Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 100

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

USA > Tennessee > Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee > Part 100

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In 1881, the French government sent their represen- tatives, Baron Favorot and Capt. De La Chere, to in- spect the horses of America. also the leading breeding establishments of thoroughbreds. Upon their return to France they made a report to the government, com- prising five hundred to six hundred pages, descriptive of every species of horse, including "le plug"-the plug horse-so accurate were they. In this work they say : "The best specimen of the trotting horse we found in the State of Kentucky, in America, but the best specimen of the thoroughbred horse we found at Gen. Harding's ( Belle Meade), in the State of Tennes- see. Indeed, we saw a crop of thoroughbred yearlings there that surpassed anything we had ever seen in England or France"-a high compliment, which Ten- 'nessee will not be slow to appreciate.

To the casual observer or thinker this may be sur- prising, but it should not be when we reflect that Ten- nessee was far in advance of Kentucky prior to the war in thoroughbred horses, the development of this animal dating back to ISOS, in the vicinity of Nashville, and the breed improved by the judicious expenditure of money by such men as the immortal Andrew Jackson. Col. George Elliott, Hon. Bailie Peyton, Col. Berry . Williams, Judge Jo. C. Guild, and A. C. Franklin, of Summer county (now succeeded by his sons, Capt, James (. and A. C. Franklin), and by Gen. W. G. Harding, Mark R. Coekrill, John Harding, sr. (who began on a small scale but never increased it), and Gen. William W. Woodfolk. of Davidson county. This important industry brings a great deal of money and a great many people to Tennessee. It is, therefore, not surprising that the breeding of this stock, started by such men of thought and ability, should have been carried on up to this period by their successors with enlightened judg- ment, judicious expenditure, care in the selection of the best strains of blood to propagate, coupled with the most careful attention in the breeding and rearing of' such valuable animals, aided as this section is by the very best climate known to the new world for this

breed of horses, being nearly identical with the same parallel of latitude as Arabia and the Barbary States, where this stock first originated.

Other branches of animal industry at Belle Meade include the rearing of a herd of from two hundred and fifty to four hundred head of the best grade of Durham cattle that can be obtained in the markets of Tennessee, and about one hundred head of sheep, of the mixed breed of Southdown and Leicester. For a place of this size this would seem a small number of sheep to carry. In explanation, the proprietors deem their land too valua- ble for sheep except for table use, and unless the range is very extensive of cheap land, the breeding of sheep, including the losses from death and dogs, would be one hundred per cent., which deceives a great many, for the reason that on a place of this size (five thousand acres), you can stock it with one thousand five hundred dol- lars. Hence, it is readily seen, very little can be made out of it, as compared to carrying ten thousand dol- lars or fifteen thousand dollars' worth of beef cattle, making fitty to sixty per cent. In other words, the dealing in sheep on a place like this is identical with the foolish experiment of a person trying to eat soup with a fork. It will be readily perceived he will not get much soup. A herd of about two hundred and fifty grade Cashmere goats is kept, designed principally for browsers to assist in cleansing the pastures of the buckle bush, briers, iron weeds and switch cane. Hogs, of the Berkshire breed, are raised sufficient in number, say one hundred and fifty, to provide meat to the quan- tity of twenty thousand pounds annually, which is re- quired by the laborers on the place. Also, there is a herd of about forty purely bred Shetland ponies, which is being increased annually.

A portion of the place, designed as a hog and mule department, consists of an orchard of one hundred and twenty five acres, and connected with it three hundred and fifty acres filled with beech trees; which furnish a great quantity of mast, enabling the proprietors to raise hoes as cheaply as any other point in Tennessee.

The entire farm is run by the partnership firm of Jackson Bros, Gen. W. H. Jackson and United States Judge I. E. Jackson. Everything pertains to the firm except separate residences, private stables and pri- vate dairies, each one milking from twenty to forty cows, and making butter for market, each cow yielding from four to six pounds of butter per week, buttermilk being given to the laborers to aid them in rearing their children. The labor of the farm .consists of about twenty farm hands, about one-half of whom are plow boy size, from ten to fifteen years old; one man has charge of all the thoroughbred stock, with four assist- ants ; one man in charge of all out stock, beef, sheep and hogs ; one white man, a mechanic, in charge of the saw mill, grist mill and all machinery. He is the carpenter also, with an assistant negro carpenter, who is also the blacksmith. The wages system has been adopted, on the

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idea that the share system is fatal, both to the owner and the cropper ; for a partnership with a negro is construed on his part to be absolute freedom to idle away all the time he, in his judgment or caprice, may see proper. The system of wages on this place is a graded one, and consists for the best hands of ten dol- lars per month for January and February, besides rations in sufficient quantity of good and healthy food, house for the laborer and his family, including fuel, a garden spot of sufficient size to furnish all vegetables for his family, fruit from the orchard. buttermilk for the family (medicine, in case of sickness, is furnished gratuitously-not being a part of the contract), team and tools to cultivate their garden spots, and every other Saturday as a holiday. Twelve dollars a month wages are paid the balance of the year, except during the harvest months of June, July and August, when fifteen dollars per month is paid. For plow boy size, eight dollars, nine dollars and twelve dollars per month wages are paid, with the house, fuel, and other things as for the others. The remaining hands are classified between these two rates, according to their ages, efficiency and ability to perform work.

The negro quarters (cabins) are arranged on three sides of an open court or square of five acres, a play- ground for the children, and where the hands hold their open air church meetings, when the weather is pleasant. During inclement weather an ample room is provided for church services. All of the children of the place are taught in Sunday-school every Sabbath evening, by Miss Eunice Jackson, eldest daughter of Gen. Jackson, the exercises consisting of reading, the catechism and singing. They all attend the district day school under a colored teacher. These hands, the oldest ones, slaves before the war, were born and raised on the place, and the motto of the management is, they would rather pay above than below the customary wages of the country, give them better treatment and in return have better command of the labor and receive more faithful labor. The farm is conducted under system-military in its precision, formulated in rules -- not too stringent, dis- tributing the labor and regulating the working on the principle of deduction from wages for neglect, disobe dience of orders, careless breaking or losing of tools, etc. Yet, all this is based on strict justice and kind treat- ment, for the negro, like the white child, it seems, can never be made to understand the sacredness of a con- tract, as well as how the employer's interest is to neither forget or neglect the fulfillment of a promise. Gen. Jackson stated that he had not, in seventeen years of

his management, forgotten or neglected but one promise made to a hand. He promised a negro, George Thorn- ton, to bring him a pair of pantaloons from the city. As he stepped out of his buggy at the horse-block, George was there with an air of perfect confidence that he would receive his pamaloons. When informed that Gen. Jackson had forgotten them, his face presented a

dejected appearance. Gen. Jackson said to him, "I am sorry, George ; and the only way I can rectify it is to give you the money, which I now do, and loan you my saddle horse to ride to the city and get them," which George accepted, perfectly satisfied. This is the treat- ment, reciprocal in its terms, between employer and employe at Belle Meade, and this sort of treatment will always insure interest in the affairs of the employer, and secure the best description of service.

The glorious forests. the beautiful woodlands around Belle Meade have excited the unqualified admiration of thousands. The superb scenery has been likened to the country around Warwick, in England, but it is even grander and more beautiful. Here are five thousand acres in this princely estate-great fields in- terspersed with parks, groves, forests, the splendor of feudal years. The match of this place is not to be found this side of some of the fairest ancient estates of old England. For this reason one of the most interesting features of Belle Meade to visitors, and the one in part conducive to the good living of the family, is a beauti- ful park containing four hundred and twenty-five acres, well set in blue grass and supplied with fresh rumiing water. The forest primeval here displays huge oaks fes- tooned with vines. The enormous branches hang over the green turf and unite the beauties of field and for- est, of lawn and running brook -- and there's your pic- ture ! But it is not yet complete. Within that park is a herd of about three hundred and fifty deer, the com- mon fallow deer of Tennessee, collected by Gen. Ha;d- ing, who began with five and added fawns from time to time, as he might catch them in his hunts. This animal increases rapidly, each doe adding one or two a year. The deer furnish royal sport to the members of the family and their friends, by getting them out of the park and chasing them with a pack of fox hounds (thirty being on the place), and ending the chase at any point with the Scotch stag hounds which Gen. Jackson imported from Scotland, and of which he now has three. Many thousands of distinguished persons have visited Belle Meade and enjoyed this rare treat, among them, Lord Tarbot, the third son of the Duke of Sutherland, who not long since was the guest of Gen. Harding, and while there joined in a deer chase after the English fashion. It is an agreeable study of the deer in the park as showing the wonderful in- stinets with which nature has provided them. The doe when she drops her fawn will move immediately away from it. When she returns there to nurse him she will put him in motion. After nursing, the little fellow will continue to run as long as he has breath, the doe following several hundred yards behind him. When he drops from exhaustion, she immediately turns at right angles from the track they have been going, clearly saying thereby that if an animal of prey is com- ing on their trail, she will divert the pursuer's atten- tion, carry him off after her and not permit him to go

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to the fawn, she giving out the stronger scent, while that of the fawn lingers upon the ground but a short time. Now the instinct of the fawn is such that if aroused from the spot where the doe has seen him drop, and he should run for a mile out of the park, it matters not through how many fences, if the observer will sta- tion himself a short distance from the spot and remain an hour, he will observe the little fellow creeping steadily back and planting himself' in the identical spot he first left. By reason of this animal's instincts it is enabled to live longer, and be preserved in the vicinity of its birth-place, than any other wild animal. The elk, buffalo, bear, wolf, and every other species of wild animal, have been driven out beyond the borders of civilization, while the deer remain.

The deer at Belle Meade are fed with the out stock on sheaf oats and corn, when the weather is so bad they cannot get to grass, Adjoining the park, and separated from it by a low fence is a copse of about thirty acres, in its native growth, thick with vines and dense cane, which is kept as a browsing and hiding retreat for the deer.

The expense of running Belle Meade farm in all its departments, including taxes (two thousand dollars), is about twelve thousand dollars per annum ; gross re- ceipts are about forty thousand dollars, making an income of six or seven per cent. on capital invested in stock. The average farmer in Tennessee makes less than three per cent. on investment.

The family mansion at Belle Meade is a grand old country house, modest in appearance, yet built in the old-time, commodious, and generous southern manner. It stands in the background, far from the highway, and is reached from Harding pike by a luxurious drive, which, in summer, is amid blooming roses and blossom- ing foliage and the scent of new-mown hay. The house is a two-story brick, and was erected by Gen. Harding in 1853. It has a massive stone front with a pediment supported by a file of six stone columns, twenty-two feet high in two sections, and forming a lovely portico after the southern style. There are four large rooms above and four below, separated by wide halls ; also garret rooms above, and four large collars underneath, There are library and bath rooms both on the first and second floors, and a broad back porch on each floor. An entry or hallway divides the main house from the kitchen and the summer dining room, while above these two latter are two large chambers, used for linen closets, etc. Water is supplied to the house and kitchen by an Ericsson hot air engine, sta- tioned in one of the cellars, drawing the water from a well and forcing it into a tank located on the back porch above, which has a capacity of eight hundred gallons ; and by means of an overflow pipe from this tank the water is carried to the stable tank, seven hun- dred and fifty gallons capacity, which furnishes water for the horses at the stables, and is also used for wash

ing vehicles, etc. In addition, there is a well near the dwelling, with a force pump and hose to throw water on . any part of the house, in case of fire. A castellated stone ice-house, a dainty bit of Tudor-gothic, is devoted to the dairy department. Here spring water flows out of the rock.

The furniture of the house is of rosewood and ma- hogany. The walls are adorned with the old family portraits, evineing that high degree of commendable pride in ancestry as essential to true success in life as the natural oil of the duck is essential to it to prevent its sinking when in water. The portraits and the oil paintings are of Randal MeGavock (the great friend of Andrew Jackson) and wife-(father and mother of Gen. Harding's wife); John Harding and wife (Gen. Hard- ing's parents) ; the portraits of Gen. Harding and wife; of Dr. Alexander Jackson and wife-father and mother of Gen. William Il. and Senator H. E. Jackson; the portrait of the wife of John Harding, son of Gen. Harding; and the most life-like picture in existence of Gen. Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," for whose memory the patriarchal Gen. Harding cherishes the most fond recollection; pictures of Senator Bayard, of Delaware, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, Gen. Robert E. Lee, President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Stephen D. Lee, v Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee (a particular friend and the class- mate of Gen. Jackson at West Point), and a portrait of Dr. George Loring, ex-United States commissioner of agriculture. Gen. Harding, however, takes special pride in his show-case containing the silver premiums taken at fairs by his stock, and the silk purses won by his horses in memorable contests of speed on the turf; the latter he prizes most highly, because the plate was awarded according to the judgment of men, which is often in error as to the most deserving animal in the ring; whereas, on the turf, when the animal went from the tap of the drum, after making the course, contest- ing against worthy competitors and landing a winner, he was sure his horse was the best in that contest. Hence his reason for valning the purses more highly than the plate. And so in the race of life, when a man ontstrips his fellow man, opposed by foeman worthy of his steel, he too should receive his premium in the plaudits of the multitude and in the refrain, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant." A generous rival in such a race, divested of the slightest tinge of acri- mony, is the active and powerful motor to success. This idea was first formulated in the Grecian games, and has found worthy repetition in form of fairs and turf con- tests in Tennessee.

Such is Belle Meade, the beautiful meadow of Ten- nessee, and such its surroundings and ennobling in- fluences. What more fitting to close this sketch than the following article, concerning its venerable pro- prietor, which recently appeared in the Spirit of the Farm:

"Wherever the race horse is known, the name of this

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distinguished Tennessean (Gen. William G. Harding) is an household word. His life has been a complete suc- cess, and furnishes an incentive for high endeavor on the part of the youth of the South. In his quiet re- treat, surrounded by those who love him, this venerable man can have a pleasing retrospect. The book of his life is without a blot or a stain. His word is as good as his bond, and that is beyond valuation. No whisper has ever been heard against his name or his character. From a small beginning, he has made Belle Meade, as the commissioners of the French government lately said, the most splendid race horse nursery in the world. His career exhibits the rich results of a life anchored to a never-dying purpose. There are ambitious young men in Tennessee, here and there, who have com. menced. their career in the same line, who can gain immense advantages by a close study of Gen. Harding's life and methods. In the hey-day of youth he caught the spirit of " Old Hickory," and from him he learned to fear " the stain of dishonor as a wound." From him

he imbibed the loyalest of loves for the pure bred horse. With an unflagging energy, and with an elastic hope, he set about the development of the glories of Belle Meade, his ancestral home. Its broad acres and its famous denizens show what a brave and honest man can do. How rich is his -experience! How beneficial would be his autobiography! What a tale he could tell of Priam, of Lexington, of Jack Malone, of Bonnie Scotland! In his younger days, Gen. Harding wielded a facile and fascinating pen. In the evening of his life, if so minded, he could enrich the literature of his State by deathless reminiscences of his contemporaries and his horses. He could not withstand the appeal of his friends on this score, and we trust requests may pour in upon him to begin the work. He is the pioneer in one of the most remunerative industries of the South, and his book would be read by all with increasing in- terest. Besides, his words of experience would greatly aid the rising establishments all over Tennessee, which are destined to bring great revenue to our people."

IION. JOHN A. TINNON.

PULASKI.

T' HIE TINNON family is of Scotch-Irish origin. James Tinnon, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came from Ireland with his father when only three years old, settled first in Pennsylvania, after- ward in North Carolina, and, in 1806, emigrated with his family to Williamson county, Tennessee, when the country was nothing but a dense wilderness, He re- mained in Williamson county two years. Cutting his way through the almost impenetrable canebrakes, he finally settled on the fertile lands of Richland creek, five miles north of Pulaski. Here he died, in 1844, at the age of eighty-six, leaving six children, of whom Robert Tinnon, Judge Tinnon's father, was the young- est. His wife, nee Hannah MeCracken, was a native of North Carolina, and of Scotch parentage .. She died eighty years of age.

Robert Tinnon was about nine years of age when his father took him to Giles county. He grew up to be a good, plain farmer, a good conveyancer, thoroughly posted in the lands of that section. He was a justice of the peace and a member of the county court for twenty years, up to the time of his death, in April, 1862, at the age of sixty-five. He was a class-leader in the Methodist church, a perfectly upright man, geuinely good, quiet in every way, not wealthy, but widely respected.

Judge Tinnon's mother, Elizabeth Abernathy, was the daughter of Joseph Abernathy, from North Caro- lina, a surveyor and conveyancer in that State, and in Giles county, Tennessee. He was connected with Judge

Haywood and the Shephards in surveying large bodies of land on Richland creek, in Giles county, at an early day-from 1800 to 1810.

Judge John A. Timon was born in Giles county, Tennessee, November 28, 1822, and was brought up in that county, on his father's farm, going to the old field schools until sixteen or seventeen years old, when he entered Wirtemburg Academy, in Pulaski, under Profs. Mendum and Hartwell Brown, in 1841-2, and studied there nearly two years. Then he read law about two years with Judges T. M. Jones and Goode, at Pu- laski. In 1848, he taught school one year at Lawrence- burg, as an assistant to Prof. J. W. Dana, in the mean- time studying mathematics and the' languages, and reading some in the law. He obtained license to practice, in the spring of ISIS, from Chancellor T. H. Cahal and Judge Scott, and practiced from Lawrence- burg from 1848-to the fall of 1854, when he moved back to Pulaski, and has practiced and resided there from 1855 to the present time. He was in partnership with Col. Solon E. Rose from 1858 to 1882.

In May, 1883, he was appointed by the judges of the Supreme court one of the judges of the court of referees, a position he now holds, at a salary of three thousand dollars per annum. He has three or four times been com- missioned by the governor as special chancellor to hold court at Columbia to try causes in which the chancellor, Fleming, was incompetent, and also as special judge; to hold court when the sitting judge, W. P. Martin, was sick.

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As a speaker before a jury or court, his style of ora- tory is earnest and direct, stating the facts and logic of his cases, and not scheming to appeal to the passions. the prejudices or preferences of the tribunal.

In politics he was a Whig, "fought, bled and died with Henry Clay." In 1850, he was district presidential elector on the Douglas ticket. Occasionally he has attended State conventions, but since 1860 has taken little part in politics, except to vote with the Demo- crats as "representing the present state of things."

He became a Mason at Lawrenceburg, in 1813, has filled all the stations in the Blue Lodge, and is a Past Master. He belongs to no church, though a strong believer in Christianity, and a contributor to its benevo- lent enterprises. His wife is a Presbyterian. He has for ten years been vice-president of the board of trus- tees of Martin Female College, at Pulaski, one of the finest female schools in the South, founded on a bequest of thirty-five thousand dollars by Col. Thomas Martin, of Pulaski.

Judge Tinnon married, at Athens, Alabama, June -1, 1850, Miss E. Virginia Joyner, daughter of R. Joyner, esq., a justice of the peace, farmer and merchant at that place, of old Virginia stock. Her brother, Dr. Rod. Joyner, of Harrisburg, Arkansas, has been a member of the Arkansas Legislature, and was a member of the constitutional convention of that State. Her sister, Mary P. Joyner, is now the wife of Col. S. O. Nelson, a large commission merchant at. New Orleans before the war, now a planter near Athens, Alabama. Her sister, Elizabeth Joyner, married G. B. Parker, a farmer, now near Leesburg, Florida, engaged in fruit culture. Mrs. Tinnon graduated at the Athens Female Institute, and is noted for her high culture, refined manners, overflowing hospitality and her impulsive generosity and charities.

Judge Tinnon's youngest brother, Rev. R. M. Tinnon, D. D., pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in East Nashville, Tennessee, studied for the law, but when the war came on joined the Third Tennessee regiment, under Gen. John C. Brown, and with that regiment fought all through the war; was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson ; exchanged ; was in the battles around Vicks- burg and Port Hudson ; had his thigh broken at Chicka . mauga by a minnie ball ; was again captured and ex- changed just before the close of the war.

After the war he taught school in North Alabama ; professed religion under the ministry of Rev. George

Mitchell, studied for the Cumberland Presbyterian min- istry, was duly ordained, and took charge of the church at Huntsville; remained there three years, then went, iu 1877, to East Nashville and took charge of the church there. He married Miss Sallie Preston, of Decatur, Alabama. about the close of the war, and has five chidren, Meta, Mae, Tullie, Roberta and John Baird. He is a progressive man, one of the best pastors in the church, a natural born speaker, and one of the leading clergymen of Nashville. He has two other brothers, both farmers, William A., near Florence, Alabama, and Capt. J. M. Tinnon, near Alva, Mississippi. They were both soldeiers in the Confederate army. Also, a de- ceased brother, Rey. Joseph F. Tinnon, who died in 1852, leaving two sons, one of whom, Rev. James F. Finnon, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, south, is now stationed at Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 100

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