Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 8

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

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He was a Whig before the war, and was never a candidate for political office except in 1861, when he was elected as a Union delegate to the constitutional convention by the counties of Maury and Williamson ; but the convention never met, being voted down by the people.

Since the war Judge Hughes has been a Republican, and has attended nearly all the State conventions of his party, and received many ballots for nomination as Republican candidate for governor in the convention of 1881. He attended as an alternate the convention at Cincinnati which nominated Mr. Hayes for president.

Educated by Methodist parents, he joined the Pres- byterian church about 1818, all his associations from the time that he first went to Columbia having been Presbyterians.

He became a Mason at Columbia about 1837-38, and is a Knight Templar. He has been three several times Grand Master of the State of Tennessee, and is the oldest grand master in it. He has been twice Grand

High Priest of the State of Tennessee. He belongs to no other secret associations.

In the practice of his profession Judge Hughes has been financially successful, having built up a handsome fortune by his own unaided exertions; he has given his children a fine education, which he considers the best fortune he could give them.

His methods in the conduct of life, as pursued by himself' and enjoined upon his children, are strict veracity and the avoidance of dissipation. He never made anything by speculation or by any other means than the practice of his profession. The highest fee he ever received was fifteen hundred dollars. The best part of his life has been spent before juries, either as prosecuting attorney or in private practice. While attorney-general he did his best to convict the guilty, but never used his influence to persecute anybody, be- lieving it to be as much his duty to let the innocent go free as to convict the guilty. In one instance a female, indicted on a criminal charge, was, as he thought, insufficiently defended, and believing her innocent, instead of continuing the prosecution, he addressed the court in favor of her discharge, which was granted by Judge Dillahunty with a high compliment to the attor- ney-general.

Judge Hughes has been twice married, the two ladies being first cousins.

. His first marriage was in Bedford county, Tennessee, in 1836; the lady was Miss Sarah G., daughter of Thomas B. Moseley, a successful farmer of a Virginia family. Her mother was Rebecca Martin, daughter of Capt. Matt. Martin, now deceased. The first Mrs. Hughes' grandmother was sister of Rachel Clay, and own cousin of Henry Clay, of Kentucky,

By his first marriage, Judge Hughes has had two children: (1). Rebecca, who died in her thirteenth year. (2.) Sarah, graduated at the Columbia Female Institute, and is still living. .

The first Mrs. Hughes died in 1843, leaving behind her an enviable reputation as possessing a character of high moral elevation and all the accomplishments of a finished lady.

His second marriage took place in Bedford county, December 14, 1811, the lady being Miss Mattie B., daughter of Col. John L. Neill, who was in the war of 1812, captured December 23, and a prisoner till after the battle of New Orleans in 1815. Her mother and the mother of the first Mrs. Hughes were sisters, both being daughters of Capt. Matt. Martin, mentioned ' above.

By his second marriage the Judge has five children living: (1). A. M. Hughes, jr. ; educated at Sidney, Ohio; is a lawyer by profession, and resides at Colum- bia. (2). William Neill Hughes, educated at Earlham, Indiana; is a lieutenant in the Thirteenth infantry, United States army, appointed from civil life. (3). Edmond D. Hughes, educated at the University of

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Tennessee, Knoxville ; late deputy collector of internal revenue for Middle Tennessee. . (4). James White Hughes, graduate of the University of Tennessee; now in the engineer's department of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad. (5). Alice, graduated from the Columbia Female Institute, and now living.

The present Mrs. Hughes is a Presbyterian, a lady of great force of character, a model housekeeper, noted for her liberality and charity to the poor.

The foundation of the American branch of the Hughes family was the settlement of three brothers of the name near Richmond, Virginia, about the middle of the eighteenth century. It is believed that all the Hugheses in the southern States are their descendants. One of these is Judge Hughes of the Federal court in Virginia.

Judge Hughes' brothers are: (1). Samuel Hughes, half brother, of Surrey county, North Carolina, father of Powell Hughes, a United States marshal in Virginia. (2). John F. Hughes, a presiding elder in the Method- ist Episcopal church, of which he has been a member

since boyhood. (3). William H. Hughes, a Methodist preacher since twenty years old.

The father of Judge Hughes was William Hughes, a native of Virginia; the family are of Welsh descent, remarkable for their longevity, as the following table will show :

NAME.

RELATIONSHIP.

Aseat

Death.

Mary Dalton

Paternal grandmother

- Dalton

Paternal great aunt .....

Dalton

Paternal great aunt.

William Hughes

Father

Naney Stoval.

Paternal aunt

Mrs. Fulkerson

Paternal aunt

Sallie Martin

Aunt, still alive at ninety ..

Matilda Dillard

Aunt

John Ilughes ..

Unele

Madison R. Hughes

Uncle

Archelaus Hughes

"Uncle, over

Samuel M. Hughes.

Unele

Reuben Hughes.

Unele

GEN. E. KIRBY SMITH.

SEWANEE.

T HIE University of the South, at Sewanee, on the Cumberland plateau of Tennessee, is now the peaceful home of the military chieftain whose name stands at the head of this section. The visitor, who seeks with interest there the retired veteran of a life-long mili -. tary service, naturally looks for the curt and peremptory speech, the erect figure and formal gait accepted as the characteristic expression of the retired military officer. No contrast could be greater than that of the reality with this fancied sketch. What we see when we visit his cottage home is a jovial middle-aged country gen- tleman who, at first sight, seems to have no object in life but that of making the world pleasant to himself and his neighbors. Even this second impression, how ever, will meet with further correction upon further acquaintance, for beneath that genial exterior, lies a stern sense of duty and a profound religious conviction, the characteristics of a man who, throughout his life, has done and suffered much for what he believed to be the cause of right and truth. But the character of such a man cannot be described in a paragraph ; it has to be ascertained by a study of his life.

Edmund Kirby Smith was born at St. Augustine, Florida, in May, 1824. His father had been an officer in the United States army, but had retired, become a lawyer, and was appointed judge of the Federal courts in the Florida territory, which office he was filling at the time of our hero's birth, He lived at his birth-

place till he was ten years old, when, his father having been sent to Congress from Florida, he was sent to the famous Hallowell school, at Alexandria, Virginia. Here he studied for six years, when, obtaining an ap- pointment at West Point, he completed his course there and graduated in the class of 1845, with Fitz-John Porter, C. P. Stone, W. F. Smith, B. E. Bee, Gordon Granger, D. B. Sacket, and many other officers subse- quently distinguished in both armies.

The record of his military achievements in two great wars and an Indian campaign cannot be given here; they are spread on the page of history wherever the tri- mphs and calamities of the Mexican and civil wars are recorded for the instruction, the example and the warn- ing of future generations. He received his first com- mission as brevet second lieutenant, fifth United States infantry in July 1, 1815, and brevet second lieutenant seventh infantry, August 22, 1816. He soon got his " baptism of fire" in the Mexican war, for we find him breveted first lieutenant April 18, 1817, for gallant and meritorious conduct, in the battle of Cerro Gordo, Mexico, and captain on August 20, 1817, for gallant and meritorious conduct. The war being closed, however, it soon appeared that the military authorities had dis- cerned in him intellectual qualities beyond those which attach to mere gallantry in the field, for he was ordered to West Point, October 23, 1819, to assume the post of acting assistant professor of mathematics in the National

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

Military Academy ; and when, after the Mexican war, it became necessary to survey the new frontier established by the results of that war, in 1855, he acted as botanist to the military commission detailed for that purpose. Botany, entomology and conchology have been and are still his favorite studies. The professorship he held for three years. In 1855, he was appointed captain in the second cavalry, and with this command was constantly engaged in frontier warfare from this time till the out- break of the civil war. Like many of the best soldiers of the Confederate army, he was opposed to secession until it was a fait accompli, but then offered his sword and his life for the defense of the new government. His offer was gladly accepted, and his promotion rapid, as is testified by the following list of his commissions : (1.) Colonel of cavalry at the first organization of the Con- federate government and army at Montgomery, 1861. (2.) Brigadier-general, June 17, 1861. (3.) Major- general, October 10, 1861. (4.) Lieutenant-general, October 9, 1862. (5.) Full-general, February 19, 1864. lle held important commands successively in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the trans-Mississippi depart- ment; in the first he was present at the first battle of Manassas; in the two last fields of operation he was largely left to his own discretion, and conducted mas- terly campaigns in both of them.

For his brilliant victory at Richmond, Kentucky, the Confederate Congress, on February 17, 1864, voted him a resolution of thanks, styling the action " the only really decisive battle of the war."

This expression points to the fact that his merits as a commander consist not so much in winning pitched battles, as in so disposing his troops, both before and after the fight, as not only to obtain victory but to secure substantial advantages to his government as its fruits. In his trans-Mississippi campaigns he had to create the resources with which he operated. He organized not only his military command but the civil government. Even his financial resources were raised by means of the State Legislature, which he inaugurated, basing its operations upon the cotton at the disposal of the gov- ermmment. The Texas Legislature 'twice voted him resolutions of thanks for services in that State. It can not be doubted that the department administered by him was left in a better condition for future prosperity than any other which had been the seat of active war- farc.

When the end came, and the surrender at Appo- mattox proclaimed disarmament to the forces of the South which still kept the field, and while it was still uncertain whether criminal charges would not be pre- ferred against the leading officers of the Southern army, Gen. Smith found it necessary to leave the United States for a time. He first surrendered his army to Gen. Canby, May 26, 1865, and bade farewell to his de- voted soldiers in a solemn and touching address from which we extract the following peroration : "Your 5

present duty is plain ; return to your families, resume the occupations of peace, yield obedience to the laws, labor to restore order. Strive, both by counsel and example, to give security to both life and liberty, and may God in his mercy direct you aright and heal the wounds of our distracted country." His own life dur- ing the last twenty years has been a beautiful and im- pressive realization of this counsel.

After doing all in his power for his army, he went through Mexico to Cuba, and after two months, finding that it was safe to return, sailed for New York and thence repaired to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he re- joined his family and then moved to Louisville, Ken- tucky.

Here he assisted in organizing the Atlantic and Pa- cific Telegraph company, and became its president, which office he tilled till that concern was absorbed by the Western Union company.

In 1867, he became president of the Western Military Academy, Henry county, Kentucky, and held the office for two years, when bad luck again followed him; the buildings were burned down and he was again without employment. But his talents and great administrative ability were well known and he became chancellor of the University of Nashville.

After six years' honorable service in this capacity, he was invited to take the chair of mathematics in the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tennessee, in the duties of which he has been occupied to the present day, idolized by his pupils and commanding the respect- ful esteem and sympathy of the whole South, for whose cause he gave his splendid talents, his powerful influ- ence and four of the best years of his life.

The military experience of Gen. Smith is in many respects unique. In constant military service for twenty years, holding commands in Mexico, on the Texas frontier, in Virginia, in Kentucky, in the States west of the Mississippi, he never knew defeat. In the Mexi- can war he was present at every battle, both in Scott's and Taylor's line, except that of Buena Vista, when he was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz. He was never taken prisoner, and his command never retreated before the enemy ; he was never in an unsuccessful engagement, either as subaltern or as in chief command.

Every expedition he organized was successful, and he organized the brilliant raids of Morgan, Forrest and others. It was he who commissioned Forrest as briga- dier-general when organizing the expedition from his department which, dashing into Tennessee under For- rest, captured the entire brigade, infantry and cavalry, of Crittenden at Murfreesborough, one of the most bril- liant coups of the war.

He had thirteen relatives and connections in the Mexican war ; all his people for generations back have been soldiers; all his nephews are graduates of West Point, as he is himself, and as was his brother, Ephraim Kirby Smith, who fell in 1847, at Molino del Rey. One

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of his nephews, named after him, E. Kirby Smith, fell at Corinth in the Federal army.

Hle was twice wounded, first by an Indian's arrow, at the decisive Indian battle in the big bend of Arkansas river, near Fort Atkinson ; the missile passed entirely through the body, coming out at his hip. He was a young man at that time, and certainly a healthy one, for his wound healed in the saddle during a ride of four hundred miles. His second wound was in the Confed- erate army, in the first battle of Manassas; the ball entering at the right shoulder and escaping under the left shoulder-blade. This wound confined him for sev- eral months.

Of his bravery no one need speak, for no man could have passed through all the achievements and endured all the hardships which he has encountered without courage of the very finest temper. But his courage has been tested in other ways than on the field of battle. Many men have " sought the bubble reputation in the can- non's mouth " who would shrink appalled from an en- counter with the pestilence ; through the former the excitement of the fray sustains a man, the latter has to be encountered in cold blood at the bidding of holy charity. Such commands have been obeyed by Gen. Smith with the same punctilious completeness as he ren- dered to orders from headquarters. He nursed sick soldiers for many months of an epidemic of yellow fever at Fort Brown, Texas, and performed similar services in several other epidemies, both of cholera and yellow fever, taking both diseases himself.

But even the courage which faces the terrors of war and pestilence gives way, in our estimation, before that moral heroism which sustains a truly great man under the crushing trials of disaster and defeat. When the final collapse of the Southern Confederacy at length arrived, two men above all others stood out as shining examples of the sublime dignity with which a brave man submits to inevitably adversity. They were Gens. Lee and Kirby Smith. They had not been beaten. Gen. Lee was but once even repulsed in an assault, and Gen, Smith never turned his back where the enemy kept the field. They simply relinquished the field when the nation could no longer furnish them the resources for keeping it. The nation had gladly given them its man- hood and its treasure, its toil and blood, and continued to give them till there was no more to give, and then the end came. It was not that our generals or our soldiers were defeated, but that the nation was ex: hausted. And how then did these two 'great men act ? Not as many smaller heroes did; they did not stand for- ward as martyrs and cry out to their people : "See what we have done and suffered for you ; what are you going to do for us? Give us emolument and honor; make us your governors and representatives, your judges and senators," and then subside into a state of querulous bitterness because their transcendent services had not been better acknowledged. Not so they. They looked

upon all they had done as in the line of duty ; the na- tion had done its duty and suffered, and so had they, and things were even; then, as duty had been their guiding principle throughout, they looked around to see what duties were still in their power? The South was laboring to reinstate its educational system, and there was their opportunity; they could teach mathe- maties, and they proffered their services as they had proffered their swords before, and one of them, at Wash- ington-Lee University, has died at his post, amid the tears of a nation; the other is still quietly and cheer- fully rendering the same services in the University at Sewanee, and no one has heard either of them repine." They lived as if it were a matter of course that, as their services were no longer called for in the army, they should render them wherever they were needed. Two men whose military operations have been in men's mouths through two hemispheres, quietly teaching youths algebra and the calculus, and thinking the one occupation as well becoming them as the other. Dis- aster cannot humiliate such. men as these.

It remains that we give something of the lineage and progeny of our hero. Of his father we have already said something; his name was Joseph E. Smith, a colo- nel in the United States army, afterwards lawyer, judge and congressional representative of the Florida terri- tory. He died at St. Augustine, 1846, at the age of sev- enty-six. He is represented as a man of immense physical powers, six feet two inches high and muscular, of great mental abilities, of strong will and positive character. His grandfather, Col. Elnathan Smith, of Connecticut, was a wealthy farmer in that State, prominent in poli- ties, and an officer in the Revolutionary army. He married Chloe Lee, daughter of Gen. Isaac Lee, of Con- necticut, and died at New Britain, Connecticut, very nearly ninety years of age.

Gen. Smith's mother, nee Frances Kirby, was born in Lichfield, Connecticut, daughter of Gen. Ephraim Kirby, also a native of that State, a prominent officer in the Revolutionary army. He was appointed by Presi- dent Jefferson on the commission for the purchase of Louisiana ; and was subsequently appointed first United States judge of the Mississippi territory, and died at Fort Stoddard, Alabama; his tomb on the Alabama river is to this day called "the patriot's grave." The Kirbys were a prominent family among the early settlers of Connecticut; the old farm houses at Lichfield and New Britain are among the oldest houses in the State.

Gen. Smith's maternal grandmother was Ruth Marvin, daughter of Reynold Marvin, of Lyme, Connecticut, of the same family with Bishop Marvin. Ruth was a noted character ; she helped to mould bullets out of the old leaden statue of King George at the commencement of the Revolutionary war.

The two Seymours, governors of New York and Con- neeticut, are relatives of Gen. Smith; so also way Bishop Francis 1. Hawkes, one of the most eloquent

PROMINENT TENNESSEANS.

divines produced by this country, and especially noted as an impressive reader of the Protestant Episcopal lit- urgy. He wasa lawyer in North Carolina before his ordi- nation, and author ofa well-known history of that State.

Gen. Smith's mother was a remarkable woman, highly educated and accomplished ; she was educated at Beth- lehem, Pennsylvania, was a member of the Episcopal church, as were all Gen. Smith's relatives on both sides. She kept up with the literatures and politics of the day to the day of her death. Her energy of character was astonishing; when the first Federal gunboat arrived at St. Augustine, she went out and urged the citizens to fight, and offered to command them, though eighty years old. When she found that they would not fight, she, with her own hands, helped to cut down the flag- staff, then went to her room and locked herself in. Refusing to take the oath, she was impris-

oned by the Federal authorities. Even in death she manifested her extraordinary energy of will; having protested during life that she would never go to bed to die, she finally expired in a sitting posture in her ninety - fourth year. She left two children, the general and his sister, Frances Marvin, who died in 1881, widow of Col. 1 .. B. Webster, of the United States artillery.

Gen. Smith married at Lynchburg, in 1861, Miss Cassie Selden, born at Lynchburg, Virginia, daughter of Samuel L. Selden, a lineal descendant of the learned English lawyer of that name. Her mother was a Miss Hare, daughter of a wealthy tobacco manufacturer in Virginia.

Mrs. Smith was educated at the Catholic college, Georgetown, District of Columbia ; is a member of the Episcopal church, much esteemed in society, and the careful and conscientious mother of a very large family.

Their children are as follows: Caroline Selden, born at Lynchburg, Virginia, October 5, 1862; Frances Kirby, born at Hampstead, Texas, July 7, 1864; Edmund Kirby, born at Louisville, Kentucky, August 28, 1866 ; Lydia, born at Louisville, Kentucky, April 4, 1868; Rowena Selden, born at New Castle, Kentucky, October 2, 1870; Elizabeth Chaplin, born at Nashville, Tennes- see, January 2, 1872; Reynold Marvin, born at Nashville, Tennessee, June 14, 1874; William Selden, born at Sewanee, Tennessee, February 27, 1876; Josephine, born at Sewanee, Tennessee, October 11, 1878; Joseph Lee, born at Sewanee, Tennessee, April 16, 1882; Ephraim Kirby, born at Sewanee, Tennessee, August 30, 1884. Gen. Smith (as all his ancestors were) is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and has served as vestryman, senior warden, lay reader and Sun- day-school superintendent in a great number of churches in that communion. Ile is a Mason and Knight Templar.

In politics he is a Democrat; was opposed to seces- sion, but, when it was accomplished, was the first to offer his sword to the service of the South, and the last to lay it down. He was the first Confederate officer to enter Virginia, being sent thither by the government at Montgomery to select depots and to muster in troops. Among the first of those were the Tennessee regiments of Turney, Bate and Mancy.

Enough has been stated to show that he was a soldier by inheritance, has always been a correct, conservative man, with no bad habits, always full of life and always in the lead. He began life on no capital, has supported his mother almost since boyhood, and having been de- voted to military life, has never gone into mercantile business.

1944724

GOV. JAMES DAVIS PORTER.

NASHVILLE.

'T has been said of Gov. Porter that a promise from I him is equivalent to its fulfillment, and that a state- ment from him is a guarantee of its truth, his natural courage rendering him incapable of dissimulation or evasion. He has a calm, judicial mind, and his speeches and written articles are clear, concise and pointed. As a governor he won the praise of being laborious, decisive, prompt and frank. He owes his prominence to no sort . of arts. He is incapable of performing those acts of simulation by which some men rise to distinction. His genuine politeness and courtesy are not the results of study of art, but arise from his natural instincts, to render unto others that which he feels he has a right to claim for himself. His mind is more characterized by strength than brilliancy. He is quick to perceive the

right; yet he rarely acts without first giving the sub- jeet mature thought, and when he does come to a con- clusion he can not be driven from it, or persuaded to abandon it merely to please others. Not that he is stubborn, for on minor matters of difference, no man is more ready to yield for the sake of harmony or courtesy. As a lawyerand a judge, he was painstaking and careful, and whether in advising a client or in rendering an opinion, he was cautious not to mislead and anxious to be precisely right. His information is varied and more uniformly correct than that of most men; but he does not like.to dwell on abstract or hypothetical questions, while the practical, concerning either the present or future, attracts his carnest attention. He has no pre- tentions to the politician. The character of his mind

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 8

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