Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 37

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

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In May, 1861, he became surgeon of the Eleventh Tennessee Confederate regiment, commanded by C'ol. James E. Rains, and served in chat capacity until his regiment was transferred to the regular Confederate service, when his commission from the governor of Tennessee expired. About this time, his wife having died, he obtained leave of absence from Gen. Collicoffer, returned home, and did not report for service to be transferred with the regiment. However, rejoining the army, he refused a commission as assistant surgeon, and served under a contract, doing hospital service under Dr. D. D. Saunders, of Memphis, as post surgeon, and Dr. S. HI. Stout, as medical director. In November, 1864, broken down by work, he obtained leave of absence, spent the winter in South Carolina, and was at Marietta, Georgia, on his way to join the army again, when news of the surrender came.

While serving as surgeon of the Eleventh Tennessee, and stationed at Camp Cheatham, he conceived the idea of establishing hospital tents in place of the board huts then used, and proposing his plan to Gen. Foster, it was

carried out, and became the means of great good to sick and wounded soldiers.

After the war, finding the iron-works where he had practiced wholly destroyed and his old practice gone, he ; located at Clarksville, where he has since resided in successful practice, and as constant as his health would allow.

Dr. Larkin became a Master Mason at Charlotte in 1817 ; was made Senior Warden under a special dispen- sation four months after initiation; was afterwards elected Master of his Lodge, and subsequently became a Royal Arch Mason in Clarksville Chapter.

In early life he voted for Martin Van Buren, a civilian, against Gen. Harrison, a military chieftain, casting no other presidential vote until he voted for Fillmore, and then for John Bell, always refusing to vote for a mili- , tary candidate for a civil office. All his sentiments were Whig, and he so voted in State elections. Opposed to secession fromaprinciple, he however considered Mr. Lincoln's call for troops, without the consent of Congress, an act of tyranny, and entered most heartily into the rebellion. When the war closed, and he came to choose between parties, he was forced to vote with the Demo- crats, but since that party assumed its present policy on the public debt he has refused to co-operate with any party, but voted for Cleveland and Hendricks.

Dr. Larkin's father, Joseph Larkin, was the sixth child and fourth son of John Larkin, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of a linen draper, and who, when a boy, while spreading linen was, together with two Scotch lads, kidnapped and brought to Phila- delphia, where he was apprenticed to a manufacturer, and learned the art of weaving. After attaining his majority he moved to Guilford county, North Carolina, and became a member of the Alamance congregation of Presbyterians. He married Sarah MeAdow, daughter of James MeAdow, who, together with his brother John, born in Ireland, came to North Carolina at an carly day. The family name was afterwards changed to "Mc Adoo." In 1796, as remembered by this writer, John Larkin and his brothers-in-law, John Mc.Adow, Rev. Samuel MeAdow, and the family of James Mc- Adow moved from Guilford county, North Carolina, to Tennessee, and settled in Dickson county, and founded the Larkin and MeAdow settlement on Jones' creek.

The Rev. Samuel MeAdoo (authography changed to " Mc Adoo ") previously mentioned, grand uncle of Dr. Larkin, was a Presbyterian minister, and he, together with Rev. Finis Ewing and Ephraim McClain, of Kentucky, and Samuel King, of Alabama, met at Mc- Adow's residence and constituted a presbytery, thereby organizing and founding the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Dickson county, Tennessee, February 4, 1810. (See Life of Ewing, by F. R. Cossitt, chapter 14, page 195.)

Joseph Larkin, father of Dr. Larkin, who died Sep- tember 23, 1837, in his fifty-second year, was married,

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May 25, 1815, to Catharine Clark, who was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, May 25, 1790, the daughter of Hance Clark and Mary Bailey. Hance Clark was an Irishman, and, so the writer is informed, Was a cousin of Dr. Adam Clark, the celebrated Bibli- eal commentator. Mary Bailey was descended from the the Baileys and Alexanders of Scotland.

Dr. Larkin was married in Dickson county, Tennes- wee, December 23, 1817, to Miss D. Jane Coldwell, (cousin of Hon. Thomas H. Coldwell, now of Shelby- ville,) daughter of Abiram Coldwell, of Hawkins county, Tennessee, and his wife, Nancy Montgomery, formerly of Richmond, Virginia. Miss Montgomery was a daugh- ter of Maj. James Montgomery, an English officer, and the niece of Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell at Quebec.

Mrs. Larkin died August 25, 1861. She was a lady of firm and decided character, but exceedingly gentle in her manners, and by her sweetness of temper made many friends. Four children were born to this union : (1). Josephine, born August 22, 1852; died July 10,

1853. (2). Neill Brown, born August 28, 1856; now a citizen of Savannah, Georgia. (3). Charles Hugh, born December 15, 1858; now chief stenographer for the branch of the Standard Oil company, New York city. (44). James Jerome, born August. 25, 1861; died in July, 1863.

Dr. Larkin was married a second time, February 10, 1866, to Miss Emma V. Bagwell, daughter of Pleasant Bagwell, of Lynchburg, Virginia. To this union has been born one child, Jennie Finley, born December 15, 1873.

Throughout life Dr. Larkin's motto has been to attend to all duties promptly, and make no engagements which he does not expect to keep. His habits have always been studious and temperate. He never took a glass of grog in a saloon in his life, has been moderate in all things, and has always lived within his income, hence, at this writing, November 30, 1885, is in comfortable circumstances, and owes no man, county or State, a dollar. His never-varying rule is, " do as you would be done by."

JOHN R. FRAYSER, M.D.

MEMPHIS.

D' R. JOHN R. FRAYSER was born February 15, 1815, in Cumberland county, Virginia, and there grew to manhood, or till he was twenty years of age. He is descended from a Scotch-Irish family. Hlis grand- father Frayser, a Scotchman, came to America in 1801, and settled in Hanover county, Virginia, near Rich- mond, and engaged in farming. His sou, Robert, father of the subject of this sketch, was a man of very strong character, and rose from the anvil to the bench, having been at first a blacksmith and afterwards judge of the court of Cumberland county. He died at Staunton, Virginia, in 1831, at the age of sixty-one years, leaving six children, one of whom, Robert, went to St. Charles county, Missouri, where he became an extensive planter, and married Miss Spears, niece of Judge Edward Bates, who was a member of President Lincoln's cabinet. Another son, William, went from Virginia to Memphis, where he remained a few years, and then removed to Lexington, Ilolmes county, Mississippi, where he be- came prominent as a lawyer. He died there in 1812. A third son, Albert, was a merchant in Powhatan county, Virginia. Benjamin F., another son, graduated with honor at the University of Virginia, and was a successful practitioner of medicine till his death in 1853.

John R., our subject, was brought up on a farm in his native county, obtaining his carliest education in the "old field schools" of the neighborhood, and, for

one year, in the academy at Cartersville, Virginia. His tutors were Philip Leak, a very eminent teacher of that day, and Jesse S. Armstead, a Presbyterian minister. At quite an early age he formed the intention of study- ing medicine, and in the fall of 1532, entered the Med- ical University of Pennsylvania, where, on account of his extreme youthfulness, he was called " the boy " by his classmates, one of whom was William Gibson, son of Professor Gibson of the university. He graduated in medicine in the spring of 1834, and in the following year, being just twenty years of age, he went to Mem- phis, where he has been ever since, every year and every month in the year. He was induced to settle in Memphis by the persuasions of two of his brothers then living there ; one a merchant and the other a law- yer and editor of a paper in the city. He landed in Memphis with just three dollars in his pocket, and stopped at the old City Hotel, of which Thomas D. Johnson was proprietor. He took the landlord into his confidence, told him that he was without money, and at once received his sympathy and a promise of help. He boarded for three years with Mr. Johnson, who became his warmest friend, and charged him only sixty dollars in money for three years' board, taking the balance out in practice in his family. He did not enter actively into practice at once, but, up to 1810, was connected with a book store in partnership with Jeptha Fowlkes.

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During the year 1810 he formed a partnership with Dr. Hugh Wheatley, who had solicited him to join him in the practice of medicine when he first came to Memphis, At the expiration of one year, Dr. Frayser entered into partnership with Dr. Solon Borland, who, after remaining with him one year, turned his attention to politics, moved to Louisville, and, after practicing medicine there for a time, went to Arkansas, took a prominent part in Democratic polities in that State, was elected United States senator, and afterwards ap- pointed minister to Central America. At the beginning of the late civil war he ( Borland) entered the Confede- rate army with the rank of colonel, and died while in the service.

In 1819 Dr. Frayser formed a partnership with Dr. James Chase, who continued with him till his death in 1859. He then entered into partnership with Dr. E. Miles Willett, which lasted till 1878, when he took as a partner Dr. B. G. Henning, his son-in-law, who is now professor in the Memphis Hospital Medical Col- lege.

Dr. Frayser was married November 4. 1837, to Miss Pauline A. Brown, daughter of William Brown, a native of Virginia. Her mother was Miss Saunders, sister of Romulus M. Saunders, of North Carolina, who was a member of Congress from that State for several terms, and afterwards minister to Spain. One of Mrs. Fray- ser's half-brothers, Capt. Henderson, was an officer in the United States army and adjutant on the staff of Gen. Gaines. Mrs. Frayser was left an orphan at an early age, but was tenderly cared for by Mrs. Dum, wife of Dr. Dudley Dunn, near Memphis. She received her education at Huntsville, Alabama, and was a lady of unusual intellectual powers and unblemished Chris- tian character. She was a consistent member of the Methodist church from her sixteenth year to the time of her death, which occurred February 28, 1881.

The union of Dr. Frayser and wife was a most happy one, and from it were born six children : (1). R. Dud- ley, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this vol- ume. (2). Emma L., born in 1816. now the wife of Col. R. M. Smith, formerly of Nashville, now of New Orleans; they have three children. (3). Julia. (1). Cornelia, born in 1852, now the wife of Dr. B. G. Henning, and mother of three children. (5). John C.,

boru in 1857, now shipping clerk to Lynn & Lewis, New Orleans. (6). David, law partner of his brother, R. Dudley Frayser.

In politics, Dr. Frayser was raised an old line Whig. He was a great admirer of Henry Clay, for whom he always voted. Since the war he has voted the Demo- eratic ticket, though he has never taken an active part in polities. He has invariably refused to become a candidate for public office, although often solicited to do so. He has several times been offered a professor- ship in the Memphis Medical College, but declined, be- lieving that his duty to his clientele required his whole attention.

lle became a member of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows in 1837, but has never held any office in the order. As in politics he has been a quiet voter, so iv the lodge he has been a silent member.

Dr. Frayser has been successful in acquiring and holding a very large practice, due alike to his acknowl- edged skill and attainments, and the fidelity and promptness with which he has always responded to the calls of the sick. For the accumulation of money he never displayed any special talent or desire. IIe has been fortunate, however, in being associated with busi- ness-like partners, and thus abundant financial rewards have accompanied his professional success. In the year 1866, his professional income alone was sixteen thousand dollars-perhaps the largest income of the kind ever enjoyed in Memphis, He has always dearly loved his profession, and devoted all his energies to its practice with becoming enthusiasm in the cause of humanity. One of his professional brethren in Mem- phis says of him: " Dr. Frayser is a man of high moral character, has stood at the head of his profession in Memphis for many years, and enjoys an enviable repu- tation." This tribute is simply a just one. There is not in Memphis a more honorable, upright citizen, nor one who enjoys, in a greater degree, the confidence of the people.

Dr. Frayser has passed through all the epidemics with which Memphis has been afflicted for the last fifty years, beginning with Asiatic cholera the first year of his resi- dence ther , and ending with the yellow fever in 1879. Dr. Frayser had the yellow fever himself in 1878, but was spared for further usefulness to his fellow-man.

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HON. BENJAMIN JJ. LEA.

BROWNSVILLE.

T' CHE ancestry of Judge Lea were English and Scotch-Irish, but not tracable in this sketch be- youd the grandfather, Bennett Lea, who was a well-to-do farmer in North Carolina. The father, Alvis Lea, a native of that State, was a farmer and merchant in Cas- well county. He was a member of the Baptist church, a quiet, unassuming man, who looked well after his own household, and also found time and means to make his benevolent nature felt among his neighbors. He had wo ambition for any sort of public life, but was content,

"Along the cool, sequestered vale of life To keep the noiseless tenor of his way."

lle died at his home in Caswell county, North Caro- lina, in 1876, at the age of seventy-one years.

Judge Lea's mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Kerr, was a niece of the celebrated Baptist minister, John Kerr, who, for several terms, was a member of Congress from Virginia; and she was also a cousin of John Kerr, jr., who represented a North Carolina dis- triet in Congress several years, and died in 1878, while on the superior bench of that State. Her father was a North Carolina farmer. Her mother, originally Miss Cantrell, was of a. North Carolina family. The Kerrs are of Scotch-Irish origin.

Judge B. J. Lea was born in Caswell county, North Carolina, January 1, 1833. He was raised in that county, working on the farm and going to school alter- nately, until he entered Wake Forest College, from which institution he was graduated in June, 1852. Having, at quite an early age, formed the determination to become a lawyer, on quitting college he removed to Haywood county, Tennessee, where he engaged in teaching school, carrying on his legal studies in the meantime. In 1856 he was licensed to practice by Judge John Reed and Chancellor Isaac B. Williams, and at once opened a law office in Brownsville, where ho has resided ever since. From 1858 to 1872, he was law partner with Hon, HI. J. Livingston, now chancel- lor of that division. In 1859 he was elected represent- ative from llaywood county, and served in the Legislature of 1859-60, being a member of the commit- tees on the judiciary and federal relations. While still a member of the Legislature, he was appointed by Gov. Isham G. Harris, commissary in the provisional (Con- federate) army of Tennessee, and, a few months later, was elected colonel of the Fifty-second Tennessee regi- ment, and remained its colonel till the close of the war. having been re-elected upon its reorganization in 1863 by an almost unanimous vote. Judge Lea was taken prisoner in West Tennessee, in March, 1865, and kept on parole until after the final surrender.

The war over, he resumed the practice of law at Brownsville, with great success. Like most of his southern brethren of the bar, he had then but little left, beyond his profession, upon which to build for the future, but, with courage and hopefulness, he set him- self to work in the new life. In 1876 he was appointed by Gov. Porter special judge of the Supreme court on account of the illness of one of the judges, and served in that office about eight months. In September, 1878, he was appointed by the Supreme court to the position of attorney-general and reporter for the State .. This posi- tion he still holds, and, during the seven years he has held it, he has served the State with signal ability and fidelity. The work of the Supreme court since he has been in office has been unusually heavy, and his reports are quite voluminous, though exceedingly well pre- pared.

Judge Lea was married in Haywood county, June 15 1853-the first year of his residence there-to Miss Mary C. Currie, a native of that county, and daughter of George and Judith Currie, both of North Carolina families. Her mother was a Chandler. Mrs. Lea was educated at Brownsville. She is a member of the Methodist church, and is a woman of much force of character, possessed of sound practical judgment, gentle manners, kind disposition, and skilled in all the better ways of the good housewife.

There have been born to Judge Lea and wife four children : (1). Swannanoa, born October 20, 1854; grad- uated from Ward's Seminary, Nashville. She married Thomas F. Baynes, now deceased, a lawyer of Browns- ville. He was a lawyer of great promise and very in- dustrious, having probably hastened his death by excessive work. She has since married Mr. J. P. East- man, of Lebanon, a lawyer. She has two children. Thomas F. and Effie Baynes. (2). Mary F., born in 1859, and died in infancy. (3). Katie B., born in 1860, graduated at Brownsville and Nashville, and married John C. Sanders, a lawyer at Lebanon. She has two children, Mary Lea and Richard. (4). Alvis G., born April 8, 1868.

Judge Lea is a man of marked personal characteris- ties. Physically, he is a splendid specimen of his race. In height he measures over six feet, while in weight he " tips the beam " usually at two hundred and forty- five pounds. His robust, hale and hearty look is always suggestive of good living. His eyes are dark and keen, and fairly blaze on occasions of excitement, while his heavy projecting brows impart to his countenance an air of gravity that commands respect, as by authority. Yet austerity is not a characteristic of Judge Lea. In temper, usually, he is as gentle as a woman, and, in the

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social circle, there is no one more genial. He loves the society of his friends, and, in friendly devotion, there is no man more prompt or true.

In politics, Judge Lea has been a life-long Democrat, though, with the exception of the legislative service al- ready mentioned, has never held political office. In 1872 he was made chairman of the Democratic State convention. In 1855 he became a Master Mason, and afterwards took the Chapter degrees. He has served as Master, King and High Priest. He is also a member of the Order of the Knights of Honor, of the United Workmen, and of the Golden Rule. He is a member of the Methodist church, in which he has been steward and lay delegate to the annual conference. His per- sonal life is, in all respects, exemplary, regulated at all times by the highest standards of propriety and morality.

As a lawyer, Judge Lea has been very successful. His qualities are of the solid, rather than of the bril- liant order. His reputation is that of the safe coun- selor. Strong common sense, subjected to a rigid con- scientiousness, is the sub-stratum of his character. His conceptions of professional duty are lofty and liberal,

There is nothing of the pettifogger in his nature. When a man becomes his client, he becomes his protege and is held in the light of a friend, whose cause becomes his own. Where a remedy is possible without litigation he invariably urges it, though adversely to his own in- terest. Ever since he came to the bar he has acted upon the belief that very many of the suits brought before the courts might be compromised by the par- ties, or their lawyers, more profitably to all concerned, than by a warfare in the court-room; and so it has long been Judge Lea's custom, when consulted or re- tained, to endeavor first to effect a settlement of the matters in controversy, before resorting to legal process. This failing, however, his zeal in the fight is quite as marked as his previous desire for peace. And in the court-room Judge Lea is very effective. As an advo- cate he has few equals. Besides, his conduct before court and jury is marked by a degree of candor and fairness that wins confidence and secures conviction. "Smart tricks " and " sharp practice " are foreign to his methods.

Judge Lea is yet in his prime, physically and mentally. The future should have much laid up in store for him.

HON. JOHN FRIZZELL.

NASHVILLE.

TUDGE JOHN FRIZZELL is of Scotch origin. The original family emigrated to Ireland and thence to America, settling in Virginia. His grandfather, Abram Frizzell, and his brothers were tobacco plant- ers in Maryland and Virginia, and from these descended all the Frizzells in the United States, who spell their names in that way. Abram Frizzell's wife was a Miss Williams. She died at the age of forty-five, he at the age of about ninety. Judge Frizzell's father, Nathan Frizzell, was born in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, September 3, 1808, and moved with his father's family to Bedford county, Tennessee, in 1825, where his father lived a few years, returned to Virginia, married again, and died in 1858 or 1859. Judge Frizzell's father mar- ried, November 27, 1827, Miss Mary Jones, daughter of Hugh Jones, living near Beech Grove, then in Bedford, now Coffee county, Tennessee. The Joneses were from Buncombe county, North Carolina. Hugh Jones, though at the time over age, was a volunteer under Gen. Jackson, at New Orleans. He was a great lover of his rifle and passionately fond of hunting. He died between eighty-five and ninety years of age. Judge Friz- zell's maternal grandmother, Jones, was of a North Caro- lina family, and, with her husband, settled in Coffee county. Hugh Frizzell, Judge Frizzell's brother, was

elected, in 1870, clerk of the criminal court of David- son county, and died in office, after two years' service.

Judge Frizzell's father started out in life a poor man. He worked on a farm, as a day laborer, until, becoming corpulent, he taught school for several years in Bedford and Rutherford counties. His teaching did not extend beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. He had the reputation, among other attainments, of being an excep- tionally correct speller, a very rare accomplishment even among scholars. He received his education in Virginia. In 1811 he removed to Winchester and sold goods for a time. Shortly after going to Winchester, he was elected magistrate, and served as chairman of the county court. In March, 1811, he was elected clerk of the circuit court, and was re-elected four times success- sively, holding the office for twenty years without in- terruption. When the courts were reopened after the war he declined a reappointment to the clerkship tendered him by Judge Hickerson, then presiding. He was an honest man, faithful to every trust, benevolent and just: He was a moral, temperate man, and, in politics, was a Jeffersonian Democrat. He died Sep- tember 21, 1871.

Judge Frizzell's mother was a devoted member of the Methodist church, and died in May, 1882, at the age of

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seventy-four, leaving four children surviving her, eight having died before her.

Judge Frizzell's experience in boyhood was somewhat unusual, and it is hardly too much to say that the ef- feets of that experience are still seen in the striking domestic virtues which characterize the man. He was raised in the homestead and trained to do all manner of household work, in assistance of his mother. He had thus but little advantage of farm labor or of school privileges, except as an irregular attendant at his fath- er's school, when he could be spared from home. At the age of about eighteen, however, his father sent him to the county academy one term, which was all the reg- ular schooling he obtained. At the age of fourteen he had begun writing in the office of the circuit court clerk, and, in his fifteenth year, became deputy clerk. For the next ten years, with the exception of the brief period at the academy, he was mainly engaged as deputy in his father's office and in the other clerks' offices of the county. . It was this early clerical training, no doubt, that laid the basis of that high business character which he now enjoys. In 1849 he was elected register of the land office at Nashville, by the Legislature, the mem- ber from Franklin county, Col. Hayden March, present- ing his name in his absence and without his knowledge. He took charge of the office in December of that year, and, for three years, gave his personal attention to its duties. Leaving the office, then, in charge of a deputy, he returned to Winchester, and, for about one year . was in charge of a mercantile establishment, meanwhile assisting his father in his office.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 37

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