History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 120

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 120

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We must now speak of his religious lite. for many years with the ansious cares and t. ? '. business, he had grown careless, neglecting me 1 duties and seldom entering a church den. but great revival in all the churches in Nashville : ; 1-33, he became deeply concerned about this is dition, was happily converted and joined the Church, then under the pastoral care of D .. .. careful training given him by his pious farras " youth was now bearing fruit, and under .1. this godly man he soon became as active at the church as he was in his store. Earnest . gable in everything, he was his beloved gist ...

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O. B. HAYES.

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Foremost in every scheme devised to promote the growth and prosperity of his church, he was soon honored by being elected a deacon, and in a few years was made a ruling elder. He was an open-handed Christian, most generous in all his donations to the benevolent enterprises of his church, and liberal though unostentatious in his private character. In his will he bequeathed in trust to the elders of the First Presbyterian Church twenty thousand dollars, to be used for various benevolent objects.

Mr. Hill was a good citizen. In. his younger days he shunned no public duty. As a young fireman he was one of the first men at the brakes of the " old machine" when the alarm was given. As an alderman he was wise and full of zeal for the public good. In ante-bellum times he was a shareholder and a director in all our banks and insurance companies, and foremost in every manufacturing project. He never made usurious loans of his money. He loved his adopted city, and in all his investments he had an eye to the interest and prosperity of Nashville as well as his own. Deep down in his heart he had a soft place for the young men of Nashville. Many a young fellow has had material aid and comfort from him when about to begin the rugged journey of life. He was a lover of good cheer, and it was his delight to have his many old friends around his bounteously supplied table. He was a genial host and enjoyed a well-timed jest or sparkling repartee. He was a lover of nature, had great delight in his flowers, and be- came quite skillful in selecting and cultivating beautiful exotics, of which he had a rare collection. In his old age he loved a quiet day's fishing. He especially liked to make preparation for it. It was a pleasing sight to see him and his boy Mose spending the day with busy care in selecting and arranging their tackle preparatory for an early start next morning for some neighboring stream where the active trout abounded. He always took " Isaak Walton's Com- plete Angler" with him, and had the finest copy of this pleasant old book the writer has ever seen.

To sum up his character briefly, Mr. Hill was a man of inflexible will, a stern lover and doer of the truth, but with the broadest and kindliost views of men and things. His native mental powers were uncommon, and, had his massive intellect been carefully trained for it, he could have become eminent in any of the higher pursuits of life. He died Jan. 26, 1870, lamented by the whole city.

OLIVER BLISS HAYES.

Oliver Bliss Hayes was born May 21, 1783. His mother, Mary Bliss, of Wilbraham, Mass., was a direct descendant of Chas. Chauncey, second president of Harvard College, and his father, Rev. Joel Hayes, of Simsbury, Conn., was pastor of the Congregational Church at South Hadley for forty-five years. Their children were Oliver Bliss, Joel Hayes, Jr., Rosswell, Mary, Harriet, Catherine B., and Julia Ann.

Oliver Bliss Hayes was educated in New England, re- ceiving the highest literary culture in the best schools of that section, and qualifying himself for his profession,

which was that of the law. He came to Baltimore, where he remained a short time, and finally settled in Nashville early in 1808. About this time and contemporary with him were many great names at the Nashville bar,-White- side, Overton, Grundy, Dickinson, and others who have long since departed. There were at this time, also, great questions involving great interests to be settled by the courts, particularly those growing out of the conflicting land-titles of the country. By his genius, his tact, his knowledge of men and accurate business habits, the ready resources of his intellect, his power of investigation, and graceful, vehement elocution, he made a strong impression upon the public mind, and his services were eagerly sought for by the suitors in the courts. His practice was extended through a considerable portion of Middle Tennessee, and in most of the important causes he was retained as counsel. During the whole period of his professional career he ranked with the ablest of his contemporaries. His fine conversational talent, cultivated taste, ready wit, and varied knowledge have rarely been surpassed, and made him ex- ceedingly attractive in the social circle.

Having acquired a competent estate, he retired from his profession with the view of devoting himself to the min- istry, and was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. Commencing his labors at so late a period, and having no pastoral relations, it is not to be supposed he could acquire the same high distinction as in the former field, but the fervor of his piety, the fidelity with which he discharged the various duties assigned him by his breth- ren, and the ability of his occasional efforts will be attested by them all.

In the conclusion of this imperfect sketch, the greater portion of which is from an obituary at the time of his death, it will not be out of place to add that in his own house he dispensed a liberal hospitality, and in the exercise of all the domestic virtues as a husband and father his character shone with peculiar beauty and loveliness.

His wife was Sarah Clemants Hightower, a descendant of the Clemants of England. Their children were Richard H., Joel A., Adelicia, Laura, Oliver, Henry Martyn, and Corinna.

Oliver Bliss Hayes died Nov. 1, 1858. During his last illness, which was protracted for several months, in which he endured much physical suffering, he exhibited the most perfect resignation to the divine will, never murmuring or complaining.

Thus passed from earth this eminent lawyer and servant of the Most High, leaving his bright example as a rich in- heritance to his children and those who may come after them.

His eldest daughter, Adelicia, was born and educated in Nashville, graduating with the highest honors of her class. She was married, July, 1839, to Isaac Franklin, an opulent planter of Louisiana, who died in the year 1846. She was married the second time, to Col. J. A. S. Acklen, May, 1849, the grandson of John Hunt, the founder of Hunts- ville, Ala. He was appointed United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during the administra- tions of Van Buren, Tyler, and Polk, and promoted to a colonelcy for bravery in the Mexican war. He died in

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Louisiana in 1863. At the close of the war Mrs. Acklen made a tour in Europe, and after her return married Dr. W. A. Cheatham, June, 1867, of Nashville, Tenn. Her children are Hon. Joseph H. Acklen, of Louisiana, William Ethan Acklen, Claude Acklen, and Pauline Acklen. The family name is extinct except in this branch of the family.

Mrs. Dr. Cheatham is very extensively known through- out the South and West, not only for her social position and personal graces, but for her liberal donations to benev- olent purposes. . Her home, " Belmont," bearing the name of the residence of Portia, in the " Merchant of Venice," has long enjoyed the reputation of being the Mecca of travelers, with its vast lawns, miracle of landscape gardening, and its extensive conservatory crowded with tropical plants, flowers, and fruits, its gallery where may be found masterpieces of paintings and sculpture selected and purchased by the owner during her stay in Italy, forming a private collection un- equaled by any in the South.

TOLBERT FANNING.

Tolbert Fanning was born in Cannon Co., Tenn., May 10, 1810. His parents were Virginians, of English de- scent. Tolbert had but little opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge, as the family was poor and consisted of many members. He early became united with the Christian Church, and at nineteen years of age spoke in public in his Redeemer's cause.

Keenly appreciating the value of an acquaintance with the Latin and Greek languages in his studies of the Scrip- tures, he made extraordinary exertions to secure the means necessary to the acquisition of this knowledge. Having always this object in view, he ginned cotton, did his own cooking, and performed various other chores that he might attain the object of his ambition.

While performing this manual labor, he failed not, on Lord's Day and other occasions, to teach with earnestness and success the truths of Holy Writ.

In 1831 he came to Nashville, and in 1835 was graduated at the university, then presided over by Dr. Philip Linds- ley. While attending college, and in vacation, he availed himself of every opportunity to teach and preach. Before and after graduation he accompanied Alexander Campbell on extensive preaching tours, and with earnestness and abil- ity aided the great reformer in their gospel meetings.

At Nicholasville, Ky., he was married to Miss Sarah Shreeve, who did not long survive. On Dec. 25, 1836, he chose another companion in Miss Charlotte Fall, of Nash- ville, Tenn.

Immediately after marriage, in connection with his wife, he opened, at Franklin, Tenn., a female boarding- and day- school, which was largely patronized until his removal (Jan- uary, 1840) to " Elm Crag," a beautiful farm five miles east of Nashville.

About this time he was selected by the State Agricultural Society chief editor of the Agriculturist, a paper issued from Nashville. He filled this place for five or six years with marked ability. During this period and throughout the re-

mainder of his life, he held everything subordinate to his duties as a Christian minister.

Mr. Fanning was much interested in agriculture, and was especially active in encouraging the raising of improved stock. He imported and placed upon his farm the finest breeds of cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses. So enthusiastic was he in the cause that he opened at Elm Crag an agricul- tural school for young men, with whom he labored in the fields, taught in the school-room, and preached to on Sundays.

This school was operated for several years with such grat- ifying results that he conceived and executed the design of establishing a college on the same plan. So, with the aid of a few friends, he had erected at Elm Crag suitable build- ings, employed a corps of competent aids, and, with himself as president, announced the opening of Franklin College in the following language :

"Young men of the country, mechanics who are willing to work, blacksmiths, carriage- or wagon makers, saddlers, carpenters, cabinet-makers, printers, plow-boys, can be edu- cated at Franklin College by their labor, and are earnestly invited to attend the institution." What a noble under- taking !

The opening was an auspicious one, and throughout the States are numerous grateful individuals who received the benefits of Franklin College. Hours were set apart for business as well as for study. Some of the students en- gaged in agriculture, a printing-office was opened, from which was issued the Agriculturist, catalogues of the insti- tution, and the Christian Review, a popular periodical, of which Mr. Fanning was the editor and proprietor. Other industries, enumerated in the announcement, were carried on, and the whole continued to thrive until the breaking out of the late civil war.

In January, 1844, Mr. Fanning began to publish the Christian Review. Four years afterwards, with some mod- ifications, the Review became the Christian Magazine, which periodical was quite popular among those of Mr. Fanning's faith.

In addition to his duties as an editor of two papers, a preacher, a farmer, and president of Franklin College, the general supervision of a largely patronized female day- and boarding-school, conducted upon the same premises, devolved upon him. He personally instructed the senior classes of both institutions.

In January, 1855, with W. Libscomb as associate editor, Mr. Fanning began the publication of the Gospel Advocate, a periodical which, with the exception of a temporary sus- pension during the late war, continues to be published, and is weekly mailed to thousands of subscribers throughout the Union. Mr. Fanning, however, disassociated himself from this paper in 1872, and in obedience to a long-felt de- sire began to publish the Religious Historian, which was continued till his death.

In 1865, just after it was reopened, Franklin College and the family dwelling were destroyed by fire. Mr. Fanning then made a purchase of Minerva College (distant about twenty rods from the old home), and, with Mrs. Fanning in immediate charge, opened Hope Institute for Young Ladies. Many children of former students were matriculated in this excellent school.

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On Sunday, May 3, 1874, after four days of extreme suffering, occurred the dissolution of Tolbert Fanning. But a brief time before his death he broke the loaf in memory of that Saviour whom, with all the energy of his character and the great power of his mind, he unfalteringly served.

Though certainly a superior man, mentally and physically, we must record the fact that many of the achievements of Tolbert Fanning are due to the energy and ability, the de- votion and co-operation, of her whom he delighted to call wife.

ARCHER CHEATHAM.

Archer Cheatham was born in Springfield, Tenn .; his futher, John Cheatham, died when Archer was five years of age. Four years later his mother was married to Dr. W. K. Bowling, of Kentucky, where the family lived until 1850, when they removed to Nashville.

Archer Cheatham had preceded them, coming to Nash- ville when a young man, and finding employment as clerk in a dry-goods store for a time; was then engaged in the manufacture of iron, and subsequently was in the wholesale liquor business. He was a man of good business abilities and strict integrity ; in social relations he was genial and companionable. He died Aug. 15, 1879, leaving a widow and three children,-two daughters and one son,-who re- side at their fine home, known as " Cliff Lawn," some four miles from the city, on the Harding pike, which is one of the finest farms and homes for which Davidson County is so celebrated.

WILLIAM HUNTER WASHINGTON.

William Hunter Washington is descended from John Washington, who was the uncle of George Washington, and grandson of the original John Washington, who emi- grated from the North of England in the year 1657.

" The Washington family," says Washington Irving, " is of an ancient English stock, the genealogy of which has been traced up to the century immediately succeeding the Conquest." The genealogy of the Virginia Washingtons has been given in a letter written in Philadelphia in the ycar 1792, by George Washington to Sir Isaac Heard, which has been preserved by Mr. Sparks in his writings and life of Washington. "In the year 1657," writes he, " or thereabouts, and during the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, John and Lawrence Washington, brothers, emi- grated from the North of England and settled at Bridges' Creek, on the Potomac River, in the county of Westmore- land. . . . John Washington was employed as general against the Indians in Maryland, and, as a reward for his services, was made a colonel, and the parish wherein he lived was called after him. He married Anne Pope and left issue two sons, Lawrence and John, and one daughter, Anne, who married Maj. Francis Wright. The time of his death the subscriber is not able to ascertain, but it appears that he was interred in a vault which had been erected at Bridges' Creek.

"Lawrence Washington, his eldest son, married Mildred Warner, daughter of Col. Augustine Warner, of Gloucester County, by whom he had two sons, John and Augustine (the latter being the father of George Washington), and one daughter named Mildred. He died in 1697, and was interred in the family vault at Bridges' Creek. John Washington, the eldest son of Lawrence and Mildred, married Catharine Whiting, of Gloucester County, where he settled, died, and was buried. He had two sons, Warner and Henry, and three daughters, Mary, Elizabeth, and Catharine, all of whom are dead.

" Warner Washington married the daughter of Col. Wil- liam Macon, of New Kent County, by whom he had one son, who is now living and bears the name of Warner. His second wife was Hannah, youngest daughter of the Hon. William Fairfax, by whom he left two sons and five daughters, as follows,-namely, Mildred, Hannah, Catharine, Elizabeth, Louisa, Fairfax, and Whiting. The three oldest of the daughters are married,-Mildred to - Throck- morton, Hannah to - Whiting, and Catharine to . Nelson. After his second marriage he removed from Glou- cester and settled in Frederick County, where he died 1791. Warner Washington, his son, married - Whiting, by whom he has many sons and daughters; the eldest is called Warner, and is now nearly if not quite of age."

The family tradition has it that the many sons and daughters here mentioned numbered nine daughters and ten sons. Those whose names are still preserved are Warner, Henry, Francis Whiting, Lawrence, John, and Lucy. Lucy married - Walker, and emigrated to Arkansas. What became of Warner, Lawrence, Jobn, and those sons and daughters of the family whose names have not been preserved is not known, other than that many emigrated to various parts of the United States, while others remained in Virginia.

Francis Whiting Washington, one of the sons, was the grandfather of William Hunter Washington. He was born in Frederick or Clarke Co., Va., in the year 1781. He was educated at Liberty Hall, Lexington, Va., before it was endowed by George Washington and its name changed to that of Washington College. In 18-, falling in with the tide of emigration to the westward, he quit the associations of his youth and the home of his ancestors and emigrated to Tennessee. He first settled in Franklin, Wil- liamson Co. He married in the year 1813 Elizabeth Ma- son Hall, sister of the late Allen A. Hall. Soon after the marriage they removed to Logan Co., Ky. The issue of this marriage was five sons,-Beverly, James, Allen H., John, and Francis Whiting. He resided in Logan County until 1834, when, in order to facilitate the education of his children, he sold his estates in Logan County and returned . to Nashville, Here he embarked in the drug business, first on the corner of Deaderick Street and the square, and later on the southwest corner of Union and College Streets. He lived in Nashville many years, but finally removed to Augusta, Ga., where he died in the year 1871, at the resi- dence of his son, Dr. Beverly Washington, at the advanced age of ninety years. His sons Beverly, James, Allen H., and John are dead. Dr. Beverly Washington had become eminent iu his profession. James was a leading hardware-

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

merchant of St. Joseph, Mo. John entered the Methodist pulpit, but was killed by a horse in 1856, soon after his or- dination. Allen H. became a wholesale merchant of Nash- ville, and was of the firm of O'Bryans & Washington at the time of his death, in 1873. Francis Whiting Washington, the father of William Hunter Washington, is the sole survivor. He resided in Nashville from 1834 until his marriage. Soon after attaining his majority he married in Rutherford County, at the residence of Gen. William Hunter Smith, brigadier-general of the Tennessee militia. Sarah Catharine Crockett. After his marriage he removed to Rutherford County, and has lived there ever since, on the ancient manor of Springfield, except during the war, when he served with distinction in the Confederate army. Springfield is a majestic and antique brick mansion on the bank of Overall's Creek. It has an interesting and eventful history, having been continuously in the family of Sarah Catharine, on her mother's side, for sixty-six years. It was built in 1814 by Col. John Smith, her maternal grandfather.

Sarah Catharine Crockett was a young lady of great beauty, accomplishments, and popularity. She was de- scended from the Virginia Crocketts. Col. Anthony Crockett, her grandfather, was a first cousin of the famous David Crockett, and was born in Wythe Co., Va. He served in the Revolutionary war as a lieutenant in the Continental army. Afterwards he removed to what subsequently became Frankfort, Ky. In 1812 three of his sons, Overton, Gran- ville S., and Fountain P. Crockett, emigrated to Rutherford Co., Tenn. Granville S. entered the field of political life at an early age. He represented his county several times in the State Legislature, both in the lower house and Senate. He also represented his district in the Congress of the United States. He was appointed by President Polk, soon after his inauguration, minister abroad, but died while journeying to his post. Fountain P. Crockett died young, leaving orphan children,-among them Sarah Catharine, who, at the time of her father's death, was but six years of age. She was adopted by her uncle, Gen. William H. Smith, a man of great wealth and childless.

The first-born of the marriage of Francis Whiting Wash- ington and Sarah Catharine Crockett was William Hunter Washington. He was born at Springfield, the family man- sion, on the 9th day of September, 1850. There were two other children,-America Isabella and John Henry. The former was born Jan. 29, 1852, and died twenty months thereafter. The latter was born Sept. 4, 1857. He has entered the medical profession, having graduated at Van- derbilt University in 1879.

Nothing unusual signalized the childhood and boyhood of William H., who was sent to school in the neighborhood of Springfield and in Murfreesboro'.

After the war between the States was declared, and in the year 1862, some time before the fall of Forts Donelson and Henry, the boys in the neighborhood of Murfreesboro', imbued with a spirit of chivalry and martial glory, and having high notions of defending their mothers and sisters against the advancing hosts of the enemy, organized them- selves into a military company. Its name was the " Juve- nile Home Guards." It numbered thirty-five ardent young rebels. William H. was elected captain, though among

the youngest in the company. They became very efficient in the drill, maintaining the organization six or eight months, but were finally disbanded a short time before Rosecrans advanced upon Murfreesboro'.

William H. remained at Murfreesboro' during the war, the only protector of his mother, his father having entered the Confederate army early in the struggle.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 120

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