History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 118

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

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Full of sentiment, of fine literary taste well cultivated, of courteous and dignified bearing, he soon found easy ac- cess to the best social circles, in which he became a uni- versal favorite. One of his earliest associates and friends in Nashville, Col. Willoughby Williams, in giving some of his interesting incidents connected with persons and events in and around Nashville in the olden times, tells of Maj. Brown and himself having been of a party of young ladies and gentlemen, twenty-two in number, who made a social excursion, lasting several days, to the Hermitage, Capt. Moseley's, and other hospitable mansions in that attractive neighborhood, and before they completed their gay and festive tour the subject of this sketch, then comparatively .a stranger to their circle, had played havoc with the hearts -

of half the girls of their party, while, by his courtly man- ners, generous and frank nature, had impressed himself not less favorably on his companions of the sterner sex. It was during this visit that he first became so much attached to Gen. Jackson, and from that day there always existed the kindest feeling between them, and Jackson had no more enthusiastic admirer or warmer friend. About this time he met Miss Jane Baird Weakley, the daughter of Col. Robert Wcakley, who was a member of Congress from the Hermitage District, and after whom Weakley County was named, whom he subsequently married on the 20th of Jan- uary, 1824. Her mother was formerly Miss Jane Locke, a daughter of Gen. Matthew Locke, of North Carolina, who was a senator in the Continental Congress. His marital relations fixed him permanently as a citizen of Nashville and vicinity, and from that day to this his energy and en- terprise, inspired by a public spirit, have been devoted in an earnest manner to the development of the resources of the city and county in which he lived, and the cultiva- tion of those refined social amenities and agrecable hospi- talities which give eclut to a place and people. Perhaps no man has lived in this community who observed with more strictness the rules of true politeness, especially to strangers, or extended a more open-handed hospitality than Maj. John L. Brown. Such men, by example and counsel and energy and prosperity in the business channels of the community in which they live, impart tone and refine- ment to its social relations. Being possessed of considera- ble fortune, both by inheritance and marriage, he used it generously, and too often injudiciously, for both public en- terprise and private friendships. Guileless as a child, and as confiding as guileless, he, in his dealings with men, by over-confidence, principally through obligations created for other men, became pecuniarily embarrassed. This, how- ever, did not affect his uniform good habits nor destroy his usefulness, but only impaired the latter to the extent of his ability to carry out schemes of public enterprise. Unlike the effect of such misfortunes on most men, it neither par- alyzed nor flagged his energies, but gave them, though in a more circumscribed sphere, new impulse and increased vigor. It was his means and public spirit that contributed as largely as those of any one to grading and establishing the river wharves on the city's front. The lower wharf may be said to be the fruit of his own labor and invest- ment, built as it was at a time when steamboats monopolized the carrying trade, and the old bridge was an obstruction to their passage during high tides in the Cumberland. This was regarded at that time as quite an enterprise. There was scarcely a factory or foundry, a warehouse or large shop, that he did not encourage and otherwise give to them favors with credit and influence. But few men, if any, in Nashville and Davidson County, at that time, were more popular or wielded more personal influence than he. Having but little taste for official station, and a repugnance to being dependent on public patronage, he eschewed office- secking for himself, but was a strong stay to any friend whose cause he espoused before the people. His reputa- tion for honesty and fair dealing, his love of justice, his frankness of nature, and his strict adherence to truth and honor under all circumstances, commended him alike to

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

friend and foe, and gave him a political, personal, and moral influence that but few private citizens possessed. His wife died in 1845, leaving, as the fruit of their marriage, three children,-Robert Weakley, Sallie J., and Narcissa Brown, now the widow of George Bradford,-all of whom yet live in our county and are esteemed as most worthy and useful citizens.

At this period of his life, being wifeless, his children well cared for, and war with Mexico being flagrant, he en- listed in Cheatham's Third Tennessee Infantry Regiment, and was appointed commissary of the same, with the rank of captain. There were but few men of his age who entered the service during that war, for he was a man then forty- seven, the age that exempted men from military duty. Nevertheless, he had the enthusiasm of a boy, and threw into whatever he undertook an energy and zeal which com- manded success. As the greater part of the fighting was over before the arrival of his regiment on the plains of Mexico, the major, although in the commissary department, was considerably chafed by many idle and tedious hours in camp. No opportunity offered for a jaunt, where there was a probability of encountering the enemy, that he did not offer his services and insist upon accompanying the expedi- tion. A noted incident is related to the writer by an officer who was one of his comrades upon one of these missions. It was in the spring of 1848, just before peace was declared, that the remnants of the Mexican army, under various offi- cers, were annoying the outposts of the United States forces, and recruiting their army for an aggressive movement. Gen. Jo. Lane, being full of enterprise, and at the time having a command of both infantry and cavalry, learned of the locality of a portion of the Mexican forces, and organized a cavalry command to make a forced march and attack the enemy. No one belonging to the infantry could go unless by special permission, and then not unless he was entitled to a horse and had one. Maj. Brown, as a commissary, was entitled to one. He had a mustang, and insisted on accompanying the expedition. Gen. Lane, admiring the spirit of the applicant, and being personally fond of him, took him along as a volunteer aid. The major bore the long and fatiguing march over mountain and valley with less fatigue and complaint than many much younger men. The enemy had left Tulancingo, but was pursued and found -in his retreat at Zequaltipan, a mountain town far distant from the City of Mexico, from which place the expedition set out. The fight was imminent and the forces arranged for the onset, and during the solemn silence which usually precedes a charge the major, fearing his horse might be too refractory and not respond willingly to the immense rowels of his Mexican spurs, took advantage of the momentary pause to exchange for a more reliable horse by giving con- siderable loot to a soldier who felt a sublime indifference to being in the front on a charge; in fact, on a charge like that had a little rather have a slow mustang than a fast horse, boot or no boot.

The charge was sounded, and the major, by the side of his chief, led it in fine style. The enemy was routed, and the major, conspicuous for his gallantry, elicited the enco- miums alike of his general and the command. Maj. Brown and Gen. Jo. Lane (the same Lane who ran for Vice-Pres-

ident on the Breckenridge ticket in 1860) were warm per- sonal friends. The father of Maj. Brown and the uncle of Gen. Lane were also bosom-friends while the former was clerk and the latter sheriff of Clark Co., Ga. Gen. Lane was deservedly popular with the Tennessecans under his command. He is kindly and affectionately remembered now in his extreme old age, for he yet lives in the ease and quiet of his Oregon home, and by no one is he more affec- tionately regarded than by his old comrade, John Lucian Brown. While in the City of Mexico, as commissary, the major was vigilant of the rights of the soldiers, who obtained their rations through him, and, finding that some of the contractors had formed a combination and were swindling the government by furnishing an inferior quality of beef for the soldiers, made open war on them, and brought the matter before the commanding general. The investigation resulted in getting rations of better quality and in greater quantity, and in establishing him in the confidence of his superior officers and in the affections of the soldiers. The regiment called him " the watch-dog of the commissary de- partment," and as a mark of their esteem presented him with one of the finest and most costly silver-mounted saddles that could be procured in the City of Mexico, which is yet in the keeping of his family as a trophy and relic. This incident with the beef contractors, together with his fine personal appearance, winsome manners, and soldierly bearing, attracted him to both Gen. Worth and Gen. William O. Butler, who frequently had him at their headquarters. Indeed, the latter is said to have had no officer in the entire subsistence department of his army for whom he had greater partiality, and of which he gave fre- quent evidence during the latter part of the Mexican war.

When peace was declared between the United States and Mexico, Maj. Brown returned with his regiment to Ten- nessee, and, on being mustered out of service, resumed the quiet walks of life at his old home. He soon thereafter, at Gallatin, Tenn., married his second wife, Mrs. Mary Iladly, with whom he yet lives in the enjoyment of a green old age. She was the daughter of Dr. Redman Barry and Jane Alexander Barry, who was the daughter of William Alexander, of North Carolina, a brother of several of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

Being out of active employment, his restless energy and love of enterprise induced him to follow the " forty-niners" to California in search of fortune. He remained in that wonderful country a year or so, undergoing the hardships peculiar to its carly settlement,-now on a ranche, now delving in a mine, and now speculating and losing his earnings. The uncertain turn of the wheel of fortune, however, together with home demands, at last caused his return to Tennessee, where he engaged in the real-estate business, in which he continued very successfully, besides enjoying the comforts of domestic life with his family and old friends. A few years of this dream of peace and home joys, and the tocsin of " war between the States" sounded, and broke the spell. Although now upwards of sixty years of age, when his loved Southland was involved he was one of the first to espouse her cause and enlist under the Con- federate banner. Though unable actively to bear arms, he offered his services to the Governor of his State for any

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I M. Hodall

FRANCIS M. WOODALL, son of James R. and Sarah Ann Woodall, was born on the 12th of August, 1836, in Sumner Co., Tenn. His mother died when he was about eight years of age, when he left home to seek his own fortune. For many years following he was variously engaged on the farm or in a store, just as he could find something to do. At the age of seventeen he began as a clerk for Mr. Hermans at Mitchelville, where he remained two years; then attended school two years; after which he taught one term ; then went to Gallatin, and was in the employ of M. J. Lucas as clerk in his store for two years, when he came to Davidson County and settled in Edgefield, where he was engaged in the mercantile business with Messrs. Trabue & Lucas for twelve months, after which he commenced mercantile business alone.

In 1861, Mr. Woodall settled on a small farm of forty acres, four miles south of Nashville, on the Franklin Turnpike. To this he has added, until to- day he has a fine farm of one hundred and thirty-

five acres of good land, which is in a good state of cultivation, besides property elsewhere.

He has always been a Jacksonian Democrat, and as such has held various offices of public trust to the general satisfaction of his constituents.

He has been constable of the county six years; deputy sheriff four years ; and sheriff two years, re- tiring from office August, 1878. For several years he has acted as school commissioner and trustee.

Mr. and Mrs. Woodall are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Oct. 18, 1861, he was married to Mrs. Olivia Mckay. Of this union there are four sons. Mrs. Woodall died July 5, 1871, and Mr. Woodall mar- ried for his second wife Miss Bettie T. Hogan, April 2, 1873. They have one son.

Mr. Woodall is one of the representative men of Davidson County. He has the confidence of his neighbors and the love of his family. His health has been poor for many years. He reviews the past with no apprehension of the future.

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BIOGRAPHIES.

duty consistent with his age and ability. His services were accepted, and he assigned, with the rank of lieutenant- colonel, to the commissary department, directing the pro- curement of supplies for the troops that were assembling in great numbers near the capital of the State. Upon the secession of the State and her union with her Southern sisters, he was transferred to the Confederate States army, in which he was made major. With his political convic- tions,-for he belonged to that school of politicians who believed the States had a right to control their own domestic institutions free from interference by the general govern- ment,-with an inborn patriotism, inherited from a Revo- lutionary stock, and the fires of which kept burning through his long life,-nothing could have been expected of him but to throw all the energies of his nature on the side of his home and kindred. This he did by a prompt and bold example. In carrying out this, which he believed a high patriotic duty, he never swerved, never faltered, never yielded hope or faith in his cause until the surrender of Confederate arms, and peace was restored to a riven and distracted land. While in field service he did duty with Gen. Zollicoffer until he fell at the battle of Fishing Creek. He was then assigned to the command of Gen. John C. Breckenridge, with whom he remained as chief of subsist- ence until the fall of 1863, when Gen. W. B. Bate was assigned to the command of Breckenridge's division, and with him, as his chief of subsistence, he remained until the close of the war, and surrendered near Greensborough, N. C., with his command. Considering the department he was in, there was no man in all the Army of Tennessee whose career was marked with more personal incidents, or who made a more distinctive character for knightly bear- ing and love of adventure than did this old hero. His position in the commissary department relieved him from participating in the fight, yet he declined the immunities from the battle-field, and in many of the most noted battles actively participated in the fight. This was conspicuously the case at the battles of Shiloh and Stone's River, for which he received special notice.

He also received special notice on the North Georgia campaign from his old friend and commander, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. He was with Gen. Breckenridge at the bat- tle near Baton Rouge, La., and the troops engaged in that fight tell it that at one point of the Confederate lines they were repulsed and hesitated to renew the charge when ordered, and the old major perceived it, and without sword or other insignia of office or emblem of hostility, he gathered, on the field, a long reed, and holding it aloft, as a mace of power, called on them to follow him and he would " charge 'em" and take the Federal battery by which they had been repulsed and somewhat demoralized. Struck with the novelty of the situation, and stung by the implied rebuke, they replied with a shout, "We'll follow you ;" and, suiting the action to the word, away went the old major on his horse, over ditch and field, waving energeti- cally his cane, as does a musician his baton, and at the head of a part of the brigade did drive away the battery in quick and gallant style. That day he was dubbed " Old Charge-'em," a sobriquet he wore during the remainder of the war, and which sticks to him yet, even in the peaceful

walks of life. While the command with which he was then on duty was at Vicksburg under the surveillance of Gen. Grant and his gunboats, an incident occurred which illustrates the character of the man. Lieut. W. H. Math- ews, of the Twentieth Tennessee, and a large number of others belonging to his command were sick in the hospital, and the water they drank was very warm and required ice to make it palatable, and the physicians prescribed it as essential, and there was none to be had unless procured from the bank of the river, which was commanded by the gunboats of the enemy, and whenever a man appeared from behind the works the enemy would open fire upon him ; hence no hospital nurse or other person could be induced to go for the ice. The major, having called to see his sick friend, learned the situation, and with emphasis said the ice must be brought to the hospital, and, every one refusing to go, started out himself amid the entreaties of his friends not to do so. Sufficient to say he brought to shame those whose duty it was to go, by running the gauntlet of shot and shell from the gunboats, and brought back the ice to the sick soldiers. The most of those soldiers recovered, and yet live and bless the courage and kind heart of their venerable friend, for, as they say and believe, he saved their lives.

We here copy extracts from a letter of Lieut. Mathews to Maj. T. P. Weakley on the subject : " While Gen. Breck- enridge was at Vicksburg in 1862, Maj. Brown was acting as division commissary. We were there during the heat of the summer watching the Yankee gunboats. There was a great deal of camp-fever among our soldiers, and I among the rest had this terrible disease, with the meanest water in the world to drink. Maj. Brown came to see us, and told us we must have some ice or we would die. I sent for some of my comrades and tried to get them to go and get myself and others some ice. But the ice-house was down at the river, and whenever any one showed himself in that locality it was sure to draw a shower of shells from the enemy's gunboats. So I could not get any of them to go. Maj. Brown came next morning to see us and asked if we had got the ice ; when told that we could get no one to go after it, he remarked that we should have it, that he would go and get it himself, and he did get it as long as we needed it, at the risk of his own life, and we all feel to-day that if it had not been for Maj. Brown, we would never have re- turned home, but would have been buried, with many of our less fortunate comrades, on the bank of the Mississippi River. Too much praise cannot be given the old major, for no man ever performed a nobler part in war than he."

Maj. Brown has in his keeping letters from many of the distinguished commanders with whom he was associated, containing the most flattering commendations of him per- sonally and officially ; among them are acknowledgments of Gens. John C. Brown, John C. Breckenridge, William B. Bate, Patton Anderson, and one addressed to the Con- federate States Secretary of War, and signed by most of the prominent officers in the Army of Tennessee, and pub- lished in the Southern newspapers of that day. We here take the liberty to insert an extract from one of those papers : " It is well known that the brave old soldier-hero, Maj. John Lucian Brown, was instrumental in getting our Tennessee Congressmen to pass a bill to allow officers to

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

draw rations, as their pay hardly clothed them, let alone being sufficient to pay their mess bills. Such a bill, it is said, passed both Houses, and yet no notice of the same has been received by the army. If the bill has passed, instructions should be given to the commissaries to put it into operation at once, or else our officers will be obliged to starve if they are compelled to pay the present exorbitant rates for provisions. No officer in the commissary depart- ment has labored with such zeal and devotion in procuring supplies for our army as Maj. Brown, known to all our troops as 'Old Charge-'ein.' Maj. Brown, who was over sixty years of age, was Gen. Zollicoffer's commissary, having joined the army of Tennessee on the breaking out of the war. He served most gallantly on the field at Shiloh, and took Gen. Breckenridge from his horse at the time he was wounded. The services of this brave and heroic old soldier have been entirely overlooked, and de- serve at the hands of his government something more than mere newspaper mention."

During the four years of strife, this noble old man, sep- arated from home and family, deprived of the ease and comforts of life to which he had been so accustomed, breasting the cold and storms of winter, the sweltering heat of summer, with its toilsome marches and bloody battles, was never heard to complain, but always cheerful and hope- ful, encouraging his younger comrades by word and exam- ple. Such devoted patriotism, such singleness of purpose, and such sacrifices, without personal gain or the hope of reward save the satisfaction of having done his duty faith- fully, bespeak a heroism of which the more ambitious, who hold higher official stations, might be justly proud.

After the war, instead of yielding with a hopeless inac- tivity to the hard fate it had brought upon him, Maj. Brown, even in his advanced age, again entered the field of active business life. He identified himself in the real- estate agency business in Nashville, and brought to bear a remarkable energy in his pursuit, and with it marked success, until the monetary panic of 1873 prostrated it and all other business matters in the South. Notwith- standing the dearth of business during this time, he exhib- ited his usual persistence and enterprise. Upon the inau- guration of Governor Albert S. Marks, in January, 1879, as Governor of Tennessee, Maj. Brown was appointed by him superintendent of the Capitol building and grounds, which position he now holds. Eighteen hundred and eighty being the centennial of Nashville, the major was an enthusiastic advocate of a due and proper observance of the occasion, and added much to its success by his zeal and carnest advocacy. Maj. Brown, having charge of the Capi- tol grounds, and observing a space on the east side of the State-house left for a statue of his old personal friend and political leader, Gen. Andrew Jackson, became an early ad- vocate, if not the suggester, of the movement resulting in the purchase and final inauguration of Clark Mills' celebrated equestrian statue of Jackson. The major, by personal en- terprise in getting subscriptions, raised nearly all the money which purchased and planted it where it is now seen by admiring thousands.

JOHN CONAWAY GAUT.

John Conaway Gaut, son of James and Rosamond Gant, was born in Jefferson Co., Tenn., Feb. 27, 1813. In 1821 the family removed to McMinn County, and settled near Athens. He was the eldest of nine children, of whom only his brother Jesse H. now survives.

His father was a farmer, and with his large family to support could only give the subject of this sketch a radi- mentary education. Working on his father's farm until twenty-one years of age, he then by labor secured means with frequent interruptions to advance himself in literary culture. He was a student at the Forest Hill Academy, near Athens ; also, in the spring of 1835, he entered the Literary and Scientific Department of the Thio Seminary. at Marysville, Tenn. In 1836 he entered the East Ten- nessee College, at Knoxville.

His determination had been formed when only a youth to make the profession of law his pursuit. At the age of fifteen years his attention was arrested by the crier of the court at Athens, where young Gaut had gone to deliver a load of corn. Curiosity led him to enter the court-room, where he listened spell-bound to an able legal argument; the influence on his imagination was profound, and then and there his decision taken to fit himself one day to fill such a place as this eloquent speaker, Spencer Jaringan.

It will be of interest to the legal fraternity to know the title of the case on trial. It was the case of John McGhee against McConnell and Miller, reported in 7th Yerger, pp. 63.

In October, 1837, lack of money compelled him to re- turn to his father's house, but shortly after he commenced the study of law in the office of the Hon. Spencer Jaringan, at Athens.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 118

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