USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee. Personal and genealogical, with portraits, Volume II > Part 7
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FRANK GRAHAM JONES, vice- president and general manager of the Memphis Street Railway Company, was born in Genesee county, N. Y., in 1858, and received such an educa- tion as the public schools afforded until 1870. In 1871 he became a tele- graph operator for the Western Union Company, at Niles, Mich. In 1874 he took a position as book- keeper in a wholesale produce house at Osceola, Ia., and later was a partner, being with the firm until 1880. In that year he en- gaged as bookkeeper with the Des Moines. Osceola & Southern railroad, later becoming auditor, and was finally appointed gen- eral freight and passenger agent, which position he held until 1885. About that time he became interested in the street rail- way system of Burlington, Ia., and moved there to take charge of that property, which he later changed to an electric system. In 1893 Mr. Jones purchased an interest in the Citizens' Street Railway Company, of Memphis, and removed there to take
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charge of that property. Later the other street railway sys- tems of the city were purchased and consolidated, under the title of the Memphis Street Railway Company. This system. under Mr. Jones' management, has been greatly improved, and by its liberal public policy has done much to aid in the rapid upbuilding of the city and its suburbs. Mr. Jones affiliates with the Presbyterian church.
JOSEPH J. WILLIAMS, mayor of Memphis, Tenn., was born in Somerville, Fayette county. Tenn., in September, 1852. He was reared in Memphis and received his education in the schools of that city. Leaving school at the age of eighteen years, he entered a drug store as clerk, and remained there for several years, be- coming interested in the business as a partner. In 1874, he became a cot- ton buyer. In 18So he entered the office of the county trustee, as cashier, and was employed there until 1888, when he was himself elected trustee for two years. He was re-elected three times, but resigned in 1898, having been elected mayor. In 1902, he was re-elected mayor for four years more. Mr. Williams is the senior member of the firm of Williams & Sugarman, life insurance agents. He is a genial gentleman, with many warm friends in the opposi- tion party who are always for him; he is a Democrat in politics, loyal to his party and friends, and ever ready to do all in his power for either. He has been chairman of the Shelby county committee, and has been delegate many times to state and con- gressional conventions. He is a Knight Templar, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, an Odd Fellow. Knight of Pythias and an Elk, and affiliates with the Presbyterian church. The fol- lowing tribute from Mr. Hugh Pettit, coal oil inspector, indi- cates his popularity: "We have never had a better citizen. He has held several important offices, more especially that of . trustee, handling funds of millions with never a cent lost, and
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is the first man ever clected for a third term to that office. His personal character was never questioned. He is never vin- dictive, is loyal to his friends, and is possessed of great per- sonal magnetism." A year after his first election as mayor. the following newspaper comment was made of him: "Mr. Williams has filled the office of mayor only one year, as yet, but in that time he has shown himself to be a man of ideas, resourceful in the matter of carrying forward whatever plans for the public welfare his fertile mind conceives. Under his administration the new city hospital and the new market house have been completed, likewise the extensive South Memphis sewer system. He has inaugurated and completed in an aston- ishingly short time the Auction street sewer, the greatest engi- neering enterprise ever attempted in Memphis. He has devised and is about to inaugurate a civil service scheme that is cal- culated to divorce city employes from local politics. But greater than all else, he has conducted successfully the task of enlarging the corporate limits of this city, is the first mayor of Greater Memphis, and is now immersed with the labor of extending municipal government to the newly acquired terri- tory."
JAMES DAVIS PORTER, of Paris, Tenn., governor of the state from 1875 to 1879, was born in the city where he now resides, Dec. 7. 1828. He is a son of Thomas Kennedy and Geraldine ( Horton) Porter, both of whom were of Eng- lish ancestry. The first of the Porter family in America was John Portes, who was born at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England, in 1590. He married in his native land, and in 1627 came to America. Eleven years later. the first of the Horton family also sought a home in the New World. On both sides, the ancestors of Governor Porter were participants in the war of the Revolution. and Gen. Peter B. Porter was a member of President John Quincy Adams' cabinet. Dr. Thomas K. Porter settled in Paris, in 1823. and there fol- lowed his profession with marked success for many years. James D. Porter was educated at the University of Nashville. graduating in 1846. He then studied law, was admitted to
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the bar, and in 1851 began the practice of his profession in his native town. From 1859 to 1861 he was a member of the state legislature, and during the session in the latter year he secured the adoption of the celebrated "Porter resolutions," pledging Tennessee to the South in case of war. Upon the commencement of hostilities he offered his services to the Con- federacy, and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Pillow, with headquarters at Memphis. By virtue of his of- fice, he played an important part in the organization of the provisional army in Tennessee, and when the state troops were turned over to the Confederate government he was made assistant adjustant-general, with the rank of captain, on the staff of Brig .- Gen. B. F. Cheatham. He served through the entire war as a member of General Cheatham's staff, taking part in the engagements at Belmont, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the siege of Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin, Nashville and Bentonville. After the surrender, he resumed the practice of law at Paris. In 1870 he was a delegate to the constitutional convention, and the same year was elected circuit judge. This office he resigned in 1874 to become gov- ernor of the state. He was re-elected governor in 1876, and in 1880 he was elected president of the Nashville, Chatta- nooga & St. Louis railroad, in which office he continued for four years. As a railroad official, his work was characterized by the same rare tact and ability as that which marked his ad- ministration as governor. Ever since the war Mr. Porter has been a prominent figure in Democratic politics. In 1880 he was a delegate at large to the national convention, and in 1892 he was again a delegate and chairman of the Tennessee dele- gation. Soon after President Cleveland's inauguration, in 1885, Governor Porter was appointed first assistant secretary of state, and held the office until the fall of 1887, when he re- signed. In 1894 he was appointed by President Cleveland United States minister to Chile, and served in that capacity for about two years. He has served as vice-president and is now president of the Tennessee Historical society; one of the trustees of the Peabody Fund: president of the board of trus- tees of the University of Nashville, and was the Tennessee
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editor of the "Confederate Military History." In 1851 he was married to Susanna, daughter of Gen. John H. Dunlap. of Paris, and they have four children.
B. R. HENDERSON. vice-mayor of Memphis, vice-president of the Gal- loway Coal Company, and vice-presi- dent of the Patterson Transportation Company, is an example of the self- made man, illustrating in his life the possibilities of the American youth. He was born at Huntingdon, Tenn .. in July, 1842. . The following year his parents removed to Memphis. Here he was reared, and attended the common schools of the city until the age of twelve years, when he began the battle of life for him- self by carrying newspapers, and later was taken into the employ of Lehman & Co., as errand boy and general helper. He remained with this firm for two years, and then went to work as collector for the Morning Bulletin. In 1860 he went into the post-office as mailing clerk, and on May 15. 1861. he entered the Confederate army as a private in Company H. Fourth Tennessee infantry, with which he served until the lat- ter part of 1863, when he was honorably discharged for phys- ical disability. He was in all the fights in which his regiment engaged, and was wounded in the left shoulder at Shiloh. He remained with the army after his discharge, being for a time employed in the post-office at Jackson, Miss. When the war closed, he returned to Memphis and went to work for the Memphis Avalanche, taking charge of mail routes. Two years later he went into the news business on the railroads, and was so employed for four years. He had kept his residence in Memphis, and on discontinuing his news business he be- came a clerk in that city, continuing in that line until 1878, when he went to work for the Patterson Transfer Company. of which he is now vice-president. By attention to business and making the company's interest his own, he rose from clerk
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to manager, and finally was elected to his present position. In 1889 the company purchased the interests of the Galloway Coal Company. and Mr. Henderson was made general manager, and in 1899 became vice-president of both companies. He has been one of the foremost men in Memphis, advancing the city's interests; was a member of the board of public works for four years, doing much in that position to promote the welfare of the municipality. He is an carnest member and one of the elders of the Presbyterian church. belongs to the Masonic order, and is a prominent member of the United Confederate Veterans.
S. P. READ, president of the Union and Planters' bank, of Memphis, Tenn., was born in Nelson county, Ky., in 1831. Educated in the common schools and St. Joseph's college, at Bardstown, in his native state, he began his business career as a clerk on a steamboat, the river trade at that time offering alluring inducements to young men. After two years on the river, he came to Tennessee, first as a clerk in a. mercantile establishment at Brownsville, and in 1857 he took a partner- ship in the old mercantile house of Stratton, McDavid & Co. He was also associated, before the war, with the dry-goods house of Nixon, Wood & Co., for about two years. In 1867 Mr. Read organized the People's Insurance Company, and was chosen secretary of the organization. This position he held for two years, resigning in 1869, to become one of the founders of the Union and Planters' bank. He was elected cashier upon the organization of the bank, and held that position until 1901. when he was elected to the presidency. For more than a third of a century Mr. Read has been a prominent figure in the com- mercial circles of Memphis. The greater part of that time he has given his undivided time and energies to the upbuilding of the bank with which he has been so intimately connected. Most of the time the bank has occupied the same building on Madison street. between Main and Front streets, and every day, during banking hours, Mr. Read could be found there, until he has come to be considered a part of the bank. It is this concentration of effort, this persistent attention to the
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little matters connected with a great financial institution, that have placed the name of the Union and Planters' bank so high on the roll of solid financial concerns of the South. The estab- lishment of the bank's reputation has also reflected the financial and commercial standing of Memphis, and assisted in spread- ing the name of the city abroad as an enterprising and at the same time conservative business center. Although Mr. Read takes an interest in the well-being of Memphis and her insti- tutions, the only public position he has ever held was that of one of the board of governors of the Cossitt library. His aim in life has been to build up the bank with which he has long been connected, and his crown of success is the reputation of that institution.
WILLIAM F. CARROLL, chief of the fire department of Memphis, Tenn., is a native of Missouri, having been born in St. Louis. June 9, 1843. His parents removed to Memphis in 1846, and the subject of this sketch was reared and educated in the city where he has passed most of his life. In the spring of 1861 he, like many another patriotic youngster, threw. himself into the breach and went into the war as a private in Company A (Southern Invincibles), of the Twenty-first Tennessee in- fantry. He served until the following winter, when he was sent home as too young for service. In 1863 be entered the Memphis fire department, and has risen, step by step, passing through all the grades, until he was made chief in January, 1898, which position he has since occupied with signal ability. He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Honor, and is president of the Fireman's Relief association, of Memphis.
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JOHN J. MASON. chief of police of Memphis, Tenn., was born in that city Feb. 18, 1861. His parents re- moved the same year to Chicago, where they resided until 1871, then returned to Memphis, where their son received his education. He quit school at an early age, and for some time clerked in various stores of Memphis. His first official position was in the office of the sheriff of Shelby county, acting as jailer for three years- from October, 1880, to October, 1881, under Sheriff P. R. Athy, and during 1884 and 1885 under Sheriff W. D. Cannon. At the time of his first appointment Mr. Mason was just enter- ing his twenty-first year, and he was the youngest jailer ever appointed in Shelby county. He followed this with two years as constable, and then went into the coal business. When he was elected constable of the fifth civil district, it was without opposition, he having received the endorsement of both parties, regardless of the well-known fact that he had always been an active Democrat. In 1898 he was appointed captain of police. and as such made such an enviable record that when Chief of Police Jerome E. Richards was elected clerk of the criminal court, in 1902, John J. Mason was promoted to the head of the Memphis police department. in recognition of his capa- bilities. Essentially a strict disciplinarian, Chief Mason has placed the police department of Memphis on a high plane, and its efficiency is properly recognized by all the departments of other cities. Following the visit of President Roosevelt to Memphis, in the fall of 1902, Chief Mason received compli- mentary letters from John E. Wilkie, chief of the United States secret service; Maj. Richard Sylvester, superintendent of police at Washington, D. C., and from the president him- self, through his secretary, George B. Cortelyou, for the splen- did manner in which the president had been guarded during his stay in the Bluff city. Chief Mason was also made the recipient of a handsome and valuable diamond stud, by the
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New Memphis Jockey club, in recognition of his services at the race meeting of 1903 in preserving order and protecting the thousands of visitors who attended the spring races. He is a stanch Democrat in politics, and has been a delegate to numerous state, congressional and local conventions. He is a member of the Catholic church, and of the Catholic Knights of Columbus and other fraternal societies. He is also a mem- ber of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and was one of the committee on exhibits at the recent world's fair, at St. Louis.
JOHN H. McDOWELL, planter, newspaper man and poli- tician, of Union City, Tenn., was born near Trenton, in that state, Dec. 12, 1844. He is a descendant of the old Scotch Covenanters, the first of the family in America, coming during the Colonial period, about the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury. In 1729 John McDowell's parents settled in Pennsyl- vania, and there he grew to manhood. After arriving at the years of maturity he removed to Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, and enlisted as a private from that state in the Revo- lutionary war. In the battle of Camden, S. C., he was wounded three times, but his Scotch determination conquered. and, although left on the field for dead, he lived to see the independence of the American colonies established and the gov- ernment of the United States launched on its career. John H. MeDowell's father, John Davis McDowell, was a grandson of this John McDowell. He married Nancy Hunter Irwin. a daughter of Gen. Robert Irwin, a native of Pennsylvania, who was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg declaration of independence, May 20, 1775, and a member of the provin- cial Congress. He served through the war of the Revolu- tion, in command of a regiment, and was several times a men- ber of the legislature after the war. John H. McDowell en- listed in May, 1861, as a private in Company H, Twelfth Ten- nessee infantry, commanded by Colonel Russell, and was mustered into the Confederate service. He fought at Bel- mont. Mo., Shiloh, about Corinth, Juka, Holly Springs, Thomp- son's Station, the Hundred Days' campaign in Georgia, and
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numerous other engagements. An old diary in his possession shows that he was in over forty battles and skirmishes. After the war, he became a planter in the Mississippi river bottoms until 1876, when he located at Union City. In 1882 he was elected to the lower house of the legislature; two years later to the senate. to which body he was re-elected in 1886; in- troduced and secured the submission to the people of the pro- hibitory amendment to the constitution; was six years editor of The Toiler, published at Nashville; twice president of the Farmers' Alliance; supported the People's party in 1892 and 1896. and was the editor of its official organ; was sergeant- at-arms in the convention which nominated Bryan at St. Louis. in 1896; returned to the Democratic party after that. and has been active in promoting the principles of that party since. He takes an active interest in the United Confederate Veterans, and has been commander of McDonald camp. of Union City. In November, 1865, he was married to Miss Mary E. R. Sandeford.
LUKE W. FINLAY, of the Mem- phis bar, was born near Brandon, Miss., Oct. 8, 1831. He was educated in the public schools of Brandon and graduated in Brandon college, in 1849. Governor Quitman, of Mis- sissippi, ex-officio president of the board of trustees, was present, and when young Finlay made honorable mention of his services to his country. in his valedictory, arose and remained standing until the end and signed his diploma. By resources obtained from teaching, he took the degree of A. B. at Yale college, in the class of 1856; was prin- cipal of the Academy of Brandon, in 1856-57; in August of the latter year made his home in Memphis, where he studied law and was admitted to practice in March, 1858. After teaching two months, he was engaged to take charge of the master's department of the chancery court of Shelby county,
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and managed it until January, 1860, when he entered upon the practice of his profession. He enlisted April 19, 1861, and was elected first lieutenant of Company A, Fourth Tennessee in- fantry, which was mustered into the military service of the state May 15th, and into the Confederate army August 19th, following. His first argument in the supreme court of the state was made in his Confederate uniform. On the organiza- tion of the army, in June, 1862, after the battle of Shiloh. while absent from his command. he was re-elected first lieu- tenant of Company A, and then major of the Fourth Tennes- see. When Otho F. Strahl was commissioned brigadier-gen- eral, in July. 1862. Major Finlay was commissioned lieu- tenant-colonel, and served as such until April 18. 1865. when, on the reorganization of the army, he was assigned to duty as lieutenant-colonel of a consolidated regiment consisting of 500 veterans in the line, from ten old veteran regiments, with James D. Tillman as colonel, and C. S. Deakin as major. He was paroled at Greensboro, N. C., on April 26, 1865. During his service, he took part in the engagements at Belinont, Island No. 10, New Madrid, Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, last day's fight at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, in the various engagements and skirmishes from Dalton to Ellsbury Ridge, Ga., Nashville, the skirmishes on the retreat in which the infantry reserves under General Forrest were engaged. the last fight at Sugar Creek. and the last conflict between Johnston and Sherman, at Bentonville, N. C. He was wounded three times -- at Shiloh, April 6, 1862, in his right shoulder, during the memorable charge of the Fourth Tennes- see, when it captured one gun and seized the strategic posi- tion occupied by McAllister's battery, at the northwest corner of the "review field"; next, on the chin, at Perryville, Ky., about sunset of Oct. 8. 1862. on the extreme right of the Con- federate line in the charge of the Fourth Tennessee upon the last Federal battery, and last on May 28. 1864. in a fierce skirmish on Ellsbury Ridge, by a bullet which took off the upper plate of his skull, disabling him for service until Decem- ber, 1864. In this skirmish nearly one-third of his regiment was killed or wounded, the order having been given by General
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Strahl to hold the Ridge at all hazards. His clothes were penetrated by a ball at Missionary Ridge, one of the hottest engagements of his command, no report of which is given. Colonel Finlay had the reserve -- the Fourth and Fifth Tennes- see regiments-in rifle-pits nearly a third of the way up the ridge; as Col. F. T. Sherman's command advanced in four lines of battle, the reserves poured in a fire that checked him, forcing the Federals to the left, the galling fire being too much
for the enemy. After the war, he resumed the practice of law at Memphis. In 1873-74 he was a director of the Leath Orphan asylum, and has been attorney for the Church home for a quarter of a century. Upon the passage of the public school law, he with his two associate directors organized the nine schools in the fourteenth district and set the system in motion. He was elected to the legislature in 1874; was made chairman of the committee on education and public schools and a member of the judiciary, corporation and finance committees. He is now president of Calvary Church club and commis- sioner of the pension board for West Tennessee. His father, Hon. James Finlay, for six terms judge of probate court of Rankin county, Miss., was of an ancestry from Argyleshire. Scotland, but a native of North Carolina, where his parents had settled. His mother, Cady Lewis, was a native of South Carolina, her ancestors being of Welsh origin, those of Caro- lina serving with Marion in the Revolution. In religion, Colonel Finlay is a churchman, confirmed in the Episcopal church by Bishop Otey in September, 1858. On April 23. 1863, he married Celia Carroll. daughter of Hon. Thos. B. Carroll, former mayor of Memphis, and granddaughter of Gen. William Carroll, former governor of Tennessee. He has one son living. Percy Finlay, who married Amante Semmes, daughter of Hon. O. J. Semmes, of Mobile, Ala. The young man is an A. B. and B. L. of Yale university. For the past nine years father and son have been partners in the prac- tice of law. In a recent publication, a soldier who was a mem- ber of Colonel Finlay's command, and who participated at Missionary Ridge, says: "Our regiment was fairly protected by a good rifle-pit. When the firing began. Colonel Finlay
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went to the rear of the center of our line, several pices higher up the ridge. and for half an hour stood there, giving orders and encouragement to his men, within point-blank range of 5,000 or 6,000 Federals --- the only Confederate they could see -- amid a hail-storm of bullets. I verily believe it is no exag- geration to say that such an act of sublime courage or reckless defiance of danger has never been surpassed by any soldier or commander in any of the wars of all time. For nearly forty years this intrepid man has gone about his daily work modestly, gently, and with a scrupulous regard for the rights, opinions and sensibilities of others." Truly, "The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring." Another of his comrades lias said : "Colonel Finlay was a model soldier and an efficient officer, is an exemplary citizen, an able lawyer, a consistent Christian, and a man without fear and above reproach."
CHARLES W. METCALF, an at- torney of Memphis, Tenn., was born in Jessamine county. Ky., in 1840, and there passed his youth and young manhood. He attended the common schools of that county, afterward tak- ing a course at Millersburg (Ky.) college. After leaving college, in 1861, he went to Memphis, where he enlisted in Capt. Phil D. Thompson's cavalry company, which was placed in Breckenridge's brigade. He served with his company until after the battle of Shiloh. being honor- ably discharged for physical disability near Tupelo, Miss. At the close of the war, he settled in Memphis, studied law with Kortrecht & Craft, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. since which time he has practiced his profession in that city. In 1874 he formed a partnership with S. P. Walker, and it con- tinued for nearly twenty-five years, being dissolved only by the death of Judge Walker, in 1898. The firm was for many years legal counsel for the city of Memphis. Since the death of Judge Walker Mr. Metcalf has had his sons. William P.
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