USA > Tennessee > Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee > Part 29
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The grandfather of Col. Brown was Abraham Brown, born in North Carolina, of German parentage, and moved from Tennessee to Illinois, where he died.
Col. Brown's mother, nee Ann Rebecca Mc Mahon, was born in Baltimore, of Scotch descent on her father's side and English on that of her mother. She was twice married : first, to Isaae George, by whom she had three children, Elizabeth, James and Seraphina. The first two are dead. Seraphina Goorge is now the wife of David Barnes, of Washington county, and has five
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children, Elizabeth, wife of James Grisham; Byron, Andrew J., Ann and Ulysses Grant Barnes.
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Col. Brown's mother died February 5, 1855. She was a Methodist, and a woman of strong native intellect, which had been developed by a good education ; indus- trious and domestic in her habits, and devoted to her children. The foundation of the son's success was laid when a boy around his mother's knee. She was his guide and teacher, and knowing the disadvantages under which her son must be reared, she early inspired him with an ambition to improve himself and avail himself of every opportunity for improvement. He was raised to habits of industry and economy. When on the road wagoning he carried his books with him and read them by the camp fires at night, or while his horses were feeding at noon. He embraced every opportunity he found for the education and cultivation of his mind. While teaching school in the country he
walked thirteen miles to recite his law lessons to Judge Deaderick. His rule of life has been to accomplish and encompass all he could by habits of sobriety and industry. Too poor to buy candles while at school in Carter county, he gathered pine-knots and studied by the light of their fitful and flickering blaze. To-day he is a man of strong intellect, of eloquent oratorical ability, of wide and remarkable legal attainments, unos- tentations in his manners, modest almost to diffidence, yet a man of power, willing and competent to freely discuss all subjects, except himself. His is but the his- tory of nearly all the men of success whose lives are written in this volume. Indeed, it seems to be a law of success, that no man shall become prominent in Ten- nessee and worthy to be enrolled among " Prominent Tennesseans," unless he begins at the bottom and works .. his way up, with courage in himself and fidelity to his duties.
HON. WILLIAM WALLACE MCDOWELL.
MEMPHIS.
HANCELLOR WILLIAM WALLACE Me- C DOW ELL was born in Gibson county, Tennessee, June 26, 1835, and grew up there on a farm, receiving his education at Andrew College, Trenton, Tennessee. Ile entered the law department of Cumberland Univer- sity at Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1857, and graduated in the summer of 1858, after which he read law one year longer at Trenton, with Judge T. J. Freeman, now of the Supreme bench of Tennessee, and in 1860 began to practice with him.
He has always been a Democrat; in 1860 belonged to the Douglass' wing of the party, and opposed secession, but went with his State after it seceded, and entered the Confederate service May 13, 1861, receiving a com- mission as first lieutenant in the Twelfth regiment Tennessee infantry. At the battle of Belmont, Novem- ber, 1861, he received a severe wound from a bullet, which he still carries in his body. At Shiloh, in April, 1862, he was again wounded, and shortly after this bat- tle was made captain of his company. Fearing to remain in the infantry service on account of his old wounds, about one month after the Shiloh fight he got permission from the Confederate war department to raise a company of cavalry. The company was composed of Tennessee and Mississippi volunteers, and he being made its captain, became connected with Col. Balen- tine's regiment of Gen. William 11. Jackson's division, and operated during the war in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. During a portion of this time his command was connected with the cavalry of Gen.
Forrest, with whom he surrendered at Gainesville, Ala- bama, May 13, 1865, just four years from the date he entered the service.
The war over, he returned to Tennessee and edited the Trenton Gazette for one year, when he resumed the practice of law in partnership with Samuel Brewer, since distinguished as a minister of the Methodist church. In January, 1868, he removed to Memphis and became the law partner of Col. George Gantt, with whom he continued in partnership for about eight years. In 1871 he was elected county attorney for Shelby county, and was re-elected to that office for five successive years, at the end of which he declined re-election. He was appointed chancellor by Nov. James D. Porter, and held the office under this appointment until August, 1880, when he was elected by the people, receiving a majority of four thousand five hundred votes over J. E. Bigelow-one thousand two hundred votes more than any candidate on the ticket, except Judge Horrigan, who was nominated by both Democratsand Republicans. This office he still fills.
In 1872 Judge MeDowell was distriet elector on the Greeley ticket. He has never been a candidate for any office, other than those he has held.
He became a Master Mason at Trenton in 1867, and a Royal Arch Mason at Memphis in 1881; is a mem - ber of the Knights of Honor, and of the Ancient. Order of United Workmen. He became a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church at Memphis, in 1881.
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The ancestors of Judge MeDowell, the MeDowells and Irwins, emigrated from Ireland to Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, some time prior to 1750. From there his great-grandfather, who was born in 1743, moved to Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, where his son, John McDowell, was born March 18, 1775, and his grandson, John D. McDowell, the father of the judge, was born January 10, 1810, and moved to Gibson county, Tennessee, in 1832. The judge's great-grandfather, Robert Irwin, also emigrated from Pennsylvania to Mecklenburg, North Carolina.
Judge MeDowell's father, John D. McDowell, was a farmer by occupation and a zealous member of the Presbyterian church, and though he never held any civil office, except justice of the peace, was a man of prominence and influence in his county. The family is of Irish descent, and is the same family to which the late Major-General Irwin McDowell, of the United States army, and Gov. McDowell, the famous Virginia orator, belong. His brother, Hon. John H. MeDowell, of Union City, Tennessee, represented Obion county in the Legislature of 1882-3, and was State senator from his district in the Tennessee Legislature for 1885-6, and is the author of the celebrated " gambling bill " passed by those bodies. His other brother, Samuel Irwin McDowell, is a prominent citizen and Demo- erat of Memphis, Tennessee, and is now clerk and master of the chancery court of Shelby county, to which position he was appointed in November, 1884, upon the recommendation of two-thirds of the bar of that county. He also has three sisters, Mrs. C. F. II. Harrison, Jennie S. Mitchum and Loura A. McNeilly, the last two of whom are widows.
Judge MeDowell's mother, nee Miss Nancy H. Irwin, was the daughter of William Irwin, of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, and grand-daughter of Gen. Robert Irwin, of Revolutionary fame, one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, who moved from Pennsylvania to that county.
Judge McDowell was married, March 27, 1867, to Miss Anna Jones, daughter of Thomas Jones, of Mem- phis, and grand-daughter of Rev. John W. Jones, a Methodist minister of Gibson county. She is also a cousin of Judge T. J. Freeman, of the Tennessee Supreme Court, and of Judge. Carthell, of Trenton. Her mother was Miss Mary Kimball, of Maury county, Tennessee.
Mrs. MeDowell died December 11, 1882, the mother of four children : (1). Eulalia E. McDowell, born November 11, 1868. (2). John O. McDowell, born August 11, 1873. (3). W. W. McDowell, jr., born Jan- uary 10, 1875. (4). Annie L. McDowell, born Decem- ber 11, 1877 ; died May 8, 1884.
Ou the 14th of October, 1885, he married Mrs. Lizzie A. Freeman, widow of E. T. Freeman, She was born June 26, 1853, and has one daughter, Edna A. Free- man, who was born June 11, 1877. Mrs. McDowell is 17
the daughter of Capt. Joseph Lenow, who is and has been one of the most liberal, progressive and enterpris- ing citizens of Memphis, Tennessee, for a third of a century, and is known as the founder of Elmwood ceme- tery. He was born December 24, 1813, in Southampton county, Virginia.
Judge McDowell has always led a strictly moral and sober life. He never gambled, was never intoxicated, and never swore an oath. He has been a hard worker, and has always had a large practice. He is fond of activity, and indulges in hunting as a relaxation from the labors of his profession.
One of the leading members of the Memphis bar says: "Judge McDowell has made a reputation for being a conscientious, painstaking judge, who thor- oughly investigates all cases submitted to his decision, and has the confidence of the entire community."
Another says: "When made chancellor he had not had much experience in equity practice, but, to the surprise of the bar, he exhibited from the first a high order of capacity for the duties of the position. He is gifted with a power of rapid comprehension, and a tenacity of memory quite unusual. These enable him to fix his attention upon the presentation of a case, to grasp and group the facts, and to clearly perceive the questions to be decided. His knowledge of men, de- rived from actual mingling with them, has greatly aided him to understand the under-currents of feeling and motive that influence human action, and thus to ascer- tain the real equities which legal contrivances involve. His mind is of the judicial order. No trace of partisan- ship or partiality can be found in his judgments. He listens patiently to argument, which for him tends to elucidation, but the quickness of his perception leads him to discourage much of detailed discussion, which might be acceptable and helpful to a slower mind. Mere technicalities do not stand high in his favor; nor does he plod willingly through the misty analogies of decided cases, by which lawyers are prone to seek sup- port for their positions. He looks much more to the reasons and principles than to the number of decisions, and much more to the fundamental right as between the parties than the precedents that may seem to cor- respond in general form and feature with the case in hand. He discriminates well, and in his discrimination lies his strength as a judge. He is no innovator, and always recognizes as settled, at least for him, whatever our own Supreme Court has so declared. Appeals from his decisions, and reversals on appeal, are as infrequent as in the case of any chancellor in the State. His great administrative capacity and tact in the dispatch of busi- ness, enable him to keep well in hand a very heavy docket, and also enable him, while performing immense labor, to husband, in some measure, his physical re- sources. He is yet a young man. He grows as a judge by his judicial labor. His memory lets go no principle or method which he has learned to be of value. On or
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off the bench, therefore, he will always be a well- grounded lawyer, learned in the reasons rather than in the names of cases, and skilled in jurisprudence as
something meant to regulate the developments of busy life rather than as a code of rules or a system of ab- stractions."
HON. G. W. SMITHEAL.
COVINGTON.
M R. SMITHEAL was born at Covington, Tennes- see, August 23d, 1835, and has made his home in his native town ever since. He was educated there by Prof. James Byars, a fine English and classical scholar, recognized as their teacher by many of the leading men of Tipton county. Under this eminent teacher he acquired a knowledge of Greek, Latin and mathematics, and then, at the age of eighteen, commenced the study of law in the office of Bate & Morrison. Here he studied two years, acting part of the time as deputy clerk of the chancery court through the appointment of Judge W. M. Smith, now of Memphis. He was licensed to practice law in 1859 by Chancellor Smith and Judge John C. Humphreys, and has been engaged in his pro- fession ever since with good success from the first.
At the commencement of the civil war, he entered the Confederate States army as a volunteer, enlisting as private in Company I, Capt. J. G. Ilall, of the Fifty- first Tennessee regiment, in Gen. Daniel S. Donel- son's brigade, Cheatham's division. He remained in the same command throughout the war, and was soon promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment. He served with his command in Ten- nessee, Mississippi and Georgia, and participated in the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesborough, Chickamauga, Mis- sionary Ridge, and all the battles of the Georgia cam- paign from Dalton to Atlanta. From Atlanta he was sent on the sick list to hospital at Columbus, Georgia, where he remained on post duty till Wilson's raid, when he surrendered as prisoner ; was paroled at Macon, Georgia. He was elected major of his regiment in 1862, but declined the rank.
He returned home July 3d, 1865, and formed a law partnersip with Col. H. R. Bate, which has continued to the present day. This firm has been engaged in all the important cases which have for twenty years arisen in the courts of Tipton and the neighboring counties.
In polities, he cast his first vote for Millard Fillmore, and in the election of 1860 voted for Bell and Everett; but, since the war, hasacted with the Democratic party. Hle several times declined to become a candidate for the Legislature. In 187 | he wasa candidate before the nominating convention at Humboldt for Congress, but failed to receive the nomination by one vote. In 1876 he was district presidential elector on the Tilden ticket. In 1880 he supported the Wilson wing of the Demo-
cratic party against John V. Wright for governor, and was a candidate for the Legislature on that ticket, but was defeated. In 1882 he was again a candidate, and in the State convention of that year made persevering efforts to harmonize the divided party ; he was nominated and elected with the united support of both wings of the party-but the party was not harmonized. In the Legislature he was chairman of the committee on pub- lic roads and a member of several other important commitees.
Hle has served as alderman of Covington for ten years.
In religion he professes the creed of his ancestors- that of the Presbyterian church.
Mr. T. Smitheal, the father of G. W. Smithcal, was born in Rowan county, State of North Carolina, the son of John L. Smitheal, of that county. He continued to reside in North Carolina until he became of age, and then migrated to Tipton county, Tennessee, in the year 1832, being among the first settlers of the county. In 1883 he was married to Miss Caroline Young, daughter of Robert and Sarah Young. Mr. T. Smitheal died in 1875, in the seventieth year of his age, a deacon in the Presbyterian church, a consistent and pious member of that communion. He was a strict but kind parent, and a faithful and trusted man in all the relations of life.
Mr. G. W. Smitheal's mother, Caroline Smitheal, nee Young, was born in Hawkins county, Tennessee, in the year 1808. She moved with her parents, Robert and Sarah Young, to Tipton county in the latter part of the year 1831, and was married in 1833 to Mr. T. Smitheal, and became the mother of four children : (1). Green W., the subject of this sketch. (2). William T., a mer- chant, Navasota, Texas. (3). Narcissa C., wife of Wil- liam Hamilton, merchant, Covington, Tennessee. (4). Bettie T., now living unmarried with her sister, Mrs. Hamilton.
Mr. G. W. Smitheal married, first in Covington, Ten- nessee, Miss Florence Strother Menefee, daughter of Dr. B. S. Menefee, of that place, originally from Vir- ginia, and a family distinguished for its refinement and culture, By this marriage Mr. Smitheal had one child, Elizabeth Maud, who died in childhood in 1874. The mother herself died the year following.
Mr. Smitheal married next in Memphis, January 27, 1880, Miss Susan Dalton Jackson, daughter of Capt.
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Shepherd Jackson, who fell at Corinth in the early part of the war. Mrs. Jackson was Miss Mary Harris, a native of Fayette county, Tennessee, a lady of great energy and kindness of heart, particularly noted for her hospitality. Mrs. Smitheal was educated in a Catho . lie school at Memphis and is a member of the Episcopal church, a lady of intelligence, refinement and culture. By this marriage Mr. Smitheal has three children, Mary Shepherd, Florence Jackson and G. W. Smithcal, jr.
He has been a sober, self-contained man, who hay lived within his income, and through close attention to business has been successful in life, his object being to make a safe and honest living, preferring a quiet domes- tic life to public position. He is self-made; was unable
through restricted means to go to college, but as a stu- dent of law, manifested a degree of industry and talent which induced his precepter, Mr. Bate, to offer him a partnership at the close of the civil war.
He is a high-toned, moral gentleman, and his influ- ence, always exerted on the side of right, is good and salutary. His word or simple statement is taken among those who know him as an ample guarantee for truth. He has natural rhetorical gifts which constitute him a fine speaker, powerful especially before a jury ; for this reason he has been largely employed in criminal cases. As a friend, a neighbor, a church member and a man, he commands the high esteem of all who associate with him.
CHARLES S. BRIGGS, A.M., M.D.
NASHVILLE.
T' HIIS eminent young surgeon, son of the illustrious surgeon, Dr. W. T. Briggs, whose biography-ap- pears in another place in this book, was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, March 29, 1851. He was educated in Nashville and took the degree of A. M. in the regular course from the literary department of the University of Nashville, in 1873. Accustomed from his early boy- hood to think of becoming a physician and surgeon, the whole bent of his mind was trained in that direction. Even his classical course was studied with that end in view. This, ofcourse, his father enthusiastically endorsed and encouraged, and although the history of the Briggs family has been given elsewhere in this volume, the subject of this sketch has risen to such prominence as a practitioner, medical professor and editor, it is due to him to have special mention made.
Immediately after graduating from the literary de- partment, young Briggs began the study of medicine, and particularly surgery, under his father, and graduated in 1875 as an M. D. from the medical department of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University. In 1875 he was attached to the clinical staff of Prof. S. D. Gross at Philadelphia, and worked with him for six months, devoting himself while there to surgery, path- ology, microscopy and hospital work. During his stay at Philadelphia, Dr. Briggs was elected demonstrator of anatomy of his alma mater, and returned to Nashville and began work in that position in the autumn of 1875. In this he was engaged three years. In 1878, in addi- tion to that position, he was elected adjunct professor of anatomy and held that place one year. On account of sickness he resigned the demonstratorship in 1880 and soon after was tendered the adjunct professorship of surgery, in which chair he lectured three years on genito-urinary surgery. In 1883 he was elected to the
position he now holds-professor of surgical anatomy and operative surgery in the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University.
In 1876 Dr. Charles S. Briggs was associated with Dr. W. L. Nichol as editor of the Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery, an able periodical, founded by Dr. W. K. Bowling, In this position Dr. Briggs suc- ceeded his father, and soon after, Dr. Nichol retiring, he became the sole editor. Dr. Briggs is a member of the State, county and city medical societies, and has contributed many valuable articles to those organiza- tions, in addition to the able work he has done on his journal. He is also a member of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science, and at its ses- sion at Nashville, 1878, took an active part in the microscopical department.
Dr. Briggs has risen rapidly in his profession, and has already performed most of the major operations in sur- gery ; among them, amputations of the shoulder joint, ovariotomy, lithotomy, trephining, ligation of the princi- pal vessels, removal of the upper jaw (twice), excision of the elbow joint, and amputation of all the limbs. Having had the advantage of the instruction, and of witnessing, assisting in, and studying the methods of two of the leading surgeons of this country, his father and Dr. Gross, it is not a matter of astonishment that he is so carly in life prominent in the line of his inherited and chosen profession. Dr. Briggs' private practice is large and rapidly increasing, his collections now amounting to about five thousand dollars per annum. Financially he is in easy circumstances.
When young he was a leader in athletic, boyish sports. Now he is a well-rounded man of large propor- tions, standing five feet eleven inches high, and weighs two hundred pounds. His remarkable grandfather,
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Dr. John M. Briggs, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, to whom chiefly this distinguished family owes its standing in the medical world, while in his eightieth year, said to the subject of this sketch, then a mere lad, " Charles, I want you to live in such a way that when you are eighty years old, as I am, you may say of yourself what I can say of myself, that I cannot recall a single instance of my life of which I am ashamed." That advice followed out will ultimately ennoble any family.
Dr. Briggs married in Louisville, Kentucky, April 26, 1876, Miss Carrie Carter, a native of that city, edu- cated at Science Hill Academy, Shelbyville, Kentucky, and at the Louisville Female High School. Her father is a member of the large wholesale dry goods firm of
Carter Bros. & Co., Louisville. Her mother, nee Miss Binnie Carter, is a relative of the Toombs family of Georgia, and remarkable for her charities and purity of life. By his marriage with Miss Carter Dr. Briggs has three children : (1). Elsie. (2). Binnie. (3). William T., jr.
Dr. Briggs is spoken of as one of the best educated men of his age in Nashville, and is a student in every sense, but makes his learning subserve the one purpose of his life, to excel in his profession. He is a strong man, of broad, comprehensive mind, and emphasizes whatever he undertakes. He has a concentrated look, with a chin and general physique indicating energy, push, self-poise and boldness-qualities essential in a surgeon. His future is brilliant.
HON. WILLIAM M. BRADFORD.
CHATTANOOGA1.
T' HIS distinguished jurist, now chancellor of the Third chancery division of Tennessee, was born in McMinn county (now Polk), Tennessee, Febru- ary 14, 1827. He is the son of Col. Henry Bradford, and was the youngest of ten children, nine sons and one daughter. His father, Col. Henry Bradford, was born in Burke county, North Carolina, December 24, 1776, moved to Jefferson county, Tennessee, in 1796, and married, in 1799, Miss Rachel MeFarland, of the family of one of the late judges of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, HIon. Robert McFarland. She died in 1852, aged sixty-seven years. Her ancestors were from Scot- land, but no detailed history of the family has been preserved. Col. Henry Bradford was an excellent gun- smith, and made the gun that Davy Crockett called his " Long Bess." He was also a justice of the peace, and performed the marriage ceremony for Davy Crockett. He was an elector on the Madison ticket in 1812; and represented Jefferson county in the Tennessee Legisla- ture from 1811 to 1821. He removed to Polk county in 1821, and died there May 10, 1871, at the advanced age of ninety-five years. He was a man of extraordinary energy and decision of character, and, for his times, of superior intelligence. His father was Joseph Bennett Bradford, of Fauquier county, Virginia, who died in Caldwell county, North Carolina, in 1830, also aged ninety-five years. Joseph Bennett Bradford's father was John Bradford, of Fauquier county, Virginia, who, according to the tradition of the family, was a great-grandson of Gov. William Bradford, of " May- flower " fame.
Gen. Alexander B. Bradford, who was a colonel in the Florida war, and a major in Col. Jefferson Davis' regiment in the Mexican war, was a double-cousin of Judge Bradford. There was a Maj. Henry Bradford
in the Revolutionary war in Harry Lee's brigade, who distinguished himself. Ile was a cousin of Judge Brad- ford's father .. Many of his descendants-the Nichol, Cowden, Fall and Foster families, of Nashville, are members of the Bradford family. "There are also fami- lies of Bradfords at Huntsville, Alabama, who are descendants of Judge Bradford's father's half-brother, William Bradford, who had four sons, Joseph, Morgan, Larkin and Fielding Bradford, who settled at Hunts- ville, Alabama.
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