Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 65

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

USA > Tennessee > Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee > Part 65

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Edward W. Munford was born in Lincoln (now Boyle) county, Kentucky, near Danville, October 16, 1820. Edward was placed in the primary department of Con- ter College, Danville, at eight years old, and among his fellow students were John C. Breckinridge and Beriah Magoffin, the latter, afterward governor of Kentucky. Edward soon became irregular, got ahead of his classes in some studies, was advanced to higher classes, believed everything he heard or read with blind credulity, be- lieved even Ovid's stories, made himself a master of the Latin, and left college without graduating, but with letters from his professors to his father very highly creditable to the young student. With all his college learning he had never been taught the multiplication table, English grammar or geography, the college eur- riculum of that day being exceedingly defective as to the rudiments. About 1835, his father came on a visit to Lebanon to his children, Mrs. James C. Jones, Thomas JJ. Munford and Mrs. Kitty MeCorkle, and Ed- ward accompanied him, and the latter was entered at Campbell Academy under Rey. Thomas Anderson, af- terward president of Cumberland University, to per- fect his English studies, Euclid and the natural sei- ences. On suggestion of his brother. William B. Mun-

ford, he clerked in his store some three months, but his inclination being toward the law, he read under Judge Robert L. Caruthers one year, made a journey to Kentucky to visit the grave of his mother and see the old home, when he next joined his brother, Wil- liam B. Munford, at Clarksville, where he studied law under George C. Boyd, at the same time that James E. Bailey was a law student under Boyd. He obtained license to practice in 1810 ( before his majority), from Judge Mortimer A. Martin, and in 1811, from Judge William B. Turley. He practiced at Clarksville till 1850, " receiving employment," he says, " far bevond h's merits," he and James E. Bailey being on one side or the other of most of the important cases in the courts there, and usually on opposite sides.

In 1816, he unwisely endorsed notes and bills to the ... amount of some sixty thousand dollars. Out of this impulsive venture he came out with the clothes on his back, his law library, and a large amount of very valua- ble experience. While thus involved, he told his bride elect that if money was essential to her happiness she must discard him. She nobly replied, she would marry a man and not his estate. In 1849 they married. She was Miss Amelia A., daughter of Paul J. Watkins, of Alabama.

In December, 1850, Col. Munford moved to Memphis and practiced law there till 1858, with the exception of 1853-51, which he spent on his plantation in Lawrence county, Alabama, for the sake of his health. In 1855, his wife died. leaving him two children, one having died before and one soon after the mother's death. The sole surviving child, Paul Edward Munford, lived to be nearly twenty-one years old, and died in 1873, having made a most enviable business reputation. In 1858, Col. Munford closed business in Memphis, having made a satisfactory fortune, with the intention of taking his son, Paul Edward, to Europe to be educated orally, particularly in the French and German, but the war coming on soon after, he gave up the trip.

Very soon after the breaking out of the war, he was . offered the command of a regiment, but declined it, say- ing to the men : " I do not feel competent to lead you- I might pet you killed, and will not accept the trust." Afterward he accepted the position of major on the staff of tien. Albert Sidney Johnston, joined that command in October, IS61, at Bowling Green, and served with him till he was killed at Shiloh, April 6, 1862. " The greatest man the South had fell that day," said Col. Munford, "and Shiloh was the only battle I was ever in where true military genius was displayed by the com- mander." He served in the campaigns in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, and with the Army of Tennessee generally : was in the battles of July 22 and 28, 1861. at Adanta, and in many minor engage- ments, not necessary to mention' in this sketch. In 1861, he was appointed by President Davis judge of the military court of the department of which Gen.

295

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Dick Taylor was chief, and in that capacity served till ; the close of the war.

After the war, he became a director in the Carolina Life Insurance company, at Memphis, of which Jeffer- feeble to justify regular practice of the law, he moved to MeMinnville, in 1872, as president of the Tennessee Company. In 1877, he moved back to Memphis, and in 1880, back again to MeMinnville, on account of fail- ing health, and there settled for life, and is now so stout and robust as to not appear a day over fifty years old.

In 1867, Col. Munford married at Memphis, Mrs. Mary E. Gardner, widow of William Ross Gardner, a linetenant in the United States Navy, a meritorious officer, who had served through the war with Mexico with considerable distinction. Mrs. Munford is the daughter of John Kerr, an old merchant of Augusta, Georgia, who removed to Memphis and died there. Her mother was Miss Catharine Burke, of Augusta. Mrs. Munford is descended from Gov. Elbert, of Geor- gia, an old Revolutionary soldier. Mrs. Munford was educated at Augusta ; is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and is beloved for her unswerving loyalty to truth. She is a woman of much intellectual culture and fine social character, with a face fascinating

by its sweetness and innocence of expression. He never lost a sweetheart in the wife, nor she a lover in the hus- band, and their lives are beautifully domestic and happy.

Col. Munford was a Whig up to Know Nothing times, son Davis was president. His physical health being too ;. when he began voting " striped tickets." Since the war he has been a Democrat, there being no other alterna- tive for a true southerner. He has been occasionally appointed special judge to hold court when the presid- ing judge was sick, but with these exceptions and his military commissions, he has never held office. He is a Master Mason. In religion, he believes in God as a Heavenly Father, but is non-sectarian. Nature gave him energy ; a fine constitution ; a cheerful, social dis- position; a manly; generous, keen ambition to attain excellence, in harmony with an unsullied honor, which he would not exchange for profit, position or power. Hle would never besmireb a spotless citizenship by demagogism. He won his success by honest, hard work, and by a life of truth and candor, and a scorn of hypocrisy and pretense. Ife is a man elastic in his or- ganization, a brilliant conversationalist, an eloquent orator, with a boundless command of language, which, together with his sympathetic, friendly manners, make him a boon companion and a man much sought after as a friend.

HON. AUGUSTUS H. PETTIBONE.

GREENEVILLE.

T' HIE ancestry of Augustus H. Pettibone is English Puritan, Scotch (clan Grant), and French Hugue- not. Ile is the sixth in descent from John Pettibone. a Huguenot Frenchman, who was admitted a freeman in the colony of Connecticut, in 1658, and from whom all the American family of the name have sprung.

On his mother's side, he is the seventh in descent from John Alden, the clerk of the Mayflower, immortal- ized in Longfellow's . "Courtship of Miles Standish." lle is also a descendant of C'apt. Matthew Grant, who was the first American ancestor of Gen. I' S. Grant. through his (Capt. Matthew Graut's) daughter, Priscilla Grant.

Augustus H. Pettibone's grandfather, Elijah Petti- bone, a native of Norfolk, Connecticut, born in 1748, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. from Bunker Hill to the surrender of Burgoyne, and drew a pension till he died, in 1818. His thirteenth child and youngest son was Augustus N. Pettibone, father of the subject of this sketch ; born January 29, 1802, at. Norfolk, Con- necticut ; was a clothier and cloth dresser; moved in 1822, to Ohio; built the first cloth dressing and carding mill in northern Ohio, at Newburg, now a part of Cleve- land; was sheriff of Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and held several other county offices, though his business was a

manufacturer of cloth. He died in 1849, in Greene county, Wisconsin, where he had removed in 1846. He was an old line Whig, and was noted as a self-taught elocutionist and a fine reader.

Maj. Pettibone's mother, net Nancy L. Hathoway, was born near Burlington, Vermont, in 1803, daughter of Zephaniah Hathoway. a native of Taunton, Massa- chusetts, who afterwards became a pioneer in the woods of Ohio, and died an extensive farmer in that State. He married Miss Silence Alden, descendant of John Alden before mentioned. Maj. Pettibone's mother was a woman of decided force of character, as were all her sisters -- Sally, wife of George Comstock ; Demaris, wife of Samuel Barney, and Hartie, wife of William Barney-two sisters who married two brothers. Mrs. Pettibone was a member of the Christian Baptist church, and died in 1812, leaving three children : (1). Julia, now wife of Reuben Parkinson, Bedford, Ohio. (2). Augustus Herman, subject of this sketch. (3). Lorette HI., now wife of William Green, Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Maj. Augustus H. Pettibone, was born at. Bedford, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, January 21, 1835. He attended Hiram College and Ex President James A. Garlick

296

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

was his leading teacher, and under him Maj. Pettibone ! read Virgil and studied geometry, and with him began the study of Greek. While Maj. Pettibone was at Hiram College, Gen. Garfield wrote a drama entitled. " Burr and Blennerhassett," which was enacted with Pettibone as " Burr," and Mrs. Garfield as " Mrs. Blen nerhassett."

He next entered the University of Michigan, spent four years there, during which time he took a long course in history under Andrew D. White, and gradu- ated in 1859; studied law eighteen months with Hon. Jonathan E. Arnold, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then the great lawyer of the Northwest ; was admitted to the bar at Jefferson, Wisconsin, January, 18GT, by Judge Harlow Orton, recently chief justice of Wisconsin, and entered on the practice at LaCrosse.

In 1861, he entered the Federal army as a private in company B, Nineteenth Wisconsin infantry; was pro- moted to sergeant, but soon after was appointed by Gov. Ed. Salomon to recruit for the Twentieth Wisconsin regiment ; was mustered in as second lieutenant; pro- moted to captain of company A, and at Vicksburg, just before the surrender, was promoted to major and served the rest of the war in that capacity ; saw service in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Alabama; participated in the battles of Prairie Grove; siege of Vicksburg; operations on the Atcha- falya, in Louisiana; capture of Brownsville, Texas; siege of Fort Morgan ; battle of Pascagoula, and siege of Spanish Fort, before Mobile. He was mustered out at New Orleans, June, 1865. He was twice wounded; served on courts-martial several times, and for several months commanded his regiment.

The war over, he settled at Greeneville, Tennessee, as a lawyer, where he has continued to reside ever since.

In polities, Maj. Pettibone was a Whig and is now a Republican. In 1867-GS, he was an alderman of Greeneville; was presidential elector for the First con- gressional district of Tennessee on the Grant and Col- fax electoral ticket, in IS68; was elected attorney- general for the First judicial circuit of Tennessee, in 1869-70; was assistant United States district attorney for the eastern district of Tennessee from 1871 to 1880; was elector for the State-at- large on the Hayes and Wheeler ticket in 1876; was a candidate for Congress in 1878, but was defeated by Hon. Robert L. Taylor ; was elected to Congress in 1880, re-elected in 1882, and again in 1884, his majorities increasing at every election.

In Congress, he was always on the committee on elections-one of the most laborious committees of the house. Of his twenty-five speeches, made while a member, two were eulogies, one on Gen. Burnside, which has been embodied in Ben. Perley Poore's " Life of Burnside," and one on Dudley Haskell -- model eulogia, remarkable for their difficult combinations of historie reference, differentiation of personality, and choice language, which only a trained thinker can com

mand. In the Forty-seventh Congress, Maj. Pettib led the light in having Chalmers, of Mississippi, ) out, and in the Forty-eighth Congress led the fight m having him put in. He gave his best efforts for educa- tional interests, working for the Blair bill, for internal improvements (river and harbor); and for a protective tariff, and though not often on his feet, won the name of a good worker for his constituents.

In 1860, Maj. Pettibone became a Mason at Palmyra, and is now a member of Greeneville. Royal Arch Chap- ter; is an Odd Fellow ; member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, and a member of the Christian .? church, which he joined in 1853. He frequently de- livers lectures and addresses to colleges, on commence- ment occasions, on various literary topics. As a lawyer, either as prosecutor or defender, he has had twenty- seven murder cases.

Maj. Pettibone is five feet eleven inches high ; weighs one hundred and fifty-five pounds, is very active, lithe, quick spoken, and his leading characteristic is patent- pluck and energy, or rather personal courage, intellec- tual, moral and physical. Naturally he is brave, and by culture, a courageous man. He has been a hard student all his life. He knows what a dollar is worth ; never incurs a debt he does not intend to pay ; in busi- ness matters is prompt and faithful to the last letter; is against repudiation in every possible form-individ- ual, municipal or State; began life without a dollar, and is now, financially, among the solid men of East Tennessee. the result of industry, economy and busi- ness integrity.

Maj. Pettibone married first at Twinsburg, Ohio, September 10, 1863, Miss Sarah Young, daughter of Hezekiah Young, a farmer. She died in 1867.

He next married at Rogersville, Tennessee, July 16, 1868. Miss Mary Speck, daughter of Thos. J. Speck, a merchant tailor, once associated with ex-President Andrew Johnson. Her mother, Mary Russell, was a daughter of Russell. a soldier with Gen. Jack- son in the war of 1812. Mrs. Pettibone graduated from Rogersville Female College, in 1859; is a highly edu -. cated and elegant lady, and it is believed no human being has ever spoken an evil word of her, because she speaks evil of no one. Her expression is that of good- ness, grace and graciousness, and sprightliness. By this marriage, Maj. Pettibone has one child, Herman, born at Greeneville, October 2, 1875, and under his father's direction is an exceptionally gifted reader for a youth, is an indomitable student of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Macauley, Bancroft and kindred authors-a talent which he seems to have inherited from his grandfather Petti- bone.

Maj. Pettibone has been a delegate to all the Repub- lican State conventions in Tennessee, from 1870 to 1885. In 1884, he was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago, and espoused the cause of Mr. Blaine, who has long been his warm personal friend.

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

297

JOHN R. BUIST, M. D.

NASHVILLE.

T' ILE Buist family name is French, and was origi nally De Buest ; but the ancestors of the subject of this biographical sketch moved to Scotland, in the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, where the " De" was dropped and the name became Buist.

Dr. John R. Buist was born in Charleston. South Carolina, February 13, 1834, and graduated in literature from the South Carolina College, at Columbia, in the year 1854. After studying medicine two years at the Charleston Medical College. under Profs. Geddings. Diekson. Frost and Moultrie, he entered the medical department of the University of New York, whence he graduated M. D., in March, 1857, under Profs. Paine, Metcalf, Draper and Mott. He served as interne fifteen months, 1857-8, in Bellevue Hospital, New York, Hle next attended medical lectures in the University of Edinburg, Scotland, during the winter of 1858-9. In the latter year he went to. Paris, France, and was a stu- dent under the celebrated Trousseau, Nelaton. and other distinguished professors. In January, 1560, he settled at Nashville, Tennessee, and began practice. In May, 1861, the war having broken out, he was appointed assistant surgeon of the First Tennessee regiment, Con- federate States army, but was promoted surgeon, May, 1862, and assigned to the Fourteenth Tennessee regi- ment, Col. Forbes, of Clarksville, commanding, and in a few months was again promoted, this time to brigade surgeon, and transferred to Gen. George Maney's Ten- nessee brigade, under Gen. Bragg, with which he con- tinued until the close of the war.

During the time of his connection with Maney's brigade, Dr. Buist was chief surgical operator in Gen. Frank Cheatham's division. He was present at the battles of Shiloh, the seven days' battles around Rich- mond, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Perryville, Johnson's retreat from Dalton, and at the battle of Franklin, in all of which he had the very arduous duties of a surgeon to perform. Several of Dr. Buist's more difficult surgical operations in the army, together with his views as to the proper treatment of wounded soldiers, both in transita and in hospitals, are re- corded in the "Surgical History of the War," by Surgeon- Gen. Woodward, of the United States army.

Dr. Buist was left in charge of the Confederate wounded at Perryville, Kentucky, after Gen. Bragg's retreat. in October, 1862, and remained with them until February, 1863. . After the battle of Nashville, in De- cember, 1864, he was taken prisoner at Franklin, while in charge of the wounded of Gen. Hood's army, and was detained a prisoner at Nashville, Louisville and Fort Delaware, in all three months. He rejoined the army in North Carolina, and surrendered at Greensbor ough, under Gen, Joseph E. Johnston.

After the surrender he went to Richmond, in June, 1865, and in the senate chamber took the oath of alle- giance to the United States. Returning to Nashville. he formed a partnership and practiced medicine one year with Dr. R. C. Foster, son of Hon. Ephraim H. Foster, formerly United States senator from Tennessee. Dr. Foster retiring, he next formed a partnership with Dr. John H. Callender, which continued until Dr. Callen- der was elected superintendent of the Tennesssee Hospital for the Insane, in 1869. Since that date, Dr. Buist has practiced alone, giving his undivided atten- tion to private- practice, except when engaged in the sanitary affairs of the city of Nashville, he being a member of the city board of health from its foundation in 1874, to June, 1880. He was at times both secretary and president of the board. He was active in the dis- charge of his duties through the cholera epidemics of 1866 and 1873, and a member of the board of health during the exciting times of the threatened yellow fever epidemies of 1878-79.

He was also professor of oral surgery for three suc- cessive sessions, from 1879 to 1883, in the dental depart- ment of Vanderbilt University, but retired in the spring of 1883, on account of the arduous duties of his increas- ing private practice.

Dr. Buist is a member of the Edinborough, Scotland, Medical College Society; the State Medical Society of Tennessee, and the City Medical Society of Nashville. In personal appearance Dr. Buist is of medium height and weight, is compactly built, has light gray eyes, and the mild, benevolent face of the typical physician. He is modest and quiet in demeanor, but a gentleman of culture, rare social attainments and of great popularity.

Dr. Buist married in Nashville. July 3, 1876, Miss Laura Woodfolk, a great beauty and a reigning belle. She is the daughter of Gen. W. W. Woodfolk, of a lead- ing North . Carolina family. Her grandfather, Maj. William Woodfolk, of Jackson county, Tennessee, was a pioneer of that section, and a large planter and influ- ential man. Gen. Woodfolk, her father, was a member of the Legislature from Jackson county; served on Gov. Carroll's staff ; was a man of fine ability and large fortune, being one of the richest men in Tennessee when the war broke out. Mrs. Buist's mother, are Ellen Horton, was a daughter of Joseph W. Horton, a sheriff, county court clerk and otherwise prominent in the early history of Davidson county. Mrs. Buist was educated at the famousold Nashville Female Academy, under Rev. Dr. C. D. Elliott. By this marriage Dr. Buist has one child, a son, William Edward Buist. born Do- comber 27, 1871. Dr. Buist and wife are both members of the Presbyterian church.

Born and raised in South Carolina. Dr. Buist has

298

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

always affiliated with the Democratic party, and in Ten- nessee polities is a very ardent State credit man, abhor- ring repudiation; but is catholic in feelings and views, and too independent to be called a strict party man.

Financially, Dr. Buist, after losing his all in the war, has accumulated a comfortable property. His success in life, in point of character and usefulness, he has been heard to say, is due to his father, a Presbyterian divine and a great thinker, having profound views upon the subject of education, considering the style of education then existing in books, schools and colleges as in the main failures. His views on education were, that in the first place the physical, intellectual, and moral man should be all cultivated and trained in harmony; that health of body, mind and heart constitute the perfec- tion of character. With such views, the plan he put in practice in his own family was, living on a farm, making his children work in all departments of the farm, teaching them that manual labor is honorable; instruct- ing them himself at home, with the aid of books, he imparted to them what he thought much more impor- tant than what is contained in books. the impress of his own mind and character. He taught them that the object of their intellectual culture was to think for them- selves ; to recognize truth and to hold to it ; that virtue and religion are one, and that without these no educa- tion is complete. On these principles Dr. Buist's edu- tion was conducted from infancy to the time of his leav- ing the paternal mansion, in 1855, at the age of twenty- one. These are the grounds of his success, both as a physician and a man. He belongs neither to the Bour- bon nor to the progressive school of medicine, so-called, but is essentially conservative, believing in progress, but progressing slowly, and changing only after due experimentation and observation.

Dr. Buist's father, Rev. Edward T. Buist, D. D .. grad- uated, in 1827, from the Charleston, South Carolina, Col- lege, and from Princeton Seminary in 1832, under Profs. Alexander and Miller. He supplied churches in and

around Charleston for several years, and then located at Greeneville, South Carolina, where he was success- ively pastor of the congregations of Nazareth, Fairview, Mt. Tabor and Greeneville churches. He was for several years president of the Laurensville Female College ; a very popular preacher wherever he went, a man of general information, well read on almost every subject, with wonderfully attractive powers of conver- sation. His predominant traits of character were his love of truth, his catholicity of spirit, and loyalty to his own convictions. He made it a point to love truth for its own sake, and not merely for personal relations to it. lle died in 1878, at the agd of sixty-eight.

Dr. Buist's grandfather, Rev. George Buist, D. D., a native Scotchman, graduated from the University of Edinborough, and was sent to Charleston. South Caro- lina, in 1792, to fill the Scotch Presbyterian church at that place, and was its pastor up to the time of his death, in 1808. He was president of the Charleston College for many years, and reputed to be one of the most thorough scholars and able preachers of his day. He-left four sons, all of whom became eminent in pro- fissional life.

Dr. Buist's mother, nee Margaret Robinson, born in Charleston, South Carolina, was, on her father's side, Scotch-Irish, and on her mother's side of French Huguenot extraction, Her father, John Robinson, was a cotton commission merchant and banker at Charleston all his life. Her mother was Susan Thomas, daughter of a Huguenot exile from France. Dr. Buist's mother died in 1849, leaving two children : (1). John R. Buist, subject of this sketch. (2). Edward Somers Buist ; graduated at the University of Virginia in 1856; studied medicine in 1859-60, first at Charleston and then at New York, and graduated as an M. D., just before the break- ing out of hostilities; entered the Confederate service and was killed at the bombardment of Fort Walker ou Hilton Head, in October. 1861, while operating upon a wounded soldier.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 65

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