USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 63
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Dr. Buist's grandfather, Rev. George Buist, D.D., a native Scotch- man, graduated from the University of Edinburgh, and was sent to Charleston, S. C., in 1792 to fill the Scotch Presbyterian Church at that place, and was its pastor up to the time of his death in 1808. He left four sons, all of whom became eminent in professional life. Dr. Buist's mother, Miss Margaret Robinson, born in Charleston, S. C., was, on her father's side, Scotch-Irish, and on her mother's side of French-Huguenot extraction. She died in 1849, leaving two children, John R. Buist, sub- ject of this sketch, and Edward S. Buist. The latter was a physician, entered the Confederate army as surgeon, and was killed while operat- ing on a Confederate soldier at the bombardment of Fort Walker on Hil- ton Head.
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The subject of this sketch, having completed his academic studies, en- tered South Carolina College, where he graduated in 1854. After study- ing medicine two years at the Charleston Medical College, he entered the Medical Department of the University of New York, whence he gradu- ated in March, 1857. He then served as interne fifteen months in Belle- vue Hospital, New York, and afterward attended medical lectures in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, during the winter of 1858-59. In the latter year he went to Paris and was a student under the celebrated Trousseau, Nelaton, and other distinguished professors. In January, 1860, he settled in Nashville and began the practice of medicine. In May, 1861, he was appointed assistant surgeon of the First Tennessee Regiment, but was promoted surgeon, in May, 1862, and assigned to the Fourteenth Regiment; and soon afterward made brigade surgeon, and transferred to General George Maney's Brigade, under General Bragg, with which he remained during the war. Dr. Buist's services were very arduous and valuable during the entire period of the war. Returning to Nash- ville after the final surrender, he formed a partnership with R. C. Foster, M.D., and practiced with him one year, when he formed a partnership with Dr. John H. Callender, which continued until Dr. Callender was appointed Superintendent of the Tennessee Hospital for the Insane in 1869. Since that date Dr. Buist has practiced alone, giving his undivid- ed attention to private practice, except when he was engaged in the san- itary affairs of the city. He was a member of the city Board of Health from its foundation in 1874 until 1880, and was at times both Secretary and President of the board.
He was Professor of Oral Surgery for three successive sessions from 1878 to 1883 in the Dental Department of Vanderbilt University, retiring on account of the arduous duties of his private practice. Early in 1885, realizing that his health was failing, Dr. Buist retired from practice and settled on a farm in Maury County, where he remained three years, when, with restored health, he returned to Nashville and resumed his practice.
Financially Dr. Buist, after losing his all in the war, has accumulated a comfortable competency. His success in life, in point of character and usefulness, he has been heard to say is due to his father, who, hav- ing profound views on the subject of education, considered the style of education then existing in both schools and colleges as failures in the main. Instructing his children himself at home, with the aid of books, he imparted to them what he thought much more important information than any thing contained in books. He taught them that the object of in ellectual culture was to think for themselves; to recognize and hold
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to the truth; that virtue and religion are one; and that without these no education was complete.
Dr. Buist married in Nashville, July 3, 1876, Miss Laura Woodfolk, a great beauty and reigning belle. She was the daughter of General W. W. Woodfolk, who was of a leading North Carolina family. Her father was a member of the Legislature from Jackson County, served on Gov- ernor Carroll's staff, was a man of fine ability, and acquired a large fort- une, being one of the richest men in Tennessee when the war broke. out. Mrs. Buist's mother, nee Ellen Horton, was a daughter of Joseph W. Horton, Sheriff, County Clerk, and otherwise prominent in the early history of Davidson County. She was educated at the famous Nashville Female Academy, under Rev. C. D. Elliott. By this marriage Dr. Buist has one child, a son, William Edward Buist, born December 27, 1871. Mrs. Buist died March 5, 1890.
JOHN C. BURCH was a son of Morton N. Burch, of Hancock County, Ga., and Mary (Ballard) Burch, a native of Jefferson County, Ga. He was born in Jefferson County in 1827. His father occupied a high social position, and was several times a member of both houses of the Georgia Legislature. Colonel Burch entered Yale College in 1843, and graduated with honor in 1847, in a large class in which there were many men since eminent-among them B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri. After graduating he studied law, and practiced for three years in Georgia, moving to Chat- tanooga in 1852. He was elected to the lower house of the Tennessee Legislature in 1855, and in 1857 to the Senate. Colonel Burch won a. high place in the regard of his own (the Democratic) party, and in the respect and esteem of his opponents during his legislative career. That was a day of great issues and close divisions and thorough sifting of pub- lic questions, a day when the best mettle of Tennessee was found in the Legislature. The period from 1850 to 1860 was Tennessee's best legis- lative era. In the time with the " Native American" question uppermost, and the great questions of internal improvements and bank policy, Colonel Burch made so much reputation that he was elected Speaker of the Senate, notwithstanding his age and little experience. Cool, collect- ed, and always prompt, affable, and unfailingly just, he discharged the duties of the office so well that in a body where a very fierce political de- bate occupied many days of the session, no appeal was ever taken from one of his decisions-a fact to which his political opponents bore willing testimony, in complimenting his justice, impartiality, and knowledge of parliamentary law. Colonel Burch was justly regarded as the best par- liamentarian in the State, a qualification which often stood him in good stead in the Senate as its Secretary.
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In 1859 Colonel Burch became editor of the Union and American, a position which he filled with signal ability during the stormy canvass of ยท1860, always being warmly Southern in his views, and with the advanced thought of the South. When the war came he entered the service, and served faithfully and gallantly during the war on the staff of General Pil- low, and subsequently on that of General Forrest and of General With- ers. He renewed the practice of the law in Nashville at the close of the war, and was attaining high rank at the bar when the journalistic instinct tempted him again to that labor for which he was so well fitted, purchas- ing a controlling interest in the Union and American in 1869, where he labored as managing editor and chief writer, as well as taking a close in- terest in the business management, performing an immense amount of work, and keeping up at the same time his political acquaintance in the State. In 1873 he was appointed Comptroller of the State at a very im- portant time; and it is conceded by political friend and foe that he dis- charged his duties with great ability, rigid integrity, and perfect justice and impartiality. In March, 1879, Colonel Burch was elected to the po- sition of Secretary of the United States Senate, and soon won the esteem and good-will of the Senators of all parties, for his close attention to busi- ness and his thorough fitness for the position.
As a lawyer, politician, and journalist Colonel Burch had been before the public for nearly thirty years. He was able, prudent, and cautious ; a man of thorough culture, of capacity to fill any position, of thorough integrity and manly character, of a vast fund of information, and of calm and courtly manners. His calmness and reserve, which were at first caused probably by a keen sensitiveness, and which had become a sec- ond nature, caused many to regard him as a cold man. But no man had a kindlier nature, a readier sympathy, or held to a friend or an obligation with a firmer grasp. No man was ever more unostentatious in his deeds. No man was gentler or more gentlemanly to dependents and to those of a different social scale.
As a writer he was vigorous and incisive, never descending to any thing low or unmanly, even in the most heated canvass. He wrote with ease and good taste. His style was pure English, simple and unaffected-sel- dom ornate, but always attractive. He possessed rare discrimination as to the value of silence; he was seldom tempted to go beyond what was nec- essary, or to overload his subject. He was an able and eloquent speak- er, and when he entered a canvass his calmness, self-poise, and self- command made him a formidable opponent. He had labored long and patiently through all the hardships of a political and journalistic career, patiently enduring the evil and enjoying the good, winning the confidence
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of all who knew him and the affectionate regard of those who knew him best; and he had just begun to pluck the fruits of his labors in the suc- cess of a journal he did so much to establish, in the enjoyment of a high place, and in the field which was opening up before him, when he was cut down in the fullness of his life, in the period of his vigor, leaving the wife and children he had so tenderly loved.
Colonel Burch, while practicing law in Chattanooga, was married to Miss Lucy Newell, a most amiable and estimable lady, and at the time of their marriage a noted belle. To them were born eight children, the eld- est and fourth dying in infancy. The others survive. Katharine N. is married to Leslie Warner, Esq., a prominent iron manufacturer. Mary Ballard is married to Charles Schiff, President of the Queen and Cres- cent system of railways. John C. is Secretary and Treasurer of the Her- ald Publishing Company, and, in connection with George H. Armistead, owns and controls the Herald newspaper of this city. Charles N. is an attorney connected with the firm of Demoss & Malone. Robert Lee is a student at Vanderbilt University ; and Lucius, the youngest, is at school. The four boys reside with their mother on West Broad Street, and there is not a happier and brighter home in the city of Nashville.
MICHAEL BURNS was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1813. His father and mother-Patrick and Catharine (Clark ) Burns-were both na- tives of Ireland. They were in good circumstances, and his father held some of the most important offices in the county. Patrick Burns and his ancestors for several generations had been agents, collectors of the rent. of the Fox estates in Ireland. Mrs. Burns's relatives also held positions. of great responsibility. Patrick Burns died in 1822, and Mrs. Burns in 1828, thus leaving young Michael an orphan at the age of fifteen. He had excellent educational advantages in Ireland, attending school there ten years, and became a fair English scholar. At an early age he was apprenticed to the saddler's trade in Sligo, emigrated to Quebec, Canada, in 1831, and came to Nashville in 1836; and was engaged from that time until the breaking out of the war in the saddlery, saddlery hardware, and leather business.
On November 29, 1853, Mr. Burns was elected Director in the Nash- ville and North-western Railroad Company; and Vice-president, on October 27, 1861. In 1864 he was elected President, serving until Au- gust 10, 1868. He was also President of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company. He was a Director in the Bank of Tennessee, and from 1859 to 1865 a Director in the Union Bank of Tennessee. In 1870 he was elected President of the First National Bank of Nashville. Since 1878 he has been a Director in the Third National Bank and in the Amer-
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ican National Bank of Nashville. For more than twenty years he was a. Director of the Nashville Commercial Insurance Company. He has. been connected with banks as Director and President for thirty-five years.
In addition to the offices he has held in connection with railroads, Mr. Burns was elected to the State Senate from Davidson County in 1887. During his first term in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Banking and a member of the Committee on Ways and Means. While occupying his seat in the Senate he always manifested the same independ- ence in the expression of his sentiments and convictions that has charac- terized him as a private individual. He was elected again to the Senate of Davidson County in 1889, for the regular term of two years.
During and since the war Mr. Burns had great influence with the na- tional administration in shaping its course with regard to matters in Ten- nessee. He was on intimate terms with President Lincoln, and a great favorite of his. He was also on intimate and friendly terms with Andrew Johnson, while he was Governor, and afterward when he became Presi- dent. While Mr. Burns was not an active participant in the rebellion, yet, his home and family being here, he gave it his sympathy, and there was a battery of artillery in the Confederate army named after him-the " Burns Artillery." When the Federal army arrived he showed its au- thorities friendship, and he had the confidence of the authorities on both sides to the conflict.
The following letter, besides showing the intimate relations existing be- tween Mr. Burns and Governor Johnson, has an historic interest, and is hence introduced in this connection :
STATE OF TENNESSEE, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, NASHVILLE, TENN., June 14, 1864.
Dear Sir: I have the pleasure of commending to your consideration my old friend, Michael Burns, of the city of Nashville. Mr. Burns is a gentleman of high standing in the city, and of rare business qualifications. He is the President of the Nashville and Chattanooga and the North-western railroads; and by his energy, skill, and capital has contributed largely to the successful progress of the latter road, which, as you are advised, is now in running order to the Tennessee River. The government owes him much for his hearty co-operation with the Sec- retary of War and others in constructing this great military and commercial enterprise, by which we can soon be relieved of the exacting extortions of the Louisville and Nashville road; and all the troops and munitions of war can be transported over a much shorter, cheaper, and more secure, and at all seasons certain line to this point. Mr. Burns visits Washington on im- portant business, which he will lay before you, and any assistance or kindness you may be pleased to give him will be heartily appreciated and conferred upon an esteemed and worthy gentleman. I have the honor to be, with great regard, your obedient servant,
ANDREW JOHNSON.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States.
[Indorsed] Hon. Secretary of War, please see and hear the bearer, Mr. Burns.
August 3, 1864.
A. LINCOLN.
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Mr. Burns and Andrew Johnson were intimate friends for thirty years. In politics Mr. Burns has always been a Democrat; and though a Union man and opposed to the overthrow of the government of the United States, yet when the State of Tennessee seceded from the Union he ac- quiesced in that decision, believing that his allegiance was due to the au- thorities in control over him. During the war he spent much of his time in relieving the poor, and securing the release of prisoners and the stay of executions, and in procuring pardons for prisoners.
Mr. Burns never took the oath of allegiance to either Government, but was loyal to the powers in authority, whether Federal or Confederate. His policy during the war was to take care of his railroads, and in this he was very successful. During his presidency of the Nashville and Chat- tanooga Railroad Company and North-western Railroad Company he was sorely pressed, in 1866, by the officers of the government to pay in part for the material he had purchased for his road from the quartermas- ter's department, but by an appeal to President Johnson payment was postponed until a settlement could be made or time given the road to earn the money. In May, 1865, after Mr. Johnson became President, Mr. Burns secured an order from him to bring out cotton, and secured about twelve hundred and fifty bales belonging to the road. Of this he sold some in Boston, depositing some in a New York bank to pay the interest on the road's indebtedness; the remainder he sold in Liverpool, depositing the money in the Bank of the Republic, New York, to pay coupons due there, all moneys going to build the unfinished road and pay off its indebtedness.
With regard to the ability manifested by Mr. Burns while President of the North-western Railroad Company, and the rapidity with which he carried on the work of building the unfinished portion of it, the following extract is sufficiently explicit. It is from a report of the State Senate Com- mittee appointed to investigate the whole matter of the roads, and was made in 1871:
"At the time said road was turned over to Mr. Burns, in September, 1865, of the ninety-two miles west of the Tennessee River only about fifty had been constructed, and that had not been operated for years. The iron had been torn up by the United States authorities and removed from about thirty miles of the route. The embankments had washed, cuts caved in, and cross-ties rotted, as well as all bridges and trestles of every kind; and that part which was left had grown up in wild growth, so that it was as costly and difficult to rebuild that portion of the road which had been built as that which had never been touched. The com- mittee here beg leave to call attention to the economical manner in which
your friend Mark R Cockerill
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Mr. Burns, as President of said company, husbanded the small means at his disposal for the construction of said ninety-eight miles of road, to which must be added the immense bridge over the Tennessee River; and the committee deem it but just to Mr. Burns also to commend the dis- patch with which said Herculean task was accomplished. Ninety-three miles of road built in eighteen months, with the bridge over the Tennes- see River, is a feat the like of which is not often performed in building railroads, and is not only in happy contrast with the tardy progress made by his predecessors and others who have undertaken the construction of railroads; it also compares favorably with the rapidity with which the great Pacific was built."
Mr. Burns was married in Nashville March 14, 1842, to Miss Margaret Gilliam, who was born in Ireland, and was a daughter of William Gill- iam, a queen's-ware merchant who was lost in the steamer "Arctic" in 1856. To his wife Mr. Burns attributes in large degree his financial suc- cess. His partner in all his successes, the sharer of all his struggles, and the true helpmate of his life, died in Nashville September 1, 1885. At the time of her marriage she was a member of the Methodist Church ; but Mr. Burns being a Roman Catholic, she joined that Church in 1844, and died in the communion, leaving seven children whom she had reared in virtue and sobriety, from which they have not departed.
Nashville has produced no more remarkable man than MARK ROBERT- SON COCKRILL. A brief sketch of his life and character will be here given; for no history of Nashville would be complete without some no- tice of this pioneer in stock-raising and the distinguished writer and thinker on all agricultural subjects.
Mark Robertson Cockrill was born near Nashville December 2, 1788; and died June 27, 1872. His father was John Cockrill, who was one of the pioneers who came with General James Robertson from the Watauga settlement of East Tennessee to found the new town of Nashborough (now Nashville) on the bluff on the Cumberland River. John Cockrill married the sister of General Robertson, then a widow, Mrs. Ann John- son, who was one of those heroic women who performed that most ad- venturous voyage in flat-boats down the Tennessee and up the Cumber- land in 1779-80 under the leadership of Colonel John Donelson. The people of Tennessee should see to it that in future the world shall be made fully acquainted with the marvelous heroism and dauntless courage displayed by our ancestors in founding a new empire in the West as shown in this unparalleled voyage of Donelson and the devoted wives and daughters of Nashville's founders. It is as well worthy of being made the theme of the poetic muse as the voyage of the "Mayflower." 38
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The results flowing from the one may well challenge comparison with those of the other.
John Cockrill lived to see the town he had helped to found in the wil- derness grow to be a city of cultivation and refinement and wealth. He died in 1837, and lies buried beside his wife, who had died in 1821, at the family homestead near Nashville, known as Cockrill's Spring.
To John Cockrill and his wife were born eight children -- viz., John, Nancy, Stirling, James, Mark R., Susanna, Sarah, and Patsy Cockrill. Mark R. Cockrill married Miss Susan Collinsworth, a sister of John and James Collinsworth. James Collinsworth removed to Texas and became Supreme Judge of that republic under the presidency of General Sam Houston. John Collinsworth also was made Surveyor-general of Texas at the same time.
In early life Mark R. Cockrill was a land surveyor; and having deter- mined to devote himself to agricultural pursuits, particularly to the rear- ing of improved stock, he saved all he could make by surveying to be applied to his chosen pursuit. Before he attained his majority Mark had succeeded in procuring a number of superior horses and mares and com- menced breeding them, pasturing them in the wild canebrakes around Nashville. While so engaged he laid the foundation of his after eminence as an authority in agricultural matters by reading and studying every book applicable to the subject he could get. In 1812 Mr. Jarvis, then Minister from the United States to Spain, made the first importation of the cele- brated Spanish merino sheep, landing his flock at Washington City. Mark.R. Cockrill, in 1814, with that bold energy and decision ever char- acteristic of him throughout life, determined to procure a part of this im- proved flock. So getting up all the money he could, he went to the Federal capital and succeeded in purchasing ten head of this Jarvis im- portation. There were no railroads or steam-boats in those days, so Mr. Cockrill had no other way to get his precious little flock to Nash- ville except to drive them all the way on foot. This he did and thus laid the foundation of that celebrated herd the wool of which, at the World's Fair in London in 1851, carried off the prize for the finest wool grown anywhere in the world. The medal given to Mr. Cockrill at the World's Fair is a beautiful bronze one, having on one side the heads of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort. On the other side allegorical figures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America are standing around, while a wreath is being placed on the head of a kneeling figure. The motto around these figures is as follows: "Dissociata locis concordi pace lega- vit." And stamped on the rim is the name of the victor, thus: " Cock- erill IV." The figure IV. indicated the class to which the wool belonged,
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and the name was mispelled Cockerill instead of Cockrill. The fineness of the fiber of Mr. Cockrill's successful exhibit of wool was shown by the micrometer to be z3100 of an inch. The next finest to this was from Spain, and was 2300 low of an inch.
Mr. Cockrill was very proud of having at Lexington, Ky., won a silver cup for the exhibit of the three best sheep over Hon. Henry Clay, who ex- hibited specimens of his flock grown from a present made him by Hon. Daniel Webster, from his farm in New Hampshire. This cup is now in the Cockrill family, and has engraved on it: "Henry Clay's Defeat."
Mr. Cockrill was also a pioneer in the introduction of the imported shorthorn cattle from England into the South and West, having begun to grow shorthorns as early as 1832, and continued to do so as long as he lived. He also raised the thoroughbred horse, though not for the turf, believing the blooded horse the best basis for an animal useful for all the purposes to which the horse can be applied in peace and war.
In 1829 Mr. Cockrill became a cotton planter in Mississippi, and by devoting to this pursuit his usual personal supervision and energy he made a success of it, as he did of every thing he turned his attention to, growing as much as twenty-five hundred bales of cotton on his farm per annum. But in 1857 he sold his place in Mississippi, and retired from cotton growing.
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