USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee. Personal and genealogical, with portraits, Volume I > Part 8
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
: 96 .
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
his articles upon different subjects were published in the trans- actions of the national association. He was also a contributor to the Eclectic Medical Journal of Cincinnati, the Chicago Medical Times, various other medical journals, and the general press in every state in which he lived. Doctor Fisk was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in 1885 was elected master workman of Olney lodge No. 76, in Olney, Ill. He moved to Nashville, Tenn., in March, 1886, and in March, 1892, established the A. O. U. W. Messenger, the organ of the Tennessee grand jurisdiction A. O. U. W., and was its editor for the next six years. He held membership in the Select Knights of the order with a B. C. in the Grand Legion of Illinois and a B. C. in the Supreme Legion at the time of its dissolution. Doctor Fisk married Mrs. Lizzie E. Witcher, widow of B. W. Witcher, at her plantation twelve miles east of Gilmer, Tex .; her maiden name was Heaslet and she was a niece of Col. Matt Ward, a senator from Texas to the Con- federate Congress; she was a cousin to the late Dr. W. B. Ward, founder of the Ward's seminary at Nashville. To Doc- tor and Mrs. Fisk were born James Wilson, in 1871; Mary Elizabeth, in 1874, and Kathryn, in 1876. James W. died Jan. 4, 1886. The Doctor and his family were members of the Cum- berland Presbyterian church.
WALTER LENEHAN, M. D., of Nashville, Tenn., was born in that city in 1875, his parents being Stephen and Kate (Burgess) Lenehan, both natives of Tennessee, the father of Franklin, Williamson county, and the mother of Cornersville, Marshall county. Doctor Burgess, a brother of Doctor Lene- han's mother, is a distinguished member of the faculty of Columbia university. His great-grandfather was a famous physician in Tennessee and was one of the first residents of Cornersville, to which town he gave its name. Doctor Lene- ' han was educated in the public schools of Nashville, the private academy conducted by Doctor Wharton, and finished his pri- mary education with Professor Wallace, of Nashville, by whom he was prepared for college. He entered Vanderbilt university in 1898 and remained for two years. taking a select scientific
97
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
course: then entered the medical department, from which he graduated in 1901, and commenced practicing the same year in his native city, where he has met with a large degree of success. He is a member of the American Medical, Tennessee State. Tri-State and Middle Tennessee Medical associations ; the Nashville Academy of Medicine, and the Davidson County Medical society. Doctor Lenehan is a close student of every- thing pertaining to his profession, which marks him as the conscientious and progressive physician. It is to such men that the progress of the medical science is due. History con- tains no more exalted names than those of Hippocrates, Galen, Drelincourt. Abernethy, Harvey and Rush, all of whom prac- ticed the healing art. and all worked their way to prominence in their profession by hard study and careful investigation. The more modern physician who emulates their example is worthy of patronage. Such a man is. Dr. Walter Lenehan, whose large and constantly growing practice is evidence of his professional skill and personal popularity.
JOHN J. STRAUB, news editor of the Nashville. Tenn .. Daily News, is a native of Pennsylvania, where he was reared and educated. His first experi- ence was on a country paper. In 1885 he went to Nashville and for five years worked as a printer on the American. In 1890 he became news editor and served in that capacity and as proof- reader until 1902. He then took a position on the Daily News as news editor, and has continued as such to the present time. Mr. Straub is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, both lodge and canton, the Knights of Pythias, the Improved Order of Red Men. the Fraternal Order of Eagles. the National Union, the Fraternal Union, the Sons of Veterans and the Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoos. In 1901 he was elected to the legislature for a term of two years, and had the honor in that campaign of being nominated on
1-7
.98
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
the first ballot over twenty-seven competitors. He has for twelve years been a member of the Democratic executive com- mittee of the city of Nashville, and is at present chairman of the committee. He is a member of the International Typo- graphical union ; has been a delegate to its national conventions ; was three times president of the local Typographical union and twice president of the Trades council. He is at present great prophet of the Red Men of the State of Tennessee.
JAMES CHAMBERLAIN JONES, governor of Tennessee from 1841 to 1845, was a native of Davidson county, that state, and was born June 8, 1809. His parents died when he was small and his education was obtained in the home of a wealthy planter who brought him up, and who had a well- selected library. . About the time he attained his majority he married and began life as a farmer in Wilson county. In 1837 he was elected to the legislature, which was the beginning of his public career. Two years later he was re-elected and in the presidential contest of 1840 he was one of the electors on the Harrison ticket. In 18441 he achieved a signal political victory by defeating James K. Polk for governor. Mr. Polk had already had the office two terms and his supporters thought that he was almost invincible. In 1843 Governor Jones was renominated by the Whigs and Mr. Polk was again his oppo- nent. Again the Whigs carried the day and Mr. Jones was elected to a second term. In 1848 he was a delegate to the national convention of the Whig party. Although a strong supporter of Henry Clay, he stumped the state for General Taylor after the nomination was made, and was an elector on the ticket. Governor Jones removed to Memphis in 1850; was elected United States senator in 1852; supported the Kansas- Nebraska bill in 1854; after that time was identified with the Democratic party, and at the close of his senatorial term retired from political activity. As a public speaker he had few equals. Polk defeated Governor Cannon in 1839 by his superior ability as a campaigner. When Jones was nominated against him in 1841 he found "a foeman worthy of his steel." In both the campaigns in which he defeated Mr. Polk the oratory of
99
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
Governor Jones was the leading feature of the fight. Those campaigns are still referred to in the political annals of Ten- nessee as the "Polk-Jones" contests. In business matters Gov- ernor Jones was a man capable of grasping large undertakings and carrying them to a successful conclusion. He was the first president of the Memphis & Charleston railroad, and in his later years devoted his energies to its well-being. He died at Memphis, Oct. 29, 1859.
GEN. GATES P. THRUSTON, of Nashville, Tenn., is a native of Ohio, having been born in Dayton in 1835. His father's ancestors came from Bristol, England, and settled in Gloucester county, Va., in 1666. He is a descendant of Col. Charles Mynn Thruston, a noted Revolutionary officer of Virginia. His grandfather, Judge Buckner Thruston, was a mem- ber of the United States senate from Kentucky, and was later United States judge of the District of Columbia for thirty-six years. Gen- eral Thruston graduated at Miami university in Ohio; was valedictorian of the class of 1855, and has been honored by that institution with the degree of L. H. D. in consideration of his researches in archaeology and his literary work. He has also a diploma from the Cincinnati Law school. At the break- ing out of the Civil war he was commissioned captain in the First Ohio infantry, and was with his regiment at the battle of Shiloh and other engagements. At the battle of Murfrees- boro, as ordnance officer on the staff of General McCook, he had charge of the large ammunition trains of the right wing of General Rosecrans' army, and was so successful in defend- ing and saving his trains during that hotly contested engage- ment, that he was complimented and promoted on the battle- field by General Rosecrans in person, in the presence of his staff and escort, and specially commended for gallantry by General Rosecrans in his official report of that engagement. He was
100
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
also specially commended in the official reports of Generals McCook, Phil Sheridan, Davis, Negley, Johnson and Carlin, and soon after the battle was appointed major in the adjutant- general's department, and senior aide de camp upon the staff of General Rosecrans, thus bringing him into intimate associa- tion with General Garfield and other distinguished officers composing the military family of the commander-in-chief. In . the spring of 1863 Major Thruston was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and appointed assistant adjutant-general and chici-of-staff of the twentieth army corps, and at the bat- tle of Chickamauga, which took place soon afterwards, he bore a most honorable part. On September 20th, when the right wing of General Rosecrans' army was defeated and driven back, with a small escort, he crossed the gap between the two army lines, from the extreme Federal right to the position of Gen- eral Thomas on Snodgrass Hill, and gave to General Thomas the first information as to the details of the disaster on the right, and as to the position of the remaining Union forces. He also aided in bringing important reinforcements onto the field. At the request of Major-General Thomas, Lieutenant- Colonel Thruston was brevetted brigadier-general for his gal- lantry and services at Chickamauga, and was appointed judge advocate of the Army of the Cumberland upon his staff. He was on duty with General Thomas in the various battles about Atlanta, and served as judge advocate of the army until the close of the war. In December, 1865. General Thruston was united in marriage with Miss Ida Hamilton, daughter of Mr. James M. Hamilton, of Nashville, Tenn., and decided to remain and enter upon the practice of his profession in Tennessee. As an ex-Federal officer and an adopted citizen of Tennessee he endeavored, as far as possible, to relieve the people of this section from the evils of the reconstruction period. He went before the reconstruction committee at Washington and pre- sented a strong protest against the appointment of a military governor in Tennessee. He also earnestly advocated the repeal of all state laws disfranchising Confederate soldiers. General Thruston soon succeeded in building up an extensive and lucra- tive legal practice at Nashville, but in 1878, owing to an acci-
101
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
dent that somewhat impaired his health, he decided to retire from his profession. He spent nearly two years traveling in Europe and elsewhere with his wife, and upon his return to Tennessee, accepted the presidency of the State Insurance Company, and has since given his attention to his property and corporation interests. For many years he has been vice- president of the Tennessee Historical society, and has devoted his leisure time to historical and literary work. He has also made extensive explorations in the ancient mounds and ceme- teries of Tennessee and has published an elaborately illustrated volume upon the "Antiquities of Tennessee and the Adjacent States," a work that has passed through two editions, and has received the highest commendation from the leading authorities upon archæology in the United States. As in part the result of his discoveries, he has accumulated a most complete and valuable collection of the relics and remains of the prehistoric inhabitants of Tennessee. He has also a brilliant and well- classified collection of the gems of mineralogy. and a collec- tion of coins and medals that has probably no rival in the South. His collections were awarded one of the few gold medal prizes at the Tennessee Centennial, as "the finest in- dividual exhibit in any department" at the exposition. In 1894 General Thruston was united in marriage with Miss Fanny Dorman, daughter of Mr. R. Dorman. of Nashville. General Thruston is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is president of the Nashville Art asso- ciation. corresponding member of the New York and Phila- delphia Archæological and Numismatic societies, commissioner of Watkins institute, trustee of the University of Nashville and of the Carnegie library, and of various other educational and benevolent associations.
JOHN CALVIN BROWN. a distinguished jurist of Ten- ncssee, ex-governor of the state, and a major-general in the Confederate army, was born in Giles county, Tenn., Jan. 6, 1827, and died at Red Boiling Springs, Aug. 17, 1889. In 1846 he was graduated from Jackson college, Tenn .. and two years later was admitted to the bar at Pulaski. There he prac-
102
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
ticed until May, 1861, when he enlisted in the Confederate army as a captain in the Third Tennessee infantry. At the battle of Fort Donelson he commanded the brigade that opened the way for the Confederate retreat to Nashville, though ad- vantage was not taken of it or the army might have been saved the humiliation of capture the next day. He was taken prisoner at the capitulation of the fort and held for six months. After his exchange in August, 1862, he was made a brigadier-general, fought at Perryville, Chickamauga, Mission- ary Ridge, from Dalton to Atlanta, and in August, 1864, rose to the rank of major-general. He was wounded at Perryville and Chickamauga. After being promoted the second time he participated in the military operations in Tennessee and at the battle of Franklin, on the last day of November, 1864, he was again wounded. When the war closed he returned to his law practice at Pulaski. In 1870 he was a member and presi- dent of the constitutional convention, and the following year was elected governor. There are two things connected with his election that are especially noticeable, viz .: He was the first Democrat to be elected governor of Tennessee after the war, and he was the second of his family to be chosen for the office, his brother, Neil S. Brown, having served as governor from 1847 to 1849. In 1873 he was re-elected. At the time he was inducted into office there were several important issues before the people for adjustment, foremost of which was the payment of the state debt. During his administration the bonded debt was reduced from $43,000,000 to about $20,000,000, a large floating debt was paid and the credit of the state very much improved by the prompt payment of interest on the outstand- ing bonds. Upon retiring from the gubernatorial chair he be- came interested in the construction of railroads in the South, and took charge of the extension of the Texas Pacific from New Orleans to the Rio Grande. Later he was made receiver for the latter road, and when by his skilful management he placed the company on a sure footing, it was reorganized and he was elected president. Governor Brown was an extensive traveler, not only in his own country, but in Europe, Asia and Africa .___ His broad experience in affairs of state and large
103
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
financial ventures made him a man of superior ability in busi- ness matters, and the information gained by travel made him one of the most entertaining of men. At the time of his death he was president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Com- pany. In 1864. he was married to Miss Bettie Childress, a beautiful and accomplished young lady of Murfreesboro, and for several years prior to his death lived in Nashville.
ROGER EASTMAN, city tax col- lector of Nashville, Tenn., has occu- pied that position since 1898. He was born near that city in 1858, and is the son of E. G. Eastman. His father was a native of New Hampshire and was for years the editor of the old Union and American of Nashville. He died in 1859. Roger was reared in Nashville and educated in the pub- lic schools of that city. He entered the First National bank as clerk in 1873, and remained with that bank until 1895, rising to the place of assistant cashier. For three years he was in the county trustee's office. In 1898 the council appointed him city tax collector to fill a vacancy. The following year he was elected for a full term of four years and was again elected in the fall of 1903 for another four years' term. Mr. Eastman was married in 1881 to Miss Georgia McCauley, of Nashville. He is one of the most prominent Masons in Tennessee, having been a member of the order since he became of age. He has filled all the chairs in his lodge, being elected worshipful mas- ter of Phoenix lodge when he was but twenty-three years old. At the same time he was high priest of the chapter. He belongs to both the Scottish and York Rites, and is president of the Masonic Library association, and treasurer of his Masonic lodge. Mr. Eastman has been a member of the Baptist Sunday-school board for years, and has been its auditor ever since its organ- ization. He is treasurer of the First Baptist church, and is also vice-president of the Nashville Athletic club.
104
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
THOMAS L. MADDIN, M. D .. of Nashville, Tenn., was born in Columbia, Maury county, Tenn., Sept. 4, 1826. His father, Rev. Thomas Maddin, was of Irish and Scotch descent and was for sixty years an itinerant preacher of the Methodist church. While stationed at Nashville in 1817 and 1818. he organized the first church Sunday school in that city. He was an important member of the church conference. high in its coun- cils and of renown in its pulpit. He held a high place in the Masonic fraternity of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. He died in 1874 at the age of seventy-six years. His wife was a Miss Sarah Moore, a native of Kentucky. descended from an old Maryland family, and the daughter of a farmer residing in the vicinity of Louisville. She passed away at Huntsville, Ala .. in 1865. aged sixty-four. Dr. Thomas L. Maddin completed his literary education at LaGrange college. Ala., having been ap- pointed assistant instructor in his senior year. and taking his A. D. degree in 1845. He commenced the study of medicine as an office pupil of Dr. Jonathan McDonald, of Limestone county, Ala. In the second year of his study typhoid fever be- came a widespread epidemic and his preceptor being over- taxed. the young student was given almost sole charge of twenty cases of the fever, all negroes on the plantation owned by Hon. Luke Pryor. By discarding the prevailing treatment of bleeding for fever, sustaining his patients with stimulants and economizing the vital forces. he brought them all through, notwithstanding the mortality generally was from thirty to thirty-five per cent. He matriculated at the University of Louisville in the fall of 1847. and received his degree of M. D. in the spring of 1849. He became a partner of Doctor Mc- Donald and for years was actively engaged in a county prac- tice. His health became impaired by malaria and he decided to move to some city. Accordingly he located in Memphis, but his malaria growing worse he decided to go to New
105
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
Orleans, but at the last moment took a boat for Nashville, reaching there in the spring of 1853. The Tennessee State Medical society met in Nashville that spring and he made application for membership. During the meeting of the society he took occasion to disagree with one of the old members on a point of eye anatomy and was severely called to account by the inate surgeon. He maintained his position in a dignified manner, and finally proved conclusively that he was right, which at once gave him a professional standing and eventually the warm friendship of the one who had referred to him as a little interloper." With the opening of the session of the medical department of the University of Nashville in the fall of 1854, he organized a private class for explanation and examination of all lectures delivered at the college. This class numbered over 100, and the following year he had a class of IIo for anatomical study. He was professor of anatomy in the Shelby Medical college from 1857 to 1861, and professor of surgery from 1858 to 1861, when the war com- pelled the school to close. From 1867 to 1873 he was pro- fessor of the institutes of medicine in the medical depart- ment of the University of Nashville; from 1873 to 1896, pro- fessor of practice of medicine and clinical medicine, and presi- dent of the faculty, and since then has occupied the chair of nervous diseases and general pathology. He was a member of the staff of the first city hospital established in connection with Shelby Medical college. and during the war did a large amount of work among the sick and disabled soldiers. He was an associate in the editorial work of the Monthly Record of Medicine and Surgery. an excellent publication conducted in connection with the college, and was for many years presi- dent of the city board of health. A gentleman by nature and training. Doctor Maddin is noted for his unvarying courtesy and dignified bearing. treating every one with unfailing polite- ness and at the same time in a congenial manner. He has never ceased to be a student and has studied constantly and to good purpose. He answers the calls made upon him from rich or poor. with or without fee. His associate of alinost forty years says he "never heard him use an expression that
106
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
should not be used in the presence of ladies." Having no children, he has educated four nephews and two nieces, send- ing them to the best universities and colleges. Doctor Maddin is a Democrat, but never an officer secker. In the Civil war during President Lincoln's administration, while his sympathy was with the South, his judgment was that the South should stay in the Union and let Congress settle the slavery question, and his action was in conformity with this creed. He is a consistent member of his father's church. Thoroughly abste- mious in his habits, he has been enabled to overcome the draw- back of a slender physique and respond to all demands made by epidemics where those of more robust frame have been compelled to give way to weariness. As a friend said of him: "Truth has been his weapon of attack; honor his only armor of defense; justice the law of his life; rectitude the standard of his conduct; honesty the only policy pursued; charity his daily habit; love of country and humanity the senti- ments of his heart; and duty to all men, duty always and everywhere, to God and man, the pole-star that has guided his fair ship of life through the world's sometimes stormy and boisterous seas of action, onward. ever onward to that haven of Eternal Peace. the goal to be sought by one and all."
WILLIAM. HUNTER WASH- INGTON. LL.B., one of the leading attorneys of Nashville, Tenn., and ex-attorney-general for the Nash- ville district, is a descendant of John Washington, the uncle of Gen. George Washington, and a grandson of that John Washington who came from the northern part of England in 1657 and who was the founder of the family in America. Francis Whiting Washing- ton. the father of the subject of this sketch, married Sarah Catherine Crockett soon after he reached his majority, and removed to Rutherford county, Tenn., where he established the country seat known as Springfield, and lived
107
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
there afterward, except what time he was in the Confederate army during the Civil war. William H. Washington was born at Springfield. After the war he entered Washington and Lee university, at Lexington, Va., where he continued to study until June, 1870, joining the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity some time in the fall of 1867. He left the uni- versity with the degree of "distinguished undergraduate." That fall he entered Union university and graduated in June, 1871. After finishing his literary education he took up the study of law, entered the law department of Cumberland uni- versity, at Lebanon, Tenn., and completed the junior course. In September, 1872, he entered the senior class in the law de- partment of the University of Michigan and graduated on March 27, 1873, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. On April 10th of that year he opened an office in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he soon established a reputation as an able, con- scientious and successful lawyer. In August, 1878, he was elected attorney-general for the Nashville district of Tennessee, which office he filled with credit to himself and great advantage to his constituents, for a term of eight years. Since that time he has been engaged in general practice at the Nashville bar. On Jan. 8, 1901, he delivered the oration at the annual ban- que't of the Tennessee Society of Missouri, at St. Louis, and was that year elected an honorary member of the society. At the time of his election as a member of the society the honorary members of Tennessee were United States Senator Wm. B. Bate. Gov. R. L. Taylor, Bishop Thos. F. Gailor, Gov. Benton McMillin and Wm. H. Washington.
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.