Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 22

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

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On his paternal side Dr. Maddin is of Irish extrac- tion. His grandfather, Maddin, was an Irish patriot, and was compelled to leave that country as a refugee on account of his loyalty to his native land. He settled in Philadelphia and died there.

Dr. Maddin's father was Rev. Thomas Maddin, D.D., a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and for upwards of sixty years an itinerant preacher. He was stationed in Nashville, Tennessee, as early as 1817, and organized the first church Sunday-school in that city. He repeatedly represented his conference in the General Conference of the church. From his per sonal character he was not only esteemed but sincerely loved by all with whom he had ministerial, social and personal relations. He was a firm, stern, uncompro- mising man on all questions where right was concerned, yet gentle and kind, and of a most lovable nature, His native modesty and sensitiveness of character were such that he wasalways shocked at unrefined or profane lan- guage used in his presence, and would turn away from the company of that kind. He was not only a very distin- guished divine, but ranked among the foremost, both in council and in pulpit, as one of the highest digni- taries of his church. A natural born orator, he did much to popularize and advance Methodisin in Ken- tueky, Tennessee and Alabama. He was also a Mason of high rank, and for a time was Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. He died in Nashville in 1871, at the age of seventy-six.

Dr. Maddin's mother's maiden name was Miss Sarah Moore, a native of Kentucky, of an old Maryland fam-

ily. Iler father was a farmer near Louisville, Ken- tucky. She was devoted to her family and her domestic duties, and her life was characterized by great gentleness and purity, traits which her children seem to have largely inherited. It is said of her that she was never heard to speak a harsh word. Her children obeyed her, not through fear, but because they loved, honored and revered her, which made it always their pleasure to shape their conduct in accordance with her teachings and her wishes. Her's was that sort of family discipline that made the children feel punished if they offended or disobeyed her. She died at her home near Huntsville, Alabama, in 1864, at the age of sixty-four, having been the mother of eight children: (1). Mary Maddin, wife of Dr. F. E. H. Steger, near Huntsville, Alabama. She has four children ; Capt. Thomas M. Steger, a prominent lawyer at Nashville: Dr. Robert W. Steger, a successful physician, now living in Chicago; Mrs. James Jackson, of North Alabama, and Miss Alice Steger. (2). Dr. Thomas L. Maddin, subject of this sketch. (3). Prof. Ferdinand P. Maddin, a very suc- cessful educator, first at Athens, Alabama, then at Columbia, Tennessee, and now at Waco, Texas, where he has lived since 1857. He was for many years presi- dent of Waco College. He married Miss Mattie Malone, daughter of Thomas Hill Malone, a planter of Limestone county, Alabama. He has four children : Dr. Stith Maddin, of Waco; Thomas Maddin; Miss Josie Maddin and Miss Pearl Maddin. (4). Dr. John W. Maddin, an eminent physician of Nashville, whose biographical sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. (5). Margaret F. Maddin, now the widow of Andrew J. Connally. She has one child, Miss Ammie Connally. These two constitute Dr. Thomas L. Maddin's family, and make their home with him. Dr. Maddin has never married.

Though not a politician, Dr. Maddin is an hereditary Democrat. The only Whig vote he ever cast was for Hon. Gustavus A. Henry, for Governor of Tennessee, because the views of his opponent, Andrew Johnson, were something too agrarian to suit the doctor's polit- ical ideas.

Dr. Maddiu has not only made a name among the leading physicians and surgeons of the South, but he has been comfortably successful financially. He began business life without inheritance, and has often been heard to say, of his youth and early manhood, it was the highest pride of his life to be self-sustaining. His note has never gone to pro- test. He has lost some money by endorsing for friends, but has made it a cardinal feature of his financial operations never to go in debt beyond his ability to check upon the bank. His success has come from his devotion to his profession and an ambi- tion to qualify himself in the highest sense for its administration, loving it as a science and for the bless- ings it puts in his power to bestow upon his fellow men ;

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therefore he has practiced not altogether for pecuniary profit, but from a spirit of humanity and professional pride. He has never used tobacco, nor been a drinker of intoxicating spirits. Governed by the instructions of his good parents, the warp of his early education in Christianity has controlled his life. He has been a mem- ber of the Methodist church from early childhood, and believes it the duty of every one to identify themselves with some Christian institution, yet he is known to be liberal in reference to opinions and creeds, and very charitable in his judgment of men's motives and actions. Ilis moral creed is to keep a conscience void of offense.

He had a liberal college education ; his preference was the law, but his father wanted to make a preacher of him, so they compromised on medicine; the study of which, as a science, opens up to a man the noblest con- ceptions of nature, of his God and of his own destiny.

Dr. Maddin is five feet ten inches high, weighs one hundred and fifteen pounds, has fine silky hair and beard, a face unwrinkled and a form unstooped by the weight of years, though he is a man of the most delicate organization and of the finest sensibilities, as his splen- did portrait, itself a study, shows at a glance. It is the very picture of health and amiability.

HION. JAMES CROGHAN HARREL.

ELBA.

T' HE peaceful, uneventful life of a planter, a coun- try gentleman and a magistrate, who lives a life of dignity and usefulness in the place of his birth, may not present salient points of interest to stimulate the attention of strangers, but is apt to exemplify qualities (as in the present instance) more beneficial to society than the achievements of the military hero, or the intrigues of the political aspirant.

James C. Harrel was born near the little town of Elba, in Fayette county, October 5, 1839, where he still resides, honored and beloved by a community which could not have been uninformed if any stain had fallen upon his character, for he has been subject to their observation from childhood to the present day. The son of a planter, he adopted agriculture as the occupa- tion of his choice, though qualified by education and intellect for any of the professions which attract the adhesion of ambitious youth.

From the age of six to thirteen he attended the country schools of his neighborhood, after which he was sent to Somerville, the county seat, thence to LaGrange College, and finally to Semple Broaddus College, Mississippi, which he left in 1859, during his junior year, returned home, devoted himself to farming, and married, Omitting the period of his service in the army, farming has been his leading occupation ever since.

Ile entered the Confederate States army in 1863, as first lieutenant in company C, Ballantine's regiment, and served with it in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, participating in the battles of Holly Springs (under Van Dorn), Jackson, the Georgia cam- paign from Dalton to Atlanta, and with Hood from the time of evacuation at Lovejoy, through the battles of Murfreesborough, Franklin and Nashville. He was surrendered at Selma, Alabama, under Gen. Frank Armstrong, in April, 1865.

Returning home after the war, he found himself stripped of everything except his land, of which, how- ever, he resumed the cultivation under all the disad- vantages which attended southern agriculture after our civil conflict.

In 1867 he established a store at Rossville, but moved his business, in 1870, to Elba, and still lives on the old homestead, and cultivates the old plantation.

Mr. Harrel has been a Democrat from his youth upward, and adheres tenaciously to the old party, taking an active interest in elections, but seeking none of the spoils of party warfare. He was elected a magistrate in 1876, and still holds the office. In 1884 he was elected to the State Legislature, a striking proof of the estimation in which he is held in. Fayette county, which generally votes Republican by fifteen hundred majority. On taking his seat, he was placed on the committees on public schools, railroads, penitentiary, agriculture, public roads, labor, tippling and tippling- houses. He is a thorough business member, never absent from his post, active in business, without making speeches about it.

Hle is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight of Honor, and a member of the Ancient Order United Workmen. He has been a member of the Christian church since 1874, though originally a Baptist.

His moral character is stainless. He was an obedient boy to his parents; was never drunk in his life; never bet a nickel on anything; was never in a house of ill- fame, but has lived consistently the life to which he was trained by his Christian parents.

Mr. Harrel's father, Ira Harrel, was born in Nash county, North Carolina, in 1802; he settled in Fayette county early in life, when that part of Tennessee was a wilderness. He, as well as his two sous, were all magis- trates in their respective counties. He died October 20, 1856, leaving six children, namely : (1). Mattic A.,

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widow of J. M. Williams, (2). James C., subject of this sketch. (3). Callie D., wife of Virginius II. Swift, · a farmer. (4). Lucy A., wife of J. H. Mitchell, a farmer. (5). William R. ; married Jennie Buchanan, of Williamson county, Tennessee; farmer, lawyer and magistrate of Collierville, Shelby county. (6). Ida T., died wife of Dr. John Buchanan, of Collierville, Ten- nexico, leaving a daughter, Blanche.

Mr. Harrel's mother was Temperance. Barnes, born in Nash county, North Carolina, died October 13, 1879. She was a successful business manager during her widowhood, and a good mother. .

Mr. Harrel married near Elba, Fayette county, Ten- nowee, March 17, 1859. Ilis wife was Miss Fannie Mitchell (a schoolmate), born April 20, 1843, daughter of Thomas H. Mitchell, a planter, who died in the infancy of his daughter. Her mother, Elizabeth New- som, was married by Mr. Mitchell in her North Caro- lina home. Mrs. Harrel is their only surviving child.

By his marriage with this lady Mr. Harrel became father of eleven children, ten of whom are still alive.

The survivors are : (1). William Clarence, born May 5, 1861; graduated at a commercial school, Atlanta, Georgia; married, November 19, 1881, Miss Florence Canada, a schoolmate, following herein his father's example ; she was a daughter of the Rev. J. B. Canada, a Baptist clergyman. (2). James Elton, born August 1, 1864; graduated at a Memphis commercial school ; he and his brother William constitute the firm of Harrel Brothers, drugeists, Collierville, Tennessee. (3). John Lindsley, born February 7, 1866; engaged in farming. ' (4). Effie Celestine, born July 4, 1869, studying at Bellevue College. (5). Earl Herbert, born August -4, 1871. (6). Walter Ovid, born December 31, 1874. (7). Twins, Bessie May and Jesse June, born November 7, 1876; Bessie died July 23, 1877. (8). Susie Matthews, born June 23, 1878. (9). Frank T .; born December 13, 1880. (10). Cora Peck, born Janu- ary 9, 1883. "Blessed is he that has his quiver full of them,"

Mrs. Harrel has lived, since her marriage, a life of wise and devoted affection for this extensive family. The Harrels are of Irish descent.

CAPT. SAMUEL RANKIN LATTA.

DYERSBURG.

T HTE name Latta is Welsh, but the family came to America from Ireland. Capt. Samuel Rankin Latta's grandfather, John Latta, was born in Ireland, married a Miss Rankin there, and settled in eastern Pennsylvania, in the latter part of the last century. He was a millwright, and was killed in building a mill in western Pennsylvania. He left two children, John and Mary, the latter dying very young. John Latta became the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1798, and was a saddler by trade, and noted for his industry, economy, sobriety and intelligence, and for being de- voutly religious, He died in Dyersburg, Tennessee, at the age of seventy-six, leaving three surviving children, John G., William B. and Samuel R. John G. Latta has for fifteen years been postmaster at Newton, Massa- chusetts. William B. Latta died at Dyersburg, un- married. Another son, James M. Latta, died in 1857. He married in Pennsylvania, and left two children, Lucy, now wife of John G. Seat, of Dyersburg, and Samuel J., now in mercantile life at Memphis.

Capt. Latta's mother, who died at Dyersburg in 1870, at the age of eighty-one, was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of John Gilchrist, a planter and slavehloder in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. He was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary war, He married a Miss Berryhill, of Dauphin county. Capt. Latta's 1:

mother was remarkable for her domestic economy and industry, and was animated with an ambition to raise her children respectably.

Samuel Rankin Latta was born December 2, 1827, in New Alexandria, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, but his father having moved to Blairsville, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, in 1837, the son went to the connon schools and to academy there until the age of seventeen, when the father, no longer able to send him to school, allowed him to do for himself. In boyhood he did but little work, except at the age of fourteen, when he worked one year in his father's saddler's shop. When he started to the academy, which he attended three years, his ambition was to become a lawyer, but his hopes were deferred for a number of years. At the age of seventeen he taught school in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania-taught school in winter and went to school himself in summer. He taught three years in Pennsylvania and three years, 1851-52-53, at Dyersburg, Tennessee. He, however, previous to coming to Dyersburg, attended Washington College, Washing- ton, Pennsylvania, and also Jefferson College, Pennsyl- vania, from which latter institution he graduated in 1850, under President Brown. He made the money himself on which he was educated. When he started out in life at the age of twenty-three, he had, besides his education, a stout heart and a firm resolution, and

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

just forty-five cents in money. After graduating he came south looking for a situation as a school-teacher, because teaching paid better south than in the north. He came to Dyersburg by accident. He had taken passage on an Ohio river boat for Memphis, intending to go to Mississippi, when a fellow-passenger told him of a vacant situation at Dyersburg. He came to that town from Hickman, Kentucky, on foot, carrying a big carpet-bag, on which account Capt. Latta often laughs now, and calls himself an original carpet-bagger. He soon got a good situation, and soon after married and settled, and is . till living in the house he first occupied, one-half' mile out from the town.

Hle began studying law in Dyersburg in his twenty- fifth year, under his present partner, Col. T. E. Rich- ardson, and was licensed by Chancellor John W. Harris and Judge John Read. He has continued in practice in Dyersburg from the date of his admission to the bar till the present, some thirty-five years, practicing in all the courts of the State and in all branches of the pro- fession, but prefers chancery practice. A peculiarity of Col. Latta's methods is that he dissuades men from litigation, and he has probably broken up more lawsuits than most lawyers. Before juries and judges he relies on the merits of his cases, seldom indulges in long speeches, and has always got along pleasantly with both bench and bar.

In May, 1861, he took a company, " The Dyer Grays," of which he was captain, into the Confederate service, and joined Col. John V. Wright's (afterwards Col. A. J. Vaughn's) Thirteenth Tennessee infantry regiment. He fought at the battles of Belmont and Shiloh, and left the army after the latter engagement on account of domestic affliction which compelled his attendance at home.

Capt. Latta was raised by Presbyterian parents, and, indeed, his ancestors on both sides were orthodox Presbyterians for two hundred years. He joined the church in 1858, and for the last twenty-five years has been a ruling elder; served as lay delegate to the Gen- eral Assembly at Knoxville in 1878, and several times in synods and presbyteries. He was also at one time continuously for fifteen years a Sunday school super- intendent.

Capt. Latta is a Democrat, recently a "sky-blue" Democrat, and in favor of paying dollar for dollar the State's indebtedness. It was doubtless the tenacity with which he has held to this principle that prevented his nomination and election to Congress, his friends having pressed his name before conventions several times.

In 1852 Capt. Latta was made a Master Mason in Hess Lodge No. 93, Dyersburg, and has taken the Chapter degrees, and filled all the offices in both Lodge and Chapter. He joined the Odd-Fellows in 1831, and passed all the chairs of both Lodge and Encampment. He became a Knight of Honor in ISSI.

In 1870 he was appointed a director in the Mississippi River railroad.

In h's profession and general business he has been quite successful. He owns real estate in Dyersburg and several unimproved tracts in Dyer county. Payin; close attention to his business and by trading some, ho has, however, been on principle opposed to accumu lating a big fortune for his children, believing that it is better to turn out a child with a good education and let him go and manage for himself. " If I had began life with a fortune," he once said, " I do not believe I should have been any account. Boys who are pushed out and forced to rely on themselves, make better citizens, and as a rule, make the most money." He las been all his life a very liberal donator to charitable en- terprises, and his reputation in this line costs him ; great deal annually. At no time in his life has he ever been wild or dissipated. In managing his business he has frequently gone in debt, mostly for lands, but has always paid promptly, and was never sued on his own debt.

Capt. Latta married at Eaton, Gibson county, Ten- nessee, December 9, 1852, Miss Mary Grainger Guthrie, a native of Greene county, East Tennessee, the daughter of John Guthrie, a Scotchman, and an iron manufac- turer in East Tennessee at an early day. Her mother was Miss Minerva Wear, of East Tennessee. Mrs. Latta graduated in 1851 at the Columbia Female Institue, Columbia, Tennessee, under Rector Smith, and is a lady who has the happy faculty of making everybody her friend ; is of a most amiable disposition, loved especially by the young people, popular with all her associates, and a lady of strong will and fine intellect. Losing her parents at an early age, she was raised among strangers, and like her husband, had to make her way in the world. She taught a school one session before and one session after her marriage.

By his marriage with Miss Guthrie Capt. Latta has six children : (1). John G. Latta, born June 21, 1857; educated at Newton, Massachusetts, and at Poughkeep- sie, New York, and by private teachers at home, and is now clerking in the Merchants National Bank, Little Rock, Arkansas, He married Miss Lee Poland, at Marshall, Texas, and has one child, a daughter, Leslie. (2). Kate Latta, born October 17, 1859; educated at home by private teachers ; married Prof. T. C. Gordon, a native of Louisiana, and has three children, Mary, Winfield Osceola and Sadie. (3). Sarah K. Latta, born February 12, 1862; educated by private teachers at home; attended Mary Sharpe College, Winchester, Tennessee, one year. (4). Mary Eleanor (" Nellie ") Latta, born March 9, 1861: educated by private teachers at home. (5). Frank Wallace Latta, born July 4, 1866; educated at Southwestern University, Clarksville, Tennessee. (6). Samuel Grainger Latta, born August 5, 1871.

Capt, Latta is a tall man with a flowing silvery beard, and has the air of one who has seen the world and has

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

little ambition for its honors. In manner, he is out- spoken, pointed and emphatic. In all his dealings he is candid to a fault. ITis chief happiness is in his wife and in his children, whom he has happily succeeded in raising with credit. Moral and great families make

great States, and he is the most patriotic citizen who bequeaths to his State intelligent, industrious and obe- dient children, of high moral tone, too proud to stoop to mean or little things, or to dishonorable practices or crooked methods.

JOHN WESLEY ELDER.

TRENTON.

JOHN WESLEY ELDER, the well-known Trenton banker and business man, was born in Rutherford county, Tennessee, June 4, 1819. His education was acquired mostly in the counting-room. When only eleven years old he became a clerk in the store of Niles & Elder, at Murfreesburough, his brother, James Elder, being the junior member of the firm. He re- mained with them four years, and then went to Trenton, Gibson county, Tennessee, in December, 1834, spending a few months with some relatives, then entered as clerk in a store at the village of Shady Grove, near where Milan now stands. Here he clerked eight months at ten dollars per month, one half of which he saved. From Shady Grove he returned to Trenton and took employment at two hundred dollars a year, under his brother, Benjamin Elder, one of the earliest merchants of West Tennessee. While doing business for him, he received in 1836 an invitation from a Rutherford county friend to go to Jacksonville, Alabama, and clerk for four hundred dollars per year. He accepted, and went. by way of Florence, Tuscumbia, Decatur and Gunter's Landing, walking from the latter place to Jacksonville, a distance of sixty miles over the mountains. He re- mained at Jacksonville until the latter part of 1838, when he went traveling to Mobile and New Orleans, and finally back to Trenton with about six hundred dollars that he had made and saved -- a very good start for a boy just turned nineteen years of age.

On January 1, 1810, he went into partnership with his brother, Benjamin, and these two did business together as merchants some twenty years, with good success. In 1852 he was elected a director of the branch Bank of Tennessee, at Trenton, and in 1851 was elected president of the same institution, but resigned during the course of the year. When the war broke out Mr. Elder was in possession of a very handsome property, the fruits of his exemplary industry and economy.

However, the happiest event of Mr. Elder's life oc- curred in June, 1841, when, at Jacksonville, Alabama, he married Miss Martha G. Houston. It was a true- love match, and the newly married young people began their life-long honeymoon by riding on horseback from Jacksonville to Trenton, a distance of two hundred and

sixty-five miles, which they accomplished in seven days, it being before the era of railroads-even buggies being ahnost unknown in that section, and when it was diffi- cult to find houses at which to spend the nights. Miss Houston was a daughter of Maj. Matthew McClung Houston, native of Blount county, East Tennessee, and kin to the Houston, Gillespie and McClung families of that section. Her great-grandfather and the grand- father of the celebrated Gen. Sam. Houston were brothers. Her mother, Mary Gillespie, was the daugh- ter of Esq. John Gillespie, of Blount county, Tennessee.

Mrs. Elder died at Trenton July 23, 1879, and now (together with her father and mother, Maj. M. M. Houston, and wife), lies buried in the cemetery at Trenton. Mrs. Elder's only brother, James M. Houston, is a very reputable merchant, now head of the house of Houston, West & Co., St. Louis. Mrs. Elder was edu- cated at Jacksonville, Alabama, and was a lady of very graceful person, and exceptionally excellent as a Christian, wife, mother, friend and neighbor. Her judgment was almost unerring, and to her husband she proved a wise counselor, a helpmate, indeed, and all that a good woman with a good head and a good heart could be.

Ten children were born unto them, six of whom are living and four dead. The latter were: (1). Henry Houston Elder, born August 17, 1812; died May 8, 1854. (2). Mary Eloise Elder, born May 29, 1850; died April 23, 1854. (3). Sallie May Elder, born No- vember 4, 1851; married Alexander B. White, of Paris, Tennessee, October 19, 1881; died September 12, 1882. (4). Robert Elder, died in infancy.

The children now living are as follows : (1). Leander Melville Elder, born July 16, 1817; graduated at An- drew College, Trenton ; and then spent three years at the University of Virginia; now practicing law at Chattanooga ; married, in 1876, Miss Mollie E. Saffarans, of Memphis, and has three children, Blanche, Irene and George. (2). Irene Amelia Elder; graduated in Trenton under the tuition of Prof. William K. Jones, now president of Martin College, Pulaski; married in 1872 Dr. Thomas J. Hoppel, who was educated at the Southern University, Greensborough, Alabama, and graduated in medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 22

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