Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 104

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

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The inner life of this gentleman is an inviting field. He early determined never to attempt that which did not promise success, but once entered upon, never to abandon the effort while hope remained. To this is largely attributable the success attendant on his efforts wherever directed. His home life has been beautiful. The family fireside has no where radiated greater hap- piness. The Pythoness who presided is there no longer, but has left haperishable memories. It was her delt hand which governed the little ones. He was only her self-constituted lieutenant, as it always should be. A father ladened with outside care has rarely the poise requisite to wisely judge and properly punish the foi- bles of children. As the children, however, grew in years they feh more the impress of his direct influence. By nature he was peculiarly fitted to gladden the home of his family, while his pure private life and stern in- tegrity gave to them his hours of leisure. No children have ever left the parental roof to achieve their for- tunes elsewhere with sweeter memories. His great and paramount aim ever has been the advancement and happiness of his family.

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" To make a happy fireside chime To weens and wife,

Is the true pathos and sublime Of human life."

This exquisite quotation was his creed. Now that his children are all grown, and all save one have families of their own, he views the results of his ambition with pardonable complacence. They all inherited or de- quired a taste for books, and in their respective spheres of life are useful men and women,

Col. Stokes inherited from his father about ten thou- sand dollars, and now, after losses by the war, and by se- curity debts, and the expenses of his large family, he is still possessed of ample means. He has as yet none of the usual infirmities of age; his disposition is as sunny and his step as light as a man of forty years. He is in the full active practice of his profession, and can delve over books and papers to the " wee sma' hours " with- out conscious fatigue. Men of his kind rarely feel age, for there is little that is old in them. The western sky may be as bright and jocund as the east; the length of the reverse shadow is nothing, and only seen when looking backward. Eyes that have ever pursued the

path of honest, intelligent conviction pay little atten- tion to shadows, and the heart that is true and pure need not grow old. Earnest in his studies, he is not less so in his sports. The writer has known him to pa- tiently watch his line throughout the day's fishing with never a " nibble," and seen him in inclement weather traverse a half' mile of ereck bank, in quadruped fash- ion, to surprise a lot of unsuspecting mallards. It was a wise fish that refused his bait, or mallard that hast- ened before he came in range, as he is not less skillful with rod and gun than elsewhere. His fondness for these sports amounts to an enthusiasm, though he has ever restricted the indulgence of them to long intervals. Such recreations he has made only aids to his studies, but always enjoys and prosecutes them with zest.

His manly gentleness and modesty, his lofty character, his high attainments, have secured him the enthusiastic devotion of his family, the cordial love of his friends, and the respect" and admiration of all. This short memoir of his life richly deserves the perpetuity of print. Tennessee has just cause to be proud of him as one of her citizens, as an expression of her civilization, to bequeath to her youth.

COL. O. C. KING.

MORRISTOWN,

C OL. O. C. KING was born in Washington county, Virginia, August 4, 1812, and his father's farm lying partly in Virginia and partly in Tennessee, his father moved across the line into Tennessee when the son was two years old. There he grew up to manhood, doing farm work, attending stock, and going to school. Hle was educated at different points in Virginia and Tennessee, attending Emory and Henry College one year and Tuseuhun College three years, He left the latter institution in his junior year, April, 1861, and joined the Confederate army as a private soldier in Capt. Abram Gammon's company, from Sullivan county, which was afterward a part of the Nineteenth Tenues- see regiment, Col. Cummings commanding.

Soon after he was transferred from that regiment to a battalion of cavaley under Col. George R. MeClelland ; was subsequently promoted to"a lieutenancy in an in- fantry company of Col. Pitts' Sixty-first Tennessee regiment, but became disgusted with infantry service, resigned his position, went back to the cavalry, Col. James Carter's First Tennessee cavalry regiment, and served in that command as a private soldier until he was desperately wounded, in June, 1861, in the valley of Virginia, by a minnie ball, which broke his left thigh and took out about four inches of the bone, which has made that limb some three inches shorter than the

other, producing a limp in his walk. He lay seven long, weary months in one position from the effects of that wound, no one supposing he could ever recover. During the war he was in many regular engagements, and in numerous skirmishes while on detached service. During the holidays of 1862-3, he was in the series of engagements around Vicksburg, lasting for seven days. After his return from Vicksburg, and rejoining his command, he was with Col. Carter in all his engage- ments in upper East Tennessee and southwest Virginia until his counnand was transferred to the valley of Virginia. He was wounded at the battle of New Hope, June 4. 1864. the first engagement after his command entered the valley. He was in the valley of Virginia when Sheridan made his celebrated raid, in which every barn, mill, granary, haystack and straw pile from Win- chester to Staunton were burned or destroyed. From the room where he lay wounded, he counted at one time the light of fourteen barns and mills burning -- set on fire by the torches of Sheridan's valiant raiders.

His father having been divested of all his personal property, Col. King (as his friends and admirers love to call him) began school teaching near his father's house. He opened a school in an old store house near. his fath- er's dwelling, had to be carried to the school room on a litter, and taught, lying on his back, until he was able to

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go on crutches and sit upright. Meantime, to show the indomitable pluck and genuine manhood of the gallant young soklier, he read law while teaching, under the nominal tutorship of Beverly R. Johnston and Joseph T. Campbell, of Abingdon, Virginia. When he had accumulated about one hundred dollars, and was think ing of opening a law office, he was indicted for treason in the Federal court at Knoxville. Through the influ- ence of his father, who was an old personal friend of Hon. Connally F. Trigg, the Federal judge presiding, the case was nolle prosequied on his paying the costs of the suit-one hundred and fifteen dollars, of which he had to borrow fifteen.

He was licensed to practice law in 1867, at Blount- ville, by Judge R. R. Butler and Chancellor Seth J. W. Luckey, began practice in the fall of that year, and practiced there till the fall of 1865, when he moved to Mossy Creek, Jefferson county, Tennessee, lived there till 1876, when he removed to Morristown, where he has ever since resided, practicing law, farming, spec- ulating in real estate, and occasionally engaging in other business, such as taking stock in flouring mills, and in railroad and mining enterprises. For ten or twelve years he has devoted much time to investigat ing the mineral resources of upper East Tennessee, and has invested some money there and in Colorado. Ile owns now probably more iron ore than any man in East Tennessee, and is interested in zine and lead mines in that section. He owns lands in Hamblen, Cocke, Sullivan and Jefferson counties, embracing six farms. He began business life very poor, with fifteen dollars borrowed money, a wife, a baby and a pair of crutches.

What is the secret of his business success? The hardest kind of work ; though he was not passionately fond of work, still he worked hard because it was a ne cessity. Moreover, he made it a rule to do whatever he did well, and a little better than some other men would have done it. His law practice was the foundation of his prosperity, and his law practice depended on the faithfulness, diligence and earnestness with which he devoted himself to the interest of his clients. He is by nature an earnest man-a positive, not a negative man. Were he asked to improve upon the definition Demos- thenes gave of eloquence, he would substitute " earn estness" for "action." When a case has been entrusted to him, he goes in to win it. From boyhood days he has been a reader of and familiar with the English classics, and he has made a liberal use in his law prac- tice of the advantages derived from them. Of all the instruments a lawyer can use, the Bible is the most po tent, and from it Col. King quotes very frequently. He is a very poor collector, can make money faster than he collects it ; has never formed habits of economy ; is not what is called a frugal man, though by no means im- provident, and always manages to keep his expenses within the limits of his purse.

In 1880, he projected the building of a railroad to con -

neet the Kentucky system of railroads with the Carolina system, crossing East Tennessee from north to south through Cumberland Gap. To that end he organized two companies in Tennessee, one in North Carolina, and one in Kentucky, and consolidated them all with two that had been previously organized in South Carolina, under the name and style of the Chicago, Cumberland Gap and Carolina railway company, and perfected a contract with the Atlantic and Northwestern Construc- tion company to build the entire road, about four hun- dred miles. He was the first vice-president of the company as organized. Soon after making the contract with the construction company, there came a serious disagreement between himself and the construction company, growing out of different interpretations of the terms of the contract, and Col. King resigned his po- sition as director in the railway company, and has since had no connection with the management, though much the largest stockholder in the company.

Col. King may be set down as a Democratic free- thinker. Though he has never attended but one polit- ical convention, as a rule he acts with the Democratic party. In 1884, he was defeated for Congress in the First congressional district, by Hon. A. H. Pettibone. He was the nomince of the Democratic party, and though the district, which is overwhelmingly Republi- can, gave Blaine a majority of over five thousand over Cleveland, Maj. Pettibone's majority over King was less than twenty-four hundred. He was made a Master Ma- son at Bristol, in 1836, and took the Royal Arch and Council degrees in E. H. Guild Chapter, Bristol. He is also an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Honor. His religious views and sympathies are Presbyterian, being of Scotch-Frish descent.

His father, L. M. King, who died at Morristown, in December, 1884, in the sixty sixth year of his age, was an elder in the Presbyterian church. So also was his grandfather, David King, who died at Lexington, Ken- tucky, in 1818, an aged man. At the time of his grand- father's death he was on the road from Virginia to Ohio with all of his slaves to liberate them. He came, in 1796. from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. to Washington county, Virginia, The family have all been quiet peo- ple. none of them having holdt official position, but all men of fair means, and good, substantial citizens.

Col. King's mother, Penelope Massengill, was born in Sullivan county, Tennessee, the daughter of Michael Massengill. a farmer. Her mother was Louisa Cobb, the daughter of Caswell Cobb, of Sullivan county. Col. King's mother, now living with him at Morristown, is a member of the Presbyterian church, the mother of four children: (1). Oliver Caswell King, subject of this sketch. (2). Michael Glenn King, who was drowned, when eighteen years old, at Knoxville, in 1862, while attempting to rescue his servant from drowning. Hle was, at the time of his death, a soldier in Mcclelland's battalion of Confederate cavalry. (3). Nancy E. King,

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now wife of Samuel W. Gill, Talbott's, Temiessee. She was educated at Martha Washington College, Abingdon, Virginia, and has two children, Mary Gill, who mar- ried, March, 1885, John W. Wooten, of Morristown, and Penelope Gill. (4). Louisa King, educated at Stonewall Jackson Institute, Abingdon, Virginia ; mar- ried John W. Donaldson, of Talbott's, Tennessee; has three children, Hugh, Ollie Kate and Leander King.

Col. King married, at Blountville, Tennessee, August 12, 1863, Miss Kate Rutledge, who was born near Blount- ville in 1811 the daughter of John C. Rutledge, who for twenty years, was clerk of the county court of Sul- livan county. He died in 1868. about sixty-five years old. Her grandfather, Robert Rutledge, was a farmer, of a Virginia family, and the youngest brother of Gen. George Rutledge, who figured in the carly history of East Tennessee. Her mother was Sallie Cobb, daugh-

ter of Caswell Cobb, her mother and Col. King's maternal grandmother being sisters. Mrs. King was educated at the Female Institute at Blountville, is a domestic woman in her tastes, prudent and economical, and to her assistance and good counsel her husband owes much of his success. Five children have been born to them : Michael Caswell; Penelope Louisa; John Rutledge; Leander Montgomery, " the critical boy of the family " ; one unnamed, who died in infancy.

Col. King is something of a diffident man, and on this account does not often seek to be thrown with gentlemen who are prominent. In the work he has to do, he knows no such thing as diffidence, but as a rule makes acquaintances only for business purposes. The ideas of business transform him, come natural to him, and, as it were, take him out of himself, yet under other circum- stances he is modest and unpretending ahnost to a fault.

HON. PETER TURNEY.

WINCHESTER.

A BIG man in every way, in physical proportions, in heart, in brain, in conscience, a man of the highest order of intellectual and legal ability, of lofty courage and unspotted integrity, few public men in Tennessee are so well known as the Hon. Peter Turney, of Win- chester, now one of the Supreme judges of the State. Moreover, his square common sense and his great nat- ural ability, as well as his profound legal erudition, en- able him, almost without effort, to arrive at conclusions and positions that most other men have to labor to reach. Of warm sympathy, the outgrowth of a gentle heart and a brave, manly and chivalric nature, it has often been said of him that, if his legal decisions ever vary from the strict letter of the law, it is only when the rights of an unfortunate widow or helpless orphan chil- dren are involved. Humanum est creare-yet if he ever errs it is on the side of humanity.,

Judge Peter Turney is a native of Jasper, Marion county, Tennessee, was born September 22, 1827, and is the son of Hon. Hopkins L. Turney, one of Tennes- see's most distinguished statesmen of date bellum times, and when "there were giants in those days." Peter Turney received a fair English education at Winches- ter, Tennessee, and had so advanced in mathematics and kindred studies that, when only seventeen years old, he was a surveyor, on his own account, six months in Franklin county. After this he studied law in his father's office from June 22, 1815, until his father's elec- tion to the United States senate the same year. He then studied in the office of Maj. William E. Venable, at Winchester, and September 22, 1848, was licensed to practice by Hon. Andrew J. Marchbanks and Hon, Na-

than Green, sr., the latter then of the Supreme court. After admission to the Winchester bar, he practiced with his father until his father's death, August 1, 1857. He then formed partnership with his brother, Miller F. Turney, and practiced with him until the breaking out of the war. in 1861.

When the war came on, being an ardent southerner and in full sympathy with the secession cause, he en- tered the Confederate army. He was elected colonel of the First Confederate Tennessee regiment of infantry and on many of the bloody, storm-rent fields of the South he gallantly led " Turney's regiment " to victory. Attached to the brigade of Gen. Robert Hatton (after- ward Archer's Tennessee brigade), he fought through the Virginia and Maryland campaigns until the Appo- mattox surrender. He bore brave and conspicuous part in the battles of Seven Pines, May 31 and June 1, 1862, the second battle at Manassas, Cedar Run, Har- per's Ferry, Antietam, Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg, and numerous other engagements of less note.

At Fredericksburg he was wounded in the mouth by a shot which took away all his upper teeth, two of his lower ones, and a part of his tongue, which causes him to this day to lisp a little, makes his articulation a little difficult, but this is only noticeable to those who are aware of the fact. He was also shot in the battles of Seven Pines and Antietam, but not seriously disabled.

He remained colonel of his regiment, but in August, 1863, was assigned to duty in Florida. Later in the same year he was appointed to the command of the cas- tern district of Florida, and commanded the Con Ne- rate forces in a battle on Three Mile creek.

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

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He was recommended by Gens. Robert E. Lee, A. P. Hill and James J. Archer for promotion, but as Col. Turney and President Davis were not on friendly terms he was not raised to a higher rank.

Returning to Winchester, when the war was over, without means, except a house and lot, he resumed his law business and continued in practice there until Sep- tember 1, 1870, when he went on the Supreme bench of Tennessee, the position he now holds. His first elec- tion as Supreme judge was in August, 1870, as the nom- ince of the State Democratic convention : his re-elee- tion occurred in August, 1878, and was without oppo- sition. The salary attached to the Supreme judgeship is four thousand dollars per annum, and, financially, he is now in very comfortable circumstances.

Though not in active polities, Judge Turney is an hereditary Democrat. In 1851, he was a Democratic candidate for attorney-general of his cireuit, but was beaten by Gen. George J. Stubblefield, now of Nash - ville. In 1860, he was alternate elector on the Breck- inridge ticket. In 1861, he was elected as a secession- ist to represent Franklin county in the State conven- tion, but the convention never met. In 1876, his friends nominated him before the Legislature for United States senator, to fill the unexpired term of Andrew John- son, deceased, but he was defeated by Hon. James E. Bailey.

He became a Mason in 1857; is also a Knight of Pythias and a Knight of Honor. Both he and his present wife are members of the Protestant Episcopal church.

Judge Turney has been twice married. First, at Winchester, June 10, 1851, to Miss Cassandra Garner daughter of Thomas H. Garner, of a North Carolina family, a large farmer in Franklin county, Tennessee, and representative of that county in the State Legisla- ture several times, He died in 1881, aged eighty-three years. His father, Thomas Garner, was a pioneer set- dler in that section and died at the age of ninety-five; a well read man, of strong, quick mind, aspiring to noth- ing but respectability and industry. Mrs. Turney's mother, was Eliza Wadlington, of a Kentucky family. She died in 1883, at the age of seventy five. Mrs. Tur. ney. (the first ) died March 28, 1857, at the age of twenty- one, leaving three children. (1). Thomas Turney, died March 3, 1874. (2): Virginia C. Turney. (3). Hopkins 1 .. Turney.

Judge Turney's next marriage, which occurred in Marion county, Tennessee, April 27, 1858, was with Miss Hannah F. Graham, who was born in Jackson county, Tennessee, daughter of John Graham, a large farmer, a native of Pennsylvania, one of three brothers, one of whom settled in Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and one in North Carolina. Mrs. Turney's mother, nec Miss Aletha Roberts, of Davidson county, Tennessee, was a relative of the Buchanans of Davidson, and of the Ridleys of Rutherford county. By this marriage 60

Judge Turney has nine children, Teresa, Peter, jr., Aletha, Samuel, Lowudes, James, Woodson, Hannah F. and Miller Francis.

Judge Turney's father, the Hon. Hopkins L. Turney, was one of the ablest and most remarkable men Ten- nessee ever produced. He was a native of Smith county, born in October, 1797. He never attended school a day in his life, and not until the age of twenty- two could be write his name: But he was of wonderful native ability, vigorous innate talent, and by force of close application and study by what means he could, he conquered obstacles and rose to eminence as a self'- made man. He began. practicing law at Jasper, Ten- nessee, in 1825; married in May, 1826; remained at Jasper until February, 1828, when he removed to Win- chester, where he practiced law and lived ou a farm near town. He represented Marion county in the Ten- nessee Legislature one term, and Franklin county sev- eral terms. From 1837 to 1813 (six years), he was a member of Congress; from 7815 to 1851, he was United States senator from Tennessee. He was a soldier in the war of 1812-14. He was a man of extraordinary natu- ral abilities, a spirited man, a man of leonine, courage, "but as gentle as a woman" in the kindliness of his nature. Of great energy, he did with all his might what he had to do, and would never quit until he accom- plished it. He was a recognized leader of the Demo- cratic party during his life. He died August 1, 1857. Judge Turney's grandfather, Peter Turney, came from Germany. He was the son of a German mother but of a French father. He died leaving a large estate, which was wasted by administrators.

The Hon. Samuel Turney, Judge Turney's uncle, was a leading lawyer in Middle Tennessee in his day. He represented White county several times in the Leg- islature, and was, at one time, speaker of the Tennessee State senate. Judge Turney's oldest uncle, James Turney, had the reputation of being a leading lawyer at Chicago and at Tyler, Texas, at which latter place he died in 1864.

Judge Turney's mother, originally Miss Teresa Fran- cis, was born in Rhea county, Tennessee, December 9, 1809, the daughter of Miller and Hannah Francis. Her mother was the daughter of William Henry, of a Vir- ginia family. Judge Turney's mother died. September 5, 1879. She was a woman of great energy and a fine economical manager, and frequently had to manage the farm while her husband was in politics and in Con- press.

Sprung from such sturdy ancestry, Judge Turney's carly training, as was to be expected, was of the best. It made him a close student in early life, and fastened upon him studions habits that have followed him to maturer manhood. He has stuck close to his profession, kept to his office, and paid but little attention to any- thing else. Thus inspired by the example of his father, he has made a success

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Physically, Judge Turney is a man who would attract attention in any assembly. He is six feet three inches in height, stands very erect, is portly and stately, and though weighing two hundred and sixty pounds, is a

man of fine proportions. His eyes are blue, hair light, voice soft and kindly ; his enunciation deliberate. He is a witty, good natured man, loves a good joke and knows how to laugh with his soul.

HON. THOMAS MCKISSICK JONES.

PULASKI.

H ON. THOMAS M. JONES, one of the most eminent lawyers in Tennessee, and one of the five surviving Tennessee members of the Confederate Congress, was born in Person county, North Carolina, December 16, 1816, but came when an infant with his father's family to Giles county, Tennessee, where he has ever since resided. He was educated at Wirtenburg Academy, Pulaski, until 1831, when he was sent to the University of Alabama, where he remained until 1833; From there he went to the University of Virginia, re- maining until 1835. Returning to Pulaski, he read law in the office of Flournoy & Rivers, until the suunner of 1836.

About this time the Florida war broke out, and he volunteered for service, raised a large company in Pu- laski, called the " Hyenas," which afterward became Company A, of the first regiment of Tennessee mounted men, under Col. Alexander B. Bradford and Lieut .- Col. Terry II. Cabal. Young Jones was made captain of his company, which had among its members a number of young gentlemen who afterward became men of dis- tinction, notably among them being Gov. Neill S. Brown, Supreme JJudge Archibald Wright, Hon. Solon E. Rose, Maj. A. F. Goff, Dr. Jesse Mays, J. Nelson Patterson, Daniel. V. Wright, and others. He fought through the campaign, the principal battles of which were Lost Creek, Wahoo Swamp and the Withlacoo- chee.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 104

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