The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887
Biographical Sketches, Shelby County
G Surnames
C.B. Galloway, one of the proprietors of the Peabody Hotel, is a native of New Jersey, born in 1835, and at the age of twenty-one he went to Minnesota, and engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1858, after which he came to this city and took charge of the Gayoso Hotel until 1866. He then took charge of the "Worsham" two years and of the "Overton" one year. In 1861 he married Lotta Osterhout, a native of New York, who bore him these children: Lotta (Mrs. R.E. Morris), Charles B. and Emma. In March, 1876, Mr. Galloway took charge of the Peabody Hotel, which is a commodious, five-story structure, 178x178 feet. It has 175 large, elegantly furnished sleeping apartments, with bath and water closets on each floor. It also has three finely furnished parlors and two dining rooms, the dimensions of the main one being 40x100 feet. It has three elevators, is heated by steam and supplied with the electric bell system. The hotel was originally a store-room, find was used as such until December 8, 1867, when it was opened out as a hotel, by D. Cochran & Sons, who conducted it about one and a-half years. A Mr. Goodlow then took charge of it for a few months, after which W. C. Miller assumed the proprietorship for one year. He was succeeded by O'Banner & Mars, who in turn were succeeded by Mr. Galloway. Our subject's parents were Rev. Samuel and Rebecca (Scudder) Galloway, natives of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, respectively. The mother is dead and the father is living in Texas.
Hon. Jacob S. Galloway, judge of the probate court, was born in Bergen County, N.J., February 14, 1838, and is the son of Rev. Samuel and Rebecca (Scudder) Galloway, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. His father, who was a graduate of Princeton College and Seminary; was an eminent minister of the Presbyterian Church, and for several years a member of the faculty of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. Jacob S, was educated by his own efforts, and graduated at Princeton in 1858, with the degree of A.B., delivering the philosophical oration of his class. He then came south and began teaching in Georgia, and in 1859 came to Memphis and continued teaching until the war broke out, when he enlisted as a private in Company A (the Shelby Greys), Fourth Tennessee Regiment, Confederate States of America. At the battle of Shiloh he was severely wounded, and was afterward detailed for lighter service, serving as an enrolling officer until the close of the war, ranking as first lieutenant. After the war he began reading law with Col. Luke W. Finlay and Gen. Albert Pike, and was admitted to practice in 1866, and thus continued successfully until 1876, when he was elected magistrate, and thus served until his election to the judgeship. In 1883-84 he represented Shelby County in the State Senate. In 1879 he was elected special judge of the circuit court by the Memphis bar. He served as coroner of the county from 1879 to 1882. His official life is characterized by energy and integrity. May 14, 1867, he married Mary E. Tucker, who died of yellow fever in 1878. November 19, 1879, he married Mrs. Sallie R. (Tucker) Coffee. By his first marriage he has three living children--one son and two daughters. He is a Mason, a K. of P., a K. of H. a member of the A. O. U. W., and is one of the substantial citizens of Memphis.
Robert W. Galloway, junior member of the firm of Patterson & Co., came to Memphis in 1865 where he engaged in clerking on a steamboat for some time. He was afterward engaged as delivery agent for the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, in whose employ he remained till 1870. In that year he became connected with the above named firm. Mr. Galloway is also actively engaged in farming and is one of the wide-awake energetic citizens of the county. He was one of eight commissioners elected to put the taxing district system on foot, which system held good for two and a half years. In 1865 he married Mary Hall of New York and he and wife are members of the Christian Church. Both he and partner organized, and are large stockholders in the Memphis Grain and Package Elevator. Mr. Galloway affiliates with the Democrats in his political views.
Gantt & Patterson, attorneys at law, is a strong firm consisting of Col. George Gantt, Col. Josiah Patterson and M. R. Patterson, and was organized in April, 1878, succeeding the firm of "Gantt, Patterson & Lowe." Col. Josiah Patterson is a native of Morgan County, Ala., where he was reared, educated and admitted to the bar in 1859. Upon the breaking out of the late war, he raised, and was made commander of the Fifth Alabama Cavalry, and served with distinction throughout the war. Upon the establishment of peace he opened a law office at Somerville, Ala., where he practiced one year, and then five years in Florence, Ala. In March, 1872, he came to Memphis and was a member of the firm of Patterson & Lowe until the formation of the firm of Gantt Patterson & Lowe, which was terminated in a few months by the death of Mr. Lowe. In 1882-83 Col. Patterson was a member of the State Legislature from this county. He is a member of the order of F. & A. M. His parents were Malcolm and Mary (Deloach) Patterson, natives of Maryland, and were of the famous Scotch-Irish descent. They followed the occupation of farming, and died in Morgan County, Ala., the father in 1859 and the mother in 1875. M. R. Patterson is a son of Col. Josiah Patterson and was born in the State of Alabama in 1861. He was educated in the Vanderbilt University, and afterward studied law with his father, and was admitted to the Memphis bar in 1881. He then practiced alone for one year, since which time he has been a member of the law firm of Gantt & Patterson. On the 24th of February, 1886, he was joined in marriage to Miss Lucile Johnson, a native of this city. He is a member of the F. & A. M. order.
Samuel C. Garner was born in Pennsylvania, March 18, 1829, and was the third member of a family of four sons and three daughters, born to Robert and Elizabeth (Dow ) Garner, and is of Scotch descent. The parents were born in South Carolina, where they were married in 1818. They then immigrated to Philadelphia, where they remained about eighteen years. The father was a ship-carpenter by trade, but after moving to Philadelphia went into the mercantile business, and died in 1859. The mother died in Ohio in 1860. Our subject was raised chiefly in New Orleans, where he obtained a good education, and in early life learned the trade of brick-mason and plasterer. He moved to Tennessee in 1851, and settled in Memphis, where he carried on the contracting and building business. He was married in Shelby County, Tenn., September 15, 1858, to Miss Matilda A. Molitor, daughter of Francis M. Molitor, who was at one time master mechanic on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. To this union were born Frank R., Willie A, and Mattie O. The mother was born in Philadelphia. Mr. and Mrs. Garner and the children are members of the Old School Presbyterian Church, and in politics he is a Democrat. He is a man of undeviating honesty, good morals and of a liberal disposition, holding the esteem of all who know him.
Kenneth Garrett, a prominent citizen of Shelby County, was born in North Carolina in 1831, and in 1843 came to Jackson, Tenn., by wagon, with his uncle, K. Garrett. He is the son of John W. and H. Y. (Young) Garrett. The father was a tiller of the soil and was living in North Carolina at the time of his death, which occurred about 1838. The mother died the year previous, leaving four children, who were reared and educated by their uncle, K. Garrett. In 1848 our subject began clerking in a mercantile establishment in the city of Memphis, where he remained three years. During the years 1851 and 1852 he attended college in Virginia, when during the latter year the death of his uncle occasioned his return. In 1853, he, in partnership with his brother, William, and John Hudson, opened a wholesale and retail clothing and gents' furnishing goods store in Memphis. Our subject sold his interest in 1855, and located on his farm in this county where he remained till 1858. He then returned to Memphis and engaged in the brick business, which prospered until the beginning of the war. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service, Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, as third lieutenant, but at the expiration of one year was appointed quartermaster, and at the time Col. Jeff Forrest was killed our subject was one of his staff and was also acting as brigade quartermaster. He received a slight wound while on a raid near Nashville, but remained in service until the close of the war, losing only sixty days in four years. He then returned home and resumed the brick business, also in the fall of 1865 he was cotton clerk at the Louisville & Nashville depot, and in 1866 he took a contract for getting out railroad ties. He has been engaged in railroad contracting and farming up to the present time. In 1853 he married Louisa C. Patrick, of Memphis, and a daughter of J. M. Patrick. The result of this union was eight children, three of whom are yet living. One of his sons, a promising young man of twenty-five, died of yellow fever in 1878. Mr. Garrett is largely connected with the fuel business in Memphis. He is a member of the K. of H. having filled the offices from Vice Dictator to Deputy Grand Dictator.
John Gaston, proprietor of Gaston's Hotel, was born near Bordeaux, France, in 1828, and when about the age of twelve went to live with his uncle, who was then doing a small restaurant business in Paris, France. Mr. Gaston afterward became employed as steward on ocean steamers. After crossing the Atlantic about thirty times he concluded to remain in America.. He served as waiter with Delmonico, New York, and as steward of several of the first hotels of Macon and Augusta, Ga. During the war he was employed likewise for the Confederacy, and after the war landed at Memphis almost penniless, where he was again employed as waiter; from that he gradually rose and by close economy he was soon able to open a small restaurant, which, with his knowledge of the business, allowed him in a short time to amass a small fortune (which he kept adding to his business). His restaurant was termed by connoisseur's the Delmonico of the South. Rising step by step Mr. Gaston has become one of the wealthy citizens of Memphis and the wealthiest French citizen. In 1867 he was married to Mrs. Julia S. Meier, who had three children by her previous husband. To our subject and wife were born two children: Annie and John Patrick (deceased ). Peter and Jean, the parents of our subject resided in France. The father was an energetic farmer and lived to the ripe old age of eighty years. The. mother died young. Mr. Gaston has taken an active interest in all public enterprises, and is an enterprising and thorough-going business man. He is now partially retired in a beautiful suburban home in the southeastern portion of Memphis.
Gilchrist & Martin, real estate brokers and general collection agents, is a firm composed of M. M. Gilchrist and J. H. T. Martin. Their business was established in June, 1883, by Taylor & Martin, Mr. Gilchrist succeeding Mr. Taylor the following year. The present firm command a large and successful business in real estate, and also do an equally large business in the collection of rents, etc. Their office is on the first floor of the Masonic Temple, and is one of the finest in the city in this line. Mr. Gilchrist is a native of northern Mississippi, and was educated at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, and came to Memphis in 1879, and accepted a position as bookkeeper and cashier with Meacham & Horton, wholesale grocers and cotton factors, and continued thus until he engaged in his present business. He is unmarried, is a Democrat, and is a member of the Tennessee Club and the Jockey and Athletic Clubs, of this city. Mr. Martin is a native of Memphis, and is the son of H.B. Martin, a well known lawyer of this city, and was reared and educated here. He was collector for W.A. Wheatley three years, and later entered the employ of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, at Galveston, Tex. continuing there three years. He returned to this city in 1882 and accepted the position of stenographer for Holmes . Cummins one year, and then engaged in his present business. He is unmarried, and is a Democrat in politics.
Dr. D. G. Godwin, physician and farmer of the First District of Shelby County, was born in Maury County, Tenn., in 1837. His father, Seth Godwin, was a native of North Carolina, and came to Tennessee at an early day, engaging in farming. Dr. Godwin was educated in Maury County, and attended the Medical University at Nashville, graduating. in 1861. He enlisted in the Confederate Army in the Fifty-first Tennessee Regiment, Company I, and was made lieutenant in Col. John Chester's Regiment; a year later he was appointed assistant surgeon, and served, in this capacity until the close of the war and surrendered with Gen. Johnston. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Franklin. After the war he returned to Shelby County and practiced medicine until 1878, when he went to Hot Springs, Ark., and practiced there one year. At the end of this year he returned to Shelby County and went into business at Arlington, with Messrs. Hughes and Cole, the firm style being Hughes, Godwin & Cole. Dr. Godwin continued his business until January, 1887, when he sold his interest, and now devotes his entire time to farming. In 1865 he was married to Miss Bettie S. Douglass, daughter of G. L. Douglass, a well known farmer of Shelby County. Five children were born to them, four now living. The entire family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Dr. Godwin has been a steward in the church for many years. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a K. of H. His vote and influence are always given to the Democratic party. He is a man of ability and of fine moral character, greatly esteemed by all who know him.
I. Goldsmith & Bros., dry goods merchants at 348 Main Street, Memphis, began business at 81 and 83 Beale Street in 1870, where they still have a branch store, which is the largest dry goods house on the street. When they began business in Memphis their capital was limited, but by judicious management and honest dealing they have secured and retained the confidence of their patrons and built up an extensive business. When the yellow fever raged in Memphis they opened a branch house in Helena, Ark., where they were very successful. In 1881 they commenced business at 348 Main Street, and are now enjoying an extensive trade upon a cash basis. Isaac Goldsmith, the senior member of the firm, died in June, 1885, and Elias and J. Goldsmith, the two remaining brothers, who constitute the firm, purchased his interest in the business and continued it under the old firm name. The brothers immigrated to America from Germany in 1867, and since then have been residents of Memphis. Elias Goldsmith was married in 1880 to Miss Belle Stein, daughter of L. Stein, of St. Louis, Mo., and J. Goldsmith was married in 1875 to Miss Dora Ottenheim, daughter of L. Ottenheim, a merchant of Memphis. The brothers are members of several benevolent and relief societies of Memphis, and are among the city's most enterprising and liberal citizens.
Edward Goldsmith, vice-president of the Manhattan Savings Bank and cashier of the German Bank, is a native of Europe, born in 1846, but was reared in Philadelphia, and was there educated, entering the central High School in the class of 1860. In 1864 he came to Memphis and followed bookkeeping until 1869, from which date until 1873 he continued the same business in the Manhattan Bank. He then became assistant cashier and served as such until 1878, and from that date was cashier until the consolidation of the Manhattan and the German Banks, June 30, 1885, since which date he has been cashier of the latter, and upon the organization of the Manhattan Savings Bank, in 1885, he was elected vice-president. In 1872 Mr. Goldsmith married Miss Mendal, a native of Kentucky, who has born her husband four children, one son and one daughter still living. Our subject's father, Emanuel Goldsmith, was born in France in 1796, and served in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte, but afterward came to America and engaged in the mercantile business in Philadelphia until his death in 1864. The mother, whose maiden name was Regina Stern, was a native of Bavaria, and died in Philadelphia in 1885. She bore sixteen children, seven of whom survived her.
James M. Goodbar, vice-president of the Mercantile Bank, is a native of Overton County, was born in 1839, moved to White County, in 1850 and to Memphis in 1860. Upon reaching the latter city he embarked in the wholesale shoe trade as a member of the firm of Bransford, Goodbar & Co., which firm existed one year. He then enlisted as a private in the Fourth Tennessee Confederate Cavalry Regiment, but was soon promoted to second lieutenant and afterward to quartermaster. At the reorganization of the regiment he was transferred to the commissary department and continued there until the close of the war. He then returned to Memphis and re-embarked in the wholesale boot and shoe trade as a member of the firm of Goodbar & Gilliland, continuing thus until 1876, when the firm was formed of which he is now senior member. The company was reorganized January 1, 1886, and is composed of our subject, W. L. Clark, E. J. Carrington and F. G. Jones, all thorough and enterprising business men. The firm now does an annual business of over $600,000. Mr. Goodbar has been a director in the Planter's Insurance Company for several years, and was elected vice-president of the Mercantile Bank at its organization. In 1867 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Morgan, a native of Mississippi and sister of Hon. J. B. Morgan, at present a member of Congress from that State, and by her has had the following children: William M., Mamie O., Jennie E. (deceased), and James B. He is a member of the K. of H. and of the Presbyterian Church. His parents were William P, and Jane (McKinney) Goodbar, and both were natives of Overton County and are now deceased. The father was a retail merchant and at one time was president of the Sparta branch of the State Bank. He died in 1878 and the mother in 1867.
A. B. Goodbar, the senior member of the firm of Goodbar, Love & Co., wholesale dealers in boots and shoes, come from Lebanon, Tenn., to Memphis, October, 1868, and engaged in the boot and shoe trade with Goodbar & Gilliland, and was admitted to an interest in the business of that firm January, 1873. In February, 1876, Goodbar & Gilliland were succeeded by Goodbar & Co., in which connection A. B. Goodbar continued until January, 1886, when he and his brother, J.H. Goodbar, withdrew from the firm of Goodbar & Co., and organized the firm of Goodbar, Love & Co. A.B. Goodbar was born in Overton County, Tenn., May 2, 1849, where he was reared and received a primary education, and in his seventeenth year he entered the Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., where he remained for three years, and in his twentieth year be came to Memphis and began his business career. He is a director in the Bank of Commerce, a member of the Merchants' Exchange, a vestryman in Calvary Parish and a Royal Arch Mason. His parents are J.M. Goodbar, Sr., and Verlinder (Cullom) Goodbar; they resided at Lebanon, Tenn., having moved front Overton County to that place in 1865. His paternal great-grandfather came from England to Virginia about the year 1775, and his grandfather came from Virginia to Tennessee about the year 1800 and was one of the pioneers of this State. Two of his paternal granduncles were soldiers in the war of 1812 and were both killed in battle. His maternal great-grandfather, whose name was Cullom, was also of English descent; the family having settled in Maryland, a branch of it moved into Kentucky and afterward into Tennessee. His maternal grandfather, Hon. Alvin Cullom, was an able lawyer and occupied a prominent place in State and national politics before and during the war of 1861. Other members of this maternal family have been distinguished as soldiers, lawyers and politicians, one of whom, Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, is now United States senator from Illinois. A.B. Goodbar was married September 9, 1879, to Miss Luan Joy, and they have one child, a son, now living.
Edward W. Gorman was born in Fayette County, Tenn., August 23, 1838, and is a son of Patrick Gorman, who was a native of Tipperary County, Ireland, born in 1811, and when twenty-one years of age, came with his six brothers to America and settled in Tuscumbia, Ala. In 1834 he moved to LaGrange, Tenn., and commenced merchandising, and in 1837 married Caroline R. Burns, a daughter of Rev. Jeremiah Burns. The father was a merchant until be died at his home in LaGrange December 19, 1845. For eleven years he was postmaster at LaGrange, The mother was born near Tuscumbia, Ala., in 1818, and is now the wife of T. M. Moore, of Shelby County, Tenn. Our subject is of Scotch-Irish descent and is the only surviving member of a family of three sons and one daughter. He has made merchandising his chief business. At the age of twenty-one he was appointed postmaster at LaGrange, Tenn., and served until the war, when he resigned to enter the Thirteenth Tennessee Infantry under Col. J. V. Wright, and was in the battles of Belmont, Shiloh, Perryville (Ky. ), Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and from Dalton to Atlanta, and was then at Jonesboro and Franklin, Tenn.; he was wounded at Resaca, and again at Franklin, and was taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, and exchanged in March, 1865, at Richmond, Va. After the war he commenced merchandising at Germantown in September, 1865. He was married in Shelby County, September 26, 1866, to Miss Fannie T. Edmonson, daughter of Alexander Edmonson, a farmer. Only two of the seven children born to this marriage are living: P. A. and Patrick. The mother was born in Fayette County, near Somerville, October 15, 1842. Mr. and Mrs. Gorman are members of the Baptist Church. He is a Mason and a Democrat. His residence is in Germantown, where he is engaged in the mercantile business, and is also in the livery business. Mr. Gorman is a man of good business qualifications and of strict integrity, possessing enterprise and energy.
R. C. Graves, superintendent and treasurer of the Bohlen-Huse Machine & Lake Ice Company, came to Memphis at the close of the war, and has since been engaged here in the ice trade. The firm of Bohlen, Wilson & Co. was established in 1850, and existed until Mr. Wilson's death in 1865, when Ruse, Loomis & Co. succeeded to Mr. Wilson's interest, and the firm took its present name, with James Lee, Jr., president and P. R. Bohlen, vice-president. The company has a stock capital of $100,000 and $25,000 surplus, is incorporated, and began the manufacture of' ice in 1873, but still handles lake ice from near Chicago. The company is just on the eve of greatly increasing their facilities, and intend adding $90,000 worth of improved machinery. The parents of our subject were married in Franklin County, Mass., and were W. M. and Amanda (Root) Graves. The father died in 1859, but the mother is still living. Our subject is one of seven survivors of a family of eight children, there having been no deaths in the family for twenty-eight years. He was born in Massachusetts and lived in Chicago for a short time and then in St. Louis, where he began the ice business in 1865. In 1875 he was married to Miss Laura Belcher, a native of Mississippi. He was appointed police commissioner, under Gov. Hawkins, and was afterward elected for a term of four years, but resigned at the end of the second year. He belongs to the K. of H., and he and family are members of the Episcopal Church.
John R. Greer was born in Shelby County, March 10, 1855. His father, David S. Greer, was a native of Clark County, Ga.; his parents moved to Tennessee and settled in Robertson County when he was but an infant; a few years later they moved to Henry County, and settled within a few miles of where Paris now stands, and he was the first man to go into the mercantile business west of the Tennessee River; he was a civil engineer and surveyed and laid off the town of Paris, Tenn., and assisted in laying off Holly Springs, Miss., where he moved in 1837, and from there to Memphis, Tenn., in 1843. He was an extensive planter, owning large plantations in Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee; he was a man of fine executive ability, and acquired the bulk of a large fortune before he was forty years of age; he married Miss Martha Dunlap, a daughter of Hugh Dunlap. Three of ten children, born to this marriage, are living: Col. Hugh D., born near Paris, Tenn., February 4, 1836; David S., born in Shelby County, Tenn., January 6, 1852, and our subject. The father died at the present homestead February 17, 1881. The mother was born in Roane County, April 8, 1815, and is still living at the old homestead in Shelby County. John R. Greer was raised on a farm and received a thorough education in the schools at Memphis, and has fine business qualifications, being at present the business manager of the large and undivided estate belonging to the family, and consisting of over 6,000 acres of land in Mississippi and Arkansas, besides the home place in Shelby County. He has served the county as deputy clerk, and is regarded as one of the rising young men of the county.
Henry L. Guion, real estate agent and broker, is a native of this city and was born January 13, 1852, to the marriage of Henry L. Guion, Sr., and Margaret LeMaster, natives respectively of North Carolina and Tennessee. The father, a man of more than ordinary ability, came when a young man to Memphis and became owner and editor of the Weekly American Eagle, one of the first newspapers published in the city. Later he became a member of the firm of Cleaves & Guion, booksellers and stationers. He was one of the most influential and useful citizens of the city and died in 1876 in his sixty-sixth year. Henry L., Jr., grew to man's estate in this city and was educated here and at the Kentucky Military Institute. In 1876 he engaged in the real estate business in this city, and has thus been engaged until the present time, having been successful and prosperous. He is a director in the Factors Insurance Company and a director in the Mercantile Bank. He is a Democrat, a Master Mason, a member of the Tennessee Club and of the Chickasaw Guards. November 22, 1882, he was united in marriage with Miss Lucy D., daughter of Judge C. F. Vance, of this city. This lady died in February, 1866. They had one child, deceased.