USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee. Personal and genealogical, with portraits, Volume I > Part 13
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nineteen and thirteen years, respectively. The "Titcomb cor- ner," as it is termed, has had a drug store located there for seventy-five years. and the Titcomb family have owned it for over fifty years. Mr. Titcomb has served as mayor of Columbia since May, 1903, when he succeeded to the office on the retire- ment of Mr. E. Yoest. He is a Democrat, but not aggressive in politics. He is strictly devoted to his profession. Himself and family are members of the First Presbyterian church, which has been the religious home of his ancestors for genera- tions. Mr. Titcomb has been quite an extensive traveler, though never long absent from his home city.
WILLIAM BETHEL ROMINE, of Pulaski, Tenn., editor and pub- lisher of the Pulaski Citizen, is a descendant of one of the oldest families in the United States. As early as 1660 some of the name settled at New Amsterdam (now New York), and Layton Romine was among the early settlers on the French Broad river, in Upper East Tennessee, and there reared a large family. William, one of the younger sons of his first marriage, married Mary Callahan, and this couple were the grandparents of the subject of this sketch. They lived for a time at Rogersville, Ala., where James Alexan- der Romine, the father of William B., was born. When he was about sixteen years of age he came. with his parents to Stantonville, McNairy county, Tenn., and there grew to man- hood. He was a farmer by occupation and held the offices of school director and justice of the peace. James A. Romine married Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Marion and Ann Belle ( Howard) Fullwood, her parents coming from North Carolina at an early date and settling at Stantonville. At the battle of King's Mountain, in the Revolutionary war, William Fullwood and Benoni Banning fought side by side. In the brilliant charge up the mountain Banning was wounded three
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times by bayonet thrusts. The two men afterward became great friends,-so intimate, in fact, that Fullwood married Banning's daughter, Elizabeth, and Samuel M. Fullwood, the maternal grandfather of the subject, was a son of this marriage. William Bethel Romine was born at Stantonville, Nov. 21, 1861. His primary education was obtained in the public schools of McNairy county, Elder T. B. Larimore being one of his early teachers. He afterward attended the Peabody college, University of Nashville, graduating with the degree of L.I. in 1887, that being the only degree then conferred by the literary department. Before going to college he had engaged in teach- ing, and after receiving his degree followed that profession for seven years. In 1894 he became the editor and publisher of the Citizen, which he has since conducted as a successful and. enterprising newspaper. Politically, Mr. Romine is a Democrat, and has been active in promoting the interests of his party. He has served as secretary of the county executive committee; was elected to the legislature of 1901, and again, 1903, from the district of which Giles county is a part. In the session of 1901 he was chairman of the penitentiary committee, and in 1903 of the committee on education. In church matters he is a Cumberland Presbyterian; is an elder in the church and clerk of the session; has served as moderator of the presbytery; repre- sented his presbytery in the general assembly; also represented his church in the general council of the Presbyterian alliance at Washington, D. C., in 1899, and is superintendent of the Sunday school. In the fraternal circles of Pulaski he is a prom- inent figure, having served as worshipful master of his Masonic lodge; high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter; chancellor com- mander of the Knights of Pythias; and trustee of the Odd Fellows lodge. In 1888 he was for some months connected with the state militia as a member of the Witt Rifles of Colum- bia. In whatever movement Mr. Romine engages, he gives it his undivided attention and his best efforts for the time. As a business man he is successful because of his energy and well- directed efforts; in his church he is a consistent supporter of his religious tenets; in his lodges he practices the precepts of the order; and in politics he is always true to his principles and
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ready to defend them. It is natural that such a man should enjoy the full confidence and respect of his associates and acquaintances, and Mr. Romine occupies that position in the community where he lives. He was married at Pulaski on June 10, 1891, to Miss Lizzie, daughter of Judge John S. and Florence (Barker) Wilkes. Judge Wilkes is one of the justices of the Tennessee supreme court, and during the Civil war was in the commissary department of the Confederate army with rank of captain. To Mr. and Mrs. Romine there has been born one son, John Wilkes, born Sept. 14, 1900. He was a remark- ably bright and pretty child, full of promise, but died of that dread disease. diphtheria, on Dec. 2.4, 1902.
WILLIAM AUSTIN SMITH, M. D., Ph. D., of Columbia, Tenn., is a descendant of Rev. Henry Smith. 1640, and is a son of Rev. Franklin Gillette Smith, who was born Dec. 14, 1797, at Benson. Vt., the fourth of six sons born to Judge Chauncey Smith. The Judge was a son of Asahel Smith, who married Miss Agnes Gillette, a French lady, who lived to the age of eighty. her hus- band dying at fifty. Judge Chauncey Smith died in LeRoy, New York, Dec. 11, 1836. Franklin Gillette Smith was a studious boy and followed his earlier instruction with a course at Middlebury college and at Prince- ton. In early manhood he opened a school for boys at Milledge- ville, the former capital of Georgia, but he soon after became a resident of Virginia, establishing himself in Prince Edward county, where he pursued teaching. While there he was ordained as presbyter in the Episcopal church, and it is said his reading and sermons were models of finish. thought and eloquence. In 1822 he established a school at Lynchburg, in the old Masonic hall, where during the week he taught and on Sunday conducted divine service, carrying on the latter for years without compensation and building up the church from
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almost nothing to a fairly strong number, the outcome being the erection of a church building in 1825-26. The first Epis- copal convention in Upper Virginia was held in this edifice, which his unselfish and devoted work had made possible. In 1829 he established a girls' school in Lynchburg and con- ducted it successfully for some time. He was married May 29, 1836, to Miss Sarah Davis, daughter of Henry Davis, of Lynchburg, and she joined her husband in enlarging and broad- ening the scope of the institution until it came to be the best known school in Lynchburg. In 1837 Rev. F. G. Smith received an urgent solicitation to take charge of a literary insti- tution at Columbia, Tenn., and in the fall of that year he took leave of his many friends in Lynchburg and set out with his family in carriages, his school apparatus and furniture in wagons, and reached their destination after a long and weari- some trip. For fourteen years he carried on his school work. The course of study prepared by him was both extensive and practical. In 1852 he founded the Columbia Atheneum, of which he remained principal until his death in IS66. The state legislature chartered the Athenaeum in 1858, with full college powers. In the early forties he established The Guardian, a family magazine that for many years had a wide circulation, and in 1860 he wrote "The Children of the Rectory." Besides being one of the most prominent and successful educators of his time, Mr. Smith was of an inventive turn of mind and obtained many patents from the government. In politics, he was a Whig, and, like many of that party, took sides with the South in the war. He uniformed Company B, of the Second Tennessee infantry; sent two sons into the army; served in the home guards; and spent much time in the South and with the soldiers in the field. He was one of the first to suggest the feasibility of postal cars. The school buildings were destroyed by fire in 1856. He was an earnest reader, his writing and speaking being graceful and polished. His lectures in the Athenæum were brilliant and drew crowds and he became one of the most popular men of the South, his fine qualities of mind and heart, his congenial nature and his courteous manner giving him a rare charm which drew to him the best people
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and minds of the time. In 1860 he and his wife revisited their old home in Lynchburg, after an absence of twenty-three years, and there they met a hearty and generous welcome from the friends of early days. The war caused a suspension of his school, but at the end of hostilities he resumed his labors, quickly restoring it to the high place gained in the days before the war. The exercises in June, 1866, were unusually brilliant, the attendance large, and never had its future appeared brighter. Mr. Smith began preparing for the new year's work, when he was attacked with bilious fever, and on Aug. 4, 1866, at the age of sixty-nine, he laid down the cares of life and entered into rest, passing away at peace with all mankind. The funeral procession was one of the largest ever seen in Columbia. The burial was with Masonic honors, as he had been a past master, a Knight Templar and a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret. Besides thousands of friends, he left a widow who maintained the reputation of the Athenaeum until her death in 1871, two daughters, Mrs. L. M. Hosea and Mrs. R. K. Burckhardt of Cincinnati, and three sons, R. D., W. A., and F. H .. the latter of whom managed the institution until 1887, R. D. Smith taking charge when he retired. Rev. F. G. Smith established the first undenominational school for girls and was the pioneer publisher of educational journals. Few of those who have made for themselves names and places in educational circles have done as much for lasting good as he. William Austin Smith, his son, was born in Columbia, Tenn., May 28, 1845. and was reared in his native city, where he received his early education. He was graduated from the University of Virginia in 1867. He received the degree of M. A. from the Columbia Athenaeum, and LL.D. from the Chicago university. He completed a course in the University of Nashville, Vanderbilt university, and the Cumberland university at Lebanon, graduating in medi- cine from the first two and in philosophy from the last. He engaged for a short time in the practice of medicine in Colum- bia, but his principal life work has been along the lines of education. He and his two brothers were the owners of the Columbia Athenæum and the Columbia high school. These institutions have passed from the hands of the original owners
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and are now owned by the city of Columbia and used for public school purposes. Fifteen years of his life were spent in active teaching. He was president of the State Teachers' association for one year. Doctor Smith has published several books and pamphlets. He is a man of exalted attainments along literary lines and is well known among the prominent educators of Tennessee. In his eighteenth year he enlisted in the Second Tennessee infantry, commanded by Col. Wm. B. Bate. He has a commission from the Confederate secretary of war as ordnance sergeant of the Forty-eighth Tennessee infantry, and was ordnance officer of Quarles' brigade at the close of the war. He participated in all the battles of the Army of Ten- nessee, from Murfreesboro to the close. Doctor Smith is a member of the Tennessee Historical society, the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science, the Sigma Chi and other societies, and belongs to the subordinate and grand lodges and bodies of the Masonic fraternity and Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Tennessee. He is a past master in the Masonic order, and past grand master and grand patriarch of the Odd Fellows of the state; is now master of the convocation of past masters of Tennessee; a Son of the American Revolution, by reason of his great-grandfather's services; president of the Alumni Society of the University of Virginia for Columbia, Tennessee; adjutant and secretary of Leonidas Polk Bivouac No. 3, and William Henry Trousdale Camp No. 495. United Confederate Veterans of Columbia ; a member of the Episcopal church and for a number of years was president of the Young Men's Christian association in Columbia. He owns a hand- some home on School street, where he lives surrounded by his books and pets. He was for many years one of the editors of The Guardian, the educational paper founded by his esteemed father. He has visited European countries and has traveled extensively over North America, having been in nearly every country, state and territory on this continent. Among the medals that he has received for distinguished services are the past master's and past grand master's jewels and the Southern Cross of Honor. He visits the sick, relieves the distressed. buries the dead, cares for the widow and educates the orphan.
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He continues a large correspondence in this and other countries. As a good citizen, he helps the people, young and old. He has made many friends in his career of usefulness.
WILLIAM E. BOSTICK, principal of the city schools of Columbia, Tenn., was born in Richmond county, N. C., Aug. 12, 1854. He is a son of Jonas H. and Mary (Covington) Bostick, both natives of North Carolina, where most of their lives were passed. The father was a merchant. He died at the age of thirty-five years. The mother is still living and makes her home with her son. She was born in 1831. Wil- liam E. was the only child. His principal education was gained at Rockingham, the market town of the section in which the family lived. He had a hard struggle in acquiring an edu- cation, walking four miles to school. He also attended the private school conducted by Professor McDirmid at Ellerbe Springs, for fifteen months, then for a similar length of time at the Rockingham private school, one year in Trinity college, a short time at Webb Brothers' school at Culleoka, Tenn., and one term at Eastman Business college, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he finished his education. Upon leaving school he be- came a bookkeeper for a wholesale merchant at Wilmington, N. C., where he was employed for a year. He was married Nov. 30, 1876, in Maury county, Tenn., to Miss Elizabeth Nicholson, a native of that county. He remained in Tennessee for a year and then returned to North Carolina. A year later, he left his wife temporarily in North Carolina and went to Texas, but did not locate or engage in any business there. In 1878 he returned to Tennessee, and the following January en- gaged in mercantile business in Columbia, carrying on a grocery business for about six months. He taught one year in the Columbia Boys' Training school and then returned to the grocery business, remaining in it this time until 1894. At that time he was elected principal of the Columbia public schools and has continued in that position since. He has charge of three buildings. with about five hundred white children en- rolled in the various grades. The Latin course in the high school. includes four years' work. The colored schools are
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also under Professor Bostick's jurisdiction, the number of pupils being about the same as the white. In the white school nine teachers are employed in the general school work, and a special teacher of vocal music. In the colored schools there are seven teachers, all colored. Professor and Mrs. Bostick have five children living and have lost one: Nona and Marrin, twins; Bessie, Kate, James T. and William Eugene, Jr. The first named died of typhoid fever at the age of seventeen years. All but the youngest have completed their school work. James T. is employed with the Birmingham Southern railroad, with which he has a good position. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In political views, Professor Bostick has been rather discriminating, voting for men rather than party measures. He is a popular man and a highly valued citizen, well known throughout the county as a conscientious and successful educator.
MORGAN C. FITZPATRICK, of Hartsville, lawyer, jour- nalist and present representative of the fourth district in Con- gress, is the youngest member of the Tennessee delegation, both in point of years and congressional membership. He was born in 1870, was educated in the common schools, the University of Ohio, and graduated from the law department of Cumberland university, at Lebanon, Tenn. He began the practice of law, but his inclination toward journalism was so strong that he , became the editor of a newspaper. He has twice been a mem- ber of the Tennessee legislature; served two terms as state superintendent of public instruction, and was twice chairman of the Democratic state executive committee. Upon his second election to the legislature he was chosen speaker of the house of representatives, and those who served during that session with him speak of him as an able and impartial presiding officer. Through the acquaintances he formed as a legislator, editorial writer, and as chairman of the Democratic committee, he became popular with his associates, and in 1902 came out as a candidate for the nomination to Congress against Hon. Charles E. Snodgrass. He was victorious at the primary election by a substantial majority, and was triumphantly elected in November.
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The district is composed of the counties of Clay, Cumberland, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Morgan, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Rhea, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale and Wilson. The district is one of the largest in the state, being 160 miles in extent from east to west and about 90 miles from north to south. Some of the counties have no railroad, yet Mr. Fitzpatrick made a canvass of the district and not only held his own with the party ticket but in several places made substantial gains.
HON. LEMUEL P. PADGETT, representative in Congress from the Columbia district, is a native of. Co- lumbia, Tenn., where he was born Nov. 28, 1855. He is a son of John B. and Rebecca O. (Phillips) Pad- gett, the former a native of William- son county, Tenn., and the latter of Maury county. John B. Padgett was a public official in Maury county for many years, serving twenty years as clerk of the county court, and dy- ing at the age of forty-nine years. His wife died in her sixty- fourth year. Their family consisted of three sons and one daughter. Lemuel is the eldest; one of the sons is deceased ; the sister is now Mrs. Dr. E. G. Grant, of Columbia; the living brother (Hazel) is one of the leading physicians of central Tennessee. Henry G. died in 1881, at the age of nineteen. Lemuel P. Padgett was educated in the schools of Columbia and at Erskine college, S. C., graduating from the latter insti- tution in the classical course, in 1876. He engaged in the study of law in the office of Wilkes & Bullock, at Columbia, and was admitted to practice in 1877. After giving two years to additional study, he began practice in 1879, and in 1880 was associated as a partner of the Hon. John V. Wright. After the dissolution of Wilkes & Bullock he became a partner with Col. N. R. Wilkes and continued with him until July 1, 1887, when he formed a partnership with H. P .. Figuers, which lasted until Mr. Padgett's election to Congress in 1900. His law
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practice was of a general nature, giving special prominence to no feature of the profession. As an attorney, Mr. Padgett has borne an enviable record as an honest and fearless advocate, strong and able in defense, aggressive and active in prosecution. He was elected to the state senate in 1898, though without his seeking the office, being nominated over his own protest after three times withdrawing his name from the consideration of the convention. He served the term, being elected to Congress while yet a state senator. His nomination was secured after a hard contest, in which several very prominent gentlemen were contestants. In 1902 he was re-elected.
In Congress Mr. Padgett is a member of the banking and currency committee, one of the most important of the lower house. Mr. Padgett was married, Nov. 11, 1880, to Miss Ida B. Latta, of Columbia, a daughter of Sims Latta, former sheriff of Maury county and now a successful and well-to-do farmer. Mrs. Padgett was educated at the Columbia Atheneum. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Padgett: Eliz- abeth, a student in Washington, D. C .; John B., William L., and Lemuel P., Jr. Mr. Padgett is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and of the Royal Arcanum. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, although his father's family were Meth- odists and his mother's people were members of the Christian church. Politically, he is an active and zealous supporter of the principles of the Democratic party, and was one of the presidential electors for the Democracy in Tennessee when Mr. Cleveland was elected to the presidency in 1884.
JAMES B. COWAN, M. D., one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Tullahoma. Tenn., is of Scotch-Irish extrac- tion, that happy combination of blood which has produced so many men prominent in the annals of America. His ancestors went from Scotland to Londonderry, Ireland, and from there some of the name came to the New World and settled in Vir- ginia, some years before the Revolutionary war. Doctor Cowan's grandfather, Maj. James Cowan, was captured at the age of fifteen by the Indians and held a prisoner for a year,
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his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Walker, being cap- tured at the same time. She was held in captivity for nearly seven years before she found an opportunity to escape. The family was living in Blount county at the time of the capture, but later James Cowan became one of the first settlers of Franklin county. He served in the Creek and Seminole wars and fought with General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. His son, Samuel M. Cowan, father of Doctor Cowan, was born in Blount county in 1801. He was a minister of the Cumber- land Presbyterian church, and his fame as an orator, preacher and scholar extended throughout the South. He married Nancy C., daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Brazeale) Clements, of South Carolina. Dr. J. B. Cowan was born at . Fayetteville, Tenn., Sept. 15, 1831. During his boyhood he lived with his parents in Mississippi and later at Memphis. In 1851 he returned to Fayetteville, where he studied medicine under Wil- liam and Moses Bonner, who in their day were prominent members of the medical profession. After reading with these two doctors for a while, he completed his professional educa- tion in New York City, where he received the degree of M. D. from both Aylett's institute and the University Medical col- lege, after which he spent about eighteen' months in taking clinical instruction in the hospitals of the city. He practiced at Memphis and other places until the war began, in 1861, when he went to Pensacola, Fla., with the first troops from Missis- sippi. On March 27, 1861, he was commissioned assistant sur- geon and spent the summer at Pensacola with the Ninth Mis- sissippi infantry, under Colonel Chalmers. Late in November he was made surgeon of Forrest's battalion, at Hopkinsville, Ky., and the following June was made chief surgeon of cav- alry and assigned to duty on General Forrest's staff. Toward the close of the war Doctor Cowan was appointed medical direct- or of Forrest's corps of cavalry. Since the war he has prac- ticed in various places. In the cholera epidemic at Memphis in 1866 he contracted the disease and upon recovering removed to Franklin county. In 1870 he removed to Selma, Ala., and lived there until 1873, when he located at Tullahoma. There he has built up a large practice and has a high standing, both
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with the profession and the general public. He has been presi- dent of the Tri-State Medical society, the Association of Med- ical Officers of the Army and Navy of the Confederacy, and of the State Association of Confederate Bivouacs. In October, 1857, he was married to Miss Lucy Robinson, a daughter of James B. and Frances (Otey) Robinson, of Huntsville, Ala. Mrs. Cowan's mother was a cousin of Bishop Otey, of Vir- ginia, and a daughter of Captain Otey of the war of 1812.
EDWIN L. DRAKE, of Winchester, Tenn., author and physician, was born in Lincoln county, Tenn., Sept. 23, 1840. He is a son of James F. and Mary (Bright) Drake. His great-grandfather, John Drake, was a soldier of the Revolution and one of the first settlers in the State of Alabama. Two other great-grandfathers, William Hall and John Morgan, served under Washington, the former with the rank of major and the latter as captain, and after the war both became pioneer settlers of Tennessee. Edwin L. Drake was educated in dif- ferent institutions, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1860, and was preparing for the study of medicine when the war broke out. He enlisted as a private in Com- pany K, Second Tennessee infantry, and was mustered into the Confederate service at Lynchburg, Va. He was at the first battle of Manassas; fought at Evansport, was transferred to the Western army at the beginning of 1862; took part in the battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded; was afterward at Corinth, Richmond, Ky .; Murfreesboro, Missionary Ridge, Pine Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, around Atlanta, where he was again wounded, and at Bentonville, N. C., besides a number of minor affairs. When peace was restored he returned to his long-cherished project of studying medicine, and in 1867 was graduated from the University of Nashville. . Next he took a post-graduate course at New Orleans, and began the practice of his chosen profession. By his energy, his skill, and his pleasing personality, he has built up a large and lucrative practice and is regarded as one of the most pro- gressive physicians in his section of the state. Doctor Drake has been a contributor to medical, scientific and historical mag-
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