Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 36

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

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Throughout all of his life Maj. E. P. MeNeal has been a quiet and modest man. . He has been charitable and liberal with his means, without ostentation. He has never sought public place. He has made and preserved from youth to manhood and old age, even to four score years, an enviable record ofenergy and promptness in business ; sincerity and truth in speech ; uprightness and honesty in conduct, and in all dealings with his fellow-men, and at this time he stands in the front rank of the men of West Tennessee, having preserved and strengthened, as the years went by, the golden reputation he has earned and kept untarnished as one among her pioneers.

REV. J. W. PHILLIPS, M.D.

TULLAHOMA.

T" HIS prominent physician and surgeon was born in Mecklenburg county, Virginia, January 11, 1×20, worked in the corn-field till he was eighteen years old, taught school in his nineteenth year at Durham ville, Tennessee, read medicine under Dr. W. D. Scott at Trenton, Tennessee, and graduated M. D. in May, 1812, at the University of Pennsylvania, under Prof's. Nathan Chapman, William B. Gibson, Robert Hare, Hugh L. Hodge, William E. Horner, Samuel Jackson and George B. Wood, in a class with Dr. A. L. C. Ma- gruder and Dr. R. P. Walton, of Norfolk, Virginia. Be- tween the sessions he attended Wills' Hospital for the Lame and Blind, and Warrington's Obstetrical Depart- ment, from each of which institutions he took a diploma in addition to his regular degree. Ile practiced medi - cine at Salem, Mississippi, from June, 1842, to Decem- ber, 1845; next practiced twenty years in Hinds and Madison counties, Mississippi, doing an exceptionally 21

large practice among the wealthiest people in that State; his fees for eight years averaging five thousand dollars per annum. He was in the yellow fever epi- demie at Brownsville, Mississippi, and in the cholera epidemie of 1866 at Memphis,

When Mississippi enlisted her minute men for the Confederate service, he was commissioned by Rev. T. W. Casky (the agent appointed by the Legislature of the State), post surgeon at Bolton's Depot, Hinds county, Mississippi. Ex-officio he became surgeon of Gen. Charles E. Smeed's brigade and served one year, then refugeed to Smith county, Texas, to save his ne- groes, and there practiced medicine till the war was over ; then came to Memphis, practiced one year; next at Mason's depot three years; at Brownsville three years, and at Dyersburg ten years, He located at Tul- lahoma, April 15, 1881. He was at an early day a mem- ber of the Mississippi State Medical Society, and in

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1866 became a member of the Memphis Medical Society, and in that year was called upon to furnish an essay on Tetanus, which was made the leading article in Willett & Ramsey's Memphis Medical Journal of that date.

Dr. Phillips is a Royal Arch Mason, a Democrat and a Methodist, and is a licensed elder in the Methodist Episcopal church, South. He began preaching in 1844, and has exercised ministerial functions as a local preacher wherever he has lived, and has never been challenged to answer for any misconduct by the church.

Dr. Phillips has children by two marriages. In 1817 he married at Sharon, Madison county, Mississippi, Miss Harriet Wade Austin, daughter of William J. Austin, a wealthy planter and distinguished financier, a native of Tennessee. The children born of this union are: (1). Flavia, educated at Southern Female College, Port Gibson, Mississippi ; now wife of David H. Poston, a distinguished lawyer at Memphis. (2). Florence, edu- cated at same school ; died in 1873, aged nineteen.

In 1853 Dr. Phillips was again married, in Madison county, Mississippi, to Mrs. Martha Ahnedia Walker, widow of John F. Walker, of New Orleans, She was born near Columbia, Tennessee, daughter of Gen. Rus- sell MeCord Williamson, a graduate of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and surveyor-general of Mississippi, under Gen. Jackson's administration, which position he held at the time of his death. His wife was a Miss Lindsley, of Williamson county, Tennessee. Mrs. Phillips was educated at Nazareth, Kentucky, is an Episcopalian, an expert in music, a fine writer, and was never known to have a cross word with any one or to be mixed up in gossip or a wrangle. Her lead- ing trait is her domestic habits. By this marriage ten children were born, four of whom, sons, died in early childhood. Of the survivors: (1). Sallie Fre- donia, educated at St. Agnes school, Memphis; now wife of Hon. Frank M. Estes, a lawyer at St. Louis ; has two children, Frank and Grace. (2). Mary, educated at Brownsville; married C. C. Walton, a druggist at Norfolk, Virginia ; has three children, Charles Court- land, Kearney Phillips and Ahuedia Linton. (3). James

William, now in business at Memphis. (4). Charles Thomas, now in his eighteenth year, a cadet at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. (5). Jes- sie, educated at Dyersburg and St. Louis. (6). -

By her first marriage Mrs. Phillips has one child, a son, John F. Walker, now in mercantile life at Mem- phis. He married Miss Swan, daughter of Confederate Congressman Swan, of Tennessee, and by her had one child, John F., now being raised in the family of Dr. Phillips.

Dr. Phillips' father, who died in 1867, in Fayette county, Tennessee, at the age of eighty, was a soldier in the war of 1812, was a successful tobacco planter, a good man, and a deacon in the Baptist church.

Dr. Phillips' mother, nee Miss Dorcas Pettus, was born in Mecklenburg county, Virginia, daughter of Samuel Pettus, a famous large planter in that county. Her mother was a Miss Shelburn, of an extensive Vir- ginia family. Dr. Phillips' mother died in 1862, at the age of sixty-six. Dr. Phillips' two brothers, Dr. Thomas. A. Phillips, of Canton, Mississippi, and Dr. Joseph W. Phillips, of Williston, Tennessee, are phy- sicians of fine standing.

Dr. Phillips began his business life a thousand dollars in debt. He has made a great deal of money, but has been too loose a trader, too liberal and generous-hearted to accumulate a large permanent property. His friends state that his energy is unexampled in his profession, and the amounts he has earned during his professional life are probably without a parallel among doctors, out- side of large cities. In forty one years he earned, as his books show, in professional fees, one hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars. But his negroes were set free and his lands rendered valueless, and he sold them for Confederate bonds, which he failed properly to invest in time. He is still a hard student of medicine, aiming to keep himself qualified for his profession, while doing an active practice.

Dr. Phillips is six feet high, weighs one hundred and eighty pounds, has a florid complexion, and the appear- ance of a thoughtful, careful, busy business man, with- out any trace of arrogance or self-seeking.

JUDGE JAMES M. QUARLES.

NASHVILLE.

T HIE distinguished lawyer and gentleman, whose name stands at the head of this sketch, rauks second, perhaps, to no one in Tennessee as a criminal lawyer, while as a jurist he is regarded among the first. Ile was born in Louisa county, Virginia, February 8, 1823, and lived there until 1833, when his father moved to Christian county, Kentucky, and there young Quarles

was brought up on a farm, near the village of Garretts- burg, receiving his preparatory education under private tutors. In 1844 he went to Clarksville, Tennessee, to study law in the office of George C. Boyd, and was there a companion and fellow-student of Hon. James E. Bailey, late United States senator from Tennessee. He was admitted to the bar in 1815, by Judge Mortimer

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M Martin and Judge Maney. He at once stepped into a goal practice, which continued to flourish, as his rep- station for criminal practice soon became wide-spread.

Raised a Democrat, he was, in 1854, elected by that party attorney-general for the Tenth judicial circuit which office he filled until 1859, when he resigned. Soon after he was elected to represent his district in the I'nited States Congress, succeeding Gen. Felix K. Zol- heoffer, of Nashville, and serving during the stormy period of approaching civil war. After his congres- sional term expired he returned to Clarksville and re- sumed practice of the law. Here, he continued during the war and after, up to 1872, when he moved to Nash- villeto enjoy the advantages of the wider field offered his eminent ability. In 1878 he was elected judge of the criminal court of Davidson and Rutherford counties, froin which position he resigned in 1882, and again re- sumed his regular practice, taking as a partner Mr. W. A. Thoma, lately deceased, and Mr. W. T. Turley, for- merly of Franklin. In addition to his services on the bench and at the bar, Judge Quarles is also the author of " Quarles' Criminal Digest," published at Nashville in 1873, by Albert B. Tavel.

Judge Quarles became a Mason and Odd Fellow at Clarksville. After his removal to Nashville, he became a member of the Independent Order of Red Men, and a Knight of Honor.

The Quarles family is of English descent, and is able to trace its ancestry back to a remote period. Among the earliest known ancestors who can be placed accu- rately, was the well-known English poet, Quarles. However, another member of the family is mentioned as keeper of the rolls in England at a still earlier date. The family in America is descended from three broth- ers who settled in Virginia. One of them, James Quarles, was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He married a Miss Pryor, of the Pryor family of Virginia, from whom Gen. Roger A. Pryor, the brilliant criminal lawyer, now of New York, is de- seended. James Quarles' son, John, or " Jack," as he was nicknamed, was the grandfather of Judge James M. Quarles. He was an associate and warm friend of the celebrated William Wirt. He married into the Minor family, so well and so favorably known in Vir- ginia. This son, Garrett Minor Quarles, was Judge Quarles' father.

Judge Quarles' mother, whose maiden name was Mary Johnson Poindexter, belonged to another old Vir- ginia family, of French Huguenot origin. Her father, Rev. Jolin Poindexter, whose. history will be found in " The Virginia Baptists," was a prominent minister in his day. Gov. Poindexter, of Mississippi, was her uncle.

Judge Quarles was married at Hopkinsville, Ken- tucky, April 3, 1849, to Miss Mary W. Thomas, daugh- ter of Robert W. Thomas, then editor of the Clarksville Chronicle. Her grandfather married Miss Lewis, cousin of Meriwether Lewis, and a direct descendant of Field- ing Lewis, who married Gen. George Washington's sister, Bettie Washington. Mrs. Quarles' great-grand- father, Robert Walker, was a surveyor and ran "Walk- er's line " between the States of Kentucky and Tennes- see (then Virginia and North Carolina), and named Cumberland. Gap, Cumberland river and Cumberland mountains in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, a short time after his victory at Culloden.

By his marriage with Miss Thomas, Judge Quarles has nine children now living: (1). Robert T. Quarles. (2). Ellen D. Quarles. (3). Lucy M. Quarles. (4). Eva Belle Quarles. (5). Fannie Thomas Quarles. (6). David Walker Quarles. (7). Ninte Lee Quarles. (8). Lizzie L. Quarles. (9). W. A. Quarles, jr.

Mrs. Quarles is a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and is a lady distinguished for her domestic tastes, her intelligence, her amiable character, and devotion to her family.

Beginning life with but little of this world's goods, not even having the advantage of a collegiate education, Judge Quarles has achieved success and prominence in his profession by keeping before him the truth that there is no royal road to success, but that it must be achieved by assiduous study and close attention to business. As an orator he is very captivating-can be vehement at will, and is frequently very eloquent. In the management of cases he is one of the most success- ful advocates at the Nashville bar, and appears as counsel, either for prosecution or defense, in nearly every important case brought for trial there. Ilis learning is extensive, his literary tastes covering the widest field of standard and sterling knowledge. So- cially, he is one of the most companionable of men, an excellent raconteur, a gentleman of affable manners, con- sequently very popular.

HON. JOHN WESLEY BROWN.

ROGERSVILLE.

TOHIN WESLEY BROWN, one of the eleven seha- tors who, in April, 1885, broke a quorum of the Senate by absenting themselves from their seats in that

body to prevent the passage of the " registration bill," was born at Lee Valley, Hawkins county, Tennessee, November 15, 1852, and made that his home till the age

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of twelve or fourteen, going to school and farming. In 1868, he went to McMin Academy, Rogersville, in which he studied some two years, after which he was a student about fourteen months in the Hiawassee Col- lege, Monroe county, Tennessee. In 1874 he began the study of law under Judge E. E. Gillenwaters, at Rogers- ville, and was admitted to the bar in 1875, licensed by Judge Gillenwaters and Chancellor II. C. Smith, and practiced at Rogersville from 1875 to 1881, when he became founder and editor of the Rogersville Press and Times. After editing that paper something over a year, he spent six months traveling in the northwestern States. He then returned home and resumed editorial control of his paper. November 15, 1881, he was ap- pointed to a clerkship in the Nashville post-office, a position which he resigned April 30, 1882, to accept a position in the Pension Bureau at Washington, District of Columbia. This latter place he resigned in October, 1882, to accept the position of file clerk of the Forty- seventh Congress. The political complexion of the House changing with the incoming of the Forty-eighth Congress, he went out of that office, and returned to the management of his paper and to the practice of law, in March, 1884. In the Republican convention held at Jonesborough in July, 1884, he was nominated for the State Senate, and at the general election, No- vember 4, 1884, was elected to represent the Second Senatorial district, comprising the counties of Hawkins, Hancock and Greene, in the Forty-fourth General As- sembly of Tennessee, being the junior member of the Senate, and the only unmarried man in it.

He has been a delegate to every Republican State convention since 1879; was an alternate delegate to the Republican National convention at Chicago, in July, 1880, from the First congressional district of Tennessee, and cast the vote of that district; was also a delegate from the same district to the Republican national con- vention of 1884, and was one of Mr. Blaine's warmest supporters. From 1879 to 1881, inclusive, he was chair- man of the Republican executive committee of law- kins county, and in 1880 was elector for Hawkins county on the Garfield and Arthur ticket.

He has been unswervingly Republican in politics from his boyhood, and is ultra, aggressive, and uncom- promising in all his political views, He has never sought an elective office except that of senator, and to that he was elected by a vote of some four hundred above the party strength. He has, however, a decided taste for political life, and has taken a very active part in the various campaigns. His speech in the Senate on the bill pensioning Confederate soldiers was noted for its vehemence and aggressiveness, particularly in that portion where he denied the constitutionality of the measure proposed. There chanced to be present on that occasion a large number of visitors from northern States, on their way to the New Orleans exposition, who, after listening to the speech, expressed their

astonishment that he should dare to utter views. so an-, tagonistie to the doctrines entertained and taught by the opposition. To use his own language, " my politics have been everlastingly Republican, and I have lived and worked that way."

Mr. Brown belongs to no secret organization, nor to any church, though he is a firm believer in the Christian religion, and occasionally has acted as Sabbath-school teacher.

He began life without means, and is now in independ- ent circumstances, the result of a rule to which he has adhered, never to owe anything, and to limit his, ex ?. penditures to his actual necessities. If he makes but little he also makes it a point to know he is clearing money. With these views, by clear-headed judgment, rigid economy and judicious trading, he has accumulated a respectable property. He has never been given to dis- sipation, and has never bet on anything. Though ruth- lessly assailed by politicians, his character is uublem- ished. It is a singular fact that few persons are indif- ferent to him-being either his warm friends or bitter enemies, a fact for which it is difficult to account.

Senator Brown's father, Rev. Iredell Campbell Brown, of the Methodist church, was born in Hawkins county, Tennessee, and had only the advantages of a common school education. He has been a local Methodist preacher from his young manhood, and has the reputa- tion of being one of the finest vocal musicians on the continent. His business is that of farming and stock- raising, and he is now living at " High Oaks," three miles east of Morristown, on the East Tennessee, Vir- ginia and Georgia railroad. His charity, sympathy for ; the poor, and his perfect good will for mankind in general, have attached all who know him as his 1. friends. His father, Thomas Brown, a native of North Carolina, came to Hawkins county, Tennessee, early in the present century ; married there ; lived a farmer, and died at about the age of seventy-five, leaving ten chil- dren : (1). Mary Brown, married Rev. William Wyatt, . and has seven children. Iredell Campbell, Thomas Pendigrass, Samuel Patton, Sarah, Matilda, Nannie and John. (2). Rev. Fredell Campbell Brown. (3). Jesse Brown, who married Miss Nancy Charles, daughter of Col. Rogers Charles, of New Canton, Tennessee; died in 1874, leaving five children, Charles, Solomon, Sarah, Susan and Nancy. (4). Thomas E. Brown; married first Miss Eliza Dodson, who died, leaving no issue. He then married Mrs. Mary Kyle, widow of Dr. Robert Kyle, by whom he has two children, Alice and Thomas, jr. (5). Dr. Owen M. Brown, married Miss Nannie Fortner, daughter of Rev. Isaac Fortuer, of Hawkins county, and has four children, Luther Fairchild, Para- lee, Emma and Owen M., jr. Dr. Brown was the sur- ... geon of the First Tennessee light artillery (Federal) in the late civil war. (6). Clinton A. Brown, married Miss Laura A. Crawford, daughter of Rev. Robert Crawford, of Hawkins county, and has right children,

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Robert A., Clinton, Thomas, Frank, Sallie, Aga and a pair of twin boys. (7). Nancy Brown; died in 1885, wife of Samuel Edison, leaving four children, Joseph, 1

Sallie, Matilda and Samuel, jr. (8): Sarah Brown; died childless, wife of Joseph Anderson, of War Gap, Hawkins county. (9). James Brown, married Miss Rebecca Vermillion, daughter of William Vermillion, and has ten children, Theophilus, George and Frank (twins), Thomas, Clinton, Walter, Nannie, James, Fan wie and John. (10). Matilda Brown, wife of Hiram Herd, of Manchester, Kentucky ; has one child, John.

Senator Brown's great grandfather, Samuel Brown, came from North Carolina to Tennessee after his son came. Hle was a farmer, and had been a Revolutionary soldier.

Senator Brown's mother was Mary Ann Willis, daughter of James and Sally Willis, of Lee Valley, Hawkins county. She is the grand-daughter of Larkin Willis, a native of Scotland, a noted philanthropist, especially kind and liberal in his donations to strangers. It is said that he, on three different occasions, gave horses to men who were complete strangers to him. His wife was Elizabeth Sizemore, of North Carolina: Of the Willis family, Maj. W. W. Willis, was major of the Eighth Tennessee Federal cavalry, and represented Hawkins county in the Tennessee Legislature after the war, about 1866. Summerville R. Willis, sister to his mother, married Dr. H. K. Legg, and lives at Selig- man, Missouri. Another member of the family, Silas

Willis, is now a telegraph operator at Stevenson, Ala- bama. Mr. Brown's maternal grandmother was Sallie Wilson.

Senator Brown has two brothers and five sisters, all living : (1). Francis Asbury Brown, born May 15, 1851; now practicing medicine and farming at Lee Valley, Hawkins county ; married Miss Nellie Schneider, and has two children. (2). Larkin Willis Brown, born December 4. 1851; studied law ; was joint editor and proprietor with his brother in the Rogersville Press and Times one year; is now farming; is unmarried. Ile was twice elected county superintendent of public instruction for Hawkins county; was assistant teacher three years in the Sweetwater Male Academy, Monroe county, Tennessee, under Prof. J. L. Bachman. (3). Sarah Elizabeth Brown; married James M. Johnstone, of the firm of Falkerson & Johnstone, manufacturers of boots, shoes, saddles and harness, at Rogersville; has four children, Charles C., Fannie Matilda, Mary Anie Jackson and Mattie. Mrs. Johnstone is noted for her practical good sense, and dispenses her hospitali- ties with the grace and dignity of the Lady Bountiful. (1). Annie Rathbone Brown, now wife of J. J. Starnes, a farmer and stock trader of Hawkins county. (5). Argyra Catharine Brown, now wife of J. H. Beal, a finner near Whitesburg, Hamblen county, Tennessee. (6). Mary Artemesia Brown, now wife of Wm. A. Orr, a lawyer at Jonesville, Virginia. (7). Mattie E. Brown, now living with her parents at " High Oaks."

JAMES M. LARKIN, M.D.

CLARKSVILLE.

T' HIS gentleman, an impressive conversationalist, entertaining by the variety of subjects he dis- cusses, the scope and accuracy of his knowledge of men and things, the remarkable tenacity of his memory of i names, dates, incidents and personal histories, and dis tinguished also for the magnetism with which he fixes the attention of his hearers, the many agreeable acquaint ances he has formed, the earnestness with which he enters into the discussion of any subject which the occasion or the company may suggest, appears in these pages as a representative of the medical profession in Clarksville, and as one of the standard men of Tennes- see. To the writer he appears as one of those men about whom there is an air and manner of reserve force and energy, ready to be brought into action at will, thereby making him equal to almost any emergency. Quick, clear, logical and forcible in his arguments, he warms up with enthusiasm until he becomes oblivious to all subjects except the one under discussion his

interest in which is manifested by a Hashing eye, ani- mated gestures and a flow of words at once eloquent and interesting. One of his brother physicians in Clarksville says of him : " Dr. Larkin isa close student, and possesses a prodigious memory. Thoroughly honest in word and deed, with no flattery for any man, he is held in high esteem by a wide circle of acquaintances. Possessing a vast stock of general information on his- torical subjects, as well as upon the general topics of the day, he is ever ready in conversation, and has at the same time an amount of practical common sense which makes him ready in carrying out the views which he expresses. In spite of his feeble constitution, he is a master of his profession, both in medicine and surgery, and had not ill health put bounds to his progress, he must have stood at the top round of the ladder. As a surgeon in the Confederate army he was faithful to every trust."

The subject of this sketch was born on the waters of

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Jones' creek, in what is now known as the Larkin and Mc Adow settlement, in Dickson county, Tennessee. June 29, 1818. The place of his birth is interesting as being only one mile from Laurel Furnace, which was among the earliest iron-works established in Tennessee, and about the same distance from where the organiza- tion of the Cumberland Presbyterian church was ef- fected. When nine years of age, his father moved to a farm near Charlotte, and there young Larkin lived until his twenty fifth year. His education, which had been begun in the common schools of the county, was com- pleted at- Tracy Academy, in Charlotte, when he took a course under Prof. Paschall. His early intentions were to study medicine, but on account of ill health he was prevented from doing so until 1843, when he went to Nashville atid began study under Drs. Thomas R. Jen- nings and A. II. Buchanan. Never able to be on his feet long, he prosecuted his studies the greater part of his time in bed, yet, in spite of this, became so proficient that he was made prosector and demonstrator by these eminent physicians in charge of private clinics. He remained in Nashville three years, except when absent attending the medical college at Louisville, where he took his degree in the spring of 1816. After spending the summer with his old preceptors, he returned to his former home, and in the following spring started on a trip in search of health, and spent two years in the vicinity of Covington, Tennessee. He finally, in the fall of 1848, settled at Charlotte, and remained there in practice until the beginning of the war. His practice was largely among the employes of the iron - works owned by the Baxters, Van Leers and Napiers, and his career was both financially and professionally a success. In 1857, the University of Nashville conferred upon him an honorary diploma on account of his skill in surgery.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 36

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