Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 67

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

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Mrs. Rodgers was educated at Knoxville, is a Pres- byterian, and is notably domestic in her ways and habits. By his marriage with Miss .McMullin, Dr. Rodgers has ten children : (1). Isabella, wife of M. C. Wilcox, who came to Knoxville from Ohio in the Federal army. They are now living at Mt. Airy, Georgia, (2), Thomas, a druggist at Knoxville; married Miss Lucie White, and has six children, James, Margaret, Charles, Cowan,

Flora and Don. (3). James, in mercantile life in St. Louis; married Miss Lillian Branner, in Knoxville, and has two children, George and Ruth. (1). Samuel, graduated in medicine in Vanderbilt University, Nash- ville; now practicing at Mt. Airy, Georgia. (5). Charles, in the drug business, at. Knoxville. (6). Wal- lace, farming in Knox county; married Miss Jewie Jackson, has three children, Lizzie, Rose and Jewic. (7). Anna, wife of E. G. Oats. (S). Hugh, died in infancy. (9). Hugh (second), in merenntile business at Knoxville. (10). Lillie, a young lady now at home.

Since 1832, Dr. Rodgers has lived a Christian life, with Presbyterian strictness, trained his children in the ways of godliness, and has lived to see them all, from the oldest to the youngest, baptized into the Presbyte- rian church, thus achieving the greatest success a father can accomplish. He never took a chew of tobacco, was never intoxicated, does not know one playing card from another, never had a light, and having the universal esteem and confidence of his city, where he has lived sixty-six years, and of which he is a representative phy- sician, he is presented to the distinguished company whose biographies fill this volume as a standard Ten- nessee man.

J. J. HARRISON, M.D.

LOUDON.

T HE Harrison family is of Scotch-Irish stock, the ancestors of this branch coming to America from " Auld Scotia's flinty glebe." Dr. Harrison's grand- father, John Harrison, moved from Virginia to East Tennessee, at an early day in the settlement of that section. He married Miss Susan Jackson, in Roane county, and by her had only one child, James F. Harri- son (father of the subject of this sketch), who was born near Loudon, in 1809; raised on a farm ; read medicine under Dr. Tom Anderson : attended one course of lee- tures in Washington City; graduated at Lexington, Kentucky, and located at. London, where he had an extensive practice until his death, in 1861. He was a very positive, determined man, and upright in all his dealings and transactions in life; was an elder in the Presbyterian church; born and raised a Whig ; sympa. thized with the southern cause, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity.

Dr. Harrison's mother, nee Miss Sarah D. Merrick, was born in New Orleans; was educated in Roane county ; was a member of the Presbyterian church, and noted for her overflowing hospitality, and a charity limited only by her means and opportunities for doing good. She died from the effect of injuries received in being thrown from a buggy at Red Clay, Georgia in

1859, at the age of forty-six, and left three sous and two daughters: (1). John Henry Harrison, who be- came a captain in the Confederate armis, and was killed at the battle of Piedmont. (2). Josiah J. Harrison, subject of this sketch. (3). James M. Harrison, died at Huntsville, Alabama, of heart disease. (4). Rachel Susannah Harrison, widow successively of Dr. R. W. Adams and George W. Mayo. (5). Sarah Adaline Har- rison, now wife of John B. Metthee, of Monroe county, Tennessee, nephew of C. M. Methee, of Knoxville.

Dr. Harrison was born in Roane (now Loudon) county, Tennessee, February 13, 1834, and there grew up, working on his father's farm, and going to school in the winter months. He commenced the study of medi- eine when eighteen years of age, under his father at Loudon ; attended the medical department of the Uni- versity of Nashville two sessions, and graduated in the winter of 1853-1 under Profs. W. K. Bowling, A. H. Buchanan, Paul F. Eve, C. K. Winston, J. Berrien Lindsley, John M. Watson, and Robert M. Porter. In IS5 the located at Loudon, associated in practice with his father, and in 1858 returned and took another course in the University of Nashville. He has had a successful practice ever since including an extensive surgical practice. He was a contract surgeon in the

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Confederate service for a while during the war, but be- ing in bad health during that time, was exempted from military duty.

Dr. Harrison became a Mason at Loudon, in 1855; has taken all the Chapter, Council and Commandery degrees, and has been Master of his lodge eighteen years He has passed all the chairs of Odd Fellowship ; has served as Dictator of the Knights of Honor; is an . elder in the Presbyterian church, and served as dele- gate in presbytery and synod. Although raised a Whig by a Whig father, he is now a Democrat ; has been an alderman, and served as delegate to the county and State conventions of the Democracy.

Dr. Harrison first married. in Loudon county, in 1863, Miss Lizzie M. Abbott, daughter of R. IL. Abbott, of a Virginia family. Her mother was a Miss Pepper, also of Virginia. Mrs. Harrison died in 1866, at Hunts- ville, Alabama, to which place Dr. Harrison had re- moved. She left one child, Miss Lula May Harrison, born in London county, June 22, 1864, and graduated at Shorter College, Rome, Georgia, in 1883.

Dr. Harrison's second marriage, which occurred at Loudon, in 1870, was with Miss Mary B. McCray. daughter of Gen. Thomas HI. MeCray, a native of Mon- roe county, Tennessee. When the war broke out Mrs. Harrison's father, who was then living in Texas, raised

a regiment for the Confederate army, and afterwards became a brigadier-general. Her mother, nee Miss Angeline Galbreth, was a daughter of Rev. John T.3 Galbreth, a Methodist preacher. Mrs. Harrison is the elder of two children. Her sister, Alice MeCray, is now the wife of John Cole, a farmer in Monroe county. Tennessee. Mrs. Harrison was educated in Bishop Pierce's school in Georgia, and is a Presbyterian. Her crowning characteristic is to make home home-like and comfortable, and to raise her children correctly. She has won the reputation of being a kind and devoted step-mother, showing no partiality as between her step- daughter and her own children. She has borne Dr. Harrison seven children, all born in Loudon : Frank Rhea, Henry M., Fannie A., Joe J., Thomas H., Em- mett M., and John MeGhee.

Dr. Harrison has made a success in life by self-reli- ance and self-exertion. His father had accumulated some property, consisting of lands and negroes, most of which was swept away by the war, or went to pay secu- rity debts. This left his children to begin life where he began it-on about nothing. Dr. Harrison, there- fore, has made what he now possesses by faithful and constant attention to his profession, to which he has exclusively devoted his time, his talents and his in- fluence.

ANSON NELSON.

NASHVILLE.

T' "THIS gentleman appears in this volume of " Promi uent Tennesseans " without a title, but as he has a reputation for honesty as wide as that of any man in the State, the author is half-tempted to style him, Anson Nelson, the Honest. Not that he is more honest than any other honest man, but because his uniform and undeviating integrity and faithfulness in the many important private and public trusts he has held has caused him to be universally recognized as a conscien tions, faithful and punctual man from inborn principle. and which has given him the unlimited confidence of the people of Tennessee, and especially of the city of Nashville, who would readily avouch that Aristides of Athens was not more worthy the title of " Aristides the Just," than is this beloved citizen of the " Athens of the South " worthy to be called Anson Nelson, the Honest.

He was tax-collector of the city of Nashville from 1853 to 1862, eight years, and city treasurer of Nashville from October, 1869, to November, 1883, fourteen years, making twenty-two years of public service, and in these capacities handled and disbursed more than fifteen millions of dollars, requiring his signature to coupons

or checks more than two hundred thousand times, and no paper bearing his personal or official signature has ever been protested or thrown out of bank or unpaid when due on demand. In all this immense business with officials and private individuals, it is said no com- plaint has been heard, either on account of delay or incorrectness of settlement. For this great-indeed, fearful -- responsibility, he had to give bond in the sum of from fifty thousand to seventy-five thousand dollars, while receiving a salary of only from one thousand five hundred dollars to two thousand dollars per annum.

In his manners Mr. Nelson is modest and deferential, even to apparent diffidence; but when duty or honor demands he is self-assertive and unflinchingly faithful over the many things entrusted to him. The net re- sules of his life clearly show that he is not honest from policy, but because he loves to do right for right's sake.

After so long a time in the service of the public, in 1883, Mr. Nelson determined to retire from office, a step he had long contemplated, and in the following address " To the People of Nashville," returned to them, with clean hands and unsullied name. the trust they had 1

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imposed upon him : "It has become generally known that I am not a candidate for re-election to the office of city treasurer, or an applicant for any official position. The new reform movement. just starting. gives me an excellent opportunity to step alle and pursue atothe: calling, after two or three months of necessary rest. This fact was known to the present members of the city council -several days ago, and is not a new or sudden de- cision. More than a year ago I made up my mind to retire from office, and two or three times I was on the point of resigning, but was prevailed upon to postpone the matter, when, finally, I concluded to fill out my term. My decision not again to run for the office was known to a few friends many months ago, and has noth- ing whatever to do with the recent election or its results.

" And now it is proper for me to say to the good peo- ple of this city that I feel, as I have felt for years past, the profoundest gratitude to them for long continued favors, and for their unwavering and unabated friend- ship. For fourteen years past I have held the office of city treasurer, without a break or interruption. Before the war I was tax-collector for over eight years, which makes more than twenty-two years of municipal service. This is unusual, almost without precedent. and I am doubly thankful for these home honors, and for such continued manifestations of public confidence. I was voted for by members of the city council, year after year, with a unanimity that was almost surprising. Democrats and Whigs, Republicans and anti-Republi- cans, temperance men and anti-temperance men, white men and colored, and men of all shades of opinion in politics and religion, have cheerfully and uniformly sup- ported me, believing it to be their duty to their cou- stituents. I never had an opponent for either office, except upon a single occasion, and then the opposition was very slight.

"My accounts have been examined annually by com- petent committees, and passed upon as correct. For the last year this has not been done, but soon will be. No blunder or mistake has ever been made, so far as I know or believe, save two or three clerical errors, of minor importance, which were easily corrected. My. books have been accurately kept, and they are simple and easily understood. The business of the city treas urer is to receive money and pay out the same according to law, and, until about two years ago, to report monthly to the city council, in detail, all receipts and expendi- tures. This was done every month until the office of city auditor was created, when it was made his duty to so report. He has done so ever since. Numbers of men, as part of the finance committee, have gone over my books, and, I am proud to say, have always found them to be correct. The city, however, had a regular book-keeper in its employ until the creation of the office of city auditor, who now performs the duty.

" I have handled, on an average, about half a million 39

of dollars annually. I have been under bond for about fifty thousand dollars all the time, and was fortunate enough always to obtain good names, without applying to those that I thought would ask in return pecuniary rivers of thesor the city. The I bors of my office, as every one knows, are responsible and arduous, and I trust my successor will be better remunerated for his work than I have been. My salary has been compara- tively small.

"It is unnecessary for me to say that I wish the new form of government complete success. The system ] believe to be a good one, and it ought to succeed. I greatly desire the prosperity of all the people of this good and growing city; and with grateful thanks to all, I am, respectfully, ANSON NELSON.'

This determination on Mr. Nelson's part met with universal regret-the people felt they had sustained an almost irreparable loss, while the press, of all shades of political complexion, bore willing testimony to his un- blemished record. The American, in it editorial col- ums, said: "There are few, if any, who will read the card of Anson Nelson, Esq., published in to-day's Amer- ican, without regretting his announced intention to retire from the management of the city's financial affairs. If there is one man in Nashville, who, above all others, is respected by every class of the community for his sterling honesty, faithful service in the public interest, and high Christian character, that man is Mr. Nelson. As stated in his card, his intention has not been hastily formed. It was certainly not based upon the idea that he would not be retained by the new city council. On the contrary, there is ample authority for stating that, had he been disposed to hold the office longer, he would have been unanimously re-elected. Capable, honest and experienced public servants like him are but too rarely found in these days, and it is a matter of regret that the reform goverment is not to have the benefit of his skill and sagacity as a financial officer."

The Nashville morning World, of the same date, con- tained the following : " Mr. Anson Nelson, after serv- ing the city in the capacity of treasurer for fourteen years, makes the announcement that he will no longer be a candidate for any office. He says it is no sudden notion, but that he intended, and would have retired long ago, had not his friends urged him to continue. Six months ago he again fully concluded to retire, the duties of the office confining him so closely, and had gone so far as to draw up his resignation, but again his friends urged him to continue, on the ground that it would be very difficult to get a man who would be will- ing to give a fifty thousand dollar bond for that length of time. Ile says he has now fully determined to no longer seek official position: For fourteen years he has been the choice of the people, through the board of aldermen, and is the only city official, with the excep- tion of Capt. Stockell, who has been honored success-

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ively for so long a period, now in office. Before the war, Mr. Nelson served as revenue collector over eight years, and never had any opposition for either treasurer or collector, except on one occasion. As treasurer, Mr. Nelson has handled over half a million dollars a year, making about fifteen millions during the fourteen years in office. His bond has been variously fixed at from thirty thousand dollars to seventy-five thousand dollars, which he has never had any trouble in making. The bond at the present time is fifty thousand dollars. His accounts have been passed on annually by an auditing committee, with the exception of the past year, which will be done in a few days. In retiring from the office he desires to tender his profound gratitude to all the members of all councils during the time he has served, and to the citizens of Nashville, for the continued con- fidence and honor shown him."

The evening Bunner said : "The announcement that Mr. Anson Nelson has determined to retire from the service of the city, is received with regret as deep as it is universal. For fourteen years he has faithfully dis- charged the duties of treasurer, receiving and disburs- ing millions of dollars, and during that long period not one word of criticism of his official action has been uttered. His close attention to business and his affa- bility toward all with whom he has come in contact, wou for him the hearty commendation and the good will of his fellow-officials, the conductors of the goverment and the general public. . Wearied with years of con- stant toil, Mr. Nelson will shortly give up his posi- tion and take a rest, to which he is justly entitled, and which his friends hope will be full of enjoyment. It is his intention to resume work in another sphere sev- eral months hence, and we cordially join the citizens of this city in wishing him the greatest success."

The Artisan contained the following tribute, which but reflects the love and sentiments of thousands of his fellow-citizens : " As a rule the resignation of a public official (a very rare occurrence) is no loss to the public service, but occasionally there is a very marked excep- tion. One of these is the resignation of Anson Nelson, as city treasurer. His experience and knowledge of that office would have been of very great value to the new government, and his example as an honest and upright financier, of inestimable worth. For twenty- two consecutive years he has served this city, eight as collector, and fourteen as treasurer, and but for his refusal, would have continued to do so as long as his life was spared to us. Except once, his election from time to time has been unanimous, and that time the opposition was but trifling ; his unblemished integrity, genuine truth and uprightness, and eminent fitness, were such that no one ever ventured to suggest a change, and after all these years of service and handling of public funds, he retires from office without the slightest taint on his character, or a breath of suspicion attached to him, and without a dollar that the strictest or most sus

picious could intimate was not justly or righteously his own. Of what immense value in these times of specu- lation and shortage is such a record; such a financial career and such a record is worth as an example, and a 1 beacon to the young business men, more than a thousand sermons or essays on honesty and integrity. We trust, we may long continue to meet him and his good wife- one of the very few mated, and not merely matched, couples in this world -- in our daily walk, and that for many, very many years, they may together reap the hap- piness of a well-spent life, and well-earned comforts, and that far distant may be the time when either will. be called to mourn for the other, or to vainly long for

' The touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still.' "'

Mr. Nelson was born in Washington county, Tennes- . see, November 19, 1821, and spent the first seven years of his life in the " Hiawassee Purchase," now McMinn county, and at Maryville, and his next twelve years at Knoxville. When only ten years old he entered the office of Maj. F. S. Heiskell's Knoxville Register to learn the printer's business. Among the boys employed at that time in the same establishment were others who afterwards became prominent men : Gen. F. K. Molli- coffer, Midshipman Harrell, William Fields (editor of Fields' Scrap Book) and William Clayton, of Alabama.

Having completed his apprenticeship and become a full- fledged journeyman printer at Knoxville, Mr. Nel- son went to Nashville, in 1840, and soon after took charge of the Nashville Whig as foreman, In 1849, he bought the Daily Gazette and established a job office in connection with it, publishing by contract the Pres- byterian Record and the Western Boatman. He pur- chased the Tennessee Organ and edited that paper in the interest of temperance, as advocated by the Sons of Temperance, of which order he was elected Grand Treasurer, and subsequently filled all the higher offices of that organization. But the general public had need of his energetic and reliable services, and, as before stated, from 1853 to 1862, he was, by successive elec- tions, revenue collector of the city of Nashville. From 1864 to 1869, he engaged in the real estate business. When Hon. John M. Bass became receiver of the cor- poration of Nashville, which had just been rescued from a plundering band of irresponsibles who drifted to Nashville during the war, Mr. Nelson was appointed to take charge of the city tax books. In October, 1869, he was elected treasurer of the city by the new council, and held the office continuously until November 16, 1883.

In 1855, he was elected recording secretary of the Tennessee Historical Society, and has held that office ever since. In 1880, the society had his portrait painted and hung in the library room of the State capitol, in appreciation of his services as their secretary for twenty-five years.

At the organization of the Mt. Olivet Cemetery com-

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pany, in 1855-the principal burying ground of the city -he was elected a director of the company and is still a director. He was instrumental in building the South Nashville street railroad, in 1865-the first street rail- way in Nashville-and was president of the company the first year of its existence. He was a director in the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad company for three years, under the administration of Hon. M. Burns, its president, and was one of the executive committee for the term of his directorship. He was a director of the Second National Bank of Nashville. in 1865-6. He was one of the board of managers of the city's Centen- nial Exposition, in 1880, and prepared and had read by W. K. McAllister, jr., esq., a sketch of the history of Nashville for its first one hundred years. That sketch, with the author's addenda, was deposited in the corner- stone of Wesley Hall, at Vanderbilt University, in 1881. A Statistical View of Nashville, a magazine article by Mr. Nelson, was deposited in the corner-stone of the State Capitol, in 1845. Ile is vice-president of Good- man's business college, Nashville, and for thirty years, has been one of the business advisers of Mrs. ex-Presi- dent James K. Polk.

For forty two years Mr. Nelson has been a member of the Baptist church, for twenty-seven years one of its deacons, and was for four years its Sunday-school su- perintendent-during the war.

In 1847, he became a Master Mason, and has taken all the degrees up to and including Knighthood. For many years he has been treasurer of Phoenix Lodge, No. 131, Nashville, and has served as Warden in the lodge, and as King in the chapter. He is also a mem- ber of the Royal Arcanum.

He was an old line Whig until that party ceased to exist, but since the war, has co-operated with the Democrats. He was a delegate, in 1857, from Davidson county, to the State convention that nominated Gen. Robert Hatton for governor.

Mr. Nelson first married, in Knoxville, February 18, 1840, Miss Eliza Ann Grady, a native of Hawkins county, Tennessee, daughter of John Grady, a farmer, of a Virginia family. She was a handsome woman, of 1 intelligence and strong convictions, and a member of the Baptist church. She died at Nashville, February 1, 1866, leaving one son, Henry, born in Nashville, No- vember 20, 1844; educated at the Nashville high school ; was at one time auditor of the Nashville and Chatta. nooga railroad, and previously a clerk for the Adams Express company ; married Miss Henrietta Cheney, daughter of II. J. Cheney, and maternal granddaughter of Col. Samuel D. Morgan, the noted wholesale mer- chant of Nashville. He died December 12, 1879.

Mr. Nelson's next marriage, which occurred August 6, 1868, was with the lovely Miss Fannie Dickinson Howell, eldest daughter of Rev. Robert Boyte C. Howell, D. D., the famous pastor of the First Baptist church, of Nashville. She was born December 29,

1838; educated at Nashville and Richmond, Virginia, and is a spirited lady, graceful in person and manner, and noted for being a fluent and elegant writer, having contributed articles, occasionally, both prose and poetry, to the newspapers and magazines. She reads French and German, understands music thoroughly, and is a very devoted member of the Baptist church. In the ladies' weekly devotional meetings of that church, she is a leader, and has been for several years past. In the Sunday-school she is also a teacher, having a class of some fifteen young men-clerks and students in the normal and dental and other schools of the city, they attending that class on account of her intellectual vigor and high culture. Withal, she is a thoroughly domes- tic woman.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 67

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