Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-07-21

Q Robert j. Rivers was probably the
4 brightest young man who ever en-
2 rolled himself as a member of the
$ bar. He had charming eloquence
l very much after the style of John J T.
? Crittenden, of Kentucky. He left
2 Tennessee and settled in Texas,
: where he died many years ago.
| William OvertOn was also at the
, bar when / settled here. He was
: not fond of the profession and turned
his attention TO journalism, for
, which he had decided preference
as well as great knowledge of the
political history of the country. He
was two years a representative of
this county in the State Legislature
and retired very early to private life,
which he preferred to the strife and
!, the conflict of the bar or politics,
though he had talents enough to
have adorned either.
Joseph Hise removed from Rus
sellv1lle, KY, where he was born,
and was member of this bar from
1880 to 1888. He was the most re-
markable man ever knew i'm many
respects, and possessed a wonderful
fund of knowledge and satire and
wit. Everybody. was afraid to en-
counter him in debate and remem-
ber n. H. Allen once said to me he
had rather meet a rattlesnake at
midnight. He left here for New
Orleans where he died of some ma
larial disease.
This closes the list of every lawyer
who was at the bar here in 1888
when | became a member of it, all of /
whom are dead with the exception |
of Mr.. VIM. Overton and Mr.. Clay |
ton, the latter having left the State in
1885. With these exceptions, alone |
survive of that noble band of gentle /
men and talented lawyers to tell the |
tale. 1t so happens / am, too, the
only survivor of a large family of
eight brothers.
'I feel like one who treads alone
Some banquet hall deserted;
Whose lights are fed,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but departed"
All of the bar of whom have
spoken were men of respectable and
some of them extraordinary talents.
All lived the life of honor and died
gloriOusly, in this leaving to their
children the legacy of bright and
untarnished name if nothing else.
All these were members of the bar
or had been before 1888.
Afterwards Jas. T.. Bailey, II. w.
King, Jas. M. and w. A. Quarles,
Jas. Il. Rice, r.. w. Humphreys, j.
o. Shackelford, j. G. Hornberger,
H. S. Garland, Jno. f. House, Alfred
RObb, George Harrel, ii. III. Lurton,
@. g. Smith, William Daniel, Ed
mOnd LurtOn, RObt. w. johnson,
JnO. Campbell, Henry Merritt, G.
w. Tyler, Hickman and Polk q.
Johnson, Arthur and Lewis Mum
ford, Rufus Rhodes, Willis Jackson,
John West, T. M. Riley, Jacob Ru-
dolph, r.. III. Burney, Thos. l.. Yam
cey, A. G. GOodlett, IL. w. Watts,
II. C. Bats, b. ID. johnson and Ed.
Campbell came to the bar and are
now, or rather those who survive, are
the active members of the bar to-
day.
You are called upon this day to
fill the places i'm the ranks made va
cant by death or retirement from
active service. The mantle of the
Old Guard has fallen upon your
shoulders and with il the ancient
and modern reputation of the bar
of Clarksville, which l fancy will be ,
heavy enough to remind YOU of I
your duty to the dead and to the
living, and to warn you that the rep /
utation they left is precious enough
to evoke from you strenuous eXer- ,
tions and eternal vigilance, lest the /
inheritance which this day hand ,
over to you pure and untarnished !
should fail and perish in your hands
and turn like Dead Sea fruits TO
ashes on your lips. Guard its repu-
tatiOn as you would the immediate
jewels of your souls and send it on {
down the stream, Frightening as il
goes to the last syllable of recorded ]
time.
OF those who belonged to the list
/ have just announced, II. w. King, I
Ii. S. Garland, j. G.. Hornberger, !
r. w. Johnson, Alfred RObb, Geo.
Harrel and Jno. Campbell, it is prop {
er / should not pass by without she'd
ding the tribute of a tear over their 4
untimely fall into early graves.
The Hon. Thomas w. King was
a native of Clarksville and the sec
Ond son of DR.. Lewis w. King. He
was educated in the old City Acad-
emy of Clarksville, and very finely
too. / have scarcely ever
met a finer classic scholar, one who
read the English language so ele-
gantly, the Latin language so finely
anu translated it so well. He was q
historian and the finest
belleslettre scholar belonging to the
bar. His reading was so thorough
and extensive that we were i'm the
habit of referring all disputed points
of literature to his arbitraHent. His '
bills in Chancery and pleadings in q
the courts of law were so admirably I
drawn as to be models for his brothers
of the profession, who sometimes do
not value scholastic elegance enough {
in the preparation of their pleadings. I
His knowledge of his profession was ]
exceedingly creditable. He pre-
ferred the Bench to the fierce con-
flicts at the bar, and had he not been 7
cut off in the prime Of life would
have adorned any tribunal from the Y
Judicial station he held in Mont '
gomery to the Supreme Court of the I
State.
Mr.. Garland was a son of the Hon. v
Jas. Garland, of Lynchburg, Va, Il
who settled in ClarksVille i'm 1874, \
and was q young man of native tall /
ents and very considerable cultiva- b
ton. AS a lawyer he was very O
and was in the enjoyment I
of very lucrative practice when he l
died.
j. G. Hornberger was born in c
county, and fought his way r
up against the difficulties of defect i
i've education and without patronage l.
or family influence to a most remu- q
nerative practice in Clarksville, and
which was suffering no diminutiOn J
at the time of his death, d
Robert w. Johnson came to the q
bar in 1860, and was well educated {
young lawyer; had high rank i'm the h
Lebanon Law College, where he C
graduated and began the practice i'm C
where he gave evidence I
of superior cultivation and incited 4
great hopes of success, but died too O
early to realize them. b
George Harrel was born i'm Todd {
county, KY, read law in Clarksville, a
and commenced the practice Of his /
profession i'm this city, and was
making a fair start in the profession 7
about the beginning of the war be- 5
tween the States, when he joined v
the army of the Confederate States, {
rose from the ranks to the Office of v