USA > Tennessee > Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee > Part 2
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The mother of Gen. Harding was likewise a person of strong character, a lady of marked individuality, exceptionally kind and benevolent, and of proverbial candor. It is reported of her that she would not, out of mere formal courtesy, invite any one to visit her whom she did not want to see again, so great was her devotion to truth. It is easy to see that these virtues of the old family back of Gen. Harding, formed in him a character which is but a reproduction of their own.
Gen. Harding first married in Nashville, November 17, 1829, Miss Selene MeNairy, daughter of Nathaniel McNairy, and niece of Dr. Boyd MeNairy and Judge John McNairy, of a prominent North Carolina family of Scotch origin. The county of Me Nairy in Tennessee was named for Judge MeNairy. Mrs. Harding's sister, Amanda, is now the widow of James Porter, a mer- chant of prominence at Nashville, and is a lady re- markable as a business woman and manager of finance. Her youngest sister, Kittie, married John Kirkman, now president of the American National Bank of Nashville. Her mother was Catharine Hobson, of a Virginia family, sister of Nicholas Hobson, noted for his sterling integrity and success as a banker; a man who enjoyed the unlimited confidence of the com- munity ; a man of simplicity of character, truthfulness, and kindness of heart. Mrs. Harding was educated at the old Nashville Female Academy, and was a lady of domestic and economical habits, and a member of the Christian Church. She died in 1836, at, the age of twenty-four, having borne two children : (1). John, a graduate of the North Carolina University at Chapel Will; married first Miss Sophia Merritt, daughter of Embry Merritt, of Lawrenceville, Virginia. She died a few years after marriage, leaving one child, Sophia Harding, now the wife of Granville S. Johnson, and mother of two children, William Harding and Morgiana. John Harding next married Mrs. Philip Owen, ner Margaret Murphy, of Mississippi, who bore him three children --- Selene MeNairy, William. Giles, and John. Selene MeNairy Harding is now the wife of Prof. Charles P. Curd, of Washington University, St. 'Louis, author of several educational text-books, and a brilliant man of great promise. They have one child, Hayden T. William Giles married Miss Bessie. Caruthers, of Nashville, (2), Nathaniel Me-
Nairy, Gen. Harding's second son, died at the age of ten years, his death being caused by a fall from a horse.
Gen. Harding's second marriage, which occurred at Franklin, Tennessee, January 2, 1840, was with Miss Elizabeth Irwin MeGavock, daughter of Randal Me- Gavock, a large landowner and farmer of Williamson county, and a large holder of city property in Nashville, and the first county clerk of Davidson county. The MeGavocks are of Scotch- Irish descent, and are numer- ous in Williamson and Davidson counties, and in Vir- ginia. Her youngest brother, Col. John McGavock, one of the most prominent citizens of Williamson, is a highly educated gentleman, thoroughly posted in the careers of the public men and measures of the government, and having been the private secretary .of Hon. Felix Grundy while at Washington, he is regarded as a typical gentleman of the school of those days. Her mother's sister was the wife of Felix Grundy, and was the lady to whom Washington society deferred in all matters of taste, etiquette and court manners, Mrs. Harding's brother, James R. MeGavoek, was a fine farmer in Wil- liaison county, possessed of a noble, generous heart, given to large charity and overflowing hospitality; of great sympathy for the struggling masses, the soul of honor, and a general favorite and standard man in his county. He married his first cousin, Miss Louisa Chenault, of Missouri, a lady of sterling qualities, similar to those of her husband. and their sons and daughters are notable likewise for their liberality and hospitality. Mary Cloyd MeGavock, Mrs. Harding's sister, married J. J. B. Southall, a nephew of Gov. Branch, of Florida, and lived in princely style at their house, " Rosemont," three miles from Nashville. Her striking characteristics were a strong will-power, a very highly cultivated intellect, and the highest order of Christian virtues. . She gave her only son, Randal MeGavock Sonthall, to the Confederacy, saying, "My son, you are all I have to give to the Southern cause," and placing her hand on his head, added, "Go, with my blessing." Mrs. Harding's mother was Miss Sarah Dougherty Rogers, daughter of John Rogers and Mar- garet M. Dougherty. Her father was a descendant of John Rogers, the Protestant martyr.
By his marriage with Miss MeGavock, Gen. Harding has two children : (1). Selene, born April 5, 1816, at Belle Meade, where her father and her own children were born. She was educated at the Nashville Female Academy under Rev. C. D. Elliott until the war broke out, when she was sent to Philadelphia, where she studied a year in Madame Masse's private French school. She married December 15, 1868, Gen. William H. Jackson, a planter of West Tennessee, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, and has three chil- dren, Eunice, William Harding and Selene Harding. (2). Mary Elizabeth, born February 5, 1850, at Belle Meade, educated at. Nashville, under Rev. Philip Fall; married Judge Howell E. Jackson, present United
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States Senator from Tennessee, and has three children, Bessie, Louise, and Harding Alexander. See Judge Jackson's sketch elsewhere in this volume.
Thus surrounded by his children and his grand- children, and living upon the goodly inheritance be- queathed him by his father, Gen. Harding has wisely made himself his own executor, and disposed of his large estate among his heirs to their entire satisfaction, and is passing the evening of his life in happiness un- alloyed, undisturbed by the cares of business or distress of mind caused by the bad conduct of any of his
descendants, and is free from the petulance and little foibles and weaknesses so often attendant upon old age. His life is gradually passing out smoothly, serenely and quietly, with the consciousness of years well and usefully spent, without a wrong inflicted on his fellow- man.
Gen. Harding professed religion under the preaching of Rev. Sam. Jones, in May, 1885, and immediately thereafter connected himself with the Christian church in Nashville, being received into the same by Rev. R. Linn Cave, its pastor.
IION. JAMES W. DEADERICK.
JONESBOROUGH.
T ILE present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee was born in Jonesborough, Wash- ington county, on the 25th of November, 1812. He is the youngest child of David Deaderick, a native of Winchester, Virginia, who died in 1823, at the age of sixty-five. Judge Deaderick's father was a soldier of the Revolution, and paymaster of a Virginia regi- ment which served in that war. He moved to Jones- borough at an early day after the close of the war for independence, and was president of the branch of the first bank of the State of Tennessee located in that town. He also at one time represented Washington county in the General Assembly of the State. He was a warm personal friend of Gen. Jackson, who, when Circuit Judge in East Tennessee, made his home at Mr. Deaderick's house. He was one of the most intel- ligent men of his day; but was chiefly noted for his unswerving integrity in all the relations of life. So marked was this characteristic that no higher praise could be bestowed upon a person than to say, " He is as honest a man as David Deaderick," and this saying as to him passed into a proverb throughout the region in which he lived. During most of his life he was engaged in mercantile pursuits, and a common saying among his patrons was: " We can get as much for our money from him by sending a child as by going ourselves," He was possessed of a vast fund of information, was very fond of reading, and made it a point to give all his children the benefit of the best schools accessible in those carly days.
Judge Deaderick's paternal grandfather and grand- mother were Germans, who settled in Winchester, Vir- ginia. They retained the German, form of the family name, Deitrich-master-key-which has been anglicized into Deaderick by their descendants. Besides the father of Judge Deaderick, this worthy couple had other children, one of whom, Michael Deaderick, set- ted in Nashville at an early day, as a merchant, and
was also president of the old State Bank of Tennessee about 1810. Deaderick street in Nashville was so called in his honor. Another son, Thomas Deaderick, was also among the early settlers of Nashville and one of the pioneer merchants of that city, as was a younger brother, John Deaderick, who was engaged in business with his brothers, but who died quite young. Judge Deaderick's only paternal aunt was the wife of David Murrell, of Lynchburg, Virginia. Of her children, one is a physician of that city, one a tobacco merchant, and another, John Murrell, was at one time a million- aire cotton merchant in New Orleans. The mother of Judge Deaderick, Margaret Anderson, was a native of Delaware, daughter of a Mr. Anderson of a German family. She Lad six brothers in, the Revolutionary army, all of whom were officers. Her oldest brother, Joseph Anderson, was the first United States Senator from Tennessee, and also one of the first federal judges in the State. He was for many years, and up to a short time before his death, Comptroller of the Treasury at Washington, where he died. Another brother, William Anderson, was a Congressman from the State of Dela- ware. Inslee Anderson, another of the brothers, was killed in one of the battles of the Revolution. Dr. Thomas Anderson, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, is a son of Judge Joseph Anderson, mentioned above. Judge Deaderick's maternal grandmother was an Inslee. His mother died at Jonesborough in 1856, at the advanced age of eighty-five. She was a lady of fine literary tastes, of extensive reading, and possessed a remarkable store of information upon a great variety of subjects. She was by nature kind, affectionate and generous, and a working member of the Presbyterian church. It was truthfully said of her, " No better woman ever lived than she."
In his youth Judge Deaderick enjoyed excellent educational advantages. After a course of primary training at home, he entered East Tennessee College at
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Knoxville (now the University of Tennessee), and afterwards Centre College, at Danville, Kentucky, then under the presidency of John C. Young. While at Danville, be became engaged to his wife, and married her before completing his college course, being at the time under twenty years of age. Soon after his mar- riage he settled at Check's Cross-roads, in Jefferson (now Hamblen) county, where he commenced merchan- dising in 1833, on a limited capital, carrying on a farm at the same time. Generous and confiding, without business experience or knowledge of men, and fond of good living and the manly sports of the day, he soon ran through his moderate patrimony, most of it going to pay security debts for friends for whom he had endorsed. In 1841 he left Check's Cross-roads and went to Iowa, under an appointment from President Tyler as Indian agent for the Pottawattomies. He remained there only some six or eight months, when he returned to Jonesborough and commenced the study of law, Judge Luckey lending him books and giving him some instruction. He was admitted to the bar in 1844, at Jonesborough, by Judge, Luckey and Chancel- lor Thomas L. Williams, Judge L. remarking, when he presented himself to be examined for license, " You need no examination." He opened an office at Jones- borough and practiced in that circuit with reasonable success until the close of the civil war. Having been a sympathizer with the South in that unfortunate struggle, he was, after its close, subjected to much trouble and annoyance from the "truly loyal" people of that section, to avoid which he removed, in the spring of 1866, to Bristol, on the Tennessee and Vir- ginia line, where he remained for about a year, when he removed to Knoxville, remaining there until he was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court in 1870, under the present Constitution of the State, which was adopted in that year. Since his elevation to the Supreme bench he has made his home at Jones- borough.
In the division of parties which prevailed from the time of his majority till the disruption of the old Whig organization, some years prior to the civil war, Judge Deaderick was an ardent follower of the great Harry of the West. Affer the war he allied himself' with the Democratic party, but having been on the beach for most of the time, has taken no active part in politics,
Ile has frequently occupied public stations, and always with honor to himself and advantage to those whom he served. From 1833 to 1841 he was postmaster at Check's Cross-roads, and in the last-named year was agent for the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians. In 1851-52, he was chosen Senator in the General Assembly from the dis- triet composed of the counties of Washington, Sullivan, Carter and Johnson. At that session he served as chair man of the committee on internal improvements. This was the session of the Legislature at which the internal improvement act, known as the "omnibus bill," was
passed, which loaned the credit of the State to sev- eral railroad companies. The bonds issued under this act and subsequent enactments are the obligations that have entered so largely into the politics and legislation of the State since the war. Judge Deaderick advocated and voted for all the internal improvement measures adopted at that session. In 1860 he was elector on the Bell and Everett ticket for the first congressional dis- trict. As before stated, he was elected to the Supreme bench in 1870, and re-elected in 1878. In 1875, upon the death of Chief Justice A. O. P. Nicholson, he was chosen Chief Justice by his associates on the bench, and unanimously re-elected in 1878.
Judge Deaderick is a member of the Presbyterian church-the church of his mother-as are also his wife and all their children. He has never allied himself to but one secret society, the Odd-Fellows, which order he joined in 1845.
He was married at Danville, Kentucky, November 8, 1832, to Miss Adeline McDowell, daughter of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, known in his day as " the great surgeon of Kentucky." Dr. MeD. was a Virginian by birth. He studied his profession in Edinburgh, Scot- land, and is too well and widely known to need further mention here. He died in 1829, at the age of sixty. Judge Deaderick and his estimable wife, who still sur- vives to bless him in his old age, celebrated their golden wedding in Jonesborough on the Sth of November, 1882. Mrs. Deaderick's mother, Sarah Shelby, the first white female born in Kentucky, was the daughter of Gov. Isaac. Shelby. Her death took place at Dan- ville, in that State, where she had always resided, at the age of sixty-five. She was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, "the corner-stone of that church in Danville," a woman of vigorous mind, highly culti- vated, of fine presence, and prided herself greatly on her domestic qualifications. Her mother, Susan Hart, of North Carolina, was the daughter of Nathaniel Hart, of that State. Her brother, Nat. Hart, was a prosperous farmer at Versailles, Kentucky. The Harts were all wealthy men, gentlemen of elegant leisure, Mrs. Deaderick's only surviving sister, Catharine, married . Judge D.'s cousin, Addison A. Anderson, who repre- sented Jefferson county in the Tennessee Legislature in 1818-19. He died in 1883, in Monroe county, Missouri, where his widow now resides. Mrs. Deaderick was edu- cated at Danville and Lexington, Kentucky, and is a lady of most admirable traits of character, a wise and safe counselor, and a helpmate in every sense to her dis- finguished husband. Even in her old age she is always busy, believing, as she says, it is a sin to be idle.
To Judge Deaderick and his worthy wife have been born ten children, as follows: (1). Arthur, a farmer in Washington county; married Miss Addie Walker, of New Market, daughter of James Walker, a farmer of that place, and has six children, viz. : James William, MeDowell, Lizzie, Lula, Charles and Monroe. (2).
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Shelby, who was killed in the battle of Chicamauga, September 21, 1863, leaving one child, a son, John Wallace; his widow, Louisa Brown Deaderick, is a daughter of Maj. Byrd Brown, of Washington county. (3). Anna Mary, widow of William D. Van Dyke, form- erly a prominent lawyer of Chattanooga, who died in 1883, leaving four children, Annie, Thomas Nixon, Fannie and Carey. . (1). James G., a lawyer, now residing in California, engaged in fruit culture, who married Miss Lizzie Sayers, of Virginia, and has two children, Ella and Howe. (5). D. Frank, a commission merchant, and at this writing mayor of Quincy, Illinois, who married Miss Nannie Haynes, daughter of Col. J. G. Haynes, of Washington county, by whom he has seven children, viz. : Mary, Fannie, Nannie, Frank, Lavinia, Carrie and Fred. (6). Wallace, a merchant and lawyer of Greeneville, Tennessee, who married Miss Sarah Hardin, daughter of Chief Justice Morde- cai Hardin, of Kentucky, and has two children, Sallie and Mary. (7). Alfred Shelby, a lawyer, living at Jonesborough ; married Miss Carter Luster, daughter of Rev. Mr. Luster, of Fincastle, Virginia; has four children, Kate, Lucy, Addie and James. (8). Louis, a farmer in Washington county; married Miss Nannie Bayless, daughter of Byrd Bayless, a farmer of that county ; has two children, Addie and Byrd. (9). Charles, a merchant at Hamilton, Missouri; married. Miss Sue Anderson, daughter of Addison A. Anderson, previously mentioned; has one child, Pauline. (10). Addie Me- Dowell, a graduate of Dr. Ward's Seminary, Nashville ; unmarried.
Judge Deaderick owes his success in life chiefly to a firm adherence to the principles of honesty instilled into him by his father, and to a faithful discharge of every duty devolved upon him in the various stations he has been called to occupy. His steady persistence in this course through his whole life has made him troops of friends, and secured the unbounded confidence of the people of his State, who have elevated him to the high- est judicial position in their power to bestow, Natur- ally one of the most modest and dillident of men, he never put himself forward -- never seemed to know the value of himself'; but the people, quick to discern true worth and ever ready to appreciate and reward the ex- ercise of noble qualities and high purposes, have singled him out and crowned him with the enviable distinction of their approval. When about to enter upon the practice of the law, he was somewhat despondent, in view of the rather unpromising prospect which pre- sented itself to him in the profession. At this time he was much strengthened in his purpose by the late Judge T. A. R. Nelson, who remarked to him : "It seems to me you look discouraged; but I know enough of the law and enough of you to feel sure that if you will persevere you will succeed." Taking courage from these words, he went forward and has achieved a measure of success attained by but few men in the profession. It must have been peculiarly gratifying to the generous and noble-hearted Nelson to find, in after years, the young lawyer whom he had thus encouraged in his early struggles, occupying a seat on the Supreme bench with himself.
HION. NEILL S. BROWN.
NASHVILLE.
T HE life of this gentleman may be considered as coeval with the history of Middle Tennessee. ITis father came to Giles county in 1809, and he was born the next year, There is a wonderful unity of type in these early pioneers of Tennessee, who settled in its central valley during the first decade of the nineteenth century, and impressed their best qualities on their descendants, who are now the leading families of the State. They came from the Carolinas or Virginia, where they were known to be of Scotch or Scotch Irish descent; they were Presbyterians of the old school ; plain, industrious farmers, who brought a moderate supply of the world's goods with them, and with it their frugal, simple habits and well-directed industry. Discipline was strict in their families, and a plain Eng- lish education was usually attainable by the young, an education, however, which was largely interspersed with work on the farm; in truth, it was generally the
half session system of six months' schooling and six months' work on the farm; an arrangement contem- plated with high disdain by those trained on the modern high pressure systera, but which gave our Websters to the North, our Clays to the West, and our Wrights and Browns, Friersons, Coopers and Flemings, and a host of other great men, to Tennessee.
In such a community Neill S. Brown manfully strug- gled on his way from obscurity to distinction. His sur- roundings were depressing and discouraging to youthful ambition beyond what was cominon, even in that modest settlement. The limitations of his home must have amounted to actual poverty; for, whether from de- ficiency of means or from the need of his labor on the farm, his education did not commence until his seven- teenth year. Most minds would have been crushed and deadened under such depressing circumstances; not so the indomitable spirit of Neill S. Brown. He was only
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stimulated to the more heroic efforts to raise himself above the humiliating level in which he found himself. From the little known about his boyhood, he seems to have been thoughtful beyond his years ; not unsocial, but evidently possessed of the aspirations that come in more mature life. 'He was, even then, seeking to break through the close environment that hemmed him in. When, at length, in his seventeenth year, he did commence his school education, it was by his own savings, the scanty carnings of his previous labor ; and, when these were exhausted, he taught school himself to acquire means for further instruction.
In 1831 he entered what was called the Manual Labor Academy in Maury county, and studied there two sessions, after which he taught school in Giles county for a short time.
In 1833 he commenced the study of law with Chan- cellor Bramlett at Pulaski, and was admitted to the bar at the close of 1834, at Pulaski, by Judges Bram- lett and Stuart. He now opened an office at Pulaski, at which place, with some interruptions, he practiced law till 1847. The first interruption was a trip he made to Texas, in 1835, to test the probability of doing a lucrative practice there ; but not meeting with encour- agement, he returned to Tennessee the same year. In 1836 he enlisted in Armstrong's brigade for the Semi- nole war in Florida. ITe was in the battle on the Withlacoochee, October 13, 1836. He went out as a private and was promoted to be sergeant-major of his regiment, the First Tennessee.
His political life now commences, for before his re- turn from Florida he was nominated by the Whig party candidate for presidential elector on the ticket of the HIon. Hugh L. White. In that and in the two succes- sive presidential elections, he took the stump for the Whig candidates in the same capacity, viz. : in 1840, for Gen. Harrison, and in 1844, for Henry Clay.
In 1837 he was elected a member of the State Legis- lature, wherein he served for a session, the youngest member in it.
In 1847 he was elected Governor of Tennessee, served one term and has since resided in Nashville. He was the youngest man eyer elected to the gubernatorial office. When it is taken into consideration that he went to school for the first time in his seventeenth year, and in only twenty more years had so impressed the people of Tennessee with his merits and abilities as to receive at their hands the highest office they were capable of bestowing, the career of Gov. Brown may be considered unique in the records of political life. The chief faculty by which this eminence was attained was his matchless power of addressing crowds of men. Sprung himself from the very heart of the people, he knew what was in that mighty heart, and could count its every throb, and his speeches were those of a man speaking from his own experience to those whose expe- rience had been the same. The college trained orator
cannot meet such a man before the populace without defeat, whatever he may do in the Senate and at the bar.
In 1850 he was commissioned by President Taylor as minister to Russia, in which capacity he resided in that country three years.
In 1853 he was elected to the State Legislature as member for Davidson county, and, when the Assem- bly met, was elected by it Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In 1856 he was again in his element as a popular orator, being placed on the electoral ticket for the State at large in the interest of Mr. Fillmore, this time can- vassing the whole State, and acquiring universal reputa- tion as an eloquent and powerful champion of Whig principles.
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