USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 45
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* The railroad bridge was rebuilt by the Federal military authorites in May following.
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Woods, R. C. Foster, 1st, Russell Houston, William B. Lewis, John M. Lea, John S. Brien, James Whitworth, N. Hobson, John Hugh Smith, and John M. Bass-previously appointed by the City Council to meet the Commanding General, make a formal surrender of the city to him, and negotiate for the best terms they could in regard to the protection of the property and rights of the citizens-crossed the river in the steamer "C. E. Hillman," where they were met by Generals Nelson and Mitch- ell, by whom they were escorted to Gen. Buell's headquarters. What transpired at this meeting of the representatives of the conquerors and the conquered, except the bare fact of the sur- render of the city, remains, and is likely to remain, a portion of the unwritten history of the war. It was understood, however, that Gen. Buell was solicited to issue a proclamation defining the policy he should pursue, and what he should expect of the peo- ple, but he declined, assigning as a reason that he preferred to let his acts speak for himself. [It is noteworthy that of the actors in this conference only four survive-Gen. Buell and Messrs. Russell Houston, John M. Lea, and James Whitworth.] The day following Mayor Cheatham issued a proclamation in which he said " the interview was perfectly satisfactory to the commit- tee, and there is every assurance of safety and protection to the people, both in their persons and their property." Gen. Buell and his army conducted themselves, as did the citizens, with " marked propriety." Gov. Johnson acted as Military Governor from March 12, 1862, to the close of the war. He ousted the Mayor and City Council for refusing to take the oath of allegi- ance to the Government of the United States, and appointed others in their places. A great many citizens, most of them lead- ing men in society, and several of them ministers of the gospel, were arrested by order of Gov. Johnson and put into prison. A Union meeting was held in Nashville on the 12th of May. On the 24th several newspaper offices were seized for confiscation. Gen. Forrest, Gen. Morgan, and others, made occasional sorties about the neighborhood, which only frightened the citizens, with- ont doing any particular harm. But the city was sometimes cut off' from all communication with the outside world. Gov. John- son levied specific contributions on the wealthy to aid the poor in procuring food. It is proper to say that he did not himself
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even see the money thus collected and disbursed. He entrusted it to others. Gen. Buell and his army had left the city for the Tennessee river, and Gen. Rousseau took command in the latter part of August, but was succeeded by a man named Negley-not the regular officer, Gen. Neglee, but a volunteer General. The battle of Lavergne, fifteen miles from the city, was fought Octo- ber 7, a signal little victory for the Federal troops. Gen. Rose- crans was in command in November, and made his headquarters here till the close of the war. Gen. Grant, as the Commander- in-Chief of the Army of the Cumberland, made his headquar- ters here for a considerable length of time. The result of the battle of Nashville, commanded by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas on one side, and by Gen. Hood on the other, is well known. After the struggle was over, a military force was kept here for several years. The army officers and people got along very har- moniously together, and the removal of the troops was generally regretted.
October 20, 1865, Champ Ferguson was hung at the peniten- tiary on account of war operations. On the 20th of November Wm. Heffran was dragged from his carriage and murdered by some ruffians belonging to the Federal army, who were subse- quently apprehended, tried by court-martial, convicted, and hung. The execution took place January 26, 1866.
During the latter mouths of 1865, the city was full of thieves and robbers, and deeds of blood and robbery were frequent. It was unsafe to go out at night without arms. A committee of safety was appointed, and extra policemen placed on duty, until the turbulent spirits were arrested and imprisoned or driven from our midst.
The system of letter carrying was introduced January 1, 1866. The Stacey House (now Scott's Hotel) was opened the next day. A destructive fire occurred on the Public Square January 9, and Chas. H. Moore was burned to death. Dr. David T. McGavock, a life-long citizen here, died January 7. Street cars were intro- duced in March, 1866, the South Nashville line, of which Anson Nelson was president, being the first. The new suspension bridge, destroyed in the carly part of the war, was completed June 21, 1866. The Board of Health was established June 27. Prof. Haves made a balloon ascension September 20. Rev. Dr.
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Samuel D. Baldwin, author of "Armageddon," died October 9. A fire occurred October 24, on Cedar, Cherry, and Deaderick streets, by which more than twenty houses were destroyed; loss, $300,000.
Fisk University -- so named in honor of Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, who had charge of the Freedmen's Bureau at this place during the war-was established by the American Association in 1866. It was known as the Fisk School till 1867, when it was incorpo- rated as a university. It makes no distinction of race or sex, but the institution was especially designed for colored youth, and the students are composed almost entirely of colored persons. In 1871, a number of the students were organized as a singing band, known as the "Jubilee Singers," who, by concerts in the Northern States and in England, made, clear of expenses, $130,- 000, which was devoted to the purchase of a permanent site for the University, comprising twenty-five acres, in a beautiful sub- urb of the city, and to the erection of a fine building called Jubilee Hall. The singers are now engaged in their work in Europe, raising an endowment of $100,000 for the institution. The number of instructors is fourteen; the property of the insti- tution is valued at $200,000. The school has been remarkably successful. Prof. John Ogden was Principal of the University from 1866 to 1870; Prof. A. K. Spence, from 1870 to 1875, when Rev. E. M. Cravath was elected President, and is now in service.
The Central Tennessee College, located in the southern part of the city, was organized in 1866, under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is supported almost entirely by the Freedman's Aid Society of that Church. The buildings, valued at $45,000, are large and imposing. The school has been very successful, and has an average attendance of over two hun- dred. The Rev. John Braden, D. D., is the President.
The Nashville Normal and Theological Institute, for colored pupils of both sexes, was opened by the American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1866. The Rev. D. W. Phillips, D. D., was then, as now, the Principal of the institution. From an hum- ble beginning, in obscure quarters in the northern suburbs of the city, it has grown to almost gigantic proportions, and now occupies one of the largest and most elegant houses in the south-
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western suburbs, situated on a lovely and beautiful site. The grounds alone cost $30,000. It is in sight of, and not far from, Vanderbilt University. It is well patronized.
The cholera appeared here late in August, 1866, and raged with terrible fury for about six weeks. Many families fled the city, and much of the time during the prevalence of the disease business was pretty generally suspended and the streets almost deserted. So marked were these features that the city presented the appearance of a continuous Sabbath. The Nashville Dispatch of October 13 (the epidemic was then a thing of the past), esti- mates, from the best data at hand, at over eight hundred the harvest which the pestilence gathered while it held high carnival in the city, and says, "With the single exception of Memphis, the mortality has been greater in Nashville, according to popula- tion, than any other city it has visited in this country." It also states that "the pestilence raged with greater force than during its former visitations," in 1833, 1849, 1850, and 1854. In 1873, a year whose fame will long be connected with that of Asiatic cholera, Nashville received another severe scourge. The num- ber of deaths was about the same as during the visitation in 1866, but the population of the city was estimated to be less in 1873 than in 1866, the result of the removal of large bodies of troops and camp-followers, who were still here in the latter year, so that the death rate from cholera in 1873 is estimated to be greater than that of 1866.
On the 8th of March, 1867, the funeral obsequies of Col. De- Bow, the founder and editor of DeBow's Review, and of Bishop Joshua Soule, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, took place. Ex-Mayor Andrew Anderson died on the 15th of April, aged seventy-two years. He was for more than twenty years connected with the city government, and was highly esteemed.
On the 14th of May, a mutiny occurred in the penitentiary, there being an uprising of three hundred convicts. The mutiny was suppressed before any escapes were made. The east wing of the penitentiary was burned on the 24th of June; loss, $50,000.
A large bell (the largest and finest in the city) was placed in the western tower of the First Presbyterian Church on the 10th of July. It was a present from Mrs. Adelicia Cheatham, wife of Dr. W. A. Cheatham. July 26, William N. Bilbo, Esq., a
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lawyer, an orator, and a writer of considerable note, departed this life. Ex-Gov. William B. Campbell died Angust 19, and Judge John S. Brien on the 6th of November. The Alloway residence, next to the McKendree Church, was destroyed by fire December 22, 1867.
Col. A. W. Putnam died on the 20th of January, 1869. He was the President of the Tennessee Historical Society, the author of the " Life and Times of Gen. Jaines Robertson," and a lineal descendant of Gen. Israel Putnam, of revolutionary fame.
Work on the Tennessee and Pacific Railroad commenced June 17, 1869. In the summer of this year the city government was placed in the hands of a receiver, owing to the bad management of those who acted as mayor, aldermen and councilmen. Hon. John M. Bass was appointed receiver by the Chancery Court, and gave a large bond for the faithful performance of his duties. He discharged the trust committed to him with great fidelity, and to the entire satisfaction of the taxpayers. In the latter part of the year, the people elected men of their choice as mayor and aldermen and councilmen ; Mr. Bass made a full report, and turned the affairs of the city over to K. J. Morris, Esq., the new- Mayor, and his colleagues of the City Council. The Hon. John Bell, one of Tennessee's noted politicians, died at Cumberland Furnace, September 10. His body was brought here, laid in state in the capitol for one or two days, and buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. The Maxwell House was opened for guests on the 22d of September, 1869, by M. Kean & Co.
The post-office was removed to the corner of Cedar and Cherry streets, January 14, 1870, its present location. Ex-Mayor John Hugh Smith died July 7. The College Hill Foundry was burned September 11; loss, $27,000. The improvements on the capitol grounds were resumed, after ten years' neglect, October 26, 1870.
The Nashville Industrial Exposition committees were organ- ized on the 26th of February, 1871, the building commenced ou the 17th of March, and the Exposition was formally opened on the 8th of Mav. Dr. Wm. H. Wharton, a physician and minis- ter of the Christian Church, died May S. Christina Neilson sung in Nashville May 4. The General Assembly of the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church met in Nashville May 18, 1871.
On the 10th of April, 1871, our German citizens had a grand
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jubilee procession in commemoration of peace between France and Germany. The death of Rev. T. V. Moore, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, occurred August 5, 1871. Judge W. K. Turner died on the 10th of the same month. On the 19th of November the large and elegant cotton factory, in North Nashville, was put in operation, running over 75,000 spindles. Col. Samuel D. Morgan was president of the com- pany, and had superintended the building from the very begin- ning, looking after the minutest details, as he had previously done in the erection of the capitol. He was for many years one of our leading wholesale merchants.
January 22, 1872, a great fire occurred on Market street; loss, $200,000. Col. G. C. Torbett died February 14. Mrs. Francis B. Fogg, one of the best and most benevolent women that ever lived here, died on the 14th of March. A destructive fire took place on the corner of Market street and the Public Square; loss, $50,000. The epizootic, or horse disease, made its appear- ance in November, and nearly all the horses in the city were at- tacked. The street cars stopped running, and oxen were in de- mand for hauling goods to the different depots.
January 1, 1873, a fire on the Public Square destroyed prop- erty to the amount of $25,000. McCrae, Maury & Co.'s distil- lery was burned January 28.
The Industrial Exposition was again opened, May 1, 1873, and was carried on with remarkable success for one month.
The Vanderbilt University, located in the western suburbs of the city, owes its foundation to the munificence of the late Cor- nelius Vanderbilt, of New York, who, on the 27th of March, 1873, made a donation of $500,000, to which he afterwards added about $200,000, to found an institution of learning of a high grade here .* The ground was broken for the main edifice
# Dr. Charles F. Deems, who is so widely known in the South, and who be- came an intimate friend of Commodore Vanderbilt from the time he took charge of the "Church of the Strangers," in New York, recently gave the following as the words used by Commodore Vanderbilt in a conversation which took place some time after the founding of Vanderbilt University: " I concluded to do this because I fought the South when the South was in rebellion. I gave a vessel worth a million to show my views on that subject; and now I am willing to give a larger amount of money to show these people who have been subjugated that the Northern men do not bear animosity."
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September 15, 1873, and the corner-stone was laid April 28, 1874. The University opened its first term October 3-4, 1875, on which days suitable dedicatory and inaugural services were held. The apparatus for astronomical observations for the school of physics, the chemical laboratory, etc., are not surpassed in this country. The cabinet of minerals, stones, etc., embraces about six thousand specimens.
The Tennessee Historical Society was reorganized in May, 1874, and has been in successful operation ever since. Its pres- ent officers are : Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, president ; Hon. John M. Lea, vice-president; Gen. G. P. Thruston, corresponding secre- tary; J. S. Carels, treasurer; Dr. J. B. Lindsley, librarian ; and Anson Nelson, recording secretary.
The new Cumberland Presbyterian Church was completed April 22, 1874. The corner-stone of the new Odd Fellows' Hall was laid, with imposing ceremonies, on the 30th of June. September 16, the Fourth Annual Industrial Exposition was opened, with an imposing procession of societies and citizens.
The funeral procession to do honor to the memory of Andrew Johnson, ex-President of the United States, ex-Governor, etc., in January, 1875, was unusually large. The Hon. Joseph S. Fowler was the orator of the day.
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The Fire Alarm Telegraph went into operation on the 30th of January, 1875, and cost the city $22,500. It has about twenty miles of wire in the city, which is divided into four fire districts, united by an automatic repeater. The Fire Department consists of four steam fire engines, with necessary apparatus, horses, etc., and one hook and ladder truck. Capt. Wm. Stockell is the Chief, a position he has occupied since the summer of 1869. The cost of the department is about $35,000 a year.
Policeman Frazer was killed April 30. The celebrated Whit- tle and Bliss meetings were held in April and May, in the old exposition buildings, and created a profound impression. Vice- President Henry Wilson visited the city in May.
Work on the Custom-house was commenced November 17. Its white granite walls, ornamented with an imposing front and with beautifully designed and exquisitely ornamented windows, now reach the third story. This building, for architectural de- sign and magnificent appearance, will rival any building of the kind in the United States.
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NOTES.
THE LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE RAILROAD.
Judge Guild was a member of the Legislature of Tennessee from Sumner county when the proposition came before that body to charter the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. He carried the measure through the Legislature, and also voted for State aid to the road. He was the author of the act submitting to the people of Sumner and Davidson counties the proposition for a subscription of $300,000 to the capital stock of the road, and carried the vote in favor of the measure by a vigorous canvass of those counties. Gov. IIelm was the first President of the road, and Judge Guild was the Vice-President for Tennessee, and each devoted himself to the location and construction of this important enterprise. This road is the great artery of com- merce and transportation between the North and the South, forming a connection with the railway system of those sections.
THE HON. BAILIE PEYTON
departed this life on his farm in Sumner county, August 26, 1878. At the bar and citizens' meeting in Gallatin, Jo. C. Guild pro- nounced the eulogy upon his life and character.
CONCLUSION.
The South has just passed through one of the most terribly destructive scourges with which it has ever been afflicted. The yellow fever has prevailed in a most virulent form in New Orleans and Memphis-where it is estimated that fully thirty- five thousand people were attacked by the pestilence-and in many interior towns in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Ten- nessee, and Kentucky, while the death-rate has been simply ap- palling, amounting in some places to sixty per cent of the popu- lation. The scourge appears to have traveled up the Mississippi river and by the railroads. It diverged at Memphis, one line extending up the river into Kentucky, while the other followed
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the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and the Tennessee river as far as Chattanooga. It also followed the lines of railroads in West Tennessee, and raged with fearful severity in many of the towns in that section. By God's blessing, Nashville was exempt from the scourge, and afforded an asylum to thousands who fled from infected districts. While the South was thus sorely afflict- ed, and in need of nurses, physicians, and means of subsistence, the appeals of the suffering people were promptly responded to by a sympathising, generous, noble people of the North, who, for three months, made large donations of money and supplies of all kinds, not only for the sick, but for the starving poor. This generous and noble bearing of our brethren of the North makes us feel that we are one people, one country, with a com- mon destiny. Notwithstanding we have been engaged in an in- testine war, the noble generosity of the North has made us feel like Henry IV, when he said, in anticipation of a cessation of the wars of the Roses:
"No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood ; No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs Of hostile paces : those opposed eyes, Which-like the meteors of a troubled heaven, All of one nature, of one substance bred- Did lately meet in the intestine shock And furious close of civil butchery, Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks March all one way; and be no more opposed Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies: The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife, No more shall cut his master."
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