The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887
Biographical Sketches, Shelby County TN
transcribed by Helen Rowland
W Surnames
Joseph K. WADDY was born in Roane County, Tenn., May 11, 1820. His father, Samuel Waddy, was a native of Virginia, and in early life immigrated to Huntsville, Ala. Before leaving Virginia he married Martha H. Kimbrough, and of ten children born to them five sons and three daughters lived to be grown, our subject being the seventh child born. The father moved to Roane County, Tenn., in 1818, and remained till 1825, when he moved to Davis, Tenn. He was engaged in farming until 1830, then went into the hotel business at Paris, where he died in 1840. The mother was born in Virginia, and died in 1845 while on a visit to friends in East Tennessee. Joseph K. Waddy was raised in Paris, Tenn., and received a good English education, and has been a merchant since leaving college. In 1849 Mr. Waddy moved to Colliersville, Shelby County, and was married in that county, September 24, 1851, to Miss Virginia H. Vaden, a daughter of William Vaden, a farmer and native of Virginia. The children born to this marriage were William S., born October 31, 1853, and died December 18, 1864; Vaden S., born February 18, 1856, and died February 14, 1857; Mollie Holmes, born July 29, 1859, and died December 30, 1884. She graduated from Bellevue College in 1877, and April 25, 1878, she married Mr. T. H. Canon. They had four children: Emma Holmes, Joe Waddy, Thomas Hope and Alfred Orville. Mrs. Waddy, the wife of our subject, was born in Virginia in 1833. In 1849 Mr. Waddy went into the mercantile business in Colliersville and still continues that business. He was an old line Whig, but is now a Democrat. He is one of the leading business men of the place and a man of fine character and correct business principles, and is the president of the board of directors of Bellevue College, and also of the board of directors of Magnolia Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Waddy are active members of the Christian Church. They have six acres of land in the center of the town, with a handsome residence upon an elevated and beautiful site, and they contribute a great deal to the pleasure of the social circle of their town. Mr. Waddy is justly recognized as a leading citizen.
Rev. William WALSH, rector of St. Brigid’s Church, Memphis, was born in Callan, County Kilkenny, Ireland, May 4, 1850. He was educated at Prof. Walter Hawe’s Intermediate School and at the Augustinian College, Callan, and later at St. Jarlath’s College at Tuan. From 1869 to 1874 he attended and graduated from All Hallow’s College, Dublin, and was ordained priest at this institution June 24, 1874. He came to the United States in September of the same year, and was attached to St. Peter and Paul’s Church, Chattanooga, and to several missions in Tennessee east of Nashville. In October, 1876, he was sent by Bishop Feehan to Memphis to serve as an assistant to Rev. Martin Walsh, pastor of St. Brigid’s Church, continuing thus until the death of the latter, August 29, 1878, since which time he has been in charge of the church. He is a very able pastor, a courteous gentleman and is greatly respected by his congregation.
Hiram Campbell WARINNER, a member of the law firm of Eastes & Warinner, graduated at Bethany College, Virginia, in 1857, and at the commencement of the war enlisted as a private in Clark’s Second Missouri Battery, Confederate States Army, and after seven months was promoted to first lieutenant. He participated in the battles of Oak Hills, Mo.; Lexington, Mo.; Elkhorn Ridge, Corinth, Iuka, Van Dorn, Atlanta and elsewhere, serving the last few months of the war in Forrest’s command. In December, 1865, he came to Memphis and resumed the study of law, and was admitted to the Memphis bar in August, 1866. He was first with Chalmers, Lee & Warinner, then with Lee & Warinner, then with Warinner & Lee, and in January, 1884, formed the present partnership with Mr. Eastes. Willis W. Warinner, the father of our subject, was born in Lincoln County, Ky., in 1810, and was married there to Miss Clemence Mason, who bore him five children. The mother died in about 1847, and the father then married Margaret Scales, who bore him eight children. These parents live at Richmond, Mo. The father followed merchandising and banking at that place, and at Kansas City, but is now retired. Our subject was born in February, 1841, and was married in 1867 to Miss Sally T. Ardinger, a native of Missouri, who has presented her husband with the following children: Annie Bodieu, Carrie Belle, Hugh Lee, Gussie and Ardinger. Mr. Warinner is a Democrat, but has no political aspirations.
Fred J. WARNER, merchant and resident of Bartlett, Tenn., is a son of F. L. and Matilda (Young) Warner, and was the second of six children born to this marriage. The father was captain in the Confederate Army, in Gen. Sneed’s command, and was the founder of the German National Bank, of Memphis, and was considered one of the prominent and influential citizens of that city. The mother was a native of Germany, and came to this country when quite young. Fred J. Warner was educated at Memphis, and after completing his education engaged in farming, on a farm belonging to his mother in the Seventh District. In 1883 he established his present business at Bartlett, and has succeeded well with it. He married Miss Sallie Miller, daughter of W. N. Miller, a prominent farmer in the Seventh District of Shelby County, and has one child by this marriage. Mrs. Warner is a member of the Methodist Church; he is a member of the K. & L. of H., and is a true Democrat. He possesses many excellent qualities that have won for him a host of friends.
Caesar WEATHERFORD, collector of delinquent revenue, was born in North Carolina, May 29, 1843, son of William and Frances G. (Hooper) Weatherford, natives of Virginia. At the breaking out of the war, Caesar Weatherford was at college in Cheatham County. He responded to the call to arms, left college and enlisted in the Fourteenth Tennessee Regiment, Company H, of the Confederate States Army. He served during the entire war and so conducted himself as a soldier that he enjoyed the confidence of both officers and men, and especially of his immediate commander. He was promoted for gallantry at the battles of Sharpsburg and Shepherdstown, and was complimented by his commander for individual gallantry at the battle of the Wilderness. While in the trenches in front of Petersburg his name was forwarded for promotion for meritorious conduct during the campaign. It was through the lines of the brigade to which he belonged that the enemy made their entrance into Petersburg, the men being stationed behind the works eight feet apart. After the line was broken and the brigade surrounded and retreat almost cut off, he was directed by Gen. McComb, commanding, to take such men as were available and skirmish with the head of the Federal column in order to aid the retreat and save as much of the brigade as possible. This he did, until finally he was surrounded and captured, near the banks of Hatchie River, while making an effort to swim across. He was carried to Fort Delaware prison, where he remained until the breaking up of the war. He returned home and went to college at Russellville and to the law school at Lebanon. He located in Memphis in 1870 and practiced law in the firm of Weatherford & Weatherford, and afterward of Heiskell, Weatherford & Heiskell. December 19, 1870, he married Eliza Heiskell, of East Tennessee, and they have five living children. Mr. Weatherford is a Democrat in politics, a Knight of Honor and a Methodist Episcopalian in religious belief.
Dr. A. M. WEST, a talented physician of Memphis and professor of chemistry and hygiene in the Memphis Hospital Medical College, was born in Memphis March 5, 1849, and is one of a family of nine children, six of whom are still living. The parents are A. M. and C. O. (Glover) West. The father was born in Alabama in 1818, and for many successive terms, before the war, served in the State Senate of Mississippi. In the early part of the late war he served as brigadier-general in the Confederate Army, and was afterward candidate for governor. He was defeated by Gen. Charles Clark, who had returned home permanently disabled by wounds received in the service and was therefore invincible before the people of his State. Gen. West afterward served as quartermaster-general of his State until the termination of the war, when he was elected president of the Mississippi Central Railroad Company (now the Illinois Central Railroad), and was elected to Congress. He was one of the Tilden electors for the State at large in 1876, and was afterward a candidate for Vice-president of the United States on the Greenback ticket with B. F. Butler. Although not a partisan Democrat he has uniformly acted with that party and voted its ticket, save when he had the opportunity to support a worthy Greenbacker. He is now a resident of Holly Springs, Miss., and one of the prominent men of the State. The mother, who has been an invalid for many years, is generally known and recognized as possessed of rare intellect. Our subject graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1869 with high honor, receiving the degree of B. A., and served as assistant professor of mathematics in the same institution after graduating. He also graduated with honor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was unanimously elected by a class of over 300 students to deliver an address to the faculty and board of trustees. He read law a short time, but preferring the medical profession began the study of medicine and spent eighteen months in the medical department of the University of Virginia and while here served as editor of the college magazine. In August, 1876, he located at Holly Springs, Miss., where he practiced his profession successfully and was for a number of years health officer of the county. December 5, 1877, he married Eva W., daughter of Judge J. W. and E. D. Clapp, of Memphis, and to them have been born three children: Evlyn L., Alston Madden and Jere. Dr. West has built up a large practice since moving to Memphis and is recognized as an excellent citizen and a most skillful physician.
William A. WHEATLEY, United States commissioner and real estate broker, is a native of this city and was born January 4, 1843. His father was Seth Wheatley, a distinguished lawyer of this city in ante bellum days. Our subject was educated at Macon College, Randolph, Va., and upon the breaking out of the war enlisted with the Culpeper riflemen, Thirteenth Virginia Confederate Regiment, under Capt. Stockton Heath, and in this command served one year, and then came to Memphis and enlisted in Saunder’s cavalry, and served as a non-commissioned officer until the surrender at Shreveport, La., in 1865. He returned to Memphis in 1867 and engaged in the real estate business, at which occupation he has since been continuously engaged. He now has one of the largest businesses of the kind in the city. He is a Democrat in politics and is one of the solid men of the city. October 1, 1867, he was joined in marriage with Miss Bettie Bowen, of Winchester, Va., and by her has three living children—one son and two daughters.
Col. F. M. WHITE. Among the emigrants who came to America from Leicester, England, as early as 1720, was one by the name of John White, then aged twenty years, who settled in Orange County, Va. One of his grandsons was Thomas White, a native of Orange County, Va., whose father, when quite young, removed to Elbert County, Ga., where he grew to man’s estate. Among the fair daughters of Virginia he sought a wife in Elizabeth G. Clarke, with whom he returned to Georgia to make that their permanent home. Their family consisted of twelve children, only two of whom are now living. In early life the father followed merchandising and later became a planter. Politically he was a Whig, and for a number of years was a member of the Georgia Legislature. Having lived an active and useful life they passed away and are now sleeping in the soil of their adopted State. Col. F. M. White, son of the above and president of the Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad, was born December 16, 1810, in Jones County, Ga. He was reared on a farm and received an academic education. In 1834 he married Lucinda S. McGehee, who was born in 1815, and this union resulted in the birth of four children—three sons and one daughter. In 1847 his first wife died and later in the following year he wedded Frances Hamilton, who bore him one son, Francis H. Soon after his second wife died, and in 1858 he married Catharine Gardner, of Augusta, Ga. He and his present wife are members of the Episcopal Church; his other wives were also professors of religion. In 1840 the Colonel moved to Miss. to engage in farming and has since been thus interested. In 1852 he was appointed by the State Legislature as commissioner to assist in organizing the Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad Company. The following year he was elected president of the same, holding that position continuously since. He is also interested in the great Gayoso Hotel. He was a Whig till that party went down, and since then has been a Democrat. He has always been just in dealing and pre-eminently successful in business.
Dr. Elbert A. WHITE, an old resident and physician of Memphis, was born in Alabama in 1825, and was one of a family of six children, four of them living. The parents were John D. and Sabra White; the father was born in Georgia in 1794, and moved to Shelby County, Tenn., in 1830, and at one time owned much of the land where the city of Memphis now stands. He was a farmer, and died in 1849. The mother’s maiden name was Sabra McNees; she was born in 1792, and died in 1860. Dr. White was educated at Cumberland College at Princeton, Ky., and read medicine under Dr. Brown, of Memphis; then attended the Memphis Medical College and graduated in 1850, and has met with marked success as a physician, and has rendered valuable service during the visitations of yellow fever, doing a great deal as a physician and a citizen to alleviate the suffering. In 1849 he married Miss Almeda Waldran, who died in 1862. Three of the four children born to this marriage are living. In 1865 Dr. White married Miss Susan, daughter of James Felts. Mrs. White is a native of Shelby County. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Dr. White is a Mason, a K. of H. and an ardent Democrat.
A. J. WHITNEY, master of trains on the Little Rock Railroad, was born in
Jersey City, N. J., and is one of the three sons born to the union of C. O. and Adelia (Swartz) Whitney, natives of New Jersey. For a calling in life the father followed railroading. He filled the position of superintendent of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad for some time. He died in 1872. The mother is still living. The subject of this sketch was educated principally at Elmira, N. Y., but completed his scholastic training at Lookout Mountain Educational Institute. For three years Mr. Whitney was operator at Chattanooga and was subsequently train dispatcher, which position he held for nine years. In 1885 he assumed the duties and responsibilities of master of trains on the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad. He is an obliging young man, and one whose business qualifications are highly spoken of by his company.
Dr. E. Miles WILLETT, Sr., well known as one of the leading physicians in Memphis, Tenn., is a native of Kentucky; he was graduated in the classical department of St. Joseph’s College, Bardstown, Ky., in 1851, and two years later received the degree of Master of Arts in the same institution. Having decided to adopt the profession of medicine he repaired to Philadelphia, where he remained more than four years, attending the lectures of the eminent professors of that day, in the colleges and hospitals of that city, then the most famous seat of medical instruction in this country. He graduated in Jefferson Medical College in the class of 1855, and then had the good fortune to be elected one of the resident physicians of Philadelphia Hospital, where he served a term of one year. This hospital, better known as Blockley Almshouse, had a population of 2,300 and 280 children, besides 1,000 beds for the indigent sick, who were afflicted with all the ills that human flesh is heir to. As resident physician he was not a mere looker on, but it was his duty to treat disease in all its countless manifestations, the medical department being under the management of one chief resident and eight resident physicians. In the deadhouse opportunities were offered every day to study the ravages of disease. His term of office having expired, he decided in the spring of 1857 to make Memphis, Tenn., is future home, not on account of personal friendships, for he did not know any one in that city, but simply on account of what he supposed to be the advantages of the location. As he was quite youthful in appearance, he did not jump at once into practice; his success was gradual but permanent. Since 1860 he has enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. During the four terrible epidemics of yellow fever, which visited this ill-fated city, he might have always been seen in the front ranks of that noble band of physicians, who by day and through the lonely hours of the night, regardless of personal danger, were in constant attendance on the victims of this dreadful scourge. To his praise be it said, he was equally prompt and conscientious in the discharge of his professional duty to the poor as to the rich. He has always manifested great devotion to his profession, and with the exception of an extensive tour of Europe, and an occasional visit to the northern cities, he has rarely taken a trip for pleasure, but is always engaged in the active duties of his calling, visiting the sick, or he may be found in his library reading up in connection with his cases, or it may be, studying kindred branches of science as an ornamental part of education. He was one of the original members of the faculty of the Memphis Hospital Medical College, and as such lectured on the disease of women and clinical medicine for five years. At present he is professor of clinical medicine, physical diagnosis and diseases of the chest. He has always been regarded with great favor by the various classes of medical students as a fluent and pleasant lecturer and impressive teacher. He has always been held in high esteem by his professional brethren because of his uniform courtesy and great sincerity. He was one of the medical directors of the Southern Life Insurance Company for ten years, the term of its existence, and he had the honor to be elected the first supreme medical examiner of the C. K. of A., which place he has held for six years. These offices were not simply positions of empty honor but there was attached to the one as there was to the other a great deal of work and a substantial salary. The organization of Catholic Knights of America is a mutual benevolent society composed of between 400 and 500 branches and 20,000 members, scattered through the States and Territories of this country. When you are told that all of the medical examinations, made for this order throughout the United States, must be superintended by the supreme medical examiner, the nature of the office will be understood, and when it is stated that since the office was created Dr. Willett, the present incumbent has rejected nearly 1,000 applicants, the importance and responsibility of the office will be appreciated, especially when you remember that each accepted application represents a liability of $2,000.
John W. WILLEY is a son of Willis and Mary (Perkins) Willey, natives of Halifax County, N. C. The father was born in 1790 and moved to Tennessee in 1803. The mother was born in 1800, and when young came to Tennessee. Their marriage occurred in Dickson County, where both passed the remainder of their days engaged in agricultural pursuits. The father was a soldier in the war of 1812 under Jackson. Their family consisted of ten children, our subject being the fourth. He was born in Dickson County May 28, 1825, and when twenty-three years of age came to Tipton County. In 1849 he began running mills, and from that time till the breaking out of the war he continued in that business. In 1862 he enlisted in Company G, Fifty-first Tennessee Infantry, Confederate Army, and was one of the brave defenders of Fort Donelson, where he was captured. For seven months he was imprisoned at Camp Butler, Ill., and such was his health when released that he did very little more in the service. After the war he engaged in the firm of Willey & Merrell. Mr. Willey is largely interested in landed property, owning about 900 acres. In 1856 he married Nancy E. Miller, of Tipton County, by whom he has one child—Mary, now the wife of H. N. Smith. Mr. Willey is also interested in the Kerrville Agricultural Association. He is a Democrat in politics, and he and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church.
W. N. WILKERSON, vice-president of the Security Bank of Memphis, and a member of the wholesale drug firm of W. N. Wilkerson & Co., 334 Main street, was born in 1831 in Montgomery County, Tenn. His parents were Samuel M. and Mary A. (Wyatt) Wilkerson, natives of Virginia. The father had been school director in Haywood County for about forty years next prior to his death in 1884. The mother, in her seventy-eighth year, is still living. Upon reaching manhood our subject studied medicine and practiced the same a short time before the war. He served three years in the Confederate service, and in 1864 came to Memphis and established his present drug business in 1865. He is a member of the firm of D. B. Blair & Co., Australia, Miss., where they own a large plantation and a general merchandise store. He wrote the charter of the Memphis City & General Insurance Company, of which he is vice-president, and with which he has been connected since its organization. His wholesale drug trade varies from $250,000 to $300,000 annually. In April, 1878, he was joined in marriage to a daughter of Judge L. V. Dixon, and has by her four living children and two deceased.
George WINCHESTER was born in Baltimore, Md., July 14, 1818, and is the son of William and Henrietta (Cromwell) Winchester. The father was a son of William Winchester, who was a brother of Gen. James Winchester, two of the original proprietors of the Chickasaw Bluffs. The father, who was a first cousin to Marcus B. Winchester, came to Tennessee in 1800 and located in Sumner County, but returned East after a three-years’ residence. In 1831 our subject came to Tennessee, locating first in Jackson, but three years later moved to Brownsville, where he married and resided eleven years. In 1845 he came to Memphis and carried on the mercantile business two years, and then engaged in the cotton business, and has thus been engaged, with a short intermission, from that day to this, being one of the three ante bellum cotton buyers of this city. Mr. Winchester is a Democrat, but takes no active interest in politics. In 1859 he was one of the organizers of the De Soto Insurance Company, and was its secretary until the war stopped business. In 1839 he married Miss Jane, daughter of Col. Richard Nixon, of Hayward County, and by her has had twelve children, of whom only four are now living.
WOODS & Swoope, dealers in wagons, buggies, carriages, all kinds of agricultural implements, harness, saddlery, engines, and mowers, are the sole agents in this city for the Studebaker wagon. This firm is unequaled for variety of stock in the South. The members are Frank F. WOODS and W. C. Swoope, who established their business in September, 1885, and are located at 332 Second Street, Memphis. Mr. Woods was born in Nashville and came to Memphis in 1873. He is a son of Joseph L. and Fannie (Foster) Woods, and grandson of Robert Woods, a distinguished member of the old firm of Woods & Yateman of the Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company. Mr. Woods engaged with Orgill Bros. of this city in the hardware business and from them obtained his knowledge of his present business. He is the principal manager of the business. December 16, 1880, he married Annie H. Hancock, of Florence, Ala., and the daughter of James Hancock, the well known member of the firm of Hancock, Jones & Co. Mr. Woods is a member of the K. of H. Woods & Swoope were lately succeeded by Woods & Woods, composed of F. F. and R. J. Woods.
Hon. Archibald WRIGHT (deceased) was for over thirty years the recognized leader of the Memphis bar. He was born in Maury County, Tenn., November 29, 1809, but was reared in Giles County and studied law at Pulaski under Judge Bromlett. He was admitted to the bar at that place in 1832. He secured his education partly at Mt. Pleasant Academy, near Columbia, and partly at Giles College, Pulaski. His parents, John and Nancy (McIntyre) Wright, were both natives of North Carolina and both of Scottish parentage. Our subject practiced at the Pulaski bar until October 1, 1861, and then moved to this city where, at different times, he was associated with Judges Eldridge, Turley and Curran. In August, 1858, he received an appointment from Gov. I. G. Harris, to the supreme bench of the State to fill an unexpired term. In November of the same year he was elected to the same position, which he filled with credit until the breaking out of the war. He was not a regular soldier during this unpleasantness, but helped the soldiers fight, followed them in their battles, bivouacked with them and shared their dangers and privations. He had two sons in the service; one was killed at Stone’s River; the other, Gen. Luke Wright, is a resident of this city. Our subject’s name was mentioned in connection with the supreme bench long before he was placed there, but he was never a strong aspirant for office, preferring rather to prepare for, than to seek office. He served in the Florida war, and soon after his return married Elizabeth Eldridge, May 29, 1837. He was a member of the Methodist Church and led a true devoted Christian life. At the bar he was not demonstrative in language or polished in oratory, but his arguments were always clear, comprehensive and convincing. He was noted for simplicity of character and by his death, which occurred September 4, 1884, Tennessee lost one of her noblest men, the bar one of her greatest leaders and Memphis one of her most prominent and beloved citizens.