Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-05-01
pEArH OF WIZ. 0. BROwNLOw.

in the Southern States and through
out a great portion of the North
for more than a quarter of a CEN
fury, has gone to his final account.
William Ganaway Brownlow passed
quietly away at his home in Knox.
vile Sunday afternoon at two
o'clock, the goth ult., and will be
buried to-day at Gray Cemetery, in
that city. The event was tn. less
expected because the sufferer had
been reported dead or at the point
of death so often within the last
ten years that the public ceased to
regard such rumors. To give an
accurate outline of his eventlul and
stormy life would occupy more
space than a daily newspaper could
allot to the subject. We can, how
ever, recall some Of the points Of
interest in his prolonged career.
He was born near Abingdon,
Wythe county, Va, August 80,
1905, and was therefore nearing
his seventy-third birthday. At the
age of twelve he was left a penni-
less orphan, and apprenticed to a
carpenter, under whom he learned
the trade. Very little is known Of
him until the year 1926, in which
he was licensed as an exhorter in
the Methodist church. He entered
the i%tinerant ranks and travelled the
circuit ten years. He became a
celebrity at once. In 1928 he be-
gan to figure in politics as a Wing,
and took an active part for John
Quincy Adams, and was travelling a
circuit in South Carolina when
notification was proposed. He
attacked Calhoun's policy ina bold,
blunt way, and became SO much
mixed up in politics that he was
virtually lost to the ministry. He
removed to Jonesboro, Tenn, over
forty years ago, and published a
paper there a year or two. 1t was
while there that he had a shoot
ing ARRAY with Landon G.
Haynes, and became famouS as the
fighting parSon. In 1887 he re-
moved to Knoxville and started
Brownlow's Knoxville Wing, which
exerted an immense influence in
politics in that end of the State up
to the breaking out Of the war in
1861. He was an ardent Wing a:
long as the party lived, and hated
Democracy with fanatical intensity
to the day of his death. Previous
to the wal he never sought Office,
but divided his time and energie;
between heated political and theo'
logical discussions. Next to the
Democrats his special aversion wa:
the Presbyterians and Baptists.
The Presbyterian Theological Sem.
mary at Maryville, Blount county.
and DIR. Anderson, its founder anG
president, came in for a share o.
his special attention, week after
week, for many years. He delighted
to deride the Hopkinsons, as he
called them, as to ridicule the Bap
fists and Hard Shell Baptists. Sucl
a man naturally had a strong fol
lowing among the masses. TIL,
Wing was next to the bible Will
most of the mountaineers AM
backwoods people. His unquec
toned courage and daredevil styl
made him almost a demigod, e:
pecially among the uneducate
Glasses. lie wrote several book
The most notable was in reply I
the "Iron Wheel" written by d
j. r. Graves, an eminent BaptiI
minister, then of Nashville but no,
of Memphis. He became a slave
owner in a small way and expose
pro-alayery doctrines with his usui
zeal and pertinacity. About IL
year 1857 he challenged the who
North to send out a man to comb
his views from a bible standpoin
Abram Pryne, a Universalist mil
lister from Western New York, a
cepted the challenge and the gre
debate came off at Philadelphia
1855, and was published in DO,
form and had an immense circul
Iation. It is not too much to Fl