USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee. Personal and genealogical, with portraits, Volume I > Part 17
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DR. JAMES WILEY GRISARD, a practicing physician of Winchester, Tenn., was born near Mulberry, Lin- coln county, Tenn., May 28, 1848. His father was Wiley A. Grisard, a farmer and blacksmith, a native of Robertson county, Tenn., and a son of Joel Grisard. Doctor Grisard's mother, Susan (Whitaker) Grisard, was a daughter of Thomas and Nancy Hughes Whitaker, of Ken- tucky. Thomas Whitaker was a soldier in the war of 1812. James W. Grisard was educated in the public schools and academies of Bedford and Lincoln counties until about eighteen years old, when he entered the office of Doctor Gordon, of Flat Creek, with whom he studied a year. He then entered the medical department of the Uni- versity of Nashville, graduating in 1870. He practiced at Smithland until 1874; then at Flat Creek, Bedford county, until 1879, in which year he removed to Winchester, Franklin county, where he has remained, devoting much of his time to surgical work. In 1874 he took post-graduate work in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York City. He is examiner for the New York Life, Penn Mutual, Union Cen- tral and the Northwestern Mutual Insurance companies; he was county physician for several years. Doctor Grisard is a member of the Middle Tennessee Medical society and of the Tennessee State Medical society. He belongs to the Church of Christ, and has been an elder of that church for several years. He was married, in 1870, to Miss Lizzie Ann Turman, of Winchester, daughter of Benj. B. and Eliza M. (Bledsoe) Turman. They have eight children: Benjamin A., Floyd A., John P., Annie L., Elizabeth Morton, Parker, Lacey Tur- ney and Ella Bledsoe. Doctor Grisard has visited half of the states of the Union, and spends most of his winters in the South. He is president of the Anasarcin Chemical Company, of Winchester, and of the Grisard-Carmack Drug Company.
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WILSON, superintendent of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway Company's furnaces at South Pittsburg, Tenn., was born in Surry county, Va., Jan. 3. 1867. His father, Benjamin Franklin Wilson, was of the old Pennsylvania Quaker stock, born ncar Gettysburg, but soon after became a resident of Virginia and now lives at Norfolk, where he is a planter. The grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch was also named Benjamin Franklin. The mother of the subject was Mary Frances. Edwards, daughter of Dr. Albert and Maria Louisa (Seawell) Edwards. Mrs. Edwards' mother was a sister of President John Tyler, and her brother was Senator John B. Seawell, of Virginia, who was in the Confederate Congress. Many of her relatives have been prominent, both in war and politics. The maternal an- cestors were among the members of the Jamestown settle- ment, in Virginia. Benjamin Franklin III. was educated in the public schools of Norfolk, Va., until eighteen years old, when he entered the Massachusetts School of Technology, at Boston, and graduated in mining engineering in the class of 1889. He went to North Carolina as assayer for a gold min- ing company, and afterward to South Pittsburg, to take a position as chemist for the company by which he is still em- ployed. Here he has been advanced until, in 1899, he was made superintendent of furnaces. Mr. Wilson is a Democrat, and has rendered his party conspicuous service. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias; is major of the First battalion of the Second regiment, Uniform rank, and is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He was married, in 1895, to Miss Myra Stewart, daughter of J. M. and Elizabeth (Brazelton) Stewart, and they have three children : Benjamin Franklin IV., attending school: Elizabeth Virginia and Albert Stewart. Mr. Wilson has visited most of the Eastern states. He has contributed largely to engineer- ing and mining journals, and to other trade papers, on scien- tific subjects.
JEPTHA BRIGHT, attorney and ex-senator of Marion county, Tenn., residing at South Pittsburg, in that county,
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was born near Eminence, Shelby county, Ky., Sept. 14, 1862. He is the son of Newton and Dorcas Bright; was educated in the public schools of his native county, and studied law at the Kentucky university and in the Louisville Law school, where he graduated in 1887; was admitted to the bar in Emi- nence and practiced during his last year in the law school. In 1887 he removed to South Pittsburg, and has there enjoyed a good business ever since. He is a Democrat in politics, and in 1888 was chosen city attorney. He has been judge of the South Pittsburg city court for six terms; back tax attorney for the State of Tennessee from 1889 to 1895; member of the third congressional district committee two terms; alternate delegate to the national convention at Kansas City in 1896. and St. Louis in 1904; in the fifty-third general assembly of Ten- nessee, 1901-3-in fact, in everything that will advertise and advance the town, and is a public-spirited citizen in the best sense. He is secretary and a director of the electric plant of the place, and a director in the Blackstock Foundry Company. He is a member and supreme representative of the Knights of Pythias, and has held every office in the local lodge. In 1888 he was married to Theresa Fitzgerald, of Richfield Springs, N. Y.
JOSEPH C. HALE, manager and owner of the Tennessee Wholesale Nurseries, of Winchester, the only wholesale nursery of that section and the largest peach nursery in the world, was born at Sauk Center, Todd county, Minn., Sept. 27, 1868. He is a son of D. S. and Ruth (Frazier) Hale, the father a native of Virginia, now living in that state, and the mother a native of Tennessee. Joseph C. accompanied his parents to Virginia when a youth, where he received his primary education in the public schools, afterward attending the Hol- ston institute, in Sullivan county, Tenn. He became a travel-
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ing salesman for the Knoxville nursery, and remained with that company six years. In 1892 he went to Winchester to become a member of the Southern Nursery Company, as director and office manager, in which position he continued until February, 1896, when he resigned and went into the business in which he is now engaged. As before stated, he has the largest exclusive peach nurseries in the country, having over 4,000,000 trees, his annual sales amounting to 2,000,000 trees. His nurseries cover about 500 acres, and his success has been little short of phenomenal. In addition to his Win- chester nurseries, he is a director in the Arkansas Fruit-Land Company, of Clarksville, Ark., which owns a large peach orchard; president of the Chattanooga Orchard Company, at Summerville, Ga., which owns 2,100 acres, and has the largest orchard in the South; a stockholder in the Elberta Orchard Company, of Elberta, Texas; in the Manchester Packing Com- pany, of Manchester, Tenn .; is vice-president of the Alvin Fruit and Nursery Company, of Algona, Tenn .; vice-president and director of the Bank of Winchester. which has a capital of $100,000; president of the Pyroligneine Medical Company, of Winchester, and a director in the Grisard-Carmack Drug Company. He is a Republican: has been postmaster since 1901 ; is chairman of the Franklin county executive commit- tee; was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1896, and is now secretary of the Republican state commit- tee. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and of the Masonic fraternity. His wife was Miss Carrie Vaughan, daugh- ter of John A. and Julia (Loughmillar) Vaughan.
BYRON ALEXANDER HEARD, attorney, of South Pittsburg, Tenn., was born at Dunlap, Sequatchie county, Tenn., Sept. 29. 1863. His father, John B. Heard, was a native of Sequatchie county, where he was a prominent farmer and slave owner before the war. The mother was Isabelle Anderson, of Bledsoe county, daughter of Matthew Anderson. The father of John B. Heard served in the war of 1812 and also in the trouble of Jackson with the Indians; Col. Josiah Anderson, brother of Matthew. was a representative in Con-
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gress several terms. Byron A. was educated in the public and high schools of Pikeville, Tenn. He then read law with Col. Josiah Clift, of Chattanooga, and after his admission, to the bar, in 1888, began the practice of law in that city in partnership with his preceptor. Two years later he went to South Pittsburg, where he has remained in the enjoyment of a good practice, though he still retained his association with Colonel Clift until IS9S. Politically, Mr. Heard is a Demo- crat; has been a member of the Democratic executive com- mittee of Marion county; was city attorney for four years; was the party candidate for representative of the county in 1900; has been a delegate to several state conventions, and has al- ways been active in political work. He belongs to Dunlap. lodge No. 339, Free and Accepted Masons, and is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, of South Pittsburg. In 1892 he was married to Miss Nannie F. Kelly, daughter of John G. and Barbara J. (Beene) Kelly. Mrs. Heard's father is an ex-county judge of Marion county.
JAMES BRICKELL MURFREE, M. D., practicing physician of Mur- freesboro, Rutherford county, Tenn., was born in that city, Sept. 16, 1835. His father was Matthias B. Murfree, a farmer, and son of Col. Hardy Murfree, for whom Murfreesboro was named. Col. Hardy Murfree was a native of North Carolina and a sol- dier in the Revolutionary war. Mary Ann (Roberts) Murfree, mother of Doctor Murfree, was a native of North Carolina. James B. Murfree was educated in Union university, at Murfreesboro, from which institution he received the degree of A.M. He attended one course of lectures in the medical department of the University of Nashville, and then went to Philadelphia, and entered the Jefferson Medical col- lege, where he received his degree as M.D., in March, 1859. He practiced in Murfreesboro until the breaking, out of the
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Civil war, in 1861, when he enlisted in Company I, First Ten- nessee regiment, from which company he was detailed as medical officer to care for the sick. He was appointed assistant surgeon by the State of Tennessee. On June 9, 1861, he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Confederate army, which position he continued to hold until July 6, 1862, when he was appointed surgeon, and was retained in that position to the close of the war. After the war he returned to Murfreesboro, where he practiced alone two years; was in partnership with Dr. L. W. Knight, during 1868; then associated with Dr. H. H. Clayton from 1869 to 1878, and since then has practiced alone. In 1898 he took a post-graduate course in general sur- gery in the New York Polyclinic institute. He is a member of the Rutherford County Medical society; ex-president of the Middle Tennessee Medical association; ex-president of the Ten- nessee Medical society and ex-president of the Tri-State Med- ical society, the last-named embracing Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee; is a member of the Southern Surgical and Gyne- cological association; a member of the American Medical asso- ciation: contributes to the medical journals; is professor of surgery in the medical department of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn., which position he has held since 1895; he is the local surgeon for the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis railroad; medical examiner for the New York, the Ætna, the Washington, the Mutual Life of New York, and several other old-line life insurance companies. Doctor Mur- free is a member of the Democratic party. He has been mayor of the city of Murfreesboro two terms, and was for several years a director of the public schools. He is a member and an elder of the Presbyterian church: belongs to Mt. Moriah lodge No. 18, Free and Accepted Masons; Pythagoras chapter No. 150, Royal Arch Masons; Murfreesboro commandery No. 10, Knights Templars ; the Scottish Rite consistory and the Royal Arcanum, and is a director in the Stone River National bank. He was married. on Jan. 14, 1862, to Miss Ada Juliet Talley, of Readyville, Tenn .. and they have had nine children : Hardy, bookkeeper and attorney: Talley, a constable, who died April 3, 1904; Jane Ready, wife of William J. Nance; Ada
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Morrow, wife of C. B. Huggins, Jr., agent of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis railway; Fannie Hancock, wife of T. V. Ordway, druggist, at Anniston. Ala .; James B., Jr., a physician, practicing with his father; Libbie Morrow, at home, educated at Bellwood. Ky., as were her sisters, Ada and Fannie; Mary Roberts, at home, educated at Ward's seminary, Nashville, Tenn., and Matthias B., now attending Princeton university.
ENOCH HUNT JONES. M.D., who is engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery in Murfreesboro, Ruth- erford county, Tenn., was born near Overall Creek, a com- munity a short distance from Murfreesboro, Oct. 4, 1852. He is a son of James E. and Cecelia S. (Overall) Jones. James E. was the son of Enoch Hunt Jones, a farmer, and for many years sheriff of Rutherford county. To Enoch Hunt Jones, the grandfather of Doctor Jones, was given the honor of unveiling the statue of Andrew Jackson at the capitol in Nash- ville. Dr. Enoch H. is the eldest of two sons and one daughter, his brother now being a physician of Georgetown, Texas. He was educated in the common schools of Rutherford county, and at Union university, at Murfreesboro. He then read medicine with Dr. G. W. Overall. of Murfreesboro, and attended Van- derbilt university for a year, after which he practiced medicine at Viola. Warren county, until 1891. In that year he entered the University of Louisville, and graduated in medicine in 1892. He then took post-graduate work in New York Polyclinic insti- tute, and commenced practicing at Nashville in 1893. In 1895 he located in Murfreesboro, where he has carried on a general practice since. He is physician and surgeon for the Maryland Casualty Company: examiner for the Illinois, Northwestern Mutual, National. Mutual Reserve, and other life insurance companies; secretary of the board of health of Rutherford county ; a member and ex-president of the Rutherford County Medical society: member of the Middle Tennessee, Mississippi Valley, Tennessee State and Tri-State Medical societies, and of the American Medical association. Doctor Jones belongs to the Free Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and
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Knights of Honor, and is a member and elder of the Christian church. He is active in educational work. In 1885 he was married to Miss Fannie Potter, a daughter of F. B. and Samantha O. (West) Potter, of Smithville, Tenn.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAB- NEY, formerly president of the Uni- versity of Tennessee, now of the University of Cincinnati, is one of the men who have aided in the de- velopment of the South during the past two decades. He comes from a Virginia family distinguished for generations for mental attainments and moral worth. From boyhood he had the advantages of the best technical training that could be ob- tained in his state and the stimulus that comes from contact with men and women of large thought and splendid purpose. His father, Robert Lewis Dabney, was professor of theology - in Union seminary, Virginia, and of philosophy in the Univer- sity of Texas. During the Civil war, as Stonewall Jackson's chief of staff, he exhibited in marked degree the characteris- tics of the scholar and the man of affairs. As teacher and preacher his influence upon the life of the South has been great. The son, Charles William, was born at Hampden- Sidney, Va., on June 19, 1855. His father gave him a thor- oughi preparation for his higher education; he entered Hamp- den-Sidney college in 1869; was graduated in 1873, but con- tinued in academic work at the University of Virginia. Real- izing the need for the best efforts of the people in the regener- ation and upbuilding of the South after the devastations and breaking down of her institutions by the great conflict, he deter- mined to devote his energies to that end. Knowing something of the material resources and possibilities of the South, and believing that prosperity and education were largely dependent each upon the other, he applied himself to the study of those branches that would contribute most to the early advancement
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of the country, such as chemistry and related subjects, and particularly to soil analysis and fertilization. He spent the year of 1877-78 as professor of chemistry in Emory and Henry col- lege, and then went to Germany to continue his investigation along the lines he had mapped out. He spent some time work- ing at Göttingen and Berlin under Woehler, Klein, Helmholtz and DuBois Raymond, the leaders of their day, and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Göttingen in 1880, sub- mitting a dissertation on organic chemistry which was published in one of the leading scientific journals of the time and received high commendation. Upon his return to America, Doctor Dabney accepted the professorship of chemistry in the Univer- sity of North Carolina, but resigned to take the directorship of the agricultural experiment station of the state. His work in that position was of inestimable value to the people of North Carolina. She had just emerged from an exhausting war; her agricultural interests were crippled and her industries were undeveloped; the large plantations were a thing of the past, and the small, individual farms, with the present-day methods of conducting them, were not known .. Doctor Dabney organ- ized an efficient force of co-laborers, built laboratories and inaugurated a thorough and scientific investigation of soils, fer- tilizers and crops. He gave the results of these investigations to the public in speeches, reports and magazine articles; called attention to the many and diversified possibilities in the mineral, industrial and agricultural resources of the state, and advocated the training of the younger element of the South in scientific as well as in classical subjects. He gave able assistance to the creation of the enthusiasm aroused at the state exposition held at Raleigh in 1884, which marked the beginning of the indus- trial advancement of North Carolina, and he organized the exhibits of the state for the expositions held in Atlanta, New Orleans and Boston. It was in large measure due to his efforts that the industrial school was established at Raleigh, giving the needed impulse for the founding of the present flourishing college of agriculture and mechanical arts. In 1887 he was clected director of the Tennessee experiment station, and a year later became president of the University of Tennessee. Dur-
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ing his presidency the university has grown from a small col- lege of 125 students to one of between 700 and Soo. New departments have been added, new buildings erected, labora- tories cquipped, and in large measure Doctor Dabney has real- ized his ideal for education, combining classical culture and scientific training. The experiments of the agricultural depart- ment as to soils, food values and diversified crops have been of much importance to the state. The mechanical and engineer- ing department has furnished trained men for the development of native resources. During President Cleveland's second term Doctor Dabney was offered the assistant secretaryship of the department of agriculture of the United States, and was given leave of absence to take the position. He accepted and under him, as a co-worker with Secretary Morton, the work of the department advanced greatly along scientific lines, becoming far-reaching in practical usefulness. The scientific bureaus were put under civil service; a bureau of soils and agrostology was established, and the results of a systematic study of the work along scientific lines of all the departments at Washington were embodied in a series of pamphlets and articles. As chair- man of the board of government exhibits at the Atlanta and Tennessee expositions, he did much to quicken the industrial life of the South. At the expiration of his four years' leave of absence he returned to the university with more pronounced convictions as to the value of scientific training. Some time later he attended an educational meeting at Winston-Salem, N. C., and proposed the establishment of a board of education for the South. The Southern Education board was the out- come of that suggestion, and it is doing much to further the interests of the public schools of that section. As head of its bureau of investigation, Doctor Dabney has made a study of the educational problems of the South; has collected a mass of valuable information, and is recognized as one of the most reli- able authorities on all questions pertaining to educational prog- ress. In 1902 he organized the Summer School of the South, at Knoxville, and in the face of great discouragement has per- manently established the largest and most effective summer school in America. He is determined to make the life of the
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university bear directly upon the life and needs of the people of the state and of the South, and to this end he works with steadfastness and untiring zeal. His purpose, his integrity and his fertility of resource have enabled him to realize in large degree the early ideals, and the future will give him large influence and a more perfect realization of his wishes. Doctor Dabney keeps in close touch with the scientific and literary world. He is a member of the leading scientific societies of America and Europe, and is a forceful writer. His articles on scientific subjects appear in the best scientific journals of the day, and his addresses and educational papers are sought by magazines and reviews. Among the societies to which he belongs may be noted the German Chemical society, the Amer- ican Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical society, American Economic association, American Social Science association, Washington Academy of Science, and various state, Southern and national educational associa- tions. He is also a member of the Washington Memorial institution.
JOHN ENCIL MACGOWAN, principal editorial writer on the Times, Chattanooga. Tenn., and one of the leading journal- ists of the South, was born in what is now Mahoning county, Ohio, Sept. 30, 1831, his father, Samuel MacGowan, being one of the pioneer settlers of that county. His primary edu- cation was such as the common schools of that day afforded, and at the age of eighteen years he entered Mount Union col- lege, where he spent three years. He then went to Hiram college, and was there a class-mate and personal friend of James A. Garfield, afterward president of the United States. After finishing his education he practiced law in Indiana and Iowa for a while, after which he returned to his native state and became prosecuting attorney of Wood county. When the war broke out, in 1861, he enlisted in the Federal army as a private and was mustered out at Chattanooga. May 31, 1866. as colonel of the First United States volunteer artillery. For meritorious conduct and distinguished bravery on the field he was brevetted brigadier-general. After the war he located at
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Chattanooga, where he engaged in the practice of law, until the spring of 1872, when he became one of the staff of the Chat- tanooga Times, with which publication he has ever since con- tinued. In addition to his editorial duties on the Times, he has contributed a number of articles on the Civil war to the Phil- adelphia Weekly Times that have attracted wide attention. One series. of those papers, giving an account of the pursuit and capture of Morgan, has been reproduced in book form. which has been highly complimented by both Federal and Confed- erate historians for its style and accuracy. Although Mr. Mac- Gowan was a success as an attorney, the legal profession never had the attractions for him that had journalism. As a writer he is clear, forcible and polished, and the strength of his edi- torials lies in their terseness and simplicity. Mr. MacGowan was married, in 1854, at Alliance, Ohio, to Miss Maria Malvina Johnson. Mrs. MacGowan died in 1896.
WILLIAM RULE, editor of the Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Knox county, Tenn., was born in that county, May 10, 1839. His an- cestors were natives of Virginia. The paternal grandfather, Michael Rule, was a soldier in a Virginia regiment in the war of 1812. In 1816 he settled on a farm six miles south of Knoxville, and on this farm his son, Frederick, was born the following year. It was on this same farm that William Rule was born and passed his youth, working on the place and attending school in the fall and winter months, where he obtained his elementary education. At the age of twenty- one he entered the office of Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and was connected with it until, as one of the exigencies of the war, it was closed in October, 1861. In 1862 he enlisted in the Sixth Tennessee (Union) volunteer infantry; was pro- moted the following January to the non-commissioned staff : in October, 1863. was appointed adjutant with the rank of first
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