Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 41

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

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The history of the Hart family is exceedingly inter-

esting. The remotest direet ancestor of Capt. Mathes' mother that can now be traced, was a merchant in Lon- don, extensively interested in shipping and a trader in the Levant. About the year 1606 he was captured by pirates, had his eyes put out, and was made a galley slave for fourteen years. He, however, escaped with others in a boat, was picked up in mid-ocean by a trading ship, and brought to Norfolk, in the colony of Virginia. Hle afterwards married there and had one son, Thomas Hart, from whom sprang a very numerous family that subsequently settled in Kentucky and other States west, and intermarried with the Clays, Bentons, Breekin- ridges, and other prominent families. One branch of the family came to Tennessee at a very early day, one of whom was Joseph Hart (Capt. Mathes' maternal great- grandfather), who became the head of a very large fam- ily, consisting of ten sons and two daughters. He removed to Bartholomew county, Indiana, about 1834, and died there. One of his sons, Samuel Hart, now lives at Carrollton, Mississippi; another, James II. Hart, lives at Shawneetown, Ilinois; another, Rev. Charles H. Hart, is a Presbyterian minister in Logan county, Ohio. Another son, Edward' Hart (Capt. Mathes' maternal grandfather), was born, lived and died in Blount county, Tennessee.

Of the sons of Edward Hart (Capt. Mathes' maternal uncles), one of them, Thomas Hart, still lives at the old homestead in Blount county; another, Joseph. Hart, lives in Knox county; another, Dr. Nathaniel Hart, formerly surgeon in Orr's First South Carolina regi- ment, now lives near Brooksville, Florida. Two daugh- ters of Edward Hart, Mrs. Abigail Boyd and Mrs. Hettie Aiken, now live in Blount county.

Capt. James Harvey Mathes was born June 29, 1841, in Jefferson county, Tennessee, and grew up on his father's farm, leading the life and doing the work of a farmer's boy. His parents being upright, strictly hon- est and prudent people, his early moral training was in the right direction. He attended the neighboring country schools until his sixteenth year, when he en- tered as a student Westminster Academy, East Ten- nessee, then under control of Prof. A. W. Wilson, a Presbyterian minister and a noted educator, now presi- dent of a college at Dodd City, Texas. He remained there three years, during which time he assumed espe- cial prominence in rhetoric and composition, wherein he evidenced the instinets and preferences which, in after life, led him to embrace the profession of journal- ism, in which he has achieved enviable distinction. During his scholastic days he enjoyed the reputation of being one of the best read young men in Jefferson county, and he was always known to seize with avidity only the healthiest literary productions, both modern and ancient. When nineteen years of age he accepted a position as teacher in an Alabama school, where he pursued his duties as tutor in the daytime, read law at night, and at the same time prepared himself for col

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lege. But his coveted diploma was never received, for on the very day that Fort Sumpter fell he closed his school and started home to Jefferson county. Here he heard Andrew Johnson, Horace Maynard, Gov. Brown- low, T. A. R. Nelson, and other noted men of East Tennessee, make Union speeches, some of which were so bitter against the South that his sympathies were at once aroused for the southern cause, notwithstanding his father and the majority of his relatives had adopted Union views.

He at once raised a company for the Confederate ser- vice, was made captain, and drilled his men for two months, but his company was finally distributed into different branches of the army, and young Mathes en- listed as a private in the company commanded by Capt. S. M. Cocke, which afterwards became a part of the Thirty-seventh Tennessee regiment. He was first elected orderly sergeant of his company, and at Ger- mantown, near Memphis, was appointed sergeant-major by Col. (afterwards brigadier-general) William HI. Car- roll. The regiment encamped at Knoxville for some time and did guard duty around the jail while Parsou W. G. Brownlow was a prisoner there, but there was no bitterness or unkindness shown the prisoner, a fact which Mr. Brownlow kindly recognized in a book which he afterwards published, although he was severe in his opinions of Gen. Carroll, and subsequently refused to allow him to return home from Canada, where he died an exile. While at Knoxville Mathes was detailed and assigned to duty in the adjutant-general's department, under Gen. George B. Crittenden, but returned to his regiment when it was ordered to Mill Springs, Ken- tueky, where he participated in the battle at that place.

When the army was reorganized at Corinth, Mississ- ippi, in April, 1862, he was elected first-lieutenant of his company, and soon after was commissioned as adju- tant of the Thirty-seventh Tennessee regiment, a posi- tion he held until the close of the war. At the battle of Perryville, where the regiment lost nearly one-half its strength in killed and wounded, he took an active and conspicuous part. At the battle of Murfreesbor- ongh, Col. Moses White and Lient. Col. Frayser were wounded and Maj. J. S. MeReynolds was killed, and the young adjutant was practically in command of the regiment after the field officers fell. Subsequently the regiment was stationed at Chattanooga and other points down the railroad to Dalton, Georgia. After being re- cruited they were sent to the front near Wartrace, and at a later period, consolidated with the Fifteenth Ten- nessee, a regiment that had been formed under Col. Charles Carroll, a brother of Col. William H. Carroll, of the Thirty-seventh. The colonel commanding at. that time, however, was Col. R. C. Tyler, who succeeded to the command of the consolidated regiment. The colonel of the Thirty-seventh and Adjutant Mathes, together with a number of other officers, were assigned

to duty elsewhere, Capt. Mathes being sent on detached service for several months in north Georgia, at Knox- ville and Jonesborough, East Tennessee, and finally into Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. . Returning to the army he was assigned to duty in southern Ala- bama. After two or three months' perilous service ing chasing down deserters and breaking up bands of bush- whackers, who had fed from both the Federal and Confederate armies to the swamps and wilds of southern Alabama, along the Florida line, he made application to Gen. Bragg for permission to return to the army front. The request was granted, and during the latter .. part of '63 he rejoined his old regiment and declmed a captaincy in favor of his old position, where he would not have to give up his tried and faithful war horse. Shortly after he was appointed inspector of Tyler's brig- ade, Col. Tyler having in the meantime become briga- dier-general, succeeding Gen. Bate, who had been promoted to a major-generalship, succeeding Gen. John C. Breckinridge in command of the division ..

Capt. Mathes participated actively in the Georgia campaign all the way from Dalton, being under fire fully seventy days out of seventy-five, and although in : all the prominent engagements as a staff officer, he yet found time to write frequently to the Memphis Appeal (then published at Atlanta), over the nom de plume of " Harvey." His letters were highly interesting, plainly bearing the stamp of ability, and were valuable contri- butions to the war literature of the day.

On July 22, 1864, while acting as assistant adjutant- general, on the staff of Gen. Thomas Benton Smith, he received a frightfully severe wound in the left knee, from a shell which exploded so close to him that he could feel the concussion. His horse was killed in- stantly. C'apt. Mathes was carried off the field on a blanket by some of the Ninth Kentucky mounted in- fantry (Gen. Cerro Gordo Williams' brigade), to a small cabin being used as a hospital by the Kentucky brigade. Some time later an ambulance drove up with Col. R. Dudley Frayser, who was also very badly wounded. That afternoon the two wounded friends and officers were removed to the division hospital, some miles in the rear, where between eight and nine o'clock, Capt. Mathes' injured log was amputated just above the knee, by Dr. Joel C. Hall, of Mississippi, acting surgeon of the brig- ade. The next day Capt. Mathes was removed to At- lanta, placed on a train and moved out to Lovejoy's, and the day following was carried on, with numerous other badly wounded soldiers. At Griffin he was compelled to disembark, on account of the intense pain of his wound, but four weeks later was able to go on crutches, and six weeks from the date of the operation was re- moved to Columbus, Georgia, in a box-car, and was three days in making the journey, accompanied only by a colored servant. From Columbus he went to Silver Run, Alabama, but his injured limb being attacked with gangrene, caused his return to Columbus, where

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he became so prostrated with the disease and numerous surgical operations, that he was reduced to the lowest possible point of life, and became a mere skeleton. In the midst of his multiplied sufferings, however, he was the object of the kindest attention from the ladies and citizens of Columbus, and was visited by his aunt, Mrs. Dr. N. Hart, of Ninety-six, South Carolina, who, with s mother's care and solicitude, nursed him through the erisis, Yet he improved very slowly, and on March 22, 1×65, left for Grenada, Mississippi, hoping to commu nicate with his parents, from whom he had not heard in six months. While at Grenada news of the surren- der came. Gen. Marcus JJ. Wright was in command of that district, and Gov. Isham G. Harris and his sons were there awaiting results, keeping their horses sad- dled and hitched day and night, ready to leave at a moment's notice, which they did when the news was confirmed, Gov. Harris going to join Forrest's command which had not surrendered. Capt. Mathes went on through to Memphis by private conveyance, arrived there May 13, 1865, and was paroled by the Federal provost-marshal on Court street. This parole, and lis Confederate commission as first-lieutenant, a surgeon's certificate signed by Dr. Hall, July 23, 1864, a pocket testament from his father, carried through the war, and a diary kept during the greater part of the strife, being about his only souvenirs of the great struggle, except a Federal sword he captured at the battle of Murfrees borough, which is now at his old home in East Ten- nessee.

That Capt. Mathes has been through the fiery furnace of war needs no further attestation from this chronicler. The lost limb is an eloquent reminder of the fearless devotion with which he served his country. But the disturbed condition of things in East Tennessee just after the war made it unsafe for him to return to his old home, and at this period his experience as an army correspondent stood him in good stead, and he soon sue- ceeded in securing the city editorship of the Memphis Daily Argus, a position he held with credit to himself and employers from December 25, 1865, until the paper ceased to exist, early in 1867. During his service on the Argus (which toward the last became the Commer- cial and Argus), he received severe injuries in a terri ble railroad accident near luka, Mississippi, which hastened what he had felt would come sooner or later --- another amputation of his wounded leg, which had never entirely healed after the gangrene was eradicated. This was performed in Memphis by Dr. Voorhees, in the presence of a number of prominent physicians and surgeous, in the latter part of October, 1866. After a month's confinement to his bed, and a trip to New Or- leans by boat, he went on duty again December 1, 1866, and a year later was able to dispense with his crutches and use an artificial limb.

Hle next cast his fortunes with the Louisville Courier, remained nearly a year on its editorial staff, was again

forced to resign regular work on account of ill health, and acted as special correspondent at Indianapolis and Chicago for various journals. In the spring of 1868 he became connected with the editorial staff of the Mem- phis Avalanche. On March 1, 1869, he became city editor of the Memphis Publie Ledger, and in 1872, was appointed chief editor, succeeding Col. F. Y. Rockett, who died in the summer of that year. During the six - teen years and more that Capt. Mathes has been the editor of the Public Ledger, the most amicable rela- tions have existed between Mr. E. Whitmore, the pro- prietor, and himself. The paper has grown almost without a precedent in the South, is now the oldest afternoon journal in the South, has outlived more than a dozen rival cotemporaries, and is to-day in a solid, financial condition. Under the editorship of Capt. Mathes it has taken high conservative ground on load- ing questions of the day, and while Democratic in poli- tics, is very independent as well as liberal, fearless as well as bold, a leader in progress, development, and the social and educational advancement of Tennessee. The noble people of Memphis have been ever quick to recog- nize his efforts and to hold up his hands in the cause of truth and justice, and he has never betrayed their trust, but grown with that public-spirited city and become one of the standard men in their midst

Capt. Mathes was married December 2, 1868, at For- est Hill, near Memphis, to Miss Mildred Spotswood Cash, daughter of Col. Benjamin Cash, a native of North Carolina, and a planter, who died December 14, 1874. The mother of Miss Cash was Mildred S. Dand- ridge, from near Richmond, Virginia. By blood con- nection Mrs. Mathes is related to a number of leading and time-honored families in Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and the Carolinas. She is highly educated and a graduate of the best schools of Memphis. The marriage of Capt Mathes and Miss Cash was the romantic result of an acquaintance forined during the first year of the war, when she was a mere child of twelve or thirteen. The bright eyes, sweet face and winning manners of the little southern girl won the heart of the young soldier, and his mauly and chivalric bearing fired her tenderest sentiments even then. The distress of war did not disturb the glowing picture of future happiness drawn by the young people, and one day when she was told that her hero was frightfully wounded and had lost a limb, she was asked if she would still marry him should he live to return. "Yes," she replied, " bring him on, if he has only body enough left to hold his heart." A noble sentiment direct from the true heart of a noble woman. They became form- ally engaged shortly after Lee's surrender, and were married nearly four years later. By this marriage five children have been born: (1). Mildred Overton Mathes, born July 28, 1870. (2). Lee Dandridge Mathes, born January 12, 1872. (3) Benjamin Cash Mathes, born January 1, 1875. (1). James Harvey Mathes, born De- .

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cember 12, 1877. (5). Talbot Spotswood Mathes, born May 6, 1881.

Capt. Mathes was reared in the Presbyterian church, but is now a member of the Strangers' church (Congre- gational, Rev. N. M. Long, pastor), Memphis, and is chairman of the board of trustees. He became a Mason in 1861, while in army winter quarters at Dalton, Geor- gia, under a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Ala- bama ; since the war, has become a Royal Arch Mason, and at one time served as secretary of South Memphis Lodge, No. 18, of which he became an affiliated mem- ber in 1868. He is also a Knight of Honor ; was the first Dictator of the first lodge ( No. 196) in Memphis and in West Tennessee. This is now the largest lodge in the State. He was also a charter member of John- son Lodge, No. 21, A. O. U. W., the first lodge organ- ized in Memphis, and has attended Grand Lodges of both these orders in Nashville.

Capt. Mathes was raised a Whig, but since the war has been a Democrat. 'Soon after the war he became prominently identified with local and State politics and took an active part as long as the people labored under the disabilities of disfranchisement. In April, 1870, he was elected tax collector on privileges -- an office that existed only in Shelby county-held the position two years, and in 1872 was re-elected by the almost unani- mous vote of the county, receiving over fourteen thou- sand votes.

In 1874 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, and served as chairman of the committee on printing, and as a member of other committees. In 1878 he visited Europe, carrying a commission from Gov. A. S. Marks as representative of Tennessee to the Paris Exposition. This tour was taken on his own ac- count, mainly for recreation and health. . While abroad he wrote a series of letters from Scotland, England, Treland and France, which were published in the Mem- phis Ledger and extensively copied. He returned to Memphis in August, 1878, after the yellow fever broke out, resumed his editorial chair on the Ledger, but was taken with the fever September 7, and had a very vio- lent ease, but with the advantages of a good constitu tion, the best of medical attention, the kind offices of his lodge brethren, and the devoted nursing of his faith- ful wife, he partially recovered, only in time, too, to assist in nursing and caring for the wife who was stricken at his bedside just as he had passed the crisis. Mrs. Mathes also had a very violent case of the fever, and for three days was entirely speechless. Two of their nurses died, one in the house and the other else- where, and it was some months before either husband or wife were wholly themselves again,

While still weak from the fever and scarcely able to walk, Capt. Mathes was again nominated for the Legis- Jature, and was elected by a handsome majority, in No-

vember, 1878. He became a candidate for speaker of the House, but being physically too weak for the fight, and in order to break a dead lock, withdrew in favor of Hon. I. P. Fowlkes, of Williamson county, who was immediately elected, and subsequently appointed Capt. Mathes chairman of the committee on finance, ways and means. With other members from Shelby he took an active part in procuring the repeal of the charter of Memphis, and in passing the act under which the pres ent taxing district of Memphis was established. In connection with his political history as a legislator, it may be stated that in the Legislature of 1875, he was: one of the "immortal nine," comprising the Shelby delegation, which voted for Andrew Johnson for United States senator in opposition to his personal friend and old commander, Gen. Bate, feeling bound to obey his constituency, who virtually instructed him to cast his vote that way or resign.

Since serving his last term in the Legislature, he has been a candidate for no office on his own account, but has devoted his attention entirely to his editorial duties. However, in 1879, he was appointed by Gov. Marks as a member of the board of visitors to the University of . East Tennessee (now University of Tennessee); was reappointed in 1883 by Gov. Bate for another term, it being an honorary office without compensation. With- out being an aspirant for office he has attended as a delegate from his county, most of the State Democratic conventions since the war. In the State convention, June, 1884, he was unanimously, and without solicita- tion on his part, chosen as elector on the National Dem- ocratic ticket for the Tenth (Memphis) Congressional district, and afterwards made a brilliant canvass as such in behalf of Cleveland and Hendricks. At the same convention he was appointed an alternate delegate to the Chicago National Democratic convention and at- tended in that capacity. As a popular speaker, Capt. Mathes is held in very high esteem for his eloquence, solid information, logical and well-balanced views. He is an excellent raconteur, a fine " after dinner man," and a pleasing conversationalist. Besides his visit to Europe, he has traveled extensively in the United States, Canada, New and old Mexico, acquiring a large ac- quaintance with men and matters, which he never fails to put to good use.

He has succeeded well in a financial sense ; is now a director in the Vanderbilt Insurance company, Mem- phis, and has a fair property. He has always taken good care of his family, is charitable to the unfortunate, has lived within his income, and avoided debt with a holy horror. His greatest fortune has been his wife, who, although reared in luxury, has done her full share in helping him to succeed in life. And he has returned this devotion with a loving and a loyal gallantry that well merits for him the noble title of a born gentleman.

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COL. MOSES II. CLIFT.

CHATTANOOGA.

THE word Clift, meaning stability, as a family , law at the age of twenty-two at Chattanooga, in the of- cognomen, is a perpetual incentive to high en- deavor and fixedness of purpose. The great ancestor, James Clift, an Englishman, came over to North Caro- lina in 1712. His son, James (lift, was in the war of the Revolution and in that of 1812, and was at the bat- tle of Cowpens and at New Orleans. He married a Hitchcock, of North Carolina, related to the celebrated geologist. She was a niece of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. fice of Judge John L. Hopkins, was admitted to the bar in 1861, by Judges T. Nixon Van Dyke and John C. Gaut. But before beginning practice he entered the Confederate army and raised company HI, of the Thirty- sixth Tennessee regiment, his brother, J. W. Clift, being made its captain. After serving seven months he left the Thirty-sixth Tennessee and went to the Fourth Tennessee cavalry, Starnes' regiment, Forrest's old brigade. Ile remained in that regiment until the battle of Fort Donelson, when he was promoted to a captaincy on the field and assigned to duty on the staff of Col. Starnes, who was then commanding the brigade. He remained with Col. Starnes until that gallant officer was killed at the battle of Tullahoma, in August, 1863, when Clift was assigned to duty on the staff of Gen. George G. Dibrell with rank of captain, but was after- wards promoted to major at the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and to colonel at Waynesborough, Georgia, in 1865. Col. Clift served with honor and great gal- lantry in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South and North Carolina, surren- dering at Washington, Georgia, being at the time with the troops accompanying President Davis and his cabinet.

Col. Clift's father, William Clift, was born in North Carolina, in 1795, moved with his father to Knox county, Tennessee, about the year 1800, and resided there until 1825, when he settled in Hamilton county, Tennessee, where he still resides. He has been engaged in farming and the lumber business most of his life. He was colonel of the Seventh Tennessee Federal regi- ment, and served till captured in the fall of 1863, in Rhea county, Tennessee. Singular to say, while the father was a colonel in the Federal army his son, subject of this sketch, was also a colonel on staff duty on the other side. The elder Clift was colonel of militia many years before the war, and before he entered regular ser- vice. He was for many years a magistrate of Hamilton county and has always been a citizen of weighty influence. For forty-five years he has been an elder in the Presbyte- rian church, He married Nancy Arwin Brooks, daughter of Gen. Moses Brooks, of Knox county, Tennessee, a gentleman of Scotch blood and birth, and a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Her brother, Joseph Brooks, of Knox county, now deceased, was also general of militia. Her brother, John, died in the Mexican war. Her mother was an Arwin. Col. Clift's mother died in 1816, leaving seven children : (1). America W., died the wife of R. W. Coulter. (2). Agnes E., now the widow of Johnson Coulter. (3). James W., a farmer, and now secretary of the Soddy Coal company, and of the Walden's Ridge Coal company. He was a lieuten- ant in the regular army of the Confederate service. ( 1). Mary A., wife of J. W. C. Henderson. (5). Robert B. (G). Moses II., subject of this sketch. (7). Joseph J., a justice of the peace and a farmer in Hamilton county.

Col. Clift was born at Soddy, Hamilton county, Au- gust 25, 1836. He was raised to do farming, flatboating and steamboating on the Tennessee river, and from his earliest boyhood throughout his career, has been dis- tinguished for his untiring energy. In the war he was brave, pushing and fearless. To-day, at his home in Chattanooga, he is universally popular, and, indeed, all over East Tennessee. His education was neglected when he was a boy. He had the advantage of only four- teen months' schooling, and hence deserves praise for attaining eminence in a learned profession by hard work and diligent self-application. He began studying

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 41

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