Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 123

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 123

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The only civil office he ever held was that of post- master of Chattanooga, under President Hayes' admin- istration.

Gen. Wilder married, in Greensburg, Indiana, May : 18, 1858, Miss Martha Stuart, daughter of Silas Stuart, a Pennsylvanian by birth, of Scotch descent, and one of the founders of that town. The family was banished from Scotland, in 1752, for following the fortunes of Charles in the last Scottish rebellion. Mrs. Wilder's mother, nee Miss Rachel Fisher, a native of Ligonier. Pennsylvania, was of Seotek- Irish stock. Mrs. Wilder's brother, John Stuart, is a banker, and her brother, Daniel Stuart, is a wholesale druggist, both at Indian apolis. They are cousins of Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, late vice-president of the United States. She was edu- cated at Greensburg. Indiana, is a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, and is a plain, straight forward, sensible, unassuming, charitable Christian mother and wife, and utterly without vanity.

By his marriage with Miss Stuart, Gen. Wilder has six children, the first three born at Greensburg, In- diana: (1). Mary Wikler, born February 18, 1859 ; graduated from the high school, at Chattanooga, and is one of the best educated women in Tennessee, espe- cially in geology, botany and mineralogy. (2). Annie Wilder. born April 9, 1861 ; graduated at Chattanooga ; married, March, 1883, Mr. F. A. Stratton, now in charge of Roan mountain. (3). Rachel Wilder, born January 1, 1865; graduated at Chattanooga, in 1881. (1). Mattie Wilder, born January 9, 1868, at Rockwood, Tennessee, the first child born there. (5). Stuart Wilder, born at

Rockwood, Tennessee, October 6, 1872. (6). Edith Wilder, born at Chattanooga, July, 1875.

Gen. Wilder comes of a very old family. In 1492, Henry VIL. gave Nicholas Wilder the beautiful estate of Purley Hall, on the Thames, in Berkshire, England, just above Reading, for his manly conduct in attacking and carrying the castle in which Richard III. had taken refuge during the battle of Bosworth, and gave him a erest with the motto, " Courage conquers walls." This estate, now owned by Francis Wilder, has been in the family nearly four hundred years. Gen Wilder's an- cestors were Puritans, compelled, by Charles L., to pive up their paternal homes in England. They came to America in 1638, and settled near Boston, Martha Wilder, with her two sons, Edward and Thomas, and her two daughters, Mary and Annie. From those two sons have sprung over six thousand Wilders in the United States. One of his ancestors, Ephraim Wilder, was a captain in the French and Indian wars, and helped to capture Louisburg. His grandfathers of the fourth and fifth remove were soldiers in the Revolu- tionary war, the former losing a leg at Bunker Hill ; the latter was bayonetted in the capture of Stony Point, on the Hudson, by " mad Anthony Wayne," and lived till he was one hundred and seven years old. The father, Reuben Wilder, was born at Charlestown, Massachu- setts, in 1793, served in the war of 1812, was in the battle of Plattsburg, settled in Greene county, New York, a farmer and miller, and died in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1880, eighty-three years old; a man of sturdy self-reliance; a strong man who never used his strength ; without ambition beyond living well and edu- cating his children ; noted for his broad, practical good NOUSe.

Gen. Wilder's mother, uce Miss Mary Merritt, was of an old Lancashire family in England, who came to New York at an early day. Her father, Samuel Merritt, served, when a boy, sixteen years old, in the patriot army in the Revolutionary war, while his father and brothers supported the crown. Samuel Merritt's father and brothers settled in Canada, but he settled in Hunter, New York, though he subsequently sold out and moved to Huron, Ohio, where he died, in 1850, at. the age of ninety three.

Gen. Wilder has had three sisters: Elizabeth Wilder, who died the wife of William Cure. a farmer, of Roch- ester county, New York ; Clarissa Wilder, now wife of William Markle, of the same county ; Mary A. Wilder, now wife of Cyrus Ehmneudorf. at. Chattanooga. He has one brother, Horace M. Wilder, of Chattanooga, retired from business. Very few of the Wilders are in public life, but are noted, for being independent, self-reliant, their great hanging-on qualities, and persisteney in fol- lowing out what they undertake: There is not a coward in the family. They have taken a part in every war in America. Many of them are preachers. Marshall P. Wilder is president of the Massachusetts Historical

550

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Society, also of the Horticultural Society, and, although a merchant, was, for many years, president of the American Agricultural Society. Burt G. Wilder is president of Cornell University, New York.

Gen. Wilder is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain.

As a cavalry commander and raider, as a manufac- turer and successful business man, and for the extent and accuracy of his scientific attainments, he is among the most remarkable and interesting men in the State,

and has been long enough identified with its leading in- dustries to justify the editor in giving him a conspicuous place among prominent Tennesseans. la conversation, he is a most rapid, brilliant and animated talker, and so instructive are his utterances and illustrations, that his auditors are charmed, fascinated and spell-bound, not. less by the elegant simplicity of his diction than the intense earnestness he manifests to contribute to the general stock of information tending to qualify and stimulate men to enter upon the productive activities to which the wonderful resources of the country and the spirit of the times invite them.

R. W. MITCHELL, M. D.

MEMPHIS.

N ATURALLY a physician's life is not noisy, but the career of Dr. Mitchell has been exception- ally quiet. He made his reputation, which was at first local, then State, and lastly national, not by what he has said, but by what he has done. To his biographer he appears most entitled to a page in these honorable records by having gone through five yellow fever epi- demies, standing his ground with a noble and lofty heroism, and doing what he could to stay the ravages of remorseless pestilence. To such a one ---

" The grateful town with streaming eyes should raise Historie marble to record his praiso."

" The medical hero of the great epidemies," is the noble title nobly won by Dr. Mitchell for his bravery, wisdom and fidelity during the four months of yellow fever scourge at Memphis, in 1878, in which, out of a total population of less than twenty thousand left in the city, five thousand one hundred and fifty persons per- ished; nine hundred and forty six negroes and four thousand two hundred and four whites, and in which not more than two hundred white people escaped the fever. Of the one hundred and cleyen physicians of the corps under the direction of Dr. Mitchell, forty five I'll a sacrifice to " the long agony and bloody sweat of professional duty before translation." No event in this century so startled and shook the world as this awful epidemic. Nations round the globe sent contributions to the stricken city. It was a touch of sorrow, sadness, suffering and death that made the whole world feel akin. Parties and creeds and nationalities and differ- ences of race were sunk and forgotten, and the broth- erhood of man blossomed out into sympathy, as solicit. ous and tender as that of mother for her child. [ For a detailed and thrilling account of this fearful pestilence, see "History of the Yellow Fever Epidemie of' 1878," by J. M. Keating, who himself, true to his ancient family motto, " fortis et fidelis," was an eye witness of the scenes

he describes with pathetic eloquence, and assisted in all ways to the relief of his doomed and adopted city. For passages referring to Dr. Mitchell, see pages 365-371. The entire volume is an invaluable contribution to medical literature, and will more than repay a reading. ]

Dr. Mitchell was born in Madison county, Tennessee, August 26, 1831. and at the age of five went with his father's family, first to Grenada, Mississippi, where they resided several years, during which time he attended the schools at that place. The family then moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he attended Centenary Col- lege several years. When sixteen years old he entered the drug business, as a clerk, and continued in it about three years, when his father removed to Vicksburg. Here he remained with the family about twelve months and then went to Van Buren, Arkansas, and engaged in the drug business two years on his own account. The Arkansas country at that time was rather wild, and sat- isfied that if he remained there, he too must partake of the habits and vives of the town, he determined to re- trace his steps, which he did. going back to a place near Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he studied medicine one year, under his brother-in-law. Dr. A. W. Washburne. Hle next took a first course in the medical department of the University of Louisiana, at New Orleans, and spent the summer of' that year, 1855, as a. resident stu- dent in the city hospital of Vicksburg. It was here that he had his first experience with yellow fever, hav- ing the entire hospital under his control during the absence of the resident physician. This was a fine schooling for Dr. Mitchell, and he turned his experi- ence gained there to great advantage afterward in the epidemies of 1867, 1873, 1878 and 1879, at Memphis, through all of which he stood his ground, while many of his brethren died, thus forever endearing himself' to the people of Memphis, and conferring an honor on the name of physician.

١١١٠

. 1

557

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

In the winter of 1855-6, he took another course in the University of Louisiana, receiving his degree of M. D. in March, 1856, under Profs, James Jones, Cenas, Wedderbum, Riddell, Knott, Hunt and Warren Stone. After graduation, he returned to Vicksburg, and was elected, by popular vote, physician to the city hospital for one year. In 1858, he came to Memphis, as it was a growing place, and under the advice of his friend, Dr. Warren Stone, who had at that day a world-wide reputation as a surgeon. He began the practice of medicine at once, and in 1859, was elected secretary of the Board of Health of the city of Memphis. In 1859-60, he organized the Memphis City Hospital, of which he was placed in charge, in addition to his other position. This position he held until 1861, when he volunteered for the Confederate service with the Tennessee troops, and was appointed assistant surgeon of the Thirteenth Tennessee regiment, Dr. Frank Rice being surgeon-in- chief. He was mustered into the Confederate service with that regiment, and appointed surgeon in the pro- visional army of the Confederate States of America. He followed the fortunes of the Thirteenth Tennessee through the battles of Belmont and Shiloh, and at the latter engagement was taken prisoner while in charge of a stationary field hospital, carried to Pittsburg land - ing, detained a prisoner some three weeks, and then sent through the lines to Corinth, arriving there the day of the evacuation . of that post by the Confederates, He - was then appointed chief-surgeon of Gen. Clark's divis- ion. Before breaking camp, however, Clark was, or- dered to Mississippi, and Dr. Mitchell asked to be allowed to remain with the Tennessee troops. On ar- riving at Chattanooga he was detained awhile by Gen. Polk, but went on with the main army, and was at the battle of Mumfordsville, in 1863. At. Bardstown, Ken. tucky, he was assigned to duty with Gen. Forrest as chief-surgeon on his staff. A few days after this Gen. Forrest was ordered back to Tennessee, and Dr. Mitch- ell again asked to be assigned to his old command in the field. He rejoined it (the Thirteenth Tennessee) at Shelbyville, Tennessee, and with them made the hur- ried march to Perryville, Kentucky, and went through service there, and then in the retreat through Ken- tucky and East Tennessee. He was at the battle of Stones River with the Thirteenth Tennessee as chief- surgeon on Gen. Preston Smith's staff. Just before the battle of Chattanooga he was taken sick, carried to -

hospital, where he was prostrated some three weeks : but as soon as able to move about, he rejoined the army against the protest of the hospital surgeon, Dr. West- moreland. He caught up with the command at Sweet - water; was present at the disaster of Missionary Ridge, then followed the retreat down to Ringgold Gap; was at the battle of Resaca, the battles of Atlanta and Jonesborough, Cave Hill and Franklin, Next he went with Hood's army to Nashville, was on the retreat from Nashville, and then went with the army as far as Au-

gusta, Georgia, where he obtained sick leave and came back as far as Schma, Alabama. Wilson's Federal cav- alry catering that town, and the Confederacy collaps ing, his military career closed at that place.

Returning home by way of Mobile and New Orleans, he at once went to work, commenced life anew-like many of his contrades having come out of the war with nothing: From that time he has practiced his profession at Memphis, in partnership, from 1868 to the present time, with Dr. R. B. Maury. . Dr. J. Joseph Williams was associated with the firm for a few months in 1873, but he died with yellow fever in that year. Dr. Edward D. Mitchell (his kinsman), a graduate of the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, has been asso- ciated with the firm since 1879.

In 1878, Dr. Mitchell was elected president of the Memphis City Board of Health, but shortly afterward resigned. During the epidemic of 1878, he was ap- pointed medical director of the Howard Association of Memphis. The same year he was appointed a member of the board of yellow fever experts, authorized by act of congress, in 1878, to investigate the causes, and the best means of prevention of yellow fever. He is a mem- ber of the Shelby County Medical Society, of the State Medical Society. of the American Medical Association, of the American Public Health Association and of the National Board of Health. In 1870-71, he was professor of materia medica in the Memphis Medical College.

It will thus be seen that Dr. Mitchell has pursued medicine as a profession, faithfully. from boyhood, when he began as a drug clerk. It is a theory all parents should raise their children by. that every child should have one pursuit only, and that they should study that from the beginning, if they would rise to distinction in it. Of the leading traits of Dr. Mitchell's character, one who is entirely competent, and who has had good opportunities for studying him, says : " He is marvel- ously tender and sympathetic in his feelings. He is very reserved and reticent, but when he does speak he says something. He seems to have been born to com- mand, and ought to be at the head of an army, so great is his power and influence over men. He is a fine dis- ciplinarian, and when he had one hundred and eleven physicians under him as medical director, in 1878, everything went on like clock work. It was a great achievement to go through that epidemie without a jar among all his co-laborers. It was the same when he was brigade surgeon in the army. He is a generous man, and' a remarkably just one, and conscientious in his dealings and professional business. He is a stu- dent always, and always considering himself a servant of the people. He has. far less of business talent than of professional ability. Let it go down as a part of his history that he is plain, unobtrusive, unpretentious, though a standard man and a standard physician. The prominent feature of Dr. Mitchell's life is that he has been the good and faithful physician always."

址:

558

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Col. J. M. Keating speaks of Dr. Mitchell as " a man of high professional skill, integrity of purpose, courage, coolness and discretion, which made him first among the noble and devoted band of self sacrificing brothers in the epidemic of 1878," and this seems to be the ver diet of all his fellow-citizens.

Dr. Mitchell married, in Memphis, May 7, 1872, Miss Rebecca Park, a native of that city, the daughter of William Park, a native Irishman, who came, when a young man, from the north of Ireland, to Nashville, Tennessee, and first took a elerkship with Crockett & Park, the latter his first cousin, in that city. He after- ward settled in Memphis, and was a cotton buyer and commission merchant for forty years. He was a Pres byterian of the north of Ireland Covenanters, and in polities was a Democrat. He died in 1877. He left the reputation of being one of nature's nobleman, generous, open-hearted, full of Irish wit, and a fine business man. His mother was Jane Gibson, of county Tyrone, in Ire- land. She came to Memphis a widow, and died eighty- seven years old, a remarkably pious woman, and very conversant with the Bible. Mrs. Mitchell's mother, net Miss Rebecca Cocke, was born at Strawberry Plains, near Richmond, Virginia, daughter of Bowler Cocke, of a large Virginia family. Her mother was Mary Fox, a near relative of Sir Charles James Fox, the celebrated English orator and statesman. Her grandmother was Mary Carver, daughter of John Carver, who came over in the Mayflower, and was the first governor of Massa- chusetts. Mrs. Mitchell's sister, ner Miss Mary Park, is now the wife of C. W. Metcalf, a prominent lawyer in Memphis, and has six children, Rebecca, Bessie, William Park, Charles W., Mary and Robert M. Mrs. Mitchell's sister, Miss Lena Park, was educated at Sayre Institute, Lexington, Kentucky, and is now the wife of Judge James F. Read, of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Mrs. Mitchell graduated at Mrs. Knox's private seminary for young ladies, at Nashville. She is remarkably proud of her Irish blood. Her paternal ancestry has had a David Park in it for four hundred years, This lady is noted for her generous hospitality, and is a gleam of sunshine in her family, in her church and in Memphis society. Like her husband, she is of a most unselfish nature.

Dr. Mitchell's father, Gen. G. D. Mitchell, was called the " Chesterfield of Mississippi," the home of his adop- tion. In ante bellum days he was a general of the State militia ; during the late war a quartermaster in the

Confederate army. He was a merchant and at one time teacher of a school at Jackson, Mississippi. He died in 1870, at Cooper's Wells, near Vicksburg, at the age of sixty-live. He married. in Madison county, Tennes- see, Miss Mary Woud, a native of Tennessee. She died when the subject of this sketch was only twelve years old, and loft three children : (1), Martha Mitchell, now wife of N. T. Pagh, clerk of the chancery court at Yazoo City, Mississippi. (2). Almeda Mitchell, now wife of Dr. A. W. Washburne. (3). Dr. R. W. Mitch- ell, subject of this sketch.

An hereditary Democrat and a Democrat all the way through, Dr. Mitchell has, however, always taken a back seat and a modest position in politics. For six years he was a member of the Memphis board of edu- cation, and for five years a member of the Tennessee State board of education. He became a Mason in 1852, at Van Buren, Arkansas, has taken the chapter degrees, and has hell all the offices of the lodge, for several years serving as Worshipful Master. In 1857, he be- came an Odd Fellow. His life has been both a profess- ional and financial success.

The motives acting upon this gentleman may not be fully analyzed. for men often do things from what is called unconscious cerebration. But it is safe to say, that without thinking of the effect his course might have on anybody, he has simply tried to do his duty- and to do it as conscientiously as he could -- to his pro- fession, to his friends, to the community and to the State; and this, apparently, without thinking of the effect it might have on people at a distance, or those immediately around him. The following incident will serve to illustrate: While the epidemic was raging in Memphis, in 1878, Mrs. Thompson, a wealthy lady in Washington City, authorized Dr. Woodworth, surgeon of the Marine Hospital, to organize a yellow fever com- mission, and Woodworth telegraphed Dr. Mitchell, offering him a place on the commission. With a tran- quil courage, which belongs only to the highest man- hood, Dr. Mitchell wrote on the back of the dispatch, " Thanks for the honor, but I cannot leave my people in their distress, and handed it to the operator. This answer got into the papers, was flashed over the wires in every direction, with the effect of making the Doctor an example of useful and heroic endeavor, and his name henceforth is the influence of a brave conservation of life -- not measurable by material, immediate and calcula- ble results-and humanity is the richer for his daring.

٤١١٠٠

559

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

HON. THOMAS NIXON VAN DYKE.

ATHENS.

T' CHTE Van Dyke family is one of the oldest and most honorable in the State of Tennessee. The genealogy of the family is traced back in unbroken live nearly three centuries, to Thomas Jans Van Dyke, of the Netherlands, whose sons, Jan Thomasse, Hendrick Thomasse and Nicolas Thomasse Van Dyke, emigrated to America, settled on Long Island, New York, in 1652, and took the oath of allegiance in 1687. From these have sprung a numerous progeny, scattered now all over the Union, but recognized as among the most prominent people of the States of New York, New Jer- sey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Thomas James Van Dyke, father of Judge Thomas Nixon Van Dyke, subject of this memoir, was born in Delaware; educated at Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. Daniel Robinson, of Baltimore, Maryland, and obtained his diploma in 1791. The same year he was appointed an ensign in the infantry service of the United States, and was after- ward promoted to a captaincy in the same service. En 1798, being stationed at the garrison called Belle Can- ton, near the junction of Tennessee and Holston riv- ers, then in Roane county, Tennessee, he married Miss Penelope Smith Campbell, oldest daughter of Hon. David Campbell, then living near Belle Canton, where Lenoir's cotton factory now stands. The Hon. David Campbell was then one of the judges of the superior court of the State of Tennessee, and subsequently was appointed judge of the United States court for the then territory of Mississippi. In 1810 or 1811, Thomas James Van Dyke resigned his commission in the United States army, moved to Washington, Rhea county, Ten nessee, and engaged in the practice of medicine. Soon after the commencement of the war between the United States and Great Britain, he was appointed a surgeon in the United States army, and died at Fort Claiborne, in what is now the State of Alabama.

After his death his widow, and all her children ex- cept Thomas Nixon Van Dyke, our subject. removed to Alabama, and there, in 1822, she married a Mr. Trotter, a cotton planter, living in Washington county, and, at the time of the marriage, representative of his county in the Alabama Legislature. She died soon after her marriage to Mr. Trotter, without any children by him, and was buried on his plantation in Washing- ton county, Alabama.

The children of Thomas James Van Dyke and his wife Penelope Smith Van Dyke wore five, three sons and two daughters. The sons were Alexander Outlaw Van Dyke, Jefferson Campbell Van Dyke and Thomas Nixon Van Dyke, Alexander Outlaw Van Dyke was born Jan uary 16, 1800, and educated at a grannar school taught by Rev. Mr. Johnson, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

In 1821, he was appointed a midshipman in the United States navy, and when Commodore Porter was appointed to the command of the Mexican navy, in the Gulf of Mexico, in Mexico's revolutionary war with Spain, he took Midshipman Van Dyke with him as a lieutenant in the Mexican navy, and about a year after he died of yellow fever, off Carthagena, and was buried at sea. He was never married. Jefferson Campbell Van Dyke was born January 16, 1801, and died in 1862. He was edu- cated at the common schools of the county ; moved with his mother to Alabama, in 1819; studied law, and was admitted to practice in that State. In 1829, he repre- sented the county of Dallas in the Alabama Legisla- ture, and in 1831 or 1835, he was elected by the Legis- lature comptroller of the State. He married a Miss Cocke, of a Virginia family, and by her had three chil- dren, namely, Sarah Gayle Van Dyke, who married Dr. Curry ; Vannie R. Van Dyke, who married first a Mr. Horton, second. a Mr. Pegram; Corrie Van Dyke, who married first a Mr. Bohannon. second, a Mr. Ford.

Thomas Nixon Van Dyke, subject of this sketch, was born in South West Point garrison. Roane county, Ten- nessee, January 22, 1803, and baptized in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Rev. Thomas Breintuall, of the Prot- estant Episcopal church. He waseducated at a classical school at Huntingdon, taught by Rev. Thomas John- son, a Scotchman and Presbyterian minister. He stud- ied law with his brother-in-law, Gen. William Rudolph Smith, in Huntingdon, and was admitted to the bar in November, 1823: moved to and settled in Merecer, Mer- cer county, Pennsylvania, in 1826, and in the same year was admitted to practice in the district court of the United States and in the Supreme court of the State of Pennsylvania for the western district of the State.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 123

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