USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present : together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee, V.3 > Part 38
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BLOUNT COUNTY.
P. M. Bartlett, president of the Maryville College and Bank of Maryville, was born in Connecticut in 1820, and graduated at Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1850, and at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, in 1853. He then at once began the min- istry in Ohio, acting as agent for the American Tract Society, four years, after which, he returned to New York State, and continued preaching until the commencement of the late war, and then served as chaplain of the First New York Mounted Infantry, two years. He then went to Massachusetts, and soon after located in Connecticut, where he remained until 1809, when he accepted the presidency of Maryville College. The ances- tors of our subject came from England to Plymouth, Mass., in 1623. The parents, Isaiah and Mariam (Mason) Bartlett, were natives of Massachusetts and Connecticut, were mar- ried in Ohio, and followed farming until their respective deaths in 1867 and 1869. Our sub- ject, three brothers, and two sisters are the survivors of a family of nine children. Mrs. Bartlett, nee Miss Florence M. Alden, is a direct descendant of John Alden, of "May- flower" fame, and a granddaughter of Gov. Lumpkin, of Georgia. She is a graduate of Yale, and a highly accomplished lady.
M. L. Byerley, farmer, was born October 25, 1831, in Knox County, where he remained but two years, when his parents moved to Blount County. In 1876 our subject moved to Knox County, but in the spring of 1887 he moved to his present location in the Tenth Dis- trict Blount County. He had good common school advantages, and began for himself, a poor man. He now owns 146 acres of splendid land on the Maryville & Louisville Road, six miles northwest of the former place. He is the eldest of ten children of Isaac and Mary (Hobbs) Byerley, and born in South Carolina. When about eight years old, his father moved to Blount County, settling on Boyd Creek. Mrs. Byerley was born and reared in Virginia, coming to Blount County in 1825. Isaac began as a poor man, and by his ability soon became wealthy, but the actions of other parties caused him to fail. The father and inother were of German and English descent. The grandfather. Jasper Byerley, came to America before the Revolution, in which war he was a soldier, and lived to be one hundred and ten years oldl. Our subject married Rachel C., daughter of Eli and Elizabeth (Swan) Clark. Their children were Mary Elizabeth and Sarah Frances, deceased; Emma, afterward Mrs. Strange; Ida, afterward Mrs. Johnson; Don Charles, Isaac C., Edgar E., Myrtle, James and Marcus L. Mr. Byerley isa Methodist. He is a Republican, first voted for Scott, and is an industrious and successful man.
M. H. Cochran was born October 17, 1831, on he farm where he has since resided. He is the ninth of twelve children of James and Mary (Reed) Cochran. James Cochran was born and raised near Morganton, N. C., and when grown came to Tennessee,
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BLOUNT COUNTY. 1039
settling in Blount County. He followed farming, at which he was quite success- ful. His father, Paul Cochran, was born and raised in Ireland, and came to America about the year 1785, settling first in North Carolina. He was a weaver by trade. Mrs. James Cochran was born in an Indian fort, situated on the "Bowman Lands," near the Big Tennessee, and was raised in this county, where she died. Her mother, nce Ann Moore. was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and when a young woman came to Blount County, Tenn. Her husband, Samuel Reed, was also born and raised in Pennsylvania, and came to Tennessee about the time Miss Ann Moore did. M. H. Cochran received a good common-school education, and has improved his early education considerably by reading and observation. When twenty years old he was thrown upon his own resources, with some property inherited from his father; but by his industry and good management has added considerable to what he inherited. He now owns a good farm of 500 acres well improved and located on the headwaters of Cloyd Creek, ten miles southwest of Mary- ville. Mr. Cochran is now making his home with his sister. He and his sister are mem- bers of the United Presbyterian Church. Mr. Cochran has been a ruling elder in the church fifteen years. He is Republican in politics, and cast his first presidential ballot for Winfield Scott.
G. S. W. Crawford, professor of mathematics in Maryville College, was born in Knox County, Tenn., August 20, 1849. He was reared on a farm, and graduated from the college of which he is now professor, in 1871. He studied at Union Theological Sem- inary, New York. two years, and at Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, one year, and has since filled his present chair of mathematics, excepting from June 30, 1882, until in March, 1883, when he was superintendent of public instruction, during which time he still held his professorship. He is a director of the Bank of Maryville. July 23, 1874, he married Jennie Duncan, a native of Blount County. They have three sons and two daughters. Hugh F., the father, was born in 1806, in Knox County, on the farm settled by the grandfather, Samuel, who was born June 2, 1758. Samuel located then in Grassy Valley, in 1790. the first settlement in that vicinity, and he assisted in building the first residence house in Knoxville. He was in the Revolution with Washington, and took part in the Indian wars. He died on the old farm, May 14, 1822. His wife, Nancy (For- gey), was born in Hawkins County, August 13, 1768. She was married in 1788, and her death occurred March 13, 1837. Hugl. F., one of four sons and three daughters, was also a farmer, and married Rebecca Forgey, a native of Hawkins County. They lived at the old home until their deaths, in 1885 and 1878 respectively. Our subject is the tenth child of four sons and eight daughters, three of the former and three of the latter still living. MI. Crawford's family are Presbyterians.
M. H. Edmondson, sheriff of Blount County, was born in this county, in 1849. He was reared on a farm, and educated at Friendsville, this county. He followed agricult- ural pursuits until appointed deputy sheriff, by R. B. McReynolds, in 1876. In 1882 he was elected to his present office, and is now serving his third term. In 1879 he married S. E. Coker, a native of Knox County. Of their seven children, four sons and one daugh- ter are living. His father, John, is a native of this county, and has always followed farming in the Sixth District. The mother, Margaret (Duplap), also of this county, died in 1884. Our subject is the fifth child of four sons and two daughters, the two latter being both deceased. At the beginning of the war, our subject's brothers went to Illinois, and joined the Ninety-eighth Illinois Mounted Infantry, with which J. P. Edmondson served until the close, and then returned home, and made up a company, of which he became captain, for Gov. Brownlow's militia. J. C. and W. H. Edmondson were discharged after about a year's service, and the former came home and assisted in organizing a com- pany, of which he was elected first lieutenant. The great-grandfather of our subject came from Scotland, and our subject's father, William, came from Virginia, and after- ward moved to East Tennessee, where he died. in Blount County.
J. C. Engel, the genial, accommodating and popular proprietor of. Montvale Springs, the beautiful and justly famed health resort of the South, is a native of Maryland, and of English origin. He was rcared on a farm, and in 1814 married a Miss Bostain, also &
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native of Maryland. Soon after marriage they moved to Baltimore, where they resided until the spring of 1882, when they took charge of their above mentioned property. It was in 1835 that the Springs attracted attention by the numbers of deer which gathered to use the water. In 1850 Asa Watson came from Mississippi to Knoxville badly afflicted with liver and kidney trouble, and drove out to see the medicinal waters, which he used, and was so satisfied that he bought them and erected the main buildings. In a few years he sold to Lanier Bros. & Watt, who kept it until the beginning of the war, then sold it to Joseph L. King, but since 1882 our subject has been adding to its attractiveness con- tinnally. The Montvale property consists of 4,800 acres, nine miles south of Maryville, in the Chilhowee Mountain Range. The main building, of two stories and seven gables, contains 125 rooms, and about forty cottages also are enclosed in a beautiful lawn of twenty acres, on which are growing sixty rare trees, from Japan, California, etc. Mr. Engel has a competent gardener and a four-acre garden, in which he grows all his own vegetables. Two fine springs are within a few yards of the hotel, and almost a mile of pipe conveys pure freestone water from the top of the Chilhowee Mountains. He also owns 400 acres on the Maryville road, three miles distant, including the Black Sulphur Springs, whose water he keeps on draught at the hotel. View Rock, on the top of the mountain, affords a rare view, unequaled by few points in the United States. Maryville can be seen, and Knoxville also, by using the glass. He accommodates from 300 to 500 during the season. He has recently opened two silver mines on the south side of Chil- howee, which promise well. One pint of the Montvale Springs water contains the fol- lowing constituents: Ferrous carbonate, 0.800 grains; calcium carbonate, 1.657 grains; sodium chloride, 0.215 grains; magnesium chloride, traces; calcium chloride, traces; sodium sulphate, 0.564 grains; magnesium sulphate, 1.500 grains: calcium sulphate, 9.276 ferric oxide, traces; alumina, 0.002 grains; silica, traces. Total, 13.604.
Hon. A. M. Gamble is the representative from Blount County. He was born in 1888, and reared on a farm and educated at Maryville. He taught school in his younger days; then at the commencement of the war enlisted in the Sixth Tennessee Infantry (Union), being afterward given command of a company, and was then steadily promoted to major- general, which rank he held till the close. He then resumed school teaching, which he has since continued in connection with farming. He was elected county superintendent of pub- lic instruction in 1832, serving four years, and in 1886 was elected member of the House of Representatives from his native county. His residence is in the Fourteenth Civil District of Blount County, where he has a farm of eighty acres. In 1866 he married Eudora Cowan, a native of the county, and daughter of George W. and Mary Cowan. To this marriage three sons and five daughters have been born, one son now deceased. Josias Gamble, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Ireland in 1747, and afterward came to America, locating near Philadelphia, where he married. During the Revolutionary war he came to Blount County, and settled the farm where our subject was afterward born. He (the grandfather) resided in this section till his death in 1812. Alexander B., the father, was born in 1784, and married Elizabeth Ransbarger, a native of Virginia, whose parents located here in the early settlement of Blount County, the father being for thirty-six years justice of the peace. His death occurred in 1867, and the mother's in 1866. A. M. Gamble is the youngest of five sons and five daughters. and he, two brothers and two sisters are the surviving members of the family. Moses A., a brother of our subject, was in the terrible " Sultana disaster."
J. T. Hanna, proprietor of the Anchor Woolen Mills, Maryville, Tenn., was born in Jefferson County. Ind., in 1825, and reared in South Hanover, Ind. When fifteen years old he went to Pittsburg, Ind., where he learned his trade, and then started a woolen mill at Rochester. Ind. He left there after eighteen years, and engaged in the same business at Kankakee, Ill., for ten years. In 1875 he came to Maryville, Teun., and under the firm name of Hanna & Watkins began operating woolen and carding mills at the site of the Maryville Woolen Mills, aud so continued until 1880, when he built bis present mills. He is now manufacturing a line of general woolen goods. and consuming about 50,000 pounds of wool annually. His wife, Philora (True), is a native of Indiana; she was born at Indian-
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BLOUNT COUNTY.
apolis, Ind. They have two sons and two daughters. His father, Samuel Hanna, was born in Cumberland County, Penn., in May, 1777, and married Elizabeth White, a native of the same place. He then moved to Ohio, and from there to Jefferson County, Ind. Hle afterward moved to Logansport, Ind., and laid out the Hanna addition to the town. He died there in 1840; the mother died at Kankakee, Ill., in 1872. Our subject is the fourth child of five sons and three daughters, two brothers and one sister of whom are living.
Capt. W. V. C. Hannum was born in Blount County in 1841, and reared on a farm. At the commencement of the war he was attending the Virginia Military Institute. He enlisted in the Forty-eighth Virginia Infantry, of which he was elected first lieutenant of Company B, at the organization, was afterward made captain, and served with that rank until wounded at Cedar Mountain, in August, 1802. He remained in Virginia a few months, then returned home, and afterward resigned, and has since the war followed farming at his present home adjoining Maryville, consisting of 280 acres of well improved land. In 1870 he married Lotta Merritt, a native of Todd County, Ky., to whom three sons and three daughters have been born, one son and one daughter now deceased. The father of Capt. Haunum, Dr. Henry Hannum, was a son of Richard Hannum. Dr. Hannum was a native of Pennsylvania, was reared in Kentucky, and married Ann Elizabeth White, of Abingdon, Va., where he remained a few years; then moved to Florida and lived five years; then returned and began the practice of medicine at Russell- ville, Ky., but in 1834 located in Maryville, and died in 1845. The mother of our subject afterward married Rev. Fielding Pope, of Maryville, and died in 1883, in her seventy- third year. Our subject is the fifth of three sons and three daughters, all living except one sister. The maternal grandparents, Col. James and Elizabeth (Wilson) White, were prominent citizens of Washington County, Va.
A. K. Harper is the leading merchant of Blount County, and was reared on a farm in Knox County, where he was born in 1853. He remained at home until sixteen or seven- teen years old, then accepted a clerkship with G. L. Powell, of Knoxville, eight years; then came to Maryville, and conducted a general mercantile trade for H. L. Bradley & Co., three years. then purchased the stock of goods, and has since conducted a lucrative business. His trade is rapidly increasing and including, the grain trade amounts annually to nearly $75.000. In 1815 he married Jennie Walker, a native of Knox County, to whom one son, Eddie F., was born. Mrs. Harper, nee Walker, died in 1876. In 1882 our subject married Dora Reagan, a native of Monroe County, to whom three children have been born. A. K., the subject of this sketch. the first-born of four sons and two daughters of James and Elizabeth (Knott) Harper. The father was born in Knox County, and still resides there. His parents came to that county from Virginia.
Mrs. S. M. Henry, widow of the late J. F. Henry, was born in 1813 in Sevier County, Tenn., where she was reared. She is the second of uine children of Allen and Elizabeth (McSpadden) Bryan. Her father had five children by a former wife, Elizabeth Hub- bard. He represented Sevier County several years, and was a prominent farmer and citizen. Our subject's mother was born of Irish stock, while her husband had Scotch blood mixed with the same origin. Mrs. Henry was married in 1831. Mr. Henry was a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Henry, the former a prominent farmer and citizen of Blount County, born in Virginia, but a resident of Tennessee since childhood. Both were of Irish origin. Our subject's husband was a self-made man, educated by reading and study at home. He began for himself when of age, and at twenty-two married, and engaged at Louisville in merchandising for seventeen years. He then purchased and moved to a farm north of Knoxville, and lived there five years, when he moved back to Mrs. Henry's present home. He was State senator from the Blount County District from 1843 to 1850. and from the Knox County District from 1831 to 1852. He was candidate for re-election when sickness compelled him to resign. He made a splendid record as president of the Senate, one terin, and was reported to be a natural politician and one of the best financiers in Tennessee, as was evidenced by his ease in gaining wealth and his invariable success. He was a remarkable reader and close student. Their only child is Elizabeth
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J., formerly Mrs. Jackson, but after her husband's death, about 1862, became Mrs. Dr. J. A. Bond. Mrs. Henry, now seventy-three years old, has been a member of the Method- ist Episcopal Church South, since her sixteenth year, Her husband was a professed Christain, but a member of no denomination. He died October 26, 1884. He was an able major in the State militia for many years.
Capt W. H. Henry was born in Blount County, in 1841, and reared on a farm until about fifteen years old. He then attended and graduated from Maryville College, and afterward studied law at Macon, Ga., a short time. September 20, 1862, he enlisted in John P. McCowan's body guard, and after McCowan's arrest and trial by Bragg at Murfrees- boro, became attached to the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, Company L, of which he was made second lieutenant, after the fall of Capt. J. J. Parton at Chickamauga, and after- ward became captain. In August, 1864, he became paralyzed from exposure, retired from active service, but was still with his company at the surrender, in North Carolina. He returned home and farmed one year, and then taught school two or three years, but after- ward resumed farming. In 1875-76 he was superintendent of public instruction in Blount County. and elected justice of the peace, in 1882, by a large majority, his district being largely Republican, and he a Democrat. His home is in Maryville, but his farm of 140 acres is one mile and a half from Maryville. In 1966 he married Martha E., daughter of ex-Senator David W. Tedford. Of two sons and four daughters, one of the former and two of the latter are living, and the entire family are members of the Presbyterian Church. Samuel Henry, the great-grandfather, was born in Virginia, and built the first grist-mill south of Maryville in this county. In connection with his milling he farmed a 640-acres entry on Little Baker Creek, and donated sixteen acres now occupied by the Baker Creek Presbyterian Church, and on which he was afterward buried. The grandfather, William W., was a farmer, and lived in East Tennessee until the war, when he moved to Bell County, Tex., and died in 1864. The father, James M., also born and reared in Blount County, followed school teaching in his younger days. In 1839 he married Ann Hutton. He followed farming, and also teaming to and from Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, before the days of railroads. He died in 1875. He was sheriff of Blount County from 1848 to 1854, and was justice at the time of his death. He was captain of Company L, Second Tennessee Federal Cavalry, after Burnside entered East Tennessee in 1863, until the close of the war. The mother died in 1882. Our subject and his brother, J. N., residents of the old home-place, which has never passed out of the family's hands, are the survivors of six children, of whom four were sisters. The captain is the eldest, and for twenty-three years has been a great sufferer, at times, from hemiplegia, or paral- ysis, of the left side. Our subject and his father differed upon the questions involved in the war, and each showed his faith by his works, and yet the father's house was always the home of the son. A remarkable coincidence is that at the close of the war each one commanded Company L in his respective regiment, not having heard from the other for two years.
John H. Howard was born in Monroe County, in 1849, and reared on the farm until twenty-four years of age. He then married Dicey, daughter of Boyd McMurray, and a native of Blount County. They have one son and four daughters. He located on his present farm of 1,200 acres in 1873, and devotes most of his attention to stock growing. His grandfather, George Howard, was born, reared and married in South Carolina, and about 1818 came to Blount County, and located on Nine Mile Creek, where he farmed and also operated a tanyard until his death. Walter W., the father, was born in North Carolina in 1814, and lived with his parents until thirty-five years of age. He then mar- ried Martha Hardin, also a native of North Carolina, and settled in Monroe County, across the Little Tennessee. After about ten or twelve years he returned to where he was reared. and after the war moved to Bradley County. In 1877 he went to Polk County, his present home. The mother died in 1866, and the father afterward married Minerva Smith. who still lives. Of four sons and one daughter by the first marriage, three brothers survive.
David Jones was born in Wales, in 1834, and came to America in 1857, locating in Madison County, N. Y. He followed the stone and brick mason's trade for seven years,
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and then moved to Portage County, Ohio, where he continued his trade three years. In 1867 he came to Maryville, still engaged in his trade in connection with farming. He bought Mount Nebo Springs, in 1882, but sold them again in 1887. In the spring of 1885 he began operating a steam saw mill, and also began the manufacture of brick, his present business. In January, 1866, he married Mary J. Evans, a native of New York, but reared in Ohio. Of their three daughters one is deceased. The parents, Edward and Elizabeth (Jones) Jones, were natives of Wales, where they were married, lived on a farm. and died in 1863 and 1958 respectively. Our subject is the fifth child of eight sons and one daughter. Two brothers are deceased. Evan, a brother, is a Mason in Cleveland, Ohio.
T. W. Keller, marble quarry-man and farmer, in Blount County, resides in Knox- ville, and was born July 28, 1852, in Knox County. He received his education at Ewing and Jefferson College, graduating in 1869. He was thrown upon his own resources. when eighteen, and first accepted the position of general agent and salesman for all kinds of agricultural implements, in East Tennessee. After four years, he began merchandis- ing at Louisville, superintending his farm at the same time. With the exception of a farm from his wife's property, he has accumulated all he has, by his own efforts. April 1, 1873, he married Laura, a daughter of J. W. and M. J. Lackey. Their children are Ernest Russell, Mary M., Lena L., Maud and R. Howard. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which he has been ruling elder for twelve years. He is a Democrat, first voting for Tilden. He is a Master Mason, and also an Odd Fellow. He is the sixth of seven children of Frank F. and Mary A. (Crozier) Kel- ler, the former born in Tuscumbia, Ala., and the latter in Knoxville. The father was a success as a farmer, of Scotch-Irish descent. Capt. Crozier, the maternal grandfather, was born in Ireland, aud came to Knoxville when a young man. The Keller family are distantly related to Robert Bruce, of Scotland, and are related to Gen. Robert E. Lee. Our subject is interested in extensive quarries, in Knox and Blount Counties, and is a highly esteemed and respected man.
Mrs. M. J. Lackey, widow of the late J. W. Lackey, was born in 1827, in Blount County. She is the fourth of eight children of John and Ann (Gillispie) Russell. She married J. W. Lackey in 1849. He was a son of James and Jane Lackey, who were born and raised in Roane County, Tenn. James Lackey was a soldier in the war of 1813. He was a justice of the peace many years and gave universal satisfaction. J. W. Lackey received a collegiate education. When twenty-three years old, he was thrown upon his own resources, a poor man, and what he was worth at his death was accumulated by his own energy and practical business ability. At his death, besides having given consid- erable land to each of his children. he owned a fine farm of 400 acres, under a good state of cultivation, and located on the Tennessee River, eleven miles west of Maryville. Mr. Lackey was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, till his death, as is also Mrs. Lackey, who is still a member of the same church. To Mr. and Mrs. Lackey nine children were born: John Russell (deceased), James Monroe (deceased), Laura (now Mrs. T. W. Keller). William, (deceased), Jane (now Mrs. A.C. Montgomery), Annie (deceased), one deceased in infancy, Malinda M. (now Mrs. O. B. Prater), and Samuel A. Mr. Lackey died in 1879, since which time Mrs. Lackey has managed the affairs of her farm, and lived with ber children. Mrs. Lackey has given her children the advantages of a good educa- tion. One of her sons, Samuel A., is now attending Sweet Water College.
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