Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 19

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 19

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commissioned a magistrate, and in the following year was made chairman of the county court, and has held the position by re-elections up to the present time.

Judge Woods has always been a Jeffersonian Demo- crat, and cast his first vote for Gen. Jackson in 1828, since which time he has always voted with the Demo- crats. He has been a delegate to , veral Democratic State conventions, both before and since the war, and is justly regarded as "one of the old wheel-horses of Democracy."

In 1828 he was made major of the Forty-fifth regi- ment of Tennessee militia, and received his commission from Gen. Sam Houston, then governor of Tennessee. Hle, however, did not enter the late war, owing to age and physical disabilities.

Judge Woods was married to Miss Mary F. Jarratt, October 30, 1833. She is a daughter of Thomas Jarratt, of Goochland county, Virginia, who came to Tennessee in 1806. Her mother was Miss Susan Thompson, who was also of a Virginia family of good standing. . Judge and Mrs. Woods have no children, but have shown true parental affection by taking into their family and bringing up with care and tenderness several children of their relatives. Judge Woods comes from a Pres- byterian family, but has never connected himself with any church, being broad in his religious views and not willing to be bound to any one denomination. His wife's family were originally Presbyterians, but on com- ing to Tennessee became Methodists.

Judge Woods began life a poor, hard-working farm- er's boy, and had but few early advantages ; but, by industry and close application to business, always taking a firm hold on whatever came to hand, and endeavoring to accomplish it and fill his obligations, he worked him- self up to a position of respect and influence. Prev- ious to the war he had amassed a very considerable property, but suffered from the long protracted and destructive struggle. He still, however, possesses a comfortable competency. He was a director in the branch of the Planters Bank at Murfreesborough, and in the Murficesborough Savings Bank, and a member of the directory board of the First National Bank of Murfreesborough, Always a liberal man, willing to help others, he has spent much of his fortune in this way, but can look back now in a serene old age and feel thankful that he has been the cause of happiness to many others.

1.1

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

IION. JOSEPH BUCKNER KILLEBREW, A.M., PH. D.

NASHVILLE.

J OSEPH BUCKNER KILLEBREW was born in Montgomery county, Tennessee, May 29, 1831, son of Bryan Whitfield and Elizabeth Smith Killebrew.

The Killebrews of America are of English stock, and the name was originally Killegrew. The paternal great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch lived in Duplin county, North Carolina, while his maternal grandfather was from Halifax county, Virginia, half- brother of John Sims, a near neighbor of John Randolph of Roanoke. His maternal grandmother was Judith Pleasants, of the Pleasants of Virginia, a family distin- guished for literary attainments and culture. His paternal grandmother, Mary Whitfield, was one of twenty-nine children, most of whom lived to maturity. ITer father's family removed, about 1720, from England to Bertie county, North Carolina. Her father owned almost a principality on the Neuse, and at his death was able to leave ten thousand dollars to each of his many children. He was a near relative to Rev. George Whitefield. The descendants of Mr. Whitfield are scattered all over the South, and are generally men of mark and influence. His paternal grandfather, Buckner Killebrew, came from North Carolina and settled in Montgomery county, Tennessee, in 1796. Ile was a man of wealth and noted for his generous hospi- tality. His father, Bryan Whitfield Killebrew, was born April 1, 1805, and reared in Montgomery county, Tennessee, and educated in such schools as the country then afforded. He was a great reader and a fine natural mathematician, a farmer in good circumstances, owner of many slaves, free from vices, great or small ; of amia- ble temperament, and genuinely hospitable, he was exceedingly popular, winning the affections of all men and inspiring confidence and regard. He married, in 1829, Elizabeth Ligon, daughter of Mathew Ligon, the son of a Revolutionary soldier. The issue of this mar- riage was Joseph Buckner Killebrew, the subject of this present sketch, and Mathew Ligon Killebrew, a farmer of Robertson county.

In 1835 his father removed to Stewart county, Ten- nessee, but, his mother dying in 1836, he was sent back to Montgomery county in the following year, where he attended school for six years under his maternal uncle, Joseph P. Ligon, an excellent man and a good classical scholar. In 1813 he returned to Stewart and worked there on his father's farm till 1818. While there, dur- ing the school months, he walked six miles daily to attend a neighborhood school, kept by a Mr. Myrtle who taught him grammar and arithmetic. In 1816 he went to live with an aunt, ( Mrs. Lettice M. Fortson, to whose care his mother had commended him on her death-bed, and who always encouraged him in his

studies), not going to school, but reading much of biography, history and other literature. In 1848 Mr. (. F. Ullrich, a graduate of Bethany college, Virginia, taught school at Lafayette, Kentucky. At his school Mr. Killebrew made the acquaintance of geometry and; algebra, taking a full course of mathematics in the years 1818 and 1819. His interest in mathematics was' such that at one time he owned some forty algebras, which he ransacked for difficult problems. He would even take conic sections to the "new-ground " and study problems while burning brush. Ile left school in 1819, and the death of his father in 1850 devolved upon him the care of the farm for that year. In 1851, having at his disposal the limited sum of one hundred and twenty dollars, he entered Franklin college, near Nashville, then under the presidency of Tolbert Fan- ning. He remained there for one year, gaining such reputation in mathematics that, although a freshman, he was often called to take charge of the mathematical classes in the absence of the professor in charge of that branch. He began a classical course while at Franklin, but, compelled by want of means to leave college, he returned to Clarksville, unable to see his way forward. While there be met, one morning in a barber shop, an old gentleman, who, on hearing his name, said to him: " You are the man I am looking for ; I have a school near Clarksville; if you will teach mathematics under me, I will teach you the languages." This gentleman was John D. Tyler, one of the most celebrated classical scholars and teachers in Tennessee. Mr. Killebrew accepted the proposition, remaining with Mr. Tyler for two years, and taking a very complete preparatory course in Latin and Greek.

In 1854 he was anxious to take a regular. college course, but he was utterly without means, until the way was again opened before him. Mr. George S. Wimberly, a gentleman of fortune, and a warm friend and near neighbor of Mr. Tyler, had heard of young Kille- brew and his studious habits and laudable ambitions. Meeting him one day he said to him: "I hear that you have completed in two years a course which ordi- marily requires four years. You may select any college in the United States and I will advance the money to pay your expenses during a full course, simply taking your notes, to be paid when you get into business." The generous offer was accepted. After studying the catalogues and histories of a number of colleges, he so- lected Chapel Hill, North Carolina, being chiefly determined thereto by the fact that it seemed to have been the alma mater of most of the prominent men of the South. In January, 1851, he stood his examination and entered the sophomore class, half advanced, only

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Lis deficiency in modern languages barring his way to the junior. Here, as at Franklin, he was noted for his . ability in mathematics. He graduated in 1856 with the Erst distinction, and was elected to the tutorship in mathematics, but declined. During his term at Chapel fill he was editor of the college paper, the North Carolina University Magazine. While under his editorial supervision, it took very high rank as a college periodical, publishing, among other able and valuable articles, a series of' papers by Gov. Swain, the presi- dent of the university, and others, bearing upon the early history of North Carolina. While at the univer- sity an incident occurred which serves to show his remarkable mathematical gift. > One of his earliest achievements was to draw from Dr. Phillips a caustic criticism by deducing a conclusion in fluxions not given by the author. This the learned professor pro- nounced wrong, but on further hearing complimented very highly as an original demonstration, which pro cured him to be pointed out by his fellow-students as "the fellow who rushed old Phillips." With all of his mathematical capacity and decided love for that branch of learning, an important key to his intellectual char- acteristics and to his future success is found in the fact that he was so well able to master the languages, despite early neglect of that branch, that he was selected to deliver the Latin salutatory on commence- ment day.

Returning to Clarksville, he read law with Robb & Bailey until October, 1857, when he began practicing. While engaged in his law studies he managed, by his own exertions and with some assistance from his aunt, Mrs. Lettice M. Fortson, to pay off the notes given to Mr. Wimberly for his expenses at Chapel Hill. During the first two months of his practice he made five hundred dollars.

On the third day of December, 1857, he married the daughter of Mr. George S. Wimberly, Mary Catharine, who had just completed her education under Dr. Elliott at the old Nashville Academy. To his marriage Mr. Killebrew owes much of his success in life. In his wife he found a companion of extraordinary kindness, good sense and firmness of character, inspiring affection in the highest degree, while managing her household and family affairs with discretion, vigor and ability.

On Mr. Wimberly's death, in 1857, Mr. Killebrew settled on his plantation, conducting it with great sue- cess until 1871 ; and during that time more than doub- ling its acreage and improving it handsomely. He was during this period one of three commissioners appointed by the county court to organize a system of public schools for Montgomery county. In January, 1871, he connected himself with the Union and American, of Nashville, as agricultural editor, and labored assidu ously in that position for twenty-one months, his articles being copied all over the South, and embodying in advance of realization that progressive thought which

is now just reaching' practical realization throughout . the South. In October, 1872, Goy. John C. Brown, Mr. A. Cox, Gen. W. G. Harding and others subscribed twenty thousand dollars for the organization of an agricultural paper, to be called the Rural Sun, and unanimously elected Mr. Killebrew editor-in-chief, with Prof. J. M. Safford and Prof. Hunter Nicholson as assistants, and Mrs. L. Virginia ' rench as literary editor. The Rural Sun was the best agricultural paper ever published in the South, and contained more original matter of superior quality than any other journal of its kind. While engaged in this work he also devoted himself to pressing upon the Legislature and to have organized a bureau of agriculture, statistics and mines.

In 1872 he was appointed general agent of the Peabody education fund for Tennessee and assistant State superintendent of public instruction, the State treasurer being ex officio superintendent. In this capacity he canvassed much of the State in the interest of public schools at a time when political complications, education of the negro and the poverty of a people impoverished by war, rendered the task anything but popular or pleasant to one less devoted to the public good. Dr. Sears, in his report to the trustees of the Peabody fund for 1873, says: " A highly intelligent and influential gentleman (Mr. Killebrew) was appointed agent of the association, and on the 22d of January he was made assistant superintendent of public instruc- tion, which circumstance is of itself sufficient evidence of the wisdom of the course pursued. On the 14th of March he made a most valuable report, which was pub- lished by authority for the purpose of circulation within the State. The views presented in it are of the most elevated character; and the facts brought to light are well adapted to awaken the people from their lethargy. Ile maintains that education has become absolutely indispensable to the material prosperity of every community ; that 'the system as it at present exists is utterly devoid of vitality, and the want of unity in aim and action throughout the State can best be reme- died by the appointment of a State superintendent.' ' Less than thirty counties,' he informs us, 'have levied a tax for school purposes; and in the remainder, no action has been taken by the county courts.' In appeal- ing to an honorable sentiment of pride, he says : ' It is a painful distinction to a State whose sons heretofore have been distinguished for their valor, and whose daughters have been noted for their accomplishments, to be classed second in illiteracy.'"

During 1872 and part of 1873 Mr. Killebrew was editor of the Rural San, agent of the Peabody fund, commissioner of agriculture and secretary of the Na- tional Agricultural Association ; any one of which posi- tions afforded work enough for any man of ordinary working capacity. Not merely occupying but thor- oughly filling every position entrusted to his care, his

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

health gave way and he was compelled to cease from all work save that of commissioner of agriculture, while he sought rest and recovery.

Hle returned to Nashville in January, 1874, and be- tween that time and July fourth, with some assistance, prepared the " Resources of Tennessee," a volume of twelve hundred pages, a most thorough and comprehen- sive treatment of all that which must be the foundation of future material wealth, of all the connections of the wonderful resources of Tennessee with the rest of the world, and of the way to make them available, It is complete in general and in detail, leaving but little ever to be added, and at best hereafter merely the filling up here and there of outlines thoroughly sketched. It was widely read in Tennessee and served the most im- portant office of making Tennesseans know their own State and its value. It was for Tennessee the means to realizing the first step to immediate material and sub- sequent intellectual and moral greatness based on it, the first step toward "know thyself." It was thor- oughly circulated and sought for in all parts of the northern United States, and by far more widely in demand and more generally read in Europe than any work of its kind, and especially in England and Germany.

Prof. Huxley, in an address in Nashville on Septem- ber 7, 1876, said: " I am indebted to a most admirable work, of which a copy has been presented to me-a report of the resources of Tennessee-which, in my judgment, does infinite credit to the State which paid for it, and to the persons who put it together-which I do not profess to have read, yet out of which I have contrived to pick the sort of information I want of the structure of this region where we now stand."

Mr. James C. Bayles, of the Iron Age, of New York, said in a speech at Chattanooga : "To Col. Killebrew the world is indebted for a fuller and more explicit exposition of the natural resources of Tennessee than, so far as I know, has been presented of any other State. I can only wish that the wisdom and liberality of your people in securing the services of so competent an ofli- cer, and in placing at his command the means of giving currency to the results of his investigations, would excite the people of every State in the Union to a genuine emulation, fruitful of like results." This work is still in great demand. In 1876, in connection with Prof. J. M. Safford, Mr. Killebrew published the Geology of Tennessee, which is now used as a text-book in the public schools of the State.

In 1878 he received from his alma mater, Chapel Hill, the degree of Ph. D., as a special acknowledge- ment of superior merit, since, to merit this degree, is usually added the condition of three years' residence after graduation.

From 1872 to 1881 he remained commissioner of agriculture, statistics and mines, publishing about thirty volumes and pamphlets on almost every subject pertain- ing to the natural resources and existing and desirable

industries of the State. These include brochures on grasses; sheep husbandry; wheat; tobacco; the oil region of Tennessee, besides several on the mineral interests of the State,' in the aggregate about ten thousand pages. He also prepared several maps, show- ing the iron, coal and other mineral regions, and a large geographical map of the State, which is now a standard authority.

During Mr. Killebrew's term of office as commis- sioner of agriculture, he traveled in the North, and especially in New England, delivering lectures on the South as a field for innmigration. These attracted wide attention and received high encomiums from many who least sympathized with the object, while they have borne already much good fruit.

In 1880 he was appointed by Gen. Francis A. Walker .. superintendent of census, as special agent to report on the culture and curing of tobacco; and traveled in all the tobacco growing regions of the United States, the result being the publication of a -Ito volume by the goverment which has been received with great favor by the trade, the tobacco growing industry and the press.

In June, 1881, while preparations were being made for the grand southern cotton and world's exposition at Atlanta, Georgia, the management of that enterprise, without solicitation on his part, tendered Mr. Kille- brew the position of chief of the department of min- erals and woods. With his characteristic promptness and energy, he at once set to work to organize the department committed to his charge, and although the time was far too short to accomplish the great work in hand, he succeeded in bringing together the largest collection of specimens of the mineral and forest wealth of the southern States ever shown at one place and at one time. His department was one of the most attractive, as it certainly was the most important, at that great exhibition of the resources and natural wealth of the South; and his management of it reflected the highest eredit upon his judgment, intelligence and skill, and won for him the highest encomiums of the thou- sands of visitors to that great exposition.

Upon the coming in of a Republican administration, in 1881, another gentleman was appointed agricultural commissioner, and Mr. Killebrew found time to devote himself to his private interests, which had somewhat suffered from negleet. He has been reasonably pros- perous, doing more for himself in one year than in ten 'of office holding. He is now engaged in iron and coal mining in Tennessee and Alabama, and is interested in a large silver mine in Mexico, whither he made two journeys during 1883, one requiring a horseback journey of six hundred miles.

He is now engaged in journalism, being the editor and general manager of the weekly issue of the Nash- ville American, and his articles are more generally copied in northern papers than those in any other jour-

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

nal. He is also a contributor to many other newspapers and magazines.

As the result of his happy union with Miss Wim- berly, Mr. Killebrew has an interesting family of children, four sons and two daughters, one daughter having died in infancy. They are all fine specimens of physical, moral and intellectual manhood and woman- hood. He divides his time between his business and his home upon his farm, where he, when at home, or his wife and children in his absence, dispenses genuine, plain, old-fashioned hospitality, entertaining usually a houseful of young guests from all parts of the South during the summer months.

Mr. Killebrew's success in life, both as a severe prac- tical laborer, with keen judgment in private affairs, and as an enthusiastic and devoted .worker for the public weal, is due to a rare combination of faculties. To his practical mathematical talent was added in a high de- gree the indispensable faculty of imagination under control of a strong will and of the practical side of his mental character. Notwithstanding a mathematical bent which seldom goes, when so strongly developed as in his case, with the linguistic faculty, he was not only rapidly successful in the acquisition of ancient and modern languages, but also in the practical use of his own tongue. Few have excelled him in a clear, simple and exceedingly pure English style in writing and speaking, in orderly arrangement, in the use of the logical powers, or in graphic description, and what is popularly called " word painting." With a mind well stored to a rare degree with facts and statistics, versed in the economical, industrial and general history of his own country, all illuminated by a broad knowledge of human progress in other lands, he has always been able to present, in attractive and popular form, the dry in- dustrial, productive and practical economical problems, school questions, and descriptions of resources with a view to practical development, and, indeed, whatever he has undertaken to present to the public.

From 1865 to 1870, with a mind well stored, coming from the study of law and from practical and skillful management of business under the slave system, thor- oughly understanding the old economical and industrial conditions, he was one of the first to understand and to adapt himself to the changed conditions. The faculty of imagination, the power to look ahead, and the habit of looking ahead, found him level with the · times. It was because, with the practical quality which held him successfully close to business, imagination, so well reined in as not to lead him beyond bounds or into vagaries, had led him to look ahead and thus, with pro- gressive thought, he was abreast the times, With cash payment of wages, and kindness and forbearance with firmness, he was one of the first to reach the best results with the new labor, and also one of the first to set out for the public the conditions of success under the changed system.

During that same period, 1865 to 1870, while attend- ing successfully to private business, he was addressing farmers' clubs, writing for local papers, writing and publishing pamphlets on the resources of his native county, often at his own expense, and always replete with pregnant fact and apt theory ; and thus, with prac- tical economical thought, stimulating the public to progressive development. That he was neither gener - ally understood nor appreciated at that time, is truc. He was abreast the times and too far ahead of the public to be generally kept in sight. He was widely enough appreciated to obtain at once, on branching out into a larger field, a firm and enduring footing. His own practical success was not to be gainsaid. That it was the plain, practical, plodding success of a man guided by judgment, and-not speculative nor attained by chance in a wild pursuit of theory, was very clear; still, many of his neighbors pronounced him a dreamer as to his public theories. The public has advanced to where he stood as to public schools and material progress, to see that he was as accurate in pointing out the multitudi- nous lines of progress for the people of Tennessee, as in pursuing with plain judgment his own private business. One of the most striking facts in his character and life has been the ability to confine himself to his own chosen ground, and at the same time, with rare insight and unerring foresight, to see far ahead for the public, without being tempted to embrace for himself everything he saw. Thus he perceived with a rare gift of practical imagination the true lines of progress for his people, and contented himself with using his own progressive thought for himself' within a narrow practical field, branching out in private business only as he saw his way clear before him.

Ilis views, as they are embodied in his speeches, ad- dresses and pamphlets, written before 1870, and after, in the columns of the Union and American and Rural Sun, in the "Resources of Tennessee," and in his numerous speeches, addresses and thirty-odd pamphlets, have been for Tennessee, the New South and the changed conditions, what the views of that eminently wise and far-seeing sage, DeBow, were for the Old South, with this difference : That De Bow was never able to see that slavery (and slavery alone) vitiated all his far-reaching dreams; while Mr. Killebrew saw clearly the true, practical and inevitable lines of pro- gress, which the South is now pursuing, with his own State in the lead. His correct views. unlike those of De Bow, were marred by no obstacle to their realization, save the always present difficulty of moving fossilism forward. To the accomplishment of that end no man in the South has contributed more.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 19

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