Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 125

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

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By being faithful to every trust reposed in him, and by plain, hard toil, Mr. Thomas has achieved his suc- cess in life. Throughout his life he has made it a rule . man.

to always find something to do. whether the profits were large or small, and he has not allowed himself to know what it is to be idle a day since he first engaged in busi- ness for himself. Under the same rule he was raised by his father When not at school he had to work on the farm. He has been a strictly temperate man. When he came of age he took a pledge of his own accord never to drink at all, and has kept his vow as faithfully as if he had joined the Washingtonians. . His father and mother being Primitive Baptists, were opposed to seeret societies, and the son, out of respect for them, and as a matter of personal pride, determined to control himself, and since that time has not touched liquor at all, except as a medicine, nor has he spent any time at places of amusement. A handsome, well preserved man, he stands five feet ten and a half inches high, weighs one hundred and ninety-five pounds, and is of large, round make. A good reader of faces would, without doubt, pronounce him a modest. warm-hearted, honest gentle-

COL. NATHANIEL M. TAYLOR.

O NE of the best known and ablest attorneys in East Tennessee is the subject of this sketch, Col. Nathaniel MM. Taylor, of Bristol. He was born in Car- ter county, Tennessee, September 23, 1825, and grew up there on his father's farm. His literary education he received at Washington College. He graduated in the law shool at Lebanon, under Judge Abram Caruthers. His parents were in good circumstances, but the son was raised to work. Says Col. Taylor, " One part of my education, which my father did not neglect, was to make me work." He was a sober sort of boy, but not con nected with any church until 1869, when he joined the Presbyterian church, at Bristol, and has been an elder in that church for four years. He has been temperate all his life, a tectotaler twelve or fifteen years, and is now an active and public advocate of prohibition.

After his graduation, he began the practice of law at Elizabethton, Tennessee, and practiced there up to the war, when he went into the Confederate service and followed its fortunes to the end. serving in Tennessee and Virginia, most of the time on detached duty.

At the close of the war he moved, August, 1865, to Bristol, where he has resided ever since, engaged ex clusively in law practice, steadily refusing to go into politics. His practice from the start was good, and now is as heavy as he can manage. Though his father had considerable property at one time, Col. Taylor began life on nothing, and is now in independent and easy circumstances. For several years he was a director of

BRISTOL .. 1 the Bristol Bank, for some time was county attorney for the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia railroad, and is now attorney for the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina railroad.

Up to the war he was a Whig, his ancestors before him, on both sides, were Whigs, but he has been a Democrat from the close of the war to the present. He has never held any civil office. Before the war he was tendered the nomination for State senator, but declined it. He was for years trustee of the Duffield Academy, at Elizabethton. He joined the Masons in 1861, in Desha Lodge, Elizabethton, Carter county, Tennessee, and has served as Senior and Junior Warden.

He married, in Richmond, Virginia, October 26, 1869, Miss Mary K. Jones, who was born in three miles of the "Clay Slashes," in Hanover county, Virginia, daugh- ter of Dr. C. B. Jones, who died in 1855. Her mother was a Miss Wingfield, of Hanover county, Virginia. Mrs. Taylor graduated at Gordonville, Virginia; is a very fine scholar, remarkable for the grace of her per- son, her strength and pride of character, and skill as a practical domestic manager. She is a member of the Presbyterian church. They have four children: (1). Hugh, born July 2, 1870. (2). Mary, born April 9, 1872. (3. 4). Juanita and Nathaniel M., jr., twins, born October 28, 1876. The latter died November 28, 1876. (5). Bessie, born June 13, 1880.

The Taylors came from Rockbridge county. Virginia, and are of Irish descont. The grandfather, Gen. Na-

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thaniel Taylor, was born in that county, was a soldier | and colonel in the war of 1812, and brevetted general at the battle of New Orleans. He was a man of fine property, of fine ability and very popular in his county Ile married Miss Mary Patton, in Rockbridge county. Virginia, and settled among the first pioneers of the country in Carter county, Tennessee, where he engaged in farming. He raised eight children, three sous, James P., Alfred W. and Nathaniel K. Taylor ; and five daughters, Anna, who married Col. Thomas Love, of North Carolina; Mary, who married Dr. William R. Dulaney-her son, Dr. N. T Dulaney, was a member of the Forty-fourth Tennessee General Assembly from Sullivan county ; Seraphina, who married Gen. Alfred E. Jackson, of Jonesborough; Tennessee (see his sketch elsewhere in this volume); Elizabeth, who inter- married with Thomas Taylor -- both these died in White county, Tennessee; and Lorena. who married Gen. Jacob Tipton, after whom the county of Tipton was named. They moved to West Tennessee and there died.

Alfred W. Taylor, father of the subject of this sketch, was a lawyer ; represented Johnson and Carter counties in the Tennessee Legislature : was an elder in the Pres byterian church, at Elizabethton : was a farmer of fine property, and regarded as one of the most upright men in the country. He was called " the honest lawyer." He died October 11, 1856, about fifty-eight years of age.

Col. Taylor's mother, Elizabeth C. Duffield, was born in Carter county, Tennessee, and died April 18, 1881, at about sixty years of age. She was the daughter of Maj. George Duffield, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was an accomplished scholar. He moved to Carter county at the early settlement of the country, was a lawyer. and at one time was appointed judge of one of the western territories, but in a short time resigned the of- fice and returned home. He was a major in the war of 1812, and took part in the battle of New Orleans. He left three children : Elizabeth C., mother of the subject of this sketch ; Samuel L. Duffield ; George Duffield, a physician, who died when a young man.

Col. Taylor's maternal grandmother was Sally S. Car- ter, daughter of tien. Landon Carter, one of the earliest settlers of Carter county, one of the most prominent men in the settlement, and the father of Hon. William B. Carter, who, for many years, was a member of con- gress from the First district of Tennessee. The Car ter family figured conspicuously in the early history of East Tennessee, and Carter county was named for Gen. Landon Carter, and the town of Elizabethton was named for his wife, who was originally a Miss Macklin.

Col. Taylor's paternal uncle, James P. Taylor, was one of the foremost lawyers in East Tennessee, and at- torney-general of the First judicial circuit of Tennessee for a series of years. He married a daughter of Gen. Landon Carter, who was a sister of the congressman. William B. Carter. His son, Rev. N. G. Taylor, of the

Methodist Episcopal church, represented the . First Tennessee district in congress of the United States twice. He was also commissioner of Indian affairs un- der President Johnson. Rev. N. G. Taylor's son, Hon. Robert L. Taylor, represented the First district in con- press, was presidential elector on the Cleveland and Hendricks ticket in 1881, and is now United States pension agent at Knoxville. Rev. N. G. Taylor's son, Hon. A. A. Taylor, represented Carter and Johnson counties in the Tennessee Legislature, and was also elector for the State at large on the Republican ticket when Garfield was elected president. Two sons of Rev. N. G. Naylor, David and Hugh, are clerks in govern- ment employ at Washington City.

Rhoda Taylor, niece of Gen. Nathaniel Taylor, came from Virginia with him and married David Haynes, of Carter county, Tennessee, and became the mother of the famous Landon C. Haynes, a very prominent law- yer, who moved from East Tennessee to Memphis, and was a member of the Confederate senate from Tennes- See. He left a reputation as one of the finest orators in the State. His son, Hon. Robert Haynes, was a mem- ber of the Forty-fourth General Assembly of Tennes- see, from Madison county.

Gen. Landon Carter. Col. Taylor's maternal great- grandfather, was a member of the first constitutional convention of Tennessee, and his son, William B. Car- ter, was president of the convention that framed the second constitution of Tennessee. The present Wil- liam B. Carter, a nephew of Gen. William B. Carter. was a member of the constitutional convention of 1870.

Col. Taylor's brothers are, William C. Taylor, a farmer, living on the old homestead in Carter county, went to California " a Forty miner "- - when the gold fever broke out, remained several years, and returned, but is not married ; George D. Taylor, of Carter county, was elected during the war to the Legislature of Tennessee ; H. H. Taylor is a prominent lawyer, of Knoxville, Ten- nessee. Col. Taylor's sister, Mary C., is the wife of Dr. J. H. Pepper, Bristol, Tennessee.

The Carters and Taylors are among the most promi- nent families of East Tennessee, and have furnished the world a whole host of distinguished, able and brilliant men. Two of the Taylors have been members of con. press. N. G. and R. L. Taylor. One of the Carters, Gen. William B., was a member of congress several terms. Three Taylors, A. W., A. A. and G. D., have been members of the . Tennessee Legislature. Six of the Taylors have been able lawyers, N. G., R. L., A. A., A. W., N. M. and H. H. Taylor, Admiral S. P. Carter, of the United States navy, is a brother of Rev. William B. Carter, of Elizabethton, son of Alfred Carter.

Col. Taylor's success in life is owing to the fact of his early training by his father and mother. They taught him to be industrious, honest and sober, and that what- ever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. They werestrict Presbyterians, and taught him to observe the

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Sabbath and to avoid bad company, drinking and kin- dred vices, and especially gambling and swearing. The father was a sort of old Roman in his ideas. He used to say if he was worth a million of dollars, and had one hundred sons, he would teach them all to work. His sons went to college, stayed ten months in the year and returned home, and the father put them to work the other two months. Col. Taylor's efforts to follow out the teachings of his parents are at the bottom of his prosperity.

Of Col. Taylor's Dulaney relatives it may be said

here, that Eva Dulaney, daughter of Dr. William R. Dulaney and Mary Dulaney, formerly Mary Taylor, an aunt of Col. Taylor, married Rev. J. W. Bachman, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Chattanooga ; Carrie Dulaney married Hon. John C. St. John, pres- ent chancellor of the First chancery division of Ten- nessee. The three sons of Dr. William R. Dulaney graduated in medicine, to-wits Dr. Joseph E. Du- laney, deceased, and Drs. Nathaniel T. and William R. Dulaney, now practicing physicians at Blountville, Tennessee.

REV. SAMUEL WATSON.

MEMPHIS.

T IHIS famous clergyman, teacher, author and editor, who, for thirty-six years, has been a preacher and thirteen years an editor, was born on the eastern shore of Maryland, January 10, 1813, but was brought up mostly in the neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, his father having moved there when the son was only six years old. His father being engaged in the cotton factory business, the son worked in that line some four or five years. His education was confined mainly to the English branches. He was never more moral in his preacher life than in his boyhood and young man- hood, a result due to the example and precept of his pious father, who was a class-leader for forty years. His father, Levin Watson, was a native of Virginia, of English parents, who were members of the English church. He served in the military service of the United States, in 1812, in Virginia, and died in Wood- ruff county, Arkansas, seventy-three years old, a Hat- urally good man, universally respected.

Dr. Watson's mother, originally Susannah Smith, a native of Virginia, died when the son was five years old, leaving, beside himself, a daughter, Mary, who married William B. Cook, of Maury county, Tennessee.

Dr. Watson joined the Tennessee conference in 1836, and was stationed the first year on. Wayne circuit, the next on Franklin circuit, Alabama, and the next year was stationed at Clarksville. He went to Memphis in 1839, where he has been ever since. He was appointed to the Methodist church at Memphis two years ; next for two years was agent of the American Bible Society,

and has filled the appointments of the three principal churches in Memphis ; was elected to edit the Memphis Christian Advocate in 1856, and continued to edit it till 1866. He was then on the Memphis district four years, as presiding elder. He was a member of the general conference at Nashville, in IS5S, and of the general conference at New Orleans, in 1866. During this time he was editing the Memphis Christian Iro

cate. He was president of the State Female College, in the vicinity of Memphis, in 1859. At the general conference of 1870, at Memphis, he was elected to edit the Christian hadee. which he did three years.

In the latter part of 1872, he withdrew from the Methodist church, from an honest conviction that he was not in harmony with some of the doctrines taught by the church, notably eternal punishment and the res- urrection. He has since been lecturing on Christian Spiritualism, in nearly all the States of the Union, tak- ing the ground that primitive Christianity and Christian Spiritualism are identical. He was elected president, first, of the Tennessee State organization of Spiritual- ists, and in October, 1883, of the Southern Association of Spiritualists. In 1875-6-7, he edited and published the Spiritual Magazine, at Memphis. He is the au- thor of a series of books on spiritualism. entitled, "The Clock Struck One," " The Clock Struck Two," and " The Clock Struck Three "- names given to the vol- umes from the circumstance that an old clock of his that had not run nor struck for years struck one, just before each one of four members of his family passed away-his wife and three children. The full titles of the two most famous of these books are as fol- lows: " The Clock Struck One, and Christian Spiritu- alist. Being a synopsis of the investigations of spirit intercourse by an Episcopal bishop, three ministers, five doctors, and others, at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1856. By the Rev. Samuel Watson." 208 pages; 12mo; " The Clock Strack Three. being a Review of ' The Clock Struck One,' and reply to it. Part II. Showing the harmony between Christianity, Science and Spiritual- ism. By Samuel Watson," 352 pages. Chicago: Re- ligio-Philosophical Publishing House, 1874.

Mr. Hudson Tuttle, in a review of the above named works, published in the Religio Philosophical Journal, says: " What is most admirable and charming in these volumes, is the calm spirit of goodness, the depth of

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fraternal love, the catholicity of thought, which per- vades them. Nothing disturbs the serenity of the au- thor. His soul, by the presence and communication of the departed, is entirely uplifted from the pettiness of 1

earth, and he feels that he advocates doctrines too vital to be trifled with and to mention in flippant phrase.

" Mr. Watson is well versed in general science, and his arguments are fortified by its aid, but he evidently feels himself most at home on biblical grounds. For thirty-five years he has taught from its pages, and 1 known no higher court of appeal, and it would be un- generous to criticise, because he adheres to a method of argument brought into the very constitution of his mind. We may say the Bible has no authority except that of truth, held in common with all books, yet as long as millions accept it as infallible, it becomes an 'invaluable ally to an unpopular cause. Its texts will be accepted when all other evidence will be rejected with scorn. This line of defense never had an abler defender than Mr. Watson. Every woapon in the vast arsenal is at his command. He leaves not a text idle. All that can be gathered from it is pushed to the front, and on this, his favorite ground, he is invincible. * * Between science and spiritualism there is no conflict, and neither meet opposition in a religion which is an- other name for moral science --- spiritualism. 1

"Every individual who would understand the truths of the spirit world, must be his or her own medium. God must write his law upon their understanding and put it in their affections. If you want to become me- diums for interior communication, you must become absolutely true in every thought, feeling and affection -become absolutely just in all your relations of life, so that morning, noon and night you will be inquiring and thirsting after righteousness." " If spirit- ualism, in its faith and effects, does not tend to make you better, wiser and purer-holier men and women- as St. Paul says of the Corinthians, it will ' profit you nothing.' That spiritualism which will not redeem you, will not be sufficient to redeem the world.

" These volumes cannot be too' highly commended to spiritualists who desire works to give to friends in the churches, They are invaluable as missionary agents. The character of their author, the sincerity, honesty and integrity of his style; the exquisite spirit of good- ness and fraternity pervading their every page, will attract and hold the attention, and convince, so far as it is possible for books to convince, of the truth of the sublime doctrines advocated."

Dr. Watson's last book, " The Religion of Spiritual- ism," was published in 1881, of which two editions have been sold.

Although not an active politician now, Dr. Watson is a Democrat all the way through. In ISSI, he was a member from De Soto, Mississippi, of the Union con- vention that met in Jackson, in that State.

He became a Mason in 1837, at Leighton, Alabama ;

took the Chapter degrees at Decatur the same year ; took the Council degrees at Nashville in 1839, and be- came a Knight Templar at Memphis in. 1876. , He was Grand Chaplain of the State of Tennessee in 1841, and was Chaplain of the Memphis Chapter for many years.

Dr. Watson married, first in De Soto county, Mississ- ippi, in 1812, Miss Mary Dupree, a native of North Alabama, daughter of Allen Dupree, from Virginia. Her mother was Elizabeth Stuart, of Virginia. By this marriage, Dr. Watson had eleven children, all of whom are dead but one, Allena, now wife of Capt. J. W. Fuller, of Augusta, Arkansas. She has two children, Allena and Mary.

His daughter, Ella, married Rolfe Eldridge. She died in 1880, leaving five children, Samuel, Rolfe, John, Robert and Ella. Dr. Watson's first wife died in 1866.

He next married, in Shelby county, Tennessee, June, 1867, Mrs. Ellen Perkins, born the daughter of a Meth- odist preacher named William T. Anderson. . Her mother was Maria Louisa Collins, Mrs. Watson's cousin Ellen, is the wife of Dr. William A. Cantrell, of Little Rock, Arkansas. Through her mother Mrs. Watson is a cousin of Col. John M. Harrell, the brilliant political editor, now of Hot Springs, Arkansas, Mrs. Watson graduated at Tulip Academy, Arkansas, and probably does more public work than any other woman in Ten- nessee. She is the president of the Woman's Christian Association at Memphis, president of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Memphis annual conference, Methodist Episcopal church, south, president of the Ladies' Aid Society of the Central Methodist church of Memphis, and in point of Christian devotion and to the doing of good, is among the best of women. By this marriage, Dr. Watson has had five children: Lilian, died in infancy ; May, now fourteen years old : Sam- uel, died in his third year; Arthur, now eight years old ; Eugene Crowell, now four years old.

Dr. Watson is in independent circumstances, and is indebted to nobody for it but a kind Providence and his own exertions. He began life without inheritance, left his father in his twenty-first year with seven dollars and fifty cents in his pocket, worked eight months for nothing to learn how to work, then began on low wages, which ran up to seventy dollars a month, for superin- tending a cotton factory. He invested one thousand five hundred dollars, which he made before joining the conference, in the drug business, when he first came to Memphis. He then leased some ground, put up four business houses on it and then bought it. Subse- quently, he sold these houses and invested the proceeds in Arkansas lands. He bought seventeen acres in the suburbs of Memphis, improved the property, and after the war sold it at a very considerable advance. His residence on the corner of Union and Wellington streets was built by bimsell, and is a marvel of good taste. He now owns twelve or fifteen residences in Memphis, and is among the solid men of that city.

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HON. JAMES M. MEEK.

KNOXVILLE.

H ON. JAMES M. MEEK was born on a farm near Strawberry Plains, Jefferson county, Ten nessee, November 21, 1821. and was the oldest of a family of ten children- four sons and six daughters, viz .: (1). James M., subject of thissketch. (2). Adam Alexander, now a farmer on Roseberry ereck, Knox rotinty, Tennessee, and has seven children : Mary E., Alice, Adam White, Charles Sheridan, Harriet, Joseph and Florence. (3). Martha J., who died in 1861, the wife of John W. Legg. in Knox county, leaving six children : William. Adam. James, Dan, Kate, and John W .; two died before the mother, John and Della. (4). Louisa. now the wife of Dr. A. A. Caldwell. a mem- ber of the Forty-fourth General Assembly of Tennessee, from Jefferson county. She bas four children living: Alfred, Addie, Georgie and Sallie. (5). Sallie, ummar- ried, at home with her parents. (6). Adaline, married Maj. R. Thornburgh, New Market, Jefferson county, Tennessee, and has one child, Mary E. (" Mamic.") (7). Harriet, died single, in 1851, aged eighteen years. (8). Amanda Catharine, married first, Dr. James S. Head rick, and by him had one child, Harriet ; by her second husband, R. P. Martin, she has six children : Daniel Robert, Adam Meck, Jennie, Isaac, Mattie and William. (9). John M., born January 2, 1838. In early life he was trained in the common schools of his county, until at the age of seventeen he entered Strawberry Plains College, an institution of merit and character in ante bellum times, where he continued until 1859, when he received a certifiate entitling him to a diploma. but the war coming on he failed to receive the diploma. He studied law for a time, and after the war, in 1874, pro- cured license to practice, but at this time coming into possession of a splendid farm, the license was laid away and Col. Meck returned to " his first love' the farm whereby the legal profession lost one member who could have proven a vigorous and capable advocate, and agriculture received a zealous friend and a progressive votary. He is undoubtedly proud of the profession His voice and pen sound loud and long the beauties and dignity of farm life, the possibilities and splendid triumphs at the farmer's control, if he will but make an intelligent. energetic effort. He has occupied several positions of publie trust creditably. . He was first see retary and is now president of the East Tennessee Farm. ers' Convention. He is capable, serves the organization well, and his many friends hope his sphere of usefulness may be much enlarged, and have urged him as the proper person to be at the head of the State department of agriculture, statistics, mines, etc. As a public speaker, he is bold and vigorous; strikes straight out from the shoulder, and is always listened to with strict attention. He is quick to detect an error, and ready to

expose it in language that is not equivocal. He has pricked the bubble of many an error, common to some people and. concerns, and leaves a mark by which all may judge. Col. Meck has been very diligent in his business, and has accumulated a fine property, and appreciates it in a way that -comports with the tastes and ideas of an intelligent gentleman. He manages to get an average of twenty bushels of wheat per acre, which is about two and a half' times above the general average, and forty bushels of corn. His practice and theme have been the grasses and wheat as standard crops, supplemented by the improved varieties of live stock, Hle has time and again. through the press of the coun- try, strongly urged these as renovating crops, feasible, practicable, and in themselves most profitable. He is zealous in his advocacy of farmers' associations, contend- ing that it should be a part of every man's creed to belong to and 'cucourage such associations. He is a leading spirit in the East Tennessee Farmers' Conven- tion, an institution in its scope not surpassed in the South. It has attained a wide reputation and commands the respect of all classes, and it has been no child's play to develop its present degree of efficiency and status. Having, however, among its promoters such patrons as Col. Meek, and a few others here and there over East Tennessee, ready and able to maintain its cause, it is no wonder that it has come to be the pride of all, and a leading institution of the country, Col. Meek was married September, 28, 1859. to Miss Elizabeth Jane McMillan, daughter of Maj. Gaines Mc Millan, a farmer of Knox county. Tennessee, and by her has had eleven children : Horace MeMillan (died September 8, 1872), Alex. Kennedy. John Lamar, Gaines Monroe, Daniel, White, Mary Elizabeth, Maggie Bemett, Nellie, Ber- nice. Bertha Cowan, and an infant that died unnamed. (10). Daniel Harrison. the youngest brother of Judge Meck, is now clerk and master of the chancery court at Dandridge. Jefferson county, Tennessee. He mar- ried Miss Nettie Jones, and has one child, Lucie E., now the wife of Will M. Fain.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 125

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