Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 109

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

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He has been prominently connected with most of the financial and commercial enterprises of Memphis, and has been identified with various schemes for her mate- rial advancement. He has also been the author of numerous articles in the papers of the city, looking to her general welfare. He has been president of the Gayoso oil works since their organization, three years ago ; was one of the founders of the Mercantile Bank of Memphis, and has been its president from its organ- ization. This bank has the remarkable history of hav- ing paid a dividend of five per cent, during the first half year of its existence, and when eleven months old its stock was worth from 1.20 to 1.25, with none on the market for sale. He is also a director in the Planters Insurance company, one of the largest in the State. His career as a business man has been one of almost uninterrupted success. Not avaricious, but possessing capacity for accumulating property, he is in possession of a handsome estate, and his fidelity. in the positions of trust in the business relations above referred to gives him a reputation second to none among the leading men of the city of Memphis.

Mr. Godwin was married, November 15, 1859, in Shelby county, Tennessee, to Miss Mary F. Mullins. Her father, Rev. Lorenzo Dow Mullins, a Methodist minister, was born in Bedford county, Tennessee, April 6, 1809, and died July 12, 1850. Her mother, Miss Martha Ann Medichee, was born in Louisa county, Virginia, January 25 1511. and removed to Lawrence county, Alabama, with her parents, in childhood. She was married May 20, 1835, and died April 26, 1876. Mrs. Godwin. who was their third child, was born at Lagrange, Alabama, July 1, 1839. To this union have

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been born four children, three of whom are now living . (1). Annie May Godwin, born in Shelby county, Ten- nessee, August 27, 1860; now married to Mr. J. J. Polk, son of Col. Jack Polk, of Bolivar, Tennessee. (2). Lorenzo Russell Godwin, born in Drew county, Arkansas, August 1, 1861; now a student at Vander- bilt University. (3). Robert Allen Godwin, born in Memphis, Tennessee, April 11, 1876. Their eldest son, John Thomas Godwin, who was born in Drew county, Arkansas, March 1, 1862, died January 19, 1875.

Mrs. Godwin was educated under Dr. Joseph Doug- lass, at Marshall Institute, in Marshall county, Mississ- ippi, graduating there in 1858. She is a lady of re- markable piety, has been a consistent member of the Methodist church since her childhood, and now occu- pies a prominent position among the ladies of her church. Mr. Godwin joined the Methodist church at Monticello, Arkansas, in 1861, and has been an official member from a short time after joining up to the pres- ent time. He has represented his church in a number of annual conferences, and was a delegate to the gen- eral conference which met at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1878.

Mr. Godwin's father, Handy Godwin, who died in 1857, was of English descent, and born in North Caro- liua. His grandfather, Seth Godwin, was a farmer in North Carolina. His mother. who died in 1832, was Miss Mary McQueen, daughter of Hugh and Effie MeQueen, natives of Scotland. They came to Cumber- land county, North Carolina, after they were inarried, and he there engaged in farming. Two of Mr. Godwin's uncles, Norman and John McQueen, went to We- tumpka, Alabama, during early Indian times, and be- came prominent and successful merchants.

Mr. Godwin was raised an old line Whig, but since the war has been a Democrat. While taking a lively interest in political affairs, he has never consented to become a candidate for office, preferring to devote his time and energy to his business.

His principles have been to act with the strictest integrity in all dealings with all men, and to work with untiring energy upon whatever he had to do, be- lieving that honest, hard work is the shortest road to success. A man is never successful by chance. He has vays been very careful about sustaining his credit, and ys his debts dollar for dollar, with interest. He is temperate in his habits, having, in this respect, kept up through life the plan which he pursued while in Cali- fornia. He endeavors to be courteous to all men, and as a result, has never wanted for true friends in any emergency of his life. Integrity, industry and perse- verance form the basis of his success. In founding the new government of Memphis, and rescuing the city from the hopeless bankruptcy and ruin which seemed to stare her in the face, Mr. Godwin played an active part. The following account of his connection with these affairs, is from Col. George Gantt, of Memphis, who was an active co-worker in the events narrated :

"The subject of this sketch became prominent in the revolution that overturned the long established form of government in Memphis, and substituted for it the tax- ing district method of governing. Prior to that, he was chiefly known as'a quiet, good citizen, and prominent, as a commercial man. in the specialty of handling cotton among the brainy cotton kings of 'Front Row:' In the dark days of 1878, and near the close of the year, the commanding figure of John R. Godwin was seen in all the meetings on the absorbing topic of abolishing the city government. He was on special and select. committees. No man was better equipped for the work. He studied the question with keen interest, and mas- tered it. He fixeil in his mind, that all local govern- ment was a mere ruling agency; that it had no ele- ment of contract in it: that it was created to serve and promote the welfare of the local territory over which it was set to rule: that when it ceased to do this it was a useless expense ; that when, as in the case of the city government of Memphis, it had not only ontlived its usefulness, but had become an instrument to oppress and plunder the people for whose welfare it was established, it ought to be cut up by the roots ; that the Legislature which made, could destroy, and relief was to be sought and found only in the speedy and complete extinction of the local government by the unconditional repeal of its charter. Few of the masses of the community then understood that the cum- brons machinery, called the city government, was a mere ruling agency, that could be cut up root and branch by a simple abrogation of its charter. To give up its char- ter and its name was a startling proposition for a city of thirty or forty thousand souls. But the affairs of the community were desperate. The city government was bankrupt, and without credit to buy supplies, even for the hospital. By mismanagement and mal-administra- tion, it had created millions of debt. Whilst it existed, it served no purpose except to enable its hordes of greedy creditors to wring, in the way of taxes, money from a desperate and despairing people, to meet this great debt. In the face of this appalling condition of things, and when just fairly emerged from the great scourge of 1878, which eut down five thousand of the population, and drove thousands away perhaps never to return, the community located on the 'Chickasaw bluffs,' needed leaders and wise counselors. In that exigency, John R. Godwin first appeared as one of the leaders. From the first, he was connected with those who led the move- ment for disenthrallment and redemption. The rem- edy proposed was so new as to be startling-it was rev- olution. The first step was the total abolition of all lo- cal government. The timid, the selfish, the creditors, those who had prospered in evil times, and many who acted from honorable convictions, formed a powerful opposition to the new ideas; but Godwin and others cast these ideas as 'seed thoughts' among the people. They took root ; everywhere the question was debated

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the public mind was profoundly agitated ; it was the sole topic discussed. Inall of this Mr. Godwin bore a con- spicuous part. Those who doubted, he sought to con- vince ; the timid, he endeavored to inspire with cour- age; those who opposed, he boldly met. He was well qualified by nature for the work. Strong and forebear ing, courteous and sagacious, well informed and firm as a rock, and enlisted soul and body, he exerted a powerful influence. His purse was open ; he gave his time, either in Memphis or at the capital of the State, as duty or . necessity required. Wherever there was hard. earnest work to be done, there he was sure to be found. Withal, he was modest and unobtrusive. When the old govern- ment disappeared, he was active in the installment of its successor. What is this taxing district? was asked on all hands. Will it stand the ordeal of the courts? Will it work ?' Who are to fill its offices ? He was with the foremost in answering all these questions, and in putting the best men into the offices. He declined all place and preferment himself. He was unselfish and wise, in the important part he bore in filling the official stations with material fit to rule. It was a bold experi- ment. There were good sense and rate good fortune in the choice of the head of the new government. Wi- dom and sagacity, uniting with an unselfish desire to govern well and wisely, filled all the places of official trust with first-class men. The men who first held office under the experiment in government, all deserve the lasting gratitude of the community. In all the strug gles in the courts, and in all the elections since the new government began, Mr. Godwin gave valuable aid. His time and his money were freely bestowed. At every session of the General Assembly, since the establish- ment of the taxing district, there has been more or less important work to do. In all this work Mr. Godwin has borne a prominent part. He resisted. with great force and efficiency, all efforts to impose the debt of the old government upon the new. He faced the persistent effort to do so. and fought it at every step Powerful interests urged a settlement of the old debt at what he conceived to be a ruinous sum. The Legislature was again and again appealed to on the subject. Many car. nest debates arose before the committees appointed by the Legislature to consider the subject. In these de- bates Mr. Godwin took part. He was encountered by able and earnest men. In these contests he displayed that strong common sense with which he is endowed by nature, and his compact array of facts and figures were hard to resist. Without practice in debate, without elo- quence or wit or humor, he was nevertheless very per- suasive and forcible. He was strong and logical. Every word stood for an idea; and his ideas were couched in simple 'and clear terms that went right to the heart of the matter.

" In the final steps which resulted in the settlement of' the debt question of the old city government, Mr. God win was a conspicuous factor. When the time had ar

rived for settlement and terms were offered which, in his judgment, the people could bear, he urged their ac- cepfance with all the earnestness and power of his na- ture, His candor, his well known devotion to the pub- lic welfare, his unselfishness and soundness of judgment, gave him great influence in the final and fortunate dispo- sition of this grave and important question to the 'Bluff

. He has, at all times, refused office. He has been earnestly urged to serve as an officer of the local gov- erment, as a member of the Legislature, and favorably spoken of for a seat in Congress. But he has declined all these tempting solicitations. In reference to the conspicuous part he hore in the important local affairs of the great and flourishing community in which he lives, he is far from self-asserting, and points with pride and unstinted commendation to others, who were his worthy co-laborers in the good work, as far more desery- ing than himself. Merit and modesty are often com- pasions. They go well together. Both adorn the char- acter of Mr. Godwin.

" Memphis was visited by a second great epidemic of yellow fever in 1979 be caused profound depression. Great and costly sanitary measures were necessary to save the city. Many thought there was no hope. It was indeed a dark hour. How could a community so stricken and so unfortunate as this was meet the de- mands necessary for so great and costly a work. No ac- count which omits the part which Mr. Godwin bore in this important affair would be complete. On the 16th of October, 1579, he addressed to the public, through the Memphis Appeal, a letter on this vital question, That letter embodied his own views and those of other leading spirits, whose opinions were in accord with his. It went a long way in shaping and directing public sen- timent. The following synopsis will show the scope and spirit of the letter: ' As quite a number of gentlemen have discussed the sanitary needs of Memphis through your paper in connection with what they term the mer- chants' meeting in St. Louis, and as none of them have given the reasons for the action taken by the Memphis citizens in that meeting, I will endeavor, in the plainest and simplest manner, to do so. This question has been discussed in doors and on the streets almost constantly since I came to St. Louis on the Ist of September. One could scarcely talk five minutes to a Memphis man or woman withont hearing this expression: 'What is to be done with Memphis?' Can it be reclaimed? Is there no way of remedying the cause of sickness and making it habitable? If not, then we must look for other quarters, as we are heartily tired of being driven from home and business in this way every year.' This feel- ing of uncertainty and dread as to the future of Mem- phis, gave rise to much consultation among those of us here. before the meeting. as to the best method of rais- ing funds for the accomplishment of this work. It was . agreed that nothing but a complete sewerage system

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would give a feeling of security for the future. A stock company was first suggested. It was thought that suffi- cient capital could be raised in this way, to build main sewers and force property owners to connect with them at a fixed price. This plan was objected to on the ground (1) that it would be a monopoly, and would in some way, manage to be oppressive; and (2) that no legal enact- ment could compel the lot owners to connect with a corporate sewer any more than he could be compelled to take water or gas from a corporation. This would, of course, defeat the object of sanitation, which to be perfect and effective, must have connection with every lot within reach of a main. The second method-the one adopted in the meeting -- was to have the governor call the Legislature and ask them to levy a tax for the purpose of sewering the city and doing such other work as would be needed to put it into first-class condition. The reason for preferring this latter mode of raising the money are (1), free sewers, and every one can be forced to connect with them; and (2). it is the quickest and surest way of getting the means. There are quite a number of large estates which could be reached in no other way, besides a vast amount of corporate property. banks, railroads and insurance companies whose officers 1 have no authority to contribute to this work but will pay the tax cheerfully. The design of this plan is to reach those who are able to pay on an equitable basis. All this talk about selling out the poor man with his lit- tle home is mere moonshine. This is a work for those 1 that are able to do it, but we must have unity of action ; it is a matter of life and death with us : of half a loaf or no loaf; whether we will live in a pest-house or a clean, beautiful city. The execution of the work we can safely trust to the efficient officers of the taxing district. We hear much said about the government doing the work for us; that the State Legislature would : loan us money or donate certain State taxes. These are mere diversions. The expense of our citizens in run- ning away this summer would do the work. Our loss in trade for this and the last month would more than do it over again. We mustmake up our minds to assist ourselves, or sell our birthright for a mess of pottage to some more resolute people. I learn Gov. Marks de clines for the present to call the legislature together. If nothing can be done earlier, I would suggest that as soon as we return home we come together and agree on - what is best to be done; get our representatives in the Legislature to agree with us, and the governor will grant our request. Eight years ago the taxable values in our corporate limits were forty-eight millions, to-day they are sixteen millions, and if the fever remains a few years, they may be sunk much lower. We only ask the State to incur the insignificant amount required to assemble the Legislature. If we take our old place as tax payers, it would be repaid tenfold in a few years.' This letter became a kind of focus around which public 1 sentiment was rallied. Frost came and drove out the .

yellow plague. The people returned to their homes. The great question of improving the sanitary condition was never absent from their minds. Around their fire- sides, at their places of business, everywhere, it was the theme of themes. On the 15th of November, 1879, a great mass meeting was held on the ' bluffs' in front of the city. After many carnest speeches had been deliv ered, Mr. Godwin offered the following for adoption : 'Resolved by the people in mass meeting assembled, that we respectfully but earnestly appeal to his excel- leney, to call together at the earliest practicable moment the Legislature of the State, for the purpose of enacting such laws as will enable us to carry into practical ope- ration those measures of sanitary reform which may be practicable and most conducive to the health of our city ; and be it resolved further. that we do not regard such legislation as local in its character, but as in the largest sense affecting the property, happiness and lives of all the citizens of the commonwealth ; and we there- fore appeal to them by every tie of kinship, sentiment of humanity, and feeling of common interest, to join with us in invoking a call of the General Assembly in special session for the purposes aforesaid." Mr. Godwin spoke briefly in advocacy of the resolution. He spoke with earnestness, with power and force. He spoke to eager ears -- to a resolute, sorely tried, but strong au- dience, ready to meet the exigency, without regard to the sacrifice it involved. The resolutions were unani- mously adopted. A committee of fifteen was appointed to carry out the objects contemplated, which they did by preparing suitable measures to be acted on by the Legislature. Gov. Marks (always the stanch friend of Memphis) convened the Legislature in extra session, on the 16th of December, 1879. The necessary legislation was speedily enacted, imposing a tax of two per cent. on all the taxable property of the local territory for the sole purpose of constructing an adequate underground system of drainage. The tax payers responded cheer- fully and promptly to this additional burden. The re- sult was the practical realization of what Mr. Godwin urged with so much force and carnestress in his letter of October 16, 1879 the Memphis system of' sewerage -- the best ever constructed down to chat date, and which has probably added more to the present prosperity of Mem- phis than any thing that was ever done in her history."

These patriotic public scenes are mere episodes in the life of the subject of this sketch. When the public exigencies no longer required his services, he quietly disappeared, sinking himself' again into the pursuit of his own private affairs. But it must not be supposed that he has become indifferent to the general welfare of the community in which he resides. It is impossible for such a character to be idle or indifferent, nor would his neighbors allow him to be idle or indifferent, if he felt so inclined. They know his value, and hence he is in demand always when something arises that calls for sound judgment, energy and courageous work.

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REV. PETER MASON BARTLETT, A. M., D. D.

T" IIIS gentleman, now the president of Maryville College, Tennessee, was born in Salisbury, Con- neeticut, February 6, 1820, and there grew up to the thirteenth year of his age, when he went with his parents to Trumbull county, Ohio. In 1839, he entered Oberlin College, where he studied in the preparatory; freshman and sophomore classes two and a half years. He next taught in an academy, in Trumbull county, two years, returned to Oberlin for another year, married in 1815, and the same year took charge of the New Castle, Penn sylvania, Female Seminary, and taught there three years. He then moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, and entered Williams College, at that place, graduating in August, 1850, with distinguished honors, under the cele- brated president, Mark Hopkins, After graduation, he went to New York city. in September, 1850, entered the Union Theological Seminary, and. after completing the three years' course there, graduated in 1853. In the fall of that year, he became general agent of the American Tract Society, with headquarters in Cincinnati, and tray- eled through the southwestern part of the State, preach- ing and collecting funds for the society. In the winter of 1851. he went to Circleville, Ohio, took charge of the First Presbyterian church, of which he was the settled pastor for three years, ending July, 1857. His next work was at Lansingburg. New York, as pastor of the Olivet Presbyterian church, at that place. There he remained until 1860, when his wife and child dying, he preached, as a supply, in various places, till 1862, when he entered the Federal army as chaplain of the First New York mounted rifles. Col. C. C. Dodge command- ing, and continued in that capacity till August, 1861, when he returned to Massachusetts and supplied a church for the winter, and then settled as pastor of the Congregational church at Windsor Locks, Connecticut. where he remained till March, 1869, when he accepted the presidency of Maryville (Tennessee) College, where he has lived ever since.

lle is a man of tall, ereet, military figure and car- riage, and, it is said, looking not unlike "Stonewall" Jackson; is well preserved and active, with the gray eyes of the Greeks; . a man of extensive travel and ob . servation, in peace and war, and under greatly diversi- fied circumstances ; a man of books and schools and pas- toral experience, of many woes and sorrows, but of great fortitude and cheerful spirits -- one of the standard men of East Tennessee.

He was converted at the age of ten, joined the church at fifteen, felt called to the ministry at the age of sixteen, and from the beginning has, in the estimation of the church, lived a life consistent with his profess- ion. He has three times been a delegate to the general assembly of the Presbyterian church of the United

States of America. Theology has been his favorite study, and he is a Presbyterian- - a Calvanist-a firm believer in man's free agency and in Divine sovereignty, and that all creatures are under God's control and sub- jeet to bis Divine will. He has risen to distinction, not so much by being ambitious of worldly houor, as by a steady and conscientious discharge of his duties to God and to his fellow men. No friend has ever been solicited to help him forward in getting any prominent position in life. On the contrary, it has all come to him unsought. Thus the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, without his knowledge. The same is true of his presi- deney of the Maryville College. He began life without inheritance : his education was obtained mainly by his own efforts. excepting that in his theological studies he was assisted by the American Educational Society. He has taught schools twenty-five years, has preached thirty-three years, the last seventeen years of which he has not received enough money to defray his traveling expenses. In polities, he is a Republican ; was for a short time a member of the Good Templars, in Con- necticut. He is president of Maryville bank.

Dr. Bartlett's present wife, ace Florence M. Alden, whom he married at Cave Spring, Georgia, April 25, 1872, was born at Marietta, Georgia, November 26, 1852, daughter of Col. Augustus Alden, a very distinguished educator of that State, who graduated at Yale College in 1817, and spent his time teaching high schools. He was successively president of the Masonic Female Col- lege, at Lumpkin, Georgia, and of the Andrews Female College, at Cuthbert, in the same State, and for twenty- five years an elder in the Presbyterian church; always noted for his piety, his handsome figure and profound classical scholarship. He died at Cave Spring, at the age of seventy-two, leaving seven children, of whom Mrs. B. is the youngest.

Mrs. Bartlett comes of an illustrious family. Her mother, Ann L., now living with her at Maryville, is the daughter of Hon. Wilson Lumpkin, the famous governor of Georgia, United States senator from that State, and a leading member of the Baptist church, at Athens, Georgia. He laid out Atlanta. and left a his- tory of Georgia in manuscript, which, it is promised, will soon be published. His daughter, Mrs. Bartlett's miother, was a pupil of Col. Alden, whom she married. Through his father, Rev. Abisha Alden, a Congrega- tional clergyman, at Montville, Connecticut, Col. Alden was a direct descendant of John Alden, of the " May- flower," who figures as the hero in Longfellow's im- mortal poem, " Miles Standish's Courtship." On the paternal side, Mrs. Bartlett is the grand niece of Hon. Joseph H. Lumpkin, an eminent Georgia jurist. Mrs.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 109

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