Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 112

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 112

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Judge Trewhite's grandfather, James Trewhitt, was born in North Carolina, and was a Revolutionary sol dier during the entire war. He married Miss Elizabeth Mumford, in North Carolina, in which State he also

died. After his death his widow came to Hawkins county, Tennessee, where she married a Mr. James Brown. By her first husband she had two boys, Jesse, a physician, who died in Missouri, in 1865, and Levi; and two daughters, Elizabeth, now wife of John Brown, and Sally; who married Andy McGinnis.

Levi Trewhitt, father of Judge Trewhitt, was a law- yer. He was raised in Roane county. When he was

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twenty-one, his mother moved to Morgan county. Ten nessee, and there he married, in 1819, Miss Harriet Lavender, by whom he had seventeen children, of whom thirteen were raised to maturity. He was county court clerk in Morgan county for many years, including the year 1836. He moved to Cleveland, in Bradley county, in September, 1536, where he practiced law and carried on farming until his death, in 1862, at Mobile, while a political prisoner. Being an ardent Union man and a Whig, and his son having gone to the Federal army, the Confederate authorities had arrested him early in the struggle, and held him till his death, as just stated. He began the practice of law in 1833, and during a long and lucrative career, rose to eminence at the bar. He was a man of great firmness, integrity and tenacity of pur pose, though without a collegiate education. He es- poused the cause of his friends and made his client's cause his cause. As a counselor, he was safe, and as an advocate, without many superiors. He accumulated a handsome property in land and negroes.

Judge Trewhitt's maternal grandfather, Daniel S. Lavender, a noted citizen of Morgan county, held sev eral county offices, from 1818 to 1852. He came from Virginia, and was among the first settlers of Morgan county. His wife was a Kuntz, of Virginia, of German extraction. She died in ISI, at the age of seventy- seven.

Judge Daniel C. Trew hitt, his mother's third son, was born on the waters of Daddy's creek, then in Morgan, now in Cumberland county, Tennessee, and was put to farm work in childhood, going to school in the fall. In 1837 8-9-10, he went to school each fall a session at Oak Grove Academy, in Cleveland. When just turned twenty, he began studying law under his father and his partner, Judge John C. Gaut, now of Nashville; ob- tained license in 1817, from Judge John O. Canon. and in 1818. from Chancellor Seth J. W. Luckey, and weut to practice in what is now the Fourth judicial circuit of the State, and continued in practice until 1861, re- siding meanwhile at Harrison, then the county seat of Hamilton county. He practiced away from his father. believing he could, in this way, attain a greater degree of proficiency --- foreing himself to rely on his own men tal resources.

When the war came on, he made his way across the mountains with about five hundred other unionists and enlisted, at Camp Dick Robinson, in the Federal army. He was first made sergeant-major of the First Tennessee infantry regiment, and in a few weeks afterward was appointed by Gen. Nelson, lieutenant-colonel of the Second Tennessee infantry, which he recruited, filled up and drilled. He commanded that regiment till after the battle of Mill Springs, but becoming sick at Barbours. ville, Kentucky, he resigned; was afterward appointed by President Lincoln, assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain of volunteers, and assigned to duty under Brigadier.Gen. James G. Spears, in April, 1862

From Barboursville, the brigade marched to Williams- burg, and thence to Camp Pine Knot, whence they were ordered through Big Creek Gap, from which they drove the enemy. Next the command took Cumberland Gap and remained there till November, 1862. Next, the forces moved across the Ohio river and up to the mouth of the Kanawha, and remained there till December, when the army was ordered to Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashvilleand Murfreesborough ; took part in the Stones river battle ; remained in camp at Murfreesborough till March, were then ordered to Carthage, and camped there two months, reaching the battle field of Chickamauga on Sunday, too late to be of much service, the troops belonging then to Grainger's reserved corps. The forces were removed to Sale ereck and remained there till De- cember. Thence they went to Knoxville, Strawberry Plains and Massengale's Mills.

From the latter place the command was ordered back to Knoxville, where Capt. Trewhitt resigned and re- turned home to take part in the reorganization of the State under the administration of the civil government, and was commissioned. in 1865. by Gov. Johnson, as chancellor of the then Second. now the Third, chan- cery division. This position he held till 1870, when the Democrats being enfranchised, he was beaten by Judge D. M. Key for chancellor, under the new con- stitution He then resumed practice of law at Chat- tanooga till 1878, when he was elected judge of the Fourth judicial circuit for eight years, which office he now holds, term expiring September 1. 1886.

He was a member of the Legislature of 1859-60, and served in all the called sessions except the last, which was under Confederate control, voting against every proposition to take the State ont of the Union, or hav- ing any tendency in that direction.

In 1861, he was elected State senator from the Eighth senatorial district under very singular circumstances. He had entered into an agreement with his opponent, James S. Havron. that if he, Havron, was elected, he should go to Nashville and legislate under the rebel flag ; if Trewhitt was elected and a new State was made of East Tennessee, he would po to that. but if not, he would go to the Federal army. Under this compact he was elected by a large majority, and, as East Tennessee was not erected into a State, he went to the army.

In 1861, he was a member of the conventions at Knox- ville and Greeneville, convened to consider the best course to pursue in order to sustain the union senti- ment, and to preserve the status and relation of the union people of East Tennessee to the federal govern- ment.

In 1865. he was a delegate to the convention that amended the State constitution, and since the war has been a steady and unflinching Republican.

He became a Mason in Harrison Lodge, in 1857. Judge Trewhitt first married in Gwinnett county, Georgia. in ISI. Miss Mary Melissa Winnce, daughter

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of Thomas Winnee. a merchant in Hall county, Geor- gia, related to the Lumpkin family of that State. Her mother was an Echols. By this marriage, Judge Trew- hitt has two children living: (1). Thomas Trewhitt. born 1812. married Miss Tennessee Hunter, and ha- four children. Robert. Ernest. Ethel and Beatrice. (2). Mary Jane Trewhitt, now wife of Martin M. Fry, has one child. Daniel Trewhitt. Two children of the first marriage, William and Martha, died, the former ten years old, the latter six The mother died in 1861.

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Judge Trewhite's next marriage, which took place at Harrison, July 1. 1865, was with Miss Mary Melissa Hunter. daughter of A. P. Hunter, a merchant. Her mother, Paulina Riley, was the daughter of Charles Ri ley and Peggy Orr. To this marriage with Miss Hunter were born four children, Addison H. Alonzo Sharpe. Paul Woodruff. and Ellen Gahagan Trewhitt.

Judge Trewhitt and wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Beginning life with only an academic education, and without money. but with a resolution never to falter.

fall back nor surrender, and with a determination to do no wrong to his fellow man, or if he ever did any wrong to let it be to himself. he has attained to the honors of his profession, and to comfortable financial circum- He never sacrifices business to pleasure- attends first to business, seeks pleasure afterwards. Ile made it a cardinal point to never expose himself of nights at any improper place. It is said of him, he has not will power to resist appeals to his generosity, and that he is liberal to a fandt. Another rule with him is, when he has business to transact at any particu- lar point. he transacts it, and at once leaves the point, the place and the people, and never goes anywhere unless he has business there. More than all, he has never been an aspirant for position beyond a laudable ambition to win and hold an honorable reputation in his profession. He is a man of easy manners, of large, strong build, is five feet ten inches high. and weighs one hundred and seventy-two pounds. While not at all unsocial, he yet loves study and retirement, and is fond of his books and his pen.

GEN. ALFRED E. JACKSON.

JONESBOROUGH

B EING now the oldest resident of Jonesborough, the oldest town in Tennessee, and among the old- est citizens in Washington county, the oldest county in the State, and having a most interesting family, mili- tary and business history, certainly entitles Gen. Alfred E. Jackson to a rank among " Prominent Tennesseans." Hle was born in Davidson county, Tennessee, January 11, 1807, and for one of his age is remarkably well pre- served. only slightly stooped by age, and with a vision so clear he can read printed matter without eye-glasses fle is still engaged in the activities required in attend- ing to large farming and business interests, and can break down almost any young man in Jonesborough in walking. His grandfather. Philip Jackson, came with his wife, Eliza. from Ireland, and settled at Edenton, North Carolina, where both died. Gen. Jackson's father, Samuel D. Jackson, born September 16, 1755, at Carlisle. Pennsylvania. died on his son's farm, ou Chucky river, in Washington county, May 7, 1836. He had been a lieutenant in Col. Stark's regiment of Vir- ginia troops, in the Revolutionary war. Before moving to Tennessee, in 1801, he was a whole-ale merchant at Philadelphia, and a man of very considerable wealth, but by endorsements for Robert Morris, the celebrated financier, he had to sell out, losing one hundred and nine- teen thousand dollars, and had besides to pay thirty thou sand dollars for Morris after Morris was put within the prison bounds at Philadelphia. He first settled at Jones

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borough, bought a farm of six hundred and forty acres, on Chucky river, from old Gov. John Sevier and David Ross, father of' Rev. Fred. A. Ross, the celebrated Pres- byterian clergyman. He had, also, previously bought fifty thousand acres of land from Gov. William Blount, which was the inducement for him to move from Phila- delphia to Tennessee. He moved to JJefferson county from Jonesborough, about the year 1804, and settled at a place known as Panther Springs, in the center of his extensive tract of East Tennessee lands, and then in the very midst of the Indian hunting grounds. Ile spent his life in Tennessee merchandising in. Jones- borongb, improving his lands, and subsequently in Davidson county. on a farm he bought from Gien. An- drew Jackson. He and Gen. Jackson traced their kin- ship so closely that he lived three months, about 1805, in Gen. Jackson's house. Some time afterward, Gen. Jackson won ten thousand acres of Samuel Jackson's Harpeth lands from him, which resulted in a street fight, in which Samuel Jackson was run through the body by Gen. Jackson's long cane spear, but not with fatal results. It was a long time after their personal rencounter before the kinsmen made friends, but they finally met on Cumberland mountains, in company with Gen. Coffee and other members of Gen. Jackson's mili- tary suite, made up, and, as an evidence of good faith, Gen. Jackson gave his kinsman's son, Henry Jackson, an office in the treasury department, at Washington,

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which he held until turned out by President Fillmore. Samuel D. Jackson was a very decided man, a suc- cessful business man, excitable and passionate in his temperament, and much, in these respects, like the old General, a quality which appears in a milder form in the son, the subject of this sketch. Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson, of Virginia, was a descendant of the same Irish stock. The men of the family are all tall. The subject of this sketch stands six feet three inches in his stocking feet, and is a fair representative of the family.

Gen. Alfred E. Jackson has been more or less intimately associated with the most distinguished men of Ten- nessee that have lived his contemporaries, among whom he mentions with some pride, Bailie Peyton, Ephraim 11. Foster, A. O. P. Nicholson, William Cullom. Robert I. Chester, Chief Justice Deaderick (whom he nursed when a little boy), Neill S. Brown, Aaron V. Brown, Gustavus. A. Henry, John Bell, Paul F. Eve, sr., Thomas Menees, Davy Crockett, Meredith P. Gentry, T. Nixon Van Dyke, Robert Hatton and Daniel S. Donelson.

Gen. Jackson's mother, ace Eliza Catharine Woodrow, . was of a New Jersey Quaker family, but a native of Philadelphia, and a highly educated woman. She was the bridesmaid of Mrs. President Madison, when she first married (to Mr. Todd). She was a member of the Presbyterian church, at Jonesborough and Salem, under old Dr. Samuel Doak, founder of Washington College, and at Jonesborough, under Rev. Charles Coffin, founder of Greeneville College. Of her sis- ters, Susan Woodrow married Dr. Binney, of Phila- delphia, father of Horace Binney, a distinguished lawyer, member of Congress, director in the old United States Bank, and attorney for that bank, under Niek Biddle; Julia Woodrow married James Duncan, of Gettysburg, and another sister married Dr. Spring, of Boston. Gen. Jackson's grandmother, Sasan Woodrow, nee Firman, was a woman of great business capacity. Benjamin Franklin and William Duncan, of Philadelphia, were her business advisers. She had re- markable economic business talent, 'and accumulated a handsome property. The mother of Gen. Jackson was a woman of brilliant intellect, had fine conversational powers, was notably intelligent on a wide range of sub- jects, and able in prayer in church. She was also re- markable for the beauty of her person, a handsome woman, as were her daughters. She mixed in the best society at Philadelphia, and was in the habit of attend- ing the levees of Presidents Washington and Adams, given while that city was the capital of the United States. She was born December 22, 1764, and died, January 8, 1811; at Jonesborough, in the house now occupied by her son. She left six children living of eleven born, namely: Henry, Susan W., Eliza ( who, when grown, changed her name to Julia Adelaide), Caroline, Harriet, and Alfred Eugene, the subject of this sketch.

Of these, Henry died at Lynchburg, Virginia, after holding office twenty-four years; Susan W. died the widow of Dr. Thomas G. Watkins, of Jefferson county, Tennessee; Eliza (alias Julia Adelaide), married David A. Deaderick, oldest brother of Chief'Justice Deaderick, and died in December, 1817, at Check's Cross roads, in Jefferson county; Caroline married John A. Aiken, a brilliant criminal lawyer, of Jonesborough, both of whom died in Rome, Georgia ; Harriet married Oliver B. Ross, of Bahimore, and settled at Jonesborough.

Gen. Jackson married in Carter county, Tennessee, June 8, 1826, Miss Seraphina C. Taylor, born June 23, 1808, youngest daughter of Gen. Nathaniel Taylor, a brigadier-general in the war of 1812; sister of James P. Taylor, a distinguished lawyer, and for a time attorney- general of the Eastern judicial district of Tennessee; sister also of Alfred W. Taylor, father of II. H. Taylor, of Knoxville, and of Col. N. M. Taylor, of Bristol, whose sketches appear elsewhere in this volume. Her eldest sister, Ama, married Thomas D. Love, of North Carolina, a lawyer, in Carter county. Her second sis- ter. Lorena married Gen. Jacob Tipton, removed to Covington. West Tennessee, and there a county was named for him. Her sister Mary married Dr. William R. Dulaney, of Sullivan county. Mrs. Jackson died October 27, 1882. She was a very modest, retiring woman, a member of the Presbyterian church, and was the mother of fourteen children, namely : (1). Samuel Dorsey Jackson, a farmer, at Taylorsville, Tennessee; married Alzinia Wagner, daughter of Matthias M. Wagner, of Johnson county, and has eight living chil- dren, Mary, Olive, Sallie, Charles B., Ida, Matthias, Mattie and Lillie. (2). Nathaniel Taylor Jackson, born May 5, 1829; married Lizzie, the only child of Maj. John F. Henry, of Blount county, Tennessee; fell a major (quartermaster) under Zollicoffer, in the Confederate service, leaving one child, Alfred N. Jackson, a lawyer, at Knoxville. (3). Eliza Catherine Jackson, born Jan- nary 31. 1831; married James E. Murphy, of North Carolina, a lawyer, and has one child, Eugenia. (4). Mary Caroline Jackson, born September 26. 1832; mar- ried Gen. James T. Carter, son of Gen. William B. Car- ter, of Carter county, and has five children, Bettie, Alice, Seraphina (wife of Dr. Burdett, of Nashville), Adelaide (died wife of Edward Koykendoll, of Knox- ville) and James T. (5). Henry Woodrow Jackson, born June 29, 1831; died at an early age. (6). Susan Evalina Jackson, born March 3, 1836; married Judge William V. Deaderick, nephew of Chief Justice Dead- erick : died, leaving eight children, Alfred Eugene, Cora, John Franklin, Laura (who married John J. Cox, of Sullivan county, and died in 1885, leaving one child, a son), Henry C., .Edward. Claude Taylor and Charley Fuller, twins, (7). James Patton Taylor Jack- som born November 6. 1337 named for his uncle. James P. Taylor, a gallant oldier in the Confederate service, from the beginning to the end of the war, was wounded

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at Shiloh, and died in Mississippi in 1881, unmarried. (8). William Woodrow Jackson, born September 16, 1839; died in infancy. (9). Julia Adelaide Jackson, born April 22, 1811; married Charles L. Fuller, of Nashville, and has four children, Lillie, William, Nellie and Alfred Eugene. (10). Alfred Eugene Jackson, born May 29, 1843; died at Millborough, Tennessee, adjutant of the Twenty-ninth Tennessee regiment, soon after the battle of Mill Spring (Fishing creek ). (11). Seraphina Cordelia Jackson, born February 25, 1815; died September 18, 1858. (12). Henry Clay Jackson, born February 2, 1817, is a farmer, in Washington county; for four years was in mercantile business with Hugh Douglas & Co., and three years with Evans, Fite, Porter & Co., of Nashville. (13). Lorena Olivene Jack- son, born September 21, 1819; died March 27, 1853. (14). Olivia Lillie Jackson, born May 3, 1852; married Rev. James W. Rogan, now living at Savannah, Georgia, pastor of the First Presbyterian church. Gen. Jack- son has about thirty-six grandchildren and ten great- grandchildren.

Gen. Jackson's life has been a very eventful one and full of adventure. He was educated at Washington and Greeneville Colleges, under, Rev. Samuel Doak, D. D., who founded the first institution of learning in Ten- nessee, and Charles Coffin, president of Greeneville Col- lege. He maried in his twentieth year, and went to farming on Chucky river, confining his life to farming till 1830, when he commenced boating to North Ala- bama, which he followed for twenty-three consecutive' years, making considerable money by dealing in pro- duce, iron, ete. In 1834, he commenced merchandising, in connection with boating to the south and running wagons to South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. He merchandised eighteen years, owning mills and blacksmith shops. In 1813, he moved to Jonesbor- ough, still carrying on the store at his farm. In 1846, he made a contract with Elijah Embree, who had built a rolling-mill and nailery, to take everything he made at a stipulated price, the contract terminating upon the 1 death of Embree, in 1817. By this contract he made a good deal of money. Previous to ISIG, he commenced merchandising at Taylorsville, Johnson county. He conducted this business fourteen years, meantime run- ning two stores in North Carolina, one in Watauga county, and one at Burnsville, Yancey county. In 1817, he bought up all the corn in East Tennessee, along the Tennessee river, from the mouth of Clinch to Chat- tanooga, with a view of supplying the demand in Ire- land, during the famine there. He took it to New Orleans in flat boats and sold it to an English purchaser for the Dublin market, and on this venture made one thousand five hundred dollars. On that enterprise he was six months and sixteen days gone, on duty all the time, often working all night on the river himself, steer ing his boats, which were lashed together. About 1850, he contracted with Bishop Ives, of North Carolina, to

put up a chapel, seminary, boarding house and store- house at Valle Crucis, in Watauga county, North Caro- lina. He continued merchandising at Taylorsville, Watauga and Burnsville up to 1861, all at the same time, carrying on, besides, a tannery, a shoe shop and a saddlery shop at Taylorsville.

Not only has his life been very active, but one of much exposure and laboriousness. He has ridden all over East Tennessee and over large portions of Ala- bama and South Carolina after night, in prosecuting his business- - always making personal enjoyment sub- servient to business duty. . He rode from Grecenville, South Carolina, to his home, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles without stopping to rest or to sleep, and twice only to feed his horse. Night after night he has ridden all night in pursuit of business. He once went three hundred miles in a canoe, from Battle Creek to Decatur, Alabama, poling and paddling night and day, sleeping as the canoe floated, rather than be balked in the sale of some West Tennessee lands; then rode forty-six miles at night from Decatur to Tuscumbia, to catch the stage, and got to his destination in time to prevent the loss of his lien and to buy the lands in, In 1810, he walked sixty-three miles in one day, in the month of June, from Asheville, North Carolina, to his farm on Chucky river, to procure a team to lighten a load of five thousand six hundred weight of goods bought in Charleston, and which was being drawn by a team too weak to pull it. A man of wonderful physical endurance, in Alabama he was called "the iron man," partly from his great strength, and partly because of his dealing so extensively in iron, in which he made the bulk of his fortune

An important part of his life, from 1848 to 1858, was in connection with the origin, organization and con- struction of the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad from Bristol to Knoxville. He became a director of the road in 1850, was the financial agent from 1850 to 1858, and disposed of three hundred thousand dollars of the bonds issued for building the bridges and ma- sonry, besides other contracts, amounting to one hun- dred and forty thousand dollars. . He was author of the bill passed by the Legislature, February 20, 1852, pro- viding for the building of the bridges and masonry, and labored zealously with that body until they passed it. Always a manipulator of men and a marshaler of affairs, during these ten years he neglected his own private business in the interest of the railroad and for the progress of East Tennessee, indirectly thereby enhane- ing the value of his real estate, some twelve thousand aeres. He bought the first locomotives and the first passenger cars on the road, and gave his individual note for one hundred and forty thousand dollars for the iron for thirty miles of the road.

In 1861, he went into the Confederate service as quartermaster on Gen. Felix K. Zotlicoffer's staff. As brigade quartermaster he continued up to the death of

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Gen. Zollicoffer, January 20, 1862. After that he be- came paymaster at Knoxville, and disbursed about ten million dollars of Confederate money. He remained in the pay department till February 9, 1863, when he was commissioned a brigadier-general and took the field. as- signed to duty with Gen. Daniel S. Donelson, then in command of the department of East Tennessee. He served in Virginia and Tennessee. He fought the bat - the of Millwood, in September, 1863, and at the battle i of Blue Springs, in October, 1863, he captured the One Hundreth regiment of Ohio infantry, for which feat the Yankees gave him the soubriquet of " Mudwall" Jack -. . son. He also commanded at the battle of the Wa- tauga, a running fight on the retreat from Blue Springs, with Gen. Foster's brigade, from Henderson to Rhea. town; fought three fights at Carter's Depot, two battles at the Saltworks, in Virginia, in one of which, with one thousand eight hundred men, he repulsed Burbridge at the head of six thousand Federal troops, and drove him back with a loss of four hundred men, December 2, - 1863. In the last fight in which he took part he en- gaged. with three hundred men, badly equipped, against Stoneman with six thousand men, and held his position without loss. December 1, 1864. He continued in the service until after the surrender of Lee. !

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 112

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