Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 55

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

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Col. Fulkerson may justly be called a successful man. Hle has always stood deservedly high in his profession. llis devotion to his clients' interests is proverbial, and yet he would scorn to advance his client's cause by any of the "sharp practices" characteristic of the pettitogger. While conscientiously attending to his professional engagements, his business education has served him a good purpose, enabling him to carry profitable interests in several enterprises. He is a suc- cessful farmer, as well as lawyer, and takes great pride in his herd of Jersey cattle. He has also been engaged in the tanning business, and has an interest in a boot and shoe factory in Rogersville. Besides, he is a mem- ber of the firm of Fulkerson, Chesnutt & Co., engaged in quarrying the beautiful Hawkins county marble.

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Col. Fulkerson is a man of pleasing manners and honest methods. There is probably not a man in the whole State who enjoys to a higher degree than he the esteem and confidence of the community in which he lives. As a citizen and neighbor, he is prompt to do whatever a sense of duty suggests to be right. As a lawyer, while he is zealous, he is also conscientious, neither grinding the unfortunate with exorbitant fees, wor leading the litigiously inclined into lawsuits which

his own judgment condemns. When called by the people of his county to represent them in the Leg- islature, he showed that he could lay aside the mere partisan and vote and act according to the dictates of his judgment and conscience. His personal influence is ever on the side of virtue and in the interest of law and order. The Christian church has no better friend than Col. F. M. Fulkerson, nor the State a more pure and upright citizen.

COL. WILLIAM F. TAYLOR.

MEMPHIS.

T' THE gentleman whose name heads this biographi- cal sketch presents a splendid type of a gallant soldier, an excellent civilian, a successful merchant of high-toned integrity, and a modest, sincere Christian, whose good fortune has been carved out mainly through his own indomitable energy and business probity.

William F. Taylor was born in Madison county, Ala- bama, July 11, 1835, and remained there until Feb- ruary, 1848, when he moved with his grandfather, Charles Taylor, to Shelby county, Tennessee, and with the exception of four years spent in the war, has lived in that county ever since, residing in Memphis since January, 1853.

The Taylor family is distinctly connected with the family of which President Zachary Taylor was a mem- ber-a fact, however, which Col. Taylor's grandfather, Charles Taylor, refused in his modesty to admit, and used to say, with pride, that he " was not a member of a branch of the Taylor family; was never indicted or sued in his life, and never ran for office," traits which have been transmitted and are characteristic of the family, who are rather retiring in their disposition, avoiding all publicity not necessarily incident to the post of duty. . Charles Taylor was born in Granville county, North Carolina; was a farmer, and, indeed, almost the entire family were agriculturists. Ho mar. ried Miss Mary Turner, and died near Hernando, Miss- issippi, in his seventy-sixth year. He was the father of six children, three of whom preceded him in death. Of his children who survived him: (1). Lucy Ann Taylor, died the widow of Stephen W. Rutland, DeSoto county, Mississippi. (2). Edmund J. Taylor, is now living, a farmer, at Elgin, Arkansas; was a soldier in the Mexican war from. Alabama, and merchandised in Memphis a number of years. (3). Martha J. Taylor, died the widow of George Douglass, a farmer, first in Alabama and then in Mississippi. Of the children who died before their father : (1). Charles Taylor, died in DeSoto county, Mississippi. (2). John T. Taylor, father of the subject of this sketch, died in Alabama, when

the son was only five years old. 4 (3). Robert H. Taylor, died in DeSoto county, Mississippi.

John T. Taylor, the father of Col. Taylor, was born in Granville county, North Carolina; moved to Alabama when quite young; there married, lived a planter and school teacher, and died at the age of thirty-three, leaving four children : (1): John HI. Taylor, now in Memphis in mercantile life. (2). Charles N. Taylor, died forty-five years of age, a successful planter in Shelby county, Tennessee. (3). William F. Taylor, subject of this sketch. (4). Mary T. Taylor, died in childhood.

Col. Taylor's mother, nee Miss Martha A. Ford, was born in Cumberland county, Virginia ; was a Methodist; a lady of quiet, unpretending nature; a noble character, endowed with goodness of heart, and was noted for allaying of strife in her circle, and blessed by all who knew her as a Christian peace-maker. She managed the small estate left her by her husband so as to give her children a liberal education. She was herself a good biblical scholar, fond of reading, and set her chil- dren the example of self-denial and almost of self-ab- negation, and was one of those intelligent, practical women, all devotion, who fill the world with sunshine and with happiness. She died at her home in Mem- phis, in March, 1872, at the age of sixty-three, She was a paternal niece of Dr. Hozekiah Ford, a celebrated physician of Virginia. She had no sister, and but one brother, Newton Ford, a merchant at Memphis, and a member of several firms in that city ; in 1817-8 of the firm of Ford, Taylor & Robinson (dry goods) ; from 1819 to 1859, a planter in Shelby county, Tennessee; from 1859 to 1862, of the firm of F. Lane & Co., grocers and cotton factors; after the war, 1865 to 1870, of the firm of Newton Ford & Co., in the grocery and com- mission business; from 1870 to 1873, of the firm of Ford, Porter & Co. He died in 1873, at the age of sixty-two. He was at one time vice-president of the First National Bank of Memphis.

William F. Taylor, under the benign influence of a

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true and good mother, was trained in his boyhood in the path of reetitude and duty. He was educated principally at Macon College, Tennessee, and at Chal- mers Institute, Holly Springs, Mississippi. He was educated for a physician, but his health failing, in 1852. he labored in the crop that year, and then began his his apprenticeship as a merchant in 1853, beginning as a clerk for Strange, Goodwin & Co. one year. From 1851 to 1859, he clerked for Speed & Strange; From 1859 to January, 1860, for W. B. Miller & Co., and in 1860 became a member of the latter firm.

An ardent, patriotic southerner, and always loyal to the cause of the South, in . May, 1861, he went into the Confederate army as lieutenant of cavalry in the Mem- phis Light Dragoons. A few months afterward he was elected captain of the company. When the dragoons were organized into a regiment at Columbus, Kentucky, William H. Jackson (whose sketch see elsewhere in this volume) was elected colonel. In 1863, Capt. Taylor was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy, and com- manded as such till the close of the war. He saw ser- vice in Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi, under Brigadier-Gens. Win. H. Jackson and Ed. Rucker ; Maj .- Gens. W. H. Jackson, Jos. Wheeler and J. R. Chalmers, and under Lient. - Gens. Stephen D. D. Lee and N. B. Forrest. He participated in the bat . de of Belmont, and in innumerable raids and all of the battles of Forrest's command. He was twice slightly wounded ; first on the right ear at Pulaski, and in the right hand at Columbia, Tennessee. He remained in the army till the surrender at Sumterville, Alabama, May, 1865. (For a fuller account of Col. Taylor's regi- ment and services, see Dr. J. B. Lindsley's Military History of Tennessee). Col. Taylor was never absent from his company or regiment during a battle or a raid throughout the war-a record which shows his sense of duty and his loyalty to it.

When the war closed he returned to Memphis, and in 1867 became a member of the firm of Newton Ford & Co .; next of Ford, Porter & Co. ; then of Porter, Taylor & Co. till 1882. Since that time he has been in the cot- ton commission business of the firm of W. F. Taylor & Co., 314 Front street, Memphis. He came out of the war with nothing except a mule and a horse -- without real estate or a dollar in money. He is now reckoned among the solid business men of the city.

Col. Taylor married in Memphis, December 13, 1866, Miss Sallie S. Ford, a native of Shelby county, Tennes- see, born April 15, 1813, daughter of Newton Ford, be- fore mentioned. Her mother, nee Miss Appless Frazer, was of an Alabama family. She was a cousin of John Frazer, of Holly Springs, Mississippi, whose children, Martha, Phebe Ann, Fanny, and Charles W., are well known prominent people of Memphis, Martha Frazer died the widow of Richard B. Brown, a lawyer of Mem- phis; Phebe A. Frazer is now the widow of C. W. Ed- munds, a Memphis tobacco merchant; Fanny Frazer is

the widow of Rev. Mr. Graham, a Presbyterian minis- ter. late of LaGrange, Tennessee ; Charles W. Frazer is a prominent lawyer at Memphis.

Mrs. Taylor's mother, Mrs. Ford, died at Memphis, November, 1882, at the age of sixty-two years, a bright, attractive lady -- a splendid type of southern womanhood of two generations ago. She was the mother of six children : (1). Ann E. Ford, unmarried. (2). Mary F. Ford, now widow of Samuel L. Raines, a planter of DeSoto county, Mississippi. (3). Bettie F. Ford, who died the wife of Dr. D. W. Bynum, of Memphis. (4). Sallie 8. Ford, wife of Col, Taylor. (5). Augusta F. Ford, married Maj. F. Molloy. (6). James N. Ford, now a lawyer at Memphis.

Mrs. Taylor was educated at the celebrated Nashville Female Academy, under Rey. Dr. C. D. Elliott. She is a member of the Methodist church. Col. Taylor joined that church in 1857, and soon after their marriage, though a great favorite in fashionable society, his wife joined the church with him, and now three of their old- est children are members of the same denomination. Like her husband, Mrs. Taylor is of a modest and re- tiring nature, avoids extremes, and though one of the most accomplished women in Memphis, gives far less attention to society than to the training of her children. She is wise in counsel, economic in habit, and a good manager ; of high cultivation and positive character, but like her father, withdraws herself from conspicuity, even in her church relations. By his marriage . with Miss Ford. seven children have been born to Col. Taylor -- all sous, and all born in the same house at Memphis: (1). Pope Taylor, born May 26, 1868. (2). Wm. F. Taylor, born June 21, 1870. (3). Walter D. Taylor, born June 10, 1872. (4,5). Ford and Frank Taylor, twins, born July 9, 1874. (6, 7). Emmet and Edwin Avent Taylor, twins, born November 28, 1877.

Although he has never run for office, except military positions, Col. Taylor is Democratic to the core. He is steward of the First Methodist Episcopal church, South, at Memphis; was made a Mason in a floating lodge dur- ing the war, but is not affiliated, being too much devo- ted to his family to go to any organization at night, ex- cept his church or to a meeting of ex-Confederates. For several years he has been a director in the Bank of Commerce and various manufacturing establishments and insurance companies -- facts which show his stand- ing in the industrial and commercial circles.

Col. Taylor, from his first start in mercantile life, has practiced frugality and endeavored to keep down his expenditures within his income. He has made noth- ing by speculation, but by plodding, close application to business "slow by slow," always making something, saving something; husbanding his resources, and guard- ing his commercial honor with strict integrity. He never had a note protested -- never allowed a paper to go un- protected-has lost heavily by going security, which taught him a lesson, and should be a warning to others.

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COL. W. D. ROBISON.

MURFREESBOROUGH.

T HIN self-made man, distinguished as a Mason and as a soldier, was born in Rutherford county, Ten- nessee, about five miles from Murfreesborough, June 30, 1810, the son of Dr. Samuel B. Robison; a native of North Carolina, who came to Tennessee when a young man, and settled in Rutherford county, where he con- tinued the practice of medicine up to the time of his death, which took place in 1871, at the age of sixty -. seven.

Col. Robison's mother, was Miss Mary North, daughter of William North, a native of Virginia, who came to Tennessee with her father when quite young. She was married to Dr. Robison in 1836, and became the mother of three daughters and one son, the latter the subject of this sketch.

Col. Robison was educated in the common schools of the county and in Union University at Murfreesbo- rough, which latter institution he entered in the fall of 1854, and remained there one year. He was brought up on a farm till he reached the age of fifteen years, when he went to Murfreesborough and began life as assistant to Col. W. R. Butler, postmaster at that place. After remaining at the postoffice three years, he became en- gaged in the dry goods business as a clerk, and so con- tinned until the beginning of 1861, when he returned to his father's house and began going to school again.

At the outbreak of the war he left school and joined the army of the Confederacy. After the war he studied medicine at the University of Nashville, and grad- uated from the medical department of that institution, but never practiced his profession. While at the medical college, he was elected county trustee for Ruth- erford county, and served two years. After this, he elerked in a drug store for one year. . While in the drug business he was elected county tax collector and served two years, after which he went into the dry goods business again, as clerk and book-keeper, and so continued for three years, when he became a partner in the firm of Kerr & Robison, grocers, and continued in this business for two years. At the expiration of this time he was elected clerk of the county court of Ruth- erford county, the position he now holds, having been first elected in 1878 and re-elected in 1882.

Leaving school in the spring of 1861, he entered the company of Capt. Thomas White, of the Second Ten- nessee regiment of infantry, as a private, and served in this capacity for eight months, being connected with the Army of Virginia. He was then elected to the first vacancy which had occurred in his company -- that of third lieutenant -. November, 1861, and with his com mand was transferred to the Army of Tennessee in the spring of 1862. In May of that year he was made captain of his company, and held that rank through the

Kentucky campaign, and finally, on the return to Knox- ville, after this campaign, on the promotion of Col. W. B. Bate to the rank of brigadier-general, Robison was made colonel of his regiment, and held this rank till the close of the war.

Col. Robison took part in the following important battles: Bull Run, the first great battle of the war, July, 1861 ; Acquia Creek, Virginia, autumn of 1861; Shiloh, April, 1862; Corinth, April, 1862; Richmond, Kentucky, August, 1862, where he received a wound ; Perryville, Kentucky, October, 1862; the battles of Murfreesborough, December, 1862, and January, 1863; Chickamauga, September, 1863, where he was again wounded; Missionary Ridge, December, 1863; Ring- gold Gap, December, 1863, where he received a wound in the wrist, but did not leave the field until the fight was over. He also took part in the battle of Resaca, in the spring of 1864; the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, July, 1864, and all the other battles of the famous Dalton and Atlanta campaign, and finally in the battle of Jonesborough, Georgia, August 31, 1864, where he received a severe wound in the left hip, which confined him to his bed for eight months, until the war had closed, and from which he has never entirely recovered.

As a soldier, Col. Robison was brave and self-sacri- ficing, and distinguished for his kindness to his men, by whom he was dearly loved, for they would have followed "Tony " Robison into the very jaws of death. What others thought of him is attested by his rapid rise in rank. He was one of the youngest colonels in the army, having reached that rank when just past the age of twenty-two.

Col. Robison joined the Masons at Murfreesborough, in 1868, and has passed through all the degrees of Ma- sonry up to the eighteenth degree, Scottish Rite. He has filled the offices of Worshipful Master, High Priest of the Chapter, and all the offices of Knights Templar, from Warden up to Grand Commander of the State, which office he held from May, 1882, to May, 1883. Upon the organization of Sinai Lodge of Perfection at Murfreesborough, he was made Sovereign Master and has held the position up to this time.

Col. Robison was raised a Whig, but since the war has been a Democrat. He has never been actively en- paged in politics, and with the exception of the offices of county trustee, tax collector and clerk of the court, before mentioned, has never held civil office.

Col. Robison was married, September 15, 1869, to Miss Fannie Rice, daughter of John P. Rice, a native of Alabama, who came to Tennessee in 1867, and located at Murfreesborough. Mrs. Robinson's mother was Miss Annie Dunn, daughter of Isham Dunn, a native of Alabama. She was educated at St. Agnes Academy, in

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Memphis, and at Soule Female College, Murfreesbo- rough, from which latter institution she graduated in 1869. Mrs. Robison died on the 6th day of March, 1885, after a lingering illness of five months. Thus passed away a noble, Christian woman. a true and faith- ful companion, and a devoted, loving wife. They had no children.

Col. Robison has been a member of the Methodist church since 1866. Mrs. Robinson was a Presbyterian. C'ol. Robison began life with nothing, and has made for himself' a competency, and is now in comfortable circumstances. He has always adhered strictly to a res-

olution to live within his income and keep out of debt, As a man of business he is correct, careful and atten- tive in all his transactions. As a soldier, he was the idol of his comrades, and never ordered his men into any position of danger he was not willing to lead them. Hle possesses that calm, quiet, cool and collected bravery that distinguishes the hero, challenges the admira- tion of the historian, and enkindles anew in the breast of every patriot the fires of patriotism. Beloved by all who know him, a man of strong friendships, and with a host of strong friends -- such a man cannot fail to be a good citizen,

COL. R. DUDLEY FRAYSER.

MEMPHIS.

T HE subject of this sketch belongs to that genera- tion whose youthful hopes and plans were rudely smitten by the blasts of civil war. He was born in the city of Memphis, June 4, 1840, the son of Dr. John R. Frayser, an eminent physician of that city. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Memphis, though he was sent to a special teacher, Prof. Whitehorn, to prepare for college. In the fall of 1858 he entered the Kentucky Military Institute, and graduated in the spring of 1861, as valedictorian in a class of twenty-two, nearly all of whom lost their lives in the civil war, holding some rank, some on the Confederate, some on the Federal side. Young Fray- ser had determined, at an early day, to be a lawyer, and during the summer vacations, had been reading law at the school of the celebrated Thomas B. Monroe, United States district judge for the Louisville district. He took the degree of Bachelor of Laws at this school, and the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the Institute. He returned to Memphis, where he had hoped to embark at once in the practice of his profession, only to find that the dread confusion of impending war had given pause to all professional business in his chosen depart- ment, as well as in most others, and that the only refuge of a young man was to become a soldier. He accord- ingly enlisted in company F, 37th Tennessee regiment of infantry, first commanded by Colonel, afterwards Brigadier-General, William HI. Carroll, of Memphis. Soon after enlisting, he was made adjutant of the regi- ment, and served as such until the reorganization of the army at Corinth, in the summer of 1862, when he was made lieutenant colonel. After the battle of Murfrees- borough, December 31, 1862, to January 3, 1863, his regiment was consolidated with the Fifteenth Tennessee, and he was continued as lieutenant colonel till the close of the war. He surrendered at Charlotte, North Caro- lina, being at the time, as senior officer, in command of T. B. Smith's, formerly Tyler's, brigade, Bate's divis-

ion. The first battle in which he was engaged was that at Fishing Creek, Kentucky, in which Gen. Zollicoffer was killed. January, 1862, at Murfreesborough, he was severely wounded in the neck, being shot from his horse as he went into the fight on the first day of the battle.

After this, on account of his wound, he was made post commandant at Ringgold, Catoosa Springs and Dalton, Georgia, until just before the battle of Chickamauga, when he became engaged in active ser- vice again, took part in the battle of Chickamauga and all the battles of the Dalton and Atlanta campaign. After the battle of Atlanta, he was taken severely ill which kept him from the field until just after the bat- tle of Bentonville, North Carolina, when he rejoined his command. Receiving his parole at Charlotte, North Carolina, he, with several other officers, rode across the country to Columbus, Mississippi, where they sold their mules and wagons, and took the cars for Memphis, where he landed in May, 1865. Shortly afterward he resumed the study of law with Judge R. J. Morgan, who subsequently became chancellor, was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1866, and formed a partnership with his preceptor in the firm of Morgan & Frayser, which firm continued until 1870, when they took into partnership Mr. Milton P. Jarnagin, and formed the firm of Morgan, Jarnagin & Frayser. The firm always had a large and lucrative practice. After Judge Mor- gan went upon the bench, the firm of Jarnagin & Fray- ser was formed, and continued until the fall of 1883, when Mr. Jarnagin gave up law, moved to East Ten- nessee, and engaged in farming and stock-raising. Col. Frayser then took into partnership his younger brother, David, a recent graduate of the Harvard law school, and Mr. Thomas M. Scruggs, a graduate of the Univer- sity of Virginia. The firm of Frayser & Scruggs was formed and has continued to the present time, one of the leading firms of the Memphis bar.

Col. Frayser was raised a Democrat. but was op-

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posed to the war and to secession, and while at college would often tell his associates what must be the results of such a war, and often referred to the proclamation of Andrew Jackson during the nullification struggle. But when he returned to Tennessee he went with his people, and fought through the war, to find at its close that his prediction to his classmates, four years before, had been fulfilled. He has never held office, and has never been a candidate, except on one occasion, in 1872, when his name was before the convention for nomination for the Legislature. He has frequently been a delegate to political conventions, but has never assumed the role of a politician. On the contrary, he has sought to avoid complicating himself with the bus- iness of politics, feeling that whatever attention he might give in that direction would be bestowed at the expense of his professional and other business. While this is so, he has never been indifferent to the political condition of the country, nor has he been lacking in positiveness of political opinion. He is a man of con- servative views, and during the agitation of the State debt question in Tennessee he co-operated with what was known as the "sky-blue " wing of the Demo- cratic party. He was sternly opposed to any " forcible adjustment" that excluded the creditors of the State from any participation in the settlement. He regrets Tennessee's course in regard to her debt, but is willing now to let by-gones be by-gones, and join hands with the majority.

Col. Frayser became a Mason in 1863, at a lodge in DeSoto county, Mississippi, where he was raised to the degree of Master Mason. He is now a member of DeSoto Lodge, Memphis. He joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Memphis, in 1873, filled all the subordinate offices of the order, and became Grand Master of the State in October, 1880. During the summer of 1881, he visited the different lodges of the State, lecturing upon the principles and ceremo- nies of the order, to which he is much devoted. Hle is now one of the trustees in the Odd Fellows' Hall and Library Association of Memphis, and a member of Chickasaw Lodge, I. O. O. F. He is also a member of the Knights of Honor. He is largely interested in rail- road enterprises, He was, for several years, a director in the Memphis and Charleston railroad company. He owns valuable interests in the Mississippi and Tennessee railroad, and is one of the chief owners of the Memphis city railway-one of a syndicate that controlled a major- ity of its stock, and has since been elected president of the company, which position he now holds. He is also a stockholder in several banks, being a director and at- torney for the Union and Planters' Bank of Memphis, one of the largest and most reliable monied corpora- tions in the southwest. He is a director in the Van. derbilt Insurance Company, the Pioneer Cotton Mill, and has filled that position in several other companies. He is also a director of the Memphis Law Library Asso-

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 55

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