USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 67
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in counsel and in the pulpit as one of the highest dignitaries in the Church. A natural born orator, he did much to popularize Methodism in Ken- tucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. He was also a Mason of high rank, and for a time was Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. He died in Nashville in 1874, at the age of seventy-six.
.. Dr. Maddin's mother's maiden name was Miss Sarah Moore, a native of Kentucky and descendant of an old Maryland family. She was devoted to her family and her domestic duties, and her life was characterized by great gentleness and purity, traits which her children seem to ยท have largely inherited. It is said of her that she was never heard to speak a harsh word; her children obeyed her not through fear, but because they loved, honored, and revered her, which made it always their pleasure to shape their conduct in accordance with her teachings and her wishes. She died at her home, near Huntsville, Ala., in 1864, at the age of sixty- four, having been the mother of eight children: I. Mary Maddin, wife of Dr. F. E. H. Steger, near Huntsville, Ala. She has four children : Captain Thomas M. Steger, a prominent lawyer at Nashville; Dr. Rob- ert W. Steger, a successful physician now living at Chicago; Mrs. James Jackson, of North Alabama; and Mrs. Alice Tuck, of Nashville. 2. Dr. Thomas L. Maddin, subject of this sketch. 3. Prof. Ferdinand P. Mad- din, a very successful educator-first at Athens, Ala .; then at Columbia, Tenn .; and now at Waco, Tex., where he has lived since 1857. He was for many years President of Waco College. He married Miss Mattie Malone, of Limestone County, Ala. 4. Dr. John W. Maddin, an eminent physician of Nashville. He married Miss Annie Downs, of Waco, Tex. 5. Margaret F. Maddin, now the widow of Andrew J. Conally. She has one child, the wife of Dr. J. L. Watkins. These two, with Dr. Wat- kins, constitute Dr. Maddin's immediate family, and make their home with him.
Though not a politician, Dr. Maddin is an hereditary Democrat. The only Whig vote he ever cast was for Hon. Gustavus A. Henry for Gov- ernor of Tennessee, because the views of his opponent (Andrew John- son ) were somewhat too agrarian to suit the Doctor's political ideas.
Dr. Maddin has not only made. a name among the leading physicians and surgeons of the South, but he has been comfortably successful finan- cially. He began business life without pecuniary inheritance. His suc- cess has come from his devotion to his profession and an ambition to qualify himself in the highest sense for its administration, loving it as a science and for the blessings it puts in his power to bestow upon his fel- low-men. Therefore he has practiced not altogether for financial profit, but from a spirit of humanity and professional pride. He has never used
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tobacco nor been a drinker of intoxicating spirits. Governed by the in- structions of his good parents, the warp of his early education in Chris- tianity has controlled his life. He has been a member of the Methodist Church since early childhood, and believes it the duty of every one to identify himself with some Christian institution; yet he is known to be liberal in reference to- opinions and creeds, and very charitable in his judgment of men's motives and actions. His moral creed is to keep a conscience void of offense.
Dr. Maddin is five feet ten inches high ; weighs one hundred and fifteen pounds; has fine silky hair and beard, a face unwrinkled and a form unstooped by the weight of years; though he is a man of most delicate organization and of the finest sensibilities, as his splendid portrait-itself a study-shows at a glance. It is the very picture of health and amia- bility.
This brief notice is deemed proper to be chronicled in the history of the community he has so well served, and is recorded by one who has; known him long and intimately.
THOMAS MENEES, M.D., an eminent physician and citizen of Nash- ville, was born June 26, 1823, on Mansker's Creek, in Davidson County, Tenn. The family is of Scotch origin, and the original manner of spell- ing the name was "McNees," but there remains no accurate tradition of the clan. Benjamin Menees, the great-grandfather of Thomas Menees, was a native of Amherst County, Va., and served with credit as a soldier in the War of the Revolution. He emigrated as a pioneer and settled on the Sulphur Fork of Red River, in what is now Robertson County, Tenn., and was here County Court Judge in 1791. For the protection of him- self and family and the families of his neighbors he erected a block- house, and drilled his sons and daughters in the use of fire-arms, and they' all became practiced sharp-shooters. This block-house was head-quarters for the settlers, and a general rendezvous in case of an attack by the In- dians; and in this block-house he died in 18II.
James Menees, a son of Benjamin Menees, was a noted Indian fighter and pioneer. He was a member of Colonel John Donelson's famous. party of emigrants who came down the Tennessee River and up the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers to Nashville, a full account of which is presented on page 70. He was one of the early sheriffs of Robertson County, serving a long time in that capacity. The maiden name of his wife was Rebecca Williams, a graduate of the Salem Moravian Female College of North Carolina, who died when their only child, Benjamin Williams Me- nees, was an infant. Upon arriving at manhood's estate, Benjamin W. Menees served under General Jackson in the Creek War and in the war
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with Great Britain in 1812-14. He was a thrifty, hard-working, and hon- est farmer, with strong mind and will power. He married Miss Eliza- beth Harrison, daughter of Thomas Harrison, of Sumner County. He died in Robertson County in 1863, at the age of seventy-four. Mrs. Menees was a highly educated woman, of deep and earnest piety, and devotedly attached to her husband and children, and it is largely to her influence that her son, the subject of this sketch, owes what he has been and is; and to his father he is indebted for his systematic and business-like hab- its, which have distinguished him during his entire life.
Although born in Davidson County, Dr. Menees was reared in Rob- ertson County, and lived there until 1862. There he received a country school education, and taught school himself one term when he was a young man. He was earnest and apt in his studies, and made the most of the opportunities afforded him. Not being satisfied with the life of a school-teacher, he selected the profession of medicine, and began to study it in the office of Dr. Robert K. Hicks, of Springfield, in 1841. He next took a course of lectures in the Medical Department of Transylvania University, at Lexington, Ky., practiced his profession for a year at his father's, five miles from Springfield, and from 1844 to 1845 he practiced medicine at Springfield, Tenn., and met with gratifying success. In 1845 he returned to Transylvania University, and there took the degree of M.D., March 6, 1846. From 1845 to 1855 he was in practice with Dr. Hicks, and from 1855 to 1861 with his younger brother, Dr. George W. Menees.
Dr. Menees possessed earnest political convictions, and did not hesi- tate to give expression to his views on all proper occasions. He partici- pated to a greater or less extent in every presidential campaign from 1844 to 1860. A man of extraordinary declamatory power, quick perception, apt in repartee, with the courage of his convictions, he took high rank as a political debater. While thus sacrificing time from his professional duties he was averse to accepting office, but in spite of his reluctance he was nominated in 1849 for the lower branch of the General Assembly. Though the county usually had a reliable Whig majority of about five hundred, he was defeated by a Whig majority of only thirty-eight votes. In 1857 his party friends again demanded his services as a candidate for the State Senate, insisting that in him alone lay any hope of overcoming the formidable Whig majority of about nine hundred in the district. While reluctant to abandon his practice, he yet yielded to the importu- nities of his friends and made the canvass, and was elected by a majority of one hundred and twenty votes. In his place in the State Senate he acquitted himself in a creditable manner, and to the eminent satisfaction
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of his party in the State. In 1859 his friends insisted that he should be- come a candidate for Congress from the Hermitage District, and while he was of the opinion that the majority in that district was too large to be overcome, yet in order to satisfy his party he made the race, but was not successful. In 1860 he was a member of the National Democratic Con- vention at Charleston, and when the schism in that body occurred he ad- hered to the Southern wing which afterward assembled at Baltimore and nominated John C. Breckinridge for the presidency. In the autumn of 1861 he became a candidate for Representative in the first permanent Confederate Congress, and was elected. He was also a candidate for the same position in 1863, and was again elected, and served until the disso- lution of the Congress in consequence of the surrender at Appomattox. In 1865 he commenced the practice of medicine in Nashville, and has since then made it his home, with extraordinary professional success. In 1873 he was elected Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, and in 1874 he was elected Professor of Obstetrics and Dean of the Faculty in the com- bined Medical Departments of that university and Vanderbilt University, in which position he has served until the present time. He is a member of the American Medical Association, of the Tennessee Medical Society, and of the Nashville Medical Society, and for many years he represented the institutions in which he is a professor in the Association of American Medical Colleges. Among the papers contributed to the Tennessee Med- ical Society may be mentioned : "A Paper upon Placenta Praevia," " Use of Obstetric Forceps in Delivery," and "Hour-glass Construction."
Dr. Menees has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for forty-five years, and served as steward for a number of years. In 1858 he was made a Royal Arch Mason at Springfield, and has re- peatedly represented Western Star Lodge, No. 9, of Springfield, in the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. Before the war he had accumulated a fort- une of many thousand dollars, and was a Director in the Edgefield and Kentucky Railroad Company. Since the war he has again acquired a comfortable fortune.
Dr. Menees has been married twice. First, April 21, 1853, in Davidson County, Tenn., to Miss Elizabeth Hooper, a native of the same county and a daughter of Claiborne Y. Hooper, an extensive and prosperous farmer. Miss Hooper graduated at the Columbia Institute, was a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was much esteemed for her true womanly qualities both at home and in the social circle. She died April 24, 1861, at the age of twenty-five. By this marriage with Miss Hooper Dr. Menees had four children. The eldest, Mary Rebecca, died
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in infancy. Thomas W. Menees was born at Springfield January 16, 1855; graduated from the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University in 1876; practiced with his father some years; was made Associate Dem- onstrator of Anatomy in Vanderbilt University; and died September 15, 1878, during the yellow fever epidemic at Memphis, a volunteer physi- cian in the service of the Howard Association. The second son, Young. Hooper Menees, was born August 15, 1857, graduated in medicine from Vanderbilt University, and practiced medicine with marked success with his uncle, Dr. George W. Menees, until his death, December 12, 1883. The youngest son of Dr. Thomas Menees, Orville Harrison Menees, was born April 15, 1859, graduated in medicine from Vanderbilt University in 1879, and succeeded his deceased brother, Dr. Thomas W. Menees, as Associate Demonstrator of Anatomy; and, after other promotions, was elected to the chair of Anatomy and Histology in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University, a position which he still occupies ; is also Professor of Histology, Pathology, and Oral Sur- gery in the Dental Department of Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Menees was married the second time August 14, 1868, to Mrs. Mary Jane Walker, widow of Hiram K. Walker, editor of the Nashville True Whig and Republican Banner. She is a native of Nashville and a daughter of John Austin, who was a native of Maryland. She was ed- ucated at the Nashville Female Academy, is a Methodist, and is espe- cially distinguished for her charities, earnestness in her Church relations, and domestic qualities. By this second marriage Dr. Menees has but one child, Mary Elizabeth Menees, who was born December 14, 1873. She is bright and vivacious, a consistent member of the Methodist Church, to which she is much devoted, and a universal favorite wherever known. She is and has been from her infancy a life-member of the Methodist Missionary Society.
SAMUEL DOLD MORGAN-his father, Luther Morgan; his mother, Ann Camera Dold; his wife, Matilda McIntosh, of Staunton, Va .- who was one of the most prominent and successful merchants of Nashville, was born November 8, 1798, in Staunton, Va. His father moved with his family to Maryville, Blount County, Tenn., when Samuel was an infant, and in about 1813 removed to Huntsville, Ala., where he amassed a large fortune trading with the Indians. Samuel was in Nashville when a boy, attending school, the University of Nashville, but he did not come to this city to live until January, 1833. His family before him had been successful merchants for fifty years, and the name "Morgan" was of great use to him when he established himself in business, but he soon afterward proved himself a capable business man independent of the
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name of his ancestry. He soon became identified with the wholesale dry goods business of Nashville, and succeeded to the business of Calvin Morgan & Sons as a member of the firm of Morgan, Allison & Co., which firm in the stringent times of 1837-38 opened a bank of issue in connection with their wholesale trade. The next firm of which Mr. Morgan was a member was that of Morgan, Crutcher, & Co., of which R. H. Gardner was the " Company.". The next was Morgan, Gardner & Co., and the last was Morgan & Co. The last firm was in business at the breaking out of the Civil War. Their business was always large and prosperous. All the partners were men of high tone, and justly gained the confidence of their customers, as well as the highest regards of their fel- low-merchants. In all of his partnerships Mr. Morgan was the leading spirit, not only on account of his great business ability, but also on ac- count of his large and liberal views. In addition to the management of his own affairs he took great interest in whatever was for the benefit of the general public. No man ever did more than he, if so much, in the promotion of the industrial progress of Nashville. He was most active in the establishment of all kinds of manufacturing enterprises, and nota- bly so in the erection of cotton mills. The first mill he was interested in was at Lebanon, which was burned down before the war, in 1850. The next was built in Nashville in 1869, now owned by the Tennessee Manu- facturing Company, which was planned by him and is a model of con- venience and beauty. It was not only designed by him, but it was built under his direction and watchful oversight. About the time of the com- pletion of this mill, one of his correspondents in England sent him a drawing of the model cotton mill of that country, and while the English mill was much larger than this one at Nashville, yet it was generally con- ceded that the one built by Mr. Morgan was of the two the better adapt- ed to its uses. In the erection of the mill in Nashville he exercised such skill and foresight that he was always ready for his workmen, and in no instance had to take down any of his work to correct mistakes.
As a manufacturer he was successful in making salable goods, and when he retired from the presidency of the company he left more orders than the company could fill in six months. He always had a high regard for the moral purity of his operatives, and provided every means practi- cable for its safeguard.
The State of Tennessee called upon him to be chairman of the com- mittee that designed and erected the beautiful State Capitol on the hill, but in the work he had to contend with some members of the committee who wished to build what he considered would be only a large brick barn. Mr. Morgan devoted a great deal of his time to the purchase of
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material for its construction, received the appropriations made by the State from time to time, amounting to more than a million dollars, and faithfully accounted for every dollar, without compensation for his serv- ices. Nor did the State require of him a bond, nor was any thought of possible dishonesty, mismanagement, or negligence ever entertained. When the State Capitol was completed it was said to be the handsomest State Capitol in the country.
Mr. Morgan was one of the most hospitable of men. His house was always open to strangers, and he came in contact with nearly every promi- nent person who came to Nashville. He always made it a point to set forth in the best manner the great mineral resources of the State, and was foremost in devising plans for their development. Mr. Morgan was never a politician, but took great interest in public affairs. He was well informed on all public matters and was consulted by leading men in all parts of the country. He was an ardent Whig, and like most of the principal members of that party was loyal to the Union. Secession he abhorred, and though earnestly urged by South Carolina politicians to come out in its favor, steadfastly refused to do so, and took no step in that direction until President Lincoln called out troops to coerce the South. Then he went into the cause of the South with all his strength. It was his genius that established a factory in Nashville to make percus- sion caps, and it was the caps he made in Nashville that won the first battle of Manassas. Upon the fall of Nashville he removed to the South, taking his machinery with him and remaining there until the close of the war. After Tennessee seceded from the Union the sequestration agent served notice upon Mr. Morgan to pay to him all the money he owed to Northern creditors. He most indignantly replied that he would not do so, saying that he had bought their goods and that he would pay for them, and then he would fight them to the bitter end. He could say this in all propriety, for at that time he was making the percussion caps men- tioned above. After the war was over his creditors, knowing what he had done, wrote to him asking what he could pay, and informing him that they would be satisfied with whatever he could pay. He answered that he intended to pay the entire debt with interest, and he did so, al- though he borrowed money at a high rate of interest to do so. He lived in Nashville after the close of the war until June 10, 1880, when he died.
With reference to the interest in and ability with which Mr. Morgan studied and contemplated public affairs, Colonel A. S. Colyar in an ad- dress delivered to a meeting held June II, to take proper action with re- gard to his death, said:
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"The tariff question, the American system of money, our great rail- road interests, manufacturing in all its phases, were the great themes on which his mind was constantly acting. A whole life was spent, a won- derful brain employed, ever active, ever on the alert, in the examination of these vast subjects. On these subjects his mind was a vast store-house of information, and not much risk would be taken in saying that he had more to do with restoring the silver dollar to its place, whence it had been driven by a questionable policy, than any private citizen in the United States.
" Discovering the great wrong that had been done, and having studied the whole question of coinage from a practical stand-point, he made it the subject of all his talk and of all his letters to public men for several years. All who had any thing to do with the question sought him and obtained information from him. He supplied our members of Congress with facts and in every way gave them assistance. To him free and un- limited coinage of silver was the people's right, and to deprive them of it was not only a public calamity, but a great national crime. Night after night, while other men slept, he sat up and wrote letters and mailed doc- uments. He could not have done more if the whole question of arous- ing the people had been committed to him.
"Mr. Morgan's business life shows him to have been a financier of unbounded resources. To make money was natural: it required no ef- fort. He always had a sovereign contempt for that species of financial ability which in the public mind is often made the test-that is, simply the power of making two dollars out of one. With Mr. Morgan the power to make money was not financial ability.
"Perhaps of all subjects none had been so absorbing to Mr. Morgan as manufacturing. The building up of home industries; working up our vast raw material; giving employment to our own laboring population; keeping money at home by the exchange of commodities; being inde- pendent instead of dependent was his constant theme. Studying the whole question of iron making in Tennessee, he became an enthusiast, asserting what at first nobody agreed with him about, but which turned out to be true-to wit, that a ton of iron could be made in Tennessee and put on the cars for less money than the ore to make a ton of iron would cost in Pennsylvania.
"No man had more to do in building up our railroad system. He was in his prime when the system was inaugurated. While others had zeal he had knowledge. As in other great questions, his researches were ex- haustive. In preparing the first charter, devising plans to put it in ope- ration, raising money and building the road, but one man did more than
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he-Colonel Stevenson was the greatest worker, but Mr. Morgan's serv- ices were invaluable."
Mr. Morgan was a forcible writer. Whether in commerce or law he had few superiors. On one occasion it was mentioned to him that a little money would secure the passage by the Legislature of a certain meas- ure; but he replied that none would be given for the purpose. He re- lied solely on the merits of the measure and the good sense of the Legis- lature.
At the meeting mentioned above held to take suitable action regarding his death, Mr. A. G. Adams was made Chairman, and Anson Nelson Secretary. Suitable resolutions on his life and character were adopted. No man in many years had been so generally and sincerely mourned. He had for a long time given direction to the energies of Nashville, and put forth his best efforts in her behalf, but though dead his instruction and example still live.
Mr. Morgan was a great friend of the mechanics, and they held a meet- ing at his death and passed complimentary resolutions to his memory, and the manufactories were closed at 12 o'clock to let the operatives at- tend his funeral, which they did very generally.
The Legislature of Tennessee, by resolution, gave permission that Mr. Morgan's remains should be interred in the walls of the beautiful State Capitol, and in due time he was interred in an alcove in the south-eastern corner.
WILLIAM NICHOL, one of the most prominent and worthy citizens of Nashville for many years, was born in Abingdon, Va., in 1800. His fa- ther, Josiah Nichol, was also for long years a prominent merchant and banker of the city, and most highly respected. Before coming to Nash- ville, Josiah Nichol was one of the proprietors of King's Salt Works at Abingdon, Va., and went thence to Knoxville, coming to Nashville in 1808. Here he was a dry goods merchant and President of the branch of the United States Bank for several years. His wife was a Miss Ry- burn, of Virginia.
William Nichol was brought up to industry and diligence. Early in life, having served for some time in his father's store, he went into the dry goods business as a partner with Joseph Vaulx. He was sixteen years old at the time. The partnership continued until 1825, in which year he was married to Miss Julia Lytle, daughter of William Lytle, of Rutherford County, and sister of the wife of Hon. Ephraim H. Foster. William Lytle was a soldier of the Revolutionary army in North Caro- lina, joining it when the war first broke out and serving until the surren- der of Cornwallis at Yorktown. After coming to Tennessee he was in
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