USA > Tennessee > Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee > Part 93
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The five eldest of Dr. Vertrees' children were edu- cated in the Nashville public schools.
Mrs. Vertrees' eldest brother, Dr. D. J. L. Ford, is now practicing medicine at Rocky Hill, Kentucky. Her youngest brother, William C. Ford, is a successful at- torney at Russellville, Arkansas. She had six sisters, all of whom married into excellent families. Elizabeth became the wife of Dr. John Sweeney, of Warren county, Kentucky, with whom Dr. Vertrees read medi- cine ; has five children. Ellen is the wife of Louis D. Shobe, a stock raiser, of Miami, Missouri; has four children. Ermine is the wife of Wilbur F. Moore, a merchant at Franklin, Kentucky; has four children. Mary is the wife of Woodford Dunn, a successful
farmer at Castalian Springs, Tennessee. Nancy is the wife of Il. T. Arnold, a retired farmer of Edgefield, Kentucky ; has four children.
As to an estimate of Dr. Vertrees' character as a man, as a physician and as a medical educator, the fol- lowing from Dr. W. P. Jones, of Nashville, his co- laborer in the great field of medical science, is well worth quoting: " I regard Dr. Vertrees as a gentleman of the highest honor and strictest integrity. He is an excellent physician, and while not remarkable for flu- ency of speech, is a careful teacher of medicine. The students of the medical college of the University of Tennessee hear him gladly, because of the exactness of his information and teachings. * The foundation of his success' was laid by his noble mother, from whom he inherited vigorous powers of thought as well as will force. The Doctor is eminently social by nature, but does most in the counsel of his own will; hence, in the language of the poet, .
' Keeps something to himself He'd scarcely tell to any.'"
WILLIAM E. WARD, A. M., D. D.
NASHVILLE.
T IIIS eminenent educator, whose name appears in numerous sketches throughout this volume, is familiar, by reputation, to thousands of persons in all portions of the country. Tall and spare-made in phys- ique, he has less of the sedentary scholar than of the pushing business man in his dress, his manners and general appearance. His hair and long flowing beard are gray-almost patriarchal, and decidedly venerable. ILis eyes are penetrating and his facial features sharply outlined ; complexion clear, without being pale or ruddy -- he looks more like a lawyer or congressman than an orthodox clergyman. Least of all does he resemble in any way the typical teacher. Yet, it is as a teacher, the foun- der and proprietor, and, for more than twenty years, the conductor of the celebrated Ward's Seminary for Young Ladies, at Nashville, that he is known, and for genera- tions will be honored in Tennessee and the surrounding States. One remarkable trait in this teacher's charac- ter is, that he is mild and gentle-mannered, kind and considerate, without being patronizing or lax in his duty toward pupils. The young ladies in his care read in his methods that he expects from them the conduct and duty of brave, industrious and intelligent women, rather than of girls who need the mock sympathy called indulgence.
William Eldred Ward was born near Huntsville, Madison county, Alabama, December 21, 1829, and was
raised on Brier Fork, near Hazel Green, in the same county. His father, John C. Ward, was a large cotton planter and slave-holder, a native of Georgia. He was a leading person in his section, a prominent Democrat and an influential man, the associate of Hon. Clement (. Clay, and his father, Gov. Clay, Hugh L. McClung, and other noted politicians. Honesty of purpose, faith- fulness to obligations, and fine judgment and reasoning powers were among his salient characteristics. It used to be said of him that he was a born lawyer, though he never studied or practiced law. In 1847, he removed to Texas and was an extensive cotton planter on Red river, in that State. He died there in 1856, at the age of fifty-six years, having been born at Augusta, Georgia, October 23, 1796.
Dr. Ward's grandfather, Matt. Ward, was a native of Dublin, Ireland, the son of Thomas Ward, a large land owner in the city of Dublin. On the second marriage of his father, Matt. Ward went to sea when a mere boy and remained a sailor before the mast till he became : captain. On the close of the Revolutionary war, he settled at Savannah, Georgia.
The name, Ward, means a guard, one who takes care of or protects very beautifully significant of the chosen profession of the subject of this sketch. The Hon. Matt. Ward, Dr. Ward's uncle, was a congressman of the old Republic of Texas for many years, and was
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fourth United States senator from Texas. His brother, Dr. William Ward, went to Texas with Col. Matt. Ward, and was prominent in his profession in that State.
Dr. Ward's mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Clark, was born in Hancock county, Georgia, in 1807, the daughter of Robert Clark, an Indian fighter under Jackson, a planter and slave-holder. Her mother was originally Miss Rebecca Sledge, of a large, wealthy and influential Georgia family. Her brothers, Robert and Silas Clark, were large planters and men of note in Alabama. Silas Clark raised and equipped a company and fought with it till he lost his life in the Confederate army. Dr. Ward's mother had only a fair English edu- cation, but her integrity, purity of character and un- selfishness made her the life of her family and neigh- borhood. Her charity was boundless. Her executive ability was shown in her managing a large plantation and forty slaves after her husband's death. She sympa- thized with her husband in his eagerness to educate their offspring. She died at Nashville, in the home of her son, in 1869, at the age of sixty, leaving four chil- dren surviving of six she had borne: (1). William Eldred Ward, subject of this sketch. (2). John Shirley Ward, now a planter and orange grower at Colton, Cali- fornia. For a short time he edited the Nashville Union and American, and the Ladies' Pearl, the latter a lit- erary magazine of fine merit. He is a Democratic politician and orator, and of high grade as a literary man. HIe was a captain in the Forty-ninth Tennessee Confed- erate infantry regiment, and distinguished himself throughout the war. (3). Rebecca E. Ward, graduated from the Athens ( Alabama) Female College and mar- Col. Frank E. Williams, a distinguished lawyer at Nashville, for nineteen years the partner of Gov. Wil- liam B. Bate, and now the law partner of Judge John V. Wright. (4). Laura V. Ward, graduated from Ward's seminary, and is now the wife of Col. William Williams, nephew of Col. Frank E. Williams, just named. (5). Robert HI. Ward, graduated in law at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee; married Annie Allen, of Texas, and died just after the war, through which he fought as a Confederate soldier. (6). Silas M. Ward, the youngest child, enlisted in Gregg's Texas regiment, was captured at Fort Donelson. and died a prisoner of war at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, Illinois.
As early as the age of six Dr. Ward was placed in a country school and pursued the ordinary branches with considerable success, and was considered a quiet, studi- ous boy, somewhat abstracted, and not much given to play. 'He soon got ahead of his classes and began the study of Latin at the age of ten, which excited the derision of his school companions. Nothing daunted, however, he mastered history, arithmetic, grammar and the other rudimentary branches, and having a great taste for oratory found time to cultivate that talend. At
the age of sixteen his father sent him to Green. Acade- my, in Huntsville, taught by James M. Davidson, the great Irish scholar, from Dublin. It was through his instructions that young Ward was inspired with a love for the classics, ancient history and geography, and in that academy he was prepared for college, and was noted as an excellent student. His health was never very good from the age of thirteen to sixteen, and he at- tended school under this disadvantage. But having a strong ambition to be a scholar and a writer, at the age of seventeen he left Green Academy and went to Cum- berland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, where he studied four years in the literary department, graduat- ing .A. B. in 1851, and two years in the law department from which he graduated, in 1853, under JJudges Nathan Green, sr., Abram Caruthers and Chancellor B. L. Ridley. After leaving the law school, he settled in Henderson, Texas, and was partner in law for one year with llon. William Stedman, a distinguished jurist, formerly of North Carolina," At the end of one year he went to Jefferson, Texas, and practiced two years with fine success as a partner with his brother, Robert HI. Ward.
In 1855, he joined the Marshall, Texas, Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, having long la- bored under the impression, even while studying law, that he ought to be a minister. Thereupon, he imme- diately turned his whole studies and course of life into a preparation for the ministry. To carry out this pur- pose he entered the divinity school at Lebanon, Ten- nessee, and studied ecclesiastical history, the Greek and Hebrew languages, and divinity one year. He then spent a year-the first of his ministerial life-in travel- ing through Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and the Indian nations, preaching everywhere, at camp meetings and other meetings, and raising money for the endowment of the theological school at Lebanon, the year's work yielding about ten thousand dollars. It was a year of very great labor, hardships and dangers, traveling alone and especially in the Indian nations, swimming rivers and under other circumstances requiring a good deal of nerve. He had a library of books in his buggy for study at odd hours, which he thoroughly saturated in swim- ming rivers in the Indian nation. Some of these vol- umes, " Horne's Introduction," " Barnes' Notes," etc., bear the marks of their itineracy to this day.
At the end of that year, 1856, he reported his year's work back to the university that sent him out, and he was discharged from further work. He then bought the Banner of Peace, the leading organ of the Cumber- land Presbyterian church, and settled in Nashville, in March, 1857, and remained as editor and proprietor of that paper till February, 1862. His editorial career is known to all the church, and recognized as really the starting out of a new life in Presbyterian church work, the Doctor's extensive travel and learning giving to it a high tone and value. The fall of Fort Donelson
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stopped the paper, and it was discontinued during the war. Being now much exhausted by constant work, he moved with his family five, miles out of Nashville, and lived a quiet life, to rest and take care of his family.
During the last year of the war Dr. Ward lived in the city of New York, observing schools and educa- tional matters in New York and the New England States, studying the life of those institutions that had attained to success, with a view of establishing an institution of his own as soon as the war should close. When that event arrived, in April, 1865, Dr. Ward had his plans fully matured, and left New York in July, 1865, and opened Ward's Seminary for Young Ladies, in Sep- tember, 1865, in the Kirkman building, near the State capitol, which he rented for the purpose. It was a boarding and day school, and began with six boarders and about forty day scholars. It continued in that building till March, 1866, when he bought the building on Spruce street, where the school has ever since re- mained. From that date till the present his life has been that of an educator, and his success is known throughout the country. Over three thousand young ladies have been taught in this famous school from Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ar- kansas, Texas, California, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and the Indian nations. Few if any schools in the United States can show such a uniformly large list of alumna as Dr. Ward's catalogue exhibits.
This school has been built on personal exertion, with- out a dollar of contribution or donation from any source. It has been directed by the mind of the prin- cipal, without a board of trustees, which, in the editor's opinion, hampers more institutions than they have ever benefited. Trustees are not necessary to the success of institutions of learning, as Dr. Ward's experience shows. . Where a building or a teacher or apparatus is wanted, or an art gallery, or any thing pertaining to educational advancement is needed, the principal has chosen and procured it of his own accord, and with his own means. This school has always been undenomina- tional, and has educated the daughters of the most dis- tinguished clergymen, lawyers, planters, judges, physi- cians, merchants and politicians. in the country. Dr. Ward has traveled in most countries in Europe, espe- cially England, Germany and Switzerland, noticing the forms of education in vogue in those countries, and adapting them to American ideas so far as he deemed them useful. A feature of the school is to embrace lectures on the various countries of Europe every Sat- urday evening, when a levee of music and elocution is held in connection with these lectures of the principal These lectures have opened the minds of thousands of young ladies to the importance of history, the manners and customs of foreign countries, contributing largely to that broad culture, which it is a leading object of this
school to impart. These lectures incite to the reading of history by the pupils, and have proven eminently beneficial.
About one hundred young ladies, graduates of this institution, are teachers of music and literary branches, one or two of these being Indians and teaching Indians, and two others are teaching in China as missionaries of the Methodist church. Gen. John Eaton, United States commissioner of education, says: " As an individual educator, Dr. Ward has had greater educational success ---¿. e., built up a larger school with his unaided exer- tions, without endowment, than any other man." He furthermore states that Ward's seminary stands first in the South in respect to numbers and general facilities for education. The buildings and furniture and appa- ratus cost one hundred thousand dollars. There is a large art building erected, arranged and furnished on the most improved ideas as an art hall. The curricu- lum in the collegiate department embraces five years. The school has paid teachers one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, employing twenty teachers, all of the highest grade. The French language is spoken daily at three tables, and the German language at one. The school has brought about one million dollars to Nash- ville. It was chartered by the State in 1869.
The high character which this seminary maintains, and the commendatory manner in which it is spoken of, may be seen from the following notices of the press throughout the country-North and South :
The New York Mercantile Review, speaking of the schools of Nashville, says: "The chief and oldest es- tablished of these is W. E. Ward's seminary. As a private educational enterprise, it is unquestionably une- qualled in the country."
The Boston Journal of Education says: " Nashville still remains the headquarters of academic education for girls in the Southwest. Dr. W. E. Ward's seminary contains the daughters of the most distinguished fami- lies of a dozen States as boarding pupils, with a large number of Nashville girls. In all respects it seems to be abreast of similar institutions elsewhere."
It has a wonderful history .- Christion Observer, Louisville, Kentucky.
The leading female seminary at Nashville .- Atlanta (Georgia) Constitution.
The standard of this school is of the highest order. - Gallatin (Tennessee) Examiner.
With confidence we commend this seminary to pa- rents .- Waco (Texas) Examine.
The institution has no superior, and but few equals, in the South. -- Nashville Banner.
This school stands deservedly high throughout the southern States, -- Austin (Texas) Statesman.
The principal is well known to us as a Christian gen- tleman, an eminent scholar, and most excellent teacher. The seminary buildings are the finest in the State, if not in the entire South .- Memphis Avalanche.
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This institution is becoming, under the management of Mr. Ward and his accomplished wife, one of the most prominent institutions of learning in the South .- Memphis Ledger.
Parents wishing to send their daughters out of the State would find Nashville a fine, healthy city, and Mr. Ward's seminary to offer every educational advantage .-.. Montgomery ( Alabama) Advertiser.
This institution has rapidly risen to high position. It. has just closed a very prosperous season .- Nashville Christian Advocate.
Ward's seminary, at Nashville, Tennessee, has a dis- tinguished reputation for the education of young ladies. -Houston (Texas) Telegraph.
It has gradually worked its way till it justly occupies a position in the front rank of American institutions .- Galveston (Texas) News.
One of the most flourishing institutions of learning in the country. Those who wish to give their dangh- ters a thorough education, not only in the elegant acquirements of life, but in all the studies going to make the accomplished scholar, cannot do better than place them in W. E. Ward's seminary, Nashville, Ten- nessee .- New Orleans Picayune.
The late commencement exercises of Ward's semi- nary were highly interesting, attracting large and de- lighted audiences of the elite of Nashville society. Dr. Ward exhibits the qualities of a live educator, and his seminary is one of the fixed institutions, not only of Tennessee, but the whole South. Its continued and increasing success is the just reward of energy, talent, >and public spirit .- Nashville Christian Advocate.
Ward's Seminary for Young Ladies is an instance of individuality applied to schools. Discarding boards of trustees, visiting committees, baccalaureate orators, and the common machinery of all other schools, it has been managed by one mind, and its grand object has been to find the want in all matters of training, and to strike for it on the most direct line .- Nashville American.
The school is in the prime of its vigor and reaching out for more patronage than ever, and receiving more. It is a solid, permanent institution, destined, let us trust, to be perpetuated. So much of Dr. Ward's time is taken up with care for this, his sacred charge, he finds but little leisure to devote to aught else. In 1860, he became a Master Mason. In politics he is an hereditary Democrat, but has never taken more active part in poli- tics than exercising the right of suffrage.
Dr. Ward married, at Nashville, February 24, 1859, Miss Eliza H. Hudson, eldest daughter of Dr. John R. Hudson, a Virginian, distinguished in his profession, and a large practitioner in his earlier manhood, now in his eighty-fourth year, living in Nashville. Her grand- father, Charles Hudson, of Mecklenburg county, Vir- ginia, was a distinguished citizen of that county, a large tobacco grower. Her mother, nee Miss Minnie Napier,
was the daughter of John Napier, an iron-master of Dickson county, Tennessee, and niece of Dr. Elias W. Napier, the originator of iron manufacture in Tennes- see. Mrs. Ward was born in Dickson county, Tennes- see, February 10, 1839, and graduated from C. D. Elliott's Nashville Female Academy. She is tall, com- manding and graceful in appearance, and has a remark- able degree of energy and candor and unselfishness of character ; a refined Christian spirit with a great and inherited knowledge of medicine, sickness and disease, and the proper remedies, rendering her in this respect a matron unsurpassed for the training of young girls. For more than twenty years her unremitting hand and heart have nobly and faithfully seconded her husband in the great work of education. She has stimulated the ambition of hundreds of timid girls, repressed and reformed many spirits violent by nature, and built up the true idea of refined womanhood in nearly every case brought within her influence. Meanwhile, she has cultivated art to such a degree as to. have become dis- tinguished in the city as an amatuer in painting and all artistic work. Like her husband, she is a Cumberland Presbyterian. To her good sense and refined taste, the success of Ward's seminary is perhaps as much due as to the superior management of her husband.
By his marriage with Miss Hudson, Dr. Ward has five children living, four having died in infancy. The living are: (1). Sallie Ward, now the widow of John W. Conley, iron merchant, deceased. She graduated from Ward's seminary in the class of 1877. (2). Flor- ence Ward, graduated from Ward's seminary in the class of' 1879; now the wife of Robert IL. Chaffe, a com- mission merchant at New Orleans. (3). Eunice Ward, graduated from Ward's seminary in the class of 1883. (-1, 5). William E. Ward, jr., and Rebecca Ward.
A principle with Dr. Ward has been to seek the best associations in college when a boy, and in society, and even to stand aloof from all, until he could find con- genial associates, as he did when he came a stranger to Nashville. Another rule of his is to prepare well for work and responsibility by a broad substratum of study and knowledge, and trust that the time would come when he could abundantly use them. Still another trait is not to say what he was going to do, but keep his own counsel, and let his actions speak to the world for themselves. Young men should derive great encour- agement from this example-not to feel discouraged when men tell you you cannot succeed, but redouble your energies, keep your own counsel and go ahead. If Dr. Ward had listened to the wisest men in Nashville, he would have abandoned his educational work long ago, for they said it was impossible to succeed in so great an undertaking without pecuniary help. He has lived to demonstrate that they were mistaken. He planned, he resolved, he worked, and extraordinary suc- cess has crowned his efforts.
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HON. HOWELL EDMUNDS JACKSON.
NASHVILLE.
T' HITS gentleman, now United States senator from Tennessee, and noted as one of the most profound and erudite lawyers in the State, was born at Paris, Tennessee, April 8, 1832. Just now in the prime of life, with his great intellectual abilities and capacities daily unfolding, he is destined, without doubt, to retain distinction and to have his name enrolled among the nomina clara of the nation. He is the son of the late Dr. A. Jackson and wife, nee Miss Mary Hurt, of Jack - son, Tennessee. A full account of his ancestry will be found in the sketch of his brother, Gen. William II. Jackson, published in another part of this volume.
Howell E. Jackson obtained his academie education in the " old field schools," in the vicinage of Jackson, and his first diploma from the West Tennessee College at Jackson, from which latter institution he graduated, in 1849. with the highest honors of his class. In 1850, he entered the University of Virginia, and completing the customary course there, again graduated with dis- tinguished honors. Returning home he read law for one year under his distinguished kinsman, Judge A. W. O. Totten, then a member of the Supreme court of Tennessee, and Judge Milton Brown. Next he at- tended the law school at Lebanon, Tennessee, in the fall of 1855, and graduated thence in the summer of 1856.
While en route home from the law school, he and his brother, Gen. William II. Jackson, who had just grad- uated from the West Point Military Academy, met in Nashville, spent a day or two in visiting points of inter- est about the city, and for the first time visited, to- gether, the friend of their father, Gen. William G. Harding- quite a coincidence when it is stated that the two brothers, years later, married the only two daugh- ters of Gen. Harding. From Nashville, the brothers repaired in a stage coach to their home in Jackson, Tennessee, where their fond father met them at day- light, as the stage stopped at his front gate, filled with joy that his two only sons should have filled the full measure of his hope by graduating at the institu- tions of his choice- a proud reflection for any young man to have.
Beginning the practice of the law at Jackson, our subject met with fine success. Subsequently, in 1858, he removed to Memphis, where he formed a most de- sirable law-partnership with Hon. David M. Currin, ex-member of Congress.
At the beginning of hostilities, he was appointed re- ceiver under the Confederate sequestration act for West Tennessee. He shifted about at different points in the South, his duty being to take care of sequestered effects during the war.
After the war, he returned to Memphis, resumed the practice of law, having associated with him B. M. Estes, under the firm name of Estes & Jackson, one of the leading law firms of Memphis ; subsequently asso- ciating with them Judge Ellet, ex-member of the Su- preme bench of Mississippi, under the firm name of Estes, Ellet & Jackson.
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