Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 23

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

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College, New York ; has two children living, Tom and Horace. (3). Mattie Louise Elder; graduated at Jack- son, Tennessee, under Dr. J. K. Bright; married Robert F. Ross, a hardware merchant at Trenton, and has one child, Albert. (4). Lucie Belle Elder ; graduated at Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1879. (5). Gracie Elder ; completed her education at Pulaski under Prof. Wil- liam K. Jones. (6). Albert Sidney Elder, born Janu- ary 14, 1862; educated at Trenton, and since 1881 has been in the banking business with his father.

The Elder family is from Virginia, but originally came from England. Mr. Elder's father, William Elder, came from Dinwiddie county, Virginia, to Ruth- erford county, Tennessee, about 1810, and lived a farm- er. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. In 1837, he moved to Gibson county, Tennessee, and died there in 1851, at the good old age of eighty-five years. Ile was a passionate man, of florid complexion, high-strung temperament, and remarkable for integrity of character, for his word was his bond.

Mr. Elder's mother, nee Miss Mary Towler, was the daughter of Benjamin and Martha Towler, of Charles City. county, Virginia, near Richmond. Benjamin Towler was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.

Mrs. Elder was a lady of remarkable patience; a most inflexible Christian, of great strength and forti- tude of character, yet of a singularly calm and sweet disposition ; deliberate and philosophie in her views of life. She was a great lover of Christirn literature, and always had in her house her religious papers and period- icals. She died in January, 1865, at her son's house in Trenton, leaving six children, only four of whom are now living: (1). Benjamin Elder, now eighty-one years old, living on his farm one mile from Trenton. (2). James Elder, the prominent banker at Memphis, whose portrait and sketch appear elsewhere in this volume, and which should be read in connection with this biog- raphy. (3). Monroe B. Elder, now a farmer and stock raiser, four and a half miles from Trenton. (4). John Wesley Elder, subject of this sketch.

When the late war came on Mr. John W. Elder, who although as has been seen, was a quiet, successful busi- ness man, considered it his patriotic duty to volunteer in defense of the Confederate cause. He enlisted as a member of Col. Hill's Forty-seventh Tennessee regi-

ment, and at the bloody battle of Shiloh, in April, 1862, was badly wounded by a minnie ball, which made a permanent indentation in his head, deep as an acorn cup.

After the war, having lost four years of time, as well as his negroes and most of his other property, he went to Cincinnati, in September, 1865, to try and retrieve his fortunes. He did business for Duncan, Ford & Co., wholesale grocers, three months in 1865, and all of 1866, on a salary, at first, of two hundred dollars per month, which was raised to five thousand dollars a year. On January 1, 1867, he was admitted as a member of the firm, which conducted business under the style of Duncan, Ford & Elder, remaining in that firm in the wholesale grocery business until December 31, 1878. Ile then returned to Trenton, and organized the Gibson county Bank, of which institution he was elected presi- dent, and has continued in that position ever since. He is also a director in the Trenton Cotton Seed Oil Mills, and in the Trenton Cotton Factory Company.

In politics Mr. Elder is a Democrat, and cast his first vote for James K. Polk for governor of Tennessee.

He belongs to the Methodist church, which he joined in 1833, and has served as class-leader, steward, Sunday- school superintendent, and lay delegate to annual con- ferences. He was one year lay delegate to the confer- ence at Paducah. He is the only living member of the official board of Trenton station, organized in 1839. Something in his history of which he is very proud, is the fact that he has been superintendent of the Sunday- school thirty-three years. Very early in life he became identified with his church ; his parents were pious, and he has from boyhood tried to walk worthily of the Chris- tian character, and to square his life by the Word of God, which teaches one to be both fervent in spirit and diligent in business. It may be said, he was born indus- trious; there is not a drop of lazy blood in liis system, for he loves work, loves to be honest, and to deal on principles of square justice and equity. As a business man he has sought to inform himself through all channels accessible to him, and has kept wide awake, as the presence on his table of such works as " Hunt's Merchants' Magazine," The Bankers' Magazine," and other such eminent authorities amply testify. His character and his methods furnish a shining example to the young business men of Tennessae.

COL. JAMES L. · GAINES.

NASHVILLE.

OL. GAINES was born in Knoxville, December 3, 1836, but in his thirteenth year moved with his father to Buncombe county, North Carolina, where, as in Knoxville, he did business as a merchant. He was

educated at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, and graduated there in 1859. His college course completed, he studied law for a year under Judge Bailey, at Black Mountain, North Carolina and obtained

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license from Chief Justice Pearson, of the Supreme Court of that State; he never, however, practiced law in his life. He moved the same year to St. Charles, Missouri, and became professor of mathematies in the college of that name, but in 1861 returned to North Carolina and entered the Confederate army, his father furnishing him a horse and equipments, and hurrying him off, "lest," as he said, " he should be too late for the fight." (the first battle of Manassas); he was too late, but participated in every other in which his command was engaged. He commenced service in the first North Carolina cavalry as a private, under the command of Col. Robert Ransom, brother of the present United States Senator from North Carolina, and was promoted sergeant, lieutenant, adjutant of his regiment, then adjutant of the North Carolina cavalry brigade, after- wards colonel of the second North Carolina cavalry, and was recommended by W. H. F. Lee for a brigadier's commission, too late for the recommendation to be acted on, the calamity of Appomattox intervening. He was at first in Wade Hampton's division, afterwards in that of W. H. F. Lee, but always in the great cavalry corps of J. E. B. Stewart, under whose command he partici- pated in the retreat from Centreville, the battles around Richmond, the fight at Brandy Station, in the. first Maryland campaign, the Pennsyvania campaign, includ- ing Gettysburg, and all the subsequent great battles, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the campaign around Richmond and Petersburg. At the battle of Five Forks he was wounded in the elbow-joint, and amputation became necessary. This occurred only ten days before the surrender at Appomattox, at which he was present, having traveled thither in an am- bulance.

To anticipate matters a little, on arriving home he presented himself with an empty sleeve to the lady to whom he was engaged, offering to release her on ac- count of his mutilation and his poverty. She refused to be released and a marriage soon followed.

As soon as he was able to travel, Col. Gaines returned to St. Louis, covered with the honors of war, but stripped of every thing else. The marriage above alluded to took place. The lady was Miss Belle Porter, a native of St. Mary's, Ohio, ouly daughter of Erastus Porter, a wealthy retired merchant of that place. The marriage took place November 22, 1865; Mr. Porter died four years after.

After his marriage Col. Gaines moved to New York and engaged in the wholesale grocery business, the style of the firm being Harris, Gaines & Co. The firm established a branch concern in Savannah, Georgia, and Col. Gaines went to that city to manage the busi ness there.

In 1869 ho moved to Knoxville and engaged in the shoe trade in partnership with his brother, Ambrose

Gaines, and was so occupied till elected comptroller of the State treasury, when he removed to Nashville. He was first elected to this office by the Legislature of Tennessee, in 1875, and re-elected in 1877 and 1879, serving in all six years, under Govs. James, D. Porter and Albert S. Marks.

Since his first election as comptroller he has resided in Nashville, and is now of the firm of Duncan & Gaines, brokers, miners and coal merchants.

The grandfather of Col. Gaines was Ambrose Gaines, originally from Culpepper Court-house, Virginia, but settled in Sullivan county, Tennessee, and became suc- cessful as a pioneer and farmer there. He was of the same family with Gen. Edmond Pendleton Gaines. Matthew Gaines, his son, was the father of Col. Gaines, the subject of this sketch. He was born in Sullivan county, Tennessee, but was living in Knoxville when Col. Gaines was born. Some years afterwards, he moved to Buncombe county, North Carolina, where he was long engaged in business. He is now living with his son in his seventy-ninth year. He is a member of the Methodist church, of which he has been trustee and steward. Ile is also a Royal Arch Mason, and a Democrat. 3

Col. Gaines' mother was a Miss Margaret Luftrel, a native of Knox county, Tennessee, daughter of James C. Luttrel, a large farmer and slaveholder. She is now living in Nashville with Col. Gaines, in her sixty-eighth year. Her mother was Martha Armstrong, of the East Tennessee family of Armstrongs. Col. Gaines' maternal uncle, James C. Luttrel, was comptroller of the treasury of Tennessee in 1855-6-7.

Mrs. Gaines, wife of the colonel, was educated at St. Charles, and at St Louis, Missouri. She is a member of the Episcopal church, and is noted for her beauty and her remarkably youthful appearance. They have had three children : (1). Ambrose Porter, born in New York, November 6, 1866; now a student at Nashville, (2). Lillian, born in Savannah, Georgia, December 17, 1868, died at Nashville, April, 1876. (3). James L., born in the Maxwell House, Nashville, September, 1878.

Col. Gaines is a member and vestryman of the Pro- testant Episcopal church, a Master Mason, a member of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Knights of Honor. In polities he is a Democrat, but not an active partisan.

Requested to state his methods of life he answered : " I have always tried to do my duty in whatever posi- tion I have been placed."

Hle is six feet high, of slender frame, weighs one hundred and forty-eight pounds, without his arm, has a long head, clear face and high forehead. To this editor he appears an exceptionally modest and retiring man, content to do his duty and take his share of the world's work

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THOMAS LIPSCOMB, M.D.

SHELBYVILLE.

T" HITS gentleman was born in Louisa county, Vir- ginia, July 22, 1808. Hle was brought up on a farm to do all sorts of work, such as coopering, house building and stocking plows, as well as farm work proper. IFe was not a college man, but received his education in the common schools of Virginia. In 1826 he left the " Old Dominion," and moved with his father to Tennessee, settling first in Franklin county. In 1829 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Robert Turner at Winchester. In the fall of 1830 he attended med- ical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, and remained there about five months. This trip he had to make across the country, traveling about six hundred and fifty miles each way on horse- back. Being determined to make his way, and not pos- sessing the means to go on with his course, he returned to Tennessee and began practice, at the same time con- tinuing his studies. A few months after he removed to Shelbyville, Bedford county, Tennessee, where he has ever since remained, having been in the practice of medicine over fifty-four years, long enough to see the people who first settled in the town pass away and a new generation take their places; long enough to see men whom he attended at birth grow up to be grandfathers, and to attend at the birth of their grandchildren. The first night after his arrival at Shelbyville, he was called to visit the daughter of a prominent merchant, and he at once began a suc- cessful practice which continued to flourish. He has practiced there through three epidemies of cholera -- 1833, 1866 and 1873. Meanwhile, he has paid consid- erable attention to surgery as well as medicine, and at the advanced age of seventy-three performed success fully the difficult operation of ovariotomy. He has also operated a number of times for strangulated hernia, and performed numerous amputations of thighs, arms and legs; has exsected many tumors, large and small, including the mammary glands, and used the trophine very often. In all his surgical operations Dr. Lipscomb has been very successful.

Dr. Lipscomb has also been the author of numerous valuable artices on professional topics in the Louisville Medical Journal and the Nashville Medical Journal. In 1840 he had the honorary degree of Doctor of Medi- cine conferred upon him by the University of Louisville, and some years ago received the same degree from the Tennessee Medical College. He has been a member of the American Medical Association for many years; is a member, and has served as president, of the Bedford County Medical Society ; also as president of the State Medical Society of Tennessee. Of the latter body he is the oldest living member, having been present at its see

ond meeting in Nashville in 1831, and has been a mem- ber continuously since that remote time. Dr. James Roane was then president of the society, and some of those who attended were Drs. Felix Robertson, Samuel Hogg, Boyd MeNairy, James Newman, John II. Waters, John Shelby, Higgenbotham, Wallace Estill and John Lawrence. Dr. Lipscomb has always labored earnestly for the success of this honorable body, and has done much to keep it together.

Dr. Lipscomb was president of the branch Bank of Tennessee at Shelbyville for several years previous to the late war. In 1854 he purchased a farm near Shel- byville and engaged in farming as well as the practice of medicine. After the war he became vice-president of-the Bedford County Agricultural Society, was after- wards made president and served three years. The past thirteen years he has been a director of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis railroad, has also filled the position of director in the Shelbyville Savings Bank several years, and for many years has been president of the board of trustees of the Shelbyville Female Institute. lle was one of the founders of the Victor flouring mills, and, together with his sons, now owns and con- trols them.

Several years prior to the war he was postmaster at Shelbyville, serving two years. He has been a member of the Presbyterian church upwards of fifty years, and has been three times elected an elder, but never con- sented to serve until about three years ago, when he was elected for the third time.

Politically. Dr. Lipscomb has always voted with the Democrats, to whose party he was won by Andrew Jackson during the nullification 'struggles. However, he has never taken any very active part in politics.

The Lipscomb family is of English descent, Dr. Thomas Lipscomb's great-grandfather being an Englishman. He had only two sons, Thomas and John, Thomas being the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He lived in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, and was a farmer, William Lipscomb, the father of Dr. Thomas Lipscomb, was born and raised on his father's farm in Virginia, and followed the profession of his ancestors. He married Miss Ann Day Cook, of Louisa county, Virginia, and removed to that county, where he lived an honest, industrious farmer, rearing a family of ten children -- five daughters and five sons, all sober, steady men, and all the sons dead except the subject of this sketch-training them in all the virtues and precepts that help to form the character of good men and women. As before stated, he removed with his family from Virginia to Middle Tennessee in 1826.

Dr. Lipscomb's brother, Dr. Dabney M. Lipscomb,

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though two years his senior, read medicine with him moved first to Mississippi and then to Tarrant county Texas, where he died, April 5th, 1885. Though he never received a classical education, he determined to read the Scriptures in the language in which they were writ- ten, and after he began the practice of his profession, mastered Greek, Latin and Hebrew without a teacher.

The mother of Dr. Lipscomb was Miss Ann Day Cook, daughter of Rev. William Cook, a Baptist min- ister in Louisa county, Virginia.

Dr. Lipscomb has been twice married : First, on May 22, 1832, to Miss Rebecca Stevenson, of Straban, Ireland, who came to the United States in 1830. This union was blessed with ten children, all of whom lived toadult age: (1). Mary Ann, married John Davidson, and is now dead (2). Harriet E., who married her cousin, Walter S. Lipscomb, and died leaving two children, now in Waco, Texas. (3). Sarah J., married to U. E. Peacock, of Shelbyville. (4). Virginia, who married William C. Little, and is now a widow with two children. (5). Agnes, wife of Henry C. Whiteside, of Shelbyville. (6). William E., who was a soldier in Forrest's command, and was killed during Hood's Tennessee campaign. (7). James S., now married to Miss Lula Allison, of Wil- liamson county. (8). Emma F., wife of Evander Shep-

hard. (9). Thomas C., married to Miss Laura A. Banks, of Columbia, Missouri. (10). Fannie Steven- SON.

Mrs. Lipscomb died December 6, 1880, and on Octo- ber 26, 1882, Dr. Lipscomb married Miss Mary A. Cowan, of Shelbyville, a lady of Irish descent, and related to the Cowan and Eakin families of Nashville.

The success of Dr. Lipscomb in life is largely due to his early training and to the instruction he received, by precept and example, from prudent and careful parents. Reared in a plain and frugal manner, he was taught to believe that work is a good thing, economy a virtue, and extravagance an evil. When he was attending school he always had to work on Saturdays and in the evenings after school. While at Philadelphia he was thrown with young men who frequented the theaters and other places of amusement, but he had gone there to study, and the only time he ever went sight-seeing was on Christmas-day, when he visited Peel's museum, and spent twenty-five cents. At night he would read over in the text-books everything that had been lectured upon that day. He has always been a hard- worker and close student; yet, at the same time, has, with faithfulness and honesty, discharged all duties devolving upon him.

HON. FLETCHER R. BURRUS.

MURFREESBOROUGH.

T IlIS gentleman was born, September 16, 1844, in Rutherford county, Tennessee, and has always lived in that county. The Burrus family are of Scotch- Irish origin. His great grandfather Burrus emigrated to America and settled in Amherst county, Virginia, in the early part of the eighteenth century, and was a large planter and slaveholder. His grandfather, Joseph Burrus, was born in Amherst county, Virginia, in 1765, and at the age of fifteen enlisted as a volunteer in the American Revolution, and participated as a private soldier at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at. Yorktown. He was several times a member of the House of Burgesses of the State of Virginia. Hc removed to Rutherford county, Tennessee, in 1805, and, upon the advice of Gen. Jackson, purchased lands on Stones river, and remained upon his plantation until his death, in 1821. He left a large family of sons and daughters who have intermarried with prominent fami- lies in Tennessee and other States, and his descendants are numerous, several of whom have figured with credit and ability in the political history of the southern States. He was a man of very positive convictions, of the highest order of morality, and of cultivated tastes.

Judge Burrus' second son was Lafayette Burrus,

father of Judge Fletcher R. Burrus, the subject of this sketch. Lafayette Burrus married, when quite young, Miss Eliza Ready, daughter of Charles Ready, sr., who settled in Rutherford county, in 1802, and died at Readyville, in 1859, aged ninety years. Charles Ready's wife was Miss Palmer, of a Maryland family. One of his sons, Col. Charles Ready, was, prior to the war, a leading lawyer in Tennessee, and served three terms in the lower house of Congress, and one of his daughetrs, Miss Nancy Ready, married Joshua Haskell and became the mother of Gen. William T. Haskell, one of the most gifted and brilliant orators this country has ever produced. Capt. W. C. J. Burrus, an unele to Fletcher R. Burrus, was a prominent political man in Tennessee and served several terms in the Legislature, and an aunt on the same side was the first wife of Gov. Aaron V. Brown. The Burrus and Ready families have been for a long time prominently known in Tennessee. [For additional matters of interest connected with the family of Fletcher R. Burrus' mother, the reader is dirceted to the sketches of Gen. J. B. Palmer, Hon. W. Il. Williamson, and Hon. A. B. Martin. ] Lafayette Bur- rus was born in Amherst county, Virginia, November 21, 1797, and died in Rutherford county, Tennessee,

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November 7, 1854. His wife, Eliza Ready, was born at Readyville, January 31, 1805, and died at Readyville, March 7, 1875.

Thirteen children were born to the parents of Fletcher R. Burrus, six of whom are living: (1). Elizabeth M., wife of George W. House, Murfreesbor- ough, Tennessee. (2). Dr. W. L: Burrus, Murfreesbor- ough, Tennessee. (3). Lucien B. Barras, a planter in Arkansas, (1). Cassandra A., wife of James M. Alex ander, Rutherford county, Tennessee. (5). Fletcher R. Burrus, subject of this sketch. (6). Lafayette Bur- rus, jr., Rutherford county, Tennessee. The children not living are: (1). Dr. Joseph C. Burrus, who was an eminent young physician at Napoleon, Arkansas. (2). Lucy Burrus, who died the wife of P. D. McCulloch. (3). Miss Martha A. Burrus, a young lady remarkable for the beauty of her person, who died just after attain- ing her position as a member of society. (4). Ophelia Maria Burrus, who died the wife of Gen. Joseph B. Palmer, whose sketch see elsewhere in this volume. (5). Robert A. Burrus, who followed mercantile pursuits with success, and died in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1879. (6). Francis Marion Burrus, who died before attaining his majority, a youth of much vigor and sprightliness. (7). Sophia Emma, who died the wife of F. II. Lytle, a lady of great beauty and possessed of qualities that made her a favorite social attraction.

The Burrus family have ever been an intelligent, cul- tivated people, the parents sparing no means to educate their children. It has been often remarked that the entire family were fine-looking, not a member of it having an ungainly feature. Another striking trait of the family is that they are very modest and retiring in their disposition, and are prompted only by a sense of duty to respond to the demands of society, to the end that they should not unworthily be considered as nega- tive citizens.

Judge Fletcher R. Barras was brought up on his father's farm, and was kept in the common schools of Murfreesborough and vicinity until the age of fifteen. In 1861 he entered the Western Military Institute as a cadet, and remained there until the following fall, when he left the military college to enter the Confederate army. He repaired to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he was at once commissioned drill-master with the rank of first lieutenant, by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, after a rigid examination by the general him- self. He continued in that position until the office ceased to exist, when he enlisted as a private in Com- pany C, Eighteenth Tennessee infantry regiment, com- manded by that magnificent sollier and officer, Col. Joseph B. Palmer. He was soon made sergeant-major and adjutant of the regiment, and afterwards was made inspector-general of the brigade-participating in all the battles in which his regiment and brigade were engaged from the battle of Murfreesborough, Tennessee, to Bentonville, North Carolina. He was wounded

seriously, but not dangerously, in the battle of Mur freesborough. He was in the battles of Murfreesbor ough, Chickamauga; Dalton, Resaca, Adairville, Nev Hope church, Kennesaw mountain, Powder Spring road and the skirmishing contests up to the gates of Atlanta by which time, being but a slender boy, his health gay way completely, and still, against his protest, the bri gade commander, Gen. John C. Brown, ordered him to the rear for the purpose of regaining his health, which consumed about four weeks' time, and covered the entire period of his absence from duty during the whole war Upon his return to the army at Jonesborough Georgia, the army was immediately ordered to get ready for the campaign known as the Hood raid, and he participated in all the conflicts of that campaign and retired with the army upon the defeat of Hood's enterprise. He then accompanied the army of Tennessee in its trans- fer to the Carolinas, participating in the various engagements of his command, winding up with the bat- tle of Bentonville, and surrendered at Greensborough and received his parole there. He then returned to his home in Rutherford county, where he has since resided.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 23

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