Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 18

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 18

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).

Your sainted grandmother has long ago entered into her heav. enly rest ; so also your father and mother. Your father was a man of more than ordinary natural endowments and a high-toned, hon- orable gentleman. Your mother was a model of all the virtuos that make up the true woman. She was amiable and sprightly and remarkable for her personal beauty. Your maternal grand- mother, Lashbrook, was distinguished for her fino sense and ex- cellent character. Sho was a devoted Christian, and a Methodist. Her house was one of my best homes. She died while I was on the circuit, and I preached her funeral to a very large congregation.

You will, I am sure, bour with me in thus writing to you. My friendships have always boon very strong, especially those formed in early lite, and I feel an interest in the children of my ourly friends almost as strong as if they were my kindred by tion of blood. When, at Nashville, in 1973, I spent some days with Col.

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Colyar, a relation of yours, who gave me your history in Tennos . we. I had the pleasure also of seeing two of your sisters, who called on me.

I failed (strangely) to inquire if you were a professor of religion, and a member of the church. . I would be happy to know if such be the case ; for, pormit me to say, that whatever distinction a man may gain among men, his life is a terrible failure if he has failed to live a religious lite, and thus prepare for a better and higher state.

Yours truly,

N. II. LEE.

Questioned as to the methods observed by him in attaining success in life, Judge Marks answered : "I feel that labor and temperance have been the means of my success. My course has been a strange one in one respect-I have never had to wait. Ever since I have been at the bar I have been fully occupied. I have always tried to perform the duties that lay nearest to me."

RICHARD B. MAURY, M.D.

MEMPHIS.

R' ICHARD B. MAURY was born in Georgetown, D. C., February 5, 1834, but his father moving first to Norfolk, a few weeks after he was born, and subse- quently to Fredericksburg, Virginia, he grew up at the latter place. He early manifested a desire to study medicine, and when but a lad of seven years, having heard a lecture by a Chinese missionary, he came home and, with boyish enthusiasm, announced to his mother that he intended to become a physician and go to China. He had the advantage of a careful training by one of the most faithful of mothers, a most refined and con scientious woman ; and after leaving her hands all his school-boy days were spent under the instruction of Thomas H. Hanson, who for twenty-five years was the prominent teacher in Fredericksburg. He then entered the University of Virginia, of which he is an alumnus, having graduated from several of the literary schools of that institution. The next four years he taught school in Petersburg and Fredericksburg, at a salary of about six hundred dollars per annum. He then re-entered the University of Virginia, and in 1857 graduated thence in medicine, under Profs. James L. Cabell, John S. Davis, S. S. Maupin and Henry Howard. He next went to New York, and, after standing a competi- tive examination, was appointed an interne to Belle Vue hospital, and while holding that appointment took the degree of M. D. in the University of New York -a second medical graduation, At the close of his hospi tal career, being threatened with disease of the lungs, he decided to go to Mississippi. Soon after, the war broke out and Dr. Maury entered the Confederate army as surgeon of the Twenty-eighth Mississippi cavalry, and after one year of service in the field was transferred to hospital duty and served the Confederacy until the close of the war, in charge of hospitals at Brook - haven and Lauderdale Springs, Mississippi, and at Greenville, Alabama.

The war over, he moved to Memphis, in 1867, where he has resided ever since, devoted exclusively to his profession. . In 1869 he was elected professor of physiology, and in 1870 professor of the practice of

medicine, in the Memphis Medical College. He how- ever took an active interest in public education, and on account of his eminent fitness, was elected and served two years as president of the Memphis board of educa- tion. Dr. Maury has contributed frequently to medical journals, among the most important of his papers being "Topical Medication in the Treatment of Chronic Dysentery," and various articles on gynecological subjects. In 1885 he was elected professor of Gyne- cology in the Memphis Hospital Medical College.

Dr. Maury is a valued member of the Tennessee State and Shelby county medical societies, and a Fellow of the American Gynecological Society. For the past ten years he has devoted himself especially to the diseases of women, much of his work being surgical, in which he has built up an honorable and enviable reputation. A physi- cian's life, even though he may be studious and have at his command a vast amount of brain, skill and experience, is necessarily uneventful and quiet, so far as the outside world may know. The very nature of his studies and of his practice is private, unsuited for gen- eral publication, and hence his name does not make half the noise in the world that an ordinary politician does with one-half the mental ability. For this reason the writer takes especial pride in recording the lives of these medical gentlemen whose actions are " at once a service and a sacrifice" for the welfare of their fellow- men.

Dr. Maury married, first in Port Gibson, Mississippi, Miss Jane S. Ellett, born in that town, June 14, 1810. Mrs. Maury was the daughter of Hon. Henry T. Ellett, a distinguished lawyer, now of Memphis, formerly on the Supreme bench of Mississippi, and a member of Congress from that State. Her mother, Rebecca C. Seeley, was a daughter of Gov. Seeley, of New Jersey. Mrs. Maury was educated at Natchez, Mississippi. She died in Memphis, April 10, 1875, leaving six children : (1). Richard B., born March 25, 1862, in Port Gibson ; educated in Virginia ; now on a cattle ranch in Texas. (2). Kate Ellett, born August 27, 1861, in Greenville; . graduated at Miss Higby's high school, Memphis. (3).

1. 1

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Henry Ellett, born August 19, 1866, in Port Gibson. (4). John Metcalfe, born July 25, 1868, in Memphis. (5). Ellen, born August 27, 1870, and died January 5, 1871. (6). Joseph Ellett, born November 11, 1871, in Memphis.

Dr. Maury's second marriage, which occurred at Memphis, October 10, 1876, was with Miss Jeunie B. Poston, daughter of Hon. William K. Poston, a promi nent lawyer of Memphis. He was a member of the Tennessee Legislature from Shelby county during Brownlow's administration, and resigned to prevent a quorum and in order to defeat the passage of the bill disfranchising ex-Confederates. He was re-elected by his fellow-citizens of Shelby county, but was refused his seat by Brownlow. Mr. Poston was born in Clarks- ville, Tennessee, of a family originally from Virginia, and of Scotch- English descent. His father, Hon. John H. Poston, was also a member of the Tennessee Legis- lature, and once represented Montgomery county.

Mrs. Maury has six brothers and five sisters liv- ing. Of the brothers, David H., William K., and Frank P. Poston are leading lawyers in Memphis ; J. B. Poston is a merchant at Dallas, Texas ; G. S. Postou, a merchant at Como, Mississippi ; and John HI. Poston, a merchant at Memphis. The oldest sister, Mary. is the wife of Wiley J. Littlejohn, a distinguished insur- ance man at Chicago; Kate, is the wife of W. E. Me- Gehee, a planter in Panola county, Mississippi, and Misses Annie, Maggie and Josie Poston are living in Memphis. Mrs. Maury's mother, Miss Mary Park, a Kentuckian by birth, was the daughter of David Park and Jane Barron, of Virginia, both of Irish extraction. David Park was at one time a prominent merchant at Nashville, and afterwards at Memphis. Mrs. Maury graduated from the State Female College at Memphis.

By his marriage with Miss Poston, Dr. Maury has three children : (1). William Poston, born July 21, 1877. (2). Robert Mitchell, born December 15, 1878, (3). Jennie June, born January 24, 1881. They have also an adopted son, Charles A., son of Dr. Maury's deceased brother, Rev. Magruder Maury.

Dr. Maury and wife are both members of the Pro- testant Episcopal church, he being a vestryman of Calvary church, Memphis. He became a Mason in 1865, at Greenville, Alabama. In politics he votes the Democratic ticket. Financially and professionally, Dr. Maury has proven a success by steady, faithful, persevering labor in one channel, looking neither to the right nor to the left for the greener grass which may grow on either side.

The family history of the Maurys is so exceedingly interesting that more extended notice is due them. The family is of French Huguenot extraction, descended from John de LaFontaine, born in Maine, near the borders of Normandy, A. D. 1500, The ancestral line, ascending from Dr. Richard B. Maury, subject of this sketch, is as follows: 1. Richard B. Maury and his

wife, Ellen Magruder. 2. Fontaine Maury and his wife, Betsy Brooke. 3. Rev. James Maury, rector of Frederickville parish, Virginia, and his wife, Mary Walker. 4. Matthew Maury, born in Dublin, in 1716, emigrated to Virginia in 1718. His wife was Mary Ann Fontaine, born in Taunton, England, in 1690 (?). She was the daughter of Rev. James Fontaine and A. E. Bourcicault. This James Fontaine was the direct an- cester of the Fontaine and Maury families of Virginia. He was the son of the Rev. James Fontaine, pastor of Vaux and Royan, France. This latter James Fontaine was the son of James Fontaine and grandson of. John de LaFontaine, who was born A. D. 1500, and martyred A. D. 1563. John de LaFontaine held a commission in the household of Francis I. In the tenth For twelfth year of that monarch's reign he en- tered his service, and conducted himself with such uniform honor and uprightness that he retained his command, not only to the end of the reign of Francis I, but during the reigns of Henry II. and Francis II., and until the second year of Charles IX., when he resigned. He was a leading representative and staunch supporter of protestantism in France, and died for his piety and zeal for the pure worship of God. Henry IV. said of James de La Fontaine that he was the handsomest man in his kingdom. For a fuller account of these distin- guished ancestors of distinguished American families, the readers of this volume are referred to the "History of a Huguenot Family," by Henry Fontaine and Ann Maury, 512 pp., 1853.

Dr. Maury's father, Richard B. Maury, was a native of Spottsylvania county, Virginia, born January 22, 1794, the son of Fontaine Maury and Betsy Brooke. He was the private secretary of President Monroe, and afterwards first clerk in the Navy Department for a number of years. He was a nephew of James Maury, who was the first consul Gen. Washington sent to Liv- erpool, and who continued to be the American consul there antil he was turned out of office for being a Whig by Gen. Jackson. Dr. Maury's father was a soldier in the war of 1812. He died at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1810, at the age of forty-six. He was one of the most popular men in Fredericksburg, where he spent his last days, and was in birth, education and manners a high-toned Virginia gentleman of the old school.

The celebrated Lieutenant M. F. Maury, of the United States Navy, author of Physical Geography of the Seas, and other widely-known scientific works, was Dr. Maury's second cousin, and his guardian after his father's death. He almost took the place of a father to him in his boyhood, and proved his kind friend and adviser.

Dr. Maury's mother was Miss Ellen Magruder, born in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in 1798. Her father was James A. Magruder, a well-known merchant of Goorge- town, D. C., engaged very largely in shipments of tobacco from this country to England. He was a pris-

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

oner of war in 1812, on board a British ship with Charles Francis Key, when the latter wrote the "Star . Spangled Banner." He married Miss Millicent Beans, a member of an old Maryland family. Dr. Maury's mother was a woman of very strong character, of great refinement and culture, of most remarkable piety, a thorough Bible scholar, a believer in prayer, and one whose prayers availed much. She died, near Danville, Kentucky, September 12, 1879, leaving three children :

(1). Richard B. Maury, subject of this sketch. (2). Magruder Maury, who was an alumnus of the Univer- sity of Virginia, and died in April, 1877, an Episcopal clergyman at Philadelphia. He left three children, Charles A. (adopted by Dr. Maury), Lida and Anne Page. (3). Thompson B. Maury; an alumnus of the University of Virginia; well known as a writer and lecturer on meteorology; now residing in New York.

JAMES BENJAMIN COWAN, M.D.

TULLAHOMA.

TAMES BENJAMIN COWAN, one of the most prominent surgeons and physicians in Tennessee, was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, September 15, 1831. Ilis grandfather, Maj. James Cowan, was a soldier in the Seminole and Creek wars; was with Jackson in 1812, and held a commission from the United States government for a number of years as commander of what was known as " Regulators," en- gaged in keeping Indians off the frontier of Tennessee. Hle was a farmer, originally from Virginia, and came to Blount county, Tennessee. At the age of fifteen he was captured by the Cherokee Indians, kept prisoner a year, but managed to escape. At the same time of his capture his mother, nee Mary Walker, was also captured and carried to the northern lakes, kept a prisoner seven years, when she also made her escape. The Cowans are of Scotch-Irish descent. They emigrated to Ireland at an early day amid the difficulties in Scotland. They were Presbyterians, settled in Londonderry, Ireland, and from Londonderry emigrated to Virginia, before the Revolution, and are now scattered west and south.

Dr. Cowan's father, Samuel Montgomery Cowan, was born in Blount county, Tennessee, March 10, 1801, and moved with his father to Franklin county, Tennessee, in 1806, when that country was a wilderness, his father being the second man that moved into that county. At the death of his father, in ISto, he found that the support of the family devolved upon his exertions. He went to work upon the little farm left by his father and did support and take care of his widowed mother, four sisters and one brother, all younger than himself. At eighteen he determined to educate himself, worked upon the farm, continued to support the family, and began a private course of study, and ultimately suc- ceeded in acquiring a finished and classical education. In 1822 he entered the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and became one of the most dis- tinguished men of that denomination, both as a scholar and popular pulpit orator, and followed his vocation until age and declining health forced him to resign his

mantle to others. Probably no man of his age was more popular or better known in Tennessee and adjoin- ing States. He married, July 20, 1830, Miss Nancy Coker Clements, of Fayetteville, Tennessee, daughter of Maj. Benjamin Clements. She was born December 6, 1811. Her parents emigrated from South Carolina to Lincoln county, Tennessee, in the spring of 1811. Her mother, Sarah Brazil, was a daughter of Joel Brazil, of South Carolina. Her paternal grandfather, Maj. Reuben Clements, was of French Huguenot origin. Maj. Clements made an immense fortune sur- veying government lands in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. He made the first coast survey of Florida, in connection with his oldest son. Gen. Jesse B. Clements, who afterwards served as United States marshal under Presidents Polk, Pierce and Buchanan, and died in 1877, in Edgedfield, Tennessee. Dr. Cowan's mother is a most remarkable lady, universally beloved for her purity of life, her good influence in society and her high Christian character. She has but one child, James Benjamin Cowan, subject of this sketch.

In 1842 Dr. Cowan's father removed from Fayette- ville to Horn Lake, DeSoto county, Mississippi, and remained there on his plantation and in Memphis until 1851, when he returned to Fayetteville. Here it was that the young man Cowan began reading medicine, under the eminent Drs. William and Moses Bonner, which he continued eighteen months. He then entered, in 1852, the University Medical College of New York city, and graduated in March, 1855, under Profs. Valentine Mott, John W. Draper, Martin Paine, Alford C. Post, Gunning S. Bedford, William Van Buren, J. T. Metcalfe and Chancellor James Ferris. In the same year he graduated as an M. D. from Aylett's Institute of Medicine, and from the faculty of the University Medical College of New York city he received a certifi- cate of honor, in addition to his diploma. The reason of his lengthened medical course was that he spent eighteen months in taking a full course of clinical instruction in the New York city hospitals. Thus

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

exceptionally equipped for his profession, he practiced two years at Meridianville, Madison county, Alabama, and next practiced at Memphis, and out on his planta- tion near that city, until the war broke out, when he went to Pensacola, Florida, with the first troops that volunteered from Mississippi for the Confederate army. On March 27, 1861, he was commissioned acting assist- ant surgeon, and assigned to duty with the Ninth Mississippi regiment, Col. Chalmers commanding, then at Pensacola.

The latter part of November, 1861, he accepted a commission as surgeon in charge of Forrest's cavalry battalion, then at Hopkinsville, Kentucky. In June, 1862, he was appointed chief surgeon of cavalry, and assigned to personal duty with Brig .- Gen. N. B. For- rest, then organizing his brigade in East Tennessee, and remained on the staff of that cavalry chieftain until the close of the war. In January, 1865, he was pro- moted to medical director of Lient .- Gen. Forrest's cavalry corps, and surrendered as such at Gainesville, Alabama, May 12, 1865. For a more detailed war record of Dr. Cowan, the reader is referred to Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley's Military Annals of Tennessee. He has the reputation among medical men of having per- formed more capital operations than almost any man in the service.

After the war, finding himself prostrated in fortune and his family refugecing at Marion, Alabama, he joined them at that place. The September following, having collected sufficient means to pay his way to Memphis, he returned to that city, where by the assist- ance of friends, he was enabled to open an office and resume the practice of his profession. The following fall he found himself enabled to return to Marion and move his family to Memphis, where he remained until the terrible cholera epidemic in 1866, when he was seized with that dreadful disease himself, and upon recovering from it found his general health utterly broken down. He then moved his family to Franklin county, Tennessee, and after several months' recupera- tion, resumed the practice of medicine. In .1870 he received an invitation from friends at Selma, Alabama, to locate there. He found, after remaining there two years, that his family was completely at the merey of the malarial influences of that low latitude, and that he would either have to take them back to the mount- ains or bury them. Therefore, in 1873, he abandoned his lucrative practice at Sehna and brought his family to Tullahoma, where they rapidly regained health. In 1877 he opened an office in Nashville, at the solicitation of his friends, and remained there seven months, until he saw a practice rapidly growing up around him with most encouraging prospects for the future. These brilliant prospects he laid down and returned to Tulla- homa for the purpose of nursing and taking care of his invalid father, which he did with exemplary filial devotion, until his death, May 5, 1881, in his eighty-

first year. Since then Dr. Cowan has continued to reside at Tullahoma, enjoying a large practice, and devoting his leisure to scientific researches.

Dr. Cowan was married at Huntsville, Alabama, October 20, 1857, to Miss Lucy C. Robinson, who was born in Madison county, Alabama, October 5, 1833, daughter of James B. Robinson, a cotton planter and large slaveholder. Her mother, Frances Otey Robinson, now living with the daughter at Tullahoma, in her seventy-sixth year, is a cousin of Bishop Otey. She was born in Bedford county, Virginia, May 19, 1810, daughter of Capt. Walter Otey, an officer in the war of 1812, and a prominent planter. Her mother, Mary Walton, was born in Roanoke county, Virginia, daughter of William Walton, who married a Miss Leftwich. Mrs. Cowan's paternal grandfather, Littleberry Robin- son, was a native of Russell county, Virginia; a mer- chant in Virginia, but a planter in Alabama. He died in Madison county, Alabama. Mrs. Cowan was edu- cated at Huntsville; is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, as are also most of her family. She is a lady of culture and accomplishments, the pride of her parents, a devout Christian, and has nobly filled her station in life. During the war she underwent all the privations of separation from her husband, and of refugeeing, without a murmur.

By his marriage with Miss Robinson Dr. Cowan has seven children : (1). James M., born September 3, 1858; now in the insurance business at Cincinnati; is a Knight Templar, and is noted for his piety, steady habits and fine talents. (2). Mary Lou Coker, born October 19, 1859; graduated at the Cumberland Female College, MeMinnville, and is now a member of the faculty of Tullahoma Female Seminary. (3). Otey Clements, born August 18, 1861. (4). Lilly Forrest, born November 1, 1863; married Robert Johnson November 20, 1883. (5). Presley Strange, born May 9, 1867. (6). Minnie Horton, born . April 1, 1869. (7). Fannie Robinson, born January 27, 1871.

In 1551 Dr. Cowan was made a Mason in Fayetteville, Tennessee, and took the Chapter and Council degrees in 1851; the former at Columbus, Mississippi, and the latter at Verona, Mississippi. He was made an Odd Fellow in 1855, at Huntsville, Alabama. He is also a member of the Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, and ofthe Independent Order of Red Men, and in all of these orders is a past officer. In politics. he is a Democrat, holding his faith as an inheritance from his grandfathers down, but has never held office, being wedded to his profession as a science. His motto in life has been to do right, act honorably with all men, and let principle be the foundation of all his actions, with thoroughness in qualification for every duty. He is, when occasion calls forth his animation, among the most earnest and impressive orators of the State. Social and convivial in his temperament, he is liberal to a fault, impulsive, quick to resent an insult or an injury, and has always

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

been a stickler for the ethics of his profession, prefer- ring an honorable position among his professional - brethren to the emoluments or esteem of the world. Ile Is always ready to lend a helping hand to young men in

the profession, to lift them up and advance them to higher planes.

Hle is six feet high, weighs two hundred pounds, and is in physique a fine specimen of Tennessee manhood.

JUDGE JOHN WOODS.

MURFREESBOROUGH.

T' "THIS gentleman, who has served the people of Rutherford county in one capacity and another Dearly all of his life, and is now one of its oldest, best known and respected citizens, was born near Murfrees- borough, September 11, 1807. He is the son of Thomas Woods, who came to Tennessee from Orange county, North Carolina, in 1807. In 1827 he went to Hickman, Kentucky, and there remained until his death, in 1838. He was a well educated, well-to-do gentleman and quiet citizen. He was the father of eleven children, of whom Judge John Woods, subject of this sketch, was the second born. Judge Woods' grandfather was John Woods, a native of Pennsylvania, who moved when young to North Carolina, and was in the employ of the colonies during the American Revolution, and three of his sons were in the American army.

Judge Woods' paternal grandmother was Miss Me- bane, daughter of William Mebane, of North Carolina, a man of prominence in his time, who took an active and leading part in the affairs of the country during the Revolution. This family, distinguished in North Carolina in those days, is mentioned with much favor in " Wheeler's Historical Sketches of North Carolina."

The mother of Judge Woods was Miss Susan Bald- ridge, daughter of a gentleman of Irish descent, who emigrated to North Carolina and married Miss Jane White, the daughter of Stephen White, near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Judge Woods was brought up as a farmer's boy, and educated in the old field schools of Rutherford county. At the age of twenty he was elected to his first office, that of constable, and served four years. He then went into merchandising and continued at that business until 1836, when he returned to farming, and continued at it until 1840. In the latter year he was elected register of Rutherford county and re-elected in 1811, serving two terms, until 1818. He was then elected clerk of the county court of Rutherford county and served two terms of four years each, when he returned to farming and was so engaged at the beginning of the war. In 1859 his fellow-citizens urged upon him the candidacy for member of the lower house of the Legislature, for which he was elected by a handsome majority, and served two years during the stormy period just preced- ing the civil war. After this he returned to his home and remained upon his farm until the close of hostilities. Upon the reorganization of the State, in. 1866, he was 11

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 18

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