Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 103

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

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the wife of Rey. J. L. Lloyd, a Baptist minister, leay- ing five children, William, Lee, John, Eldridge and Mary. Mr. Henderson's mother is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. Her life has been that of an exemplary Christian, and devoted to her children, their rearing, training, education and culture. Left a widow in their infancy, and being without means, she was ever landably ambitious to rebuild the for- tunes of her family, and struggled for the advancement of her children, and with highly satisfactory results too, both as to the daughter and son, the latter of whom, in addition to his intellectual eminence, it is something exceptional to mention, has never yet had a spell of sickness.

The boyhood of Mr. Henderson was one marked by industrious struggle and genuine hard work. He first worked in a brick-yard, next at a carding machine, and then in a glass factory, going to school at an academy at odd intervals. In 1810, he moved with his mother and sisters, in a flat boat, to Decatur, Alabama, and while there, and in the country near town, he attended school and worked to assist the family. They moved back to Knoxville, in 1815, and he continued his heroic strug- gle for success. Soon his native talent began to assert itself. There was something in the boy -- that rare stuff of which genuine manly men are made. In the sum- mer he taught school to make money enough to attend college during winter. In this way he was enabled to takea four years' course at the University of Tennessee, at Knoxville, entering, in 1852, under the presidency of Hon. William B. Reese, and graduating in 1856, under the presidency of Rev. George Cook, standing second in his class, and receiving the highest encomia from the faculty.

After graduation, he taught school two years, mean- while reading law under Sneed & Cocke, was admitted to the bar in 1859, by Judges T. W. Turley and George Brown, and immediately became a member of the firm of Sneed, Cocke & Henderson, a partnership which lasted until the breaking out of the late civil war.

A southerner by birth, in feelings and in principles, he joined the Confederate army as a private in Com- pany D, of the Sixty-third Tennessee regiment, Col. Richard Fain, and served in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Virginia, surrendering at Appomattox Court-house, April 9, 1865, having participated in the battles of Shell Mound, below Chattanooga, Richmond, Kentucky, Perryville, twenty-seven skirmishes in East Tennessee, in the battles from Drury's Bluff around Petersburg, and on the retreat from Petersburg to Ap- pomattox Court house, seven days. He was captured in front of Petersburg, June 11, 1861, was in prison at the old capitol at Washington City, at Point Lookout,

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Maryland, and at Elmira, New York, in all, four months. He was exchanged in October, 1864, at Sa- vannah, Georgia. He was twice wounded in action. His first wound was in the side; the second was re- ceived in the knee, causing a dislocation, while engaged in front of the Howlitt House, Petersburg, May 16, 1864, only a few days before his captivity.

Ile was detailed, in May, 1862, on special court mar- tial service, at Chattanooga. In June, 1862, he was appointed an aid de-camp to Brig .- Gen. D. Leadbetter, with the rank of lieutenant of cavalry, and served as such till August, 1862, when he was detailed, with similar rank, on the staff of Maj .- Gen. Harry Heath. After the Kentucky campaign, and Bragg's retreat from Kentucky, he was ordered to Mobile, as inspector of Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines. He was then called for by the provost marshal-general (Toole) of East Ten- nessee, and was detailed for duty as provost marshal of several counties in East Tennessee, with headquarters at Rogersville, where he remained till Burnside cap- tured that post, in September, 1863, when he retired, raised a company of stragglers (men cut off from their commands), and joined the command of Gen. Cerro Gordo Williams, in which he remained till Longstreet's army passed up through East Tennessee, en route to re- join Lee's army. With them he rejoined his old regi- ment, and fought with it in the ranks till the surren- der at Appomattox Court-house. After the war he re- turned to Knoxville, was indieted and arrested twice for treason, by the State and the United States authori- ties. Soon after the war, he resumed law practice, in partnership with his old partner, Cocke, and has been in practice of law at Knoxville ever since.

Before the war he, like his father, was an old line Whig, and his maiden presidential vote was cast for Bell and Everett. Since the war he has been a Demo- erat, true and tried. He has never held office, except that of alderman of his ward, and as a trustee and one of the executive committee of his old alma mater, the University of Tennessee, yet his lofty integrity of char- acter and his sound and statesman like views of State and national polity have constantly kept him conspicu- ously before the eyes of the East Tennessee Demoe- racy as a man well suited to fill the highest positions where " public office is a public trust." In particular has his name been mentioned in connection with guber- natorial honors, Mr. Henderson became a Mason at Bristol, Tennessee, in 1863, and has taken the Mark Master and Past Master degrees. He is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, and a stew- ard of that denomination.

Mr. Henderson married in Knoxville, November 22, 1866, Miss Harriet E. Smiley, who was born in Spring- field, Vermont, the daughter of Thomas. E. Smiley, a

merchant, who moved to Knoxville when the daughter was two years old. He died in that city, in 1866, at the age of sixty-eight. He was a relative of Thomas T. Smiley, author of an arithmetic, once extensively used in southern schools. Mrs. Henderson's mother, nee Miss Nancy Barrett (now living with her daughter, at Knoxville), is the daughter of Col. John Barrett, of Revolutionary war fame. She is also cousin of Dr. James Thompson, author of a mathematical series, and a cousin of the late Prof. Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow, one of America's most distinguished poets.

Mrs. Henderson graduated at the Knoxville Female College, under President J. R. Dean. She is a lady of fine intellectual qualities and culture, but is eminently a home woman, though by no means unneighborly or unsocial. By his marriage with Miss Smiley, Mr. Hen- derson has two children: Mary Henderson, born Sep- ter 4, 1867, and Anna Henderson, born July 15, 1869.

The elements which have conspired to the success of this self-made man are but the strongly marked char- acteristics of an intense individuality. His personality is sui generis. He is said to be the best nisi prius law- yer in the State. As an advocate before a jury, he is the strongest man in East Tennessee, and has been often called the George Gantt of East Tennessee, a mutual compliment, however, to the best jury lawyer of West Tennessee. Mr. Henderson is peculiar in a certain tact he has in managing a case before a jury, a wonderful faculty of examining and cross-examining a witness; then he is very witty, and has an unequaled felicity of captivating a jury. He seems to know the prejudices of a juryman by instinct; knows how to get him on his side ; seizes upon some little point that escapes from the mouth of a witness, and makes capital of it, either by ridiculing the witness or otherwise turning it to ad- vantage. He sees the points in a case quickly. It is said he will try a case he never heard of, and, without preparation, win it. Natural smartness is his dis- tinguishing trait, and he applies it happily to every- thing he undertakes. Besides, he is gentleman of fine character, fine education, with a mind stored with many literary excellencies. There are no angularities in his make- up, mental or physical. A well balanced man, with a large frame, a large head, and a large intellect, well trained it is difficult to point out the peculiarities that distinguish him from other men, though one sees and recognizes them instantly. In one word-his ca- reer has been a success. There is no shady side to his life; it is all sunshine with him. He is a child of na- ture, and delights in the wild, rugged scenery of his mountain home, and when not at his books, or on his cases, he is as frolicsome as a boy chasing his first but- terfly. The elixir of geniality seems ever to course his veins, sweetening his blood with perennial good humor.

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HON. JORDAN STOKES.

LEBANON.

T' HIS cultured gentleman, now in his sixty-ninth year, with the gladness of youth still lingering on his face and abiding in his heart, is rather a child of nature, a plant efflorescent from the vigor of its own tap-root, than the result of early high culture and con- ventional stimulus. . In the midst of grand-children, he still loves the draperies of the seasons, lingers beneath the inspirations of nature, and, above the prattle of his remote little ones, still hears the songs of birds. If he had not been a great lawyer, he might have been a great pastoral poet.

The Hon. JJordan Stokes was born in Chatham county, North Carolina, August 23, 1817, the son of Sylvanus Stokes, a native of that county. His father was a well educated farmer, who combined great force of character with agreeableness of manner, and was readily a favor- ite among his associates. When Col. Stokes was quite a child the family migrated to Tennessee, and during the journey his father was accidently killed by a team. This occurred in 1818.

Col. Stokes' grandfather, Thomas Stokes, was a Vir- ginian, related to the Stokes family of Richmond, and to Gov. Munford Stokes, quite famous in the annals of North Carolina. His grandmother was the daughter of Rev. Green Hill, who was the treasurer of North Caro- lina during the Revolutionary war. Col. Stokes still has preserved a continental bill signed by his great- grandfather. The first Methodist conference in North Carolina met in Green Hill's house. The family is of English origin. Col. Stokes' eldest uncle, Dr. William B. Stokes, was a student of medicine under Dr. Benja- min Rush, in Philadelphia, and afterward became prominent in his profession in North Carolina.

Col. Stokes' mother, wer Miss Mary Christian, was also a native of Chatham county, North Carolina, daughter of John Christian, who was a drum-major during the Revolutionary war. Her mother, Martha Christian, was likewise a North Carolinian, noted for her kindness of heart and great piety. She and some of her family were Baptists, and their descendants after them.

The mother of Col. Stokes survived his father more than forty years, and died, leaving by him three sons : John T., William B. and Jordan. The eldest son, John T. Stokes, is now a farmer in DeKalb county, Temes- see. The second son, Gen. William B. Stokes, lives in Alexandria, Tennessee, and has for many years been prominent in politics. He represented his district in the United States Congress before the civil war. Dur- ing the war he was a brigadier-general of cavalry in the United States army, and was brevetted for gallantry.

Jordan Stokes carly acquired a great fondness for books, and one of the first to come to his hand. was

" Hawes' Lectures." This he read assiduously while quite a child, in the midst of the light duties assigned him on the farm, and it exercised a potent influence in the direction of his thoughts and subsequent develop- ment. His training in the sciences was thorough, but his opportunity to acquire a knowledge of Greek, Latin and French was not the best. He read law, in 1837-8, in the office of Messrs. Meigs & Rucks (R. J. Meigs and James Rucks), in Nashville, and was licensed to practice, in the summer of 1838, by Judges Maney and Anderson, and began the practice of his profession at. Carthage, Smith county, soon thereafter. In 1839, he was elected to the Legislature, as a Whig, from Smith county, over Col. A. W. Overton, the Democratic can- didate. At the close of the session he returned to the practice of his profession at Carthage, forming a part- nership with William McClain, an old practitioner, father of Hon. Andrew McClain, late United States district attorney for Middle Tennessee.

In the spring of 1810, he married Penelope C., the youngest daughter of JJudge Nathaniel Williams. She lived only eleven months after her marriage, and died without children. Shortly after her death Col, Stokes removed to Lebanon and entered into partnership with Samuel Caruthers (afterward a member of Congress from Missouri), succeeding to the law practice of Judge R. L. Caruthers, then recently elected to Congress from the Lebanon district.

On the 11th day of October, 1842, he intermarried with Martha Jane, only daughter of Dr. James and Hannah II. Frazer, Mrs. Stokes had only one brother, the late Henry S. Frazer, of Nashville, and no sister. Her father was a very prominent physician, but .equally noted for his high manly character and deep picty. Her mother was the grand-daughter of Rev. Green Hill, spoken of above, and was a woman of far more than ordinary intellect and force of character, and lived to the age of eighty-seven years, having survived her two children and all her brothers and sisters.

Col. Stokes' second wife died at Sunnywild, the resi- dence of her eldest son, James F., in Bolivar county, Mississippi, June 19, 1883, and any sketch of him which did not give prominent and reverential place to her memory would be fatally incomplete. She was a lady of most unusual personal beauty, and a grace of manner equally as rare. Naturally endowed with a scintillat- ing intellect, by early and continuous effort she readily became a mental power in her home and throughout the circle of her acquaintance. Potential as were these attributes, she suffused them with a warmth and wealth of affection which rendered her the sweet inspiration of her husband, as well as the sure sheet-anchor of her sons.

Her capacity to adapt herself to all phases of

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life, without the faintest personal sacrifice, was wonder- ful, and the humblest marketer left her door genially impressed with her kindly interest in his and his fami- ly's weal. The sad tidings of her death brought genu- ine tears, beyond her own portals, in many an humble home which had glowed with her unostentatious charity and kindness. If the Christian's hope be truth, the great transition to this lady merely involved the as- sumption of angel wings. Devoutly pious without cant ; highly cultured without egotism : beautiful without vanity ; a strict disciplinarian without rigor; warmly affectionate without weakness, she was sovereign in her home, with a scepter of love to maintain her sway. Her life was an unmixed blessing, while her death, in its noiseless gentleness, was as the closing of petals at nightime, to open and bloom brighter when the sun re- appeared. She bore her husband ten children. The two youngest, Edwin and Arthur, died soon after their birth. William C. and Harry S. each died in carly manhood; were both educated at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and Harry S. had graduated in law at Lebanon, and at the Columbia law school, New York city.

Of the six living children, Henrietta 11. graduated at the Nashville Female Academy, and married Harry HI. Sheets, of Indianapolis. They have three children, William, Harry and James F. James F. Stokes, the oldest son living, was educated at Amherst College, Massachusetts, graduated at the Lebanon law school, and soon after his admission to the bar became attorney- general for the Seventh judicial circuit of Tennessee. In 1876, he was elected to represent Wilson county in the lower house of the Tennessee Legislature. In 1875, he married Miss Blanche McGhee, and in 1877 re- moved to Bolivar county, Mississippi, where he has since resided, engaged in agricultural pursuits. He has acquired prominence in public matters in his sec- tion, having been twice elected president of the levee board, a position which he now fills. He was Demo- cratie elector for the " Shoestring district," in the presi- dential race of 1880, and recently served as one of the commissioners for Mississippi to the convention held in Washington City for the improvement of western water ways. He has four children, Annie D., Harry S., Miles MeGhee and Mary C. The next oldest child living, Mary Ella Stokes, graduated at Mrs. Tevis' school, in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and intermarried with Charles Buford, of Pulaski, Tennessee, January 30, 1881. They have one child, named Martha Stokes. The next oldest son, Jordan Stokes, jr., was educated at Princeton Col- lege, New Jersey ; graduated at the Lebanon law school, and has since practiced law in partnership with his father. He married Miss Mary Whitworth, the only living daughter of Judge James Whitworth, of Nash- ville, and now resides near that city. He has three children, Martha K., Anna G. and Jordan, Col. Stokes' youngest daughter, Bettie M. Stokes, graduated

at Ward's Seminary, Nashville, and married George C. Waters, April 9, 1881. Walter Stokes, the youngest liv- ing son, has completed the full academic course under Messrs. Webb Bros., at Culleoka, Maury county, Ten- nessee; has spent two years in the academic depart- ment at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, winning, at the commencement in 1885, the founder's medal for oratory, and is now a student in the law department of the university, taking the junior and senior courses of study at the same time.

In religious opinions the family are Methodists, Col. Stokes and nearly all of his descendants being active members of that church. He is a zealous Mason, has risen to the Royal Arch degree, and was for a series of years High Priest of his chapter.

From his earliest manhood he has been an earnest advocate of the political doctrines of the Whig party. During the existence of that party, his whiggery main- tained the fervor'of religious zeal ; he piously clung to it during its stages of decay, and is to-day a loyal mourner about its grave. At no period of his life has he been, in any true sense, an aspirant for political sta- tion, though he has often served his people. In 1851-2, he represented Wilson county in the Legislature, and was elected speaker of the house of representatives. In the Scott canvass he was presidential elector for his congressional district, but shortly thereafter declined a nomination for Congress, preferring professional success and the quiet of his home to any inducements offered in the arena of political office-holding. He was elected to the State senate in 1859, and deserved and received the credit of defeating the bill introduced in that Leg- islature to expel or enslave the free negroes in the State. His speech on this question gave him wide rep- utation, and indicated a breadth of thought far beyond his time. President Lincoln eagerly sought a copy of the speech; Wendell Phillips expressed the opinion that only a few such men in the South would go far to allay sectional utterances at the North and South. At the called session of 1861, he was, with Whig fervor, the friend of the Union of the States, and opposed secess- ion in all its phases. When the issue finally came, he was consistently a unionist, and accepted the famous Crittenden resolution of July 22, 1861, as a declaration of his political views. It may not be out of place here to exhume this resolution, which passed the house of representatives by a vote of yeas one hundred and nine- teen ; nays, two; and the senate by yeas, thirty ; nays, seven ; and of the seven negative votes, six were Demo- erats: " Resolved, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunion- ists of the southern States now in revolt against the constitutional government, and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency Congress, ban- ishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; that this war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppress-

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ion, uor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States; but to de- fend and maintain the supremacy of the constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several States unimpaired ; that as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease." Accepting this almost unanimous declara- tion of Congress, as to the object of the war, Col. Stokes was throughout a consistent, but always conservative, Union man. He held no office, either civil or military, during its continuance, and took no active part in the struggle, save to soften, when' possible, its asperities, and ameliorate the condition of bis people As the war progressed, he approved the course of Mr. Lincoln, and though a slave owner, he preferred the preservation of the union of the States to the preservation of the in- "stitution of slavery, whenever the sacrifice of one be- came necessary to the maintenance of the other. When the war was over, and the orgies of reconstruction began, his conservatism forced him into political affili- ation with the Democratic party, though never an aspi- rant for office and little interested in active politics. During the past twenty years, he and men of his school in Tennessee, representing many of her most cultured citizens, have been politically, as it were, between the upper and nether mull-stones of opposing fanaticism, with little opportunity to come to the front or direct the affairs of the State. The subject of this sketch never desired political prominence ; has ever shunned the dusty arena, and hence this state of things has given him, personally, neither vexation nor thought.

It is in his profession and kindred pursuits that Col. Stokes has won his laurels, and richly deserves all he wears. From the beginning of his professional life, he has been a patient, tireless, discriminative investigator, even carrying thoroughness to its utmost limit. In his mental make-up there is no place for the superficial, while his powers of memory are remarkable. He is equally at home in all the departments of his profession, though perhaps he has acquired greater reputation in nisi prins and criminal cases, owing to his high powers as an advocate. There are few tongues more persuasive or defiant, as the one method or the other best suits the necessities of the particular forensic emergency ; while his fiery oratory has often been the lever to hoist a bad case out of court. He accepts without questioning the ethics of the profession, and in its practice allows no trace of casuistry. With the essential merit of the case he has nothing to do-that is the province of court and jury-but through inflexible loyalty to his client, by all the blandishments of oratory and forensic art, he brings these stern umpires to view the evidence and law applicable thereto, favorable to his client's demand or need, as it might be. He has been remarkably suc- cessful. In chancery the same energy, tact and learn- ing have secured no less success, and though never the

incumbent of a judicial position, he has delivered, un- der special appointments, some notable judicial opin- ions, the most prominent, perhaps, being in the Duck- town mining suit in East Tennessee. He deservedly ranks very high among the many eminent lawyers this State has produced, but while the law has been his mis- tress, her sway has not been exclusive. His midnight lamp has shed its luster on other pages than those of Chitty, Coke and Story and the like. With a legal erndition which worthily places bim at the head of his profession, he has combined an equally extensive knowl- edge of literature and philosophy, characterized by the same thoroughness., Metaphysical researches have long been his delight, but have been so admirably directed as not to befog common sense. His literary culture and powers of oratory have often brought him forward, on patriotic and festival occasions, and he has responded to such wishes from his friends with an alacrity more common in younger and less prominent men. Recently he delivered at Vanderbilt University an address on The Centenary of American Methodism, which attracted much attention. Its literary attractions were of the highest order, but the most notable feature of the ad- dress was the phase or view of Methodism presented. He treated the subject from a secular standpoint, and viewed this great religious seet as an agent of civiliza- tion and fashioner of thought in American life and lit- erature. Christianity is no less a political and social than a religious principle, and our goverment is only a political culmination of the New Testament Serip- tures, while Methodism, in its polity, is intensely American. Religion must not only define man's rela- tion to Deity, but comprehend as well his own person- ality and his relation to his fellow man. The address was in all things worthy of its author.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 103

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