Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 5

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

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Samuel D. Frierson, the subject of this memoir, was less than two years old when his father first brought him from South Carolina to Tennessee, so that he knew no country but that of his adoption, his native State having no place in his memory. Of his boyhood life we have no knowledge, and can only conjecture what it was from our slight acquaintance with his father's history and character. Samuel Frierson, then, father of the Chancellor, was born in Williamsburgh district, South Carolina, December 15, 1765, and married Sarah Wilson, of the same district, March 29, -1787. Ile was a plain farmer and slaveholder, and seems to have been chiefly noted as a strict and pious member of the Presbyterian church, of which he was a ruling elder and the chief director of its affairs, and of the school established in connection with it. It is recorded of him that he always doffed his hat on entering the church yard, and never resumed it until, worship being over, he again passed the gate and found himself in the open road. He became father of seven children, one of whom, William Vincent, became a Presbyterian minister of note in Mississippi. . He died suddenly, as his son did after him, being stricken with paralysis while at the communion table. The date of his death is July 9, 1815.

We can imagine then the life of sober industry and godly restraint lived by young Frierson in the frugal farm house of the new settlement, subject to the austere discipline of the church school, with the minister for his teacher, and his father for superintendent ; probably as wholesome a training for a boy of vigorous intellect and healthy constitution as could well be adopted, always bearing in mind that the exceptive restraint of the home and school could always be alternated with the unbounded freedom of the yet uneleared forests around. He was born July 27, 1803, and was the youngest child save one. He graduated at Transy !- vania University, Lexington, Kentucky, and studied law in Columbia, Tennessee. In the practice of his profession he was successively the partner of James K. Polk, William P. Martin, A. O. P. Nicholson, William F. Cooper and L. D. Myers, thus including two members

of the Supreme bench of the State and a President of the United States.

lle was raised to the bench A. D., 1854, by Gov. William B. Campbell, who appointed him to fill the unexpired term of Terry H. Cahal, at the expiration of which he was twice elected to the same position by the people, retaining it for twelve years, to the day of his death, which occurred suddenly, like that of his father. Ile had suffered a paralytic stroke of the left side in 1863. but after a short time continued to hold his courts with entire satisfaction to the bar. He had been holding court in Pulaski, and on March 11, 1866, took supper with a few friends at the residence of Gov. John C. Brown, whence he repaired to his hotel, had a second stroke while disrobing for bed, and died that night.

Chancellor Frierson was not a member of any church. Ilis ancestry and his immediate family were Presbyte- rians, and doubtless his preferences were for that de- nomination, although he had a life-long friendship for Bishop James Hervey Otey, of the diocese of Tennessee, whose legal adviser he was to the day of his death.

Politically he was a Whig, and was presidential elector on the Clay ticket in 1844. Since the war the political arena has been a conflict from which the bench was to him a welcome harbor of refuge.

Ilis practice in law was of a nature that is generally remunerative, and with judicious economy enabled him to accumulate a considerable fortune. He was the legal adviser of the wealthiest people in the county, and for a long time acted as attorney for the Columbia branch of the Union Bank. He began life with a moderate inheritance, and accumulated his property by the practice of his profession. His economy did not prevent him, however, from exercising a liberal hospi- tality, equally removed from penurious meanness and from extravagant ostentation. The highly intelligent and refined society of Columbia was nowhere more thoroughly at home than in his elegant residence.

Immediately after his death a meeting of the bar at Pulaski was called, the proceedings of which we now quote, as an indication of the respect entertained for him by his brothers in the profession. It was followed by similar meetings in all the towns within his district, at all of which his death was deplored as an irreparable loss to the profession and to the people.

Many distinguished members of his family and kin- dred survived him, some of them succeeding him in his high position, but all recognizing it as their proudest distinction that they were of kin to the great Columbia chancellor.

Proceedings of a meeting of the Bar at Pulaski, Ten- nesse, held immediately after the death of the Hon. Chancellor, Samuel Davies Prierson, for the purpose of doing honor to his memory :

The bar of Pulaski met this day to unite with the members of the profession throughout Tennessee in paying a tribute of respoot

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

lo the memory of that able jurist, upright judge and good man, who died while holding court in our midst.

It was with the most painful feelings and profound sensation that the tidings reached us early on Sunday morning that Chan- cellot Frierson was dead. We all felt that we had lost a warm- beasted and doar friend and an impartial and equitable judge, sod that his loss at this critical juncture was a great public calamity. For twelve years he was chancellor of this division, and. during all the time that he presided over our courts, not an unkind word was ever uttered by any member of the profession respecting the court. Patiently and courteously he listened to every argument, and as calmly and clearly he delivered his opin- jons and decrees ; inspiring all with the settled conviction that, in coming to his conclusions, he was influenced by the single deter- mination to administer the law and do justice. Among the many distinguished judges who have adorned the bench in Tennessee, uone have left, or will leave, a more pure and unsullied reputation than the Hon. Samuel D. Frierson.

Such was the man whose loss we deplore. On this occasion it becomes us to mourn, and we feel that, in paying the highest honors to his memory, we are but giving utterance to the feelings of every member of the bar, by whom the recollection of the virtues of our deceased chancellor will be long cherished.

In order that we may place in an enduring form, to last as long as the records shall be preserved, this expression of our sentiments and tribute of respect for the memory of the deceased, it is directed that some member of the bar, at the next term of the chancery, circuit and county courts, present a copy of these pro- ceedings and accompanying resolutions, signed by the chairman and secretary of the meeting, and ask that the same may be entered on their records.

Budord, That in the death of the chancellor, the State of Ten- nossee has been deprived of the services of a model judge, the pro- fession of one of its ablest and most distinguished jurists, and the pople of the bright example of an honest and good man.

Bsofredd, That we tender to the willow and child of the lamented dead our deepest sympathy, and that a copy of these proceedings

liceulved. That a cups of these proceedings be published in the FURSKI CITIZENS

Magers Medall in, James and Brown were appointed to present the entire primer tinge of the bar to the chancery, circuit and

Mr. Whiteun, Maj. Richardson, Maj. Jones and Gen. Brown astressed the bar relative to the public and private character of the deceased chancellor, whereupon the meeting adjourned.

JAMES MCCALLUM, Chairman.

NATHAN ADANA, Serdary.

Chancellor W. S. Fleming, who aided in the com- pilation of this memoir, says, in reference to the above proceedings : " What could be said of this excellent man more gratifying to his posterity, more compliment- ary to the profession in which he was a shining light, or more honorable to the bench which he adorned by his learning, his impartiality and his unquestioned integrity?" * *

As the hereditary transmission of both bodily and mental characteristics is a settled conviction with the author of these memoirs, and as we are now concerned with a family which has given many illustrious men to Tennessee, we will give some details of its lineage.

Of Samuel Frierson, sr., the father of the Chancellor, some account has already been given. He married Sarah Wilson in 1787, who was a member of that Wil- son family which emigrated from South Carolina at the same time with her husband.

The wife of the Chancellor was Miss Mary McCottery Mayes, another emigrant from Williamsburgh district, South Carolina. She was born August 12, 1805, and married October 5, 1826. . Her father was Samuel Mayes, a prominent physician, a Revolutionary soldier who fought at the battle of King's mountain. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and emigrated to Tennessee at the same time with the Armstrongs and Flemings.

There was a Capt. William Frierson, who also fought at. King's mountain, and was a common ancestor of the Friersons, Flemings and Coopers. Dr. Mayes died at the age of ninety, and his son, Scott Mayes, was still living, at the age of ninety-one years, at the time these memoirs were compiled.

Mrs. Frierson died six years after her husband, December 23, 1872. She had six children, only one of whom survived her, Lucius Frierson. A daughter, Salina Jane was married October 19, 1848, to John A. Me- Ewen, now deceased, a lawyer of Nashville, and once mayor of that city. They had a son, Samuel D. F. Me- Ewen, born July 10, 1850; educated at Yale College, now a merchant at Columbia. He married Miss Maggie Phillips, daughter of Charles Phillips, planter and commission merchant of New Orleans, and has two children, Margaret and Lucia. Lucius Frierson, sur- viving son of the Chancellor, was born April 1, 1840, at Columbia; graduated at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1859; was.clerk two years in the Columbia branch of the Union Bank ; afterwards engaged in merchandise for some years; May 17, 1870, he married Miss Kate, daughter of John F. Morgan, a merchant of Columbia, . w hose father, Calvin Morgan, was a pioneer merchant of Knoxville. John F. Morgan was related to Gen. John Morgan and Samuel D. Morgan, of Nashville. Mrs. Lucius Frierson's mother was a Miss Louisa Por- ter, daughter of William Porter, a merchant of Nash- ville, and afterwards a large farmer of Maury county. Hle and his brother James were Catholic refugees from Ireland. William settled at Carthage, afterwards at Nashville, and James settled in Louisiana, where he became judge and the father of James Porter, United States Senator from Louisiana. Mrs. Lucius Frierson was educated in the Columbia Female Institute. Her maternal grandmother, wife of the above-named Wil- liam Porter, is still living at the age of ninety-one.

Lucius Frierson, by his marriage with Miss Morgan, has four children : (1). John Morgan Fierson born June 23, 1871. (2). Samuel Davies Frierson, born August 27, 1873. (3). Lucius Frierson, jr., born March 8, 1875. (1). Louisa Porter Frierson, born January 26, 1878.

Lucius Frierson became a Mason in 1868, in Roche Lodge, No. 195, and is now Eminent Commander of De Molay Commandery, No. 3, at Columbia, and has for years been connected with the banking interests of Columbia.

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

COL. ROBERT I-O-HI-NSTONE CHESTER. .

JACKSON.

C 01. ROBERT I. CHESTER, a gentleman re- markable for his great age and distinguished for his high character, the extreme cordiality of his Chester- fieldian manners, his chivalric faith in woman, and love for choice society, was born in Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, July 31, 1793. His boyhood, till the age of twenty-three, was spent in Jonesborough, East Tennessee, his father having moved to that place in December, 1796. His education was limited to the old field schools and very little of that, but mostly under the tutorship of John Harris, of Jonesborough. He was a clerk in David Deaderick's store there when James W. Deaderick, present Chief Justice of Tennes- see, was born.

Hle volunteered in the place of his uncle, Judge John Kennedy, who was drafted in the war of 1812, and served at Mobile as quartermaster of Col. Samuel . Bayliss' Third Tennessee regiment. Mustered into service October 14, 1814, at Knoxville, to join Gen. Jackson at New Orleans. Two regiments, the Third and Fourth, commenced building boats at Washington, Rhea county, in which they were to descend the Ten- nessce and Mississippi rivers, but the order being countermanded, the regiments were marched overland to Mobile, where they were stationed until peace was declared, in March, 1815.

In July, 1816, young Chester formed a partnership for merchandising at Carthage, Tennessee, with his uncle, Col. Robert Allen, member of Congress, under the firm name of Robert I. Chester & Co., and pros- pered until 1819, when he engaged largely in the tobacco business and lost a fortune. In 1822 the Legislature made him surveyor of Smith county, and he was en- gaged in the land warrant business, which brought him to Jackson, where he has lived ever since, except a brief interval, and where his children were all born. From 1824 to 1830 he merchandised at Jackson; was postmaster from 1825 to 183, resigning to build a steam mill on Reelfoot lake, Obion county, which proved a disastrous venture.

In 1835, with his two brothers-in-law, Dr. William E. Butler and Gen, Samuel J. Hayes, he went to Texas, settled on the Brazos below Waco, planted crops on three plantations, but on the proclamation of Santa Anna, who had invaded the country, and after destroy- ing the 'Alamo, promised to free the negroes if they would join him, Col. Chester and his companions left that section with their forty negro men. Gen. Sam. Houston having commissioned him colonel, and author- ized him to raise a regiment for the Texas revolution, he left Texas, and had already appointed the officers of his regiment, when Gen. Ilouston's victory at the battle

of San Jacinto put an end to the necessity of sending troops to that quarter.

Having lost by these several removals nearly every- thing he possessed; Col. Chester returned to Jackson May 1, 1836; was reappointed postmaster and deputy register for the Western district, which latter gave him favorable opportunities to enter and speculate in lands He has been engaged more or less in the land business ever since, and has issued some five thousand grants. Ile did most of this work at night, assisted by his wife, she reading to him and he writing until late hours-for both were noted for their industry and energy. Being the owner of several negro men that were good brick- masons and plasterers, he built the Presbyterian church and Female Institute at Jackson, and soon recovered in fortune.

In 1837 President Van Buren appointed Col. Chester United States marshal for the Western district of Tennes- see, in which position he remained under various admin- istrations sixteen years, up to 1861, with three years interval under Gen. Taylor's administration. During all his career as marshal he never carried about him a deadly weapon, and never had trouble in the discharge of the duties of his office. He has always maintained an irreproachable character in office. His high standing in this respect is amply attested in letters, still in his possession, from Judge Catron, President Polk and Gen. Jackson. After the war of 1812 he was associated with Gen. Jackson as much as a young man could be, and afterwards married his niece, youngest daughter of Robert Hayes. He began life a poor boy ; made a great deal of money, but also paid a great deal of it for security and for the support of his political party. His reputation over the State is sufficient evidence of the integrity of his life and his business transactions. The three talismanie words that account for his success are, hard work, economy and uprightness. Whatever em- barrassments he labored under were the result of seeu- rities, not his own debts. When the civil war began it found him and his two sons in possession of three fine cotton farms, one hundred and eighty-six slaves, fifty mules, and all the appliances of cotton farming, all of which were lost except the land. From 1841 to 1851 he practiced law ; also in. 1860-61.

In 1870 Robert B. Hurt and William W. Gates, prominent Whigs of that day, solicited him to run for legislative floater, to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Roach, deceased, the district being composed of the counties of Madison, Gibson, Carroll and Henderson, and promised to cleet him without his going out to can vass. Col. Chester was elected, and re-elected for the following term. When in the Legislature in

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PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

1871-72 he went with the members of that body to visit Mrs. ex-President Polk, who was a schoolmate of his first wife. Col. Chester, then an octogenarian, offered this toast, raising his glass and addressing Mrs. Polk : "I hope, madam, you will live to be one hundred years old, and that I may live to see you die." "" Yes," quickly responded the venerable lady, "you always wanted something good for yourself ever since I knew you." One reason for his longevity is his temperate habits. Though never abstemious, he was never intox - icated, and never used tobacco. Among the souvenirs and collections of a long life Col. Chester has a cane made from wood from the old American ship " Iron- sides," originally presented to President Polk, and by his widow presented to Col. Chester. But the most interesting of the Colonel's treasures is his fine memory stored with historical reminiscences of the statesmen and distinguished characters he has known, and the wars, the changes and times that have gone over him. What a bonanza of interesting incident he would prove to an enterprising short-hand reporter.

Col. Chester has all his life long been a Democrat, and active in politics, contributing to every presidential campaign and voting for every Democratic nominee, from President Madison down to President Cleveland. In recognition of these veteran services he was chosen by the Tennessee electors, in 1884, messenger to carry to Washington the electoral vote of the State for Cleve- land and Hendricks. After delivering the vote, he went to Albany to see Mr. Cleveland. Not being a card man, he sent into the office of Gov. Cleveland his name on a slip of paper. Mr. Cleveland soon came into the hall and said, "I need no introduction to you; I am glad to see you, Col. Chester." After about half an hour's conversation, Mr. Cleveland presented Col. Ches- ter his photograph, which is highly appreciated.

Col. Chester is the oldest living Freemason in the United States, having been made a member of Carthage Benevolent Lodge No. 14, in May, 1817. He is also a Knight Templar. He has filled the offices of Grand lligh Priest of the Grand Chapter and Thrice Illustri- ous Grand Master of the Grand Council of the State of Tennessee. He is also an older in the Presbyterian church, which he joined in 1868.

He married first. near Jackson, January 20, 1825, Miss Elizabeth Hayes, daughter of Col. Robert Hayes, who was the first United States marshal for West Ten- nessee. Gen. Jackson and Col. Hayes both marrying Donelsons, Mrs. Chester was niece of Mrs. Gen. Jack- son. Her mother, nce Jane Donelson, was a daughter of Col. John Donelson, of Virginia, one of the first settlers in Davidson county, Tennessee. Mrs. Chester died in November, 1811, at the age of thirty-eight. She was a beautiful woman, very much admired; a Christian, and a domestic lady with the rarest graces of female character about her. By this marriage Col. Chester had seven children : (1). Mary Jane, died De-

cember 1, 1846, the wife of Mr. George W. Bond, a lawyer, leaving an infant son, Chester George Bond, now a prominent man and able,lawyer at Jackson-"a man," says his grandfather, " of as much probity and honor as any man that ever lived on earth ;" he married Miss Kate Royster, of North Carolina, and has two children, Aphia Chester and Chester. His father, Mr. George W. Bond, died in 1851. (2). John, born May 18, 1827; graduated at the West Tennessee Col- lege under Mr. Mckinney; graduated also at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia ; was appointed lieutenant and fought with gallantry all through the Mexican war; married Miss Aphia Taylor, in 1848, by whom he had several children, all of whom died but one, Aphia, now wife of Richard Bostick, in mercantile life in St. Louis; he proved himself a worthy son of a noble sire, being not only a distinguished. physician, but was eminent commander of the Knights Templar of Jackson, which he helped to organize. (3). Robert Hayes, born April 29, 1829; graduated at Jackson, and is now a successful farmer in Madison county ; married Miss Mary bong, and has three children, William Long, Robert 1., jr., and Dolly Vernon, all married. (4). Martha Butler, born June 3, 1832; married Dr. L. 1 .. Battle, now in Shelby county, Tennessee; died April 1, 1872, leaving five children, William P., Jane Royster, Mary Ormand, Belle and Martha. (5). William But- ler, born August 10, 1834; graduated at Jackson; is a farmer in Madison county ; married Miss Laura O'Con- nor, and has four children, Ann O'Connor, John, O'Connor and William. (6). Andrew Jackson, called "the king Chester," born May 29, 1836, died October 8, 1856, unmarried, in his twentieth year ; a gallant boy, remarkable for his manly form and bearing. (7). Samuel Hayes, born February 24, 1840; graduated at Jackson, and also as an M. D. at Baltimore, where he remained two years studying in a hospital; is now practicing medicine at Jackson; married Miss Ella Ragland, daughter of Senator F. B. Ragland, and has two children, Mamie and Elizabeth.

Col. Chester next married, in Shelby county, Ten- nessee, January 22, 1835, Mrs. Jane P. Donelson, nee Royster, daughter of David Royster, of Goochland county, Virginia. Her mother, Elizabeth Samson, was sister of Diek Samson, one of the largest farmers in the "Old Dominion." Mrs. Chester was born April 10, 1812, and educated in Goochland county. When Col. Chester married her she had one child, Linnie, who died in Shelby county, the wife of Col. James M. Crews, one of Forrest's great meu, leaving at her death a daughter, Linnie Donelson Crews, born October 3, 1865, now under the maternal grandfather's roof. Mrs. Chester's brother, Frank W. Royster, is a prominent real estate agent at Memphis. Her maternal grand- mother was a Curd, of Goochland county, Virginia. Her paternal grandmother was a Watkins, of Virginia. The grandfather of Col. Robert I-o-h-ustone Chester

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

was a Welshman, born in Limerick, Ireland, He came to Pennsylvania, and was quartermaster in the Pennsylvania line in the Revolutionary war; after the war a United States revenue officer. He married Elizabeth Patterson, of Latark, near Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania. He had four children : (1). Dr. William Pat- terson Chester, who moved in 1793 to Jonesborough, Tennessee; his wife was Miss Mary Adams; died a very old man (ninety) at Jonesborough. John Blair, a member of Congress of some distinction, married his daughter Mary. (2). John, father of the subject of this sketch, was raised a coppersmith ; married Mary Greer, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Samuel and Rebecca Greer. Samuel Greer was born in Dublin, Ireland, and was in the Revolutionary war. John Chester moved to Jonesborough, Tennessee, in 1796; became a farmer and trader; died in 1832, in Hawkins county, Tennessee; settled the place known as Bowling Green, near Jonesborough; was a man of great energy, self-sustaining and successful; of good common sense, without the finish of an education. (3). Richard, a silversmith; married in McColasters- town, Pennsylvania, to a Dutch woman and died childless. (4). Mary, married an Irishman named William Connell, a merchant at Huntingdon, Pennsyl- vania, and raised a large family. : Col. Chester's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Patterson, lived with her daughter Mary, at Huntingdon, after the death of her husband. Her two sons, William and John, being in Tennessee, she rode horseback by herself seven hun- dred miles to see them when she was fifty-five years old, and returned, after a few months, in the same way. She died at Jonesborough in 1810. It will thus be seen that the Chester family on both sides are long lived.

All of Col. Chester's sons, John, Robert, William B. and Samuel, and his grandson, G. Bond, were in the Confederate army, and fought through the war. John commanded the Fifty-first Tennessee regiment, and was in most of the hard-fought contests of the war in the West. In one charge at Perryville he lost one hun- dred and sixty men killed and wounded, and had his horse killed and hat shot through at Murfreesborough, At the battle of Chickamauga Gen. Bragg put him into the medical corps, saying, "I can make generals, but I can't make doctors." After the Chickamauga fight he and Col. John F. House and Gen. Pope Walker were the judges of the corps court for the Army of Tennes- see, and he held that position until the close of the war. William B. Chester was marshal to that court.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 5

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