Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 59

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

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Reporting his achievements to Gen. Bragg, he was then ordered to take a force, composed of picked men of his own regiment, and those of the Fourth Alabama cavalry regiment, commanded by Col. W. A. Johnson ; to recross the Tennessee river; make a forced march to the tunnel running through the Cumberland mountains, at Cowan, on the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad ; drive away the force guarding the tunnel, and so ob- struct it as to prevent trains passing through to supply the Federals cooped up at Chattanooga. The tunnel was guarded by a regiment of Federal infantry, so dis- tributed as to protect the three shafts which had been sunk down from the top of the mountain to the track below. . Col. Patterson disposed his troops so as to attack the three garrisons simultaneously, which was done with great gallantry by the men under his command, a large number of prisoners being captured and the mountain cleared of Federal soldiers. The road was then ob- structed by rolling huge stones, which had been exca- vated out of the mountain, down the shafts to the track below.

Returning into North Alabama, after a hot pursuit on the part of a large body of Federal cavalry, Col. Patterson next participated in repelling Sherman's at- tempt to reinforce Grant, by passing through North Alabama, over the Memphis and Charleston railroad. The entire force of the Confederate cavalry operating in that section was commanded by Gen. Stephen D. Lee, and the resistance was so effective, and the railroad so completely destroyed, that Sherman abandoned the at- tempt, crossed the Tennessee river, and made his way by forced marches, overland to Chattanooga.

In 1864, Col. Patterson was in command of the dis- triet of North Alabama, when Gens, Forrest and Roddy were engaged in the Mississippi campaign, in which Gen. Sturgis and Gen. Smith, commanding the Federal forces, were so signally defeated. While in command of this district he was very active in his operations. Crossing the Tennessee river at Gillsport, with less than

three hundred and fifty men, at nine 'o'clock in the morning, he attacked the Thirteenth Illinois infantry regiment, numbering over five hundred men, at Madi- son Station, Alabama. So sudden was the attack, that the enemy, although they were entrenched in a stockade, threw down their arms and fled. He captured two hun- dred and fifteen prisoners, a number of wagons and ambulances, a large amount of army supplies, and such as he could not take with him he burned. That even- ing, while recrossing the river, he was attacked by a large force of Federal cavalry, but succeeded in repell- ing them and gaining the south bank with all his pris- oners and booty, with the loss of only one man killed and one man wounded.

He commanded the post at Corinth, in December, 1864, when Gen. Hood made his campaign in Tennessee, rejoining the defeated army at Bainbridge, on the Ten- nessee river. After the retreat of the Confederate army from Tennessee, in view of the general demoralization that took place, Col. Patterson was directed by Gen. Ilood to go on a mission through the counties of North Alabama, addressing the people at various points, and persuading the discouraged soldiers to return to the service. The speeches made by Col. Patterson in this crisis were thought to be theablest of his life, his whole soul being thrown into this effort, and resulting in thousands of men rejoining the army. Returning to his regiment at Moulton, Alabama, about the latter part of March, 1865, he operated in front of Glen, Wil- son's celebrated cavalry raid from the Tennessee river to Selma, burning bridges, felling trees, and resisting Wilson's progress at every step. He was captured at the battle of Selma, owing to a severe wound in the left knee, which he had received by a fall from his horse, during a night attack at Salem church, the night before, while on the retreat, and which incapacitated him from making his escape otherwise than on horseback. He made his escape, however, the first night the enemy marched with him, and returned, as best he could, into North Alabama, to find the country overwhelmed with the news of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender.

The most of his regiment having escaped capture at Schna, he rapidly reorganized them, and learning that President Davis was attempting to make his escape through the mountains of North Alabama, he held his troops in hand, refusing to surrender until May 19, 1865, hoping that he would be able to assist in the flight of the president.

After the war, Col. Patterson practiced law with marked success in his native county one year, next for five years at Florence, Alabama, and in March, 1872, located at Memphis. He has been remarkably success- ful in his profession in his new home, being now the junior member of the well-known firm of Gantt & Patterson.

Col. Patterson has always been a Democrat on princi- ple, believing, as he does, in the absolute right of the

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people to control their own affairs. However, he never took any active part in political matters until 1882, when he was called upon to preside over the State Democratic convention which nominated Gen. Wil- liam B. Bate for governor, for his first term, and during the session Col. Patterson made a speech which at- tracted attention throughout the State, and at once brought him into prominence in political circles. Being an ardent admirer and personal friend of Senator Isham G. Harris, he consented, in order to secure his return to the United States senate, and to secure the enact- ment of such local legislation as was needed by the people of Memphis, to become a candidate for the lower branch of the Legislattre. His ticket was elected, overcoming a Republican majority of one thousand five hundred. In the Legislature Col. Patterson was promi- nent as an carnest advocate of the railroad commission bill, the bill for the settlement of the State debt (known as the 50-3 bill), the return of Gov. Harris to the United States senate, and the passage of measures look- ing to the settlement of the debt of Memphis.

Col. Patterson, when a very young man, married Miss Josephine Rice, youngest daughter of Judge Green P. Rice, who was at one time prominent in the political history of Alabama. Mrs. Patterson's mother was Miss Am Eliza Turner, of a well-known Virginia family, and connected with the Blount, Sykes and Bynum fam- ilies of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Mrs. Patterson was educated at the Somerville (Alabama) Female Academy, and is remarkable for the elegance of her deportment, her charity, and her modest, retiring ways. She is sincerely beloved by a host of friends. To this marriage were born three children : (1). Mal-

colm R. Patterson, now twenty-two years of age; edu- cated at Vanderbilt University, Nashville; and now a rising young lawyer of great prominence at Memphis. (2). Mary Lou Patterson, educated at Sayre Institute, Lexington, Kentucky. (3). Ann Eliza Patterson, yet at school.

Col. Patterson and family are Presbyterians, as were all their people before them. His father was an elder in the Presbyterian church for forty-five years before his death. Col. Patterson became a Mason in Somer- ville in early manhood.

Col. Patterson's father, Malcolm Patterson, was born, in Abbeville, South Carolina, of Scotch-Irish parentage. He was a farmer, emigrated to North Alabama in 1817, and lived there, an honored citizen, until his death, in February, 1859, at the age of seventy. Col. Patterson's , paternal grandfather, Alexander Patterson, was a pa- triot soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was wounded at the battle of Cowpens. He, also, was a farmer.

Col. Patterson's mother, ure Miss Mary Deloache, was of French extraction. She was born on Stone's river, Rutherford county, Tennessee, and emigrated with her father, John Deloache, to Jefferson county, Alabama, after she grew up to womanhood. She was born in 1802, and belonged to a hardy pioncer family. Her elder brother, William Deloache, was a soldier under Gen, Jackson throughout his Indian wars. Col. Patterson's maternal grandfather, John Deloache, was a farmer in comfortable circumstances, and highly respected. Ile died in 1820, near the spot on which the city of Bir- mingham, Alabama, now stands. The whole family, on both sides, have been mostly farmers from time im- memorial.

HON. BENJAMIN J. TARVER.

LEBANON.

T IIIS modest gentleman, never much in public life, nor ambitious for proferment out of the line of his profession, appears in these pages as a representa- tive Middle Tennessee lawyer and jurist, and Christian gentleman.

Benjamin J. Tarver was born in Warren county, North Carolina, July 1, 1829, but came with his father to Wilson county, Tennessee, when three months old, and there has lived ever since. He received a fair lit- erary education at the common schools in his father's neighborhood, near Tucker's Gap, mixing, in, his boy- hood, study and farm labor. From the age of fourteen he was devoted to books, being especially fond of phil- osophieal, mathematical and scientific studies, and be- coming at an early age, a good Latin scholar. He studied law in the Lebanon law school in 1849-50-51,

graduating the latter year. Among his classmates were Robert Weakley Brown, Judge J. D. Goodpasture, Hon. E. Il. East, Gen .- Robert Hatton, Judge Abe Demoss, Hon. Mr. Halsey (How M. C. from the Bowling Green, Kentucky, district), and Judge Wm. S. MeLe- more.

After graduation he opened an office at Lebanon, and at once entered upon a good practice. It was a strong bar he had to compete with, composed of such men as Judge John S. Brien, Hon. Jordan Stokes, Hon. Charles Ready, Hon. Jo. C. Guild, Col. William L. Martin, Gen. Robert Hatton and Judge Nathan Green. Be- ginning his career with only ten dollars, three dollars of which he gave for a " shingle," and three dollars for a subscription to the National Intelligencer, he is now reckoned among the solid men of his county. He is a

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director in the Tennessee Pacific railroad company, and a director in the Second National Bank, at Leb- anon. From the early part of 1852, to January, 1878, he was in partnership with Hon. Ed. I. Golladay. This partnership was dissolved by his going on the bench as chancellor of the Sixth division, under appointment from Gov. James D. Porter, a position which he held nine months, and for which he was an unsuccessful candidate before the people in 1878.

Judge Tarver's practice has been confined mostly to civil cases in the chancery, referee and Supreme courts, but he has occasionally appeared in important criminal cases. His professional and financial success is due, not to outside influences or family connections, but to the fact that he has never dissipated any; was never in polities; has made it a point to be always at his office or at the court-house in business hours, instead of hang- ing about the streets and loafing. A similar history will be found in the biography of Gov. John Ireland, of Texas. Judge Tarver has made it a rule to be frank with courts and never to mislead; consequently, his practice before courts has invariably won their confi- dence, and his success before jurors is largely attribut- able to the same fact. He never submits propositions of law or fact unless he believes them himself to be true. It is lawyers of this class who give high moral tone and credit to a bar and add dignity to a profession -- the most important known to society or the history of Dations. As a speaker, Judge Tarver is neither noisy or florid, but aims to convince the judgment and to awaken and strengthen the conscience of the court or jury to decide on the conviction his logie has carried to their minds.

Before the war, Judge Tarver was a Whig of the Henry Clay and John Bell school, and made speeches in opposition to secession. But when the war had ac- tually begun at Fort Sumter, he soon after joined the Confederate army, enlisting as a private in Col. Robert Hatton's Seventh Tennessee regiment, and staying in that regiment until the spring of 1862. He was made a lieutenant of his company while in the camp of in- struction at Camp Trousdale, Summer county. Hle served in Virginia and Tennessee, and took part in the battle of Murfreesborough, four days, and numerous other engagements. In the summer of 1863, his health failed and he left the service.

In 1866, he was a delegate from his congressional district, with Gov. William B. Campbell, to the Phila- delphia convention, called to organize a national politi- cal party with which the South could affiliate. Since then, Judge Tarver has voted the Democratic ticket.

Judge Tarver is a Methodist, as were his parents. He joined the church when twelve years old and has served as trustee, steward and delegate to the annual confer- ence ; has been a Sunday-school teacher twenty- five . years, and is now president of the Wilson county Aux- iliary American Bible Society. In 1865, he became a

Master Mason, and is also an Odd Fellow. Occasion- ally, he contributes to the agricultural, political and religious literature of the times, and has now and then taken the place of an absent or sick editor of his town papers, editing them for a month at a time. He has frequently delivered agricultural and literary addresses, mostly the former, as he was raised a farmer and always delighted in agricultural pursuits.

Judge Tarver married in Wilson county, July 28, 1875, Miss Sue White, daughter of Dr. James B. White, a prominent physician and agricultuist of that county, originally from Virginia. Her mother was a Miss Shelton, daughter of James Shelton, of a Virginia family. Mrs. Tarver is a niece of Rev. Dr. William Shelton, of Nashville, and of Daniel Shelton, a promi- nent lawyer at Jackson, Mississippi. Her aunt, Martha, is the widow of Hou. H. Y. Riddle, formerly member of Congress from the Lebanon district. Mrs. Tarver's paternal lineage is traced back to the Marshall, Jeffer- son and Commodore Baron families of Virginia. Mrs. Tarver graduated iu Rev. Dr. C. D. Elliott's Academy at Nashville, and is a lady of high culture, and in all the relations of life is attractive and amiable, with an exceptionally large amount of practical common sense in the management of her affairs,

Judge Tarver comes direct from old American Rev- olutionary stock. His grandfather, Benjamin Tarver, had five brothers in the patriot arniy in the war for in- dependence, and he himself, when only sixteen years old, was at the battle of Guilford Court-house. Benja: min Farver settled on Hickory Ridge, Wilson county, Tennessee, in 1808, and died there. His son, Silas Tar- ver, was JJudge Tarver's father.

Silas Tarver went to North Carolina on business when a young man, met there Miss Nancy Harris, whom he married, and there the subject of this sketch, named for both grandfathers, was born, before the family moved to Tennessee. Silas Tarver was a plain farmer and justice of the peace, and a soldier when a boy in the Indian wars under Jackson. He had two brothers, Ben and Edmond, who both lived in Wilson county several years; moved to Texas and there died, leaving families. One of Edmond's children. Benjamin E. Tarver, became a prominent lawyer and politician in. Texas. One of Ben's sons, Charles Tarver, became an editor in Texas. Both these cousins of Judge Tarver died in Texas in early life.

A branch of the Tarver family settled at Macon, Georgia, and another in Selma, Alabama, where they became prominent as large property holders. Micajah Tarver, of Tuscumbia, Alabama, went to St. Louis, was a prominent lawyer there, and for several years edited a monthly, dovoted to the improvement of the valley of the Mississippi ; he died there in 1861.

One of the Misses Tarver. of the Alabama branch of the family, became the wife of Gen. Bee, of Texas, Of the five brothers of Judge Tarver's grandfather,

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one came to Tennessee ; one went to Alabama; one to southern Mississippi ; one to Georgia, and one remained in Virginia. The family are of Welsh extraction, and noted for their fertility of resources and energy, notably so were Judge Tarver's grandfather and father. His father was thoroughly posted in the history and measures of the political parties of the country, and was a fine judge of law, and a considerable theologian, though neither a lawyer or preacher.

Judge Farver's mother, we Miss Nancy Harris, who died in Wilson county in 1815, aged fifty-five, was a rel- ative of Gov. Isham G. Harris, She was born in War- ren county, North Carolina, daughter of James Harris, a Revolutionery soldier, whose father immigrated from England before the Revolutionary war aud settled in

Harristown took its name from his family. A large number of the Harris family in the South and West sprang from that stock.

The Tarver family in England trace their ancestry back to Cromwell's time. One of them, Canon Tarver, was private tutor to the present Prince of Wales. But the data in possession of the writer is too meager on which to base more than a mere mention of the English family.

Through his paternal grandmother, Judge Tarver is a kinsman of Hon. John V. Wright, whose sketch see elsewhere in this volume.

Judge Tarver's brother, John Bell Tarver, is a farmer on the paternal homestead in Wilson county. Of his two sisters, Mary died unmarried ; Hannah died the wife ! Warren county, and that portion of the county called , of Judge Claiborne, of Texas, leaving one child, Kate. .

JOIIN D. SMITH, M. D.

DYERSBURG.

O NE of the best specimens of a self-made, yet successful and representative Tennessean, that has come under the observation of the writer hereof, is Dr. John D. Smith, of Dyersburg. His grandfather, Thomas Smith, was a native of Wake county, North Carolina; removed to Anson county, North Carolina, at an early day, amassed a fine estate, and died at the age of forty, leaving two children, John Alls Smith (father of Dr. John D. Smith) and Ellen Smith, who died the wife of James Capel, of Wadesborough, North Carolina. His father, John Alls Smith, was born in Anson county, North Carolina, was a successful farmer, and a Whig, though not a church member. He immi- grated to Henderson county, West Tennessee, in 1838, and there died in 1817, at the age of fifty-five years. His mother was Miss Lucy Williams, daughter of Benjamin Williams, a farmer of good estate, who removed from Wake county, North Carolina, to Anson county, in the same State, and died at the advanced age of eighty years. Dr. Smith's mother was one of God's noble women ; a devoted member of the Missionary Baptist church ; an active, energetic Christian, the chief object of whose life was the correct and upright training of her children -- her example in this respect furnishing a model for even the best of mothers. She was, moreover, a lady of exceptionally fine mind and judgment, and beld a high position in society as a woman loyal to all the best and most elevating relations of life. She died in 1853, at the age of fifty, having been the mother of thirteen children, seven of whom survived her: (1). William Thomas Smith, now a farmer in Henderson county, Tennessee. (2). Susan Smith, who died the wife of William Rhodes, of Henderson county. (3).

Dr. John D. Smith, subject of this sketch. (4). Eli Smith, who married Miss Elizabeth York, and is now a farmer in Dyer county, Tennessee. (5). Ellen Smith, who married James Fesmire, now a farmer in Hender- son county, Tennessee. (6). Martha Jane Smith, died the wife of Park Rhodes, of Henderson county, Ten- nessee. (7). Elijah Flake Smith, married Miss Eliza- beth Argo, and is now farming in Texas.

Dr. John D. Smith was born in Anson county, North Carolina, March 18, 1829, and went with his parents to Henderson county, Tennessee, in 1838, and there grew up. He received his academic education at the neigh- boring country schools, and at the age of eighteen com- mened reading medicine with Dr. C. W. Hays, at Red Mound, Tennessee. After reading two years, he next practiced medicine four years, in Benton county, Ten- nessee. He then entered the Memphis Medical College, and graduated in 1851, under Prof's. Wooten, Merrill, Quintard (now Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Tennes- see), Robards, Taylor. Shanks, Millington, and D. F. Wright- - the latter then demonstrator of anatomy. After graduation he settled at Friendship, a village in Dyer county, and was building up a line practice when the war broke out

In the spring of 1861. He volunteered in the Forty- seventh Tennessee Confederate infantry regiment, Col. M. R. Hill, of Trenton, commanding ; served as assist- ant surgeon in that regiment until after the battle of Murfreesborough, when he was, without application on his part, promoted to surgeon and assigned to duty with the Twenty-ninth Tennessee regiment, commanded by Lieut .- Col. Rice. He served in the latter regiment till after the battle of Chickamauga, when he was trans-

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ferred to the hospital department, and placed in charge of the Dawson hospital at Greensborough, Georgia. and remained there till the downfall of Atlanta. He was next ordered to Andersonville, Georgia, remained there but a short while, when he was ordered to Inka, Miss issippi, to assist in fitting up the hospitals at that place for Hood's army. After Gen. Hood's defeat, Dr. Smith returned home on furlough, having contracted a severe attack of opthalmia, from exposure, which, together with a broken down state of health, confined him to his room thirteen months, hence he was never able to re- turn to the army. Dr. Smith made a fine reputation among the soldiery while he was their surgeon. Hle modestly says he cannot lay claim to the discovery of any new method of treating soldiers in hospital or in trans- itu, but it is one thing to handle tools well and an- other to introduce new ones. As a surgeon, he ranks high with the profession for various difficult and del- icate capital operations which he has successfully per- formed.

Having once more fairly recovered his health, Dr. Smith resumed the practice of his profession at his old home, Friendship, and continued to practice, excepting two years, 1869-71, he spent railroading, until October, 1882, when he moved to Dyersburg, and has resided and practiced there ever since. He is a member of the West Tennessee Medical Society, and of the Tri-State Medical Society, the latter body being composed of physicians and surgeons residing in Mississippi, Arkan- sas and Tennessee. He has contributed quite a number of valuable and interesting articles to medical journals, by which he is, perhaps, best known to the profession at large. In the Southern Practitioner, Nashville, Tou- nessee, in 1880, appeared an article from Dr. Smith, on Rotheln, or German measles, which was extensively re- copied by the medical press of the United States, He contributed the report of a case of pulsating tumor, or "Aneurism of the Tibia," to the American Journal of Medical Science, for January, 1882, which has been used by medical journals for statistical purposes. But the two articles which gave him most reputation, ahnost national fame, in fact, are: one on the treatment of "Pneumonia" (see Mississippi Valley Medical Monthly, March, 1883), and one (in the same journal, January, 1885) on " Malarial Fever."

In religion, Dr. Smith is a Methodist, having joined that church in 1851, and is now a steward in the church at Dyersburg. During the war he preached some as a licentiate among the soldiers, having been licensed in 1858, though he was never ordained. He was made a Mason at Camden, Tennessee, in 1851, and has taken the Chapter degrees. He is also a member of the or- der of the Golden Cross, of which he is examining surgeon, as he is also for two or three other insurance organizations. Dr. Smith was originally a Whig, but since the war has acted with the Democrats, though he has held no office and has not been an active partisan.

In 1870 he was elected president of the Brownsville and Ohio railroad company.

Dr. Smith married, in Benton county, Tennessee, De- cember 8, 1850, Miss Vetury White, a native of that county, born January 5, 1833. Her father was Capt. James White, who came of a pioneer Hickman county family, and was in several skirmishes with Indians in an early day in the settlement of that county. He was a well-read man of fine sense, although a plain, prac- tical, successful farmer. He died in 1882, at the age of eighty-two years. He was twice married. His first wife was a Miss MeSwine, by whom he had two children, Andrew White and Patsy White; the latter was the first wife of JJ. C. Me Daniel. a farmer and tobacconist at Camden, Tennessee. Capt. White next married Miss Elizabeth Matlock, by whom he had nine children ; Mary White, who married Joseph Peacock ; Thomas White, now a farmer, married a Miss Johnson ; Vet- ury White now wife of Dr. J. D. Smith, subject of this sketch ; Hugh Lawson White, now a farmer, married a Miss Walker; Eliza and Ellen White, twins, who married respectively Clark Hubbs and James Walker ; Lovilla White, married Clinton Walker; Caroline Vie- toria White, married James Bealough; Henry Clay White, unmarried. Mrs. Smith was educated at country schools, and is a lady of fine domestic and religious habits and culture. Her life has been devoted to the care of her family, and to the discharge of charitable and Christian duties. She professed religion at an early age and joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church, but after marriage withdrew from that communion in order to join the Methodist church with her husband.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 59

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