Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 34

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

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Capt. Ledgerwood's grandfather was also named James. He was born in Botetourt county, Virginia, and was also a soldier in the war of 1812, from Knox county, Tennessee, under Capt. Gibbs. Hle married in Greene county, Tennessee, and moved back and located in Knox as a farmer. His wife was also named Pierce, but no relation to his mother's family. He moved to Southern Illinois and died there, in 1846, aged sixty- eight years, leaving four daughters: (1). Mary, wife of Caleb Trecce. (2). Sallie, wife of Heury Johnson. (3). Darthula, wife of Abraham Haukley. (4). Luartha, wife of Jefferson Bayless.

The first three daughters named married in southern Illinois, and the fourth married in Knox county, Ten- nessee, and afterwards moved to Illinois.

James Ledgerwood, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, also left six sons : (1). James. (2). Samuel, father of the subject of this sketch. (3). John. (4). William. (5). David, (6). Joseph.

It was a family of farmers. Joseph, the youngest son, lost his life in the Mexican war. The father of Capt. Ledgerwood (Samuel Ledgerwood), was born in Knox county in 1808, and died October 18, 1884. He was a magistrate for a number of years, and was a man of incorruptible honesty, leaving behind him an ex- cellent reputation as an honest, upright and useful citizen.

Capt. Ledgerwood's mother, nec Miss Scena N. Ruth-

erford, was born in Knox county, daughter of Absalom Rutherford, a large farmer. He had been a soldier in the Revolution from Virginia, was at the battle of Monmouth, and afterwards under Gens. Gates and Greene, in their southern campaigns, including the battle of Camden, where he was wounded, having his right leg broken below the knee. He was a brother of Gen. Rutherford, of Virginia, who distinguished him- sell in the Revolutionary war.

Capt. Ledgerwood's mother died in 1867, aged sixty years. She was a woman of great industry and deep and undoubted piety. She was the mother of seven children : (1). Elliott. (2). James L. (3). Annie, (4). Absalom P. (5). Mary. (6). Darther. (7). Wash- ington Lafayette, subject of this sketch.

Of these, Elliott Ledgerwood married Peggy Delap, . and is now a farmer in Union county, Tennessee. James Ledgerwood was captain of company F, Third Tennes- see United States infantry in the late war; married Margarena Hansford, and is now a farmer in Union county, Tennessee, on a part of the old homestead. Annie Ledgerwood died the wife of John Bayless. Absalom P. Ledgerwood was a member of his brother's (James L. Ledgerwood) company, and died in the war. He married Elizabeth Skaggs, and left three children, Orlando, Granville and Lafayette. Mary and Darther Ledgerwood died in infancy.

The only money Capt. Ledgerwood ever had given to him was five hundred dollars, presented by his father after his marriage. All else that he has handled he has made himself by close application to business, by hard work, and by practicing strict economy. Although very cautious about endorsing, he has lost some by security debts. He never sued a client or anybody else in his life on his own account, and has never been sued by any man. A close collector of fees, by making his clients believe he thinks them honest they make unusual ex- ertions to pay him. His standing as a lawyer and a politician comes of his having been always a true man, never lying to or deceiving any one, and fulfilling all promises he makes. He is a man of strong likes and dislikes. His tone of voice indicates a man of decision of character and great self-reliance.

COL. HUMPHREY R. BATE.

MEMPHIS.

H UMPHREY R. BATE was born in Bertie county, North Carolina, December 23, 1813. Hle studied law in the office of Thomas P. Devereux, esq., Raleigh, North Carolina, and in 1836 moved to the wes tern portion of Tennessee. In 1838 he commenced the practice of the law at Covington, in Tipton county,

where he continued to reside till the year 1884, when, from ill health, he ceased to practice, and moved to Memphis.

As a lawyer he stood at the head of the Covington bar, and is second to no lawyer in West Tennessee, or perhaps in the State, as an advocate, in the thorough

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knowledge of his profession, or in the successful man- azrment of difficult cases.

In politics he has always been a Democrat, and a great admirer of Jefferson and Calhoun, and their theo- ries of government. He cast his first presidential vote for liugh L. White, and has stood by the Democracy, through thick and thin, ever since. Although never an office seeker, he was prevailed upon by his friends to become a candidate for the Legislature in 1847, and was elected to represent Tipton and Lauderdale counties; was re-elected in 1849; again .in 1851, and again in 1×57, the latter time representing Shelby, Fayette and Tipton counties.

In 1870 he represented Tipton, Fayette and Shelby counties in the State convention that revised the con- stitution, his great abilities as a lawyer making him one of the most useful and prominent members of that dis- tinguished body.

The qualities of his heart equal those of his head.

Although raised a Protestant he became a member of the Roman Catholic church in 1862, and is very devout in his religion.

As a neighbor, a citizen and a friend, he is said to be ahost without a fault. He has always taken great in- terest in all enterprises for the public good, but is too modest to make himself conspicuous in carrying them forward. His constitution is naturally delicate and his health has never been robust, but with will power and fortitude he has accomplished a fine professional suc- cess ; yet having never married and being without the chief motive for the accumulation of property, he has spent his means freely for his own comfort; has been liberal, however, to others, and is now in independent circumstances. ITis townsmen speak of him with en- thusiasm as a pure-minded, lovely man, of noble, gen- erous impulses, whose bearing and virtues illustrate "the grand old name of gentleman, debased by many a charlatan,"

ALEXANDER ERSKINE, M.D.

MEMPHIS.

PIUS gentleman, who, for twenty-seven years, has been a general practitioner of medicine in the city of Memphis, but devoting himself more particularly to the diseases of women and children, and whose success, financial and professional, has given him rank among the foremost men of the city, was born at Huntsville, Alabama, September 26, 1832.

His father, Dr. Alexander Erskine, who died in 1857, at the age of sixty-six, in Huntsville, where he had practiced from 1819 till his death, was a native of Mon- roe county, now in West Virginia. He graduated in 1817, at the University of Pennsylvania, and spent the two subsequent years in practice in the almshouse of the city of Philadelphia, and then settled at Huntsville, where he made his mark on the profession in Alabama, notably by his being one of the first to discover and introduce into practice the virtues of Secale Cornu- tum, upon which he left a thesis, as yet unpublished, but showing depth and carefulness of research. He was also a pioneer in the use of quinine. The character of this remarkable physician deserves a careful study by the younger men of the profession even at this late day. He was a taciturn man, especially reticent in regard to the secrets of the sick-room. With phenomenal powers of endurance, exceedingly temperate, studying his cases with careful discrimination, he was one of the best diagnosticians of his time. He was the father of eleven children, the two eldest of whom died in infancy. Of the others, Mary Jane Erskine is now the wife of James II. Mastin, a prominent citizen of Huntsville; Dr. 20

Albert R. Erskine, now a prominent physician at Huntsville; Alexander Erskine, the subject of this sketch ; Laura E, Erskine, who died the wife of Dr. Wilkinson, at Huntsville; Thomas Fearn Erskine, James A. Erskine and Miss Kate A. Erskine, now liv- ing at Huntsville; William M. Erskine, now in Texas, and Dr. John IL. Erskine, who died of yellow fever in Memphis, September 17, 1878.

Further mention should be made of Dr. John HI. Erskine. He and his brothers, Albert and Alexander, went through the war as surgeons in the Confederate army. He was acting medical director in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina at the time of the surrender, having risen from the position of assist- ant-surgeon, and was to have received his commission as medical director. At the time of his death he was health officer of the city of Memphis, a position which he had tilled for some time previous. He fell a sacrifice to the duties of his office, working night and day to stay the spread of the epidemic of that year. He was a man of high character, bold, determined. decided in his judg- ments, and fearless in the discharge of his duties. It took a man of his stamp to compel compliance on the part of unwilling citizens with sanitary ordinances. He was a gentleman much esteemed in Memphis, and attached to himself close and warm friendships. Ilis life and character are an interwoven part of the history of that city, and his name and memory among its rarest jewels. Col. J. M. Keating. the cautious, discriminating, yet brilliant author of the history of yellow fever in Mem-

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phis, pays the following just tribute to the memory of Dr. John Erskine: "Another case, a type of the home physician, is recalled. He was a man of large mold. Physically he was perfect; very tall, very stout, he was the picture of health. His handsome face was lighted by a perpetual smile. Good nature, good heart, and a cheerful soul were the convictions his manner carried to every beholder. He was a manly man. He had been a soldier, and he bore about him the evidences of gal- lant service. Nervous and eager, devoted and anxious, he went down to his grave the victim of overwork. He was an inspiration to his friends, an example of con- staney, steadiness, unflinching courage, and unflagging zeal. To the sick-room he brought all these qualities, supplemented by an unusual experience, an inexhaus- tible stock of knowledge, and a sympathy as deep as the sad occasion. Tender as a woman, his heart ached at the recital of miseries he could not cure. Besides his duties as health officer, John Erskine was earnest in his attentions to patients, whose demands were inces- sant. For days before he succumbed, observant friends felt that he must fall. He had tasked his power's far beyond endurance. His heart was, to the last, keenly sensitive to the sorrows about him; the mitigation of them was his anxiety. He chided himself because he could not do more for the people who loved him, and by whom he will ever be remembered; and, to the last, was questioning himself for a remedy for a disease that has so often conquered the ablest of a noble profession. No better man ever laid down his life in the cause of humanity."

Dr. Alexander Erskine's grandfather, Michael Ers- kine, a native of Pennsylvania, emigrated from Lancas- ter county, that State, to Monroe county, Virginia, where he married Mrs. Margaret Paulee, nee Hanly, by whom he had five children, Dr. Erskine's father being the third son.

The early history of Dr. Erskine's grandmother (Handly) is among the most romantic of family tradi- tions. Her first husband, Paulee, was killed by the Indians, and herself taken captive and kept a prisoner for four years by the Shawnee tribe, in Ohio, the chief adopting her as his daughter. At his death she was ransomed, returned to her family and afterwards mar- ried Michael Erskine. "[ For an interesting account of the incidents of her captivity, see Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia, page 371]. She died at the age of ninety years,

Dr. Erskine's mother, Susan Catharine Russel, now living, eighty years old, in Huntsville, Alabama, was born in 1805, in Loudon county, Virginia, near the city of Leesburg, the daughter of Col. Albert Russel, who was a lieutenant-colonel in the Revolutionary army, and was with Washington in his marches. He moved from Virginia to Alabama in the early days of the latter State, where he resided till his death. He left five children, of whom Dr. Erskine's mother is the third.

She is a woman of remarkable common sense, of fine judgment, of high Christian character and principle, and has been an ornament to the town of Huntsville from her earliest. years. She married in 1820 at the early age of fifteen. She is a noble type of the southern women of the past time. She has been a member of the Presbyterian church since 1822. Her mother's maiden name was Nancy Ilove, of an old Virginia family. Her brother, Dr. Albert, Russel, who died at Huntsville in 1814, was a partner of her husband, Dr. Alexander Erskine, father of the subject of this bio- graphical sketch.

Dr. Erskine grew up at Huntsville, taking nis aca- demic course for eight years under James M. Davidson, the " Irish orator," after which he studied four years in the University of Virginia, where he graduated in chem. .istry and German. He then studied medicine in 1855- 56 in his father's office at Huntsville, and returning to the University of Virginia, took a medical course there in the same class with Dr. R. B. Maury, whose sketch see elsewhere in this volume. He then went to the University of the city of New York, and grad- uated there in 1858, and in October of that year set- tled in Memphis. In 1859-60 he, in connection with Dr. D. D. Saunders, (whose biography see elsewhere), and the Drs. Lunsford P. Yandell, sr. and jr., late of Louisville, reorganized the Memphis Medical College, Dr. Erskine taking the chair of obstetrics. After the breaking out of the war this faculty disbanded, but in 1867 the college was again reorganized with Dr. Erskine, Dr. D. D. Saunders, Dr. R. B. Maury, Dr. G. B. Thorn- ton and Dr. R. W. Mitchell as the faculty, Dr. Erskine being dean. These gentlemen carried on the institution till 1872.

Dr. Erskine, though raised by a Whig father, has always affiliated with the Democratic party. His family, on both sides, have been Presbyterians from time im- memorial, and he has for many years been an elder in that church. He has been connected with the Second Presbyterian church of Memphis for twenty-six years. He is a member of the Knights of Honor, of the Shelby county and Tennessee State medical societies, and is an occasional writer for the medical journals. He is now professor of obstetrics in the Memphis Hospital Medical College.

The following is a brief resume of his army experience : He served with Gens. Cleburne, Cheatham, Bragg and Polk in the campaigns in Tennessee, Mississippi, Ken- tucky and Georgia. He was with Gen. Bragg at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky ; was taken prisoner and placed in charge of the sick and wounded at Harrods- burg for six weeks, but was afterwards sent via Louis- ville and Cairo to Vicksburg, where he was exchanged, and from which place he soon rejoined the army at College Grove, Tennessee. He was at the battle of Murfreesborough, and upon the retreat of the army, spent the winter at Tullahoma, being at that time

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brigade surgeon in Gen. Polk's command. ITe was next in charge of the Law hospital at LaGrange, Georgia, and continued with it till the surrender.

Dr. Erskine first married, at Memphis, December 10, 1961, Mrs. A. L. White, nee Miss Law. She died in 198. By this lady Dr. Erskine has two children, Alex- ander and John H. Erskine.

His second marriage, which occurred at Columbia, Tennessee. December 19, 1872, was with a cousin of his first wife, Miss Margaret L. Gordon, daughter of Wash- ington Gordon, of Columbia. By this marriage he has had seven children, Mary (who died in infancy), Louisa, Washington Gordon, William, Albert Russel, Elizabeth and Laura, Mrs. Erskine's father, Washington Gordon, was a farmer in Maury county, and died in the Con- federate service at Vicksburg. Lieut .- Gen. John B. Gordon, of Georgia, is her cousin. Iler mother was a Miss Bradshaw, of Columbia.

Throughout his life Dr. Erskine has been guided by the highest sense of conscientious rectitude, fidelity to

his trusts, energy, zeal and promptitude in execution, and above all by high religious principles. He has always been a very close student; has always tried to be kind to the poor, and has instilled into his children the same principles by which he was reared. His personal boast is that his parents were of the strictest integrity and loftiest moral and religious character. His mother is a deeply pious woman, and while his father was less demonstrative, he was nevertheless upright in all his life, and died a Christian, in communion with the Presbyterian church. He has left the impress of his high character on that of his entire family. His son, Alexander, has ever endeavored to emulate his father's virtues, and has always stood among the foremost in the ranks of his profession in Memphis. His name, with that of his, lamented brother, Dr. John. H. Erskine, has been long identified with the city, and will be handed down to his children with pride, as pure, un- sullied and elevated.

W. G. BIBB, M.D.

NASHVILLE.

T HHIS gentleman comes of one of the most distin- guished families in the South. Its members have filled the responsible and honorable positions of gover- nor, circuit and supreme judges, State senators and legislators, congressmen, United States senator, colonel and secretary of the treasury. Of the subject of this sketch, it may be said in the language of the challenge given by the hero in the " Patrician's Daughter ":

"It may be by the calendar of years you are the elder man, But 'tis the sun of knowledge on the mind's dial shining bright, That makes true time. "

W. G. Bibb was born in Montgomery, Alabama, June 25, 1854. He received his literary education at the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama, from which latter institution he graduated in 1872. Ile began the study of medicine in 1871, and attended one course, in 1876, at the University of Virginia. He then came to Nashville, and, in 1877, was valedictorian of his class and graduated as an M. D., from the medical de- partment of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University. He spent the summer of 1877 in Paris, France, visiting the hospitals there, and upon his return went to New York city, and in 1878, graduated from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College under Profs. Austin Flint, sr. and jr., Sayre, Barker, Mott, Van- Buren, Janeway and others.

In March, 1878, he settled at Montgomery, Alabama, in practice and remained there until the spring of 1881, when he moved to Nashville, having been in that year

elected professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the medical department of the University of Tennessee and Nashville Medical College. In 1882 he was ap- pointed surgeon of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railway, a lucrative position, which he held during Gov. Porter's presidency of the road. Dr. Bibb is a thoroughly enthusiastic lover of his profess- ion, and his address on " Progressive Medicine," lately delivered, is a credit not only to himself but to the insti- tution in which he is a professor. As a lecturer his style is rather conversational than rhetorical, his object being to instruct in matters of fact rather than make display. Ilis manners are frank and cordial, and such as. characterize the typical physician.

In personal appearance Dr. Bibb is a man of medium height and weight. He is a zealous Mason and a member of Nashville Commandery Knights Templar. He is also a Knight of Pythias. In politics, he always votes the Democratic ticket, as he believes that ticket represents the southern white man's idea. Nor could he well vote otherwise and conform to the examples and teachings of his brilliant and distinguished ancestry.

Dr. Bibb's father, Col. Joseph B. Bibb, was a lawyer at Montgomery when the war between the States began, when he raised a company of volunteers, went to Mobile and seized Fort Morgan and garrisoned it until the State of Alabama seceded, when he returned to Mont- gomery and, with Col. Beck, raised the Twenty-third Alabama regiment, of which he became lieutenant-

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colonel. On the death of Col. Beck he succeeded to the command of the regiment and served as its colonel in all the campaigns of the western army in Mississippi; with Gen. Bragg in the Kentucky campaign ; with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the Dalton campaign ; with Hood in his Nashville raid, and at the reorganization of the army served with Gen. Johnston in North Caro- lina, surrendering with that commander at Greensbor- ough. Returning home he engaged in planting in Montgomery county, Alabama, until September 14, 1869, when he died of consumption, brought on by a wound from the fragment of a shell he received at the battle of Nashville. He was a man brave, generous and philanthropic, with a hand open as day for melting charity, and the words applied to the Prince of Orange are quite as applicable to him : " No man ever knew what that thing was that the Prince of Orange feared."

Dr. Bibb's mother was Miss Martha Dandridge Bibb daughter of the venerable Judge B. S. Bibb, now living at Montgomery, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. Dr. Bibb is her oldest son, and her only other child is Peyton B. Bibb, ensign United States navy, at present stationed on the Pacific coast in the United States hydrographic and geodetic survey. The mother has been inspired with an ambition to make her sons worthy of the illustrious name they have inherited. She is a most agreeable conversationalist, possesses a face beaming with intelligence, eyes radiant with good nature, and altogether is one of the most interesting of the high-born southern women.

The maternal grandfather and grandmother of Dr. Bibb are both living, and are in possession of all their faculties. They have been married sixty-five years. Judge Bibb was born in Elbert county, Georgia, Sep- tember 30, 1796, and is now in his eighty-ninth year. Of this distinguished gentleman the Savannah, Geor- gia, Times recently contained the following interesting sketch: "Judge Bibb comes of a noted family. His elder brother, Dr. William Wyatt Bibb, of Elbert county, Georgia, the home of the family,.entered the congress of the United States in 1807, and in 1813 was elected to the senate. In 1817, when the territory of Alabama was opened for settlement, he was appointed ter- vitorial governor by President Monroe. In 1819, when Alabama was admitted as a State into the Union, he was elected governor, and died during his term of office in 1820, having scarcely reached the age of forty years. Such a career for a young man was wonderful, and an evidence of his high character. His brother, Thomas Bibb, was then president of the Alabama senate, and succeeded him as governor of the State for the unex- pired term. Hon. B. S. Bibb, the surviving represen- tative of this distinguished family, was born in Elbert county, and married Miss Sophia F. Gihner, a sister of Gov. Gilmer, of Georgia, and a relative of Gen. J. F. Gilmer, of Savannah, and moved to Alabama sixty years ago. His nobility of character was soon appre-

ciated, and he was called frequently to serve the public. He has tilled many positions of honor and trust, been elected a number of terms to the lower house of the Legislature and to the Senate ; was probate judge of the county for fourteen years, and was the first judge of the city and criminal court of Montgomery, and was the first judicial officer removed by the Federal authorities after the close of the war. He is now in the eighty-ninth year of his age, and has just passed the sixty-sixth anni- versary of his marriage. And now, with his noble wife, who, during the perilous days of the late war, labored so earnestly and zealously for the comfort of the soldiers in the hospitals, and was known to thousands as "dear aunt Sophy," he is passing quietly and peacefully the evening of a life full of honor, cheered by the conscious- ness that his days have been well spent, and that his generation are a credit to him."

The great-grandfather of Dr. Bibb was high sheriff of Prince Edward county, Virginia, during the Revolu- tionary war. After peace was made he moved to Elbert county, Georgia, where his family was reared. His wife, Sallie Wyatt, was a descendant of Sir Isaac Wyatt, one of the first colonial governors of Virginia, and by blood she was related to the Peytons, Dandridges, Bookers and other first-class families of Virginia. The Bibbs were originally from Wales, and have been in America over two hundred years.

Another distinguished relative of Dr. Bibb was the Ilon. George M. Bibb, of Kentucky, a leading jurist, at one time judge of the court of appeals of Kentucky, secretary of the treasury of the United States, and also served a term in the United States Senate.

Dr. Bibb's paternal grandfather, Peyton Bibb, mar- ried Miss Martha Cobb, of Georgia, daughter of Thomas Cobb and relative of Gens. Howell and Thomas Cobb, distinguished in the late war. On her mother's side, she was kin to the well-known Martin family of South Carolina.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 34

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