Biographies

 

Major Samuel Poe

 

Asahel Rawlings

 

Lewis Shepherd 

 

John Crawford

 

James Davis

 

David Newton Bell

 

Peter Bolton

 

B. Brabson Reese

 

Abel Pearson

 

Reverand  Benjamin Wallace

 

Joseph Ruohs

 

Noah S. Richie, M.D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Major Samuel Poe

    Born 1810, died 1865, was the son of Hasten and Celia Poe.

     

    He raised a regiment in Hamilton County for service in the Mexican War and was elected

    major. Before the regiment could march he was notified that the War was over.

     

    He married Mary E. Bryant, sister of Samuel Bryant. Their children were:

     

    William, who served in the Confederate Army; John H., born 1849, died Dec. 11, 1927, married Sarah Louise Bean, daughter of Major William Bean, Sarah, who married James Putnam; Hasten Poe.

    History of Hamilton County

      

     

    Asahel Rawlings

     

    Born about 1778, was one of the earliest citizens of Hamilton County. He was the first of a

    large family to move to the section and was followed by numerous brothers, sisters, and other kins people.

     

    He was the son of Asahel and Margaret Rawlings, of Greene County.

     

    He moved to the section by 1810, as the tomb of his wife is marked with that date.

     

    When Hamilton County was erected, the county seat was estabished on his farm and was first called Hamilton County Court house.

     

    He secured a post office which was also called Hamilton County Courthouse and he was appointed first postmaster.

     

    He suggested the name Dallas for the office and town.

     

    He was the first County Court Clerk and served continuously from 1819 until 1844, one year before his death.

     

    His name is signed to the first deed registered in the county.

     

    He used his private seal for several years as the county had no seal.

     

    He married Phoebe Thurman, daughter .of Phillip Thurman. She was born June 25, 1786,

    died Aug. 17, 1810 (some records say 1816).

     

    He erected a handsome tomb at his wife's grave and his own tomb, unmarked, is beside it.

     

    Their children were Philip Thurman Rawlings, who lived in Rhea County; and Asahel Rawlings III.

     

     History of Hamilton County

 

    was born March 7, 1846, in Hamilton county, Tennessee, a son of Lewis and Margaret (Donohoo) Shepherd who were married in 1833 and in 1839 he located in Hamilton county

    and remained until his death in 1856. His wife survived him until 1879

     

    The younger Lewis Shepherd's early education was received at Burritt College in Van Buren county and at H. W. Von Alderhoff's Institute on Lookout Mountain, but his academic training was suddenly interrupted by  the Civil war. At the time he was only fifteen years old, but he quickly laid aside his books to enlist in the Confederate army as a private in Company A, Fifth Regiment of Tennessee Cavalry, under Colonel G. W. McKenzie. He was mustered into the service at Knoxville and was placed on duty in eastern Tennessee until the time of General Zollicoffer's campaign through Kentucky.   He participated in the battle of Fishing Creek,

    then was with Bragg in Kentucky.  Shared in several skirmishes with Wheeler, also served in

    the rear guard on retreat.

     

    After this campaign Lewis Shepherd returned to eastern Tennessee, where he remained until

    the engagement at Chickamauga, where he took active part in the capture of Cloud Springs General Hospital on the second day of this conflict. He then accompanied Wheeler upon the latter's famous raid through central Tennessee, but shortly afterward was made a prisoner of

    war and was confined at Camp Morton, Indiana, until February, 1865, when he was

    exchanged and sent to Richmond.

     

    He then joined Gen. J. C. Vaughn's Cavalry in southwest Virginia and after this leader's surrender marched with him to Charlotte, North Carolina, and reached that destination at the same time that President Davis and his cabinet arrived. When they started westward under cavalry escort Mr. Shepherd continued with his comrades until their forces were disbanded at Washington.

     

    After his discharge from the army Lewis Shepherd began the study of law at Ringgold, Georgia, and in 1867 was admitted to practice before the bar at that place. Three years later he came to Chattanooga, where he was known  as the youngest attorney then in the community. His ability and popularity is indicated by the fact that at the age of twenty-five years he was elected

    attorney general for the criminal court of Hamilton county and continued to hold this office

    until it was discontinued by the act of 1875. This was just the beginning of a series of honors bestowed upon him by the people.

     

    In the year 1876 Lewis Shepherd was elected to the lower house of the Tennessee legislature, and in 1890 was again elected. During the latter session he became prominently identified with the passage of the Dortch election law, which was modeled after the Australian ballot system.

     

    From 1880 until 1882 Lewis Shepherd served as special chancellor of the third chancery division, having been commissioned to take the place of  Judge S. A. Key, who was ill.

     

    For twenty years he was general attorney in Tennessee for the Cincinnati, New Orleans, Texas & Pacific Railroad and the Alabama Great Southern Railway (Queen & Crescent Route).

     

    In 1891 Mr. Shepherd was admitted to practice in the United States circuit court of appeals,

    and was presented with a certificate for having carried to that court the first case ever taken before that body anywhere in the country.

     

    In 1906 he was admitted to practice before the bar of the United States supreme court.  Judge Shepherd was always a diligent worker in the interests of the Tennessee State Bar Association, of which he was a member from the time of its organization.

     

    In recognition of the professional achievements attained by him, the University of Chattanooga conferred upon Judge Shepherd the degree of Master of Laws in 1905.

     

    Politically Judge Shepherd was a republican and religiously he was a Baptist, and for the good

    of his party and his church he labored hard. He was a man of public spirit and from the uncertain days just after the war, when as a member of the Ku Klux Klan he fought for the supremacy of the whites and the expulsion of the carpetbagger, until the day of his demise, he shared in all movements for the development of his state.

     

    In Masonry Judge Shepherd ranked high, having attained the Shrine and also having been a Knight Templar.

     

    In civic affairs he was also active, as evidenced by his membership in the Board of Trade, of which he was a charter member, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Commercial Club. Judge Shepherd was one of the organizers and a charter member of the Mountain City Club.

     

    On December 19, 1876, Lewis Shepherd was married to Miss Lilah Pope, the daughter of Colonel T. A. Pope, of Sequatchie county, Tennessee, a wealthy farmer and slaveholder.

     

    To Judge Shepherd and his wife were born five children, namely: Thomas Pope, a prominent attorney of Chattanooga; Lewis, Jr., who is engaged in the wholesale dry goods business in St. Louis, Missouri; William C., owner and publisher of the Hamilton County Herald at Chattanooga; Frederick S., also engaged in the practice of law in  Chattanooga; and J. Quintus, a farmer operating over two thousand acres of land.

     

    The death of Lewis Shepherd occurred May 14, 1917, and in his passing the state lost one of her most distinguished sons.

     

    Judge Shepherd's name is one of the few which stand out above the rank and file of his profession  in the history of the state; he attained that eminence in his work which  few reach,

    but to which many aspire. Time has placed its approval upon his accomplishments.

     

    Mrs. Shepherd survives her husband and resides on her plantation near Chattanooga.

     

     

    John Crawford

 

    John Crawford applied for revolutionary pension while living in Hamilton County,

     

    Tenn.  He was born Oct. 29, 1762 seven miles below Staunton, Va. He moved with his father

    to Surry County,  N. C. where he resided during the Revolution. He enlisted three times, first in SurreyCounty in 1778; the second time in 1780 under Capt. Gibson Woodridge and Maj. Joel Lewis; the third time in 1781 under Capt. Edmund Hickman and Col. Rutherford. He was in the battles of Eutaw Springs, Briar Creek and others.

     

    After the War he moved to Washington County, N. C. (now Tennessee), and then to Greene, Knox, Anderson, Bledsoe and Hamilton Counties, Tenn. He seems to have lived for a time in Rhea County also.

     

    The arrears of his pension were paid to his children.

     

    Note:   He also served in the War of 1812, enlisting in the Washington County Infantry. While

    he lived in WashingtonCountyhe was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Tennessee and a member of the General Assembly of Tennessee.

     

    His descendants lived in the Graysville section of Hamilton County, Tenn., although it is said in the family records that he died in Ross’s Landing.  He died after 1840 as he is on the 1840 Pension List, but by that time the village of Ross's Landing had been renamed Chattanooga.

     

    He married Mary Vernon, daughter of Alexander and Margaret Chesnee Vernon. She was

    born in 1767 and the marriage took place in Spartanburg, S. C. about 1782.

     

    They had at least three children and possibly others. The oldest son, William Ayres Crawford. Another son, John Crawford, junior born in WashingtonCounty, Dec. 16, 1809, entered the Confederate Army and died a prisoner at Camp Morton, Ind., April 10, 1762. Polly, a

    daughter of John Crawford and Margaret Chesnee Crawford married ____  White, (probably Silas White.)

     

    Transcribed and Contributed by:  Amanda Jowers

    (Some Tennessee Heroes of the Revolution, First Pamphlet) Early Tennessee Settlers CD

     

 

    James Davis applied for revolutionary pension while living in Hamilton County, Tenn., Aug.

    28, 1832.

     

    He was born in Faupuier County, Va., the date not given but he was seventy-one in 1832, therefore born in 1761.

     

    He was living in Wilkes County, N.C., when he enlisted in Capt. John Key’s company in

    which he served three months; he also served five months in Capt. Smith’s company, six

    weeks in Col. Cleveland’s regiment and three months in Capt. Gordon’s company, Col.

    Malbury’s regiment and was in the battle of Eutaw Springs. He also served six weeks in Capt. Pendleton Isbell’s company.

     

    He moved after the Revolution to Greene County, Tenn., then to Campbell and White Counties, Tenn., then to Jackson County, Ala., then to Marion County, Tenn., then to Hamilton County, Tenn., where he died Dec. 9, 1843.

     

    He married Mary, her surname not being given, in 1782, when she was sixteen years of age, so born 1766. She survived him and died in Hamilton County, after 1844 when the record states that she was living and before April 19, 1845.

     

    They had several children who were then residents of  Hamilton County.

     

    Note:   The graves of James and Mary Davis are in that section of Hamilton County which became Sequatchie County, Tenn.

     

     

    Transcribed and Contributed by:  Amanda Jowers

    (Some Tennessee Heroes of the Revolution, First Pamphlet) Early Tennessee Settlers CD


     

    David Newton Bell

     

    Son of Samuel Bell, was born in Wythe County, Va., in 1787.

     

    He died in Bradley County April 16, 1882.

     

    He moved to Knox County with his parents when he was a boy.  In the early 1840's he

    moved to Harrison.   Late in life he lived for a time with a daughter in Warren County, and

    with a daughter in Bradley County.  

     

    He married in Monroe County, a widow, Mrs. Eliza A. Martin Manley, who was born June

    10, 1813, in Philadelphia, Tenn. She was the daughter of John Martin. She died in November, 1898.

     

    Their children were:

    (1) Samuel Granville, born 1837, died unmarried;

    (2) Mary J., born April 1, 1839, married W. H. Smartt;

    (3) Sidney A. (a daughter), born 1841, married twice, married first, 1860, C. F. Swann,

    married second, 1864, James Laymon;

    (4) Rosa, born 1844, married Gus Cate;

    (5) David Newton, Jr., born 1846, died unmarried;

    (7) James Smith, born 1848, died 1930, married Ann Williams, daughter of Samuel Williams;

    (8) Ellen N., born 1850, married Allen C. Burns.  

     

    The History of Hamilton County

     

     

    Peter Bolton

     

    Born Rhea County, Tenn., Feb. 27, 1824; died in Hamilton County. He was the .eldest son of Robert and Annie Holt Bolton.

     

    He moved to Hamilton County in 1839 and made his home with an uncle. He was appointed postmaster at Sale Creek and served for 12 years.

     

    He was elected to the General Assembly of Tennessee from Hamilton County and was elected Justice of the Peace in 1864.

     

    He married in 1852, in Bledsoe County, Selena L. Merriam.

     

     History of Hamilton County

     

     

     

    B. Brabson Reese

     

    Member of Congress—Lawyer—Whig Elector—Vehement Speaker—Spot-less Integrity.

     

    In the Whig delegation in Congress from East Tennessee, in 1859 and 1860, as a colleague of Thomas A. R. Nelson and Horace Maynard, was Reese B. Brabson, from the Third, or Chattanooga, District.

     

    He was a native of Sevier County, where he was reared. After finishing his education, he

    entered the profession of law.

     

    He married the accomplished daughter of Judge Charles F. Keith, a prominent jurist of his

    day, and moved to Chattanooga. Here he followed his profession with success.

     

    In 1848 he was honored by his Whig friends by being selected as the Whig elector on the

    Taylor presidential ticket. He made a canvass of the district with Samuel A. Smith, the Democratic elector, then regarded as one of the most promising young Democrats in the State. Smith afterward achieved considerable success, and made some reputation, as a member of Congress for several terms from the Chattanooga District. On the stump Brabson sustained the Whig cause, and upheld its banner to the satisfaction of his party friends. He was an impulsive and vehement speaker, and pleased the people.

     

    In 1851 Mr. Brabson was elected to the lower house of the Legislature from Hamilton County, and served his constituents faithfully, fearlessly, and with ability.

     

    In 1859 he was selected as the Whig candidate for Congress against Samuel A. Smith, the Democratic candidate, and was elected in a district almost invariably giving a majority on the other side.

     

    In the canvass of 1860 he was a warm advocate of John Bell for the Presidency, canvassing

    his own district for him.

     

    In the Congress of 1859-60 he was an ardent supporter of the Union, and never faltered in

    his course. During this Congress he made an earnest appeal in behalf of the Union. In the dark days of 1861, when so many trusted leaders fell out of the Union ranks, he never wavered nor turned back. He made speeches for the Union, and exerted all his influence for its preservation. As he was at that time, or recently had been, a anmember of Congress, and a man of spotless integrity, his in-fluence was considerable.

     

    Mr. Brabson's father was a man of wealth, as was also his father-in-law, and from the estates

    of the two he started life in comfortable circumstances.

     

    From his ambition, energy, and popular manners, his career might have become more distinguished than it was, had he not died when he had scarcely reached the full maturity of his power.

     

    His death occurred in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, when he was about forty-six years

    of age.

     

    He was of a warm, genial nature; frank, brave, manly and honest; hence had the faculty of drawing men to him by love as well as by admiration. He was also public spirited, and did

    much toward laying the foundation of the growth of the flourishing city of Chattanooga.

     

    History of Hamilton County

     

     

     

     Abel Pearson

     

    Abel Pearson, minister, lived in Hamilton County.

     

    He was the son of Abel Pearson, and was born in North Carolina in 1787, and was a Presbyterian.

     

    His father, Abel Pearson was a revolutionary soldier, who in his old age, settled in White

    County, where he drew a pension and was 72 years of age in 1834.

     

    He is said to have served in the Virginia Line.

     

    He may have been a brother of David Pearson another revolutionary soldier who settled in Rutherford County, Tennessee and who was 82 years of age in 1732.

     

    Tennessee Cousins

     

     

    Reverand Benjamin Wallace

     

    Pioneer Minister of Hamilton County

     

    Among other pioneer ministers who lived in Hamilton County, was the Rev. Benjamin

    Wallace whose wife was Mary Anderson.

     

    This Benjamin Wallace died in Hamilton County, September 6, 1856. His wife Mary Anderson was not, as has been stated, a daughter of the Rev. Isaac Anderson, of Blount County, but probably belonged to the family of the name that settled and lived in that part of Hamilton County, that was for several years known as James County (afterward abolished).

     

    Rev. Benjamin Wallace has an interesting family of children:

     

    Jesse Alb ert Wallace

    Married - Mollie Tadlock

    Married - Sue Tadlock

     

    John A. Wallace

    Married - Mary Ferguson

     

    Isaac Abraham Wallace - born 1841

    Married - Nancy McDonald

     

    David Wallace

    Married - America McDonald

     

    Samuel Wallace

    Married - Jennie (unknown)

     

    James Anderson Wallace

    Married - Fannie Bell Darnell

     

    Ann Wallace

    Married - David McGill

     

    Margaret Wallace

    Married - J. A. N. Patterson

     

    Martha Wallace

    Married - William Clift

     

    William Wallace

     

    Lorella Wallace

    Died unmarried

     

    Tennessee Cousins

     

     

     

    Joseph Ruohs

     

    The son of Ulrich and Marie Ruohs, was born near Lake Zurich, Switzerland, Dec. 8, 1823.

     

    He died in Chattanooga Feb. 28, 1907.

     

    At the age of eighteen years he came to America and settled in Nashville, Tenn., where, July 17, 1849, he married Nancy Morris, born 1829, died 1909.

     

    In 1850 they moved to Chattanooga. Mr. Ruohs was a cabinetmaker and later became interested in other lines, establishing a cotton factory in 1872. He acquired a great deal of land in Hamilton County and was the owner of the property which is now the National Cemetery.

     

    His six children were:

     

    Joseph Morris, who died young

    Mary, who married John B. Pyron

    Josephine, who died young

    Nancy Harriet, who lives in Chattanooga

    Emma Elizabeth, who died young

    Irene Virginia, who married Gustavus Henry Jarnagin and lives in Chattanooga

    History of Hamilton County

     

    Noah S. Richie, M. D.

     

    For years Dr. Noah S. Richie has practiced in Daisy.  A native of this state, his birth occurred at Hamilton, on the 6th of October, 1882, a son of William H. and Catherine (Miller) Richie, natives of Hamilton county.

     

    The paternal grandfather, Harvey Richie, lived in Rhea county for many years and his death occurred there.

     

    William H. Richie is living in Dayton, at the age of seventy-two years. He was engaged in farming in his early life and achieved gratifying success in that connection. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted in the Federal army a short time before the close of the conflict. His wife died in 1903, at the age of fifty-five years.

     

    To the union of Dr. and Mrs. Richie seven children were born: John, farming in Missouri; Harvey, engaged in farming in Kansas; James, engaged in the carpenter business at Birmingham; Maggie, the wife of William Hall, a successful farmer of Kansas; Millie, the wife of John Gray, a farmer of Kansas; Noah S., the subject of this review; and Susie, the wife of Richard Jordan, a farmer of Dayton.

     

    William H. Richie has always given his political allegiance to the republican party and the principles for which it stands. His religious faith is that of the Baptist church.

     

    Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769–1923: Volume 2

 Source:  History of Hamilton County