USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 66
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In December, 1868, General Jackson married Miss Selene Harding, daughter of General W. G. Harding, of " Belle Meade," near Nashville, one of the most eminent agriculturists and stock raisers in the country. The children of this marriage are as follows: Eunice, William Harding, and Selene Harding.
He has managed " Belle Meade," the oldest nursery for thoroughbred horses in the country, since 1868. He has brought the place to a high state of improvement, and the blooded stock to as high a plane as any other breeding establishment in America. The following figures speak for themselves: The yearlings sold at the annual sales there, at public auction, from 1875 to 1890 inclusive, realized $377,945; and these year- lings have realized for their owners, on the American and English turf,
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in stakes and purses, $1,830,389. This is believed to be a showing un- paralleled by any public breeding establishment in the world.
EDGAR JONES, President of the American National Bank of Nashville, was born in Aberdeen, Miss., February 18, 1838. His father, Caleb Holder Jones, was a native of Kentucky; but moved to Winchester, Tenn., where he married Miss Eliza M. Hume, a daughter of Rev. Will- iam Hume, one of the most noted early educators of Nashville, having been one of the Faculty of Nashville University, and afterward Principal of the Nashville Female Academy, from 1820 to 1833. Mr. C. H. Jones was a lawyer by profession, and practiced law in Mississippi until the: breaking out of the war with Mexico, in which war he served as a private soldier until after the surrender of Vera Cruz, March 27, 1847; and in this city died of yellow fever shortly afterward. Mrs. Jones then, after the death of her husband, removed to Nashville for the purpose of educating her children, of whom she had five-two sons and three daughters-Edgar, the subject of this sketch, being the eldest. She re- mained in Nashville, thus engaged, until her death, in 1857. Edgar Jones attended the school taught by his uncle, Alfred Hume, until 1855, when he went to Clarksville, and there became a clerk in the Planters" Bank, a branch of the Planters' Bank in Nashville. His uncle, William. Hume, was Cashier of the branch at Clarksville. Mr. Jones remained there as clerk until the fall of Fort Donelson, in February, 1862; when he came to Nashville with the effects of the branch bank, depositing them with the parent bank here, of which Mr. Dempsey Weaver was in charge. Mr. Jones remained with Mr. Weaver until its affairs were wound up, in 1865. When the Third National Bank was organized, in July, 1865, Mr. Jones was elected its Cashier, Dr. W. W. Berry being its President. This bank had a capital of $100,000, all paid up at the be- ginning, and over $1,500,000 deposits. It was a complete success from the beginning, and paid its stockholders large dividends. It continued in successful operation until 1884, when it was consolidated with the American National Bank, which had been organized a short time previ- ously, with a capital of $600,000, which upon the consolidation of the two banks was increased to $1,000,000. Mr. John Kirkman was Presi- dent of this bank until his death; and Mr. Jones, Vice-president. Upon the death of Mr. Kirkman, Mr. Jones was elected as his successor. John M. Lea was elected Vice-president; and A. W. Harris, Cashier. All these gentlemen still occupy the same positions.
In point of service Mr. Jones is one of the oldest bank officers in the State, having been constantly in the business since 1855; and not only is he one of the oldest bankers, but he is also one of the most successful.
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Mr. Jones's grandfather, Rev. William Hume, was a Presbyterian min- ister, and Mr. Jones himself is a Presbyterian, having joined that Church in 1858. He is at the present time a member of the Moore Memorial Church. He was married, December 4, 1866, to Miss Susan S. Cheat- ham, daughter of Colonel E. S. Cheatham, of Springfield, Tenn., by whom he has five children-all sons.
Mr. Jones attributes his success in life mainly to his association and business connection with such men as Dempsey Weaver, W. W. Berry, Daniel F. Carter, and Alexander Fall, and expresses the opinion that any man who will choose such associates will seldom fail.
PHILIP LINDSLEY, D.D., was very prominently before the people of Tennessee as President of the University of Nashville for twenty-six years. He was a native of New Jersey, having been born in Morristown, in that State, December 21, 1786. Both his father and mother were of English de- scent; both the Lindsleys and the Condicts were pioneer settlers of Mor- ristown, and influential Whigs of the Revolution. John Lindsley was one of the early settlers of the New Haven colony, and came from Lon- don, Eng., with his two sons, John and Francis. He died at Guilford, Conn., 1650. His son Francis removed to Newark, N. J., in 1667, and died there in 1704, leaving a son John, born in 1667, who settled at Mor- ristown, N. J., and left a son John who was born in 1694. His son was named Philip, who was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Philip Lindsley, the subject of this sketch.
The early life of Philip Lindsley was spent in his father's family at Basking Ridge, N. J., and in his thirteenth year he entered the academy of Rev. Robert Finley, of that place, remaining there nearly three years. In November, 1802, he entered the junior class of the College of New . Jersey, and graduated in September, 1804. He then became an assist- ant teacher, first in Mr. Stevenson's school at Morristown, and then in Mr. Finley's at Basking Ridge. This latter position he resigned in 1807, and became a member of Mr. Finley's Church and a candidate for the ministry. He was then for two years a tutor in the college at Princeton, devoting himself at the same time to the study of theology, chiefly under the direction of its President, Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith. On April 24, 1810, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick.
Continuing his theological studies during the next two years and preaching also for a time at Newtown, L. I., where he declined overtures for a settlement, he made an excursion into Virginia and afterward into New England, and in November, 1812, he returned to the College of New Jersey at Princeton, in the capacity of senior tutor. In 1813 he be-
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came Professor of Languages and Secretary of the Board of Trustees. He was also librarian and inspector of the college during his connection with the institution. In 1817 he was twice chosen President of Transyl- vania University, at Lexington, Ky., but in both instances declined. The same year he was ordained sine titulo by the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick, and was elected Vice-president of the College of New Jersey. In 1822 he was acting President of this institution. In 1823 he was chosen President of Cumberland College, at Nashville, Tenn., and of the Col- lege of New Jersey, declining both appointments. The same year the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Dickinson Col- lege.
After declining to consider overtures concerning the presidency of the Ohio University at Athens, he was again offered the Presidency of Cum- berland College, and accepted the office in 1824. He arrived in Nash- ville December 24, to assume the duties of the new position, and was in- augurated with much ceremony January 12, 1825. The corporate name of Cumberland College was changed the next year to the "University of Nashville."
In May, 1834, Dr. Lindsley was unanimously elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, then holding its sessions in Philadelphia. In 1837 he was elected a member of the "Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians," at Copen- hagen. In May, 1850, he was elected Professor of Ecclesiastical Polity and Biblical Archeology in the New Albany Theological Seminary, and having resigned the presidency of the university in October following, he removed to New Albany in December and entered upon the duties of the professorship at the beginning of the next year. Here he re- mained until April, 1853, when, contrary to the unanimous wish of the board, he resigned the office. The remaining two years of his life were spent mainly in study, devotion, and social intercourse. A few weeks before the meeting of the General Assembly in Nashville, in 1855, he was asked if he would serve his Presbytery as a commissioner to the As- sembly. His reply was: "I have never sought any appointment, and when God has placed upon me a duty I have endeavored to discharge it." He was therefore appointed, but remarked upon leaving home that it was probable he should never return. He did, however, reach Nash- ville, but only to die. On Wednesday morning, May 23, while sur- rounded by his children at the breakfast table, he expressed the opinion that old men should not travel from home, as it often put their lives in jeopardy. A guest pleasantly inquired if he was not acting inconsistent- ly with his own advice, to which he replied: "No; I am here also at
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home-as well die here as anywhere." A few minutes afterward he was struck with apoplexy, and passed instantly into a state of unconscious- ness, in which he remained until his death, which occurred at I o'clock the next Friday morning.
When the tidings of his alarming illness were communicated to the General Assembly special prayers were immediately offered up in his behalf, and the funeral solemnities were conducted the next Monday by distinguished members of the Assembly. His remains now repose in Mt. Olivet Cemetery by the side of his first wife and youngest son.
Dr. Lindsley had been married twice: first to Miss Margaret Eliza- beth, only child of the Hon. Nathaniel Lawrence, successor of Aaron Burr as Attorney-general of the State of New York. Mrs. Lindsley died in 1845. He was married in 1849 to Mrs. Mary Ann Ayers, widow of a kinsman, Elias Ayers, founder of New Albany Theological Semi- nary. Mrs. Ayers was a daughter of Major William Silliman, of Fair- field, Conn., and a niece of Professor Benjamin Silliman, of Yale Col- lege. Dr. Lindsley left five children-three sons and two daughters. All of his sons graduated at the University of Nashville. Adrian Van Sinderen Lindsley, Nathaniel Lawrence Lindsley, and John Berrien Lindsley are the three sons: The daughters were Margaret Lawrence, who married Samuel Crockett, Esq., of Nashville; and Eliza Berrien, who married Rev. J. W. Hoyte, D.D.
Dr. Lindsley, while President of the University of Nashville, was offered the presidency of Washington College, at Lexington, Va., and Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pa., both in 1829; in 1830 he was twice chosen President of the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa; in 1834 he was chosen Provost (President) of the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, and President of the College of Louisiana, at Jackson; in 1837 he was chosen President of the South Alabama College, at Marion ; and in 1839 he was chosen President of Transylvania University, all of which positions he declined to accept that he might remain in Nashville in the service of the university he loved so well. He believed in the practicability of building up a great university in Nashville, which was then the south-western outpost of educational institutions. In this field he determined to make the impress of his ideas as to education and of his character permanent, and hence his refusal of so many flattering of- fers. It is well known that here he labored under many discouragements ; and this fact, taken in connection with the many inducements tendered him to retire from his position, renders his devotion to the cause of the university in particular, and to education in general, both heroic and sublime.
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Dr. Lindsley persistently sought to impress upon the public mind the necessity and value of a great university. In the brief historical sketch of the University of Nashville, elsewhere in this volume, is presented an outline of his plan for the university here. The following extract from his longest and ablest address, delivered in 1837, shows that he well knew such an institution could not be erected in a few years: "While I would duly encourage and improve the common college as well as the common school, there ought to be in every State, at least in each of the larger States, one institution of the highest order and most comprehen- sive and commanding character. If we cannot achieve this object in five or twenty years, it may be done in fifty or five hundred. If we cannot hope in our day to rival Berlin, Munich, Gottingen, Leipsic, Copenha- gen, Vienna, Halle, Leyden, Paris, Moscow, or even St. Petersburg, we may commence the enterprise and leave posterity to carry it onward toward completion. For complete, in the nature of things, it can never be. It must be growing, advancing, enlarging, accumulating, till the end of time."
What has been called Dr. Lindsley's favorite opinion was that every human being is entitled to an education as a rightful inheritance. It should be sought not merely as a means of making a livelihood, but as a great good in itself. Men ought to be educated because they possess minds capable of improvement and of being made happy by knowledge. Education is the great equalizer of society, and the special heritage of the poor. Every individual who wishes to rise, or wishes his child to rise, ought to endeavor to obtain for himself and to confer upon his child a liberal education, so that all his noblest faculties may be cultivated, and this should be independent of all motive of pecuniary reward. "Edu- cate your son in the best possible manner, because you expect him to be a man, and not a horse or an ox. You cannot tell what good he may achieve or what important offices he may discharge in his day. For aught you know he may, if you do your duty by him, become the Presi- dent of the United States. At any rate he has reason and understand- ing, which ought to be cultivated for their own sake. Besides, learning is itself a treasure-an estate-of which no adverse fortune can ever de- prive its possessor. It will accompany and console and support him to the world's end and to the close of life."
This sketch of Dr. Lindsley may fittingly close with an estimate of his life and work by his principal biographer, Dr. Leroy J. Halsey, of the Theological Seminary of the North-west, at Chicago: " But per- haps the most striking illustration of his influence as an educator is seen at Nashville itself-the scene of his longest labors, the home of
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his adoption, the resting-place where his ashes sleep. We have no citizenship at Nashville; and hence cannot be accused of partiality in what we are about to say. But of all we have seen and known, we may safely say, there is no city west of the mountains which seem to us so justly entitled to be called the 'Athens of the West' as Nashville. And for that distinction we think there is no man to whom Nashville is so much indebted as Dr. Lindsley. We say this too with a full knowledge and appreciation of the eminent labors of his compeers and predeces- sors. There were many faithful laborers with him and before him, whose names the people of Nashville will not willingly let die-serving well their generation in all the professions and vocations of life-Priestly, Hume, Jennings, Weller, Trimble, Lawrence, Troost, Hamilton, Stevens, Berry, Craighead, Crutcher, Porter, Yeatman, Woods, Shelby, McGav- ock, Ewing, Foster, Nichol, McNairy, Gibbs, Robertson, Roane, Over- ton, Rutledge, Hunt, Tannehill, Campbell, Polk, Grundy, Fletcher, Cannon, Carroll, Jackson, and many others-all intimately associated with the reputation of the city abroad and her prosperity at home. But among all these eminent and honored citizens we doubt not that for deep, wide, and lasting influence the foremost place is due to Dr. Linds- ley."
The name of THOMAS L. MADDIN, M.D., will descend in the medical history of Tennessee. He stands eminent among the prominent mem- bers of the medical profession.
Dr. Maddin, as co-editor of the Monthly Record of Medicine and Surgery at Nashville, from 1857 to 1861; as professor and lecturer in Shelby Medical College, Nashville, Tenn .; as one of the most success- ful surgeons in the South, having performed exceptionally difficult and delicate surgical operations; as occupying various professorships in the Nashville medical schools ; and as a successful private practitioner, ranks high in the noblest of all professions. As a teacher his style is full, ac- curate, and clear ; as a professor he is a sound and reliable demonstrator of advanced medical science; while his learning and skill as a diagnos- tician are recognized by his professional brethren wherever his name is known.
Though of gentle and sympathetic nature, he is self-possessed, unem- barrassed, and self-reliant in medical or surgical emergences, and pro- ceeds alike with equanimity, celerity, and dexterity. No physician's life better illustrates the fact that " the practice of medicine is a pleasure, a service, and a sacrifice " than that of Dr. Maddin, who, when a call is made, has no respect for weather, his own peril, or the social position of the patient.
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But what writer, not a physician, can know or assign to his proper med- ical rank the physician and surgeon? From the very nature of the pro- fession his lectures can be attended only by medical students, and cannot be reported. So of a physician's practice : it is all private and of too del- icate a nature to be discussed. His skill-the result of a life-study-can only be judged by the results of his practice, in testimony of which but few professional men can claim a more hearty indorsement of the com munity in which he lives, of the profession of which he is a member, and a larger and more grateful clientage than Dr. Maddin. As a citizen he is liberal and progressive in matters of public interest.
Thomas L. Maddin was born in Columbia, Tenn., September 4, 1826. In 1845 he graduated A.B. from Lagrange College, Alabama, under the Presidency of Robert Paine, D.D., afterward bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In his senior year at college, while pursuing his own studies, he was selected by the Faculty as tutor in the prepara- tory department of the institution-a compliment alike to his proficiency and industry.
For a year after leaving college he taught a private school, to provide means to enter upon the study of medicine; and in March, 1849, took his medical degree from the Medical Department of the University of Louis- ville, under Profs. Gross, Drake, Caldwell (a connecting link between ancient and modern medicine), Cobb, Yandell, and Miller. After re- ceiving his diploma, he practiced medicine four years in Limestone Coun- ty, Ala., in partnership with his former preceptor, Dr. Jonathan McDon- ald, a man of very high professional claims and of pre-eminent ability in the practical duties both of physician and surgeon.
In April, 1853, Dr. Maddin settled in Nashville. From 1856 to 1858 he was Professor of Anatomy, and from 1858 to 1861 Professor of Sur- gery in Shelby Medical College, Nashville; from 1869 to 1873 he was Professer of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of Nashville, and from 1873 Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Clinical Medi- cine in the same institution; and also from that date (1873) Professor of the same branch in the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University, both of which positions he still fills ( 1890); from 1873 he has also been President of the Faculty of the Medical Departments of both institutions.
Dr. Maddin is a member of the Nashville Medical Society; the Ten- nessee State Medical Society, of which he has served as President; the American Public Health Association ; the American Medical Association ; in 1876 was a Tennessee delegate to the International Medical Congress in Philadelphia; and in 1887 a delegate to the International Medical Con- gress at Washington City.
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In the first year of the late war, during the occupation of Nashville by the Confederate States army, he had the management of a large hospital in Nashville. The wounded of both armies sent from the battle of Fort Donelson, and a large number of Confederate sick, were left in his care when General Johnston retreated to Shiloh, and were surrendered by him on the occupation by the Federal army.
From the beginning of the late war for six or seven years educational enterprises were in a state of chaos in Nashville, as it was the Federal military base of the Army of the Cumberland ; and for several years after peace was declared it was necessary to enforce a military despotism to prevent anarchy. Dr. Maddin remained in the city; and though from nativity, education, and socially in sympathy and fellowship wtth the peo- ple of the South, yet politically he was loyal to the integrity of the Union. But the interpretations of those in authority admitted no conditions of di- vided loyalty, demanding not only that of the head, but also that of the heart: Yet he demeaned himself with the good judgment to command the respect and professional confidence of the medical staff and officers stationed in the city, who availed themselves liberally of his medical skill, both for themselves and their families. He was thus enabled to be of service to many citizens who were resting under the censure of disloy- alty ; and justly, for there were but few families not represented in the Con- federate States army. Upon one occasion, while attending upon the wife of a Major-general stationed at Nashville for typhoid fever, some eight or ten staff officers were waiting in the parlor to hear the report of the Doctor. When he announced the patient much improved the party re- ceived the report with much satisfaction, and this led to many social pleasantries. The Doctor laid in a complaint in his own behalf before them that the officers in command did " not recognize his social, profes- sional, and personal merits."
They inquired one and all: "How so? Don't we send for you when we are sick? And we do not remember to have been remiss in polite consideration."
"Not that,"' he responded, "for on that score you extend more than I merit; but it is this: that I am about the only citizen in Nashville that you have not honored with a place among the convicts in the peni- tentiary, for you have made it the post of honor for our best citi- zens."
They responded with much pleasantness: "Doctor, don't give yourself discomfort on that score: we have not overlooked you; for you would have been there too, but we have use for you professionally."
This incident illustrates his good sense, prudence, and judgment: for
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although he was classed by them with the South, yet he commanded their confidence and respect.
Whether his reputation be best based on the learning displayed in his lectures, on the success of his practice as a private physician, or on his skill as a surgeon, it is hard for the writer to determine; but the fact is easily stated that he has devoted his best energies to the study and prac- tice of medicine, and consecrated the activities of a busy life to his pro- fession with a loyalty alike creditable to himself and science. He has successfully performed most of the capital surgical operations-among them, ovariotomy; ligation of the external iliac, femoral, hypogastric, and circumflex ilii arteries, all in the same operation, for traumatic an- eurism of the external iliac artery; ligation of the left subclavian artery- also for traumatic aneurism. This operation was, under the circum- stances, deemed impracticable by able and experienced surgeons in con- sultation. The patient was a distinguished officer of the First Tennessee Confederate regiment. On a second consultation, with Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, of New York, who was serving in high official rank on the medical staff of the Federal army, and was then on duty in Nashville, and, in common with other able counselors agreed that, though a forlorn-hope, the operation gave the only chance for the patient's life, he tendered his valuable assistance to Dr. Maddin in executing the work. Some of Dr. Maddin's other difficult, though successful, operations were: Hip joint amputation in a child about two years old; removal of superior maxillary and palate bones, etc.
On his paternal side Dr. Maddin is of Irish extraction. His grand- father Maddin was an Irish patriot, and was compelled to leave his coun- try as a refugee on account of his loyalty to his native land. He settled in Philadelphia, and died there.
Dr. Maddin s father was Rev. Thomas Maddin, D.D., a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and for upward of sixty years an itinerant preacher. He was stationed at Nashville, Tenn., as early as 1817, and organized the first Church Sunday-school in that city. He repeatedly represented his Conference in the General Conference of the Church. For his personal character he was not only esteemed, but sin- cerely loved by all with whom he had ministerial, social, and personal re- lations. He was a firm, stern, uncompromising man on all questions where right was concerned; yet gentle and kind and of a most lovable nature. His native modesty and sensitiveness of character were such that he was always shocked at unrefined and profane language used in his presence, and would turn away from company of that kind. He was not only a very distinguished divine, but ranked among the foremost, both
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