Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 9

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 9

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and his habits of thought forbid this. His views of public questions are based on his belief as to their probable effects on the country, and not how they are likely to affect his personal ambition. It is not meant to say that he is not ambitious, but that his ambition is of a kind which prompts him rather to desire perma- nent approval than temporary success. His character for truth, candor, honesty and integrity, was made by strict attention to details in business, both public and private. He is a man of decided opinions, and his moral and personal courage both unite in making him a formidable advocate or adversary. No man in Ten- nessee possesses to a higher degree the confidence and respect of the intelligence of the country, and even those who have felt called on honestly to join issue with him, award to him the virtues of sincerity, honesty and courage in his advocacy of opposing views. A clearer estimate of him as a man and a statesman may be gathered from his messages to the Legislature, and the measures passed on his recommendation, some of which are imperishable monuments to his memory, and entitle him to the gratitude of this and coming genera- tions. In his inaugural address, January 18, 1875, he submitted the following subjects of State policy in lan- guage characteristic of the philanthropist and builder : " A great political revolution in public sentiment has begun, and is in progress in Tennessee and in the other States of the Union. What influence for good or for evil it is to have on the country remains to be seen ; but our duty is a plain one-to avoid the errors that have brought disaster to the best interests of the coun- try. Foremost among them is that spirit of party which has gained such an ascendeney over the minds of men as has caused them to substitute party for country, and make them seek party approbation rather than the ap- proval and prosperity of the country. The people of Tennessee will count him a public benefactor who will direct the popular energies to useful pursuits-to a diversification of labor-to the encouragement of im- migration-the opening of mines-the improvement of agriculture-the erection of school-houses, and espe- cially is the great body of our people anxious for an utter oblivion of all local jealousies and animosities, and for the encouragement and perpetuation of a spirit of brotherhood among the people of all the States of the Union.

"Thanking the people of Tennessee for the distinction they have conferred upon me, I will labor to repay this generous confidence by taking care that the laws are faithfully executed,' and by maintaining the jurisdic- tion and rights of the State; and ' this is the point to which the vigilance of the people should be chiefly di- reeted. Their highest interest is at home ; their palla- dium is their own State government. They ought to know that they can look nowhere else with perfect assurance of safety and protection. Let them maintain their local government, not only in its rights, but in its

dignity and influence. It is vain to hope that the prin- ciples of our government can be preserved, or that anything can prevent it from running into the absolut- ism of consolidation, if we suffer the rights of the States to be filched away, and their dignity and influence lost through our carelessness or neglect.'"

In his message to the Thirty-ninth General Assembly he recommended such legislation as would afford the benefits of the public schools to every child in the State. On the subject of immigration he said: " I recommend that you indicate, in some form, the desire of our peo- ple to encourage the honest immigrant without regard to his nationality, religion or politics." He recom- mended that the Federal Congress be urged to improve the Mississippi, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers; and he urged the Legislature to appeal to the federal Con- gress to place the manes of Mexican veterans upon the pension rolls of the government.

During his administrations the public expenditures were largely reduced. . In his message he said : "The current expenses of the State government for the past two years amount to $1,011,414.00, or to the sum of $522,207.00 per annum; this statement shows a reduc- tion of the current expense account in ten years that must be full of encouragement to the tax-payer. Fur- ther large reductions can be made by the adoption of certain changes recommended in this message and in the able report of the comptroller. The current ex- pense account for the years 1868-69 amounted to $1,913,663.54; for the years 1870-71 it was $1,519,088.00; for -1873-74 it was $1,324,931.00; for 1875-76 it was $1,278,908.00."

The appropriation bill passed upon his recommenda- tion by the Fortieth General Assembly was the first compliance with the constitutional provision that no money shall be drawn from the treasury but in couse- quence of appropriations made by law ; and he earnestly recommended " a strict adherence to this precedent, not alone as a constitutional duty of maintaining legislative authority and responsibility, but as the only method of securing certainty and economy in administration."

The State Board of Health, a beneficent measure of more than State importance, was created upon his re- commendation, at the suggestion of Dr. J. D. Plunket, who was his adviser on that subject. [See Dr. Plunket's biography elsewhere in this volume. ] The State Nor- mal College was established under his administration, as was also the Bureau of Agriculture, Statistics and Mines. Fish culture was adopted upon his recommen- dation. Humanity in the conduct of the State prison he urged in this language: " The prison has no sewer- age, no adequate hospital arrangement; it is in the way of the improvement of the city of Nashville, and the absence of sewers makes it, at certain seasons of the year, dangerous to the general health. In my message to the Thirty -ninth General Assembly, I urged its re- moval The reasons for it are more potent now, and I

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earnestly repeat the recommendation, and suggest its removal to some point below the city on the west side of the river, where the State can secure isolation and perfect ventilation and sewerage, without the expendi- ture of any considerable amount of money ; the rental derived from the labor of the convicts should be appro priated to the purchase of another site, and for the construction of a new prison. In six years, the term of the present lease, it will amount to four hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars. With this sum a prison ran be constructed creditable to the humanity and character of the State. The necessity for separate ac- commodations for female and juvenile convicts is great and growing, and in the construction of a new prison provision can be made for this class of offenders. Upon the discharge of a convict, the lessees furnish him with a suit of clothes and transportation to the place of his conviction. I recommend that he be furnished by the State with a few dollars in money for his subsistence from the prison to his home."

His'exercise of the veto power evinces the conserva- tive cast of his character. He vetoed the bill taxing the losing party with the jury fees in civil suits, the bill for reducing the salaries of judges, and the bill abolish- ing the office of county superintendent of schools.

The editor is not competent to discuss the political issues involved in the State debt question, but is of the opinion that Gov. Porter's highest honor lies in the unequivocal position he took on that subject. The evasion of the payment of debts, public or private, by bankrupt laws, repudiation acts or other subterfuges, was never popular in America, and never will be. The man or the State whose commercial honor is not sustained by the prompt payment of one hundred cents on the dollar, principal and interest, will be spotted and shunned, and come to the bad in the long run: Gov. Porter's recommendation to the Legislature has a high moral business tone in it that all men, not professional politicians, must applaud and commend to their chil- dren as the true measure of manhood and of statesman- ship. He said: "The settlement of this debt is paramount to all questions of legislation that can engage the attention of the General Assembly; it involves the honor and good name of the State, the credit and honor of every one of its citizens; it is a liability that was voluntarily contracted, and whether it was wisely ere- ated or not, can not now be a question. I hold, and have always believed, that in the light of moral and legal duty, as a question of commercial honor and of State pride, the best settlement of the debt of Tennes- see would be to pay the entire debt according to the terms of the contract.'

James Davis. Porter was born at Paris, Tennessee, December 7th, 1828. He is descended from John, the first American Porter, born in 1590, at. Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England, and in Wraxhall Abbey, the ancient home of the family, where many of their num-

ber are buried, John Porter, his wife Rose, and their children sailed from England in the ship Ann .. , arriv- ing at Dorchester Quays, May 30, 1627.

Ilis ancestor, John Porter, who 'came to America in 1627, was not a Puritan, and did not leave the old coun- try to escape any sort of perscention, but to improve his fortune. His descendants are very numerous. Many of them were soldiers of the Revolutionary war, among them a great-uncle of Gov. Porter, Gen. Peter B. Porter of the war of 1812, afterwards a member of the cabinet of John Quincy Adams. The admirals of the United States Navy are his descendants. John Porter and Rose, his wife, had nine children, who lived to rear families. Their eldest son, John, born in 1618, was nine years old when his parents emigrated to America. Ile married Mary Stanley, daughter of Thomas Stanley, of Hartford, Connecticut. They had! twelve children. Their fourth son, Samuel, was born March 5, 1664. He settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania ; married and reared a large family. His son William, born in 1695, owned and lived upon his father's homestead. He died on the 3rd of May, 1749, leaving several sons. The youngest was William, born in 1729, who emigrated to Adams county, Pennsylvania, and married Sarah Percel, of Delaware. He died in 1802. His wife sur- vived for several years. They were buried at Tom's creek Presbyterian church, They had six sons and four daughters. William, the youngest son, married Hannah Kennedy, the paternal grandmother of Gov. Porter. She was the daughter of Thomas . Kennedy, who was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and set- tled, in May, 1791, on a farm on the Ohio river, upon which the city of Covington now stands. His wife, Diana Davis, was the daughter of James Davis, from whom Gov. Porter derives his name. The Thomas Kennedy above named was the only son of his father, for whom he was named. The latter was from the north of Ireland, and was one of the pioneers of Chester county, Pennsylvania. He settled on Brandywine creek, and was buried in the church-yard of Brandy- wine church. William Porter, the paternal grandfather of Gov. Porter, after his marriage, settled first in Franklin county, Kentucky, from which place he re- moved, in 1822, to Henry county, Tennessee, where he lived until his death, in 1833. His wife died in 1820. They had six sons and four daughters. Their second son, Thomas Kennedy Porter, the father of Gov. James D. Porter, was born February 19, 1801. He was edu- cated by Kean O'Hara, at Frankfort, Kentucky, a distinguished teacher (father of Col. Theodore O'Hara), studied medicine and was graduated at Transylvania University, 1822. He settled at Paris, Tennessee, in 1823, and was a leading citizen of that place up to his death, in February, 1818. He was married February, 1824, to Geraldine Horton, of Davidson county, Ten- nessee, who survived him for four years. . She was the youngest daughter of Josiah Horton, who settled in

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Davidson county, Tennessee, in 1795, and died in 1828. Ile was a man of education and character, and was the son of Richard Horton, and his wife, Elizabeth Harri- son, born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He set- tled in New Hanover county, North Carolina, where he married Nancy White, daughter of' Joseph White. His wife survived him until 1842. Josiah Horton was a descendant-the fifth generation-from Barnabas Horton, who came over in the ship Swallow, in 1633-38. He was the son of Joseph Horton, of Mousely, Leices- tershire, England; where the name has been known to the remotest period of any authentic records. Barabas Horton and his wife, Mary, with two children, landed at Hampton Quays; went to New Haven in 1640, and settled on the east end of Long Island, now Southold, Suffolk county, New York. The house built by him was the first frame dwelling erected on the east end of Long Island, and was standing and occupied in 1875. Six generations, all bearing the Horton name, lived and died in this house.

Gov. Porter was the third son, and third child of his parents. The eldest, Dr. Jno. H. Porter, resides in Henry county, where he has always been a leading citi- zen. The second son was killed in infancy by the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of his nurse. The fourth child, a daughter, died in infancy. The fifth was Catherine, who married Rev. E. C. Trimble, a distinguished minister of the Presbyterian church, by whom she had a son and two daughters. She died in 1862. The sixth child was Thomas Kennedy Porter. HIe commanded with great distinction Porter's bat- tery at the battle of Fort Donelson, where he was dan- gerously wounded; was again wounded at the combat at Hoover's Gap; commanded the artillery of Buckner's corps at the battle of Chickamauga; afterwards was ordered to the Confederate steamer Florida as her ex- ecutive officer, and was captured with her at the port of Bahia, Brazil, in October, 1864. He died in 1869. The seventh child was Geraldine, wife of Dixon G. Fowler, of Paducah, Kentucky. She died in 1874, leaving three daughters. The eighth child was William H. Porter. He was a cadet in the Confederate States army, doing duty as aid-de-camp on the staff of Gen. T. II. Bell, and was killed at the battle of Tishomingo creek, in 1864, at the age of twenty. The youngest child, Anna, died just as she reached womanhood.

Gov. Porter was educated by David Cochrane, a dis- tinguished teacher, an alumnus of Belfast, Ireland, and for many years principal of the academy at Paris, Al sixteen he entered the junior class in the University of Nashville, then under the presidency of Dr. Philip Lindsley, and was graduated two years thereafter (in the class of 1846). Hle was in poor health for many years after that date. He studied law in the office of Gen. John HI. Dunlap in his native town, and at the law school at. Lebanon, Tennessee, and commenced the

practice in 1851. He was married in June of that year, to Susannah, eldest daughter and eldest child of his legal preceptor. Soon thereafter he settled on a farm near Paris, where he has always resided, except when absent in the public service. His married life has been a happy one, and would have been still happier if he had at all times heeded the counsel of Mrs. Porter. His professional life was a successful one, and it was her wish and that of her honored father, that he should not turn away from it for the vanities of public life.

He was elected in 1859 a representative in the Legis- lature of Tennessee, from the counties of Carroll, Gibson, Madison and Henry, and was an active partici- pant in the memorable proceedings of the extra session of 1861, through which Tennessee dissolved her rela- tions with the federal government. He was the author of the "Porter resolutions," passed January, 1861, which pledged Tennessee to co-operate with the South in case of war between the States. In advocating their adoption he stated that he hoped there would be a peaceful solution of pending difficulties, but if there should be war between the sections, Tennesseans must be united; there must be no division at home. He wanted to avoid local divisions and animosities ; and did not want to see what afterwards occurred, the con- fiscation of the property of Tennesseans by Tennesse- ans, the disfranchisement of her own people through the agency of their neighbors. These resolutions attracted the attention of the entire country: They were almost unanimously adopted by the Legisla- ture of Tennessee, and were adopted in several other States of the South.

When hostilities were about to commence he spent several weeks with Gen. Pillow, whose headquarters were at Memphis, as his adjutant-general, and assisted him in organizing the provisional army of Tennessee. He then joined Gen. Cheatham and was with him as his chief of staff during the four years of the war, and was paroled with him in May, 1865, at the surrender of the army of Tennessee.

He resumed the practice of his profession in the fall of 1865, and was actively engaged in it until 1870, when a convention was called to provide a new constitution for Tennessee. He was unanimously elected by the people a delegate to this convention from his native county, was a member of the judiciary committee, and participated actively in the formation of the present constitution. He was the author of the first section of the schedule, by the adoption of which all offices in the State were vacated. In advocating this measure on the floor of the convention, he avowed that it was not meant as a measure of retaliation or as a means of punishment for Union men, but was done to enable all the people of the State to have a voice in the selection of their rulers and agents. As full justification for the proposed measured, it need only be stated that at the time three. fourths of the white people of the State were disfran-

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chised, and the small minority of voters had filled every place, from constable up.

In the summer of 1870 he was elected by a very large majority judge of the twelfth judicial circuit of Ten- nessee, composed of the counties of Henry, Benton, Carroll, Weakley, Obion and Lake, for the term of eight years. After filling this position most acceptably for nearly four years, he resigned the judgeship in Feb- ruary, 1874, and in August following received the nomi nation for governor of the State, at the hands of the State convention of the Democratic party, over ex- Senator Bailey and others. He was opposed by the Hon. Horace Maynard, the Republican candidate, and made a joint canvass of the State with him. He was elected by a majority of forty-seven thousand, and two years thereafter was re-nominated without opposition, and re-elected by a majority of over fifty thousand. His last term as governor closed in January, 1879.

At the State Democractic convention of 1880 he was elected a delegate for the State at large to the National convention of the party at Cincinnati, and was made chairman of the Tennessee delegation. At this con- vention he zealously advocated the nomination of Senator Bayard, of Delaware, for the presidency.

In July, 1880, he was elected president of the Nash- ville, Chattanooga & St. Louis railway company, and was annually re-elected until 1884, when he voluntarily retired from the position. The following extract from the Nashville American, written in reference to Gov. Porter's election as president of the leading railroad company of Tennessee, truthfully reflects the public sentiment in regard to the new position he had been called to fill: "The selection of Gov. Porter for the position of president of the Chattanooga railroad is one which promises well for the road and for the State. While he will have to acquire, in a great measure, the special knowledge necessary, yet his clear and rapid comprehension and ready business grasp of any subject he takes hold of, will place him at the head of the pro- fession in a very brief time. The field is the highest that can tempt the ambition of any man. There is no polities comparable to the position of a railroad presi- dent. With the exception of a position on the Supreme bench, there is none under the government equal to the presidency of a great railroad system, especially to a man of Gov. Porter's splendid qualifications for the position, insuring him occupation at the topmost round of the profession. We had expected that he might be needed in the politics of the State, but this is the higher field by far, and in its permanency and the power it. confers, overtops all the political positions, while it is a field in which a man can be of equal, of far greater service to his State, than in the temporary occupation of any political office. Indeed, it is in such fields and out of politics, that our young men are to find the true field for ambition hereafter, and we should like to see Gov. Porter, after having enjoyed the highest

honors the State can confer, set the example of seeking higher honors in the direction of the industrial pro- gress of the State and of the South."

Ilis alma-mater, the University of Nashville, years ago, conferred upon Gov. Porter the degree of LL. D. Ile is also a trustee of the University, and a member of the board of trustees of the Peabody educational fund, which is charged with the management of the munifi- cent bequest of George Peabody for the education of the children of the South. He is Vice- President of the Tennessee Historical Society for West Tennessee, a director in the First National Bank of Nashville, a di- rector in the Equitable Fire Insurance company, of Nashville, and also in the Tennessee Coal, Tron and Railroad company, and president of the Hermitage Club, of Nashville.

Gov. Porter married in Paris, Tennessee, June 17, 1851, Miss Susannah Dunlap, daughter of Gen. John II. Dunlap, a native of Knox county. He was a lawyer by profession. He was a volunteer in the Florida (Seminole) war, under his brother, Richard G. Dunlap, who was a captain, and afterwards brigadier-general, in that service, and was subsequently a member of the cabinet of President Lamar, of Texas, and minister from that republic to the United States. Gen. John II. Dunlap died in December, 1874, at the age of seventy-three. He enjoyed great professional success and amassed a large fortune, the result of his energy and excellent judgment in business. He was for many years the law partner of Gov. Porter, the association terminating in 1870, when the latter went upon the bench. Mrs. Porter's grandfather, Hugh Dunlap, was a native of Londonderry, Ireland, who came to America when a young man, and settled at Knoxville, Tennessee, where he married his wife, Susannah Gilliam, and raised a large family of children of his own, besides adopting and raising seven or eight others, children of deceased relatives of his own and his wife and their friends. He removed from Knox county to Roane, where some of his younger children were born. When the tide of emigration set in towards West Tennessee he followed some of his children there in 1826. Several of his sons had preceded him to his new hoine in 1823 and 1824. He died in 1816. Of Mrs. Porter's uncles who have distinguished the name was Judge William C. Dunlap, who was frequently a member of the Tennessee Legis- lature, twice a member of Congress, and for eight years judge of the Memphis circuit court. Hugh W. Dunlap, a twin brother of William C. Dunlap, was a member of the General Assembly of the State, attorney-general of the old ninth judicial circuit, a lieutenant-colonel in the Mexican war, and long a leading lawyer in Madi- son parish, Louisiana, where he died in 1848. Another uncle, James T. Dunlap, was several times a member of both the Senate and House of Representatives of the Tennessee Legislature, presidential clector for the ninth congressional district on the Buchanan ticket,

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and for six years comptroller of the State treasury. Mrs. Porter's grandmother, Susannah Gilliam, wife of Hugh Dunlap, was the daughter of Devereux Gilliam, whose wife was a descendant of the third generation from John Ellis, who settled at Tuckahoe, in the county of Henrico, Virginia, in 1683, a planter and leading man, the founder of one of the largest and most respeet- able families of the South. Mrs. Porter was educated at the Nashville Female Academy under the direction of Drs. Lapsley and Elliott, and possesses in'an cm .- nent degree all the virtues that go to make up the good daughter, wife, mother, mistress and neighbor. The love her children bear her amounts to a sublime devo- tion on their part.

Financially Gov. Porter, though never making an effort to accumulate a fortune, has always been in com- fortable circumstances. He is quite liberal in his dis- position, and cheerfully divides his means with those dependent upon him.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 9

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