Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 50

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

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GEN. GEORGE GIBBS DIBRELL.

SPARTA.

T HIS distinguished soldier, statesman and civilian, one of Tennessee's ablest and most honored citi- zens, one of the most useful men the State ever had in Congress, and one of the bravest generals that ever drew blade in defense of the old " Volunteer State,' richly deserves an honored place among her representa- tive sons. His life has been varied, interesting, romantic and thrilling.

Gen. Dibrell's great-grandfather, Dr. Christopher Du Brey, was a Huguenot refugee from France, and with the Huguenot colony settled on the James river in Virginia, in the year 1700. After coming to America he changed the family name to DeBrill. Subsequently, it was changed to its present style of orthography, Dibrell. He had two sons, Charles and Anthony. All the Dibrell family in the United State sprang from these two sons.

Gen. Dibrell's grandfather, Charles Dibrell, was a patriot soldier in the Revolution, and was a pensioner up to his death at Union City, Tennessee, at the resi- dence of Gen. G. W. Gibbs, who had married his daughter, Lee Ann Dibrell. Charles Dibrell's first wife was a Miss Burton, of a branch of the Lee family, of Virginia. He married her in Buckingham county, Virginia. His second wife was a Miss Patterson, of good family, by whom he had four children : Patterson, Panthea, Elvira and Agnes.

By the first wife, Charles Dibrell had eight children : John, Elizabeth, Polly, Lee Ann, Anthony (Gen. Dib- rell's father), Judith, Charles and Joseph.

Of these, Judith Dibrell married Temple Poston, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, by whom she had a son,

Charles Dibrell Poston, who represented Arizona Ter- ritory in Congress two or three terms since the late civil war.

Gen. Dibrell's father, Anthony Dibrell, married in Wayne county, Kentucky, and was deputy sheriff at the time of his marriage. He moved to White county, Tennessee, in 1811 ; was appointed receiver of the land office at Sparta ; was clerk of the circuit court at Sparta for twenty-one years ; was a member of the Tennessee Legislature ; in 1839 was a candidate for Congress, and for ten years was Tennessee's State treasurer, elected by the Legislature. After the late war he was appointed clerk of the circuit court again. He died at Sparta in January, 1875, in his eighty-seventh year. He was a warm, devoted friend; a moral, Christian man, and very liberal to the poor and needy. He always contended that a man was not a friend to any one whom he would . not help when in need. He was a Henry Clay Whig, a Methodist, a bank director and successful farmer and trader.

The mother of Gen. Dibrell was Miss Mildred Carter, daughter of William Carter, of New River, Wythe county, Virginia. Her father was a blacksmith and farmer, had been a soldier in the Revolution and was a pensioner. The East Tennessee Carters are of the same stock. John Carter, Gen. Dibrell's maternal uncle, died in Monroe county, Tennessee. The well-known families-Scruggs, Yearwood and Carter -- in upper East Tennessee are all maternal relatives of Gen. Dibrell. The wife of Judge George Brown, of Knoxville, is also related to him, her maiden name being Seruges,

William Carter, Gen. Dibrell's maternal grandfather,

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moved from Wythe county, Virginia, to Wayne county, Kentucky, when Gen. Dibrell's mother was quite a girl. There she was reared and there she married. She was exceedingly industrious and economical and devoted to bringing up her children in the proper walks of life. She was a devoted Methodist, a warm friend of the church, liberal and charitable, and a great hand to look after the sick. She died in 1883, in her eighty-third year. She was the mother of ten children : (1). Montgomery Dibrell, deceased. (2). Elizabeth Dibrell, now widow of C. J. Sullivan. (3). Crockett Dibrell, now in the stock business at Austin, Texas. . (4). Joseph B. Dib- 1 rell, deceased. (5). George G. Dibrell, subject of this sketch. (6). Lucinda Dibrell, widow of James R. Herd; now living with her son, James R. Herd, in Lavacca county, Texas. (7). Sarah B. Dibrell, widow of John W. Whitfield; now living in Lavacca county, Texas. (8). William C. Dibrell, now in the cattle busi- ness in Coleman county, Texas. (9). John Anthony Dibrell, deceased. (10). Martha F. Dibrell, widow of J. N. Bailey ; now living near Sparta, Tennessee.

Hon. Barney Gibbs, lieutenant-governor of Texas, is a second cousin of Gen. Dibrell, being a grandson of Gen. Gibbs, who married Gen. Dibrell's aunt, Lee Ann Dibrell. Col. Charles N. Gibbs, now of Chattanooga, also a son of her's, secretary of State of Tennessee for eight years, is a cousin to Gen. Dibrell. Charles An- thony Sullivan, who was chancellor at Starksville, Mississippi, is Gen. Dibrell's nephew, being a son of his sister, Elizabeth. Isaac Sullivan, another of her sons, is now clerk at an Indian agency, having been ap- pointed by Gen. J. D. C. Atkins. Gen. Dibrell's brother, Montgomery Dibrell, who died June 6, 1881, aged sixty-nine years, was clerk and master at Sparta, Tennessee, before the war, and clerk of the circuit court at the time of his death.

George Gibbs Dibrell was born April 12, 1822; raised on a farm; attended country schools in winter and worked during the summer. In the spring of 1838, he went one session to the university at Knoxville, and studied under president Esterbrook. The fall before his father had sent him to Virginia with a drove of cattle, and in the winter following he went to Mississ ippi with a drove of hogs. In IS39 he worked on the farm, and the first money he earned was while his father. . was candidate for Congress in that year, his father hay- ing given him a horse as pay for managing and working his farm. Young Dibrell made the crop and in the fall after sold the horse for one hundred and forty dollars. He then began trading and shifting for himself. In March, 1840, he was elected clerk of the branch of the Bank of Tennessee at Sparta, and held the position until March, 1846, at a salary of five hundred dollars per annum. He commenced life without patrimony, his father having been broken up by security debts. He was not a wild or dissipated boy, though fond of fun and enjoyment. He never swore nor used tobacco, and

never drank spirits to excess, but was always sober and steady. His boyhood was joyous. He was fond of nature and fond of stock, staying on the mountain weeks at a time, looking after his father's cattle, sheep and mules, which is so picturesque and suggestive, as to remind one of David, the shepherd boy, who afterwards became the king of Israel and the " Royal Psalmist."

From 1846 to 1860, he was in mercantile life at Sparta, and again, from 1865 to 1875, and was a successful money-maker both times. He began merchandising on one thousand six hundred dollars, furnished him by a man named Officer, the business being carried on under Mr. Officer's name, and two years after Dibrell gave Officer back his one thousand six hundred dollars and two thousand five hundred dollars besides, as his share of the profits. Meanwhile, from January, 1848, to April, 1860, he was county court clerk at Sparta,

He was elected to the State constitutional convention, called in 1861, as a Union candidate, but the convention, having been voted down, never met. Dibrell advocated the meeting of the convention, but opposed secession, promising, however, that if the worst came to the worst he would prove himself a sound southerner. He was elected to the Legislature, regular session, 1861, without opposition, but served only two or three weeks, prefer- ring to be with his regiment, the war meanwhile having broken out.

Gen. Dibrell entered the Confederate service July 20, 1861. He eulisted as a private in Capt. J. H. Snod- grass' company, Twenty-fifth Tennessee infantry regi- ment, Col. Sidney S. Stanton commanding. He was elected lieutenant-colonel August 10, 1861. He served in Tennessee and Kentucky under Gen. Zollicoffer, and was in the battle of Fishing Creek, January 19, 1862; and afterwards at the battle of Farmington, Mississippi, May 7, 1862. At the reorganization of the army at Corinth, he was defeated for the lieutenant-colonelcy, whereupon he went home and raised the Eighth Ten- nessee cavalry regiment, behind the enemy's lines, and was made its colonel. It was raised as an independent partisan ranger regiment, but it went into service in Forrest's command, at Murfreesborough, in October, 1862.

Gen. Dibrell's service extended over Kentucky, Ten- nessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. He took part in the bat- tles of Neely's Bend, October 19, 1862; Triune, Ten- nessee, 1863; Franklin, Tennessee, 1863; Florence, Alabama, in the spring of 1863, against two Federal gunboats; two fights near Sparta, Tennessee, August 9 and 17, 1863; Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863; Philadelphia, Tennessee, October, 1863, in which he captured seven hundred prisoners and all of Gen. Wool- ford's artillery, camp equipage, ambulances, wagons and one thousand two hundred horses; at Maryville, Ten- nessee, November, 1863; siege of Knoxville, November, 1863; Lone Mountain, Tennessee, December 2, 1863;

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Mossy Creek, Tennessee, December, 31, 1863; Dand- ridge, Tennessee, January 17, 1864; Dibrell's Hill, Tennessee, January 28, 1864; from Resaca, Georgia, back to Atlanta, and in the daily fights from Dalton to Atlanta, from the spring of 1861 to August, 1861, three months of rough riding and rough fighting.

Meanwhile, Gen. Dibrell had succeeded to the com- mand of Gen. Forrest's "old brigade," July 1, 1863, after the death of Col. Starnes. This brigade Gen. Dibrell commanded till the close of the war. The last six months he also commanded Williams' Kentucky brigade, formerly under Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge, . now member of Congress from the Lexington, Kentucky, district. Gen. Dibrell was commissioned brigadier- general in July, 1864, though Gen. Forrest had recom- mended him for the position a year before-in July, 1863.

In August, 1864, Gen. Dibrell commanded a column under Gen. Wheeler in his raid into Middle Tennessee, and was, while en route, engaged in the fights at Tilton, Maryville and Strawberry Plains. At Readyville, Ten- nessee, September 7, 1864, was the only time his com- mand was stampeded or surpised during the whole war. He was next at the battle of Saltville, Virginia, October 7, 1861; next near Forsyth, Georgia, against Gen. Sherman on his march to the sea; then at the battle of Griswoldville; two fights at Waynesborough; one near Ebenezer swamps, and various minor brushes in opposing and harassing Sherman on his march. Then came the battles of Grahamville, South Carolina, Salka- hatchee river, Lawtonville, Columbia, South Carolina, Blackville, Orange Court-house, Stony Point, Fayette- ville, North Carolina, Averysborough, Bentonville, and Raleigh, April 12, 1865. At the latter place he was ordered to report to President Davis at Greensborough, North Carolina, and in two days and nights he marched eighty-five miles, reported with his command to the Confederate president and escorted him on to Wash- ington, Georgia, where the command was surrendered. Gen. Dibrell was paroled May 11, 1865.

At Lone Mountain, East Tennessee, on the Knox- ville and Cumberland Gap road, December 2, 1863, Gen. Dibrell was wounded by a minnie -ball through the right groin, and, by a pistol, shot through the right arm, breaking one bone in the arm. During the war he had several horses shot under him.

In the spring of 1862, he was in the brigade of Gen. (now Governor) Marmaduke, of Hardee's corps. The Federal Gen. Pope's celebrated dispatch that he had 1 captured four thousand men came of Gen. Dibrell's : losing forty one men, all told, killed, wounded and cap tutred, May 7, 1862, in, a conflict with Pope at Farming- ton, Mississippi, while on picket duty. Dibrell went into the fight with two hundred men, and lost forty-one. Pope's dispatch was a gross exaggeration.

Gen. Dibrell's two sons, Waman and Joseph, were with him in the army, both of whom were lieutenants

at the close of the war. (For a fuller account of Gen. Dibrell's military history, see Dr. J. B. Lindsley's " Military History of Tennessee," and Gen. Jordan's: and Col. John P. Pryor's " History of Forrest's Cam- paigns.")

When the war closed Gien. Dibrell returned to his home near Sparta, and re-engaged in the more peaceful pursuits of a merchant, farmer and trader. In 1870 he was elected to the State convention which formed the ' present State constitution. In that distinguished body he was a useful and prominent member. He was the author of the clause to make clerks and masters elective by the people, and offered an ordinance that representa-y tives in the Legislature should not exceed seventy-five in number, and that each county with one thousand five ; hundred qualified voters should have one representa- tive, but both of these measures failed, the latter by only-two votes.

Gen. Dibrell never had political aspirations until his friends importuned him to stand for Congress. His leading ambition when a young man was to make money in order to give his children a better start in life than i he had had. He was a Whig up to the war, and voted for Taylor in 1818 and Fillmore in 1852. Since the war he has been a Democrat -- one in whom there is no guile nor shadow of turning. In November, 1874, he was triumphantly elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1876, 1878, 1880 and 1882. In 1880 he was appointed a delegate to the national Democratic convention at Cin- cinnati, but did not attend.

Ten years in Congress, consecutively, from 1875 to March 4, 1885, the nominee of Democratic conventions, the record he made, and the zeal and faithfulness he displayed in looking after the interests of his constitu- ents, made him so popular the nomination was again tendered him in 1884, but he declined re-election. He was the first man to introduce a bill in Congress mak - ing it a misdemeanor in a Federal officer to demand, receive or contribute money to be used for election purposes; was the first to introduce a bill to make all public roads post roads. He got more money ap- propriated for the improvement of the Tennessee river thau any other member of Congress from Tennessee. He had a United States court established at Chat- tanooga, and Chattanooga made a port of entry, and secured an appropriation of one hundred thousand dol- lars to have a custom house built there. Whether the business he was asked to do in Congress came from black or white, Republican or Democrat, or whether the matter was great or small, he attended to it promptly and faithfully, deeming himself the servant of the people as their representative. During his ten years of service he was not absent from roll-call a dozen times. He spoke but little, but in the last Congress in which he served had as much influence as any member, how- ever old. He was on the committees on military affairs, agriculture and pensions. He was the author of the

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bill permitting producers to sell tobacco by the one hundred pounds. It was remarked by the Hon. Leopold Morse, of Massachusetts, that he could get business through easier than any other man in Congress. Gen. Dibrell replied : "That is because Ialways have my business in right shape and ready to be passed." At the commencement of the Forty-seventh Congress, the file clerk (Francis, of Alabama), paid him the compliment, of saying, " You have your bills and reports in better shape than any other member of the House," At the last Congress he had a bill passed to pay a war claim over the adverse report of the committee on war claims -the first instance of that committee being defeated- members voting for the bill because " old man Dibrell " said " it was right," the House taking his judgment in preference to that of the committee.

Gen. Dibrell is now engaged in farming and stock raising near Sparta, and looks much like a well-to-do farmer, cheerful, grateful, happy, and contented to live a plain life. His mansion in the edge of town is a long two-story frame building, standing in a yard full of shade trees and flowering shrubs -- a happy-looking home, where one may pass his days enjoying what an apostle seemed worthy of a blessing to be prayed for- "a quiet and peaceable life." His farm at Sparta con- tains some eight hundred acres, and he owns three others in White county. His success in life is due to his own efforts-to his self-dependence and his economy; and though he has always been liberal to church and school enterprises, he has never wasted money foolishly ; never was sued in his life, never was protested on his own paper, but has lost much money by going security, therefore, has cautioned his boys against that hazardous practice. He got into the way of endorsing for people when a candidate for public office, and has suffered from it. He has been a successful trader in stock and is " a good judge of horse-flesh."

In 1866 he was elected a director of the Southwestern railroad, and elected president of it in 1869, a position he held till the road was sold to the Nashville and Chattanooga company, by the State, and afterwards till the road was completed to Sparta, October, 1884. He is now a director in the Bon Air Coal company, of which Ex-Gov. John C. Brown is president, Gen. Dib- rell owning one-fourth of the stock.

Gen. Dibrell never belonged to any secret organiza- tion except the Grangers, which he joined in 1872. Ile has been a member of the Southern Methodist church since 1842, has been steward and trustee, and twice a delegate to the General Conference -- at Memphis in 1870, and at Nashville in 1882.

Gen, Dibrell married at Sparta, Tennessee, January 13, 1842, Miss Mary E. Leftwich, a native of that town. born October 1, 1824, daughter of Waman Leftwich, a merchant, a native of Wytheville, Virginia, for several years a justice of the peace and county trustee of White county, Tennessee. He died in 1877, at the age of

seventy-five years. Her mother, nee Miss Rebecca Rowland, was raised in Summer county, Tennessee, and died in 1878, the mother of five children : (1). Mary E. Leftwich, now Mrs. Gen. Dibrell. (2). Matilda J. Leftwich, the wife of Hugh L. Carrick. (3). Louisa M. Leftwich, who died the wife of Joseph Snodgrass. (4): Emily (. Leftwich, now the widow of B. F. Smith. (5). Capt. Jefferson Leftwich, now deceased, and who was captain of company D, Eighth Tennessee cavalry, under Gen. Dibrell.

Mrs. Dibrell's uncle, Isaac J. Lettwich, a lawyer and banker at Wytheville, Virginia, was for many years a member of the Virginia Legislature. Ilis grand- daughter, Nannie, is now the wife of Mr. Wadley, a large farmer and lumberman, at Nashville, Tennessee. Mrs. Dibrell was educated by Rev. Dr. C. D. Elliott at the old Nashville Female Academy. She has been a pious member of the Southern Methodist church since 1842. She is a Sunday-school worker, and a member of the Good Templars. She has been economical, prudent and careful, and after the war, when her husband was stripped of his fortune, she came down to work and never complained. She is an exceptionally good man- ager, and it is probable no lady living so near a town makes bills so seldom as she. Her children idolize her. She spent three winters with Gen. Dibrell in Washing- ton City. They have eight children, seven sons and one daughter : (1). Waman L. Dibrell, born December 3, 1812; educated at Sparta ; served through the war and became lieutenant of cavalry under his father ; now postmaster at Sparta ; has been a notary public, and was for six years clerk and master of the chancery court at Sparta. . He married Miss Eveline Morgan, daughter of Rev. James 11. Morgan, and has three children, Harvy, Mary Lou and Eugene. (2). William C. Dibrell, born May 7, 1844; now member of the wholesale boot and shoe firm of Murray, Dibrell & Co., Nashville; married No- vember 11, 1869, Miss Kitty Stratton, of' Nashville, daugh- ter ofCol. Madison Stratton, and has two children, George and Mary L. (3). Joseph A. Dibrell, born November 17, 1815; educated at Sparta; served through the war and became lieutenant of cavalry under his father ; now farming in White county, Tennessee: married Decem- ber 11, 1872. Miss Ritha Brewster, daughter of T. J. Brewster, deceased, of White county. His wife and two children are dead also. (4). Mary Louisa Dibrell, born June 30, 1850; educated at Ward's Seminary, Nashville ; married December 12, 1872, James T. Offi- cer, son of Gen, Dibrell's old friend, James C. Officer. She died August 19, 1877, leaving two children, George and Mamie, both of whom are now being raised by Gen. Dibrell. (5). James Dibrell, born June 8, 1852; educated at the University of Knoxville; wow farming in White county; married Miss Dora Jett, daughter of John W. Jett, deceased, and has one child, Mary. (6). Jefferson Dibrell, born April 11, 1856; educated at. Sparta ; now farming in White county; married Miss

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Cora Taylor, daughter of John D. Taylor, of White county, and has two children, Frederick and Jane. (7). Frank Dibrell, born August 6, 1868; educated at Emory and Henry College, Virginia, and in the law de- partment of Vanderbilt University, Nashville; now a farmer ; married in 1880, Miss Louisa Rhea, of Sparta, daughter of John S. Rhea, deceased; has three chil- dren, Rhea, Kate and Aquilla. (8). Stanton. Dibrell, born July 24, 1860; educated at Sparta and at Burritt College; now depot and express agent and telegraph operator at Sparta; married October 10, 1883, Miss

Elizabeth Carey, daughter of Prof. J. L. Carey, Frank- lin, Tennessee, and has one child, Willie.

When the note- gatherer for this volume met Capt. Marchbanks, one of Gen. Dibrell's neighbors, the latter said: " When you find Gen. Dibrell you will see a; noble-looking man, of simple; unpretentious manners, but of intelligent, glad, kindly face, and as honest as daylight." The gentleman spoke truly, for Gen. Dib- rell's record and character is one which his fellow- citizens throughout the State delight to dwell upon in words of highest encomia.

HON. GEO. W. T. HUGHES.

COLUMBIA.

A MONG the early immigrants to the province of Pennsylvania, and first settlers on the upper branches of the Schuylkill river, in and near the town of Reading, were two brothers of the name of Hugh (after- ward changed to Hughes), who came to America from Wales, and one, if not both, of whom were eminent preachers of the Society of Friends. In the same party were two other brothers named Yarnell, from each of whom have sprung a numerous progeny, now scattered over various portions of the United States. Other fami- lies of Hugheses, but no other Yarnells are known to have immigrated to America.

As the aborigines retired, the immediate descendants of those four individuals located on the frontier-in many cases the Indians their nearest neighbors. When- ever hostilities occurred they suffered severely in the disasters incident to Indian warfare; their houses were burned; their property destroyed, and yet often among the first to extend the brotherly hand in aiding them to retrieve their fortunes were those same Indians, who, so soon as peace was established, invited them back to the settlements from whence they had been driven.

Prior to the American Revolution, the family of Yarnells located beyond the Broad mountains, at the intersection of the crock which flows between the Ma- hony and the Mahontaga mountains-the road leading through the then wilderness which separates Shawmak - ing Fort, at the junction of the two branches of the Susquehanna (now Stansbury) from the settlements near Reading. Very few, if any, families were within twenty miles of them. Still further up the " New Pur- chase," as it was then called, in virtue of recent treaties with the Indians, upon a most beautiful spot which he had himself as pioneer and surveyor selected, where the Otawassa empties into the Susquehanna, and about half way between Shawmaking Fort and Wyoming settle- ment, Ellis Hughes (grandson of one of the aforemen- tioned brothers), with his wife (a grand -daughter of one

of the Yarnells), with their young family, had settled. They had already collected many comforts around them, built commodious dwellings, planted orchards, con- structed a saw-mill, grist-mill, tannery and smithery. It was about this time that the terrible massacre at Wyoming occurred. The whole of that frontier was abandoned by the settlers; and hundreds of families, destitute of every thing, Hed to the settlements below. The improvements at Catawassie were reduced to ashes. When peace was restored and. the enemy driven beyond the scene of their depredations, the Yarnell family re- turned to their former settlements and continued to : occupy them, where their descendants are to-day quite numerous. Ellis and Hannah Hughes with their fam- ily, now increased to ten children, removed to Chester county, Pennsylvania. He associated himself with a capitalist in Philadelphia, in locating and purchasing lands covering about twenty-five thousand acres, and embracing much of the now valuable coal lands in that section. Before completing their enterprise, Ellis Hughes, while from home employed therein, died at Catawassie, October 6, 1785, aged forty-six years. The lands were lost to the family. " His partner held all the writings. It was amidst the most try- ing difficulties, and the embarrassments which the war had superinduced, bereft of husband and property, that Hannah Hughes became a widow with a family of ten children. . . . To a meck and truly feminine deli- cacy of mind, she united, with the most endearing dis- position, an uncommon share of both fortitude and perseverance, a quick and steady presence of mind, and a sound understanding which, improved by a large share of eventful experiences, eminently qualified her for the duties of a parent, which now devolved upon her in double measure.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 50

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