Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 56

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

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ciation, and president of the Odd Fellows' Relief Asso- ciation, and Memphis Abstract Company. This mere recital shows that Col. Frayser is no common man.

Col. Frayser was married, February 5, 1867, to Miss Mary F. Lane, daughter of Fletcher Lane, of Memphis, who was one of the leading cotton factors and com- mission merchants of the city, was connected with many of the most important banks and insurance com- panies prior to the war, and was a leading man in all publie enterprises of the city. His father was Samp- son Lane, a native of Georgia, and a prominent man in that State.

Col. Frayser has three children: (1). Pauline. (2). Florence. (3). R. Dudley Frayser, jr.

Mrs. Frayser is a lady of domestic tastes, fond of her home, her husband and her children. She is remark- able for attractiveness of manners and amiability of disposition, and is a great favorite in the social circle. She is an earnest and consistent member of the Metho- dist church, which she joined in her girlhood, and while always taking a great interest in church matters, and always willing to assist and do her utmost in her church, at the same time she does not forget home and household duties. Col. Frayser is strictly orthodox in his belief, and, while not a member of any religious organization, believes in encouraging all evangelical de- nominations. He is charitable when a proper object presents itself; and has an abhorrence for display of any kind in such matters.

When Col. Frayser returned to Memphis after the war, he started from the "ground floor," having noth- ing to begin on but his education, which he feels is a sufficient start for any young man, and a sure basis for obtaining a competency, when backed by proper energy. He has made an independent fortune by his own exertions, owning, in addition to his railroad and banking interests, a large plantation in Shelby county, and another in connection with Col. John Overton, jr., in Tipton county; also a large interest in the Bon Aqua Springs Association, in Hickman county, Ten- nessee, of which he is secretary and treasurer. He is a great believer in life insurance, and carries policies to the amount of over $30,000.

His motto has been, never to buy any thing unless he needed it, and not then unless he had the money to pay for it. He has always had an abhorrence of indebted- ness and of promises to pay without paying.

Col. Frayser is not only an able lawyer, but a sound, judicious operator in general business. He is a man of great correctness and positiveness of character, guided rather by convictions of right than by considerations of policy. Hence his position on questions that concern society is never equivocal or doubtful. He is a man of small stature, weighing now only about one hundred and nine pounds, and never having exceeded one hundred and twenty pounds in weight, but he pos- Nesses any amount of energy and capacity for work.

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He wears his hair ent short, and it is roached back over his head, has a long flowing black silken beard, and dresses serupulously neat. He has yet a youthful appearance, A gentleman visiting Memphis in 1855, who had not seen Col. Frayser for over twenty years, saw him on the street and remarked to a friend: " Vonder gues a gentleman whom I have not seen since the war began, and I see only the back of his head now, but fifty cents to a pretzel I can name him." " Who is he? asked his friend. " R. Dudley Fray er." And it wa . " Neither of us weighed much over ninety then and Frayser holds hi - own, though eighty five of it is back- bone and brains and beard, his friends say. He was lieutenant-colonel of the Thirty-seventh Tennessee, and a pallant soldier. Col. Frayser is the only valeilictorian I have ever known who made money after leaving col- lege. Ile graduated at the Kentucky Military histitate, June, 1860. Ile is now president of the only street railway company operating in Memphis, his lines aggre- gating sixteen miles in length."

He is strictly temperate in habits, eschewing strong drink and tobacco in any form. A prominent Memphis lawyer says of him ; " He is remarkable for his close attention to business, his devotion to the interests of his clients, his clear conception of every man's rights, !. and for the great force and power with which he exe- cutes every thing he undertakes, lle is also remark- able for his ability in handling financial matters. He it now, and will always be, a financial success, and pos- are wonderful norve in executing his plans. When he has once made up his mind as to a particular policy; he moves forward in its execution without hesitancy; and with that energy which is so distinguishing a trait in his character. He is a good lawyer, works hard, and studies closely, and is growing daily in his profes- sion."

For the further family history of Col. R. Dudley Frayser, the reader is invited to examine the sketch of his father, Dr. John R. Frayser, which appears else- where in this volumic.

JUDGE T. W. TURLEY.

FRANKLIN.

T' HIS distinguished jurist and crudite lawyer was born at Bean's Suction, Grainger county, East Tennessee, January 18, 1820. His paternal grandfather came from Ireland when a child, and with his parents located in the colony of Virginia. When the war for independence began he enlisted on the patriot side and served almost from the beginning of the Revolution to the siege of Yorktown, at which place he was made an invalid for life by the bursting of a British bombs hell near his head, shortly before the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis. He lingered and suffered from his wound sev- eral years, but finally died from its effects. His wife also died about the same time.

They left an orphan son, Thomas Turley, who subse quently became the father of Judge Thomas W. Turley, subject of this biography. At the early age of eighteen Thomas Turley loft Virginia. his native State, and set- tled in Grainger county, Tennessee. Here he married, in 1811, Miss Desdemona Taylor, and here he died of pneumonia, December 6, 1833. leaving his widow with nine children. When a young man he served a cam- paign against the Greek Indian , under tien. Jackson, in 1812. He was a man of good morals and unusual industry, but was only able to provide a upport for his large family, without leaving them any estate.

Those who travel on the railroad leading from Nash ville to Chattanooga, by locking across the bottom at Shellmound station, can see the historie cave called Niekajack. Near there a bloody battle was fought about

the year 1790, and a signal . victory achieved by the whites over the Indians. Ten years afterward that same cave was occupied by Thomas Turley (Judge Turley's father), for three weeks under peculiar circumstances. As before mentioned, he left Virginia at the age of eigh- teen. When he reached the Tennessee river, at the mouth of German creek, in what is now Grainger county, he found a keelboat loaded with such merchandise as was suited to Indian traffic, which, with the cargo, be- longed to Col. Ore, who lived in the neighborhood. It was destined for Nickajack cave, and was put in charge of three men, with instructions to float down to the cave, then at least one hundred miles west of any of the white settlements of East Tennessee. Young Turley came up just before they pushed off. and asked permis- sion, as a volunteer; to accompany the expedition. His services were readily accepted, and in due time the voyagers reached the cave and unloaded their boat. This they securely fastened, intending to load with such articles of barter as they might receive in exchange for their trinkets, and carry back to the owner. Although it was a time of peace (the year 1800), the Indians were very shy. Very few came to the cave the first day, but they could be seen standing on logs and projecting rocky in almost all directions, and a very noticeable fact was, they all carried scalping knives in their belts. The first night one of the boatmen deserted without notice to his companions. The next day the Indians seemed still very shy, but more numerous. The two men who re-

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mained became very uneasy and made some reconnois- ance, and found that the Cherokees who were sitting around at so many points not only had their scalping knives, but all seemed engaged in whetting them and feeling the sharp edges. The men told what they had seen, but never disclosed to Turley their intentions. The next morning both of Turley's companions were gone and he was left alone to barter with the savages, and perhaps to become the victim of their treachery. But he boldly faced the responsibility and remained at his post. Three weeks afterward other men were sent down who reloaded the goods and returned with them. Turley, although very young, had had some experience in Indian life, and said he was not the least afraid of them. He took care of the goods, and not an article was stolen or otherwise lost. He trafficked with the In- dians a little and returned with the boat, when he re- ceived the warm thanks of Col. Ore. He died thirty- three years afterward, within half a mile of the bank where he boarded the keelboat for the Nickajack expe- dition.

Judge Turley's mother was a splendid specimen of the pioneer women who acted such conspicuous and heroic parts in the settlement of the western country. She was born in Virginia, but was brought by her father, also a Revolutionary soldier, to the banks of the Hol- stou, in East Tennessee, while the territorial govern- ment of Tennessee was in force, and upon, or near the banks of that river she lived for more than eighty years, dying in 1879, in the ninetieth year of her age. For robust health and the amount of household labor she could, and did perform, she had no superior in her day. For a period of fifty-eight consecutive years, she never used a particle of medicine, such as doctors preseribe. In 1876, a family reunion was held at her house. She had raised nine children, all at that time living. It had been thirty-eight years since they were all with her at the same time. She and her descendants on that day numbered precisely one hundred, quite a remarkable coincidence, it being the centennial year of American Independence.

The literary and legal attainments of Judge Thomas W. Turley were acquired by solitary study. It may be truthfully said he was a scholar without a teacher, and a lawyer without a preceptor. Fifteen dollars would cover all tuition fees paid his school masters. He was, from a child, remarkably fond of reading, and eagerly devoured every book he could find or borrow. In East Tennessee, fifty or sixty years ago, pineknots, usually called "light wood," were the princi- pal illuminator in the absence of the sun. Most fami- lies made it a point to keep pine on hand as regularly as they did ment or meat. It was well understood in the family that Tom's seat was in the chimney corner on the pine. Seldom of winter nights, from the time he was a small boy to eighteen years old, was he absent from his seat in the corner, on or near the pine, keeping

up his own light, and reading some book, giving no at- tention to the conversations and pastimes engaged in by the rest of the family. In this way a habit of abstrac- tion, while reading, from what might be passing in his presence, was formed, which was utilized to much ad- vantage in after life when his business had to be trans- acted in the bustle and confusion of a court-house. He thinks he has not met any one who could more effectu- ally confine his mind to reading or writing without dis- turbance by things in sight or hearing around him.

Although he had almost no advantages of schools- public schools were not in vogue in that day -- and had. lived a very laborious life, working on the farm, and in saw and grist mills, reading only at night, on Sundays and during such rest hours as could be snatched up; yet at the age of twenty he was a pretty accurate English scholar, and had few superiors in English grammar, geography, history and arithmetic. After leaving his mother, the first business he was engaged in was teaching school, which was somewhat in the line of his taste.

On the 20th of June, 1810, he heard the first politi- cal speech he ever listened to from any speaker of note. It was delivered by Hon. Ephraim II. Foster, at that time a senator in congress from Tennessee, made in ad- vocacy of Gen. Harrison, the Whig candidate for presi- dent. He has heard no address since that interested or impressed him so much. He asked a bystander what that man followed as a business, and was answered that he was a lawyer. Instantly he determined to devote his life to that profession, and from pursuit of that purpose he never afterward faltered for a moment. Up to that time he had formed no plan of life, and was only drift- ing along; simply gratifying a taste for reading and a de- sire for all such information as was to be found in books. By a seeming accident, and in an instant. a plan of life was fixed, and the destiny of the man was shaped. So soon as the crowd dispersed he went straight to a law- yer's office and asked to borrow the book first to be read by one intending to become a lawyer. He was handed Blackstone's Commentaries, which he read that night after returning home, a distance of fifteen miles, till a late hour, and has been reading, with more or less assid . uity, that and other Low books from that day to this. As a means of support while reading law, he taught sey- eral little schools of the "old field" character, and was admitted to the bar in his native county, January 1, . 1 1843. His receipts for the first two years from his prae tice did not amount to fifty dollars a year. The follow- ing amusing incident, recently published in the Nash- ville Banner, illustrates some of the trials and tribula- tions through which Judge Turley passed when a young barrister: " Judge T. W. Turley, an eminent barrister of Franklin, who began the practice of law some forty years ago, in an East Tennessee town, has now in his possession the first fee he received. He had just hung 1 out his shingle when a hoe drover, who, passing through , the town, became involved in a lawsuit and called on

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the young attorney to defend his cause. He responded, winning his client's case. In consideration of his ser- vices he charged one dollar and a half. The drover handed him a two-dollar bill on the Bank of North Carolina, at Raleigh, and receiving back the requisite change, departed. The young attorney pocketed his two dollars with a light heart, but imagine his feelings when he subsequently learned that it was a counterfeit, and he had given in change a genuine half- dollar, and all the money he possessed. The judge has kept the bill ever since, preserving it with as much care as he would a much larger sum."

Judge Turley took an active part in early life in the building of the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charles- ton railroad. He made the first publie speech ever made in Grainger county in advocacy of that enterprise. It was many years after the charter was obtained before the work could be put under way. The road is now in successful operation, running from Morristown, Ten- nessee, to Asheville, North Carolina. He was made a director and continued in the active duties of the posi- tion till he left East Tennessee.

Hle settled and opened a law office in Rutledge, county seat of his native county, where his business steadily increased till 1856, when he was elected by the people to the office of judge of the Second judicial circuit of Tennessee, beating, by a handsome majority, Judge Bar- ton, the popular incumbent, then a candidate for re- election.

Judge Turley never in his life took much part in poli- ties and never made a political speech, a thing that can be said of but few Tennessee lawyers. He uniformly voted the Whig ticket while that party existed, and was a pronounced opponent to secession, but when President Lincoln made his first call for seventy five thousand troops to invade the South. he decided to go with his people and share their fortunes, and dur- ing the war was classed as a Southern man, but took no active part in the struggle, continuing to hold his courts regularly to within eighteen months of the surrender, though but little business was done after July, 1861. Toward the close of the war. find- ing prejudice against those who were termed rebels very strong in East Tennessee, he quietly took his family into Carolina, and finding himself superseded by a judge appointed by the military governor, and afterward the prejudice by no means abated, during the Brownlow reign of terror, he preferred to locate where the gon- eral sentiments of the people would be more congenial. In the fall of 1865, he located in Franklin, Williamson county. Tennessee, and resumed the practice of law, in which he has been actively and successfully engaged ever since: He has not engaged in the criminal prac tice at all, and has confined himself' mostly to practice in the chancery and Supreme courts. He was appointed and acted as Supreme judge in the celebrated "new issue" case. His opinion in that case is published in the

fifth volume of Baxter's reports, The practice of law having of late years dwindled down to a small business, his principal source of income is from a cotton planta- tion he owns in Bolivar county, Mississippi.

While a young man Judge Turley took much interest in Masonry, was considered a bright Mason, and was several times elected Master of the lodge to which he belonged; frequently attended the Grand Lodge, and was at one time Deputy Grand Master of the State, at " another Grand King in the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. Turley Lodge, at Maynardville, East Tennessee, an active working lodge, was named in re- cognition of his Masonic labors.

On the Sth of October, ISH, Judge Turley was married to Miss Mary R. Cocke, daughter of Dr. W. E. Cocke, and granddaughter of Gen. John Cocke, a major-gen- eral in the war of 1812, and for many years a member of congress from the First district of Tennessee.

Mrs. Turley's &great-grandfather, Judge William Cocke, was with Gov. William Blount, the two first senators in the United States congress from Tennessee. The way in which his election was secured will illus- trate how elections were carried in 1776, in the first Leg- islature that ever met in the State. William Blount was very popular; had been the Territorial governor, and his election was a foregone conclusion, but who should have the honor of the other senatorship, was a matter of heated contest. Cocke was a noted Indian fighter, and had warm and determined friends, but not quite strength enough to defeat his popular opponent. His son, John Cocke, then just twenty-one years old, was a member of the Legislature, which was a small body of men sitting in a log meeting-house at Knox- ville. John Cocke, the day before the election was to come off. canvassed the house and found his father would be beaten by one vote. Though young, he had experience enough of the world to learn that flattery is a powerful agent in controlling the actions of mankind, male as well as female. A few days previous he had an act passed laying off a new county in the one he repre- sented-Hawkins-which was named Grainger, in honor of the maiden name of Mrs. Gov. Blount. There was an old Dutchman in the house, representative from Sul- livan county, named Rutledge, who was not a Cocke man for senator. So John Cocke schemed for his cap- ture. On the morning of the day the election was to come off, as soon as the house came to order, John Cocke arose and addressed the speaker, remarking that he held in his hand and offered as a bill. an act to establish a county seat for the new county of Grainger, and said he, " In honor of my distinguished friend from Sullivan. I have named the county seat Rutledge." Nothing more was said. Soon the election for senator was gone into, and when the clerk called for the vote of "the gentleman from Sullivan," Rutledge responded in an emphatic tone, "Coche!" Judge Cocke went to the United States senate and was also re-elected,

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and there stands Rutledge, still the county seat of Grainger, but there is not a citizen in it who knows under what circumstances its name was given.

Judge and Mrs. Turley have had but three children. The eldest, a daughter, died at nine years of age. T. J. Turley, the oldest son, is an active business man in Nashville, Tennessee, William' Turley is practicing law at Nashville, in partnership with Judge James M. Quarles, with a bright future before him.

Judge Turley and wife have been members of the Presbyterian church from early life. Ile was ordained au elder in 1851 ; takes a deep interest in church affairs, particularly ecclesiastical courts, and has been.twice a member of the general assembly of the church to which he belongs. As a Sunday-school worker he has as much reputation as any man in his county, and has been president of the Middle Tennessee Sunday-school Is- sociation. He has been president of the Williamson County Bible Society during most of the time he has lived in the county.

One of Judge Turley's cardinal resolutions, from a very early age, was to do whatever he undertook thor-

oughly, hence he adopted that as a motto, as second to none, and which he wrote on the fly-leaf of several of his books, and under its inspiration he undertook to make himself as good an arithmetician, as good a geog- rapher, historian and grammarian as the country af- forded, and flattered himself that he succeeded. But as he grew older, he felt very much like his motto was too ambitious, and abandoned it. While on the bench he made it an invariable rule to open his court on time, sharp. When he adjourned to meet at 8 o'clock the court met at 8 o'clock. He says in the seven years dur- ing which he held his courts, he never was ten minutes behind the time fixed in opening his court. In that. time he only failed to hold one term of his courts, and that was caused by high water. Another rule was, that he would never go to the court-house before the time of opening. When he reached the door, he always went straight to the bench, and would engage in no social conversation in the court-house. If there were more judges who would act on these rules, the effect on the dockets would be striking, and it might enhance the esteem of the courts in the public mind.

IION. J. D. C. ATKINS.

PARIS.

T THIS eminent and distinguished statesman, whose fame is co-extensive with the boundaries of the nation, and whose political services are intimately inter- woven with the political history of the country for a third of a century past, is one of Tennessee's brightest jewels. His proverbial popularity with the people of his native State, is due doubtless to his confidence in the sober second thought, the good sense and ultimate wisdom of the masses, who are enabled by their own modes of thought, and their social discussions, to arrive at just conclusions as to the effect of laws, modes of government, and the usefulness of public men. The people follow no man blindly. While they are apt to repose great confidence in public men who have shown themselves in sympathy with popular rights, and who have made consistent records, they at last assert their own independence, both in thought and action, Should any leader exhibit selfishness, or unsoundness, or in- difference to public interests, he at once falls beneath the ban of their condemnation, Tried by this crucible test of worthiness, Gen. J. D. C. Atkins has proven himself as. made of the purest metal, and, therefore, his people honor and love him.

The Atkins family is of Welsh and Irish blood. Gen. Atkins' great-grandfather, John Atkins, was a native born Welshman, as was also his great-grandfather on the maternal side. His paternal grandfather (also

named John Atkins) was born in Anson county, North Carolina ; married a Miss Richards of a North Carolina family, daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, and moved to Stewart county, Tennessee, where he died. He was a farmer and a citizen of considerable wealth. He, raised a large family of sons and daughters, every one of whom succeeded well in life and became wealthy for their day.

Gen. Atkins' father who was also named John (a favorite family name), was born in Anson county, North Carolina, January 28, 1787, and died December 30, 1845, in Henry county, Tennessee. He was a wealthy farmer and bequeathed Gen. Atkins the homestead upon which he now lives. He was a Democrat, and held some minor county offices. For forty years he was a member and a liberal supporter of the Methodist church, and his house was the home of Methodist preachers. He never in his life owed a debt overdue for a day, and when he died did not owe a dollar to any man. llis prominent trait of character was promptness in the discharge of duty, whatever he believed it to be. Ile was a man of action and of very few words. He was kind and liberal to the very poor, and as charitable towards the weak nesses of human nature as any man who ever lived could be, who had at the same time his de- testation of falsehood, treachery, meanness and insin- cerity. He was modest to a fault, and never spoke

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 56

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