USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee. Personal and genealogical, with portraits, Volume I > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
16S
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
azines, and took an important part in editing the "Annals of the Army of the Tennessee, and Early Western History." In 1897 lie was appointed postmaster at Winchester by President Cleveland. He has been twice married : first to a Miss Bran- ham, who died in 1870. and afterward to Miss Nina Duffield, of New Orleans. He has five children: Elizabeth, Eloise, Frank, Marguerite and Lucia.
THEODORICK E. LIPSCOMB, register of deeds of Maury county, Tenn., was born on a farm seven miles from Columbia, Aug. 8, 1845. He is a son of George and Clara (Erwin) Lipscomb, the father a na- tive of North Carolina and the mother of Tennessee. George Lips- comb was one of the early settlers of Maury county, coming there about 1831. In the Seminole war, he was commander of a company of mounted men and served with honor and distinction. His later life was spent in farming and stock dealing. He died at the age of seventy-four years and his wife at the age of seventy-two. The paternal grandfather was a soldier from North Carolina in the Revolutionary war. His widow was a pensioner after his death by reason of this service and his descendants belong to the order of Sons of the American Revolution. George and Clara Lips- comb were the parents of the following children: Archibald A., named for his grandfather, was captain of a company of cavalry in the Confederate service during the Civil war, and surrendered with Johnston's army. He is now representative in the lower house of the Tennessee legislature from Maury county, and is a man well known and highly esteemed. William H. served through the war and is now living in Columbia, engaged in the insurance and real estate business. Benjamin J. has been a speculator and stock trader and lives in Columbia. Mrs. Emma McFall lives on a farm near Columbia and is a widow. Mrs. William J. Erwin resides at Batesville. Ark.
----
-
-
169
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
Theodorick E. attended the schools in his native county, though his education was interrupted by the war. He served two years in the Confederate cavalry, first under General Forrest, then under General Wheeler, and lastly under Gen. Wade Hampton. He participated in nearly all of the cavalry engagements of the various departments in which he served. After the surrender at Greenville. N. C., he returned to his home and took up various lines of employment as circumstances seemed to require. For three years he was a policeman at Columbia, which was followed by four years as chief of the department. Later he was tax collector, secretary of the board of city supervisors, served two years as mayor; has filled nearly every municipal office in the city of Columbia, and is now a member of the board of aldermen. He has also been engaged in the hotel business, cotton factor, merchant, farmer, etc. In March, 1894, Mr. Lipscomb started the Dixie Game Fowl, a monthly publi- cation, illustrated, which has a wide circulation, not only in the United States but also in Europe, Mexico and Canada. It is devoted principally to game fowls and thoroughbred hunting dogs. This enterprise has proved quite profitable to Mr. Lips- comb, as his publication is not struggling in an overcrowded field, as many special journals are. Mr. Lipscomb has served two terms as justice of the peace, and was elected county register in September, 1902. The old saying, "jack at all trades and good at none," will hardly apply in his case, for he has been measurably successful in whatever he has undertaken. Mr. Lipscomb was married, in 1867, to Miss Elvira Walker, daughter of Joseph A. and Adeline Walker. both now deceased, but long residents of Maury county. Mr. and Mrs. Lipscomb have a family of three sons and six daughters living. George N. is at Gonzales, Texas, where he is owner and proprietor of a steam laundry; Archibald W. is a bookkeeper for the Columbia Mill and Elevator Company. but was for nine years with the Wells-Fargo Company, and is a man of excellent business capacity ; Charles C. is a locomotive engineer, an extensive trav- cler, was in the Spanish-American war with Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, and is now with his brother in Gonzales. Texas; Addie L. is the wife of E. T. Church, of Florida; Clara is the wife of
170
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
Robert Lee Vaughn, of Columbia, her husband being a sales- man in a hardware store; Ida is the wife of Raymond C. Adkisson, clothing merchant, of Columbia, Tenn .; Emma, Bessie and Frankie are at home. Mr. Lipscomb has been a life-long Democrat. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, though he was reared a Presbyterian.
CAPT. FEILDER M. M. BEALL, of the United States army and com- mandant of Columbia arsenal, is a . native of Prince George county, Md., and was born May 19, 1849. He is descended on his father's side from Maryland's great Indian fighter, Col. Ninian Beall, who came to Maryland from Scotland in 1658. Alexander Magruder, who commanded the Perth- shire Scottish regiment in the battle of Worcester against Cromwell, and who came to Maryland in 1652, was his maternal colonial ances- tor. Captain Beall was reared and educated in his native state. On attaining his majority he entered the government service in the weather bureau department at Washington, D. C. This was in 1870, and he continued in that department for thirteen years, being advanced from time to time until his last two years were spent as chief of the weather predicting department. In 1883 he was commissioned second lieutenant in the United States army and was assigned to duty in the national capitol. In 1891 he was made first lieutenant and promoted to captain in 1898, just before the beginning of the Spanish-American war. He has served in most of the military posts of the United States. On the breaking out of the Spanish-American war he was located at Fort Sam Houston, in Texas. He accom- panied General Lawton's command to the Philippines; served under that officer during all of his operations in that country ; participated in the battles at Baliuag, Maasin, San Ildefonso, Sabul, Canebreak, Bintoc, where he was wounded. and numer- ous skirmishes. The enemies he confronted were the pure
171
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
Philippinos, a most wily foe, who would lie concealed for hours to get a shot, and then run away. In 1901 Captain Beall returned to his native country and assisted in organizing the new Twenty-sixth regiment of United States infantry. He returned to the Philippines the same year, but there were no further active hostilities, and the following year he returned to his native land, where he was assigned to command at the Columbia arsenal. His travels have been extensive and his experience varied and interesting. He has quite a collection of Philippine arms, including the dread bolo, stiletto, etc. He recites an instance where he sent a member of his company to intercept and bring in four Philippinos who appeared on the flank of his company a short distance away. The soldier, a Swede, advanced to within about twenty-five feet of the Phil- ippinos and beckoned them to come in. Instead, however, one of them threw his bolo and cut the soldier's cartridge belt from his body. He immediately shot all four of them and returned with four bolos. When asked why he didn't bring in the men, . his reply was: "They were too heavy, sir." In May, 1902, Captain Beall was appointed by the war department inspecting officer of the National Guard of Tennessee, a most signal honor. He visited the rendezvous of each company in the state, and then submitted his report to the war department. At Columbia, Captain Beall has command of Company K, Third United States infantry. The grounds and buildings are valued at many thousands of dollars. They are the property of the govern- ment, and the presence of the troops is necessary for their pres- ervation and protection. The buildings are mostly constructed of stone, in handsome and substantial designs. There are ample accommodations in the soldiers' quarters, three-story brick build- ings, for several hundred men. During the Spanish-American war, the arsenal and its equipments were used in the manufac- ture of some of the accoutrements used by the soldiers in active service. The grounds, embracing thirty or forty acres, are laid out with handsome graveled driveways and brick walks, while shade and ornamental trees adorn the place, rendering it home- like and attractive. The grounds are enclosed by a high and ornamental iron fence set on a foundation of solid masonry,
-
---
172
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
with ornamental and substantial gateways at the openings. The principal duty of the troops at the present time is to keep the grounds in proper condition, and "play soldier" after the fash- ion of military posts in times of peace. Captain Beall has been twice married. His first wife was Martha Anna Clark, of Philadelphia, to whom he was married in 1879. She was a direct descendant of Capt. Peter Summers, of the Third Penn- sylvania Legion in the Revolutionary war. His second wife was Anne Lawson Mapp, of Milledgeville, Ga., a member of the famous Sinclair family. Her ancestors were conspicuous both in the Revolutionary war and in the Confederate service during the Civil war. Captain Beall's three children are Lillie, Grace and Pendleton. The first named is the wife of Cas. C. Frost, of San Antonio, Texas. His father was Colonel Frost, of the Second Texas rangers, during the war. He lost a large property and was reduced to abject poverty by the Civil war, but with commendable self-reliance he began life over again by hauling goods with ox teams from the coast to the interior, and in this manner laid the foundation for a compe- tence. Miss Grace is unmarried and makes her home with her sister at the present time. Pendleton is a student. Captain Beall is a Mason, well advanced in the fraternity; a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Franklin institute, of Philadelphia. He was one of the examining committee who examined the first arc light sub- mitted to that institute for a certificate of worthiness. He is a genial, pleasant gentleman, whose. acquaintance it is a pleasure to form. He and his family occupy a beautiful modern resi- dence on the arsenal grounds, which is a feature of the govern- ment's provisions for its employes.
HON. HARDIN PERKINS FIGUERS. attorney, of Columbia, Tenn., was born at Franklin, in that state, April 15, 1849. He was educated at Harpeth Male academy, at Franklin ; studied law and began practice in 1872, though not actively and exclusively so until 1875. He was editor and proprietor of the Franklin Review for four years and of the Columbia Herald for a like period. both weekly papers. He is the author of an
173
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
annotated and revised edition of "Hick's Manual of Chancery Pleading and Practice." This work has the endorsement of all the supreme judges of the state and stands, as they say, in the same relation to chancery practice that "Carether's History of a Law Suit" stands to general law practice. For seventeen years Mr. Figuers has been law partner of Hon. L. P. Padgett, the present representative in Congress from the seventh district of Tennessee. The firm very justly is considered the leading law firm in Columbia. Their business is very large and lucra- tive, though Mr. Padgett is not now actively engaged in prac- tice. Mr. Figuers began his career as a school teacher, and for several years combined the vocations of the teacher, law student and journalist. He is one of the prominent Masons of Tennessee, having reached an exalted station in that fraternity; was wor- shipful master of Euphemia lodge No. 195, of Columbia, for two years; is a member of Fayette chapter No. 4, Royal Arch Masons; and of De Molay commandery No. 27, Knights Tem- plar. His father, Thomas N. Figuers, was a prominent lawyer in his day. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all named Thomas N. Figuers, making three gen- erations of the family bearing that name, and all were attor- neys of note. His mother's name was Bethenia Perkins, a native of Williamson county. Her grandfather, Hardin Per- kins, built the first iron furnace in the South. He was a man of great wealth, owning at one time 900 slaves. The Figuers family came from French Huguenots, in North Carolina, and are a family with distinctive characteristics. The Perkins fam- ily were from Virginia, and became a very numerous family in Williamson county, where, in 1860, the Perkins vote for the Whig ticket for John Bell, the candidate for president, num- bered forty-nine. The family is descended on one side from the sister of Oliver Cromwell, a fact in their history of which they are justly proud. Mr. Figuers was married, Dec. 4, 1873, to Miss Lily Dale, of Columbia, daughter of W. J. Dale, who was a resident of Columbia for sixty years and was a man universally esteemed. Mrs. Figuers was educated at Columbia institute. The only child born to them is Miss Mary Dale, now seventeen years of age, a young lady of fine attain-
174
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
ments, and a musician of state-wide repute, both as a violin- ist and pianist, and has given a number of public recitals before large audiences, and has everywhere been honored for her won- derful attainments. She is now a student at the Musical con- servatory, Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father is very proud of her and entertains the hope that she will make a name for herself. Mr. Figuers has never sought public office. He is an ardent temperance advocate and stumped Southern Tennessee for the Prohibition amendment to the constitution. In political affairs, he is a Democrat. He witnessed the battle of Franklin, and, though too young to be regularly enlisted, he was zealous in caring for the wounded. His home was within 200 yards of the Federal lines. He has been a steward in the Methodist church for thirty-five years and has been a teacher in the Sunday school for nearly as long. At present he is Bible class lecturer to the largest class of Bible students in Columbia. He and his wife and daughter are members of the same church. Mr. Figuers is liberal in support of church and public and private charities.
ERNEST ANDREW TIMMONS, M. D., a prominent physician, author and lecturer, of Columbia, Tenn., was born at Godwin, Maury county, May 28, 1874. His parents, Andrew Jack- son and Emma Callie (Fly) Tim- mons, are both natives of Maury county and representatives of long- established families of Tennessee. The father has spent his life in agri- cultural and mercantile pursuits, and is at present engaged along both of these lines. Doctor Timmons is descended from German-Dutch, Scotch-Irish and English ancestors; the founders of the Tim- mons and Fly families were identified with the Revolutionary, French and Indian and Mexican wars, in behalf of American independence and its support. The progenitors located in Vir- ginia and North and South Carolina at an early day, and later
175
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
some of them settled in Tennessee. Through the McCauleys, the Timmons family are related to Senator Vest, of Missouri. Doctor Timmons is the eldest of a family of seven children, five of whom are still living, as well as the parents and the maternal grandparents. Zula Zon married A. A. Wisener, a merchant of Godwin; Horace H. is a merchant, farmer and stock dealer at Timmons, Maury county; Inez is the wife of Geo. T. Edwards, a car builder at Nashville, Tenn .; Myrtle L. is a student at Franklin, Tenn. Doctor Timmons attended the rural schools until he was sixteen years of age and then clerked in his father's store for three years. He then com- menced preaching for the Christian church, attended the Nash- ville Bible college for four years, and was engaged in minis- terial work until twenty-six years of age. At the age of twenty-three, owing to a throat trouble, he took up the study of medicine, entered the University of Tennessee at Nashville, pursued his studies there for two years, spending the summer vacations in preparatory studies along professional lines at Sewanee, Tenn., and continued thus until he completed his medical studies by graduating from Vanderbilt university April 4, 1900. He devoted several months to looking up a desirable location, and finally opened an office in Columbia, Oct. 2, 1900, where he is engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery. He has been successful in his undertaking, has a lucrative practice and is a popular physician. In connection with his medical practice he has given much attention to liter- ary work, and in September, 1902, he entered the lecture field with a lecture on "Equal Rights, Love, Liberty and Peace." Since then he has prepared a specially attractive lecture entitled "Other Worlds Than Ours," a scientific discussion on the plan- etary system. The press notices and criticisms he has received are very complimentary and at the same time hearty and encour- aging. He is also the author of numerous poems and an unpre- tentious little work entitled, "Love, Courtship and Marriage." Of his lectures, the Columbia Daily Herald says: "The restless cry of an unsatisfied world is for something new and original. Doctor Timmons is that." Another critic had this to say : "No lecturer ever won more admiration in his debut than did
176
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
Doctor Timmons. His lecture was equal to any and superior to most lectures delivered in this city during the past season." Doctor Timmons has another lecture, "The Boundless Universe," in preparation, which will excel, he says, either one of the other two. Doctor Timmons is a charter member of Porter Primary No. ro, a subordinate lodge of The Prudent Patricians of Pom- peii, an order of which he is very fond; is also an active member of Columbia lodge No. 3, Independent Order. of Odd Fellows, and one of its famous degree staff; belongs to the Christian church and is active in religious work. In politics, he is a Democrat. His family was well represented in the Con federate army. On April 7, 1904, Dr. Timmons was married to Miss Augusta Belle Wilson, of Franklin, Tenn., a beautiful and well accomplished young lady of Scotch-Irish and Irish ancestry.
HENRY HOWE COOK, of Franklin, Teun., a well-known and successful lawyer and for several years the chancellor of the sixth (now the seventh) division, at Nashville, was born in Williamson county, Tenn., Nov. 23, 1843. He was edu- cated at Franklin college, and at the beginning of the Civil war enlisted in the Confederate service as a private in Com- pany D, First Tennessee infantry. During his term of service he was with Gen. R. E. Lee at Cheat Mountain, fought at Fort Donelson, Corinth, Shiloh, Tupelo, Munfordville, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Bean's Station, Knoxville, Dan- dridge, Port Walthall, Drewry's Bluff and in the military operations around Petersburg near the close of the war. Shortly after the battle of Tupelo he was made junior second lieutenant, and before the close of the year became second lieutenant. After the battle of Chickamauga he was promoted to the rank of captain and commanded his company in every engagement in which it participated after that time. At Drewry's Bluff he was captured, held for a short time at Fort Monroe, Point Lookout and Fort Delaware, and was one of the 600 officers sent to Morris Island and kept under fire during the siege of Charleston, S. C. In the battle of Murfreesboro he was twice wounded, in the head and in the shoulder. After the war he took up the study of law, and in 1867 was adinitted to the
----
--------
177
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
bar at Franklin. He soon won a place in the front rank of the attorneys of the Williamson county bar, and in IS7o was elected county judge. At the close of his first term he was re-elected for a second term of eight years, making sixteen years in all that he presided over the county court. For the next ten years he was engaged in practice at Franklin, where he built up a large and lucrative business. In 1896 he was elected chancellor. Judge Cook is a member of Starnes camp of the United Confederate Veterans. at Franklin, where he still resides.
HON. JOE H. FUSSELL, a promi- nent attorney and ex-official of Co- lumbia, Tenn., is a native of Maury county, and is a man too well-known in the state to need any formal in- troduction. He is a man who has made a record for himself along all lines of effort engaging his attention. He is the son of Henry B. and Eliza C. Fussell, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Maury county. The father was an architect and contractor. and Captain Fussell learned carpenter- - ing under his father's instructions, becoming a finished work- man before his twentieth year. He has superintended the construction of some of the finest residences in the county, which stand today as monuments of his handiwork. The father died in his seventy-second year, and the mother died at the age of eighty-three. The Fussells are from England, and the maternal ancestors were of Scotch-Irish descent. The maternal grandfather, Joseph Kincaid, came from Kentucky among the first settlers of Maury county. In Kentucky he mar- ried Eliza McClees, at the home of Mr. Clay, an uncle of Henry Clay. the latter being present at the wedding. While a young man Captain Fussell allied himself with the cause of the Con- federacy, enlisting in the Confederate service in May, 1861, as a member of the First Tennessee regiment of cavalry. In this
I-12
178
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
capacity he rendered valiant service as a soldier and officer. The first blood shed in battle during the Civil war is known to have been in the command in which Captain Fussell served, in a skirmish on Mud river, in Kentucky, where one of his regiment was killed. The company of which he was captain was also the last to suffer in the final skirmish of the war, and even after the final surrender of the Confederate armies. Cap- tain Fussell had many narrow escapes and thrilling experiences, both in the line and on staff duty: After the surrender he opened a law office in Columbia, Tenn., having been admitted to the bar in August, 1860. He soon attained more than mediocre achievements, which led to his early elevation to office. He served sixteen years as attorney-general of his district, and in the discharge of his duties came to be recognized as one of the leading criminal lawyers of Tennessee. In his professional capacity he has been associated with some of the most important civil and criminal actions in the various courts of the state. He was one of the first to advocate the legal regulation of the liquor traffic and the adoption of stringent temperance laws; took the stump as a temperance advocate and canvassed the state for the cause; incurred in this the strongest opposition from the liquor dealers and their friends, often resulting in serious difficulties, and a number of times he faced revolvers and knives in the efforts made to drive him from the canvass. In 1882 he was nominated by the "State Credit" wing of the Democratic party of Tennessee for the office of governor. The nominating convention was composed of such men as James C. Bailey, M. C .. Gov. James D. Porter. Gen. W. H. Jackson, Judge Harvey Lee Jackson, Hon. Ed. James, Judge Mac Dickison, Gen. Luke Wright, and a host of other prominent men of the state. The feature of the cam- paign was opposition to repudiation of the state debt and the acceptance of the proposition for settlement as made by the bondholders, which would have honorably relieved the state of more than $11,000.000 of debt. The opposing wing of the party favored repudiation of the debt, or at least a payment of 50 cents on the dollar. This policy prevailed, and the state debt was settled on that basis. Captain Fussell was elected
1
---
179
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
president of the amendment work in Tennessee, which had in view the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of liquors in the state. This work he followed through the legislature, having headquarters at Nashville until the amendment was de- feated. This required a year of his time, and during that period he conducted a temperance paper at Nashville, largely at his own expense. For this arduous service and the exercise of his time and talents he asked and received nothing. In 1901 he was an Independent Democrat candidate for Congress in the seventh district; made a canvass of twenty-one days, carried his opponent's native county, the strongest Democratic county in the state, by a large majority, and came very near being elected. the final count giving the election to the regular candidate by a very small margin. Maury county gave him a good majority, the first time since the war a regular nominee of the Democracy failed to carry the county. He also carried the largest Republican county in the district. Captain Fussell is at present a member of the state temperance committee, and is highly gratified to see the progress made along temperance lines. He took an active part in the defeat of the "dispensary" law, and in the resultant public good. Mrs. Margaret B. Fus- sell, wife of Captain Fussell, was a daughter of Capt. William Roberts and a granddaughter of Brig .- Gen. Isaac Roberts, who served under Gen. Andrew Jackson. She is a grandniece of Gen. James Robertson, the founder of Nashville. Captain and Mrs. Fussell have no children. After Captain Fussell's father died, he took his mother into his own home and cared for her until her death. Capt. S. W. Steele married one of his sisters, and after the war died in Nashville. Another brother-in-law was Rev. Baxter Calhoun Chapman, a noted Cumberland Presby- terian minister, who died. Captain Fussell has been a Mason from early manhood, and is now a member of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee, and was master of Euphemia lodge, Columbia, Tenn., for five years. He is also a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar, and was for five years eminent commander. In 1880 he was elected grand commander of the Knights Templars of Tennessee; has frequently been state representative in the triennial conclaves, and is an active Masonic lecturer in
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.