History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 53

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 53

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

James Parton, the eminent biographer, spent several months in Nashville in 1857, while engaged in writing the " Life of Gen. Andrew Jackson." He thus writes of the city :

" Pleasant Nashville 1 Its situation is superb,-a gently- 27

undulating, fertile valley, fifteen or twenty miles across, quite encircled by hills. Through this panoramic vale winds the ever-winding Cumberland, a somewhat swiftly- flowing stream, about as wide as the Hudson at Albany. The banks are of that abrupt ascent which suggested the name of bluffs, high enough to lift the country above the reach of the marvelous rises of the river, but not so high as to render it too difficult of access. In the middle of this valley, half a mile from the banks of the stream, is a high, steep hill, the summit of which, just large enough for the purpose, would have been crowned with a castle if the river had been the Rhine instead of the Cumberland. Upon this hill stands the Capitol of the State of Tennes- see, the most elegant, correct, convenient, and genuine pub- lic building in the United States, a conspicuous testimonial of the wealth, taste, and liberality of the State.

" From the cupola of this edifice the stranger, delighted and surprised, looks down upon the city of Nashville, packed between the Capitol-crowned hill and the coiling Cumberland; looks round upon the panoramic valley, dot- ted with villas and villages, smiling with fields, and fringed with distant, dark, forest-covered mountains. . .

" Pleasant Nashville! It was laid out in the good old English, Southern manner. First, a spacious square for court-house and market, lined now with stores, so solid and elegant that they would not look out of place in the bus- iness streets of New York, whose stores are palaces. From the sides and angles of this square, which is the broad back of a huge underground rock, run the principal streets, and there is your town.

" Pleasant Nashville! The wealth of Nashville is of the genuine, slowly-formed description that does not take to itself wings and fly away just when it is wanted most. It came out of that fertile soil which seems to combine the good qualities of the prairie with the lasting strength of forest land. Those roomy, square brick mansions are well filled with furniture the opposite of gimcrack ; and if the sideboards do not 'groan' under the weight of silver plate upon them, the fact is to be set down to the credit of the sideboards. Where but eighty years ago the war-whoop startled mothers putting their children to bed, the stranger, strolling abroad in the evening, pauses to listen to operatic arias, fresh from Italy, sung with much of the power and more than the taste of a prima-donna. Within, mothers may be caught in the act of helping their daughters write Italian exercises or hearing them recite French verbs. Society is lighted with gas, and sits dazzling in the glorious blaze of bituminous coal, and catches glimpses of itself in mirrors of full-length portraitures."

Street-sprinklers were introduced March 24, 1860. Dr. Henry Carow was killed by a young man named Truett, from Sparta, Tenn., who was intoxicated at the time. April 9th a large fire occurred on Union Street, the loss amount- ing to thirty thousand dollars. The National Typographi- cal Convention was held in the Capitol, May 7th. A grand parade of firemen occurred on the 17th. St. Cloud Hotel was burned May 21st; loss ten thousand dollars. Corner- stone of the Church of the Advent laid May 21st, by Right Rev. Bishop Otey. It was opened for services on the 17th of April, 1870. The great National Temperance Associa-

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tion met here on the 22d of May. On the 24th of July the board of aldermen passed the ordinance to establish a paid steam fire department, which was promptly signed by the mayor. Capt. John S. Dashiell was the first chief. November 13th the Rev. John Todd Edgar, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, died suddenly, universally be- loved. On the 30th of December a large meeting of citi- zens was held at the court-house, and great excitement pre- vailed in consequence of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency and the secession of South Carolina. Great excitement prevailed in the early part of 1861 in regard to the secession of South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia, and the election of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederate States. Military companies were organ- ized for home protection, the courts were suspended, and everything was in confusion, even the United States post- office being discontinued on the 6th of June. August 13th, W. D. McNish was appointed postmaster for the Confederate government.

It is simply impossible, in a brief paper like this, to go into detail in regard to the war commenced in 1861. The State, as well as the city of Nashville, was decidedly op- posed to separating froin the other States, as expressed by a popular vote, as well as in other ways, until the firing on Fort Sumter took place, which forced the people to take the Confederate side. A volume would be necessary to give the history of the struggle in this State, and of legis- lative action prior thereto. We can give only a few mea- gre items, simply to preserve dates of important events.

Intelligence of the capture of Fort Donelson reached Nashville on Sunday morning, Feb. 16, 1862, and pro- duced the utmost consternation. The Legislature was con- vened, but speedily adjourned to Memphis, whither the public archives and money were also removed. Gen. A. S. Johnston's army, concentrated at Bowling Green, commenced passing through the city, and continued until the entire force went through. Gen. Floyd was left to cover the retreat. It was a real panic. On the 18th, at night, the troops de- stroyed the suspension-bridge and the railroad-bridge, against the earnest protest of the leading citizens. On the 23d the rear-guard of the Confederate army left, and Gen. D. C. Buell occupied Edgefield with Federal troops. The next day Mayor Cheatham and a committee of citizens sur- rendered the city, and the surrender took place on the 25th. Gen. Buell and his army conducted themselves, as did the citizens, with " marked propriety." The newspapers, whose publication had been suspended, resumed operations. Gov- ernor Johnson acted as military governor from March 12, 1862, to the close of the war. He ousted the mayor and City Council for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, and appointed others in their place. A great many citizens, most of them lead- ing men in society, and several of them ministers of the gospel, were arrested by order of Governor Johnson and put into prison. A Union meeting was held in Nashville on the 12th of May. On the 25th several newspaper-offices were confiscated and their publication stopped. Gen. For- rest, Gen. Morgan, and others made occasional sorties about the neighborhood, which only frightened the citizens without doing any particular harm, But the city was

sometimes cut off from all communication with the outside world. Governor Johnson levied specific contributions on the wealthy to aid the poor in procuring food. It is proper to say that he did not himself even see the money thus collected and disbursed. He intrusted it to others. Gen. Buell and his army had left the city for the Tennessee River, and Gen. Rousseau took command in the latter part of August, but was succeeded by a man named Negley,-not the regular officer, Gen. Neglee, but a volunteer general. The battle of Lavergne, fifteen miles from the city, was fought October 7th, a signal little victory for the Federal troops. Gen. Rosecrans was in command in November, and made his headquarters here till the close of the war. Gen. Grant, as the commander-in-chief of the Army of the Cum- berland, made his headquarters here for a considerable length of time. The result of the battle of Nashville, commanded by Maj .- Gen. George II. Thomas on one side, and by Gen. Hood on the other, is well known. After the struggle was over a military force was kept here for several years. The army officers and the people got along very harmoniously to- gether, and the removal of the troops was generally regretted. (See military history of the civil war, in another part of this work.)

Oct. 20, 1865, Champ Ferguson was hung at the peni- tentiary on account of war operations. On the 20th of November, William IIeffran was dragged from his carriage and murdered by some ruffians, who were subsequently apprehended, tried, convicted, and hung. Their execution took place Jan. 26, 1866.

During the latter months of this year the city was full of thieves and robbers, and deeds of blood and robbery were frequent. It was unsafe to go out at night without arms. A committee of safety was appointed and extra policemen placed on duty until the turbulent spirits were arrested and imprisoned or driven from the city.

The system of letter-carrying was introduced Jan. 1, 1866. The Stacey House, now the Battle House, was opened the next day. A destructive fire occurred on the public square January 9th, and Charles H. Moore was burned to death. Dr. David T. McGavock, a life-long citizen here, died January 7th.

Street-cars were introduced in March, 1866, the South Nashville line, of which Anson Nelson was president, being the first.

The new suspension-bridge, destroyed in the early part of the war, was completed June 21, 1866. The Board of Health was established June 27th. Prof. Hays made a balloon ascension September 20th. Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Baldwin, author of " Armageddon," died October 9th. A fire occurred October 24th on Cedar, Cherry, and Deaderick Streets, by which more than twenty houses were destroyed. Loss, three hundred thousand dollars.

On the 8th of March, 1867, the funeral obsequies of Col. De Bow, the founder and editor of De Bow's Review, and of Bishop Joshua Soule took place. Ex-Mayor An- drew Anderson died April 15th, aged seventy-two years. He was for more than twenty years connected with the city government, and was highly esteemed.

On the 14th of May a mutiny occurred in the penitentiary, and there was an uprising of three hundred convicts. The

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mutiny was suppressed before any escapes were made. The east wing of the penitentiary was burned on the 24th of June. Loss, fifty thousand dollars.

The large bell (the largest and finest in the city) was placed in the western tower of the First Presbyterian church on the 10th July. It was a present from Mrs. Adelicia Cheatham, wife of Dr. W. A. Cheatham. July 26th, William N. Bilbo, Esq., a lawyer, an orator, and a writer of considerable note, departed this life. Ex-Gov- ernor William B. Campbell died August 19th, and Judge John S. Brien on the 6th of November. The Alloway residence, next to the MeKendree church, was destroyed by fire Dec. 22, 1867.

Nothing worthy of note occurred in 1868. Col. A. W. Putnam died on the 20th of January, 1869. He was the president of the Tennessee Historical Society, the author of the " Life and Times of Gen. James Robertson," and a lineal desceudant of Gen. Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary fame. Work on the Tennessee and Pacific Railroad com- menced June 17, 1869. In the summer of this year the city government was placed in the hands of a receiver, owing to the bad management of those who acted as mayor, aldermen, and councilmen. Hon. John M. Bass was ap- pointed by the Chancery Court receiver, and gave a large bond for the faithful performance of his duties. He dis- charged the trust committed to him with great fidelity and to the entire satisfaction of the taxpayers. In the latter part of the year the people elected men of their choice as mayor, aldermen, and councilmen ; Mr. Bass made a full report and turned the affairs of the city over to K. J. Morris, Esq., the new mayor, and his colleagues of the City Council.

The IIon. John Bell, one of Tennessee's noted politi- cians, died at Cumberland Furnace, September 10th. His body was brought here, laid in state in the Capitol for one or two days, and buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. The Maxwell House was opened for guests on the 22d Sept., 1869, by M. Kean & Co.

The post-office was removed to the corner of Cedar and Cherry Streets, Jan. 14, 1870, its present location. Ex- Mayor John Hugh Smith died July 7th. The College Hill Foundry was burned September 11th ; loss twenty- seven thousand dollars. The improvements on the Capitol grounds were resumed, after ten years' neglect, Oct. 26, 1870.

The Nashville Industrial Exposition committees were or- ganized on the 26th of February, 1871, the building com- menced on the 17th of March, and the Exposition was formally opened on the 8th of May.

Dr. William II. Wharton, a physician and minister of the Christian Church, died May 8th. Christine Nillsson sung in Nashville, May 4th. The General Assembly of the Cumberland Church met in Nashville, May 18, 1871.

On the 10th of April, 1871, our German citizens had a grand jubilee procession in commemoration of peace between France and Germany. The death of Rev. T. V. Moore, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, occurred Aug. 5, 1871. Judge W. K. Turner died on the 10th of the same month. On the 19th of November the large and elegant cotton-factory in North Nashville was put in opera-

tion, running over seventy-five thousand spindles. Col. Samuel D. Morgan was president of the company, and had superintended the building from the very beginning, look- ing after the minutest details, as he had previously done in the erection of the Capitol. He was for many years one of our leading wholesale merchants.

Jan. 22, 1872, a great fire occurred on Market Street ; loss, two hundred thousand dollars. Col. G. C. Torbett died February 14th. Mrs. Francis B. Fogg, one of the best and most benevolent ladies that ever lived here, died on the 14th of March. A destructive fire took place on the corner of Market Street and the public square; loss, fifty thousand dollars. The epizooty, or horse disease, made its appear- ance in November, and nearly all the horses in the city were attacked. The street-cars stopped running, and oxen were in demand for hauling goods to different depots.

Jan. 1, 1873, a fire on the public square destroyed prop- erty to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars. Mc- Crae, Maury & Co.'s distillery was burned January 28th.

The Industrial Exposition was again opened May 1, 1873, and was carried on with remarkable success for one month.

The Tennessee Historical Society was reorganized in May, 1874, and has been in successful operation ever since. Its present officers are : Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, President ; Hon. John M. Lca, Vice-President; Gen. G. P. Thruston, Corresponding Secretary ; J. S. Carels, Treasurer ; Dr. J. B. Lindsley, Librarian ; and Anson Nelson, Recording Sec- retary.

The new Cumberland Presbyterian church was completed April 22, 1874. The corner-stone of the new Odd-Fellows' Hall was laid with imposing ceremonies on the 30th of June. September 16th the Fourth Annual Industrial Exposition was opened with an imposing procession of societies and citizens. November 1st the wholesale house of T. J. Hop- kins & Co. was destroyed by fire.

The funeral procession to do honor to the memory of Andrew Johnson, ex-President of the United States, ex- Governor, etc., in January, 1875, was unusually large. The Hon. Joseph S. Fowler was the orator of the day.

Policeman Frazer was killed April 30th. The celebrated Whittle and Bliss meetings were held in April and May, in the old Exposition buildings, and created a profound impres- sion. Vice-President Henry Wilson visited the city in May. Work on the custom-house was commenced November 17th, and the corner-stone laid about the 1st of October, 1877.

Luck's Block, on Church Street, was destroyed by fire Jan. 13, 1876; loss, twenty thousand dollars. Five build- ings were burned on South Market Street January 21st ; loss, eighty thousand dollars. Mr. A. H. Hicks, the oldest queensware merchant in the city, and for more than forty years librarian or treasurer of the First Baptist Church Sunday-school, died March 5th. The heaviest snow-storm that had been known here for thirty years occurred on the 19th of March. A convention of colored people to benefit the race was held in the Capitol, April 5th. On the 26th May the Jewish temple on South Vine Street was dedicated. A grand tobacco fair was opened on the 13th of June.

The National Centennial was celebrated with great éclat, by ringing of bells and other demonstrations of joy. All busi-

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ness was suspended. The post band was at the Capitol be- fore five o'clock, where five thousand people were assembled. The exercises of the Historical Society of Tennessee were exceedingly interesting. Prof. Thomas H. Huxley, the great English scientist, was here in the early part of Sep- tember, visiting relatives. Isaac l'aul, Esq., one of the oldest and most benevolent citizens, died October 21st, aged seventy-two years. The first grain-elevator was finished October 29th, by O. F. Noel & Co. Another was com- pleted and put to work in 1877, with improved machinery, by Holding, Wilkes & Hancock. Seven and a half inches. of snow fell during Christmas week, followed by very cold weather.

A balloon ascension by Prof. Samuel A. King and Dr. A. C. Ford was successfully made on the 3d of April, 1877. On the 18th of June the mammoth balloon " Buf- falo," the largest in the United States, went up with Prof. King, Dr. Ford, J. B. Lillard, D. R. Dorris, and J. M. Andrews in the basket. They landed in Gallatin, and the next morning Prof. King and Dr. Ford ascended again and were above the earth nearly all day, landing in Wilson County. They returned to Nashville next day. On the 7th of May the corner-stone of the new McKendree church was laid by the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, with appropriate ceremonies, in the presence of a large assemblage of interested spectators. On the 26th of June the Merchants' Exchange was reorganized and opened for business.

On the 29th of August the twenty-sixth annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence opened their sessions in the Capitol. The history of their acts and doings, the cordiality of their reception, the dinings and the excursions are too fresh and familiar to require notice ; besides, want of space prevents any proper reference to this meeting of the scientific and educational lights of the country. It would require several pages to do justice to the subject.

The annual meeting of the chiefs of the fire department of different cities of the United States assembled on the 4th of September. They were also elegantly entertained, and the citizens made it a visit to be remembered. The city department has four steam fire-engines and as many hose-carts, one hook-and-ladder truck, with horses and all necessary appliances, including seven thousand feet of hose. Capt. William Stockwell is chief, and has been since the summer of 1869. Forty men are constantly on duty to manage the four fire companies in different parts of the city and the hook-and-ladder company. Hall's telegraph- alarm has twenty miles of wire on poles, divided into four districts, united by an automatic repeater. Connected . with the wire are forty alarm-boxes, nine gongs, and three large bell-strikers. The fire-alarm telegraph went into oper- ation on the 30th of January, 1875; cost, twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars. The cost of the depart- ment is about thirty-five thousand dollars per annum.

The city government consists of a mayor, fifteen aldermen, thirty councilmen, and the necessary public officers to carry on the business of the municipality, including thirty-nine policemen. The city is composed of fifteen wards. There are two telegraph companies, two daily newspapers, two tri-

weeklies, eight weeklies, seven monthlies, and two quarter- lies.

Nashville has at this time 44 churches, as follows : Methodist, white 10, colored 3; Baptist, white 5, colored 3 (1 of which has 1600 members) ; Presbyterian, white 5; Episcopal, white 6; Christian, white 3, colored 1 ; Cumber- land Presbyterian, white 2; Hebrew, white 1; Lutheran, white 1; Congregational, colored 1; Catholic, white 3. It is a busy, compact metropolis of nearly sixty thousand in- habitants, including the late annexations. It has six lines of railroads, with arms reaching in all directions, with its steamboat lines, its street-car lines, transfer lines, fast freight and express companies. The city has eight banks, con- trolling millions of capital, and numerous companies for the insurance of life and property. The number of its com- mercial firms will exceed fifteen hundred ; the number of its manufactories will reach two hundred ; its annual busi- ness will probably exceed sixty millions of dollars. Now it has more than thirty hotels and restaurants, and more than thirty newspapers and publications ; has its theatres and libraries ; its splendid and costly railroad and supension - bridges ; superb and elegant business blocks by the score, and so many palatial residences and neat, attractive cottages they can only be numbered by hundreds. It has seven universities and colleges, embracing six normal and liter- ary schools, four schools of medicine, four of theology, two of pharmacy, two of dentistry, one of law, and one of civil engineering. It has twelve public schools of the highest character and completeness, and affords free education to more than twelve thousand children, besides numerous pri- vate schools and seminaries, the equal of any in America. It has its public libraries, musical conservatories, and galleries of art, public and private, together with numerous asylums, hospitals, and eleemosynary institutions, and an aggregate value of real estate of at least twenty-five millions of dollars.

The first experiment with a telephone in Nashville was made at noon on the 1st of September by Professor Ni- pher, of St. Louis, and Professor Lovewell, of Wisconsin. The experiment was made by connecting the residences of Mrs. Ex-President Polk and Mr. A. G. Adams, on Vine Street, the battery being at the house of the latter. It was entirely successful. The professors were in attendance on the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

TRANSPORTATION.

Goods were hauled to Nashville in wagons from Balti- more from 1790 to 1810, when keel-boats were brought into use as a means of transportation. The price for haul- ing was ten dollars per hundred pounds. The wagons were drawn by six-horse teams, and the load would weigh about eight thousand pounds. Many of them going to Balti- more would take cotton at five dollars per hundred pounds. Keel-boats brought goods from Pittsburgh at five dollars per hundred. Wagons took the goods to Pittsburgh from Bal- timore and Philadelphia ; and hauling goods by wagons continued for many years.

Salt was brought from King's Salt-Works, in Western Virginia, down the Holston and Tennessee Rivers to the mouth of the Tennessee, and thence up the Cumberland to

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

Nashville. The Kings and McCalls, who operated the ex- tensive salt-works, were Nashville men.

James Stewart and Capt. James Gordon brought the first barge from New Orleans, laden with sugar, coffee, and other groceries, in 1806 or 1807. Afterwards, Stump, Raper & Turner ran a barge to the Crescent City. Then Richard H. Bary made the trip in sixty days, which caused great rejoicing, as it had before taken ninety days to make the trip. The whole town turned out to see a barge come into port.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 53

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