association of Nashville; Nannie G., a graduate of Vassar College ; Carrie G., a graduate of Dr. Ward's Seminary for Young Ladies; and Eddie L., who graduated this year at his father's Alma Mater, Emory and Henry College, Va.

GEN. CLINTON B. FISK.

Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, from whom Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., takes its name, was born in 1828, in the town of York, Livingston Co., and State of New York He was descended from the Rhode Island Fisks, his grand- father having been Deacon Ephraim Fisk, of Killingly, Conn., and his father, Benjamin B. Fisk, a cousin of the Rev. Dr. Wilbur Fisk, who was president of the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn. Gen. Fisk's father emi- grated with his family from Western New York to Clinton, Lenawee Co., Mich., in 1830. His father died in 1832. leaving his widowed mother with six boys, the oldest being but fourteen years of age. His Christian mother strug- gled in much poverty to rear and educate her boys. Gen. Fisk, at the age of nine years, was placed with a farmer, with whom he was to live until attaining the age of twenty- one years, at which time he was to receive a hundred dol- lars, two suits of clothes, a horse, saddle, and bridle, and was, meantime, to have the advantages of three months' schooling per annum in the district school for four years. The fatherless lad entered upon the new relation with high hopes of fame and fortune, and labored as but few boys of his age ever did, with a hard life, walking to the little country school miles away from the rude cabin he called home, winning the first place in his classes and developing in his boyhood a high order of talent. He discovered within himself greater possibilities than the advantages of his contract with the old farmer promised, and at thirteen arranged for a release from his engagement, and pushed out into the world for himself, working on farms and in shops, studying at night, and in the field by day as he fol- lowed the plow and harrow. At fifteen, by the aid of friends, he was enabled to enter the Wesleyan Seminary at Albine, Mich., where, by boarding himself and teaching in the common schools a part of the time, he prepared for col- lege, and purposed graduating from the Michigan University at Ann Arbor. A severe and prolonged attack of inflam- mation of the eyes led his physician to prohibit him from further study for a time, and he reluctantly turned away from his books to engage in business pursuits.

At twenty years of age he became associated with L. D. Crippen, who, with his son, I. B. Crippen, was a merchant, miller, and banker. At twenty-one, in 1850, he married Miss Janette A. Crippen, daughter of the senior partner, with whom he had become acquainted during his life at the seminary in Albine, and continued his residence in Coldwater until 1858, when he removed to St. Louis, where he made his home, and engaged in business.

He was among the first to rally round the flag in the war for the Union, serving on the celebrated Committee of Safety in the city of his adoption, volunteering as a private soldier in the three months' service, and devoting all his energies to the enlistment of troops, providing supplies, and in every possible way promoting the interests of the government. He was conspicuous in the organization of the Union Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis in the winter of 1862, and was made its chief executive officer. He was commissioned colonel of the Thirty-third Regiment United States Volunteers in Missouri in July, 1862. The regi-

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BIOGRAPHIES.

ment was known as the Merchants' Regiment, and was the nucleus around which the Merchants' Brigade was organ- ized. He commanded the Thirteenth Division of the Thir- teenth Army Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, under Gen. Grant, remaining in that army until the fall of Vicksburg, when he was specially ordered by President Lincoln to duty in Missouri, where he was successively in command of the Districts of Southeast Missouri, St. Louis, and North Mis- souri, in each of which he was eminently successful in re- storing good order, re-establishing the civil courts, and reviving industry. When, in September, 1864, the Confed- erate forces, under Gen. Sterling Price, invaded Missouri, with intent to seize Jefferson City, the capital of the State, Gen. Fisk, with a force much inferior in numbers, made successful resistance, saving the capital, and inaugurating, under Gen. Rosecrans, a campaign which resulted in the route of the opposing forces, with the capture of their chief officers, in Southwest Missouri.

After the close of the war, in April, 1865, Gen. Fisk was assigned to duty in the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, with headquarters at Nashville. His district comprised the States of Kentucky and Ten- nessee, Eastern Arkansas, and the northern portion of Mis- sissippi, Alabama, and Georgia, with command of the troops stationed in Tennessee. He remained in the successful dis- charge of the difficult duties incident to the new order of things until September, 1866, when he retired from the public service and re-engaged in business pursuits. It was while on duty at Nashville that he became specially inter- ested in the education of the freedmen. Fisk School, founded in 1866, was the beginning of the university which bears his name, and which now has world-wide fame through the Jubilee Singers, who have so successfully car- ried their slave melodies into all Europe and America, and out of whose efforts came chiefly the means to erect Jubilee Hall, one of the most beautiful educational buildings in America.

Gen. Fisk, on his return to civil life, was by Governor Fletcher, of Missouri, placed in charge of the Southwest Pacific Railway, then owned by the State of Missouri. He subsequently became associated with parties who pur- chased the railway and its lands from the State and con- structed it to the western border of Missouri. Gen. Fisk became the chief financial officer of the corporation, with office in New York City, whither he removed in 1872, and from that date has resided in the East. He is at this date, 1880, of the firm of Clinton B. Fisk & Co., bankers and brokers, in New York. His residence is on Ramson Hill, near Seabright, N. J., on a beautiful height overlooking the ocean, Pleasure Bay, and the Shrewsbury River, where generous hospitality to his many friends is dispensed.

Gen. Fisk is an earnest Methodist, and for many years has been among the leading laymen of that denomination, and was a delegate to the General Conferences of that church held in Baltimore in 1876, and in Cincinnati in 1880, and was one of the commission on formal fraternity between the Methodism North and South. He has long served as one of the board of managers of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a member of the executive committee of the American Missionary Associ-

ation. He is also a trustee in the Drew Theological Semi- nary, and chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners. Gen. Fisk has been most ably supported in all his religious and educational work by the hearty co-operation of his wife, whose energies have been directed equally with his in pro- moting the interests to which he has made generous con- tributions of time and money.

ERASTUS MILO CRAVATH.

Erastus Milo Cravath, president of Fisk University, is the eldest son of Oren and Betsey Northway Cravath, and was born July 1, 1833, in Homer, N. Y. His great-grand- father, on his father's side, was a Huguenot Frenchman, who settled in Connecticut on emigrating to this country.

The childhood and youth of Erastus were spent at home on the farm, and he received the usual advantages of edu- cation afforded by country schools in the New England and Middle States. At the age of eighteen, having partly pre- pared for college at Homer Academy and at New York Central College, he went to Oberlin, Ohio, where he spent nine years in study, being graduated from Oberlin College, in 1857, and from theology in 1860.

In October, 1860, he married Ruth Anna Jackson, daughter of Caleb and Mary Ann Jackson, of Kennett Square, Pa. Miss Jackson was a Quakeress, a descendant of Isaac Jackson, who came from England to join the Friends' settlement near Philadelphia in 1725, and from whom descended also the Virginia branch of the family, to which Gen. Stonewall Jackson belonged.

For three years after their marriage they were settled at Berlin Heights, Ohio, where Mr. Cravath was pastor of the Congregational Church.

In December, 1863, he was elected chaplain of the One Hundred and First Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, and in January following he joined the command, which was then guarding the pontoon-bridge across the Tennessee River at Bridgeport, Tenn. He served with the regiment during the Atlanta campaign and at the battles of Franklin and Nashville, and later in East Tennessee, until the Army of the Cumberland, to which the regiment belonged, was mustered out of service at Nashville, in June, 1865.

In the October following he came to Nashville, under the commission of the American Missionary Association, of New York City, as field agent, to establish schools for the freedmen in Tennessee and portions of Georgia and Ala- bama.

The first work done was to assist in the purchase of the ground near the Chattanooga depot for the establishment of the school which developed into Fisk University. In a few weeks his family joined him, and Nashville became the headquarters for the educational work in what was known as the Middle West Department of the association's work. A school was opened at Atlanta, out of which has grown the Atlanta University. Schools were also opened at Macon and other points. In the autumn of the following year he was called by the association to the district secretaryship at Cincinnati. By this appointment the charge of a col-

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lecting work in the North was added to the field work in the South.

After holding this position for four years, he was called to the New York office as field secretary, and was given the charge of the whole Southern work of the association. In 1875 he was elected to the presidency of Fisk University, of which, as an officer of the association, he had had the general charge from the first step that was taken towards its establishment. The next three years were spent in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe, in connec- tion with the work which was being done by the Jubilee Singers in behalf of Fisk University. This furnished un- usual opportunities for seeing the countries and becoming acquainted with all classes of the people.

On returning to the United States, in the summer of 1878, President Cravath entered upon his duties at the university, having had special advantages in the way of preparation through his army experience, his ten years of labor, as an officer of the American Missionary Association, in charge of educational work in the South, and by his three years of close contact with the people of foreign coun- tries.

ADAM K. SPENCE.

Adam K. Spence was born March 12, 1831, in the vil- lage of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, at the foot of the Tap o' Noth, one of the Grampian Mountains, in which picturesque locality his parents were then residing, their native place being Huntley, in the same county. His father, Adam Spence, pursued his studies in Aberdeen University, and became a physician. His mother, Eliza- beth Ross, is connected on one side with Clan Ross, and on the other with Clan Macdonald, and is a cousin of the poet and novelist, George Macdonald, in whose poetic inspiration she shares, being herself the author of many short poems.

In the year 1833 they, with a daughter and two sons, the youngest being the subject of this sketch, set sail for the New World. Embarking at Aberdeen, they passed around the North of Scotland and reached Quebec, Canada, in six weeks. Steam was not then in use on the ocean. In two weeks more, passing up the St. Lawrence River and the lakes, they reached the city of Detroit, in the then Territory of Michigan. Led by a desire common to foreigners to become an owner of land, Dr. Spence purchased a farm in the county of Washtenaw, near Ann Arbor, then mostly a forest. Here his family were reared, while he practiced medicine until his death, in 1849. Deprived to a large ex- tent during earlier years of school facilities, at the age of seventeen Professor Spence began his efforts to secure a liberal education. To this end, he taught school and per- formed manual labor. Having prepared himself for college in Oberlin, Ohio, he entered the University of Michigan in the year 1854, where in 1858 he graduated as Bachelor of Arts, taking his Master's degree three years later.

Immediately upon graduation he was appointed in- structor in Greek in that institution of learning, and after- wards professor of French, which position he left when, in 1870, he came to Nashville to take charge as principal of

Fisk University, then in its infancy. In doing this he realized his fondly-cherished desire to aid a people long cast down, and for whom, from his infancy, he had been taught by his Scotch parents to feel a deep sympathy. Under his immediate care for eight years, the university made much progress in many ways, and especially a college department was organized, a college faculty was appointed, and the first class of students of the African race in a former slave State was carried through and graduated from a college course.

In the year 1863, Professor Spence was married in the city of Detroit to Miss Catherine Mackey, born in Penn- sylvania shortly after the arrival of her parents from Scot- land. Mrs. Spence has greatly aided the university by securing funds in the Northern States for the aid of the indigent students, and in 1878 accompanied her husband to Great Britain, where they spent a year in Scotland and England in the interests of the university and the cause of African missions, these latter to be carried on for the most part by persons of African descent, born and educated in this country. They received a most hearty welcome.

Their only living child is a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, born in 1865, and now a student in Fisk University.

In January, 1858, a Young Men's Christian Association was organized in the University of Michigan, the first college Young Men's Christian Association, as it is be- lieved, formed in the country, of which Professor Spence, then a student, was the first president.

Professor Spence at present occupies the position of dean of the faculty and professor of Greek and French in Fisk University, and is an ordained minister in the Congrega- tional denomination.

PROF. H. S. BENNETT.

Henry Stanley Bennett was born in Brownsville, Pa., April 16, 1838, of Quaker parentage. His father, Elisha Bennett, was born in the year 1805, in Chester Co., Pa., but moved to Western Pennsylvania when a boy. He was a boatman, and spent forty years of his life on the Western rivers. At the time of his death, Dec. 31, 1863, he was captain of the steamer " Franklin," which plied on the Monongahela River.

His mother, Elizabeth Cock, was the daughter of Wil- liam Cock, an Englishman, who came to this country when a young man, and settled in Fayette Co., Pa. She was born in 1809, and died in 1880. Of the family of Elisha and Elizabeth Bennett three brothers and three sisters lived to grow to maturity. Prof. Bennett has a twin sister, the only surviving female member of his father's family.

The subject of this sketch, when a boy, studied in the public and private schools of his native town until the age of fifteen, when he went to Merrittstown Academy and re- mained a year or two. At the age of seventeen he went to Oberlin College, Ohio, and graduated from the college course in 1860. During his course and at its close he taught several terms in public schools. He studied theol- ogy in the Oberlin Seminary, and graduated from that course in 1863.

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BIOGRAPHIES.

The day after the completion of his theological course he married Lydia S. Herrick, also a graduate from the classical course of Oberlin College. She was the daughter of Daniel and Azubah Herrick, of Austinburg, Ohio. She worked her way through college by teaching.

Seven children are the fruits of this union, five of whom are living,-Oliver J., aged thirteen ; William M., aged ten ; Mary E., aged seven ; Henry J., aged five ; and Anna, aged three.

In October, 1863, Prof. Bennett took charge of the Second Congregational Church of Wakeman, Ohio, and was ordained by Council to the gospel ministry Nov. 17, 1863. His work in Wakeman extended over four years, and was blessed with revivals of much power during three winters in succession. The church was much strengthened by his ministrations.

In the year 1864, when the National Guards of Ohio were called out to relieve the veterans located in fortifi- cations, that they might strengthen Gen. Grant on his march through the wilderness towards Richmond, Prof. Bennett left his church and went with his company (Company K), One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment of the Ohio National Guards, as a private. This regiment was located in the fortifications around Washington, reaching from Fort Thayer to Fort Stevens. Here he spent the one hundred days of the enlistment. When Gen. Early made his de- scent upon Washington, Company K was in Fort Stevens, which was the point attacked. Prof. Bennett stood at one of the mountain howitzers as sponger during the two days' fight.

In the year 1867, just after Fisk school had been char- tered as Fisk University, and had entered upon the larger work it has since done, he received a call from the Amer- ican Missionary Association to take charge of the religious work in the university, and to establish a church in connec- tion with it. During the first winter of his connection with the university a revival among the students resulted from his labors, and in 1868 a church of twenty-four mem- bers was organized, of which he has been pastor ever since. From that time he has been in charge of the religious work in the university. Under the influence of a devoted band of Christian workers, Fisk University has become distin- guished for its frequent and thorough revivals of religion among the students. From twelve to seventy have been converted each year. The religious spirit that pervades the institution has told with great power upon the lives and characters of the students.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 116

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