Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 13

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

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Four children have blessed this happy marriage : (1). Mary Somervell, born August 31, 1873. (2). Henry J., born January 2, 1875. (3). Rosa Gibson, born May 9, 1877. (4). Genevieve, born September 20, 1881.

In speaking of his happy family, Judge Livingston once said : " If our children do not prove of unbending integrity, firm and unyielding, it will not have been the fault of their grandparents." And then, for example, he stated that Mr. Somervell, his wife's father, held a receipt from a Federal quartermaster for four thousand five hundred dollars' worth of property -- mules, wheat, bacon, flour, etc., taken from him for military uses, and after the war he might have recovered on that voucher, if he had only consented to swear to his unionism and loyalty during the war, or permitted his neighbors to swear for him; but this he refused to do on moral grounds, and this, although in straightened circumstances as a

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result of the war, and notwithstanding his being repeatedly urged thereto by his friends and neigh- bors, and not having actively participated in the war. Another example : Judge Livingston's father, in 1862, when the Federals had taken Fort Pillow and Memphis, and the Confederates were burning cotton to prevent its falling into the hands of the Federals, burnt his own cotton, fifty bales, to be on a footing with his neighbors, whose cotton the Confederates had burnt, he understanding this to be the policy of the Confeder- ate government. This illustrates the high-toned char- acter of the man, and shows he was influenced by principle, even when it was apparently against his pres- ent interest. Of such sterling material were the parents of Chancellor Livingston and his lovely wife.

Judge Livingston's life has been a peculiarly happy one. Not only was his boyhood joyous, but his manhood seems to have been pleasant all the way. His vigorous and stalwart constitution is without doubt the result of his industrious activity while but a lad on his father's plantation; and in his youth and manhood he never indulged in the many vices to which young men are too often addicted. To this day he has never taken a pint of liquor, except medicinally; nor smoked a pipe or cigar, or used tobacco in any form ; and something sin- gular in his history, he has not in thirty years drank coffee or tasted hog meat. More than that, he has not in all his life sworn an oath or uttered a profane word, and all this including his four years of service in the army, and in spite of such demoralizing influences. Such has been the clean, honorable record of the boy

and the man. How suggestive his career to mothers who have sons to raise in the way of success! And to what extent is it not true, that a sound and strong physique and good health are the basis of good morals, good sense and good thinking power? His carly academic studies, in the midst of professional duties, have been supplemented by a wide range of miscellaneous reading, and his very large and well selected private library well indicates both his natural and cultivated fondness for literature in many directions. Thus he proves a pet theory of the writer that a judge on the bench should be like Adam Clark's Methodist preacher'; "he should know everything," and not be merely learned in the law.

His business methods also challenge admiration. Beginning life on but a small inheritance, when the war closed he had nothing. He now owns a comfort- able property, and can afford his family a good living. He never goes security; never had a note protested. Fidelity in business, punctuality in all engagements, and attending with promptness and without procrasti- nation toall matters entrusted to him ; these are some of his leading characteristics. His policy is to keep out of debt, pay as he goes, and to act honorably with all men under all circumstances.

As a judge, he closes his courts with clean dockets, never adjonrning as long as there is anything necessary to be done. His rule is to try cases. and not have his courts stigmatized with the old taunt, "once in chancery, always in chancery." Such a chancellor is a jewel to the commonwealth.

HON. WILLIAM CULLOM.

CLINTON.

F OR sixty years in public life, associated with the great men of the most brilliant days of the Re- public, the name of Gen. William Cullom has long been honored and beloved in Tennessee. He was born June 1, 18to, in Elk Spring Valley, near Monticello, Wayne county, Kentucky, the son of William Cullom, a mod- crate farmer, who for a time was tax-assessor of his county. But the father's chief characteristic was his religion, which with him was everything. He believed in praying without ceasing, and in every thing giving thanks. He moved to Overton county, Tennessee, where his two sous, Alvin and Edward N., and two daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Mellenry and Mrs. Lucinda Hart, were living at the time, and there he died in 1838, at the age of seventy-four. He was fifty-six years a Methodist class-leader, a very stern man, inflexible in his religious and political principles. In politics he was a Henry Clay Whig. His brother, Edward N. Cul

lom, who served several terms in the Kentucky Legis- lature, moved to Illinois and was a member of the convention that framed the original constitution of that State. He was a plain man, a farmer, but of strong native talent.

The grandfather of Gen. William Cullom was George Cullom, a Marylander, a tobacco farmer, who died in the Valley of Virginia, near what is now known as Bull Run. The family are of Scotch origin, of the Clan Mc- Cullom, and the family name constantly recurs in Scotch history. By intermarriage there is a dash of Welsh blood in the family.

Gen. Cullom's mother, Elizabeth Northeraft, was born in Maryland, near Washington City, and was a first cousin of her husband. She was a devout Methodist lady, popular with everybody on account of her high or- der of talent and boundless charities. Her children, both sons and daughters, were all talented. They derived

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the dash that was in them from her. She had the suuriter in modo; the father transmitted to the chil- - dren the stamina, the stern inflexibility of principle and rugged manhood that characterized them all. She died in her ninety-fourth year, the mother of eleven children : (1). Tillman, who ran away from home when fifteen years old and fought under Gen. Harrison in the North- western war of 1812. (2). Edward N., mentioned above as having moved to Illinois. (3). Richard N., father of Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, ex-Speaker of the Illinois Legislature, ex-Governor, and now United States Senator from that State. (1). Alvin, one of the first lawyers of Middle Tennessee. He was twice a Democratic member of Congress from Tennessee, and settled in Overton county, where he died. (5). Vertin- der F., became a paralytic and died unmarried. (6). James N., the only boy of the family that never figured in public life. He married a Miss Totten, sister of Hon. A. W. O. Totten, of the Tennessee Supreme bench, and of Ilons. B. C. Totten and James Totten, circuit judges. (7). Susan, married Alfred Phillips, moved to Illinois, and died there. She is said to have been one of the brightest women in the United States in her day. (8). Permelia, died the widow of Rev. Wm. Brown, a Methodist minister, noted for his extreme devoutness. (9). Elizabeth, also a talented lady, died of consumption, the wife of Dr. Spencer Mellenry. (10). William, subject of this sketch. (11). Lucinda, wife of John Hart, present clerk of the county court of Overton county. She is the only surviving member of the family except Gen. Cullom.

Gen. Cullom was raised in Wayne county, Kentucky, where he cast his maiden vote, and soon after came to Overton county, Tennessee, and was sworn in as deputy sheriff, which office he filled with high credit two years, meanwhile reading law. He then went to Lexington, Kentucky, and took a thorough course in the law de- partment of Transylvania University, graduated, re- turned home, and was the first lawyer licensed by Judge Abram Caruthers and Judge Reese, of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. He began practice at Gainesbor- ough, Jackson county, Tennessee, and his success as a young lawyer was most remarkable. He went right up, though a strange Kentucky boy. In 1839, he married and settled at Carthage, and he had hardly got his house there well warmed before the Whig party nominated him for the State Senate against Maj. David Burford, a man of great wealth, and highly and extensively connected. Gen. Cullom overcame a Democratic majority of six hundred, and beat his opponent three hundred votes. In 1845, he was again elected to the State Senate, doub- ling his majority in a district strongly Democratie, and dominated by the personal influence of Gen. Jackson, beating his opponent eighty-one votes in the Hermitage precinct.

In 1835 he had been elected attorney-general of the sixth judicial circuit, beating Judge John S. Brien,

father of Gen. W. G. Brien, a position which he held six years. just prior to his first election to the Senate.

In 1851 he was elected as a Whig to Congress from the Nashville district, over Hon. J. B. Southall, and two years afterwards he beat Judge E. L. Gardenhire for the same position. During his career in Congress he had as much influence in that body as many older members, and made golden opinions by his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Extracts from his speeches, especially the one against the Kossuth mania, have been published in the school books as specimens of American oratory. Standing six feet three inches in height, of handsome presence, courtly manners, and fine address, he was one of the conspicuous figures in Congress. For his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill he was defeated in his next candidacy for Congress, but his political friends in that body espoused his cause and elected him clerk of the next House of Represen- tatives. When he was elected to this position, he had in his trunk letters from at least two-thirds of the mem- bers of Congress promising him that position or any other in their gift, though he had never intimated a wish for favors of that kind.

Gen. Cullom was presidential elector on the Taylor ticket, in 1848, and took an active part in the campaigns for Clay, Harrison, Taylor and Scott, and canvassed the State at various times. He was a delegate at large to the national Whig convention at Philadelphia that nominated Gen. Scott for the presidency. In that con- vention he voted fifty-four times for Fillmore. He was a personal friend of Henry Clay, and was the only man, except Gov. James C. Jones, that was present- when Mr. Clay died, he being one of the privileged few who had access to his room at all hours. In politics, since the expiration of the Whig party, he has been a Demo- erat, "as there was nowhere else to go."

In 1815 he was chairman of the Tennessee delegation to the commercial convention at Memphis, at which John C. Calhoun presided. In the civil conflict of 1861-65 he advised against the dismemberment of the States and made speeches for the Union, but finally ac- quiesced in what was forced upon the State. When Tennessee went out he went with the South-went in his heart with the southern soldiers-but remained at home and never fired a gun on either side. He has several times been special circuit judge and chancellor. Ile belongs to no secret society, and in his religious in- clinations is a Methodist, but is not a member of any communion.

In November, 1872, Gov. John C. Brown appointed him attorney-general of the sixteenth judicial circuit, and to the same position he was elected in 1874, by the people, in a district having one thousand seven hundred Republican majority. While prosecuting attorney, in all some twelve years, it is said he has had more men convicted and hung than any man in the State. He has long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the fore-

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

most criminal lawyers in the State, as the records of every court. where he has practiced abundantly show. Hle made probably the largest fortune any lawyer in Tennessee ever made simply by practice. He began life without an inheritance, and with an education limited to what he learned by going to school on rainy days and when he could not work. His early practice was too large to admit of his becoming profoundly read in the books, but his gift of speech, his flow of eloquence, his keen insight into human nature, his observation of men and the run of events daily transpiring, and withal an ambition to succeed and shine, characteristic of his mother and all of his family, made him one of the most popular and powerful advocates at the bar of Tennessee.

Gen. Cullom married first in Kentucky, September 26, 1839, Miss Virginia Ingram, sister of W. P. Ingram, a banker at Columbia. By this marriage he has five children : (1). Marietta, wife of John Allen, now in Arkansas, who was a delegate from Smith county to the Tennessee constitutional convention of' 1870, son of Robert Allen, who was eight years a member of Con- gress from Tennessee, and a member of the State con- stitutional convention of 1834. (2). Virginia, wife of Thomas Goodall; has two children. (3). Cornelius Perry, a standard farmer in Smith county, Tennessee.

(4). Ella, wife of Rev. Dr. Booth, a Methodist minister in Giles county, Tennessee. (5). Leslie, a lawyer at Columbia, Tennessee. .

By, his second marriage, which occurred in White county, Tennessee, with Miss Mary Griffith, Gen. Cullom has eight children : (1). Minnie, wife of Rufus Kincaid, a merchant at Clinton, Tennessee; has two children, Perry and Ed. McCarthy. (2). Florence, wife of John Baxter, a railroad engineer. (3). Clara. (.1). Albert Sidney Johnson. (5), William. (6). Ella. (7). Rosa May. (8). Cora Henderson.

With as great an amount of energy as any one man . can have, with a heart overflowing with kindness, with a clear judgment of men and property, one of the best of financiers, a most companionable gentleman; with extraordinary natural talents, hardy in debate and cour- teous in conduct; with an inherited mercurial tempera- ment, Gen. William Cullom's success in life-profess- ional, official and financial-has been almost phenomenal. He is prompt to pay and slow to go in debt. His personal friends are numerous and warm. It is said of him among his neighbors at Clinton, he never harmed a human being. Brilliant record! Grand, noble old man! The State has honored him, but not more than he has honored the State.

JOHN W. MADDIN, A.M., M.D.

NASILVILLE.

D R. JOHN W. MADDIN was born in Columbia Tennessee, August 28, 1834, and spent his boyhood from the age of five to twelve in Huntsville, Alabama, and from twelve to fifteen in Louisville, Kentucky, attending literary schools in both places. At the age of fifteen he entered Lagrange College, Alabama, where also his brothers, Dr. Thomas L. Maddin and Prof. Ferdinand P. Maddin, were educated. After three and a half years' study at that then noted institution he grad- uated as an A. B. in 1854, and two years afterwards as A. M., taking the first honor of his class of twenty-eight, and having the distinction of delivering the valedictory. Immediately after graduation he was offered a position in the college at which he graduated, and subsequently was solicited by Dr. Wadsworth, president of the Uni- versity of Nashville, to accept the chair of ancient languages in that school. Among his fellow-graduates were William Price, of Florence, Alabama ; Samuel Young, of Aberdeen, Mississippi; Dr. Benjamin Weir, of Columbus, Mississippi; and James Hutchi- son, of South Alabama. Most of his class mates fell in the Confederate service. After graduation he entered upon the study of medicine with his

brother-in-law, Dr. Frank Steger, a distinguished prac- titioner of Madison county. Alabama, who is now prac- ticing at the advanced age of seventy. Subsequently he pursued his studies with Dr. T. L. Maddin, at Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Maddin attended medical lectures in the medical department of the University of Nashville, and took his degree of M. D. in the spring of 1856, under Profs. Paul F. Eve, Thomas R. Jennings, W. K. Bowling, John M. Watson, C. K. Winston, A. II. Buchanan, John B. Lindsley and Robert M. Porter.

From 1856 to 1862, Dr. Maddin practiced medicine in Waco, Texas. In February, 1862, he entered the Confederate army as surgeon of the post at Lagrange College, Alabama, where he had graduated. Subse- quently he was assigned to duty in the general hospital at Corinth, Mississippi, pending the battle of Shiloh, and afterwards was placed in charge of a special hos- pital for the wounded at Corinth. He was next ordered on duty as surgeon of the Thirty-fifth Alabama regi- ment at the first bombardmant of Vicksburg, where he remained in service with his command until it was ordered to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he estab- lished the first field hospital at the battle there. In

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

August, 1862, he was transferred by Gen. Breckinridge to the trans-Mississippi department, and ordered to Wefast for duty to Gen. E. Kirby. Smith, at Shreveport, Louisiana, Here he was assigned to duty as surgeon of' the Thirtieth Texas cavalry, and subsequently was wade medical purveyor in the trans-Mississippi de- fortment, with Gen. Henry E. Mccullough's division of the army, headquarters at Bonham, Texas, at which place he was on duty at the close of the war.

Immediately after the close of the war, Dr. Maddin removed his family, in 1866, from Texas to Nashville, Tennessee, and began the practice of medicine in part- her-hip with his brother, Dr. Thomas L. Maddin, one of the foremost physicians and surgeons of the South, . full biography of whom appears elsewhere in these pages. Dr. Maddin has remained in Nashville without change since his first location, and it is probable no two men in this period of time have done more profes- sional labor in all the branches of medicine than these two brothers.

Dr. Maddin was married, September 25, 1856, to Miss Annie Downs, daughter of Maj. W. W. Downs, for many years an extensive merchant and planter at Leighton, Alabama, a man of high standing and great public spirit, who infused himself into every public en- terprise in Alabama, and in his subsequent home in Texas. Maj. Downs attained large wealth and influence before the war, and moved to Waco, Texas, in 1856. Great numbers of persons who were seeking homes in Texas about that time visited him for counsel and ad- vice as to locating in that distant State. He built a Methodist church and a female college at Waco, and made a present of the college to that city, together with an entire square of ground in the heart of the city. With the exception of Mrs. Maddin, all of Maj. Downs' connections are still residing at Waco, represented in all departments of trade and business, people of influence and position. Mrs. Maddin's mother, nee Henrietta Sparks, of a leading Georgia family, is still living at Waco, at the age of seventy-six.

By his marriage with Miss Downs, Dr. Maddin has five children : (1). Ida Belle Maddin, born at Waco; grad- uated from Ward's Seminary, Nashville, and finished her education at Mrs. Sylvanus Read's school, New York city ; married, in 1878, to William J. Bass, son of Dr. John Bass, and grandson of Hon. John M. Bass, of Nashville. His grandmother was a daughter of the Hon, Felix Grundy. (2). Percy D. Maddin, born at Waco, in 1861; began his education in the first grade at the high school, Nashville, went through all its grades and graduated in 1878; next entered Vanderbilt University, remaining three years, taking a university course and the degree of Bachelor of Science; next graduated from the Vanderbilt University law school, under President Thomas IL. Malone and Prof's. Ed. Bas ter and William B. Reese ; is a finished scholar, and, for

a man of his age, a lawyer of fine merit and promise. (3). John W. Maddin, Jr., M. D., born at Waco; educated in the Nashville high school and at Vanderbilt University, and in 1884 graduated M. D. from the medical depart- ment of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University, under Profs. W. T. Briggs, Thomas L. Maddin, Thomas Menees, Thomas A. Atchison, John 11. Callender, Van S. Lindsley, W. L. Nichol, Charles S. Briggs and Orville Menees. Dr. J. W. Maddin, jr., has received careful clinical instruction from his uncle and father. He is now assistant lecturer to the chair of obstetrics in the University in which he graduated. He has fine professional promise. (4). Annie Maddin, born at Waco; educated in the high school of Nash- ville, and finished her course of study at the Nashville College for Young Ladies, conducted by Rev. Dr. George W. F. Price. (5). Louise Lea Maddin, born at Nashville, now a little girl of eight years, a pupil of Dr. Price's Nashville College for Young Ladies.

Dr. Maddin's family is a Methodist family. Politic- ally, the doctor has always been a Democrat, but has never held civil office. Financially, he is in comfortable circumstances, the income from his practice always being very satisfactory. Raised in a family of extremely limited means and early taught the lessons of frugality, he began life on no inheritance except as good an edu- cation as could be afforded in that day in this country, and the legacy of a family character and family name honored all over the land. When asked how he had succeeded in life, Dr. Maddin replied : " I have made my profession the exclusive business of my life ; I have endeavored to prepare myself thoroughly for my work; I have been kept busy in it, and it has amply compen- sated me." As an illustration of the retiring nature of Dr. Maddin, it may be mentioned that at the outbreak of the cholera epidemic in Nashville, in 1873, Hon. Thomas A. Kercheval, mayor of the city, selected and appointed Dr. Maddin as the health officer of the city, but he declined it because he preferred the private walks of his profession to publie position.

Dr. Maddin has been an active member of all city, county and State medical organizations with which he has been associated. He is a member of the American Medical Association. He has contributed a number of scientific papers to these organizations, and always par- ticipates, with much pleasure, in the discussions of medical subjects before these societies.

Dr. Maddin has the air, the tone of voice, the man- ners of a modest, retiring man of dignity and clearness of character, and carefulnesss, accuracy and promptness in business: He seems a combination of the rigid principles of his father and the tenderness of his mother.

For a more detailed account of the life of Dr. Mad- din's parents, see the sketch of Dr. Thomas la Maddin in this volume.

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

HON. BEDFORD M. ESTES.

MEMPHIS.

T HIE subject of this sketch appears in these pages as a representative lawyer, and a representative Presbyterian gentleman, and is commonly described as steady, formal, polite and accomplished, and by general consent is a man of spotless integrity and splendid moral character.

Bedford M. Estes was born in Haywood county, Tennessee, October 10, 1832, and grew up in Browns- ville-was educated, read law and admitted to the bar there. He attended the University of Nashville two years, and then entered the Louisville, Kentucky, Law School, where he graduated under Profs. Pirtle, Loughborough and Bullock. Ile obtained license to practice law at nineteen, having selected the law for a profession in his eighteenth year, up to which time he was full of life, indulging in all sorts of merriment and mischief, but abstaining from vice and dissipation, and thenceforward concentrating his powers on his chosen profession. At the age of twenty-one he went to Memphis, where he has lived ever since, except during the Federal occupation of the city during the war, and has steadily practiced law there, first in partnership with Judge Howell E. Jackson, now United States senator from Tennessee, next with Judge Ellett, and now with H. C. Warinner, Esq.

In the memorable Tennessee Legislature of 1861-62 Mr. Estes represented Shelby county in the House of Representatives, and was a member of the several com- mittees on banking, ways and means, finance and judi- ciary. In 1862 he was appointed by President JJefferson Davis Confederate States district attorney for West Tennessee, but owing to Federal occupation was pre- vented from discharging the duties of his office.

In May, 1878, Mr. Estes was appointed by Gov. James D. Porter and commissioned as a member of the court of arbitration for West Tennessee, and with Judge L. D. MeKissick and Judge Henry Craft, held court at Jackson, and disposed of many of the causes pending in the Supreme court of Tennessee, thereby aiding in relieving the crowded docket of that court. In 1882 Mr. Estes was elected president of the Bar Association of Tennessee, and held this office the con- stitutional term of one year, or until the meeting of the Association at Bon Aqua Springs, in July, 1883. Mr. Estes is also a member of the general council of the Bar Association of America.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 13

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