Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 42

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

USA > Tennessee > Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee > Part 42

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

C'ol. Clift took part in the battles of Fort Donelson, Parker's Cross-roads, Jackson, Lavergne, Murfreesbor- ough, Chickamauga, Knoxville, Dandridge, Spring Hill, Franklin, Pulaski, Philadelphia, Loudon, Tennessee ; Saltville, Tunnel Hill, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, Cassville, Buckhead church, Waynesborough, Georgia ; Aikin's Bridge and Columbia, South Carolina, Greens- borough and Charlotte, North Carolina. He was wounded at the battles of Fort Donelson, and at Cass- ville and Waynesborough, Georgia. At Fort Donel- son, Tennessee, he had twenty-three bullet holes shot through his clothes, but without abrasion of the skin. At Fort Donelson, it is said, the Federal officer in com- mand offered a reward of five thousand dollars for the capture of Col. Clift. After the battle of Chickamauga he was ordered into the Federal lines across the Ten- nessee river, and remained there several hours gather- ing information, which he communicated to Gen. Bragg at Missionary ridge. Just before the battle at Tunnel Hill he was ordered into the enemy's lines on the scout again, watched the movements of the Federal troops while concentrating before moving on their march into Georgia, all of which he promptly and accurately re- ported to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, then commanding the Confederate army. Gen. Bragg offered Col. Clift a generalship at Chattanooga, in 1863, but he declined the distinction.

The war over, he returned to his home at Soddy,

190

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

when, after remaining a few weeks, he went to Fort Valley, Georgia, and there opened a law office and made his first fee. He remained there only two months and then went to Atlanta, where he remained until Febru- ary, 1866, when he went to Murfreesborough and prac- tieed until the December following. He then located permanently at. Chattanooga. Since then he has dili- gently, and with great success, practiced law. He is now president of the Soddy Coal company, and of the Walden's Ridge Coal company; is a director in the Chattanooga cotton factory ; the Citico furnace; the Chattanooga Electric Light company ; owns two farms in Hamilton county, and, besides his palatial residence, several business houses and unimproved real estate in Chattanooga, and is classed among the solid men of that city.

It is true of this gentleman that he is a self-made man, for he began life when the war ended on a dollar and fifty cents, and his fortune is due to himself. His system is that of persistent, energetic industry, and to this day he has never invested a dollar from which he did not realize fifty per cent. He is said to be brave, tender-hearted, charitable and generous to a proverb. IIe risks his own judgment, and close investigation and judicious investment will account for his financial suc- cess. As a lawyer he consults nobody ; acts on his own opinion, and keeps his own counsel. Self- reliant always, he first learns the facts of a case-from which he forms his conclusions as to the rights of his client and the law applicable; it is then the object to sustain these conclusions by authorities. He refuses to take a case unless he thinks his client has a chance to win.

In religion Col. Clift is a Presbyterian, and has been an elder in that church some fourteen years. In poli- ties he is a Democrat. lle has held the positions of alderman, notary public, special judge, and was a delegate to the National Democratic convention at St. Louis, in 1876, and at Cincinnati, in 1880.

Capt. Clift first married in Monroe county, Tennessee, in September, 1866, Miss Attie Cooke, daughter of Dr. R. F. Cooke, a distinguished physician, whose father was for two terms a member of Congress from East Ten- nessee, and originally from South Carolina. Mrs. Clift's undlo, Hon. J. B. Cooke, is now on the Supreme bench of the State. Her mother was Charlotte Kimbro, of Monroe county. Mrs. Clift died at Chattanooga, in

February, 1876, at the age of twenty-nine, leaving three children : (1). Attie Arwin. (2). Mary Roberta. (3). Moses HI., the latter dying in infancy.

Col. Clift's second marriage occurred at Cartersville, Bartow county, Georgia, June 28, 1883, with Miss Florence V. Parrott, who was born in that town, April 21, 1858. She was the daughter of Judge J. R. Parrott, a native of Cocke county, Tennessee, born February 25, 1827, and died at Montvale Springs, Blount county, Tennessee, June 10, 1872. He was educated at Emory and Henry College, Virginia; moved to Georgia in 1848; went to the bar in 1851 ; was a delegate from Gordon .. county, Georgia, to the Union convention of 1850, and was the youngest member of that body. In 1856 he was an elector on the Fillmore ticket, and in 1860 on the Bell and Everett ticket ; was a member of the con- stitutional conventions of 1865 and 1868, and was presi- dent of the latter. In 1863 he was appointed quarter- master, with the rank of major, of Gen. Wofford's brigade, and was afterwards solicitor-general of the Cherokee (Georgia) circuit in the latter part of that year. In 1868 he was appointed judge of the Cherokee circuit, and filled that position until his death. In politics he was a Republican ; in religion a Protestant Methodist. In everything in his life's conduct he en- : deavored to rely on reason, common sense and fact; his speeches were pointed, forcible, eloquent, and in his bearing he was a fine type of the cultivated gentleman.

Mrs. Clift's grandfather, Jacob Parrott, was a native of Tennessee, and died at Parrottsville, a town named for the Parrot family, a member of which invented the famous Parrott gun

Mrs. Clift's mother's maiden name was Mary Tram- mell, and she is now living in Cartersville, Georgia. She was born in Nacoochee Valley, Georgia, a daughter of John Trammell. Her mother was Elizabeth Fain. Mrs. (lift's maternal uncle, Leander N. Trammell, is a prominent politician, and now a railroad commissioner of the State of Georgia. Mrs. Clift was educated at the Augusta Female Seminary, Staunton, Virginia, and re- ceived the highest medal given for English composi- tion. She is distinguished for her superior mental en- dowments, high literary attainments and her gracious disposition and graceful manners, By his second mar- riage, Col. Clift has one child, Rhoton Parrott, born August 9, 18S4.

JOHN P. BLANKENSHIP, M.D.

MARYVILLE.

D R. JOHN PATTON BLANKENSHIP was born at Friendsville, Blount county, Tennessee, December 6, 1839, and grew up there, working on his father's farm, going to school during winter months, and

studying from early boyho xl, with a view of becoming a physician. His habits in boyhood were good, due in part to his good mother's admonitions. For four and a half years he was a student in the Friends-

191

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

ville Institute, taking most pleasure in the study of Mazuages. The last term he attended that college he wudied physiology, anatomy and chemistry under Dr. David Morgan, the president and founder of the school.

He began the study of medicine at the age of twenty, fa the office of Dr. Isaac Taylor, in Maryville, and read with him two years, practicing some in the second year. Is February, 1862, he was appointed by Col. L. (. Houk to the position of assistant surgeon of the Third Tennessee Federal infantry regiment, and was with that regiment from its organization throughout its campaigns In Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky, when he was dis- charged at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, on account of ill health.

In the fall of 1862, he occasionally attended medical lectures at Louisville. In June, 1866, he returned to Maryville, and again entered into practice there. In 1871-75 he studied medicine in the Vanderbilt Uni- versity at Nashville, and graduated March, 1875, under Profs. Paul F. Eve, W. T. Briggs, Thomas L. Maddin, W. L. Nichol. Van S. Lindsley, Thomas Menees, J. M. Kafford, Thomas A. Atchison and John HI. Callender. In March, 1883, the Nashville Medical College con- ferred upon him the ad eundem degree. From 1866 to the present time he has been engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery at Maryville and in Blount county, confining himself exclusively to his profession. During the summer of 1881, he was resi dent physician at Montvale Springs, whither he went for the benefit of his own health, a spell of typhoid- pneumonia during the war having seriously injured his constitution, from the effects of which he has never entirely recovered. Dr. Blankenship deserves credit for the tenacity of purpose with which he has, over all obstacles, pursued the study of his profession, and risen to a high standing in it.

The Blankenship family, mostly farmers, are noted for being a working, determined, energetic people. Dr. Blankenship's great-grandfather, Isham Blankenship, was raised near Richmond, Virginia, and first went to North Carolina. and from the latter State came to Ten- nessee, the family locating in Blount and Monroe coun- ties. Isham Blankenship had seven sons, each one of' whom had seven sons, four of whom came to Tennessee, and so the race has spread all over' East Tennessee, and the State, and even over other States. It is a tradition in the family that no less than fourteen of the Blanken- ships were the fathers of seven sons each, though this is not stated as a positive fact.

Dr. Blankenship's grandfather, Gilbert Blankenship, was a successful farmer on the Tennessee river, in what is now Loudon county, and there died in 1875, at the age of eighty-four. Ile married three times, his last wife being Elizabeth Hughes, He left eleven children by the three wives, Dr. Blankenship's father, Isham Blankenship, being a son of the first wife, Bertha Davis, a native of Virginia, brought to Blount county at the

age of fourteen years, where her father and mother died. Her father was a farmer.

Dr. Blankenship's father, Isham Blankenship, died, thirty-eight years old, near Friendsville, Blount county, when the son was only eleven years old. He was born in Blount (now London) county and was a farmer. When a young man he was a lieutenant in the army which re- moved the Indians from the Hiawasse country, men- tion of which is made in Ramsey's Annals of Tonnes- see. The Blankenship family are related to the Moore family-prominent people and among the early settlers of North Carolina.

Dr. Blankenship's mother, nee Mary McClain, of Scotch-Irish descent, was born near Morganton, now in Loudon county, daughter of John McClain, a farmer from Virginia. Her mother was a Miss Ste- phens and came either from Maryland of Virginia. Mrs. Blankenship's brother, Andrew McClain, was county register of Blount county, sixteen years. In 1865, he removed to Lincoln county, Tennessee, where he died in 1881. Her brother, Alexander McClain, is now a prosperous farmer near Fayetteville, Tennessee. Dr. Blankenship's mother died in 1877, aged fifty-eight, leaving three children : (1). John Patton Blanken- ship, subject of this sketch. (2). Gilbert Blankenship, married JJane Bryant, daughter of Esq. John: Bryant, of London county, and has five children. (3). Jan- nette Blankenship, who died in 1881, wife of D. P. Baldwin, a merchant and miller at Clover Hill, Blount county, leaving six children,

Dr. Blankenship married at Clover Hill, Blount county, May 10, 1860, Miss Sallie A. Edmondson, daughter of John H. Edmondson, who grew up in the same neighborhood with the celebrated Gen. Sam Houston. Mr. Edmondson was an original abolitionist and Republican, and is now living, at seventy-one years of age, on his farm in Blount county. His son, Matthew Houston Edmondson, is now sheriff of Blount county, as his brother Capt. James P. Edmondson, was for four years previously. It is said he is the most popular man in Blount county. The Edmondson family in Virginia are a somewhat noted family, one of whom was a colo- nel in the Confederate army. Mrs. Blankenship's mother was Margaret Dunlap, daughter of John Dun- lap. Mrs. Blankenship was educated at Clover Hill and Baker's Creek, was a Presbyterian, and noted for her strict piety; kindliness of disposition, her talent for economical management and her quiet, retiring nature. She died January 24, 1884.

By his marriage with Miss Edmondson, four children were born to Dr. Blankenship: (1). Leonidas Cæsar Blankenship, born June 10, 1861; educated at Mary- ville College; now reading law in Knoxville; married in June, 1884, Miss Bertha Adams, of Indiana. (2). John Horace Blankenship, born March 24, 1865; now studying in Maryville College. (3). Margaret Lillie Blankenship, born September 7, 1867; now in samo

192

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

college. (4). Minnie Blankenship, born February 20, 1870; now in same college.

Dr. Blankenship was married the second time at Ma- con, Georgia, November 4, 1885, to Miss Alice S. Tay- lor, daughter of Charles Taylor, Esq., at his residence.' The Taylor family are related to the Brantly family of Georgia and North Carolina; and also to Rev. George Taylor, a noted Baptist divine, of Richmond, Virginia, now missionary at Rome, Italy. Mrs. Alice S. Blan- kenship is a member of the Episcopal church.

Dr. Blankenship is a member of the Presbyterian church, an Odd Fellow, and in politics a Prohibition- ist and Republican, though a Democrat before the war. In 1883, he was president of the Blount County Medi- cal Society, and is now a member of the State Medical Society. In 1882-3, he was the temperance and educa- tional editor of the East Tennessee News, published at Maryville. For four years he served at Maryville as examining surgeon for pensioners, under appointment from the general government.

So far Dr. Blankenship has made a success of his life. He owes no man a dollar, has raised a family, has a comfortable property, and is contented and happy in the practice of his profession. His success is due to perseverance and application to his calling ; to staying at one place; being honest in his dealings with mankind, and liberal to the poor. He began without inheritance and owes his position to his own efforts.

On April 7, 1884, he delivered an address before the Blount county Medical Society which attracted atten- tion from the leading medical journals of the country. The following extracts show Dr. Blankenship's esti- mate of medicine as a science, the duties of a physician, and the honors to which he is entitled: " A profession that has such noble objects in view must be noble. The good that has been conferred on mankind by it is beyond all human calculation. Even among the an- cients it was believed to be a gift from God. There are those to-day who hold the same opinion, and are sus; tained in their belief by the following: 'Honor the physician, because he is indispensable, for the Most High hath created him ; for all medicine is a gift from

God, and the physician shall receive homage from the king.' . Christ said on a certain occasion, 'They that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick.' The disciples of medicine, regardless of self, have ever been the friends of humanity. The physician must seem calm and serene though his heart be troubled. He must not lose his reason, but on the contrary think well and apply his remedies promptly and under all cir- cumstances. The physician is not only entrusted with the life of his patient, but also, to some extent, the so- cial, moral and intellectual welfare of the people he practices his profession among are in his hands; for sometimes the domestic curtain is drawn aside, and the troubles are confided to him by the family, as a peace- maker and moral guardian of those interested, whose words of advice and consolation restore hope and bring .. a calm to the troubled heart, and life is made bright again. How great, then, should be his acquirements, how extensive bis knowledge of medicine. Should it be the love of money alone that urges the physician on in the discharge of his duty. his expectations in life, in a certain sense, will be realized; but his life will go out in the end, and the profession will be made no better for his living, for other fields offer more gold. But money cannot pay for the labor that the consci- entious physician performs, nor- the blessings he be- stows; gold cannot buy what charity gives. There is a higher and nobler impulse that prompts the physician to do his duty to his fellow-man and his high and re- sponsible calling in life-that he has the conviction in his own heart that he is doing his duty in relieving suf- fering humanity, and has the consolation to know that' his labors are appreciated by some of the human race, if not by many; by the tears shed by some poor woman and that emanate from an angelic heart and How out to soothe the sorrow within, and are like the pearls of the ocean, and more precious than all the gold of earth. Humanity calls the physician from the mansion of the rich to the hut of the poor; and the honest physician will receive his reward here and after he crosses the river of time. Then he will be paid for all his labors."

HON. WILLIAM H. DEWITT.

CHATTANOOG.I.

T' IHIS sturdy, self made lawyer was born October 21, 1827, in Smith county, Tennessee, and is well known in the legal and political history of the State. Born of parents who were far from wealthy, his father being a preacher and small farmer, young De Witt, en ured in boyhood to the toils of farm life, was in the habit of studying to improve his mind at night as well as in the day, when not otherwise engaged, and in this

way became, in a great measure, his own school-master, and learned almost as much without an instructor as with one, mastering some of the branches of mathemat- ies and the first books in Latin without scholastic as- sistance. In search of knowledge he worked his passage on a flat-boat to Nashville, on his way to Berea Acad- emy, near Chapel Hill, Tennessee, where he studied ten months under Rev. John M. Barnes, one of the best

193

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

old time, educators in Tennessee. On his return he married his books and clothing in a pair of saddlebags, thrown across his shoulder, and footed his way home, a Justance of one hundred miles, and with only three dol- lars and a half in his wallet, borrowed from George W. MeQuiddy.

After he grew to manhood he lived two years, 1847-8, at Gainesborough, Tennessee, teaching in Montpelier Academy. The next two years he taught in Jackson county, From 1850 to 1856, he lived at Lafayette, Tennessee, teaching in the academy one year, and prac- tieing law five years. In law, also, as in literature, he became his own school-master, thus illustrating the time-worn saying, " The boy is father to the man." But he determined in early boyhood to gain as good an edu- ration as perseverance, energy and industry would bring, aided by very limited pecuniary means. . This view met the approval of his father, by whom, long be- fore he reached manhood, he was permitted to teach in common schools, and with the money thus accumulated go to various seminaries of learning.

He was licensed to practice law in November, 1850, at Lafayette, by Judges B. L. Ridley and William B. Campbell, and became a member of the American Le- gal Association in 1851. In 1856-58, a little over one year, he practiced law at Lebanon. From 1858 to 1875, he resided at Carthage, county-seat of his native county. On January 8, 1875, he settled in Chattanooga where he still resides. Both before and since the war, some of the best educated and most intellectual men of the State became lawyers under his instructions, for which he refused compensation. It is a part of his reputation, and one reason for his personal popularity, that he has ever been ready to aid and encourage all worthy and aspiring young men.

Meanwhile, Judge De Witt represented the counties of Smith, Macon and Sumner in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1855-6; was renominated in 1857, but declined. He was elected a member of the consti- tutional convention of 1861, he opposing the convention, which was voted down. In August, 1861, he was elected to the Confederate Congress, ' The Tennessee delegation to the Confederate Congress stood among the most distinguished men in the whole country, and con- sisted of W. II. De Witt, Robert L. Caruthers, James H. Thomas, George W. Jones, John F. House, John D. C. Atkins and David M. Currin .. (See Alexander II. Stephens' War Between the States, Vol. 2, p. 461.) The proceedings in that body are comparatively unknown, as all the sessions were secret while Judge De Witt was a member.

In 1872, Gov. John C. Brown appointed him special chancellor in the Fifth chancery division of Tennessee, pending the contest of the election of W. W. Ward by Combs and Cox.

In polities Judge De Witt was a Whig, and was one of those who lingered long and worshiped deyoutly at 25

the abandoned altars of his party, opposing secession with all his might till the war came on, and even then his sympathies and not his judgment led him to espouse the Confederate cause. Since the war he has acted with the Democratic party, but has always been con- servative in his views. Though he was always success- ful in his contests for office, yet, since the war between the States, he has never sought office of any kind though often urged to stand for political and judicial positions. He has never been ambitious for office, and never be- came a candidate except at the earnest solicitation of his friends, and though conscious of his powers, has been unpretending, and prefers a retired life.

In 1878, he was a member of the judicial convention, held at Nashville, to nominate candidates for judges of the Supreme court. He was chairman of the commit- tee on resolutions in the State Democratic convention in 1876, which nominated delegates to the St. Louis convention which nominated Tilden for the presidency.

Judge De Witt is a member of the Methodist church. He became a Mason at. Lafayette, Tennessee, in Lodge No. 149, has taken all the Chapter degrees, and was one year Worshipful Master of the lodge at Carthage. He was made an Odd Fellow in Martin Lodge, No. 32, at Lafayette, and has passed all the chairs of that order.

Judge De Witt first married in Jackson county, Ten- nessee, May 30, 1847, Miss Emilia Price, daughter of Thomas Price, Esq., a large land owner and farmer. Her mother was a Miss Van Hooser. To this marriage were born five children, two of whom died suddenly on the same day with the mother, in 1863; two died in in- fancy, and only one child survives: Lade De Witt, born in 1852; educated at the Catholic school, Bardstown, Kentucky; married December 5, 1871, in Smith county, Kentucky, Mr. James Monroe Fisher, a lawyer at Carthage, and has three children, De Witt, Julian and Bessie.

Judge DeWitt's next marriage, which occurred in Smith county, Tennessee, May 30, 1867, was with Miss Bettie Wilson (a direct descendant in the paternal line of Daniel Boone), daughter of Hughlette Wilson, of Barren county, Kentucky. Her mother was Kitty Bird Wooten, of a leading old Kentucky family. Mrs. De- Witt's grandfather, Gen. Sam Wilson, was one of the pioneers in surveying and laying off entries for land grants in Kentucky and Tennessee. Her sister, Kate, now living at Nashville, is the widow of the late Judge Samuel M. Fite. Her sister, Nelia, married HI. M. Hale, a lawyer at Carthage, and her sister, Josie, is the wife of Carroll Denny, a farmer in Smith county. Mrs. De Witt was educated in Kentucky, by Rev. Dr. Isaac T. Reneau, but finished her education under Rev. Dr. Lapsley, of Nashville. She is a member of the Method- ist church. By his marriage with Miss Wilson Judge De Witt has two children: (1). William Eugene and (2) Hughlette.

Judge DeWitt's parents were both born in 1792, in

194

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

South Carolina. His father, Rev. Samuel De Witt, was an officer in the company of Capt. Wilkinson (grand- father of Peyton Wilkinson), in the war of 1812, under Gen. Jackson. The ancestors of Judge De Witt's father and mother were in the Revolution of 1776. Judge De Witt's mother was a MeWhirter, and her grand- father, Mc Whirter, was killed in the battle of King's mountain. Her uncle, Henry Wakefield, was shot through the breast in that war, but lived to the age of one hundred and six years.

In addition to his attainments as a lawyer, Judge De- Witt's literary culture has been so highly appreciated that he has often been selected to deliver addresses on Masonic occasions, fourth of July celebrations, college commencements, and other occasions, calling for varied historical, philosophical, literary and political learning, and oratorical abilities of a high order. His memorial addresses on the deaths of members of the bench and bar have also helped' to spread bis reputation among the first orators [of Tennessee, for he has few equals for pathos and logic. Moreover, he is not infrequently spoken of as a ripe scholar and a gentleman of elegant tastes and manners, but had he cultivated the talent which expressed itself in his young manhood in essays in verse, he might have been classed among the poets. A few only of his poetical attempts remain.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 42

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