History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 92

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 92

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).

Ed. M. Main is the superintendent.

Confederate Cemetery :- In 1869 the Ladies' Memorial Society of Nashville purchased a burial-ground in the centre of Mount Olivet Cemetery for the Confederate soldiers who fell -in the battles about Nashville. It occu- pies a pretty hillock, with a natural slope on every side. The design is artistic. In the centre, or crest, is a monu- mental circle, sixteen feet square, reserved for an obelisk. Thirteen rows of graves encircle this square, with four avenues from the centre, leading out north, south, east, and west. The grave-rows are short in the centre and increase in length towards the outer edge of the circle. The first six inner rows contain remains of soldiers from other States; in the seventh row begin graves of the " Unknown," while the outer rows contain the bodies of fallen Tennesseeans. About fourteen hundred bodies are interred there.

Old Catholic Cemetery .- The old Catholic Cemetery is in the southern portion of the city, on a portion of St. Cloud Hill. The cemetery is about six acres in extent, but is almost filled up,-virtually has been closed.

Mount Calvary Cemetery .- Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery is two miles from the city, immediately north of and adjoining Mount Olivet. It comprises a beautiful tract of fifty acres, purchased in 1868 for fifteen thousand dollars. Since then it has been greatly improved, and is now exceedingly attractive. It is under the management of a supervising committee from the cathedral congrega- tion, of which the bishop and the pastor of the church are ex-officio members.

Mount Ararat ( Colored) Cemetery is located two miles out on the Murfreesboro' pike. It was opened in 1869 by an association of colored citizens, governed by a board of trustees. The cemetery has ten acres, and cost two thou- sand five hundred and fifty dollars.

The Hebrew Cemetery is two miles north of the city, in the vicinity of St. Cecilia Academy. It is about two acres in extent.

EDGEFIELD.

District No. 17, which lately contained the city of Edge- field, was formed from the old Eighteenth District in 1859.

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HON. CLEMENT WOODSON NANCE.

HIon. Clement Woodson Nance, third son of William H. and Elizabeth V. Nance, was born March 26, 1811, in Davidson Co., Tenn. His parents were natives of Virginia, settling in Davidson in 1808, where they engaged in farming. Their children were Mary Ann, Josiah C., Martin F., Samuel V., Susan M., Clement W., Eliza- beth V., William L., America, Frederick, Sicily, and Antoinette.

William H. Nance was magistrate and chairman of the County Court in Nashville for many years ; was a prominent member of the Primitive Baptist Church, and died at the age of fifty-eight.

The boyhood and youth of C. W. Nance were spent on the farm, attending common school in winter, until he reached the age of nine- teen, when he went to live with Dr. Win. McGee to study mathematics, and, at the doctor's suggestion, he taught a sort of select school. The next year he taught in Arrington Academy as principal. The fol- lowing two years he spent at Nashville University, devoting himself to the higher mathematics and study of the classics. Returning, for the next two years he conducted the Arrington Academy, and then accepted the position of surveyor of public lands in the Chickasaw nation. At the end of one and one-half years he returned to Tennes- see, and took charge of a school in the Eighth District of Davidson County, near Sulphur Springs, and the next year a position in the Robertson Academy was tendered him, which he accepted.

In 1836 he was married to Ann D., daughter of Henry Avent, of Huntsville, Ala. Their children have been Lucilla, Narcissa, Ann Adelia, Montgomery B., Mary, and William H.

Clement W. Nance, after his marriage, bought him a home of one hundred and thirty acres in Rutherford County, and built an academy thereon, calling it the Amonian Grove Academy. This academy he conducted for four years, it becoming, under Mr. Nance's management, one of the most prosperous schools in Tennessee. During the first year of his management of this school he accepted the position, as civil engineer, to survey and report to the Legislature of Tennessee & route for a great central turnpike or railroad from the Mississippi River to the Virginia line, at a point where the city of Briston now stands. Leaving his school in competent hands, he entered upon his arduous task, which, to those acquainted with the man, it will be superfluous to add, he accomplished to the entire satisfaction of all interested.

In 1841, Mr. Nance sold his academy to Dr. John W. Richardson, and commenced the life of a farmer and tanner on property purchased in his native county on Mill Creek. Here he was elected justice of the peace, and soon after appointed by the County Court as one of the three justices to hold " Quorum Court." In 1849 he was elected to the Legislature, and served one term. About this time he engaged with James Matlock in the grocery business on Market Street, con-

tinuing two years. Two charters having been granted to rival com- panies for a railroad from Nashville to Franklin, the first company filing a survey to have the right of way, the survey of one of the companies was entrusted to Mr. Nance, who secured right of way for his employers by filing the first survey.

Between the years 1840 and 1860, Mr. Nance was frequently em- ployed in surveying the different turnpikes leading from Nashville: made estimates on their costs, and superintended the construction of the White's Creek, Louisville Branch or Dickinson, Brick Church, Middle Franklin or Granny White, Richland or Harding, Hills- borough, and others. In 1852 he built, in company with his son-in- law, Woodward, and James Bergan, the first two miles of the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad from Nashville.

About this time the first steps were taken in the organization of Mount Olivet Cemetery Corporation. In 1855, Mr. Nance engaged in the real-estate business in Nashville, in company with his son-in- law, Mr. Woodward, which they conducted until the breaking out of the war. In 1860, Mr. Nance, in company with four other gentlemen, bought the Beuna Vista turnpike and ferry, and in a few years Mr. Nance, by purchase, became sole owner, paying therefor thirteen thousand dollars. During the same year the White's Creek turnpike was sold at public sale to C. W. Nance and E. H. Childress, the latter, at the close of the war, selling to Chadwell, whose interest Mr. Nance bought, and became sole owner of the road.

At the breaking out of the war Mr. Nance moved from Nashville to the north side of the Cumberland River, on the Buena Vista turnpike. He had opposed secession in every way, feeling that it would ruin the country, and made at every opportunity speeches in favor of union. At the close of the war he turned his attention to the repair of his turnpikes. This occupied him till 1869, and cost him nearly thirty thousand dollars, the roads, however, earning during that time about twenty-five thousand dollars. From the beginning of 1870 to the close of 1877 considerable trouble was made by persons who cheerfully allowed Mr. Nance to proceed so long as they thought his investments in these turnpikes would be of no profit to him ; but when it became apparent that they were a good investment and likely to prove reason- ably profitable, it caused them much uneasiness. Many suits were instituted with a view to compel Mr. Nance to abandon the enter- prise of restoring these roads, and, of course, losing his investment. These suits were almost invariably decided in Mr. Nance's favor. Throughout this trying time Mr. Nance's course was most pacific, though firm; notwithstanding he was made the recipient of the grossest abuse, he never allowed himself to return it, seeking only to know and to do his duty to all, without offense to any.

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MRS. B. F. WOODWARD.

B. F. WOODWARD.

B. F. Woodward was born March 2, 1826, in that part of Davidson which is now Cheatham County.

His father was born in Virginia, near Petersburg, married early in life Miss Susan Epps, and removed in 1804 to Davidson Co., Tenn., where their five children were born. He followed the vocation of farming, and was known far and near as a most thrifty husbandman.

He married for his second wife Hannah Bur- nett, of Davidson County. Their children were fifteen in number, B. F. being the fourth child of this union. Thirteen of these children reached maturity.

B. F. Woodward was reared a farmer, but at the

age of eighteen he was apprenticed to a tanner and became master of that branch of industry. In 1852 he embarked in the boot-and-shoe trade. He and his father-in-law, Mr. C. W. Nance, built three miles of the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad. Mr. Woodward afterwards became surveyor of land, and was county surveyor for four years. Jan. 16, 1872, he was elected superintendent of Mount Olivet Cemetery.

April 16, 1851, he was married to Miss Lucilla S., daughter of Hon. C. W. Nance. Their children have been fourteen in number, nine of whom are living,-viz., Benjamin C., Eugenia E., John O., Lucilla S., Robert E. Lee, Lizzie H., Walter B., Charles W., and Katie.

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

Its boundary-line, as first established in that year, began " on the Cumberland River where the late John P. Shelby's and N. Hobson's lands come to that river, and thence north with the line of these lands to the line of W. Finn and W. M. Cook ; thence west to White's Creek turnpike; thence with that road to the Brick Church turnpike, and with the same to Page's Branch ; thence down Page's Branch to Cumberland River; and thence up that river to the place of beginning." The polling-place for elections in the district was ordered at Davidson's store.

As most of this district subsequently became the city of Edgefield, and remained under that corporate name till its annexation to Nashville in February, 1880, it will be proper to give a brief history of the rise and progress of that city.

The original village or settlement was located on lands belonging to the farm of Dr. John Shelby, who was one of the early settlers; and this chapter will be read by many whose boyhood days were spent in hunting in the woods which then covered the land on which we now find palatial residences.

In the olden time the old Shelby mansion stood where McClure's Hall now stands, on Woodland Street, and which was standing there in 1855, but was torn down about that time, and many of the identical brick of the old house are now in the residence of Gen. George J. Stubblefield, on the corner of Minnick and Russell Streets. On the 16th day of May, 1843, Dr. Shelby made a deed of trust for the benefit of the old Planters' Bank of Tennessee, and William L. Foster was made the trustee. This deed cov- ered six hundred and ninety-nine acres, and began at a point opposite the water-works in this city. The deed also em- braced a number of negroes, horses, and some personal property, and also some real estate in the city of Nashville, all of which was to secure the sum of sixty-four thousand three hundred and ninety-six dollars and ninety-four cents.

In 1852 the land lying between Fatherland Street and Shelby Avenue, and running east and west from Barrow to Oak Street, was laid off into fifty lots, and the large tract of ground between Fatherland Street and the Gallatin Pike, from the river to Oak Street, had not even been laid out in lots, and about the only house in that whole tract was Dr. Shelby's home place, that embraced the entire ground lying between Embankment Street and Oak Street, and between Fatherland Street and the Gallatin Pike; and at that time Russell Houston, Dr. Buchanan, F. K. Zolli- coffer, and Mr. Rockway owned nearly all the land from Oak to Minnick Street.

It was in November or December, 1854, that Mr. A. V. S. Lindsley, then and now a prominent real-estate agent, had a public sale of the lots which had been laid out by Dr. Shelby, and in a sale lasting two days Mr. Lindsley sold about eighty thousand dollars' worth of real estate, some of the lots selling for as much as thirty dollars per foot, while the average price was about ten dollars per foot. It must be borne in mind that long prior to this sale Dr. Shelby had paid the debt of sixty-four thousand three hundred and ninety-six dollars and ninety-four cents included in the deed of trust made to the Planters' Bank in 1843,

The following communication from ex-Governor Neill S. Brown to the editor of the Nashville Banner shows how Edgefield obtained its name :

" TO THE EDITOR OF THE BANNER :

" In the fall of 1848, when I first purchased and settled on the place I now occupy, there were but two houses be- tween me and the river south of Main Street,-one the residence of Mrs. Minnick, where Mr. Sheppard now lives, and the other the residence of Dr. Shelby. On the north side of Main Street the old Nichols house stood solitary and alone, and it is still there, after all these generations. On the south side there was an unbroken forest of stately poplars and elms, still standing as they had stood in the days of the early settlements, and stretching on down to the borders of the river. North of me were the residences and settlements of Dr. McFerrin and John McGavock, separated, however, and obscured by a dense forest on my own place, but which, alas! has disappeared under the rav- ages of war. Beyond the premises of McFerrin and Mc- Gavock was a beautiful woods, forming a graceful crescent or circle. The whole settlement, as it was then, formed one of the most beautiful pictures I ever beheld. Art had done but little, but nature had done her utmost, and made it a most charming retreat. It was, in fact, a ' lovely vil- lage of the plain.'

"Some short time after I settled there, I met one day casually, at my spring, several of my neighbors. Among them I can recall Dr. Pitts, Gen. Clements, and Mr. Hob- son. Some one, I think Dr. Pitts, raised the question of selecting a name for our village, for it was then bearing an appellation not very complimentary to its dignity. I was called upon first. Looking over the scenery in view, and observing the graceful curve of the woods around the dis- tant fields, I was struck with the name of ' Edgefield,' and it was unanimously adopted. This name has come on down to the present day, and will probably continue through the indefinite future.

" The physical features of our town have undergone a change since that day equal to that wrought by the hand of art. Houses and streets have usurped the place of com- mons and paths. A busy hive has occupied a solitude. Then I knew every inhabitant of the village. Now I do not know the fourth of them. Long may it live, and flourish, and prosper !

" NEILL S. BROWN."

WETMORE'S ADDITION.

What was then known as North or Lower Edgefield was laid off into lots by the Union Bank of Tennessee in 1846, and about January, 1847, M. W. Wetmore purchased from the Union Bank one hundred and forty-three acres, and proceeded to put it on the market, and commenced sell- ing lots there in the fall of 1847. About the first purchase was that made by D. B. Hicks, who bought in October, 1847, four and one-half acres on Spring Street, for two hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, on one, two, three, and four years' time, and he may be said to have been the pioneer settler. We state these facts to show the difference between the price of real estate then and now.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

SUSPENSION-BRIDGE.

This magnificent structure was built in 1850. It was seven hundred feet long, and was one hundred and ten feet above low-water mark. The architect was the late Col. A. Heiman. The contractor was M. D. Field, who was a brother of Cyrus W. Field, of Atlantic Cable fame. The bridge was destroyed by the Confederate troops Jan. 18, 1862, and was rebuilt in 1866. The building of this bridge gave an impetus to the growth of Edgefield, making desirable a large body of land which was not so well reached by the old bridge, which crossed at the Gallatin pike.

The Nashville Banner of Nov. 13, 1852, contained the following advertisement, which we reprint, as showing the connection between the building of the suspension-bridge and the sale of lots.

"BUILDING LOTS FOR SALE.

"There are still several beautiful building sites unsold on the north side of the river, in the neighborhood of lots purchased by Messrs. Houston, Buchanan, Ramsey, Campbell, Plater, Bang, Zollicoffer, Morrow, Hutchinson, McEwen, McDonald and others. The street leading to Fatherland Street, from the embankment of the wire bridge, shall be raised above high-water mark by the last of Novem- ber next.

"WASHINGTON BARROW."

Edgefield, being beautifully situated opposite Nashville, upon a drift or glacial soil, with pure water and healthy country air, and united to the former by a fine wire bridge spanning the Cumberland, naturally invited settlers and drew many of the business men and well-to-do families of Nashville to establish their homes there. . Tradesmen, gro- cers, retail dealers, and manufacturers settled in the place, schools sprang up, and churches were built. Thus Edgefield became in a few years a beautiful, thriving, busy suburban hamlet, with a rapidly-increasing population, with the vari- ous institutions which constitute a refined and well-ordered community, and with her proportion of intelligent progres- sive and professional men. The history of her churches and schools is given under the general heads of ecclesiasti- cal and educational matters in another place.

INCORPORATION OF EDGEFIELD.

On the 2d day of January, 1869, in pursuance of a pe- tition from citizens residing in what was then known as the Seventeenth Civil District of Davidson County, and the order of the County Court of said county, made upon the presentation thereto of said petition, an election was held within the boundaries prescribed by said petition and order, and the corporation of Edgefield inaugurated by the elec- tion of W. A. Glenn, Frank Sharp, J. S. Woodford, G. J. Stubblefield, Harvey Campbell, A. G. Sanford, and Joseph C. Guild as aldermen, who met on the 6th of January, 1869, and organized by electing W. A. Glenn mayor, and James T. Bell recorder.

We give the following list of mayors and recorders down to the date of annexation of Edgefield to the city of Nash- ville :

Mayors .- Hon. W. A. Glenn, 1869; Hon. Jackson B. White, 1870; Hon. W. A. Glenn, 1871; Hon. W. P. Marks, 1872; Hon. W. A. Glenn, 1873; Hon. J. N. Brooks, 1874-75; Hon. Albert S. Williams, 1876-77 ; Hon. Samuel M. Wene, 1878-80,

Recorders .- James T. Bell, 1869-75 ; W. M. Brown, 1875-76 ; Jobn L. Stubblefield, 1877-80.

STREET RAILROADS.

The Edgefield Street Railroad Company was organized Oct. 1, 1871. In November, 1871, the company commenced the construction of the road, and put the first car on the track Jan. 23, 1872. It was in January, 1872, that the company made the celebrated raid on the Bridge Company, and laid their track on the bridge embankment. On the first day of May, 1872, the first car was driven across the suspen- sion-bridge, the cars having previously run to the northern end of the bridge. Nothing that has ever started in Edge- field has done so much to develop the town as this road, which is a great public benefit. It is the first road run- ning into Nashville that adopted and maintained the five- cent fare. The track is about oue and a half miles in length, with three switches, and they run four cars, one leaving the terminus every fifteen minutes.

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The North Edgefield and Nashville Street Railroad Com- pany was organized in the fall of 1879. J. W. McFerrin is president, and Albert S. Williams secretary.

Edgefield made rapid strides in manufactures, and now has in operation a bucket-factory, a box-factory, a furniture- manufactory, a pump-factory, a saddle-tree manufactory, and three saw- and planing-mills. The late city contains the round-house and two shops of the Louisville and Nash- ville and Great Southern Railroad.

ANNEXATION TO NASHVILLE.

An act authorizing the citizens to vote on the question of annexation passed the Legislature Dec. 23, 1879. The vote was taken Feb. 6, 1880, resulting as follows: For annexation, 498; against, 482; majority in favor, 16.

Edgefield, as an incorporated city, contained six wards ; after the annexation it was divided into three wards, now known as the 11th, 12th, and 13th wards of the city of Nashville.

NASHVILLE CENTENNIAL.

THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY of the settle- ment of the City of Nashville was celebrated in this city from April 23d to May 29, 1880, inclusive, and was in every respect a grand success. It was inaugurated and carried out under the auspices of the Tennessee Historical Society, whose first meeting to discuss and arrange the pre- liminaries was held April 24, 1878. From that date for- ward till the close of the brilliant and successful undertak- ing, the society, the commissioners appointed by the citi- zens, and the various committees were busily at work or- ganizing and preparing for the celebration.

The officers of the Nashville Centennial Commission were as follows : Dr. T. A. Atchison, President; S. Y. Caldwell, Recording Secretary ; R. A. Campbell, Corres- ponding Secretary; William M. Duncan, Treasurer; The- odore Cooley, Assistant Treasurer. The Board of Direct- ors-each director being chairman of a sub-committee- was as follows : Dr. J. B. Lindsley, Capt. William Stock- ell, Hon. M. B. Howell, Dr. George S. Blackie, J. L. Weakley, Esq., A. G. Adams, Esq., Col. J. P. McGuire,

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

Anson Nelson, Esq., Hon. T. A. Kercheval, Hon. Pitkin C. Wright, Gen. John F. Wheless, Gen. B. F. Cheatham, S. Y. Caldwell, Esq., Dr. J. H. Curry, Hon. J. C. Guild, Gen. Gates P. Thruston, and Mrs. C. W. Cole.

The officers of the Exposition Board were as follows: William Stockell, Chairman; M. B. Howell, Assistant Chairman ; R. A. Campbell, Secretary ; Dr. G. S. Blackie, Corresponding Secretary ; J. L. Weakley, Treasurer. The chairmen of the various Exposition Committees were : Wil- bur F. Foster, Dr. J. M. Safford, B. J. McCarthy, H. E. Jones, R. A. Campbell, James A. Thomas, Theodore Coo- ley, W. J. Johnson, D. C. Scales, M. B. Howell, D. F. Wilkin, B. G. Wood, William Porter, J. H. Wilkes, and James S. Ross.

The more important features of the celebration were the grand centennial procession, Saturday, April 24, 1880 ; the oration at the Capitol, May 20th ; the grand military dis- play and competitive drill for the week commencing May 17th, in which two thousand dollars in cash premiums were awarded to the best drilled companies. The imposing na- tional feature of the celebration was the unveiling of the equestrian statue of Gen. Andrew Jackson, Thursday, May 20, 1880. There were other salient features, such as his- torical addresses, discourses on education, etc., delivered from time to time during the continuance of the celebra- tion, and a grand display of fire-works surpassing anything of the kind ever before witnessed in the South. Notwith- standing the large admission fee charged on the occasion, more than four thousand people gathered in the inclosure of Gen. Peter Tracy, between Vine and Spruce Streets, to witness the display, which was furnished by Professor Jackson, of Philadelphia. The programme printed below was entirely and successfully carried out.

PROGRAMME.

1. Flight of rockets, with crimson, emerald, sapphire, gold and silver stars, rain and serpents.

2. Brilliant illumination with colored fires.

3. Star of Nashville, decorated with the national colors, red, white, and blue; in the centre a superb crimson and emerald scroll.

4. Discharge of a bomb of a thousand stars, making an immense shower of silver.

5. Enchanted ring, or serpents' dance, commencing with revolving fires of ruby, amethyst, emerald, and jessamine, encircling a silver serpent-dance.

6. Twin asteroids, reaching a great altitude, and floating away in the heavens, changing colors in their course.

7. Liberty tree, beginning with a mutating centre of car- mine, purple, and gold, suddenly developing into a magnifi- cent tree of golden foliage.

8. A huge shell bursting into a shower of molten gold.

9. Star of Washington, opening with a revolving centre of Chinese and jessamine fires, illuminated with ruby and emerald, and changing to a brilliant flaming star.

10. Flight of balloon rockets, carrying stars, changing from emerald and ruby to amethyst and gold.

11. Pyric gem, with a centre of carmine and emerald, transforming to a beautiful gem studded with rubies and diamonds.

12. A variegated bomb, bursting in the heavens and forming a great cloud of red, white, and blue stars.

13. Bouquet. This beautiful figure started with a moss rose, and, after many pleasing changes, suddenly unfolded into a bouquet of Flora's choicest treasures.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 92

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