History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 52

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 52

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Hon. Thomas H. Fletcher, who had lived here from 1809, died of apoplexy, alone in his office, on Sunday, Jan. 12, 1845. He was a successful lawyer and writer of ability.

Col. Robert Weakley, who had occupied many posts of honor in military and civil life, and who had arrived here before a single house had been built, died at his residence in this county, Feb. 3, 1845.

In April, 1845, the citizens contributed nearly one thou- sand two hundred dollars for the relief of the sufferers by the great fire at Pittsburgh.

Louis Philippe, King of France, sent the artist Healy to paint the portrait of Gen. Andrew Jackson. The por- trait was completed in May, 1845.

Gen. Andrew Jackson died on Sunday evening, the 8th of June, 1845, and various meetings were held on the sub- ject. Gen. Samuel Houston, of Texas, arrived here the same day, but reached the Hermitage after the death of his distinguished and life long friend. His funeral was at- tended by an immense number of people.

The corner-stone of the Capitol was laid with imposing Masonic ceremonies on the 4th of July, 1845. Hon. Edwin H. Ewing was the orator on the interesting occa- sion. William Strickland was the architect. The board of commissioners, of which the late Samuel D. Morgan was chairman, and who devoted a great deal of time per- sonally to the work and the purchase of material for its execution, received the appropriations made by the State from time to time, and faithfully accounted for every cent expended. The State required no security or bond from

* Anson Nelson, Esq.

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Photo. by Armstrong, Nashville.

ROBERT WEAKLEY.

Robert Weakley, son of Robert Weakley, was born in Halifax Co., Va., July 20, 1764. He emigrated to Tennessee about the year 1785, bringing his entire patrimony with him : it consisted of a horse and bridle and one and three-quarter dollars in money.

He located first on White's Creek ; afterwards removed to the place now known as the Chadwell residence, then called Lockland. He was a farmer with but limited education, but a man of quick perceptions, great courage, an Indian-fighter, and a soldier of the Revolution at the early age of sixteen years. He was chosen a member of the Constitutional Con- vention convened to ratify the Federal Constitution of 1787, which fact, when his age is remembered, illustrates the stand- ing he held when but twenty-two years of age. He was chosen a member of Congress in 1809, and served one term.

His bravery in the Indian fights secured him a colonel's commission Gen. Robertson divided the honors of leader- ship with him in some of the early Indian engagements.

When this country had won peace he was occupied for many years as a land-surveyor, and improved his opportunity to secure choice selections of lands. He was at one time the owner of a very large landed property.

Col. Weakley was a Democrat in politics, and wielded a powerful influence in his party. His personal magnetism was wonderful; his eye was piercing and capable of great expres- sion ; he was strong in his likes and dislikes; he made firm friends as well as uncompromising enemies. His devotion to his friends involved him in heavy pecuniary losses. He was for several years a member of the Assembly, and from 1819 to 1821, as also from 1828 to 1825, speaker of the State Senate. Before the State Constitution of 1884 he filled the office of

judge of the Quorum Court. He was a member of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1884, his colleague being the late Francis B. Fogg. His last official duty was performed in this connection.

Col. Weakley was a man of strong moral and religious convictions. His adherence to the true, the right, and the honorable commanded the respect of all good men, while his outspoken condemnation of dishonesty and trickery frequently involved him in personal difficulties. He took a deep interest in aspiring young men, aiding them generously with more than advice. His sympathies were with the Methodist Church, he being for the last twenty years of his life a mem- ber of the McKendree Church.

Col. Weakley married Miss Jane Locke, a daughter of Gen. Matthew Locke, of Salisbury, N. C. She was not a professor of religion when she was married. The Methodist Church had a rule forbidding church members uniting in marriage with non-professors, and called the husband's attention to it, at which he took great offense. In the effort to conciliate him it was proposed to him to express his regret and no further action would be taken, but he proudly refused to do so, which led to his withdrawal from active association with the church for a number of years.

There were born to Col. and Mrs. Weakley four children,- three daughters and one son. The eldest daughter, Mary, married Gen. John Brahan ; Miss Narcissa married the late Maj. John P. Hickman ; Miss Jane married Maj. J. Lucien Brown, of Nashville; the son, Col. Robert L. Weakley, for many years resided in Rutherford County.

Col. Robert Weakley died Feb. 4, 1845, in his eighty-first year.

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

her commissioners, and no thought of dishonesty, mis- management, or negligent waste was entertained on either side. Col. Morgan at the time of his death had possession of the books containing an account of the expenditures for the entire work.

Gen. Robert Armstrong, who had been postmaster in Nashville from 1829 to 1845, resigned that position, having been appointed consul to Liverpool by President Polk.

John Somerville, who came to Nashville in 1799, and who had occupied various positions in the banks of the city, and especially as cashier of the Union Bank, died in April, 1846.

The war with Mexico and a call for volunteers caused the organization of a great many military companies through all this section, not one-half of which could be received. The two military companies here were fortunate in being accepted, owing to their military training. Several of the Mexican veterans still survive, though a large number of those who first went were killed in battle or died from sickness. The living returned in June, 1847.

Maj. Joseph Norvell, who founded the Nashville Whig in 1812 (in connection with his brother Moses Norvell), and who was for several years city treasurer and Past Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge, died on the 7th of January, 1847.

The sum of three thousand six hundred dollars was raised for the relief of the starving population of Ireland in the spring of 1847.

On the 12th of October, 1847, a powder magazine, situ- ated west of Capitol Hill, was struck by lightning and ex- ploded, by which four persons were killed and twenty wounded. Fifty houses were demolished or rendered unfit for use, and the destruction of window-glass in the city and in the suburbs was immense.

The first telegraphic dispatch received in Tennessee was in March, 1848, on Henry O'Reilly's line from Louisville to Nashville, and Mr. O'Reilly sent his compliments to the people of Tennessee among the first dispatches.

On the 14th of September, 1848, the First Presbyterian church was a second time destroyed by fire, on the site of the present large and elegant church edifice. The corner- stone of the present edifice was laid April 28, 1849.

The Tennessee Historical Society was reorganized in May, 1849; Prof. N. Cross president and Col. A. W. Putnam vice-president.

The Hon. James K. Polk, eleventh President of the United States, died at his residence in this city on the 15th of June, 1849, and was placed in a vault at the cemetery with Masonic honors. The cholera prevailed here at the time, but nevertheless a very large assemblage attended to pay a tribute of respect to their distinguished deceased fellow- citizen. On the 22d of May, 1850, his remains were de- posited in the elegant mausoleum prepared for the purpose on his own grounds, on the eastern front of Polk Place, with solemn and impressive ceremonies. The Masonic fraternity, Governor and staff, mayor and city council, fire department, judges of courts and members of the bar, and an immense number of citizens attended in procession. Minute-guns were fired, and at the tomb the Rev. John B.

McFerrin offered an impressive prayer, an original dirge was sung, an appropriate discourse delivered by Right Rev. Bishop Otey, and the Masonic funeral rites performed, con- ducted by Charles A. Fuller. Every demonstration possi- ble was made to testify to the public grief.

The Nashville Gas-Light Company was chartered Nov. 14, 1849, and the city was lighted by gas on the night of Feb. 13, 1851. The city has now over six hundred lamps to light the streets.

The steamer " James Dick" was burned May 7, 1850.

May 22, 1850, the first wire was stretched across the river for the present suspension-bridge, and on the 28th of June the first horse and buggy crossed over. The bridge was soon afterwards completed.

The Southern Convention met on the 3rd of June, 1850, and was in session eighty days.

The Adelphi Theatre was opened July 1, 1850, under the management of John Green.

On the 15th of August the celebrated geologist and mineralogist, Dr. Gerard Troost, died, universally respected in this country and in Europe for his great attainments in geology. His collection of specimens amounted to over twenty thousand in number, and some years after his death was sold to an institution in Louisville.

The first Hoe power printing-press was introduced by B. R. Mckennie, publisher of the Nashville Whig, in 1845. The first cylinder Hoe printing press was used by the Christian Advocate office in 1850.

Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, gave two concerts and a matinée, March 31 and April 2, 1851, under the management of P. T. Barnum. Such a musical treat had never been experienced here, and none since. Immense preparations had been made to pack people into the Adelphi by building new galleries and utilizing space generally. Choice scats were sold at auction, the highest bringing two hundred dollars. Tickets six dollars, standing-room three dollars, etc. The house was packed to overflowing, and every one seemed wild with enthusiasm. Her singing was the best ever heard in Nashville.

The first passenger-train of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad was run out as far as Antioch on the 13th of April, 1851, and the first through-train to Chattanooga on the 18th of January, 1853. The road now runs to Chattanooga south, and to St. Louis northwest. A large portion of the track has recently been laid with steel rails.

On April 22, 1851, the corner-stone of the first public school was laid in South Nashville with Masonic rites, conducted by the venerable Wilkins Tannehill.

A post-office was established in South Nashville, April 26, 1851, W. W. Parks postmaster. South Nashville had a separate corporate existence for several years, but finally united with the old city, 16th July, 1854, by a popular vote.

The old bridge fell at six o'clock, November 14th, just after the workmen who were tearing it down had left off work.

A coal famine existed from January 1st to the 16th in 1852.

The fire-bell, weighing two thousand one hundred pounds, was hung in the court-house March 16th. On the 28th

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

of July impressive funeral obsequies in honor of Henry Clay were held; Col. Ephraim HI. Foster was chosen as the orator of the day. On account of the ill health of Col. Foster, the oration was read by Hon. Andrew Ewing. The demonstration was unusually large and the ceremonies impressive.

The fight (really a private ducl) between John L. Mar- ling, editor of the Union, and Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, editor of the Banner, took place on the 20th of August, 1852. The first-named gentleman was seriously wounded, the latter slightly.

The Presidential campaign of 1852 was very spirited, and party excitement ran high. Processions, the marching of military campaign companies, etc., were constantly going on, and a number of street-fights occurred. One man was killed. After the election a large torchlight procession moved through the streets in honor of the election of Gen. Pierce.

The numbering of the houses was completed Feb. 1, 1853.

March 24th the city and county subscribed one mil- lion dollars to aid four railroads coming into the city. April 7th Ole Bull and Adelina Patti gave their first concert here. Nashville had, this year, six daily newspapers. Hon. Morgan W. Brown died March 7th ; Judge Alfred Balch on the 22d of June. July 16th young Watkins jumped into the river from the suspension-bridge, in the presence of a large crowd of sight-seers, and was picked up by some fishermen not much injured. W. M. Paulding made a balloon ascension on the 15th of October, and landed four miles from the city. Col. William Walker, of Nashville, was declared president of Lower California on the 16th of October, 1853. His Nicaragua expedition is- a matter of history.

Ex-President Fillmore arrived in Nashville, May 4, 1854, and was handsomely entertained. W. S. Whiteman, who had been engaged in the manufacture of paper for several years in Nashville, completed a large new mill Oct. 1, 1854. The steamer " Rock City," built in Nashville, departed for Paducah, October 15th.

The funeral services of Gen. Robert Armstrong occurred on the 8th of January, 1855. On the 10th of March an unsuccessful attempt was made to burn the penitentiary. June the 18th the South Nashville Furniture-Factory was destroyed by fire. October 1st the State Fair was held, and the mechanics' exhibition of wares, fabrics, and handicraft took place at Odd-Fellows' Hall. Mount Olivet Cemetery was laid off into burying-lots in October, 1855.

A large fire occurred on the public square, March 16, 1856, by which thirteen houses were destroyed. Another destructive fire took place July 9th, by which eight build- ings were burned, including the Masonic Hall. August 15th the Grand Union Association of Steamboat and Ship Engineers met in Nashville. The Hlon. John L. Marling, United States minister at Gautemala, died October 16th.

In May, 1857, the Hon. Randel W. McGavock presented the Historical Society with a life-size portrait of Hon. Felix Grundy, in the presence of a large audience.

April 12, 1857, the court-house was destroyed by fire. May 10th the American Medical Association met here,

being their tenth annual session. The Siamese twins were on exhibition Oct. 9, 1857.

The talented and venerable Wilkins Tannehill .died on the 2d of June, 1858. He was a great Masonic light, and a literary writer of more than ordinary brilliancy.

The corner-stone of the new Masonic Hall was laid Oct. 6,1858.

The steamer " Quaker City" was burned at the levee Feb. 17, 1859. On the 4th of March the funeral obse- quies of ex-Governor Aaron V. Brown took place. He had been a prominent politician for many years, postmaster-gen- eral, Governor, etc.

Gen. William T. Haskell, the finest orator in all this region of country, died March 13, 1859, in Kentucky. Dr. John Shelby died at his residence at Edgefield, May 17th. By a popular vote the City Council was instructed to levy a tax of two hundred and seventy thousand dollars to aid the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, June 4th. The first sermon in the new Central Baptist church, South Nashville, was preached by Rev. Dr. W. H. Bayless, July 3d. The Mulberry Street Methodist church was dedi- cated July 22d. The first passenger-train from Nash- ville to Bowling Green went through August 13th. August 24th a meeting was called of the subscribers to the new hotel project, when Maj. R. C. McNairy offered a resolu- tion appointing John Kirkman and Samuel D. Morgan commissioners to act for the subscribers to the hotel to be erected by John Overton, Esq., on the corner of Cherry and Church Streets, which was adopted ; and the first spade pierced the soil for the present Maxwell House August 17th. The presentation of Gen. Jackson's gold snuff-box to Gen. Ward B. Burnett, of New York, took place on the 19th of August. The celebration of the opening of the Winchester and Alabama Railroad to Fayetteville took place the same day. A great " Opposition" meting was held in Watkins Grove, August 30th, and ten thousand people were said to be present. The remains of Lieut. Chandler, who died in 1801, were removed, under the auspices of the Historical Society, from the Sulphur Springs bottom to Mount Olivet ; an immense procession ; Hon. E. H. East orator of the day.

The excavation for the foundation of the Church of the Advent was commenced September 3d. The Hon. M. F. Maury delivered his celebrated lecture on the geography of the sca before the Historical Society September 8th.

The railroad draw bridge was completed October 1st, and the first passenger-train came through from Louisville Oc- tober 27th. George T. Poindexter, one of the editors of the Union and American, was killed by Allen A. Hall, editor of the News, in a street-fight. On the 23d of No- vember, 1859, Maj. Elbridge G. Eastman, principal editor of the Union and American, and the most influential political writer in the State, died suddenly at his residence in this city.

Rev. Leroy J. IIalscy, D.D., thus speaks of Nashville in 1859 :

" We had occasion to visit. it for the first time in 1830, and recollect distinctly what it then was, as from an ad- joining hill, and on an autumn morning, we saw its rocks and cedars and house tops partially covered with the first

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SAMUEL SEAY.

The subject of this sketch, the eldest son of John and Ann Hillsman Seay, was born near Chincopin Church, in Amelia Co., Va., on the 1st day of March, 1784. In the early part of the present century (about 1804) he emigrated from Virginia to Tennessee, and found employment at Knoxville, in the store of John and Josiah Nichol. Here he remained until 1809. At that time there were many Indians in East and Middle Tennessee, and a large portion of the trade of his business- house was carried on with the Choctaws and Cherokees. From this fact Mr. Seay learned to speak their languages, and retained a knowledge of them long after the uses to which they had been applied became worthless. Messrs. John and Josiah Nichol, his employers, being attracted by the then grow- ing importance of Nashville, moved thither and engaged in mercantile pursuits. Mr. Seay still continued with them, and reached Nashville in 1809.

At that time there was scarcely a brick house in the place; the main business was transacted upon the public square, and private residences were principally within one block of it. When the war of 1812-15 took place, Josiah Nichol was contractor for furnishing saltpetre to the government, and as his agent Mr. Seay did most of his purchasing, eupplies of which article were then mostly ob- tained from the caves in the eastern portion of Middle Tennessee. The travel ne- cessary to collect it threw him into a wide acquaintance with the people of that sec- tion, and after the close of the war he embarked into busi- nees on his own account, and for the next forty years was actively engaged in commercial pursuits. During this period he was one of the most promi- nent, and perhaps the most widely known, of any merchant in Tennessee.

That generation which is fast passing away well recollect the energy, the ability and integrity, with which his business was conducted, and many of them still carry in their minds the sentiment frequently expressed when desiring to indicate in- tegrity in any one,-that " he was as honest as Sam Seay."

Mr. Seay was associated in business at various times with a number of our old citizens, among others with Mr. Joseph P. Elliston, Gen. Robert Armstrong, and Joseph H. Shepherd. He was for many years a director in the Planters' Bank, and the president, treasurer, or director of a number of our local insur- ance companies.

In the days before railroads were thought of he was an active promoter and liberal subscriber to the various turnpike com- panies in Middle Tennessee, and, though these have been super- seded by railroads, they were in his day the pride of our citizens.

Witnessing the arrival at our wharf of the first steamboat that landed there, he recognized its importance in commerce, and became the owner of steamboats and interested in steamboat lines. He was at different times engaged in the manufacture of gunpowder, soaps, oils, candles, and rope, but he was best known as a wholesale grocer and commission-merchant. In his business relations Mr. Seay was noted for his straightforward dealing and

Sam& Seay

plainness of speech, which amounted at times almost to brusqueness.

He was married twice. His first wife was Jane M. Wharton, daughter of George Wharton of this county, to whom he was married Dec. 24, 1822. She died Jan. 16, 1847. To them were born ten children, three of whom died in infancy; the others all survive him. His second wife was Mrs. Rachel Douglas Hudnall, to whom he was married Nov. 29, 1849. She survived him about fifteen years, he dying Jan. 28, 1864; his widow, Feb. 1, 1879. He was an earnest and devout member of and for many years an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Seay possessed in a high degree a strong sense of personal independence. He had little sympathy with formalism or conventional behavior. His habits were hospitable and open, and per- feotly free from insincerity. In early life his health was exceedingly delicate, but after he reached maturity his constitution seems to have undergone a change, and he became healthy and robust. It was his boast that for a period of forty years he had no occasion for a physician. He was of medium height, with florid complexion, blue eyes, and until his threescore years and ten had passed inclined to stoutness, combined with great activity. His hair when young was red, but those acquaintances whose eyes may read this paper will class it in their minds as white. His birth took place when our forefathers were first discussing the American Constitution. He was fifteen years old when Wash- ington died.

He passed from earth during the heat of our civil war, leaving his children that legacy more to be desired than great riches,-the treasure of his good name.

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

fall of snow, and glittering like a mount of diamonds in the rising sun. It was a compact little city of some five or six thousand souls, confined pretty much to a single hill or bluff on the left bank of the Cumberland. But it was beautiful even then, set like a gem in the green casket of the surrounding hill-country. It stood just at the outer apex of a long curve in the river, where, after sweeping westward through a rich valley, and striking the elevated bluffs of stratified limestone rocks underlying the city, it flows gracefully and slowly away in a long stretch to the north, as if the waters lingered to look upon a spot of so much beauty. It was precisely such a spot as the old classic Greeks and Romans would have chosen to build a city. It was a site of gently rising and continuous hills, almost as numerous and quite as elevated as the seven hills of Rome; and each of their summits at that time wore the green crown of a dense cedar-grove, while from the midst of the city, out of its very house-tops, rose one cen- tral and higher hill, like Alp on Alp, overlooking all the scene, and not unworthy of the Athenian Acropolis. In that central cedar-crowned hill the old Greeks would have imagined the genti loci to dwell. And if the traveler had chanced to visit the spot some fifty years earlier than we did, he might indeed have found there the real genius of the place, not some fabled Grecian goddess, but a wild Cherokee Indian. . . . In the books of that day, the seat of all this natural beauty was described as a 'Post-town, the capital of Davidson County, containing a court-house, a branch bank of the United States, the respectable private bank of Yeatman, Woods & Co., a valuable public library, a respectable female academy, and houses of public worship for Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists.'

"Such was the capital of Tennessee thirty years ago. And what is it now ? Now-1859-it is a busy city off nearly thirty-two thousand souls, on both sides of the river, and spread out over all the hills and valleys for miles around. Now it has sixteen Protestant churches, three lines of railroad, a hundred steamboats, and an annual trade, including its manufactures, of twenty-five millions. The long, rude box of a bridge which once connected the banks of the river has given place to two magnificent struc- tures-one for railroad and the other for ordinary use- such as the Tiber never boasted, and which would have filled the old Romans with mingled wonder and delight. Those beautiful green cedars, once the glory of winter, have disappeared from all the hill-tops, and in their place have sprung up the marble mansions of wealth or the neat cot- tages of the artisan. That central summit, where in olden times dwelt the wild genii of the woods, is now surmounted with the Capitol of Tennessee,-the temple of law and jus- tice, built of native marble, whose massive proportions, rising without an obstruction, and seen from every direc- tion as if projected against the very sky, would have done honor to the Athenian Acropolis in the proudest days of Pericles."

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 52

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