USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee. Personal and genealogical, with portraits, Volume I > Part 18
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lieutenant; served as such to the close of the war, and was mustered out April 27, 1865. He was again employed on the Knoxville Whig in 1866, and acted as city editor until 1869. In IS70 he began publishing the Knorville Daily Chronicle, which was for many years the only daily Republican paper pub- lished south of the Ohio river. He was one of its editors and publishers until the fall of 1882. In 1885 Mr. Rule began the publication of the Knorville Journal. He has been from the beginning the editor of the Journal, and is now the editor of the Journal and Tribune. Altogether, he has spent more than thirty-three consecutive years in active newspaper work. Mr. Rule was elected clerk of the county court of Knox, in 1866, and re-elected in 1870, but resigned after holding the office one year of his second term. In 1873 he was elected mayor of Knoxville, and in the same year was appointed postmaster by President Grant. He ยท was reappointed in 1877, and held the office two full terms. In 1889 he was appointed United States pension agent at Knox- villle, through which agency the pensioners of ten Southern States are paid. In 1898 he was elected mayor of the city for a second time. Mr. Rule has served twenty-eight years as a member of the board of trustees of the University of Tennessee, and for four years has been secretary of the board. He was one of the charter members of the Lawson-McGhee library, of which he has been secretary of the board for twelve years, and is also one of the charter members of the board of governors of the Knoxville general hospital. He was a member of the Republican national committee from 1876 to 1884, and was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1876. He is a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion, and also of the Sons of the Revolution.
JUDGE JAMES T. SHIELDS, whose home was at Bean's Station, Grainger county, Tenn., was a native of Grainger county, where he was born Sept. 21, 1824. He was of Irish descent. His great-grandfather, William Shields, emigrated from the County Armagh, North of Ireland, and settled in Frederick City, Md., at an early day. He left a large family
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and a considerable estate for that time. The old family man- sion is one of the landmarks of Frederick City, but is no longer in the family's possession. His grandfather, James Shields, moved to South Carolina and from there to Greene county. Tenn., being one of the first settlers of that county. He died Aug. 23. 1840, aged eighty-three years. He served as a captain in the Revolutionary war, was a farmer by occupation, and left a good estate. John Shields, Judge Shields' father, was a soldier in the war of 1812. He moved to Missouri when a young man, and while there was elected a member of the general assembly of that state, but owing to failing health he declined to serve and returned to Tennessee. He was a merchant and for some time engaged in this business at Bean's Station, where he married Mary, a daughter of Thomas Gill, a wealthy farmer of that neighborhood, and died Oct. 2. 1829. at the age of thirty-seven, leaving two children, James T. and Elizabeth. Judge Shields' uncles, David, Milton and Sam- uel Shields, were successful merchants and manufacturers. They established the Holston Paper Mills, at Marshall's Ferry, in what is now Hamblen county, the first paper mill in Tennessee. Another uncle. William Shields, was a wealthy farmer at Springfield, Mo .. and one of his sons, James T .. is a prominent lawyer of that place. Thomas Gill was a native of Yorkshire, England, where his father was a prominent land owner. He came to America, settled in North Carolina, but in a short time moved to East Tennessee, where he acquired the lands now held by his descendants, in 1806. and resided there the remainder of his life. He married Elizabeth Harrell. daughter of a distinguished Baptist preacher of Bertie county. North Carolina. Mrs. Shields, the mother of Judge Shields. after the death of her husband, resided with her father at Bean's Station for some years, sending her son to the best schools of that day. At the age of twenty-two Judge Shields com- menced the study of law with Judge Robert M. Barton and Hon. William H. Sneed; was admitted to the bar in 1852 by Judge Robert Mckinney, of the supreme court, and Judge Robert M. Anderson: established an office on his farm at Bean's Station, known as Clinchdale, and began the practice
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of law in Grainger and the adjoining counties. In his practice he met with remarkable success from the beginning, and was employed in a very large part of all the important litigation of his day in the county where he practiced. His clients came to his office on his farm to consult him. He at no time had an office elsewhere. He was a profound and learned lawyer, and had the faculty of presenting his views to courts and juries with great clearness and force; and was successful in the majority of the cases in which he appeared. From 1865 to 1873 he was associated in the practice with Col. John Neth- erland, one of the most eminent advocates that ever practiced in Tennessee. From ISSo until 1890 he was associated with his son, John K. Shields. In 1861 Judge Shields was elected to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. This was followed by a nomination to the regular Congress, but he was unable to serve on account of bad health. The only part he ever took in politics was while canvassing in connection with these two offices. He was a Whig before the war, a "rebel" during the war and a Democrat afterward. In 1870 he was appointed special judge of the supreme court of Tennessee by Gov. D. W. C. Senter, and served through the session of that court held at Knoxville in that year. Upon the resignation of Judge Thomas A. R. Nelson, one of the judges of the supreme court, he was appointed by Gov. John C. Brown to fill the vacancy, but declined and recommended Hon. Robert McFar- land, who was then appointed. When the arbitration court was organized, in 1879. for the relief of the congested docket of the supreme court, he was appointed by Gov. A. S. Marks one of the judges of this court, and again declined. His pub- lished opinions, delivered while sitting as special judge of the supreme court appear in volumes 1 and 2. Heiskell's Tennessee Reports, and are remarkably strong and clear statements of the law in the cases in which they were delivered. For a number of years previous to his death he was much interested in the management of his farm, Clinchdale, an estate consisting of. about 3,700 acres, and devoted to the growing of grasses and breeding and selling of blooded cattle and sheep. In this busi- ness his son, W. S. Shields, was for a time interested with
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him. Judge Shields married Miss Aurelia Glenn, a daughter of Rev. Robert Glenn, of Tazewell, Tenn., May 11, 1848. She died in 1849, leaving one child, Mary Aurelia, who on growing to womanhood became the wife of W. D. Gammon, a promi- nent lawyer of Morristown, Tenn. He was again married, Dec. 8, 1852, to Miss Elizabeth Simpson, of Rogersville, Tenn., a daughter of William Simpson, a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and a prosperous merchant at Rogersville. Mrs. Shields' mother was Elizabeth Kane Simpson, who was also Irish. Mrs. Shields was educated at Salem, N. C., was a Presbyterian and a woman of extraordinary common-sense, excellent disposition and fine executive ability. Her husband, who was never physically strong and afflicted through much of his life with great nervous excitability, attributed much of what success he attained in life to her considerate and affectionate care and support. They had ten children. Three died in infancy. Those arriving at manhood were William S., John K., Robert G., James T., Samuel G., Joseph S. and Milton L. Shields. Judge Shields died Nov. 4, 1899, surviving his wife and all of his children, excepting his sons, William S., John K., Samuel G. and Joseph S. Shields. William S. Shields moved to Knoxville in 1890 and there established the City National bank, now one of the largest and leading financial institutions in the state, and of which he is now president. John K. Shields continues to reside upon the farm, Clinchdale. After his father retired from the practice, in 1893, he formed a partnership with Hon. R. E. L. Mountcastle, which continued until 1902. He was appointed chancellor of the twelfth chancery division of Tennessee, in 1893. without solicitation, by Governor Tur- ney, and served nearly two years, when he returned to the practice. In 1902 he was elected one of the associate judges of the supreme court of Tennessee, and now holds that office. Samuel G. Shields is also a lawyer and has resided and prac- ticed his profession in Knoxville, Tenn., since 1889, where he has taken high rank as a corporation and commercial lawyer and commands a large and lucrative practice. For a number of years he was in partnership with Hon. John W. Green, but is now the senior member of the firm of Shields, Cates &
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Mountcastle. He was appointed to serve as special judge of the supreme court of Tennessee during the illness of Judge McAlister, one of the judges of that court, in 1899, and the opinions delivered by him appear in volume 19 of Pickle's Tennessee Reports. Joseph S. Shields is a wholesale merchant, engaged in business in the city of New York, where he is meeting with much success in his business.
COL. EDWARD JACKSON SANFORD (deceased), late of Knox- ville, Tenn., was a native of Con- necticut, born in Fairfield county, Nov. 23. 1831, and died at his home, "Maplehurst," Oct. 27, 1902. In De- cember, 1853. he went to Knoxville with little except a set of carpenter's tools, which he knew how to use, and an indomitable will, a resolute pur- pose and integrity of character. His first work was with Shepard, Leeds Later he engaged in the lumber busi-
& Hoyts, car builders. ness with D. Richardson, carried on a contracting and building business in connection with their mills and soon gained a repu- tation for good work and honorable dealing. When, less than a year after his arrival, a terrible epidemic of cholera broke out and many deaths occurred, hundreds left the city to escape the scourge. Mr. Sanford joined the few who deemed it their duty to remain, nurse the sick, bury the dead and comfort the living. Day and night he labored through that fearful time, combating the disease, until its ravages were stayed, and from that day the stranger was made one of the welcome ones among the people for whom he had risked his life. The open- ing of the war found him with a wife, and a business in which his small capital was all invested. He was for the Union, but soon found that he could not continue in business and spcak his sentiments. In April, 1862, he and a number of others made their way by night (it was not safe for a Union- ist to move by day because of the Confederate cavalry patrol-
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ing the country) into Kentucky, where a number of loyal Tennessee regiments were forming. While en route the com- pany was overtaken by a cold storm, and as a result young Sanford suffered a severe attack of pneumonia, which left him in a precarious condition and made it impossible for him to enter the army. He went to his old home in Connecticut and remained some months, but after General Burnside's army occupied East Tennessee, he returned to Knoxville on horse- back, still intent on joining the army. Burnside sent for him and asked him to supervise the erection of a bridge, to which he consented. When Longstreet's forces besieged Knoxville, . Colonel Sanford was one of the defenders of Fort Sanders against the attack upon it in November, 1863. In 1864 he commenced his long and successful career as one of the busi- ness men of Knoxville, by establishing the drug firm of E. I. Sanford & Co .. his associate being the late Dr. O. F. Hill. The firm did a successful business until 1872, when it was consolidated with that of Chamberlain & Albers, under the firm name of Sanford. Chamberlain & Albers. It afterward incor- porated, and has for years been one of the largest and most successful establishments of its kind in the South. Colonel Sanford was one of the organizers of the Young Men's Chris- tian association, at Knoxville, in 1865; was agent of the East Tennessee university in securing the appropriation of the agri- cultural and mechanical college fund in 1869; president of the board of education of Knoxville from 1881 to 1885; first presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Tennessee Medical college : Republican caucus nominee for United States senator in 1895: a delegate-at-large from Tennessee to the Republican national convention and chairman of the state delegation, in 1896; was chosen president of the Mechanics National bank, in 1882, and held that position until his death; was elected vice-president, the same year, of the East Tennessee National bank, in which he was a leading stockholder, and continued in that position during his life; was one of the incorporators, organizers and stockholders of the Knoxville Woolen Mills, and its president from a period soon after its formation; was for a long time a stockholder and director in the Knoxville Iron Company; a
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stockholder in the Citico Furnace Company, at Chattanooga, and in the Southern Car and Foundry Company, at Anniston, Ala .; was for years a director in the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad Company, and president of the Knoxville & Ohio Railroad Company, a position which he held at the time of his death. At the time of his death he was president of the Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company, and until within a short time before he was president of the Poplar Creek Iron and Coal Company; president of the Lenoir City Company, and a director in the Knoxville Brick Company. He was one of those interested in the building of the eight- story Empire office building, the finest in Knoxville. Colonel Sanford, with all his private interests, was able to devote nec- essary time to public affairs, and was especially a friend to educational advancement. He was one of the strongest advo- cates for the levying of a tax for the maintenance of a city school system, when it came up soon after the war, and after- ward was a member of the school board for five years, of which he was president. He was for years a member of the board of trustees of the East Tennessee university, now Univer- sity of Tennessee; was a member of the board of trustees of the East Tennessee institute, but resigned and his son, Edward T., was elected in his place, and was a member of the first board of trustees of the Lawson-McGhee library, and for some time served as president of the board. Colonel Sanford was married, in 1860, to Miss Emma Chavannes. To this union there were born ten children, of whom six are still living. Edward T. is a member of the Knoxville bar; Hugh has entered upon a manufacturing business; Alfred F. is president and manager of the Knoxville Journal and Tribune; the three daughters live at home. At the time of his death one of the leading papers of Knoxville said: "No man of his time has left his impress upon the commercial, industrial and social life of the city in a higher degree or in more indelible characters than Col. Edward Jackson Sanford."
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CHARLES T. CATES, JR., of Knoxville, Tenn., was born in Mary- ville, Blount county, Tenn., March 6, 1863. His father, Charles T. Cates, Sr., is one of the ablest and most respected lawyers in Tennessee, and is still a resident of Maryville, where he was born. During the Civil war he served in the Confederate army, and after the war was ap- pointed district attorney-general by Gov. John C. Brown, but, not find- ing the office congenial, he resigned. In 1874 he was elected to the legislature as an Andrew Johnson Democrat, from the Republican county of Blount. The family is of English descent. The father of Charles T. Cates, Sr., was from North Carolina, and settled in Blount county in the early part of the last century. Charles T., Jr., received his primary education at the New Providence academy, in Maryville, where he was fitted for college; was graduated from Maryville college, in 1881, with the degree of B.A .; taught school from i8SI to 1884, two years of this time as principal of the public school in Maryville; studied law at night and during vacation in his father's office; received a license to practice from Chancellor W. B. Staley and Judge M. R. Hall, in October, 1883; was admitted to the bar at the December term of the circuit court at Loudon, Tenn., and began practicing at Maryville as a mem- ber of the firm of Cates & Son. His practice was of a general nature, embracing criminal, civil. corporation and probate cases. In 1889 he removed to Knoxville, where he soon took a lead- ing position in his profession. He was in partnership with Gen. R. N. Hood from 1890 to the latter's death, in 1892. In 1893 he formed a partnership with Jerome Templeton, Esq., under the firm name of Templeton & Cates, which partnership continued until 1898. In October, 1902, he entered into a partnership with Samuel G. Shields of Knoxville, and R. E. L. Mountcastle of Morristown, the firm being known as Shields, Cates & Mountcastle. They have a large general practice,
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Mr. Cates taking part in cases in which the state is not involved. He has taken special prominence as a corporation and land lawyer. In September, 1902, Mr. Cates was, by the supreme court of Tennessee, appointed to the office of attor- ney-general and reporter of the state for a full term of eight years. This office is combined with that of reporter for the supreme court, and carries with it the duties of preparing all opinions of the supreme court for publication. As attorney- general, his duties require him to appear for the state in all litigation, criminal and civil, in which the interests of the state are involved. He is ex-officio chief adviser of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, comptroller and other state officers. He is a member of the Tennessee and American Bar associa- tions. He is a director of the Third National bank, of Knox- ville; is an Elk and a Knight of Pythias. Mr. Cates was married, on Nov. 3, 1886, to Miss Emma J. Parham, the daughter of W. T. Parham, proprietor of the Maryville Woolen Mills.
CALVIN B. McGUIRE, M.D., one of the leading physi- cians of Fayetteville, Tenn., was born in Lincoln county, of that state, in the year 1831. After the usual course of prelim- inary reading he entered the medical department of the Univer- sity of Nashville, and was graduated in 1856. From that time until the spring of 1861 he was engaged in the practice of his profession with unvarying success. On the first day of May, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company K, First Tennessee infantry. commanded by Col. Peter Turney, afterward gover- nor of the state. The regiment was soon after ordered to Vir- ginia, where it served under General Johnston, taking part in the battles of Winchester and the first Manassas. He was then promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and sent to the Peninsula, and still later was acting assistant surgeon on the field during the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days' bat- tles about Richmond. Shortly after this he was commissioned surgeon, and served with his regiment in the engagements at Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, all the
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military operations about Richmond and Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. After the battle of Chancellorsville he was made senior surgeon of the Tennessee brigade, and con- tinued as such until the final surrender. After the war he resumed his practice, and in 1871 located at Fayetteville, where he has built up a large and lucrative practice, and takes an interest in other enterprises, notably the Elk National bank, in which he is a heavy stockholder, and has served on the board of directors and as president. In 1863, while at home on fur- lough, Doctor McGuire was married to Miss Lizzie P. Green, and they have three children : Jennie, who married H. C. . Lamb; Frank and Myra.
GEORGE A. HOWARD, of Carthage, Tenn., prominent in financial and political circles, was born at Greenville, Tenn., in the year 1842. In his youth he took a preparatory course at the Cumberland academy, Lebanon, Tenn., after which he was appointed to the United States Naval academy, at Annap- olis, where he remained for three years. In April, 1861, he resigned from the academy to return to Tennessee and enlist in the Confederate service. Until the latter part of May he was engaged in drilling companies at Lebanon, and when those companies were organized into the Seventh Tennessee infantry he was made adjutant of the regiment. His brother, John K. Howard, was lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and was killed at Mechanicsville. Most of Adjutant Howard's service was in Virginia, where he was with Lee in the Cheat Mountain cam- paign ; with Jackson in the Shenandoah valley and the Romney expedition; with Johnston at West Point and Seven Pines, where he was wounded in the shoulder; and again with Lee in the Army of Northern Virginia. He fought at Cedar Run, the second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellors- ville and numerous minor engagements. On the third day's fight at Gettysburg he was captured, taken to Fort Delaware and later to Johnson's Island, where he was held as a prisoner until hostilities had ceased. After the war he entered the law department of Cumberland university, but before completing the course left school and took a position in a broker's office
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in Nashville. Mr. Howard soon came to be identified with the political movements of the Democratic party in Tennessee. In 1869 he was elected secretary of the state senate, and was re-elected at each of the next two sessions. In 1877 he was appointed to a clerkship in the postoffice department, at Wash- ington, and after ten years in that department he became the chief clerk in the department of the interior. When President Harrison succeeded President Cleveland, in 1889, Mr. Howard resigned his position, returned to Carthage, there organized the Smith County bank, in company with Col. J. A. Fite and Capt. T. P. Bridges, and was elected cashier of the institution. In 1893 he was reappointed to a place in the postoffice department, and the following year was made the sixth auditor of the treas- ury department at Washington.
MATT MARSHALL NEIL, justice of the supreme court of Tennessee, was born in Lincoln county, of that state, and is the son of Newton F. and Virginia E. (Marshall) Neil. The father was a merchant of Fayetteville, who died of cholera in 1854, leaving a wife and two children. The widowed mother then went with her children to the home of her father, Rev. M. M. Marshall, a Presbyterian minister, under whose influ- ence, united to that of the good mother, the children were reared. M. M. Neil was educated at Fayetteville academy and at Washington and Lee university, in Virginia, at the time General Lee was president of that institution. He took several special courses and later attended the Lebanon, Tenn., law school, from which he graduated in 1873. and was valedictorian of his class. In the interim he taught school in Mississippi from 1869 until the beginning of the year 1872. He began practicing his profession at Trenton, Tenn., Jan. 20, 1873, and continued practicing there until 1895. Several times prior to 1895 he served as special supreme judge, and as such ren- dered a number of important opinions which were highly com- mended at the time by the bench and bar of the state. On July 1, 1895, Gov. Peter Turney appointed him judge of the court of chancery appeals, and in August, 1896, he was elected by the people to succeed himself in that position, and served in
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that capacity until Sept. 5. 1902. During the year 1902 he was elected a justice of the supreme court of Tennessee, a position which he now holds. He is a great student, and is recognized in legal circles as one of the most profound lawyers in the state. His opinions are considered clear, comprehensive and strong, and are highly regarded. On Feb. 17, 1874, Judge Neil was married to Eliza Chalmers Green, daughter of Gen. "Tom" Green, of Texas, a Confederate general who served with distinction in the Southwest during the Civil war. Mrs. Neil's grandfather was Judge Nathan Green, formerly a jus- tice of the supreme court of Tennessee. Four children have been born to the union. two of them living: Virginia M., wife of Albert S. Elder, of Trenton, Tenn., president of the Gibson County bank, and Florence, at home.
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