MONTAGUE S. ROSS.

TENNESSEE

The Volunteer State

1769 — 1923

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME II

CHICAGO NASHVILLE

THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY

1923

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign     http://archive.org/details/tennesseevolunte02moor

MONTAGUE S. ROSS.

Montague S. Ross, a representative of one of the oldest pioneer families of

Tennessee, is a leading member of the Nashville bar, while he also has important

business interests and has always found time to cooperate with every movement

seeking the advancement and upbuilding of his city. He was born in Savannah,

Tennessee, August 12, 1880, and his parents, William Ulysses and Lucy Ann (Ross)

Ross, were natives of Hardin county, this state, in which section the family was

established during the territorial period in the history of Tennessee. The great-

grandfather of Mr. Ross was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and his remains

are interred in the national cemetery, which is situated in the Shiloh National

Park at Pittsburg Landing. The family is an old and prominent one of the south,

and the ancestral record has been traced back for about four hundred years. The

father devoted his life to the occupation of farming and was numbered among the

well known agriculturists of Hardin county. His demise occurred in May, 1908, and

the mother passed away in February, 1903.

In the acquirement of an education Montague S. Ross attended the public

schools of Hardin county, Tennessee, and a private school at Savannah, this state,

after which he became a student at the University of Nashville, now known as Pea-

body College, and was graduated from that institution in 1903 with the A. B. degree.

In 1904 he became superintendent of public schools at Greenfield, Tennessee, and in

the fall of that year he entered the law school of George Washington University

at Washington, D. C., from which he was graduated in 1907, winning the degree

of Bachelor of Laws. Coming to Nashville, he was associated with the law firm of

Pitts & McConico until July 1, 1919, and has since engaged in private practice,

being accorded a liberal clientele. His legal learning, his analytical mind, the readi-

ness with which he grasps the points in an argument, all combine to make him

one of the most capable attorneys of Nashville, and he has ever conformed his

practice to the highest ethical standards of the profession. In 1914 Mr. Ross as-

sisted in organizing the Lincoln Fire Insurance Company, of which he has since

been general counsel, and in 1916 he was made treasurer, which office he still fills.

He is a sagacious, farsighted business man and is one of the owners of the Montague

Realty Company, which is operating on an extensive scale, while he also aided in

organizing and promoting the Montague summer resort, which is situated near

Nashville.

On the 9th of September, 1908, Mr. Ross married Miss Hazel Mitchum, a

daughter of R. B. and Donie (Adams) Mitchum, both of whom were born in Tennes-

see, the former being a native of Gibson county and the latter of McNairy county.

The father is numbered among the leading business men of Nashville and is a mem-

ber of the Cayce Transfer Company, the largest concern of the kind operating in the

city, and he also conducts the Merchants Delivery Company. Mr. and Mrs. Ross

have become the parents of three children: Robert Montague, who was born Novem-

ber 26, 1909; William Milton, born December 9, 1911; and James Bailey Mitchum.

whose birth occurred on the 22d of January, 1921.

Mr. Ross is a Presbyterian in religious faith, and his political allegiance is given

to the democratic party. His life has never been a self-centered one, for the welfare

of others has ever been to him a matter of deep concern, and he has been connected

with many movements which have had to do with bettering the conditions of humanity

in his city and raising the standards of life to a higher plane. In association with

J. H. Allison, he founded the Big Brothers, a movement which was formed for the

purpose of aiding the various charitable associations of the city and which has ac-

complished much good. He also promoted the Nashville Milk & Ice Commission for

Babies, which was subsequently taken over by the city, and has likewise labored

earnestly to extend the industrial interests of his community, serving for three years

as first vice president and for a year as president of the Nashville Business Men's

Association, which was later absorbed by the Chamber of Commerce. During the

World war he did all in his power to aid his country, serving as a Four-Minute

speaker and as a member of the legal advisory board, and he was also sergeant

of Company H of the Tennessee National Guard. He is a Mason and a member of the

Nashville Bar & Library Association and the State Bar Association. He is also a

member of Kappa Alpha college fraternity, and for two years was commander of the

province comprising Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan. He belongs to that public-

spirited and helpful type of men whose activities are directed into those channels

which have for their object public improvement and the advancement of the

general welfare, and his course has at all times marked him as a citizen of worth.

HISTORIC HOUSES OF OLD NASHVILLE

The article below was originally written by Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley and appeared in a Nashville newspaper.  The article was republished in by Douglas Anderson many years later.  I have not yet found the name or date of the paper in which Lindsley's article was first published.  The article was transcribed, formatted and published by Debie Cox.

HISTORIC HOUSES OF OLD NASHVILLE

By Douglas Anderson

Old Nashville occupied a very small area.  The Cumberland on the east, Broad street on the south, the Franklin Pike  (now Spruce street) on the west and Line street on the north, embraced it’s limits with ample airspace for all within.  Only a few acres, indeed, and yet with confidence, it may be said, that no similar territory in America was more fruitful in historic characters and events…

During all these years there was scarcely a house within the above mentioned narrow limits which might not rightly lay claim to historic interest.  Now there is hardly a site but should be marked by a memorial tablet as nearly all houses have given way to the relentless march of improvement…

ROANE AND FOGG.

Naturally the northern declivity of Capitol hill first attracts us.  At the northeast corner of Gay and Summer was the residence of Dr. James Roane, son of the distinguished governor, and father of Archibald Roane, because of whose friendship Caleb Cushing lost the high position of chief justice of the United States.  Dr. Roane was the first victim of the cholera epidemic of 1833.  He was in all respects a magnificent physician.  A mural tablet should make the spot where his life and labors adorned his profession and did honor to our good city.

Just opposite at the northwest corner of Gay and Summer, in a house still remaining and but little changed, dwelt for several years the great lawyer, the cultured scholar and the admiral man, Francis Brinley Fogg, who afterward occupied, until his death, a large double house with ample grounds, now the site of the famous Watkins Institute.  This Church Street residence was also rendered noted and dear to all the people of Nashville and Tennessee by the literary talent and saintly virtues of  Mary Middleton Rutledge Fogg, a woman truly worthy of being classed with the "Marys" of New Testament record.  From this Church Street residence also went forth in 1861 Maj. H. M. R. Fogg only living child of an avowed heroic Union adherent and a devoted Southern mother, who was the first of many noble Nashville boys to meet a soldier's honorable death.  O, the renowned years of 1862, 1863 and 1864, are full of sad histories attached to many Nashville residences, which for long years to come will furnish sad memories and in more distant time material for romance and poetry.

Resuming our survey of scanty remnants yet remaining, at the northeast corner of Market and Locust Streets, near the L & N railroad may be see portions of what in the 'away-back' was a handsome residence in the best part of the town.  Randal McGavock, clerk of the court, and different courts for years, in and out, dwelt there.  He was one of the patriarchs of the landed McGavock tribe, who owned the greater part of Nashville's vicinity, and made a mark by their liberal public spirit.  He gave the site of the now influential Presbyterian church.  He also invited his nephew, Jacob McGavock, to visit him while pursuing his studies under Dr. Priestly at Cumberland college.  However young Jacob soon went off with 'Priestly's Pets' to the wars, and was distinguished at Enotochopco for his part in saving the day to Andrew Jackson, a turning point in the latter's career.  Naturally all his long life through Jacob was an unswerving Jacksonian Democrat, and his own residence, a typical double brick house with ample grounds and servants' quarters on Cherry street, where now stands the McGavock block, was long the headquarters for that unbending opposition with which the Democratic minority in Davidson county stood out against a proud, imperious Whig majority.  And so, naturally, when James K. Polk was elected President of the United States, despite the adverse vote of Tennessee, Jacob McGavock gave him a grand reception and grand banquet, we would now call it, very famous in its day.

In May, 1863, the same house witnessed quite a different scene when the venerable occupant received news, all the way around through Washington City, of the death of his heroic Randal, who fell at the head of the renowned Tenth Tennessee infantry (the Irish regiment) at the battle of Raymond, Miss., and thus forever stamped his name as "hero" upon the part of Grant's invincible steps to wards and into Vicksburg.

Many such memories as these cluster around the historic houses of Nashville.  We must refrain.  Why does not Nashville furnish a ready pen and a sympathetic heart to commemorate her Confederate boys, as Polk Grundy Johnson, the brave, the eloquent, the true did in his busy life for those of Clarksville.

DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

During the occupation of Nashville by the Federal forces, which took place in February, 1862, soon after the fall of Fort Donelson, and continued far into 1865, many residences and public buildings became inseparably connected with the annals of the Union army.

The hospitals alone were about twenty-five in number.  all the churches the Catholic and Episcopal only excepted, because of sanitary defects; the university and the female academy, the public schools and many large storehouses were thus occupied.  The Cumberland field hospital alone embraced some fifteen acres in West Nashville.  In all some 18,000 beds could be furnished.  All were well supplied with surgeons, nurse, medicines and comforts.

For three years the great publishing house of the M. E. Church, South was a thoroughly-equipped government printing office.  Many residences became headquarters for general officers, commissariat or quartermasters.  Dr. John Waters had a handsome residence, northwest corner of College and Bank alley.  This was post headquarters, occupied successively by Gens. Robert D. Mitchell, R. S. Granger and John T. Miller.

The Armstrong house on Cherry street near the Maxwell House, was a very live concern under Capt. William Mills, A. Q. M., and Capt. John F. Isom, A. Q. M. and also Capt. A. W. Wills, A. Q. M.  The latter was very courteous to the present writer, when, as chancellor, he had the large buildings of the old university property entered upon the rolls as neither deserted nor abandoned: and also he has very kindly furnished memoranda for the present sketch far more than space permits the record.

SITE OF HERMITAGE CLUB.

The Cunningham residence, now the Hermitage Club, was at times the headquarters of the army of the Cumberland, of the army of Tennessee, and of the military division of the Mississippi.  Gens. Buell, Rosecrans, Thomas, Sherman and Grant, all imperishable names, issued orders from this house to mighty hosts during years of uncertain conflict.  For a few days this house was headquarters of the entire United States army.  Here it was that Grant took command as lieutenant-general and issued his first order as such, early in January, 1864.

TOURING OLD CHERRY.

Let us resume our more peaceful tour.  On Cherry street, No. 129, north, remain portions of the house in which Dr. Felix Robertson, the first white child born in Nashville and the first medical graduate from Tennessee, so long gained reputation as an eminent practitioner and dispensed that genuine, unaffected and yet lavish hospitality which gave fame to the South.  Also on the west side of Cherry, a little north, were the residences of Thomas Claiborne, congressman and preacher; of David Craighead, Democratic leader of sturdy independence, with whom James K. Polk made his Nashville home while governor.  At that time all Cherry between Cedar and Broad was the center of social life.  Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Catron had a large house, a remnant of which remains at Nos. 214-218 North Cherry.

But of all the Cherry street residences the most historic is the present number, 142, north, separated by a narrow new building from Cumberland alley.  Here for many years quietly dwelt as a peaceful student, the most celebrated man born in Nashville, William Walker of Nicaragua.  A man much misunderstood and much maligned.  The logical successor of Crockett and Houston, who but for the unwarranted interference of American and British vessels of war would have places Central America a century in advance, and given the United States free access by water to her Pacific empire.

On Cherry, opposite the Grand Opera House, Leonard P. Cheatham dwelt for years, famous for as elegant bevy of girls as ever graced one household.  Also here was reared 'Mars Frank' who certainly contributed his full share to the martial glory of Tennessee on the battlefields of Mexico and his native South.

CEDAR, SUMMER, CHERRY, UNION.

Cedar street from the Square westward was at this time also a central society region, adorned by a large wooden mansion of Thomas Washington and Matthew Watson.  specimens of the latter still remain.  The present number, 422, is the former residence of Mrs. Felicia Grundy Porter, noted for the hospitable entertainment of strangers, and later on for the self-sacrificing and unstinted efforts of its head in behalf of the Confederate prisoners and refugees, and whose noble work for the Southern cause will never be forgotten.  George Washington Campbell, eminent as secretary of the treasury under President Madison, and as minister to Russia, occupied the present capitol grounds, and subsequently the spacious brick house, now the residence of the Roman Catholic Bishop.

On Summer street we note at the southeast corner of Deaderick a little remnant of the house for many years distinguished by the labors of R. B. C. Howell, pastor, theologian and author.

The northwest corner of Cherry and Union is a momento of Josiah Nichol, banker, merchant and liberal citizen, father-in-law of the celebrated Gen. Robert Armstrong, and mainly instrumental in inducing Phillip Lindsley to forsake Princeton and choose frontier Nashville for his life work.

The noted homes of Dr. Boyd McNairy, the friend and host of Henry Clay, and of Sam D. Morgan, that pattern of commercial honor, are now replaced by the splendid business houses on the west side of Summer and north of Church.

On the southwest corner of Summer and Cedar, there remains, not changed, the immense house built by Hugh Kirkman as a family mansion, which has since filled many public functions.  Just beyond, on Cedar street, was the modest dwelling of Return J. Meigs, who could live only under the flag of the Union, and in 1861 removed to Washington City, esteemed and honored even then by all his fellow citizens.

For many years, William Carroll, the renowned soldier, governor and philanthropist, dwelt in a house at the southwest corner of High and Union.  At the northeast corner the home yet stands which sheltered William K. Bowling, eminent as physician, teacher and editor.

CHURCH, HIGH BROAD.

An ancient landmark but little changed is the dwelling at the northwest corner of Church and High.  Dr. Paul F. Eve, the great surgeon of the South, ended his days here, after many years of residence. Next is the large house built by John M. Bass, afterwards much enlarged by E. W. Cole, the scene of brilliant social functions under both owners.  Gov. Newton Cannon owned and occupied a house at the southeast corner of Church and Spruce, then the Franklin pike. On this pike, where is now the Warner house, took place the war-time incident which has given Aunt Hettie McEwen an imperishable page in romantic history and shown Confederate soldiers as gentlemen of the highest type.

On Broad street, as it were, on the edge of the city, or town, rather, were three great mansions.  That of James Wood stood where is now the front of the Nashville College for Young Ladies.  With his two brothers and Thomas Yeatman he formed the famous iron firm of Woods, Yeatman & Co., whose Cumberland Iron Works were destroyed by Federal troops.  Also the same parties constituted a model banking firm, which withstood all panics and shocks.

The central of the three houses stood where now stands the United States building, which also followed occupancy by the Shelby Medical College.  Its owner was Harry R. W. Hill, the great cotton merchant of New Orleans and the valley, a whole-souled man of whom many pleasant traditions still remain.

The eastern of the three houses may yet be seen as the Broadway hotel, near the corner of Cherry.  Thomas Yeatman, its builder was a many with city ideas.  His untimely death by the cholera of 1833 put Nashville back many years.

VAUXHALL AND EDGEFIELD.

In the country, southwest of Hill and Woods, a well known suburban resort, the Vauxhall Gardens, was the scene of many public and private entertainments.  Here John Bell issued one of his remarkable pronounciamentos known as his Vauxhall speech.  The Woods and the Yeatman houses may be looked upon as the Nashville homes of that celebrated and truly great man.  He was allied to both these families and they delighted to honor and aid him in all his splendid public career.

However, of all of Mr. Bell's noted kindred, the most distinguished is the little woman whose facile pen and fertile imagination has given to Tennessee a position in the literary world alongside with Cable's Louisiana.  Charles Egbert Craddock spent the best years of her youth with her father's family in the Murfree residence on Vauxhall Street, now known as the Plater house.

Outside and around the little Nashville above imperfectly sketched lay a cordon of beautiful sites with famous homes.  The University Hill, with its Lindsleys, Rutledges, Woods and their many noted visitors from the East and Europe, would detain us too long.  While beyond we find Fairfield, Mansfield, St. Mary's Orphan Asylum and Hospital of the Good Shepherd, localities where for many years Wm. R. Lewis, Ephraim H. Foster, Charles J. Love and others gave receptions to Andrew Jackson and his friends.  Over the Cumberland two names with large landed interests overshadowed all.  Dr. John Shelby of Fatherland and Nicholas Hobson of banking fame.  Edgefield, resultant of a New Yorker's enterprise (M. W. Wetmore), was of a later date and built up from the farms owned by the parties just mentioned.

[This link has street name changes and may help identify streets mentioned above - http://nashvillehistory.blogspot.com/2010/01/nashville-street-name-changes.html]

History of Spring Hill Cemetery

 by Debie Oeser Cox

Thomas B. Craighead arrived in the Cumberland Settlements in 1785, being called to minister to the mostly Presbyterian population and to act as headmaster and teacher for a planned academy.  The subscribing congregation presented Craighead with a 640 acre tract of land known as “the spring hill tract,” in advance payment for his expected services to the community.  A building was erected on his property for use as a house of worship and the school, named Davidson Academy.  Although records do not exist, the earliest burials in the churchyard probably occurred in the late 1780s.  Rev. Craighead deeded, in 1813, the meeting house and ten acres to the Spring Hill neighborhood to be  used as a place of worship, a school and burying ground.  In 1888, Madison Stratton, David Stratton, W. C. Dribble, James E. Sloan and R. E. Love were granted a charter of incorporation for the Craighead Spring Hill Cemetery Association.  In 1934, Mary Stratton Morris was granted an amendment to the charter of incorporation, changing the name of the corporation to the Spring Hill Cemetery Company.  Mrs. Morris, a widow, later married Dr. James T. Hayes.  She was president of the Spring Hill Cemetery Company from 1934 until her death in 1974.  The cemetery business remained in the Hayes family hands into the 1990s.  Spring Hill Cemetery continues in operation today.

Records for the Spring Hill Cemetery from 1901 to 1985 are on microfilm at the Metro Archives and Tennessee State Library and Archives.  There are no interment records prior to 1901.  

This article was also published, with permission of the author Debie Oeser Cox, on the Davidson County Cemetery Survey website; http://www.davidsoncocemeterysurvey.com/home/cemeteries-s-u/spring-hill-cemetery

Haysborough and Spring Hill

by Debie Cox
Judge Jo. C. Guild of Sumner County mentioned Haysborough in his memoirs, published in 1878. Speaking of the pioneering days of the Nashville area, Guild wrote, "Haysboro was then the rival of Nashville, but while the latter has grown to a large city, the former is numbered with the renowned places of past ages."

Historian A. W. Putnam, mistakenly named Haysborough as the site of Fort Union. A recent discovery of local historian Paul Clements proves that Fort Union (mentioned in the Cumberland Compact) was located some distance from Haysborough in a nearby county. Putnam's confusion may have come from stories of another fort known as Irish Station. In Madison Station, author Guy Bockmon quoted from Lyman Draper Manuscripts,

About the year 1782, a party (perhaps some twenty families) of Washington County emigrants settled "the Irish Station" near the present Haysboro on the northern bank of the Cumberland, some 7 or 8 miles above Nashville. The people from Washington County, VA were mostly descended from Irish parentage & Presbyterians - they brought their parson with them, the Rev. Ths Craighead...

Perhaps Irish Station occupied buildings described in the sale of the property, from William Cocke to Colonel Robert Hays, as "Spencer's improvement." The 640 acre tract, a preemptors grant to William Cocke, was located about 6 miles to the north east of Nashville on a north bank of Cumberland River. Hays, a Revolutionary hero, came to Tennessee from North Carolina about 1784. Andrew Jackson was a frequent visitor of the Hays family and it is possible that the 1794 marriage of Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson Robards (sister of Hays' wife Jane) took place at the Hays home. Robert Hays, along with John Overton, accompanied Jackson to the courthouse in Nashville, where he obtained a license to marry Rachel.

In 1794 Hays sold a section of the land to Thomas Hudson and George McWhirter who divided the property into 72 one-half acre lots with the intent to establish a town, called Haysborough in honor of Robert Hays. In October of 1799 the Tennessee legislature granted a charter for Haysborough. Early lot owners were John Hope, George Perry, Samuel McSpaddin and physician Cornelius Baldwin. Gen. Thomas Overton and his brother Judge John Overton, law partner of Andrew Jackson, owned lots. John Coffee, Robert Hays and Thomas Harney opened a store in town. Kinchen Wilkinson operated a brick works in the vicinity.

The land granted to William Cocke, was bordered on the east by the Cumberland River and on the west by land granted to the heirs of Alexander Buchanan. The Buchanan grant, referred to as the Spring Hill tract because of a large spring on the land, was deeded in 1785 to Presbyterian minister Thomas B. Craighead, as an enticement to settle in Davidson County. The arrival of the group from Washington County to Irish Station may have been as early as 1782, but if so the preacher Craighead was late in following, probably arriving in 1785. Craighead is believed to be the first minister to come to the settlements and soon after arriving began preaching in a small stone church erected on his property near the road to Mansker's Station. This road, later called Gallatin Pike, followed along an old buffalo trace and was the first road established by the Davidson County Courts.

Soon after the arrival of Craighead, classes of the Davidson Academy began meeting at Craighead's church. The school was established in 1785 by an act of the North Carolina legislature. Thomas B. Craighead, Hugh Williamson, Daniel Smith, William Polk, Anthony Bledsoe, James Robertson, Lardner Clark, Ephraim McLean, and Robert Hayes, were named as trustees. Reverend Craighead served as president for many years. Davidson Academy was moved to another site in 1806, and eventually evolved into Peabody College for Teachers and Vanderbilt Medical School. Craighead continued to teach classes in his church building, calling the school Spring Hill Academy.

Craighead lived near the church building, across the road to the southwest, toward Nashville. His first house was constructed of logs about 1785. The house and property was later sold to Anthony Johnson, who enlarged the structure and covered it with clapboard. Johnson sold the house in 1854 and the property came to be known as Evergreen Place. The old home was demolished in September 2005 for commercial development.

Around 1795 Craighead constructed a brick home north of the first house. Craighead lived here until his death. The house became the property of the Walton family in 1870. It was Mrs. Walton, a great-niece of Rachel Donelson Jackson and Jane Donelson Hays, who named this property Glen Echo. Glen Echo was torn down to make way for Briley Parkway.

Reverend Craighead in 1813 gave, by recorded deed, the meeting house and some adjoining land to the people of the neighborhood for, "a meeting house for public worship and a school house and a burying ground..." Craighead reserved the right to remain as headmaster of the school. Craighead died in 1824 and is buried at Spring Hill Cemetery.

Cheek Lake, a small private lake on property between Spring Hill Cemetery and the river, today covers an area that was near the center of old Haysborough.

Haysboro Avenue runs east from Gallatin Pike several blocks back to Brush Hill Road. This residential street and a historical marker at Spring Hill cemetery are visible reminders of the old town and of Craighead and his church. It is hoped that an agreement between the Metro Historical Commission and present property owners of Evergreen Place will result in a small park near the old home. This could be a place where log structures on the property can be relocated near the historic spring house.

Published October 10, 2005
Note: The spellings Haysborough and Haysboro are both used in this article. The spelling of the original settlement as found in early records was Haysborough. The street that carries the name in Inglewood today is spelled Haysboro.

For sources and further information please consult the book, Madison Station written by historian Guy Alan Bockmon. Dr. Bockmon devoted several chapters to Haysborough and the surrounding neighborhood, and included maps and photographs. The writer of this article spent several years researching the history of the Haysborough neighborhood. The results, in raw, unedited form, including transcriptions and copies of original records and documents from many sources were turned over to Dr. Bockmon. He took the time to organize and study the research material, conducted further research and put the history of Haysborough and Spring Hill on paper. You will find Madison Station at local book stores and libraries. Check Dr. Bockmon's web site for additional information:
Madison Station
by Guy Alan Bockmon, 1997
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~madisontn/~gbockmon.html
Content on this page was transcribed and published by Debie Cox.
Copyright © 2006, Debie Cox.