Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 92

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

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In the fall of 1816. he went to Nashville and united with the Tennessee conference, influenced to this step chiefly by the advice of Dr. A. L. P. Green, the lead- ing man of the Tennessee conference, and was stationed at Comberland Iron Works, where he remained two years. About this time he began to write for news- papers and magazines. In October, 1848, he was sta- tioned at Columbia, Tennessee, where he remained two full years, during which time he received his degree of A. M .. from Jackson College. of that town. In the fall of 1850, he was stationed for two years in Hunts- ville, Alabama, a place then considered second only to MeKendree church, Nashville, in the bounds of the Tennessee conference. At the close of his term in Huntsville, he was elected president of the Huntsville Female College, but declined. In the fall of 1852, he was stationed in Lebanon, Tennessee, but at the end of his first year, he was transferred to the pastorate of the First Methodist church at St. Louis, Missouri, the transfer being made without his previous knowledge or consent. He remained pastor of that church two years, at the end of which time he was made prosiding elder of the St. Louis district, a position which he filled two

years. During his pastoral life in St. Louis, he wrote a series of articles for the Home Circle, a magazine pub- lished at Nashville, Tennessee, under the head of "Characters that I Have Taken a Pen To." These arti- cles were afterward published in a handsome volume called " Personages." About this time he began to be in demand for annual commencement sermons, annual literary addresses and popular lectures. In October, 1857, he was presiding elder of the Lexington district, St. Louis conference, and filled the position three years,

In the fall of 1860 when war was ominous and im- minent, Dr. Young, being of strong southern sym- pathies, was transferred back to the Tennessee con- forence, and stationed at Lebanon, Tennessee. At the end of that year, he was elected president of Wes- leyan University, at Florence, Alabama, and accepted the position at a salary of three thousand five hundred dollars, and a house to live in. This institution en- rolled more students than any other in the southern States, excepting only the University of Virginia. Here he remained till near the close of the war. While at Florence, he received the degree of D. D. from the in- stitution over which he presided, but of which he knew nothing till he received his diploma from the secretary of the board.

In the fall of 1861, he was again stationed at Co-

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lumbia, Tennessee. In the fall of 1865, he was sta- tioned at Tulip Street church, Edgefield, Tennessee, and elected to the general conference, which met in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has been a member, elected on the first ballot, of every general conference from that day to this. In the fall of 1866, he was stationed at McKendree church, Nashville, where he remained four consecutive years. During this time he wrote " A Re- ply to Ariel," on the ethnological status of the negro, of which five thousand copies were sold in one week. In the fall of 1870, he was stationed at Elm Street church, in Nashville, where he remained four years, which was the close of his active pastoral life, though he has been actively engaged since then in other de- partments of church work.

In 1874, he was elected financial secretary of the board of trust of Vanderbilt University, at a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars, and continued to devote his time to the duties of that office until May, 1882, when he was elected by the general conference, at Nashville, secretary of the board of missions of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, in which he has been diligently engaged to the present time. For this he receives a salary of two thousand five hundred dol- lars and his traveling expenses.

He is the editor of the Advocate of Missions, the or- gan of the board of which he is secretary. Many of his sermons and addresses have been published in pam- phlet form. He was secretary of the Tennessee con- ference for twenty-one consecutive years. He is a mem- ber of the book committee of the Southern Methodist Publishing House; member of the board of trust of Vanderbilt University; of the board of trust of the Nashville College for Young Ladies; of the board of missions of the Methodist Episcopal church, South ; director in the American National bank, Nashville; served three years as a member of the Nashville board of education ; became a Mason in Edgefield Lodge, and has taken all the fourteen degrees up to Knight Tem- plar; has belonged to every temperance society as they arose in his neighborhood, and has experimented with the American people by frequent lectures on that sub- jeet. He was born and raised a Whig, but since the war, having no choice except to be a Republican or a Democrat, he has acted with the Democrats.

Dr. Young has been twice married ; first, in June, 1817, while yet a pastor, at the Cumberland Iron Works, Tennessee, to Miss Mary A. Kemmer, of Bled- soe county. She died in 1879.

His second marriage, which occurred at Nashville, Tennessee, August 18, 1880, was with Mrs. Anna Green Hunter, youngest daughter of Rev. A. L. P. Green,

D. D., LL. D., the most influential man in the southern Methodist church of his day, the bishop excepted. It used to be said, " When Dr. Green speaks, the meetin' is out." Dr. Green was probably the wealthiest Meth- odist preacher in the South. He died, July 15, 1874, at the age of sixty-eight. Mrs. Young's mother, nee Miss Mary Ann Elliston, was the only child of John T. El- liston, of one of the pioneer families of Nashville. The history of the family dates back to 1780, and to Fort Buchanan, in which they lived. Mrs. Young's mother died, March 28, 1881, aged sixty-three years, a lady re- markable for a very high degree of intelligence, and of almost unbounded influence in society and in the . church. Mrs. Young graduated from the Nashville Female Academy in 1858, in her seventeenth year. Dr. Young has no children. Mrs. Young, by her first hus- band, Capt. R. P. Hunter, has three children, Mary Green Hunter, Alexander Green Ifunter and Susie HIunter.

Mrs. Young is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as are her two brothers, Frank W. Green, of the firm of Anderson, Green & Co., wholesale dry goods merchants, in Nashville, Rev. William M. Green, pas- tor at Franklin, Tennessee, and her sister, Laura El- liston Green, now wife of Thomas D. Fite, of Fite, Por- ter & Co., the largest wholesale dry goods firm in Nash- ville. It may be said, in this connection, that all the descendants. of Dr. Green, without exception, are Methodists.

Throughout life, Dr. Young has been recognized as a man of one purpose and one work, "drawing all his thoughts and studies one way." Not only is he a man of stability in this respect, but, to so phrase it, is one of " breath and bottom." His financial success is at- tributable to industry, economy and the scrupulous avoidance of debt. He has never said to any one who presented a bill, "Call again," but paid it then and there. His leading distinguishing trait of character is punctuality. In the pulpit, he is an orator of great power, extraordinary learning, and wonderful convinc- ing ability. He never had a charge in which he did not hold a successful revival, but he was not known so much as a revivalist as he was for his successful pas- toral influence, the upbuilding and strengthening of his congregations. He has been an extemporaneous preacher from the beginning, and this proves him a great student, and a close reader and observer. In per- sonal appearance, Dr. Young would attract attention among any select body of ten thousand men. He weighs two hundred and thirty pounds, stands six feet eight inches high, and like Saul, the son of Kish, towers a head and shoulders above his brethren.

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JOHN HI. WHITE, M. D.

MILLERSBURG.

TT does not often occur that a teacher lives to become - the biographer of his pupils. This volume, how- ever, contains sketches of three gentlemen of distinction who were once students under the editor, to-wit: Hon. James D. Richardson, now member of Congress from Tennessee, Hon. Ethelbert B. Wade, and Dr. John HI. White, subject of this article.

John HI. White was born, October 6, 1849, at Mill- ersburg, Rutherford county, Tennessee, grew up and has lived there all his life, on the same place where his father was born, lived and died. He took his first les- sons in literature at Zimmerman Institue, a school founded and taught by William S. Speer. At the age of twenty he attended college five months at the Ash- land University, Lexington, Kentucky. He next at- tended Union University, at Murfreesborough, Tennes- see, ten months, and then began the study of medicine in the office of his brother, Dr. B. N. White, at Christiana, Tennessee. He graduated M. D., from the medical department of the University of Nashville, February 22, 1872, under Profs. Bowling, Eve, Briggs, Maddin, Callender, Buchanan, J. B. Lindsley, Nichol, V. S. Lindsley, and Sneed, and returned to Rutherford county, where he has been engaged in the practice of medicine and in farming ever since, excepting such times as he represented his county in the Legislature. Hle is a member of the Rutherford County Medical So- ciety, and of the State Medical Society, and is justly regarded as one of the rising members of the profession in Tennessee.

Dr. White is an hereditary Democrat-comes by his Democracy honestly -- his father and all the male mem- bers of his family on both sides being of that sturdy and unswerving political faith and complexion. He never drew any but Democratie breath in his life. In 1883, and again in 1885, he served in the Tennessee House of Representatives as a representative from Ruth- erford county, and was considered one of its ablest and most useful members. He was made chairman of the committee on public grounds and buildings, and was temporary speaker of the House in 1855.

In religion he is a member of the Christian church, which he joined at the age of twenty-one, and at pres- ent is an elder in his home congregation. In 1872, he became a Mason in Charles Fuller Lodge, No. 426, Carlocksville, Rutherford county, Tennessee.

Dr. White married, in Rutherford county, Tennessee, February 16, 1876, Miss Mattie Pruett, who was born in that county September 15, 1859, the daughter of F. M. Pruett, a farmer, native of the same county. Her mother was Miss Catharine Davis, daughter of Rev. Nathan L. Davis, a noted Baptist preacher, of Ruther- ford, a farmer and stock trader, who acquired a band- 53

some fortune. Mrs. White was educated at Bellbuckle, Tennessee; is a member of the Christian church, and is one of the most kind-hearted and affable of women, bowing to God's will, asking God's guidance, and ever striving to make her husband and family comfortable and happy-a disposition which extends its influence to others in the form of good neighborly feeling and in acts of charity. Her husband takes commendable pride in praising her, which is probably the highest compli- ment in men's estimation a woman can receive.

By his marriage with Miss Pruett, Dr. White has had four children, three of whom survive : (1). Buford M. White, born April 12, 1877. (2). Ella Mary White, born . May 1, 1879. (3). Francis Pruett White, born Febru- ary 16, 1881 ; died January' 31, 1885. (4). Burrell G. White (named for his grandfather), born April 6, 1883.

The Whites are an English family. Stephen White, grandfather of Dr. White, was born in North Carolina, was an officer in the American army in the Revolu- tionary war, and acquired a good deal of fame in that war. Hle married a Miss Searcy in North Carolina, and had six sous, Franklin, William, Harvey, Nat, Stokely and Burrell G., and one daughter, Susan, wife of Hugh B. Jameson-all of whom are dead. Two of the sons of Dr. Harvey White, Stephen N. and Thomas D., were captains in the Confederate army. Both of these are dead. Stokely White left one son, William B., now mer- chant in Kosciusko, Mississippi ; has been tax collector of Attala county, and is a citizen of considerable influ- ence. Stokely White, also, left two daughters, Anna and Susan, the latter now wife of Dr. Jo. Collins, at Kosciusko, a leading physician there.

Dr. White's father, Burrell G. White, was born May 20, 1808. He was a man of wide influence in his county, a warm politician, a merchant, a fine financier, of fine property, and a warm friend of education. He was a man who threw his whole soul into his business, his polities, his religion, and into the educational and rail- road enterprises of the country. He was a zealous party man ; in polities a Democrat ; in religion a member of the Christian church. A desire for the promotion of the happiness and advancement of his fellow-beings was his strongest trait of character. He was of strong likes and dislikes, of strong sympathies and antipathies- indeed, a man of very strong individuality. He died, October 31, 1881, leaving six children : Robert M. White, now a farmer and justice of the peace in Ruth- erford county ; William N. White, a farmer in the same county ; Dr. B. N. White, a prominent physician and farmer in the same county; Frank White, now deputy county court clerk of Rutherford county, is also a mer- chant; Catharine G. White, now wife of Benjamin Fu- pitt ; Dr. John Howland White, subject of this sketch,

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Dr. White's mother, originally Miss Mary Donelly, now living at the age of sixty-three, was born Decem- ber 11, 1821, in Dublin, Ireland. She is the daughter of Peter Donelly, a wealthy Irishman, who came from Ire- land and settled at Shelbyville, Bedford county, Ten- nessee. He died of cholera, in 1833, leaving six chil- dren : Lucy Donelly, who died the wife of Dr. John W. Wilburn, a member of Congress from Missouri ; Mary Donelly, mother of Dr. White ; Bartley Donelly, a captain in the Mexican war; Catharine Donelly, now widow of Thomas Jameson ; Elizabeth Donelly, who died the wife of Dr. Thornton Matson, of Louisiana, Missouri; Honora Donelly, now the wife of Dr. P. HI. Manier, of Wartrace, Bedford county, Tennessee.

Dr. White's mother is a lady of very positive char- acter and pronounced opinions; is very frank ; of un- usual mental ability ; and is both progressive and ag- gressive.

Honesty, sobriety, veracity, and attention to business and with a determination, even in boyhood, to make life a success if possible-these are the distinguishing char- peteristies of Dr. White. His father and mother stimu- lated his ambition to be something and to do something for himself. From them he had a most excellent edu- cation ; from them he had wise advice and good exam- ple. Thus he had a good send of, and he has made a man of himself. The editor knew his family well, and furthermore knows whereof he speaks.

Dr. White's father married twice. flis first wife was Elizabeth Miller, daughter of Esq. Robert Miller, by whom he had three children : Robert White ; William White; Elizabeth White, who died the wife of Thomas D. White, her cousin. She left one son, Otie R. White, Dr. White's own brothers are Bartley and Frank, and his own sister, Catharine, wife of Benjamin Fugitt, all of whom have been previously mentioned.

W. M. VERTREES, M. D.

NASHVILLE.

D R. WOODFORD MITCHELL VERTREES, professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the medical department of the University of Tennessee, was born in Brownsville, Kentucky, March 23, 1827, the son of Jacob and Catharine Vertrees.

llis grandfather, John Vertrees, was a farmer, of Pennsylvania-German stock, and emigrated to Ken- tucky in the same party with the father of Gov. Heh, Haycraft and other well-known pioneers, shortly after the arrival of Daniel Boone on that extreme frontier. The Vertrees-Helm party built a fort a very short dis- tance from what is now known as the public square of Elizabethtown. The family name at the time of their emigration to Kentucky was Von Treese, which was afterward anglicised to Vertrees. John Vertrees, there- fore, was the first to spell the name in its modern form. Ile was, also, the first judge of the Hardin county court (Hardin being one of the three counties into which the territory of Kentucky was then divided), and he tried the first murder case in Kentucky, which resulted in the hanging of the murderer.

John Vertrees and his sons, in the early days of their settlement, were engaged in many fierce battles with the Indians. One of their battles, which was fought near Rolling Fork, eight miles from Elizabethtown, is said to have been the hardest fight which ever oo- curred on the " dark and bloody ground." John and Daniel Vertrees, with a party of eleven other white men, were pursuing a band of Indians, numbering thirteen, who had committed some depredations near Elizabethtown. Daniel Vertrees, being an expert in wood-craft and the modes of Indian warfare, was

"trailing" the savages when he suddenly came upon them in a sink-hole, where they were cooking their breakfast. He at once fired upon them, but on turning to gain the protection of a tree, he himself fell dead, pierced by the bullets of the Indians, who, running out to sealp him, were themselves fired upon by the remain- der of the whites who came up at that moment. A hand to hand fight ensued, and in the desperate strug- gle all of the Indians and five of the white men were killed, John Vertrees being one of the survivors.

Some time after, Joseph Vertrees-son of John Ver- trees -- when nine years of age, was captured by the In- dians near where the public square at Elizabethtown now is. His captors started with him to cross the Ohio river on a raft. John Vertrees followed with a band to rescue the little fellow, but when the Indians, hotly pursued, threatened to kill the boy if they were fired upon, the white men desisted from the pursuit and the Indians pushed off and crossed the river with their prisoner. The boy was kept in captivity nine years, but finally made his escape at the age of eighteen, returned to Kentucky, married and brought up a large family, all of whom have Indian peculiarities-love of hunting and fishing, love of solitude and life in the woods. Joseph Vertrees was an uneducated man, but lived to accumulate considerable property, after his re- turn.

Jacob Vertrees, son of John Vertrees, and father of Dr. W. M. Vertrees, subject of this sketch, was a man of strong native sense, and of great honesty and integ. rity. Indeed, it is the pride and boast of the family that, since the name has been borne, no Vertrees has

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ever appeared in a criminal court on any criminal charge whatsoever. Jacob Vertrees was also a great lover of fishing and hunting, and retained a fondness for hazardous field sports to the day of his death. IIe married, in 1812, at Leitchfield, Kentucky, Miss Catha- rine Davis, then recently from Virginia. She was a most excellent and a most devout Christian woman, and, it is said, not an idle word ever escaped her lips, for she sought to live by the teachings of the Bible, as she un- derstood them.

By his marriage with Miss Davis, Jacob Vertrees had ten children, four sons and six daughters: (1). William Duval Vertrees, the oldest son, was born March 21, 1816, at Brownsville, Kentucky; was educated there; was a sergeant in Col. Churchill's command in the Mexican war, and was wounded at Palo Alto. Re- turning to Kentucky, he was elected and served several terms in the Legislature, after which he was county judge of Hardin county for fifteen years. He married, in 1855, Miss Haynes, of Elizabethtown; she died in 1876, leaving four children : Mattie Vertrees, now wife of Mr. Bernard, dealer in agricultural implements, New Orleans; John Vertrees, a telegraph operator in the employ of the Louisville and Nashville railroad ; Cath- arine Vertrees, now living in Elizabethtown ; Charles Vertrees, who died at the age of eighteen. (2). James Cunningham Vertrees, born in Brownsville, Kentucky, in 1825, and educated there ; married Miss Susan Lee, of North Carolina, now a merchant in Palatka, Florida ; has three sons : John J. Vertrees, who graduated at the Lebanon law school, and is now a distinguished attor- ney at Nashville, and regarded as. one of the ablest lawyers in the State; James Cunningham Vertrees, jr., born in Missouri; now with his father in business at Palatka; William Otter Vertrees, now law partner with John J. Vertrees; received his literary education at the University of Nashville, and graduated from the law department of Vanderbilt University in 1883. (3). Woodford Mitchell Vertrees, subject of this sketch. (4). John L. Vertrees, born at Brownsville, Kentucky, March 21, 1829; graduated from the medical depart- ment of the University of Louisville, in 1857 ; practiced in Glasgow, Kentucky, until the outbreak of the war, when he joined the Confederate army and was made surgeon of the Sixth Kentucky regiment, Col. Joseph II. Lewis commanding. When Col. Lewis was made brigadier-general and given command of the famous Kentucky " Orphan Brigade," Dr. Vertrees was made brigade-surgeon. He has, ever since the war, been dis- abled by paralysis, the result of his labors and exposure while in service. The daughters of Jacob Vertrees were: (1). Nancy R. Vertrees, who became the wife of John D. Otter, a leading wholesale grocer and com- mission merchant, of Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Otter died in June, 1883, leaving four sons, who succeeded him in the management of the business carried on at the corner of Sixth and Main streets, Louisville, one

of the largest wholesale and commission houses in that city. (2). Rebecca B. Vertrees, married Dr. D. J. L. Ford, of Rocky Hill, Kentucky. (3). Sarah Wright Vertrees, married James H. Wortham, of Leitchfield, Kentucky, who died in 1857, leaving two sons: James Wortham, an attorney, and Woodford Wortham, drug- gist; both now living at Leitchfield. (4). Zerelda Hopkins Vertrees, married Thomas Hardey, son of Lieut .- Gov. Hardey, of Kentucky; now resides at Horse Cave, Kentucky, and has four children. (5). Mary H. Vertrees, died in 1857, the wife of Charles Wortham. (6). Elizabeth Vertrees, died at the age of sixteen.

Dr. Vertrees attended literary school at Brownsville, Kentucky, until he was twenty years old, when he en- tered Wirt College, Sumner county, Tennessee, remain- ing there two years, under President Thomas Patterson. During his collegiate course among his class-mates were Ilon. Atha Thomas, ex-treasurer of Tennessee, and Hon. Thomas B. Ivie, of Shelbyville. He then read medicine under Dr. John. Sweeney, at Smith's Grove, Kentucky, and afterward attended the medical depart- ment of the University of Louisville, where he gradu- ated, in 1851, under President James Guthrie. IIe practiced at Smith's Grove one year, then moved to Elizabethtown and remained there until 1857, when he went to Mattoon, Illinois, and practiced until the be- giuning of the war. He was elected mayor of Mattoon in 1860, on the Democratic ticket, but resigned and removed to Franklin, Kentucky, remaining there until he removed to Nashville, in 1871.

Dr. Vertrees was one of the founders of the Nash- ville Medical College (now medical department of the University of Tennessee), the charter being granted to Drs. Duncan Eve, J. B. Stephens, W. F. Glenn, W. C. Cook and W. M. Vertrees. At the organization of the faculty, he was elected professor of materia medica and therapeutics, but resigned in 1881. In 1883, he was elected to the chair of medical chemistry and toxicol- ogy, and in 1885, was transferred to the chair of materia medica and therapeutics, which he now fills.

Dr. Vertrees was a charter member of Tennessee Lodge, No. 20, Knights of Honor, the lodge [being or_ ganized about six months after the founding of the order, and at a time when it had not more than five hundred members. He afterward withdrew and was a charter member of Cumberland Lodge, Edgefield. IIe has been a member of the Christian church twenty-five years, and was on the building committee of the first Christian church built at Mattoon, Illinois. In a State where he is so well-known, it is almost superfluous to say he is a Democrat of the loyalest and most unswerv- ing type. He cast his first vote for Franklin Pierce, and has voted the Democratic ticket ever since.

Dr. Vertrees married, in 1857, Miss Martha Ford, daughter of Dr. William Ford, of Dripping Spring, Warren county, Kentucky. By this marriage he has

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six children : (1). Catharine Elizabeth Vertrees, born January 13, 1860. (2). William Simon Vertrees, born April 1, 1862; a graduate of the medical department of the University of Tennessee. (3). John Columbus Vertrees, born January 5, 1864. (4). Hallie Ellen Vertrees, born January 29, 1867. (5). Mattie Vertrees, born April 13, 1870. (G). Charles Cantrell Vertrees, born August 20, 1879.

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Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee, Part 92

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