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 60
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Gov. De Witt Clinton Senter, was born in Rhea County, Teun., in 1830, and in
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infancy moved with his parents to Grainger County, where he was reared and attended the common schools of the county, and afterward Strawberry Plains High School. In 1859 he married Harriet T. Senter, a native of Grainger County. For his political sentiments he was arrested by the Confederate authorities in the spring of 1861, and held about eight months. He then made his residence at the old home place with his mother until 1869, then located on his present place of 360 acres, three mile west of Morristown. He also has two other tracts of land in Hamblen County, aggregating over 150 acres. He was elected a member of the Legisla- ture three consecutive terms from Grainger County, beginning in 1856. He was a mem- ber of the convention calling an election at the close of the war, and at that election was chosen for the State Senate from the counties of Grainger, Claiborne, Anderson and Uniou, and succeeded himself in the same office, being speaker of the Senate the second term he served, W. G. Brownlow being elected United States senator by that Legislature. Our subject became governor of Tennessee, and was then reelected, and discharged the duties of governor one term afterward. He was district elector on the Lincoln and Johnson ticket and State elector on the Graut and Colfax ticket. At the expiration of his last term as governor he returned to his home, and has since been leading a retired, private life. Hc is a Freemason. Tandy Senter, the paternal grandfather. was a native of Virginia, and in youth came with his parents to Grainger County, and afterward moved to Roane County, and was in the war of 1812, and died there about 1865 at the age of one hundred and nine years, outliving all his sons. William T., the father of our sub- ject, was born in Grainger County, and was the youngest child of a large family. He was a member of the first constitutional convention, which met to remodel the constitu- tion, and soon after was a candidate for Congress, and was afterward a candidate ( Whig) from the First District, and about 1844 was elected to Congress from this district. He was at one time a traveling minister of the Methodist Church. His death occurred in Grainger County in 1947. His wife, our subject's mother, Nancy (White) Senter, is still living, at present in Hamblen County; she is a native of Hawkins County, and has been the mother of seven children, six still living, our subject being the first born. The Senter family are of Scotch-Irish descent, one of the hardiest, ablest and most prominent of American family ancestries. Many of the greatest orators of the country are Scotch-Irish.
S. W. Shields, postmaster at Morristown, was born in Grainger (now Hamblen) County in 1844, one of nine children of James and Mary (Cobb) Shields. The father was born in Greene County and after his majority he lived in Missouri three years, when he returned home and married and located at Marshall's Ferry within the present limits of Hamblen County, where he was postmaster during the war. His death occurred July ;. 1882, his wife's having happened in 1863. Our subject enlisted in the Fifty-ninth Tennes- see Infantry, and served in that regiment until the close of the war, and then returned to his old home, where he resided until he received his present appointment in 1885, taking charge in July. He is a member of the F. & A. M.
Rev. W. H. Smith was born near Knoxville, Tenn., October 27, 1819, and was reared on a farm, and when twenty-three entered Maryville College, Maryville, Tenn., attending seven years, and during this time studied theology under the president, Dr. Anderson. In April. 1850, he was licensed to preach and a year later ordained by the Union Presbytery and located at Newport, Cocke County. He preached half of his time for thirteen years at Newport and the other half at two other points; then only one-half of his time at Morristown and the other half at two other points, one fourth cach, when there were new organizations, and where he has been preaching for more than ten years. He then moved to the Chucky River on May 4, 1865, within the present limits of Hamblen County. He preached during the war, and for several months walked sixteen miles to one of his appointments. From 1867 he lived two years at another part of Jefferson County, but since May 4, 1869. he has lived in Morristown, where he erected his present home. To to 1870, when they built their present church building, he preached in the Methodist Episco- pal Church. From two at his arrival, and twenty-six at the organization, he has built up the membership to 126, and has been instrumental in building up three Presbyterian
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Churches. January 27, 1853, he married Adaline MeBath, a native of Blount County. Their children are William MeBath, of Dallas, Texas, and Oliver P., deceased. She died April 17, 1862, and December 21, 1805, he married Margaret C. McFarland. a sister of Judges Robert and W. McFarland. He was made an Odd Fellow in April, 1822, and has filled all the responsible offices of the subordinate lodge, was twice a delegate to the Grand Lodge of the State, has filled the office of District Deputy Grand Master most of the time for ten years, and has been elected secretary for eleven consecutive years. Philip Smith, his father, was born February 12, 1789, and when of age settled as a farmer in Knox County. He was in the war of 1812, and died August 21, 1882. The mother, Mary (McCampbell) Smith, resident of Knox County from childhood, died April 14. 1842. Our subject, one ef twin brothers and seven sisters, is among the six still living.
Samuel and George Smith, two of Hamblen County's most enterprising citizens, were born in Hawkins County in 1819 and 1823, respectively. The father, George, was born and reared in Hawkins County, and served in the war of 1812. He afterward married Elizabeth White, whose parents located about 1795 on the farm where our subject, George, now resides. They lived on a farm in Hawkins County, until the death of the father in 1827, after which the mother and children returned to the old home place. and there resided until her death in 1871. In 1845 Samuel married Elizabeth Sanders, of Haw- kins County, and the following year located on his present home farm of 138 acres, one mile north of Whitesburg. He also has three other farms, two in Hawkins and one in Hamblen County, and is extensively engaged in stock raising. He has also been a justice since 1870. Of their three sons and one daughter two sons are deceased. George Smith has lived on the old home place from childhood. The farm contains 215 acres near Whitesburg, on which stands a barn, in good repair, that was built in 1810. The yellow pinc shingles on the barn are yet good, and appear as if they might last thirty or forty years longer. It is the best log barn in Tennessee. In 1870 he began merchandising at Whites- burg, and continued it until 1885, instead of farming, as he had done before. From 1820 to 1878 he was postmaster at Whitesburg. and in 1885 became the incumbent again, and is now serving. He married Sarah A. Hurst, a native of Claiborne County, the mother of his three sons and six daughters, all living. He is a Mason, and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Grinefield Taylor was born in Henry County, Va., December 13, 1785, and when about eleven years old came with his father, Daniel, to East Tennessee, locating in Grain- ger County, on the Holston, near Marshall's Ferry, four miles from the present site of Morristown. November 10, 1808. he married Susanna, a daughter of Robert Smith, of Hawkins County. The year following he moved with his wife and one child. Redden S., to Blount County, locating near Maryville. In 1819 he located on a farm in the north end of Blount County, two miles from Louisville, where he died in 1873 after rearing a family of ten sons and one daughter. The ten sons grew to maturity, were members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church South, and were never known to take intoxicating liquors or utter an oath. The eldest, Redden S., was born in 1809, and in infancy moved to Blount County. In 1833 he married Nancy W., born in 1817, a daughter of Robert and Mary (Law) Warren; the former, a native of Pennsylvania. and a staff officer in the Revolution- ary war, entered the present site of Warrensburg, Greene County. Robert Warren mar- ried Mary Law as his second wife, and they reared part of their family in Greene County. then Blount became their residence where they died. Redden S. Taylor and his wife. after residing several years in Grainger County, in 1849 moved to Bent Creek, and located on the farm where Mrs. Taylor lives with her youngest child, Charles M. This farm of 500 acres, seven miles up from the mouth of Bent Creek. includes part of the south side of Bays Mountain, and still belongs to the family. Redden was very kind, charitable and hospitable. and always had the best interests of his community and State uppermost in his mind. He died September 1, 1884, esteemed and respected to a very high degree. Twelve of his thirteen children lived to rear families of their own. Rufus F .. one son. was born in 1948, and is a prominent farmer of Hamblen County. He attended Tusculum College in 1866-68, and then engaged in mercantile life at St. Clair. Hawkins County.
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which he continued twelve years. He then located at his present home a little above the old place, on Bent Creek. In 1870 he married Mary Virginia Earnest, a native of Greene County, and of two sons and four daughters two of the latter are deceased. James G: and W. J., brothers of Rufus F., were in the Fifth Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, the latter being captured at Perryville, Ky., and held prisoner twenty-two months at Camp Douglas. Charles M., the youngest of Redden S. Taylor's children. resides on the old home place. He was in the mercantile trade at Rogersville Junction five years in partnership with his brothers, W. L. and R. F. He married Emma Lotspeich, a native of Greene County. They have one child. S. R. Taylor, another son, resides on part of the homestead. He married Sallie, daughter of Dr. Nielson, of Asheville, N. C. IJe has two sons.
C. V. Taylor, proprietor of the "Greenwood Herd of Shorthorn Cattle" was born January 13, 1860, on the farm where he now resides. He took a special course of study at Washington and Lee University, Virginia, aud graduated at Eastman's Business Col- lege, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., June, 1880. After graduating he went to Knoxville, where he secured a position as bill clerk for Lewis & Carhart, wholesale grocers at that place, where he remained one and a half years, when he returned to the farm, where he has since been engaged, principally in raising fine stock. He was married in October, 1883, to Miss M. E. Hughes, a daughter of M. J. Hughes, a native of East Tennessee; at present is engaged in the manufacture of stereotypes in New York City. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Jennie Shields and George Folsom. Mr. Taylor is a Demo- crat in politics, casting his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland. He is the tenth of eleven children of F. W., Sr .. and Eliza (Graham) Taylor, natives of Grainger and Jeffer- son Counties respectively. Mr. F. W. Taylor, Sr., moved with his parents to St. Gen- evieve County, Mo., January, 1818, and three years later went with his brother, Fin- ley Taylor, to Pitman's Ferry on Currant River, where he and his brother engaged in merchandising. On account of ill health he returned to East Tennessee, in the fall of 1835, and engagedin merchandising with Hughes O. Taylor and Leeper Long, style of firm In 1841 he moved with Mr. Long to Russellville, name being Taylor, Long & Co. Mr. Long and continued in business, style of firm name being Taylor & Long. shortly afterward died, and after the late firm's business was settled up, he continued in business at same place with David Turley for three years, and afterward with Joseph Eckel for five years. In 1846, during the partnership of Taylor & Turley, he moved to the Greenwood farm, and engaged in farming until his death. He was born November 16, 1810, and died March 16, 1886. Mr. F. W. Taylor, Sr., was a man of splendid natural abilities as a business man and farm manager, in fact he always enjoyed excellent success no difference what he undertook. He began life for himself a poor man, and when he died was one of the wealthiest citizens of Hamblen County. He was noted for his liber- ality and benevolence toward whatsoever he thought worthy of assistance. Some time before his death he settled up an estate appraised at $1,100,000, and no bond was required of him, so great was the confidence of the people in Mr. Taylor's sterling integrity and ability as a business man. He was a son of George and Catherine Taylor, natives of Botetourt County, Va., who at an carly day immigrated to what is now Grainger County, Tenn., with a family by the name of Beacon. Mr. Taylor was a soldier in the Revo- lutionary war. Mrs. Eliza Taylor was a daughter of William Graham, whose father. George Graham, brought him from Botetourt County, Va., to Jefferson County, Tenn .. shortly after the Revolutionary war. F. W.Taylor, Sr., served, as postmaster at Rus- sellville, Tenn., about 1837, and he was of Irish-English descent, and Mrs. Eliza Taylor was of Scotch-English descent.
William G. Taylor, one of Hamblen County's leading citizens, was born at Russell- ville, that county. He is of a family of eight children who were reared to maturity, only one of whom is now deceased. (For the sketch of his parents see the biography of C. V. Taylor.) Ha and a brother Samuel were in the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry. He was captured near Lancaster, Ky., during Scott's raid in 1863, and was held at Fort Camp Chase, Del., till the close of the war. Samuel was captured during the
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fight at Knoxville and was held at Camp Douglas till the close of the war. At the close of the war our subject attended the University at Lexington, Ky., a few months, then Washington Lec University three years, then the Lebanon Law School one year, and located in the practice of the legal profession at Morristown in 1872, continuing five years, at which date he located on the farm where be has since resided, three miles south - west of Morristown. In 1875 he married Eva Burnett, a native of Cocke County, to whom Carrie and William Grabamu have been born.
J. E. Thompson, a prominent citizen of Morristown, was born within the present limits of Hamblen County, one of ten children of James and Jane (Reed) Thompson, of English origin and natives of East Tennessee. The parents were married near the present site of Morristown, and the father soon after entered the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and so continued in connection with his farming until his death in 1873, his wife having preceded bim nine years. Our subject was born in 1828. and remained at home until twenty-three years of age, and then came to Morristown and followed harness-making and the saddler's trade a few years, then engaged in merchan- dising until elected county trustee in 1878, to which he was re-elected up to August, 1886. He is a Master Mason of Morristown Lodge, No. 231, and has been of that rank about twenty years. In 1857 he married Josephine Havely, of Tazewell, to whom two sons and three daughters have been born, one of the latter being deceased. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Thompson is the only man now living in Morristown who resided here when he first took up his residence in the town, all others having passed away.
J. H. Trent, is the eighth of nine children of Zachariah and Naomi (Greene) Trent. natives of Virginia and North Carolina. His father was born in 1801, and in youth came to Hawkins County, where he met and married his wife, and filled many positions of pub- lic trust in the same county. He was the first sheriff of Hancock County, and he died in 1850, and the mother died in Morristown in 1877. Our subject was born in Hawkins County in 1838. He attended the common schools, and at the age of fourteen, assumed the care of his mother, and a younger sister. He persisted in educating himself. however, and entered the Sneedville Academy, in his seventeenth year, remaining several years, and twice carrying off the highest honors of the school. He taught at intervals, for the support of his mother and sister, and to enable him to continue his studies. He closed his school at Mulberry Gap, Tenn., and entered Mossy Creek College in 1860, but the war thwarted his purposed graduation, and he entered the Fourth Tennessee Infantry- (Federal), in which he soon became first lieutenant, and also captain of the First Ten uessee Cavalry (Cnion). He was discharged on account of disability, after nearly two years' service. He studied law under Judge Nelson, late of the supreme court, and began practice at Sneedville in 1866; soon after which he married the daughter of Col. John R. Henry, of Knoxville. He moved to Morristown in 1871, especially to educate bis children. and has since filled, efficiently, the offices of superintendent of schools, postmaster, and is now trustee of the county. He served seven years as postmaster, under four different presidents, and nine postmaster-generals. He has two sons and four daughters living. and two sons and one daughter deceased. The family are Baptists. He is a Republican, decided, but kind and courteous.
HI. Williams, county clerk, was born in 1830, within the present limits of Hamblen County, the youngest child of five sons and six daughters of Francis and Catherine (Hodges) Williams, natives of Pennsylvania and South Carolina, respectively. The par - ents came to East Tennessee, in youth, and were married, and located near Morristown about 1810. He served in the war of 1812, under Gen. Jackson, and died in this locality in 1862, and his wife in 1858. In February, 1863, our subject enlisted in the Fourth Ten- nessee Federal Cavalry, and was mustered out at the close, as a non-commissioned officer. He then returned to his native community, and for thirteen years filled clerkships in the general merchandise stores of Morristown. In 1818 he was elected to his present position. In 1858 he married Jane Stephens, by whom four children were born, three of whom are deceased. His wife died in 1860, and he afterward married Mary, a sister of his first wife. to
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whom one child was born. The mother of this child died in 1883, and he afterward mar. ried Laura M. Thompson, a native of the Empire State. They have one child. Mr. Williams is a Mason, and the family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
G. G. Williams, a prominent farmer, was born March 29, 1851, on Spring Creek, three miles east of Morristown, and is a grandson of Ezekiel Williams, who was born in North Carolina about 1760. In childhood, he went to Virginia, and when about twenty-three located within the present limits of Hamblen County. He soon married a Miss McDaniel. whose parents were, at that time, living about six miles above Morristown, where ber parents reared a family of five sons and two daughters who grew to maturity. Her father died about 1867, and his wife many years before. Alexander, the father of our subject, was among the youngest members of the family, and grew to manhood on the old home place. He then married Hannah Reed, a native of that vicinity. and lived within a few miles of Morristown until his death, in November, 1880; his wife's death occurring in 1882. Our subject was the youngest son of their family of six sons and four daughters born to them. He remained at home until twenty-three, and then married Sarah, a daughter of J. W. Stubblefield, a pioneer of this county. He has since owned and lived upon several farms in the county, and on one, two and one-half miles north of Mor- ristown, on Turkey Creek. he built and operated a saw and grist-mill several years. Since January, 1885, he has lived on his present home farm of over 200 acres, including part of Crockett's Ridge, from the side of which issues a spring of fine water, which with pipes, and a fall of sixty feet in a third of a mile course, Mr. Williams has conveyed to his house. Four of his brothers and one sister are living; two. Wiley and Ezekiel, were in the Federal service, the former being a lieutenant of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, and suffering with a broken thigh, from a minie ball, at the battle of Franklin. Our subject's four sons and one daughter are all living. Mrs. Williams' father, an old and highly esteemed citi- zen, was born in Grainger County, on the north bank of the Holston. In 1810. after his majority, he was employed by the Shields Paper-Mill Company for several years, and about the same time became a partner in the firm of John Morris & Co .. of Morristown, the business of which firm he closed up about 1841. In 1844 he married Mary A. Thomp- son, and has since farmed in the vicinity of Morristown, at bis present home since 1948. Their four sons and four daughters are all living. His wife died in April, 1883. Joseph and Rebecca (Sullens) Stubblefield, his parents, were natives of Halifax County, Ve .. and came to Grainger County, in their youth, and there died in the house where Wyatt Stub- blefield was born.
HANCOCK COUNTY.
Hon. Joseph W. Baker was born on his present farm August 11, 1825. the son of William and Elizabeth (Wallen) Baker, the former of English origin, born in Buncombe County, N.C., in 1788, and died in this county in 1868, and the latter, born about 1793. in Hawkins (now Hancock) County, and died in 1852. The father was ten years old when he came here, and was a soldier at the battle of New Orleans, while his father. Robert. was a soldier at King's Mountain. Our subject, the sixth of nine children, has been largely self-educated, and left home when, December 24, 1553, he married Minerva Testerman. the daughter of William and Mary Testerinan, and born October 17, 1533. in Lee County. Va. Of their three sons and eight daughters one of the former and one of the latter are deceased. Our subject was a constable four years, then deputy sheriff, and then sheriff. but in 1863 he joined Company E, Eighth Tennessee Federal Cavalry, and received a severe wound, which left him disabled in the mountains for two weeks, after which he went a distance of fifty miles on crutches to Cumberland Gap, where a wagon train took him to Camp Nelson, Ky. The exposure confined bim to the hospital for three months. In 1866 he became trustee for two years, and the following year represented Hancock
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County in the Legislature for a term of four years. He has refused offers to become can- didate for State senator. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, is a Masou, a strong Prohibitionist, and an influential Republican. His farm career has been a success.
Jonathan Bales, planter, was born at his present location, October 30, 1823, in the then Claiborne County, the son of Caleb and Mary E. (Bales) Bales, of Quaker origin, and natives of York County, Penn., the former born about 1790, and died in this county in March, 18:0, and the latter in 1862. They came to Claiborne County with their parents. and after marriage became farmers, at our subject's present home, while the father was a merchant at one time. Politically he was a Democrat. Our subject, the second of six children, grew up with country, home and school advantages, and in 1870 became owner of the homestead. He now owns 800 acres in this county, and seventy acres in Lee County, Va. September 10, 1875. he married Sarah A. Crockett, of Claiborne County, and they have two sons and four daughters. He is a Democrat, while both are members of the Missionary Baptist Church.
Isaac W. Campbell. an enterprising merchant and proprietor of the " Campbell Hotel " of Sneedville, was born at Sneedville when it was known as Greasy Rock, September 12, 1839, the son of Alexander and Nancy (McNeal) Campbell. The father was of Scotob descent, born in Hawkins County December 22. 1780, and died in Sneedville, January 30, 1870. The mother was born (it is thought in North Carolina) March 22, 1194, and died at Sneedville, November 20, 1839. They were married March 19, 1815, and settled down to farming at Greasy Rock, where they died. The father was a Republican. Our subject is the youngest of three children. He received a good academical education in his youth. February 8. 1855, he married Miss Sarah J. Burkett, a most excellent lady, born in Botetourt County, Va., November 23. 1839. Upon marrying, our subject settled in Sneedville, and was engaged in teaching school and farming up to the war. In August, 1862, he was elected by the county court high sheriff of Hancock County, but one year later, on account of Lis political sentiments. he was forced to leave Sneedville, went to Kentucky, and remained until the close of the war. While in Kentucky he was engaged in the mercantile business at Cumberland Gap. At the close of the war he returned to Sneedville, and continued in the mercantile business one year. In the meantime (1865) he was appointed clerk and master of the chancery court of Hancock County by Chan- cellor Lucky, of Jonesboro, Tenn., served about six years, but soon after receiving the appointment he was made a deputy, and moved to a farm on Clinch River, two miles south of Sneedville, where he resided till 1815, engaged in farming, then came to Sneedville, and opened up a general store, and has been engaged in the mercantile business ever since. Six years ago he opened up the Campbell House. Ile does a mercantile business of about $15,000 a year. He is a Republican. Our subject is also connected with a mercantile business at Kyle's Ford on the Clinch River. The firm is I. W. Campbell & Co. He has seven children-three sons and four daughters. One son, Tyler Campbell, is a lawyer, and now attorney-general of the First Judicial District.
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