USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee. Personal and genealogical, with portraits, Volume I > Part 7
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THOMAS H. MALONE, presi- dent of the Nashville Gas Company, was born in Limestone, Ala., in 1834, and is the son of James C. Malone, a prominent planter. In 1855 he graduated from the University of Virginia with the degree of A. M. He then studied law in the office of Houston & Brown, of Nashville, and in 1859 was admitted to the bar. Shortly after his admission he be- came a member of the firm of Hous- ton, Vaughn & Malone and practiced until the Civil war came on, when he enlisted as first lieutenant of the Rock City Guards, afterward Company A, of Maury's Tennessee regi- ment, and served with that company until after the battle of Shiloh. He was then made assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain, on General Maury's staff. After the battle of Murfreesboro he was transferred at his own request to General Wheeler's cavalry and was assigned to duty in the Seventh
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Alabama cavalry. He remained with that regiment until cap- tured at Shelbyville, when he was taken to Johnson's island and held a prisoner until near the close of the war. After he was exchanged he was sent to Richmond, where he received orders to report at Montgomery, Ala., but the final surrender came before the order could be executed. During his service he fought at Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, and was in numer- ous minor engagements. He was slightly wounded at Perry- ville and his horse was wounded under him at Murfreesboro and he had two horses killed under him at Shelbyville. After the war Judge Malone resumed the practice of law in Nashville as a member of the firm of DeMoss & Malone and continued in that relation until he retired in 1892. Later he was one of the judges of the chancery court for the sixth division of Tennes- see for two years and was forced to accept the appointment to the chancellorship. Circumstances, however, compelled him to take an interest in the gas company, of which he was elected president in 1898. He is also interested in agriculture. He was first married to Miss Ellen Fall, daughter of Alexander Fall, of Nashville. She died in 1897. To this marriage there were born four children. Thomas H., Jr., is an attorney of Nashville, who was educated at Vanderbilt university. besides studying law one year in Berlin, Germany. He was afterward assistant professor of law at Vanderbilt university. Edward F. is an alumnus of Vanderbilt university, where he received the degree of A. B., and is now a student in the medical depart- ment of Johns Hopkins university at Baltimore, Md. Ellen T. is the wife of Prof. William T. MacGruder, of the Ohio State university at Columbus. Ohio, and Julia is at home. Judge Malone's second wife was Mrs. Milley Ewing Hall. Mr. Malone is a Knight Templar Mason and member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
AURELIUS AUGUSTUS LYON. M. D., a popular and highly successful physician, of Nashville, Tenn., was born at Jonesboro, Tenn., Jan. 11, 1838. He is the son of James A. and Adelaide E. (Deadrick) Lyon. The father was a promi- nent minister of the Presbyterian church and was one of the
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organizers of that church in the South. The mother was a member of a family prominent in Tennessee. She was a niece. of James W. Deadrick, chief justice of the supreme court of the state, and a maternal uncle, Alfred E. Jackson, was a briga- dier-general in the Confederate service. Doctor Lyon attended Washington college in East Tennessee for two years and in 1857 entered Princeton, graduating two years later from that . institution with the degree of A. B., and in 1869 he received the degree of A. M. from the same university. He studied medicine in New Orleans, Philadelphia and St. Louis, gradu- ating from the medical department of Washington university in St. Louis in 1861. In September of that year he entered the Confederate service and was remanded for six months for serv- ice in the Louisiana State Military hospital, after which he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Second Mississippi battalion of infantry. In June, 1863, he was promoted to major-surgeon of the Forty-eighth Mississippi infantry. It is Doctor Lyon's pride that he never missed a campaign from the beginning to the close of the war, or a battle in which General Lee took part. . After the surrender he rode a thou- sand miles, from Appomattox, Va., to Mississippi. He com- menced the practice of medicine in Columbus, where he remained until 1875, when he removed to Shreveport, La., and practiced there until 1895. On account of his health he returned to Tennessee and took up the practice of his profession at Nashville and has achieved prominence in his profession and enjoys a lucrative practice. While in Mississippi he was a member of the Columbus, Shreveport and State Medical soci- eties, in each of which he was honored with the presidency. He also belonged to the Louisiana Medical society, of which he was for a time president; is at present a member of Nash- ville academy and the State Medical society of Tennessee. In 1873, when the Mississippi State Medical society met in Vicks- burg, Doctor Lyon was orator and delivered a notable address, which was published and extensively circulated. He has been a frequent contributor to medical journals. In 1902 he was appointed land commissioner of the middle district of Ten- nessee, which office he now holds. He was married Sept. 16.
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1874. to Miss Susan L. Winter, a member of a distinguished family of Grenada, Miss. Mrs. Lyon is a descendant of the George Washington family and her father was a first cousin of the famous Admiral Semmes. Doctor Lyon is a member of the Presbyterian church. He is also a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias, having filled all the offices in the subordinate lodge. His family consists of three sons and two daughters: Aurelius Augustus, Jr., William Winter, James A .. Adelaide E. and Elwin.
ABRAM MARTIN TILLMAN, a prominent lawyer of Nashville, Tenn., was born near Shelbyville, Bedford county, Tenn., Sept. 8, 1863, and is the youngest of ten children born to Lewis and Mary Catherine (David- son) Tillman, both natives of Bed- ford county. The paternal grand- parents were John and Rachel P. (Martin) Tillman. Rachel Martin's father. Matt Martin, and seven of his brothers were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, as were the Tillman and Davidson ancestors also. The father of Matt Martin commanded a company in the French and Indian war and was with General Braddock in his disastrous campaign. The maternal grandparents, James and Mary C. (Hord) Davidson, were of Scotch extraction and were among the pioneers of Bedford county. Lewis Tillman was born Aug. 18, 1816. When twenty years of age he joined the Lincoln county company for the Florida Seminole war, the Bedford county men being rejected because that county had already furnished its quota. While in the service he was a member of Capt. George Wilson's "Spike company." After- ward he was elected lieutenant-colonel and then colonel of the militia, holding commissions from Governors Carroll, Cannon and Polk. In 1852 he was elected circuit court clerk of Bed- ford county and re-elected four years later. He was a Whig. He remained steadfastly on the Union side during the Civil
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war and after the Civil war he was for a number of years clerk and master of chancery courts. In 1868 was elected to Congress. For many years he edited a paper at Shelbyville. Abram M. Tillman was educated in the public and private schools of Shelbyville, later spending three years in the Winchester Normal, at Winchester, Tenn., and graduated from that institution in 1883. For a time he taught in Moore county, Tenn., but in 1884 he entered the office of his brother, George N. Tillman, then United States marshal at Nashville. About the same time he took the civil service examination for a clerkship, and in August, 1884. he was assigned to the office of the commissioner of internal reve- nue (division of distilled spirits), where he remained until May, 1886, when he resigned and returned to Tennessee to act as administrator of his father's estate. While in Washing- ton city he attended the Columbian University Law school, receiving the degrees of LL. B. and LL. M., and in August, 1886, he was licensed to practice in all the courts of Tennes- see. £ In January, 1887, he formed a partnership with his brother, George N., at Nashville. He was appointed special assistant to the United States attorney for the middle district of Tennessee for the term of October, 1891, and again in. April, 1902. In 1896 he was the Republican candidate for elector from the sixth district of Tennessee, and was secre- tary of the Republican state executive committee. In 1897 he was elected a member of the Nashville board of education for three years; on Feb. 1, 1898, President Mckinley com- missioned him United States attorney for the middle district of Tennessee; at the expiration of his term was reappointed by President Roosevelt ; and in 1902 he was the Republican nomi- nee and candidate for Congress from the sixth district. He has for many years been a member of the American Bar asso- ciation and of the Tennessee Bar association. On Nov. 28, 1894, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Clayton Ford, of Nashville, and to this union there have been born two chil- dren : Louise, aged seven years, and Kathleen, aged four.
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ANDREW JOHNSON, whose name is inseparably connected with the history of Tennessee, was born at Raleigh. N. C., Dec. 29, 1808. When he was but five years of age his father was drowned while trying to save the life of another. and at the age of ten Andrew was apprenticed to a tailor to learn the trade. Here he remained until he was sixteen years of age, all his wages going to his mother to assist her in supporting the family. While learning his trade he also learned to read. This was his only way of obtaining an education, for he never had the opportunity of attending school for even a single day. After serving his six-years' apprenticeship. he worked as a journeyman tailor at Laurens Court House, S. C .. for about two years and then located at Greenville, Tenn. Shortly after removing to Greenville he was married to Miss Eliza McCardle, and this was the turning point in Mr. Johnson's life. Had he found a different kind of a companion he might have continued on the tailor's bench for the remainder of his life and not have played the important part he did in the affairs of his state and the nation during the stormy days pre- ceding and during the Civil war. Mrs. Johnson was an edu- cated woman and under her tuition her husband made rapid progress in the acquirement of an education. During the day he plied his needle to support himself and his young wife, while the evenings were occupied in study under her direction. As he advanced in useful knowledge he became interested in politi- cal matters and before he attained his majority he was elected alderman. This office. he held for two years, when he was elected mayor of Greenville. In 1834, when a movement was set on foot to secure for the people of Tennessee a new con- stitution, giving them greater rights in certain directions, Mr. Johnson took an active part in behalf of the new constitution and this marked his first appearance in public life outside of local affairs. The following year he was elected to the legis- lature, where his record was so satisfactory to his constituents that he was again elected in 1839. In 1840 he was one of the electors on the Democratic presidential ticket and stumped the state. for VanBuren. If his speeches lacked the polish of a collegiate training and the flowers of rhetoric of the finished
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orator they possessed an earnestness and force that appealed to the people and elevated the speaker still higher in their esti- mation. In 18.43 he was chosen to represent the district in Congress and was re-elected at every subsequent election for ten years, when he retired from Congress to become the gov- ernor of Tennessee. That was in 1853. Two years later he was again elected governor and at the expiration of his second term he was elected to the United States senate. While in Congress, both as a representative and a senator, he spoke and voted in favor of. the continuance of slavery as it already ex- isted, but did not advocate its extension into new territory. When Lincoln was elected in 1860, and the dissatisfaction in the South began to manifest itself, Mr. Johnson took a firm stand in opposition to secession. He denied the right of any state to secede, and in July, 1861, secured the adoption by the United States senate of a resolution declaring that, "the present deplorable Civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern states now in revolt against the constitutional government and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not prosecuted upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of con- quest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those states, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the con- stitution and all the laws made in pursuance thereof, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality. and rights of the several states unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease." This was only part of his record that aroused the indignation of some of the leaders of the secession movement in Tennessee. In Memphis he was burned in effigy, threatened with a lynching if he ever returned to the state and a price set upon his head. His slaves were confiscated. his family driven from their home and his house turned into a Confederate barracks. Yet, in the face of all this, he accepted the appointment of military governor of the state, at the hands of President Lincoln, early in 1862, resigned
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from the senate and returned to his adopted state to do what he could to preserve order and protect the rights and property of the people. As military governor his course was marked by cool, deliberate judgment, great discretion and undaunted cour- age. He proceeded on the theory that Tennessee was still one of the United States, that it had never been out of the Union, because the people had no right to say that the state should cease to be a part of the Federal government. He cared noth- ing for threats and was alike insensible to bribes. He did his duty as he saw it, and although at the time he made many enemies by his unwavering devotion to the cause of the Union, the lapse of years has softened that enmity and to-day Andrew Johnson stands in history as one of Tennessee's most worthy sons. In 1864 Mr. Johnson was unanimously nominated by the Republican national convention for the office of vice-presi- dent. Prior to the war he had been a Democrat of the Jack- sonian type, but the logic of events drove him into the Repub- lican party. He accepted the nomination, was elected, and on March 4, 1865, was inducted into the office. Just six weeks later President Lincoln was assassinated and Mr. Johnson be- came the seventeenth president of the United States. Not long after assuming the office a difference of opinion arose between him and Congress as to the policy to be pursued toward the Southern states. The president took the position that they had never been out of the Union, all the ordinances of secession hav- ing been null and void. On the other hand, Congress, while agreeing with the president as to the nullity of the secession ordinances, insisted that the states which had tried to secede could only be restored to their former standing in the Union by the consent of Congress through appropriate legislation. Presi- dent Johnson aggravated the situation by issuing proclama- tions establishing provisional governments in the seceded states. Congress retaliated by passing the civil rights bill, giving the negro all the rights of citizenship, over the president's veto. During the session of 1867 the relations between the legislative and executive departments became more and more strained. Con- gress had carried the day with their reconstruction theories and several of the seceded states had been readmitted into the Union.
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The president, accompanied by several noted men, visited a num- ber of the Northern states, and while on his tour spoke in nearly all the large cities, explaining his attitude and criticiz- ing Congress for taking the position it had on some of the questions at issue. This tour, which became known as "Swing- ing round the circle," still further widened the breach, and when, in the following February, the president dismissed Secre- tary of War Stanton from his cabinet, he was denounced by Congress for a usurpation of authority. Articles of impeach- ment were lodged against the president in March, and after a trial which lasted more than two months, Chief Justice Chase presiding. Mr. Johnson was acquitted. It is quite probable, as is usual in such cases, that neither Mr. Johnson nor Congress was wholly right in this controversy. Nor was either wholly wrong, and had both sides been a little more willing to make concessions. it might have been the better for the Southern states, which formed the "bone of contention." But however this may have been, it is generally conceded. after a lapse of nearly forty years, that Mr. Johnson's mistake was more one of the head than of the heart. That he meant well all are agreed. Throughout his whole life his highest aim seems to have been to ameliorate the condition of his fellow-men, and in his enthusiasm along the lines of accomplishment of this purpose. it was almost certain that he should err at times. After retiring from the presidential office Mr. Johnson returned to his home at Greenville. In 1875 he was again elected to the United States senate by the Tennessee legislature and took his sent in that body on March 5, 1875, in a special session called by President Grant. Shortly after this he was stricken with paralysis and died on the last day of July, 1875.
ALVIN HAWKINS, governor of Tennessee from 1881 to 1883. was born in Bath county, Ky., Dec. 2, 1821. When he was about five years of age his parents removed to Maury county, Tenn., and two years later to Carroll county. Alvin attended the common schools, where he received a good rudi- mentary education, which he supplemented by a course of self- study and reading. In his early days he did farm work. learned
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the blacksmith trade, taught school for a time, read law with B. C. Totten, of Huntingdon, and in 1843 was admitted to the bar. He established himself in Camden, Benton county, where he began the practice of his profession and soon at- tained a high position at the bar. In 1853 he was elected to the legislature; was an elector on the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860; was elected to Congress in 1862 as a Unionist, under a proclamation of Andrew Johnson, military governor of the state, but his election was declared irregular and he was not permitted to take his seat. In 1864 he was appointed United States district attorney for the district of Western Tennessee, but resigned the following year to accept the appointment of judge of the supreme court. This office he resigned in the spring of 1868 and retired to private life for a few weeks, when he was appointed consul-general to Havana, Cuba. After serving as consul for a few months he resigned and returned to the United States. In May, 1869, he was elected justice of the supreme court, but the adoption of the new constitu- tion the succeeding year displaced him. After this he turned his attention to railroads and was for some time president of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad Company. In May, 1880, he was sent as a lay delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, at Cincinnati, and while attending the conference he was nominated by the Republic- ans of Tennessee, in their state convention, for the office of governor. At that time the Democratic party was divided on the question of the state debt and had two candidates in the field. The result was that Mr. Hawkins was elected by a handsome majority. Two years later he was a candidate for re-election, but in the meantime the Democracy had become united, and he was defeated by William B. Bate, afterward and now United States senator. Governor Hawkins retired to private life and his administration passed into history as one of the cleanest and most progressive in the record of the state.
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FRANCIS HOSEA FISK, M. D., of Nashville, Tenn., was born Jan. 15, 1836, in Cincinnati, O. From about the age of four years until he was sixteen, he spent the most of his time on a farm in Ripley county, Ind. He then attended the academy at Brooksville, Ind., and after leaving the academy taught school in a coun- try district in Ripley county for a short time. In 1853 he went to Cin- cinnati and took a course in book- keeping at Bacon's Commercial college, after which he took a position with the Daily and I'eckly Sun newspaper as an ac- countant. After being with the paper a while he was made reporter and finally assistant editor. In 1854 he began the study of medicine at the Eclectic Medical institute, of Cincinnati, O., and graduated May 12, 1857. In September of the same year, he located at Napoleon, Ark. The town was located on the bank of the Mississippi river at the mouth of the Arkansas, and in March, 1858, the levees of both rivers broke, submerg- ing the country for miles, and but two houses in Napoleon remained above water. Thus driven from home Doctor Fisk took refuge on a steamboat, the S. H. Tucker, plying on the Arkansas river. The clerk of the steamer was in poor health, and Doctor Fisk assisted him in the office. After a short time the clerk took a vacation and died within a month. Doctor Fisk, who had been left in charge, continued to act as clerk of the boat for thirteen months. In April, 1859, he located at Skullyville, in the Choctaw Nation, seventeen miles west of Fort Smith. Ark., and practiced among the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw Indians until the breaking out of the war in 1861. In June of that year he joined Captain Brown's com- pany of Col. DeRosa Carroll's regiment, the First Arkansas cavalry, and was mustered into the Confederate service. Doc- tor Fisk was made assistant surgeon of the regiment and served in that capacity at the battle of Oak Hills or Wilson's Creek, ten miles west of Springfield, Mo. After the battle of Elk
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Horn Tavern in 1862, the regiment was disbanded, and Doc- tor Fisk located at Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation. In that year Stand Waitie, the Cherokee chief, raised a regiment of the Cherokee Indians for the Confederate service and Doctor Fisk was appointed assistant surgeon to that First Cherokee regi- ment, which position he held until its reorganization in 1864, after which he was appointed by Chief Stand Waitie as physi- cian to the refugee Cherokee families who had been driven from their homes and were located on the north bank of the Red river in the Choctaw Nation. In March, 1865, Doctor Fisk was appointed assistant surgeon and assigned to duty with the artillery which was ordered to report to E. Kirby Smith at Shreveport, La. After the war closed Doctor Fisk went to Texas, located in Upshur county, where he practiced medicine until February, 1869, when he removed to Florence, Ind., and remained there two years. He then went to Springfield, Mo., and practiced until 1874, when he went to St. Louis. In 1875 he went to Olney, Ill., and remained there until 1886, when he moved to Nashville, Tenn., where he practiced medicine the remainder of his life. At the battle of Fort Smith in 1863, Doctor Fisk displayed gallantry of a high order in the discharge of his duty on the field and received commendation in Maj .- Gen. D. H. Cooper's report to the war department. In 1875 Doctor Fisk was appointed professor of theory and practice of medicine in the medical department of the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and filled the place with credit for a time, but was compelled to leave on account of failing health. During his sojourn in St. Louis he was co-editor of the Saint Louis Eclectic Medical Journal. Doctor Fisk was a member of the Missouri State Eclectic Medical society from 1873 to 1875. He afterward became a member of the Illinois State Eclectic Medical society, of which he was elected vice-presi- dent in 1884 and president in 1885. Soon after he removed to Tennessee he took an active part in reorganizing the Ten- nessee State Eclectic Medical society and was elected secre- tary, which office he held for several years. In 1881 he was elected a member of the National Eclectic Medical association and was elected vice-president of that body in 1889. Many of
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