Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 10

Author: Speer, William S
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Nashville, A. B. Tavel
Number of Pages: 1278

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He practiced law from 1851 to 1870, except during the period of the civil war ; from August, 1870, to Feb- ruary, 1874, he was circuit court judge, resigning the bench to enter the gubernatorial canvass of that year; inaugurated governor of the State January 15, 1875, continuing in this office until January 15, 1879; from July 1, 1880, to September, 1881, presi- dent of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railway company.

In March, 1885, a few days after the inauguration of President Cleveland, Gov. Porter was requested by the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, the newly appointed Secretary of State, to visit Washington, and on repairing thither was asked by the Secretary if he would accept the posi- tion of Assistant Secretary of State, to which he replied that he would consider the proposition until the follow- ing morning, and then advise him of his decision. At the hour named, he announced to the Secretary his willingness to accept the office so unexpectedly ten- dered, and together they called on the President, who expressed his pleasure at the appointment. He sent Gov. Porter's name to the Senate at once, and the nomination was immediately confirmed by that body

unanimously. The high compliment conveyed in his appointment to the position he now so worthily and acceptably occupies is greatly enhanced by the consid- eration that it was conferred without solicitation or suggestion on his part, he not having been an applicant for this or any other place under the administration of Mr. Cleveland.

Gov. Porter's methods of life have been, First-to attend to his own business. Second-while a lawyer, to master all cases put into his hands, and to go into the court-house after the fullest preparation, a course which has always enabled him to compete with any opponent. Third-never to live beyond his income. In this his wife has heartily seconded him, and it has always been a rule with them never to buy anything until able to pay for it. It is probable that Gov. Porter has paid less interest on personal obligations than any man in the State. He never had any controversies or litigation with his neighbors, itud has kept clients out of court when possible. His Latin motto, which came from his maternal ancestors, is "Quod cult valde cult"-what he wills he wills cordially and without stint; or, what he does he does well.

When a young man Gov. Porter was a Whig, and as such was elected a member of the Legislature in 1859, the first official position he ever held. He was a mem- ber of the State convention of 1860, that nominated Mr. Bell for President. He never held a civil office, except the one he now fills, that he did not derive di- rectly from the people, and has never been defeated before the people for any place he has aspired to.

Gov. Porter has four children, viz .: (1). Susannah Dunlap, educated at the private school of Miss Fanny O'Bryan, Nashville; the wife of Dr. W. G. Bibb, who resides at Nashville. (2). Charles D., educated at Lexington, Kentucky; studied law at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1876; resides at Nashville, where he is practicing his profession. (3). Dudley, educated at the public schools of Nashville, Montgomery Bell Academy, Nashville, and at Cecilian College, near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. (4). Thomas Kennedy, now at school.

HON. J. W. CLAPP.

MEMPHIS.

H ON. J. W. CLAPP, the able and distinguished lawyer of Memphis, was born in Abingdon, Washington county, Virginia, September 21, 1814, and received his education at Abingdon Academy and at Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, where he graduated in 1835, and where he was the classmate of Judge Asa Dickinson, of Virginia. Having determined at an early

age to become a lawyer, as soon as he left college he be- gan to read law at Abingdon, in the office of J. W. C. Watson, now Judge Watson, of Holly Springs, Missis- sippi, and was admitted to the bar at Abingdon in 1839. Ile practiced law at Abingdon until 181, when he removed to Holly Springs, Mississippi, and remained until 1866, when he went to Memphis, where he still resides.

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PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Mr. Clapp was raised a Henry Clay Whig, but on the disruption of parties in Mississippi in 1850 the Whig and Democratic parties were broken up and new politi- cal organizations, called the Union and State's Rights parties, were formed. He joined the latter, and took an active part in politics for several years. In 1856 he was elected to the Mississippi Legislature for a term of two years, and took part in the formation of the code of Mississippi. In 1860 he was made an elector for the State on the Breckinridge ticket, and bore an active part in the memorable campaign which followed. In 1861 he was elected a member of the State convention of Mississippi which passed the ordinance of secession, and being on the side of State's Rights he voted for that ordinance. In 1861 he was elected to the Confed- erate Congress, received his commission as a member of that body November 25, and served a term of two years. At the request of Mr. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States, he took charge of the Confederate cotton in Mississippi, part of Alabama, and part of Louisiana. It was his business to preserve this cotton from destruction and pillage, and to convert it as far as possible into sterling exchange, which he was to forward to Richmond, and into army supplies, which he turned over to Gen. Richard Taylor's army. He held this position until the surrender of the Con- federate armies, and then turned over the cotton and every thing in his hands to the Federal authorities, represented by Gen. Canby, at New Orleans. Gen. ('anby very kindly insisted that he should retain the office, fixing his own salary and choosing his own agents, but the offer was respectfully declined.

Previous to the war Judge Clapp had an income of about ten thousand dollars per annum, and owned a large plantation and numerous slaves, but when the war closed every thing had been swept away except the land. He resolved to leave Mississippi, and accordingly went to Memphis in June, 1866, and resumed the prac- tice of law. He tried to keep out of politics, but in 1876 was made a Tilden elector, and took part in the campaign, making a number of able speeches for the party. In 1878, during his absence from home, he was nominated for the State Senate and elected for a term of two years. He took an active part in the reorgani- zation of the government of the city of Memphis, and also in the State debt controversy, in which he was one of the leaders of the State credit Democracy. While in the Senate he was made chairman of the committee on Federal relations.

Mr. Clapp was made a Master Mason at Abingdon, Virginia, in 1836, but after leaving Virginia never con- nected himself with any lodge. He joined the Presby- terian church at Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1813, and was afterwards made an elder in that Church. After moving to Memphis he connected himself with the Second Presbyterian church of that place, and was made an elder, in which capacity he has served up to c.

the present time. He is liberal in his religious views and charitable towards other denominations. One car- dinal principle with which he started in life was to keep out of debt: To this he has adhered, and it would not take half an hour to settle all the debts ne owes in the world. : Ile has always made it a conscien- tious duty to do well whatever he undertook, and a point to be always punctual, holding that while he has a right to his own time he ought not to needlessly waste that of others. He has led a busy life, and has amassed a comfortable estate, and now owns valuable lands in Mississippi and Arkansas, as well as choice property in Memphis.

Mr. Clapp's father was Dr. Earl B. Clapp, a physician of large practice and a surgeon of fine reputation. He was descended from a family of Northern stock which came to Virginia at an early day. He died in Washing- ton county, Virginia, at an advanced age. The family moved away to Tennessee, Missouri, and oiner States, and there now remain only his brother's children and a few other relatives at Abingdon.

The mother of Judge Clapp was Miss Elizabeth Craig, daughter of Capt. Robert Craig, a gentleman of Scotch-Irish descent, who came to America, settled in Pennsylvania, and subsequently removed to Washington county, Virginia, where he died at a very venerable age.

Mr. Clapp was married at Holly Springs, in May, 1813, to Miss Evelina D. Lucas, daughter of Col. P. W. Lucas, who originally came from Fauquier county, Vir- ginia, went to Tennessee, and settled first at Hartsville, and removed thence to Memphis, where he was the law partner of Frederick P. Stanton, brother of Secretary Stanton, of Lincoln's cabinet. In 1839 he went to Holly Springs, where he was very successful as a lawyer, and owned large interests in government lands. He died at Memphis in 1870. Mrs. Clapp's mother was a Miss Donoho, of Tennessee. By this marriage there are eight living children : (1). Clementine L., born in 1844; now the wife of II. A. McCrosky, of Memphis, and the mother of four children. . (2). E. W. Clapp, born in 1848; married Miss Lucy M. Jones, of Memphis; has two children. (3). W. L. Clapp, born in 1850; now one of the partners of his father in the law firm of Clapp & Beard; married Miss Lamira M. Parker, and has four children. (4). J. W. Clapp, jr., born in 1852; now a partner in the firm of Clapp & Taylor, of Memphis; married Miss Ellen B. Kennedy, daughter of Hon. D. N. Kennedy, a banker of Clarksville, Tennessee; has one child. (5). Eva Walton Clapp, born in 1854; now the wife of Dr. A. M. West, son of Gen. A. M. West, of Mississippi; has three children, and is now living at Memphis. (6). Charles T. Clapp, born in 1856; now a merchant at Brookhaven, Mississippi; married Miss Alice D. Powell, of Mississippi, and has three children. (7). Leura L. Clapp, born in 1858; now wife of Dr. Jno. 1. Taylor, of Jackson, Tennessee; has one child. (8). Miss Ola B. Clapp, born in 1866.

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PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

HON. WILLIAM STUART FLEMING.

COLUMBIA.

T' THIS gentleman is a descendant of the South Car- oliva colony of Flemings, Friersons, Armstrongs, Coopers, etc., who settled in Maury county, Tennessee, very early in the present century. As this colony has been already spoken of in the sketches of Judges . Fri- erson and Cooper, the reader is referred to those papers for a further account of it.

He was born April 23, 1816, in Manry county, Ten- nessee, son of Thomas Frierson Fleming, a noted teach- er of his day. He acquired the rudiments of his edu- cation from his father, but his preparation for college was derived from a Mr. John Borland, principal of a high school in New York, who for two years taught the classical languages to a few pupils in Tennessee. He obtained further preparation in mathematics from Wil- liam HI. Russel, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1835. Finally he entered the sophomore class of Yale College in September, 1835. William F. Cooper, whose memoir is given in another place, was his classmate at Yale, and when the two young men after graduation were on their way home a serious and nearly fatal accident happened to Fleming. His legs were severely crushed between the steamboat and the wall of a lock. The resulting injury came near necessitating amputation, and confined him to his room for two months.

Like most young men of that day, after graduation he applied himself to teaching, a class of young gentlemen of Maury county becoming his pupils; but this did not last long. He married in 1839, and commenced the study of law under Chancellor S. D. Frierson, his mother's cousin, whose memoir is given in this book.

HIe was called to the bar in the winter of 1811-2, and licensed to practice by the Hon. Edmund Dillahunty, circuit court judge, and Chancellor Lunsford M. Bram- lett. He lived in the country at that time, seven miles from Columbia, but opened an office in that city, and for five years rode into town every day, except Sunday, and returned at night, scarcely ever failing on account of weather. During the early years of his practice he was city attorney for Columbia. During this period also he formed a partnership with Madison S. Frier- son, a relative, of considerable reputation as a lawyer, though not a fine speaker. In 1817 he bought a resi- dence in Columbia, and has resided in or near that city ever since.

During the stirring political times from 1810 to 1818 Mr. Fleming took an active part in the contests of the day, frequently taking the stump in the interest of the Whig presidential candidates, especially Clay and Tay- lor.

After the death of his first wife, in 1819, Fleming fell into intemperate habits, but in 1853 broke loose

from them abruptly and totally. He relapsed for a short time during the war, but soon broke off again, and has practiced total Abstinence down to the present day.

His law practice was extensive and lucrative from the beginning, and he devoted himself to it indus- triously till the outbreak of the civil war closed on courts of law. His practice was not renewed until peace gave the welcome order, "Cedant arma toga."

His second marriage took place January 12, 1854, the lady being a Frierson, daughter of J. W. S. Frierson, M. D., of Columbia. She only lived till 1858, but gave birth to three children, all of whom died in infancy or early youth.

His third marriage. took place about 1860, the lady being Mrs. Ruth A. Booker, a widow. [A further ac count will be given of these three ladies presently.]

About the time of this third marriage he moved to a very handsome residence about a mile from town. The house was large and commodious, and the site beautiful, and he filled it with every thing that can make home attractive to a family of intellect and culture. Here he lived until the time of Hood's invasion of Tennessee in the latter days of the civil war, when it fell into the hands of the Federal army. It was then set on fire and completely destroyed, with all its contents, including furniture, carriages, probably the most complete mis- cellaneous library in the county, manuscripts, addresses (written and printed), with innumerable other valuable and to him invaluable possessions, the whole loss amounting to twenty-two thousand dollars. Added to this loss was that of fifty slaves emancipated and a large number of horses and mules impressed into service and never paid for. His whole loss, including the suspen- sion of work on his farm, cannot have been less than a hundred thousand dollars.

At the outbreak of the war his convictions and sym- pathies were all with the South, and it became a ques- tion to be anxiously and thoughtfully considered wheth- er he ought to enter the Confederate army. He had a wife, recently married, two unmarried daughters, and one son, who had just completed his sixteenth year. The question was solved purely on considerations of duty. The family must be protected, and for this the son was too young, but he could do service in the army. He went and the father took charge of the home. The son did good service as a soldier, as will be seen when we come to make separate mention of him. The father, as has been seen, suffered untold tribulations and indignities at home.

After the war there was necessarily a struggle to re- instate himself' and his family in the competency they

M. S. Herring

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

had lost, the details of which we are unable to give. As soon as the State was emancipated from the control . of the carpet-bag government-viz., in 1870-he was, by a very large majority, elected chancellor of the eighth chancery district of Tennessee. In 1878 he was re- elected for a second term of eight years, his competitors being Judge T. W. Turley, of Franklin, and Capt. Lester, of Giles county. The eighth chancery district includes the four important counties of Maury, Giles, Williamson and Marshall.

The well-known literary culture of Judge Fleming has caused him to be frequently called upon for public addresses, the most important of which was his centen- niał address, of 1876, which is published in his history of the carly settlement of Maury county. He was in 1853 editor of a literary paper, and soon after that of a political journal, entitled the Columbia Mirror, the files of which were among the losses occasioned by the burning of his residence. llis decisions in chancery are in high esteem, both with bench and bar, and have generally been confirmed when referred to higher courts.

Judge Fleming has long been a member of the Pres- byterian church, in which he and all his relatives were educated, and for twenty years has served as a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian church of Columbia.

He became an Odd Fellow in 1813, in which order he has passed all the chairs and taken all the degrees.

The family of Judge Fleming migrated from Scotland to the north of Ireland at a period not stated, and thence to Williamsburg district, South Carolina in 1732

John Fleming, great-great-grandfather of the judge, was at this latter date the representative of the family. He married a lady named Witherspoon, also of Scotch descent, and the fruit of that marriage was James Fleming, who came over with his father from Ireland when a boy. He married three times, His first wife being a Stuart, of Scotch descent, who became the mother of Judge Fleming's grandfather, to be presently mentioned. By his second wife he had a family, some of whom seem to have emigrated to Georgia, in which State his son, William B., and his grandson, William O. Fleming, became judges of the superior court.

James Fleming, son of the above and grandfather of the subject of this memoir, married Mary Frierson, and by her had a son, Thomas Frierson Fleming, father of Judge Fleming. He, with his widowed mother and three younger brothers, moved to Williamson county, Tennessee, in 1805, and in 1807 to Maury county. Here they settled, having purchased a portion of the grant of twenty-five thousand acres received by the Revolution- ary general, Nathaniel Green, in consideration of his military services. Their settlement was seven miles west of Columbia, still occupied by the family. One of the brothers, uncle to Judge Fleming, was Maj. John D. Fleming, who, with his elder brother Thomas, fol lowed Jackson in all his wars, participating in most of

his battles, including that of the Horse Shoe. The major died at the age of ninety years and six months, in 1883. He was a man well-known in his county for honesty, integrity; and hospitality. The third brother, William Stuart Fleming, died at the age of twenty- one, a student of promise. The fourth, James S., a gentleman of fine culture, yet survives in the possession of all his faculties, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.

To return to Thomas Frierson Fleming: His wife, mother of the Judge, was Margaret E., daughter of James Armstrong, one of Marion's Revolutionary sol- diers, and Agnes Frierson, only sister of William Fri- erson, the grandfather of Judge W. F. Cooper, whose memoir is given in another place. T. F. Fleming him- self was a farmer and teacher of repute, and died at the age of fifty. Ile was one of the few men who combined deep religious convictions with a genial and even jovial temperament, which rendered him a delightful compan- ion to all who knew him. He loved his jokes and loved his books, a spare built man, with blue eyes, aquiline nose, and great physical activity and vitality. He was for many years an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

The first wife of Judge Fleming was Miss Frances MeClellan Stephenson, imarried September 5, 1839. She was a grandniece of the Rev. James White Ste- phenson, a character of great interest in the annals of the colony. He was the Presbyterian minister who preached for twenty years to the colonists in South Carolina.be- fore their emigration, then emigrated with them to Maury county, Tennessee, and was for twenty years longer their faithful and beloved minister in their new home. He was the schoolmate and intimate friend of General Jackson in the Waxhaws, who often visited him at his home in Maury county. The reverend gen- tleman was second husband to Mrs. James Fleming, nee Frierson, grandmother of the Judge. His nephew, Mrs. Fleming's father emigrated from the Waxhaws, in Lancaster district, South Carolina, to Maury county with his father, where he was extensively engaged in farming.

By his first marriage the Judge had six children, three of whom died in infancy. The surviving children are: (1). Mary White, who married A. N. Dobbin, a farmer near Columbia, and has three children : Fannie Belle, William S., and Florence F. (2). Florence, who mar- ried Col. D. B. Cooper, half-brother of Judge Wm. F. Cooper, and died August, 1870, leaving three children : Florence, Flavel F., and Matthew D. (3). Thomas Frierson Fleming, born about 1845. This is the son who represented the family in the Confederate army, which he entered in his sixteenth year. Hle went out in the Forty-eighth Tennessee, was captured at Fort. Donelson, taken as prisoner to Camp Douglass, at Chi- vago, where he was confined seven months. He was then exchanged, and taken to Port Hudson, Louisiana, and afterward's joined Forrest's cavalry brigade, in which he served to the end of the war. He was in every bat-

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS. .

tle in which his command was engaged. He married Miss Lily Baird, and has one child, a daughter, Miss Julia B.

Judge Fleming's first wife died April 30, 1849, at the age of twenty-eight.

His second marriage (Columbia, January 12, 1854) was with Miss Mary Witherspoon Frierson, second daughter of Dr. J. W. S. Frierson, of Columbia, There are no surviving children of this marriage. She died Novem- ber 8, 1858.

Ilis third marriage was with Mrs. Ruth A. Booker, in 1860. She was the widow of Albert Booker and daughter of Alexander Johnson, a farmer, for many years chairman of the Maury county court. Her mother was Mary Ballanfant, daughter of John Ballan- fant, a Frenchman, who came to America with La Fayette at the time of the Revolutionary war, in which he served, and married a Virginia lady named Yeomans.

Three children were born of Judge Fleming's third marriage, of whom only one survives, William Stu- art, born in 1861, a lawyer, who on January 1, 1884, married Miss Anna May Williams, of East Carrol par- ish, Louisiana.

The third Mrs. Fleming had by her former marriage one child, named Susan G., a lady of great intellectual endowments, who was married in 1869 to Col. J. W. Dunnington, now deceased. He was a lieutenant in the United States navy, but resigned at the outbreak of the war, came South and entered the Confederate service. He became brigadier-general, and was sent to France on a private mission for the Confederate government. After this he commanded the flag-ship in Admiral Semmes' fleet in James river. When the fall of Rich- mond was imminent he superintended the blowing up of the Confederate fleet, and surrendered with Lee at Appomattox. He left no children. Mrs. Dunnington, his widow, now resides with her step-father, Judge Fleming.

Strict adherence to the truth seems to be the promi- nent feature in Judge Fleming's character. Whether we listen to the observations of his friends when ques- tioned about him, or to his own statements as to what he considers the most direct road to success in life, ab- soluto truthfulness seems to be the one impression his life has made upon his friends and acquaintances, and absolute truthfulness appears to have been the principle he has kept his eye upon as the guiding star in the voy- age of life. Where this principle is made the basis of a man's character it means much more than mere absti- nence from verbal falsehood. It means that hatred of false pretense and duplicity of character, that frank openness of soul that makes a man scorn the vulgar arts by which men strive to assume a specious appearance of qualities they do not possess, makes him moreover rig- idly avoid any secret baseness which, if committed, might tempt him into dissembling and hypocrisy. Nor are such men, as is often supposed, at the merey of de-

ceitful and designing people. There is something in the clear and steady gaze of a perfectly truthful man which rebukes and awes the incipient prevarication, and scares away the lie e'er it has passed the lips of the deceiver, and if he should muster courage enough to utter his lie, after all he does it with a shrinking of the eye and a stammering of speech which detects the falsehood when spoken by the lips, but which the countenance and manner fail to endorse. There is no element so unfavorable to falsehood and duplicity as the cloudless atmosphere of a perfectly truthful intellect.

A gentleman, himself a thoroughly reliable witness, said to the author of these sketches: "He is one of the men who never say a thing they do not mean. Truth being the bed-rock of his character it is very easy to account-for the eminence he has attained in his profes- sion and his standing in the State."

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 10

Author: Speer, William S Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Nashville, A. B. Tavel Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Speer, William S
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Nashville, A. B. Tavel
Number of Pages: 1278