Ashland Trenton Patrick (1859-1952)

From the Lexington Leader, September 7, 1941.

   Kentucky earns its second article on the site for 2020 with Ashland Trenton Patrick, an attorney and circuit court judge who, appropriately enough, shares his first name with a Kentucky city (Ashland in Boyd County.) A lifelong Kentucky resident, Patrick had previously served as a county school superintendent, circuit court commissioner, and for four years was county attorney for Magoffin County. The son of John W. and Abigail (Salyers) Patrick, Ashland Trenton Patrick was born in what is now Magoffin County on June 2, 1859.

  A student at Kentucky's Georgetown College, Patrick also attended Ohio Wesleyan University. Following his graduation, he followed a teaching career for three years and also read law under Judge John Cooper. Patrick was admitted to the bar in the early 1880s and by 1883 had established himself in practice. In either 1881 or 1882 (dates vary) Ashland Patrick married Amanda Louise "Lulie" Howes (1860-1942), to who he was wed for six decades. The couple's long union produced four children, Lenore Patrick Adams (1882-1969), Hortense Patrick Elam (1884-1967), Henry B. (birthdate unknown), and Effie Patrick Milby (1902-1991).

  Ashland T. Patrick began his career in public service in 1885 when he was elected as Magoffin County superintendent of schools. He served in that capacity for a year and in 1886 was appointed as a U.S. circuit court commissioner for Kentucky, a post he held until 1896. This period saw Patrick as the partner of his father-in-law, attorney William Wiley Howse in Salyersville, a firm that continued until the latter's death in 1900. 

   In 1897 Patrick entered into the race for Commonwealth's Attorney but was defeated. In 1901 the citizens of Magoffin County elected him as their county attorney, where he served a four-year term. He returned to his law practice after his term concluded and in 1915 was elected as Circuit Court judge for Kentucky's 31st judicial district, defeating incumbent Democrat D.W. Gardner. In the following year, Patrick removed to Prestonsburg, and in 1919 was designated by Governor Augustus O. Stanley as a special judge for the Letcher County circuit, due to the illness of Judge John Butler. 

  Patrick won the Republican renomination for judge in October 1921, following the contested August primary instigated by his opponent, C.B. Wheeler. Despite his successful bid for renomination, Patrick was defeated that November by Democrat W.W. Williams, by a 4,000-plus vote majority. Several years following his defeat he returned to politics when he announced his candidacy for state senator from Kentucky's 13th district. He was defeated in the August Republican primary by Alex L. Allen, who polled 3,616 votes to Patrick's 2,119.

From the Park City Daily News, August 8, 1931.

From the Lexington Leader, July 26, 1932.

  Several months following his senatorial dreams being dashed, Ashland Patrick set his sights on a higher office: U.S. Congressman. Announcing his bid in July 1932, Patrick was one of fourteen candidates vying for the Republican nomination from an at-large congressional district. In the days leading up to the August election Patrick's character and judicial service were profiled in the Louisville Courier-Journal, which wrote:

"He served on the bench for six years with credit to himself and honor to people of the district. He is a good speaker and belongs to a prominent and Republican family in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, who have always fought faithfully for the party in all of its battles. His party can depend on him."

  On primary election day, Ashland Patrick polled 17,728 votes but was one of several candidates who lost out at the ballot box. In 1939 Patrick established the annual Patrick reunion of Kentucky, and in 1941 was honored at this family reunion with an oil painting of himself. Designated as the Patrick family's "Grand Old Man", Patrick celebrated his 90th birthday in 1949 and died at the General Hospital in Prestonsburg on September 9, 1952. He had been preceded in death by his wife in 1942, and both were interred at the Gardner Cemetery in Salyersville, Kentucky.

From the Lexington Leader, September 9, 1952.

Delcer Solomon Strickland (1888-1973)

From the Atlanta Constitution, March 12, 1933.

  For many years a leading citizen in Douglasville, Georgia, Delcer Solomon Strickland was a former city attorney and school board trustee who served two terms in the Georgia House of Representatives. Born in Draketown, Georgia on November 14, 1888, Delcer Solomon Strickland was the son of Solomon Wilson (1860-1939) and Mary Geneva (Patman) Strickland (1861-1940). A graduate of the Buchanan, Georgia high school in 1909, Strickland enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he earned his law degree in 1913. In the following February he established himself in practice in Douglasville, where he resided for the remainder of his life. 

  In December 1913 Delcer Strickland married Mary Kate Roberts (1890-1970) in Buchanan, Georgia. The couple's fifty-six-year marriage saw the births of five children, Jennie Lynn (1915-), Helen Dawn (1916-2015), Robert S. (1923-1997), Delcer Samuel (died in infancy in 1926), and Daniel Stephen (1931-1991). 

  Following his marriage, Strickland was elected as Douglasville city attorney, and beginning in 1925 sat as a member of the Douglasville high school board of trustees. In 1928 he was elected to the Fifth Congressional district's Democratic executive committee, and two years later announced his bid for a seat in the state legislature. He won the election in the fall of 1930, and during the 1931-33 session served on the committees on Education, General Judiciary No.2, the Georgia State Sanitarium, Insurance, and Uniform State Laws.

  

From the 1913 University of Georgia "Pandora" yearbook.

  Reelected in 1932, Strickland's second term saw him named to the several new committees, those being Amendments to the Constitution, No. 1; Education No. 2; Motor Vehicles; Public Highways No. 2; and Public Utilities. He would also chair the committee on General Judiciary, No. 2. In addition to those committees, Strickland also sat on the Sisk committee, a special body that "investigated alleged job selling in the department of agriculture." 

  One year after leaving the legislature Strickland announced his candidacy for the Georgia state senate. Hoping to represent the 29th district (comprising Douglas, Cherokee, and Cobb County), Strickland was opposed by another oddly named man, Alpha Alsbury Fowler. A former state representative himself, Fowler defeated Strickland that September, 1,110 votes to 828. Following his defeat Strickland resumed his law practice in Douglasville and was a leading club-man in Douglas County, being a Mason and a past potentate ambassador for the Yaarab Temple Shriners.

  Delcer Strickland returned to politics in the 1950s with his time as County Attorney for Douglas County. His full dates of service remain unknown, and in 1970 suffered the death of his wife of nearly sixty years, Mary. Following her death, he remarried to Alma Pritchard Cole (1904-1994), who survived him upon his death on April 7, 1973, at age 84. All three were interred at the Douglasville City Cemetery.

From the Atlanta Constitution, April 19, 1973.

Zeboim Lupton Patten (1907-1958), Zeboim Cartter Patten Jr. (1906-1982)

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, January 12, 1950.

  We continue our journey through Tennessee and today examine the lives of two men named Zeboim. The first of these men, Zeboim Lupton Patten, was one of the outstanding civic leaders in his section of Tennessee, being the president of one of that city's oldest businesses, the Chattanooga Medicine Co. Additionally, Patten chaired the University of Chattanooga's Board of Trustees, and achieved further prominence in finance, being chairman of the local community chest campaign and was director of the American National Bank and Trust Co. Long active in Republican politics in his region, Patten was elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1940 and eight years later was named an alternate delegate.

  The son of John Alanson (1867-1916) and Edith (Manker) Patten (1867-1943), Zeboim Lupton Patten was born in Chattanooga on January 29, 1907. Descended from one of the leading families in Chattanooga, Lupton Patten (as most sources list him) was the great-nephew of Zeboim Cartter Patten (1840-1925), the founder and president of the Chattanooga Medicine Company. A native of New York, Patten removed to Tennessee following his service in the Union Army and in the latter half of the 19th century had become one of the leading industrialists in Tennessee. Additionally, Patten established a life insurance company and as head of the Stone Fort Land Company made major developments to the city infrastructure of Chattanooga.

  Receiving the name Zeboim, Lupton Patten's first name is of biblical origin, and is recorded in the Book of Genesis as "one of the five cities of the plain of Sodom." Zeboim is also mentioned as "a valley or rugged glen near Gibeah" in the First Book of Samuel, and an area populated by the Benjamites in the Book of Nehemiah. As the son of a pioneer Chattanooga business family, Patten was afforded a fine education, graduating from the Baylor School in 1923. He continued studies at the University of Chattanooga and graduated in 1927 with his BA degree. Shortly after his graduation, he returned to his alma mater as a junior instructor in French and Philosophy, teaching from 1927-28.

Portrait from the Moccasin Yearbook, 1927.

   In May 1928 Lupton Patten married Mary McChesney Sanford (1908-1972), to who he was wed until his death. The couple had four daughters, Peggy (1931-2014), twin sisters Charlotte and Phyllis, and Mary Fontaine Patten Moore (1943-2020). In the year of his marriage, Patten joined the Chattanooga Medicine Co., working in its credit department. He quickly rose through the ranks of the business, holding the posts of assistant sales manager, sales manager, and in 1938 was named company president. Just 31 years old, he succeeded his uncle Zeboim Charles Patten (who had advanced to chairman of the board). Lupton Patten held the additional role of president of the board of the Brayton Pharmaceutical Co., and his two-decade stewardship of the Chattanooga Medicine Co. was later profiled in the Chattanooga Daily Times five years after his death, which remarked:

"Lupton Patten had business foresight. He had a vision of a modern drug manufacturing company with hospital-like cleanliness, with automated production lines and a with a thoroughly mechanized office operation...He saw a pharmaceutical division to make new drugs available to the medical profession and he saw a division to make fine chemicals available to industry. Not only did he have a vision for all these things; he set out to bring them to pass. And in less than 10 years this vision became a reality."

  With his name firmly established in Chattanooga by 1940, Lupton Patten could already look back on an impressive career. A champion tennis player during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Patten helped found the Chattanooga Tennis Club, which was later renamed the Manker Patten Tennis Center in honor of his eldest brother (1894-1956). Patten would remain connected to the affairs of his alma mater through his life, serving as chairman of the University of Chattanooga's Board of Trustees from 1957-58. He held seats on the boards of the Bright School and the Girls Preparatory School of Chattanooga, and in 1940 was honored as the Junior Chamber of Commerce's Man of the Year.

From the Chattanooga News, January 14, 1936.

  In addition to his prominence in the pharmaceutical industry, Lupton Patten made additional headway into Chattanooga's business sector with his service as director of the American National Bank and Trust Co. and was on the Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company's board of directors. On the civic front Patten chaired the Chattanooga community chest campaign in 1940, and from 1949-50 was its president. In these capacities, Patten directed fundraising efforts that financed the Chattanooga symphony orchestra, and "many other public service activities in his local community." In 1941 he was vice-chairman of the Greater Chattanooga War Fund and was a progressive on race issues of the day, with his donations to African-American institutions. In a Congressional Record memorial published not long after his death, Patten was acknowledged for his charity, with Congressman Brazilla Carroll Reece remarking:

"Lupton Patten, like his father, gave much of his means to Negroes, particularly Negro ministers. When adversities knocked on Negroes' doors they made a beaten path to the Chattanooga Medicine Co. to see the little man with the big heart, Lupton Patten. When Negro churches needed a roof and other things to keep them in good repair where they may religiously educate their children Mr. Patten furnished the means by which they could do the necessary work needed to be done. In that he was following in the footsteps of his illustrious father because his father, in all probability, gave more money to Negro churches in this community than anyone that I know about. Sometimes it wasn't the need for a church proper, but it was a need for the minister of the church and he also considered their pleas and helped them on their way."

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, September 13, 1940.

  Despite being a political non-office holder, Patten was long an active worker for the Republican party. "An unabashed conservative", he was a prominent backer for Ohio senator Robert Taft in the 1940 Republican primary and was elected as part of the Tennessee delegation to the June 1940 Republican National Convention held in Philadephia. In 1948 Patten was chosen as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention (also in Philadelphia) where Thomas Dewey was nominated for the presidency. In addition to Lupton Patten's long service to the Republican party, attention must also be given to his wife's party service. Mary Sanford Patten attended three RNC conventions (two with her husband) and in 1952 chaperoned their daughter Peggy, who was a convention page. In 1955 Mrs. Patten was a candidate for Republican National Committeewoman from Tennessee and was elected, serving until at least 1960. In the last-named year, she represented Tennessee at the National Federation of Republican Women's "Bridge of Women" pageant held in Washington, D.C.

  Following his service as an RNC delegate, Patten continued prominence in Chattanooga, and in 1949 was named foreman of the Hamilton County grand jury. In the next year, he participated in a "blue ribbon jury" panel that investigated jury irregularities. In 1950 his service to the pharmaceutical industry was acknowledged with his election as president of the Proprietary Association for 1950-52. For an indeterminate period, Patten sat as a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Manufacturers and the Tennessee Manufacturers Association, and in May 1957 was bestowed an honorary doctor of laws degree from Tennessee Wesleyan University. 

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, December 8, 1958.

  The last year of Lupton Patten's life was marred by heart ailments, first being struck in the fall of 1957. After a period of recuperation, he resumed his business dealings, but on December 7, 1958, was felled by a fatal heart attack at his home. The loss of one of Chattanooga's standout figures left the community grief-stricken, and it was left for the Chattanooga Daily News to write:

"For here indeed was a man whose abilities were manifold, whose concern for the betterment for the place of his birth and of his deserved success was without limit, whose willingness to give himself on its behalf was without measure."

  Just 51 years old at the time of his death, Z. Lupton Patten was survived by his wife Mary and four daughters. Following her death in 1972, Mary Sanford Patten was interred alongside her husband at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga. Six decades following his death, the memory of Zeboim Lupton Patten remains strong in Chattanooga, and in November 2020 a $1,000,000 endowment was given by the Patten family to the University of Chattanooga's Gary W. Rollins School of Business. The endowment, the brainchild of Patten's youngest daughter Mary Fontaine Patten Moore, came to fruition following the death of her son Douglas B. Moore, with the family noting the endowment to be "a particularly appropriate memorial to Lupton Patten's business, cultural, and civic achievements and lifelong devotion to the University as student, teacher, benefactor, and trustee."

From the Chattanooga Daily News, December 9, 1958.

Senator Zeboim Cartter Patten Jr.

  Public service (and unusual names) continued in the Patten family with Zeboim Cartter Patten Jr., the son of Chattanooga Medicine Co. founder Zeboim Cartter Patten Sr. and uncle of Zeboim Lupton Patten. Like the man who preceded him here, Patten was a long distinguished figure in Chattanooga, being a life insurance company executive, banker, civic leader, and politician. He would serve one term in the state assembly, was a delegate to the 1965 state constitutional convention, and in 1960 was elected to the first of three terms in the state senate.

   Born on February 2, 1903, Z. Cartter Patten Jr. was the only child of Zeboim Cartter and Sarah Avery (Key) Patten (1863-1958). Born when his father was sixty-two years old, distinction carried over to the maternal side of Patten's family with Sarah Key Patten's father, David McKendree Key (1814-1900). Prominent in Tennessee politics, Key served as U.S. Senator from 1875-77, was Postmaster General under President Hayes from 1877-80, and was a U.S. district court judge from 1880-95. 

  Z. Cartter Patten Jr. (as most sources refer to him) attended the Duval French and English School in Chattanooga and later studied for four years at the Asheville, North Carolina School For Boys. His time at this institution saw Patten develop a lifelong interest in conservation and, having grown up on his father's Ashland Farm in the Chattanooga Valley, carried with him a love of the outdoors for the remainder of his life. 

  With his interest in conservation deepening, Patten continued his studies at Cornell University, where he took agricultural courses, and in 1925 graduated with his bachelor of science degree. This was followed by a summer-long trip through Europe with a friend, and in 1926 returned to Tennessee to join his late father's life insurance firm. Becoming an assistant treasurer with the Volunteer Life Insurance Company, Patten later advanced to the post of vice president and after the company's sale continued to sit as a member of its board of directors. 

  Z. Cartter Patten Jr. married in Tennessee on August 19, 1931, to Elizabeth Nelson Bryan (1907-1990). The couple's five-decade marriage produced four children, Sarah Key (1932-2017), Emma Berry (1935-2020), and twin sons Z. Cartter III and Bryan.

  Through the 1930s and 40s Patten's profile continued to rise in the Chattanooga business sphere, with his service as director of the Hamilton National Bank. He was chairman of the board of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association and the Ringdale Bank and Trust Co. and was a director of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. Further business prominence came with Patten's tenure as president of the WDEF-TV Broadcasting Co., Chattanooga's first television station, and in 1953 served as president of Chattanoogans, Inc.

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, January 4, 1960.

   Z. Cartter Patten Jr. owned and operated the Key Hotel in Chattanooga and as owner of the Grandview Company had over 20,000 acres of timberland on Signal Mountain. Having purchased as a substantial tract of land for growing pine trees on Signal Mountain in 1943, Patten was acknowledged in the Chattanooga Daily News in 1960, where he remarked that "in fifteen years it will be fully developed, growing timber as fast as it is cut." These vast tracts of pinelands later received mention as one of the "favorite conservation tracts" by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Additionally, Patten was a founding organizer of the Tennesee Conservation League in 1946.

  Active as an educational booster in his region, Patten served on the University of Chattanooga's board of trustees and also chaired the Bonny Oaks School board of trustees for several years. A keen historian, Patten devoted much time to the preservation of Tennessee history, and from 1949-51 served as the first president of the Chattanooga Area Historical Association. He added the title of author to his resume in 1951 with the publication of "A Tennessee Chronicle" and in 1961 authored a history of the Signal Mountain and Walden's Ridge areas. 

  Patten first entered the political life of his state in 1958 when he was elected as a representative from Hamilton County to the Tennessee General Assembly. The 1959-61 session saw him named to the committees on Business, Education, Local Government, and Military and Veterans Affairs, and in November 1960 won election to the state senate.

From the 1959 Tennessee general assembly composite.

   Patten's first senate term (1961-63) saw him chair the committee on Insurance and Banking, and in January 1961 made headlines when he announced that he'd prepared legislation that would repeal Tennessee's anti-evolution law. A law that had been on the books prior to the Scopes Trial of 1925, the bill (co-sponsored with Rep. Charles Galbreath) was remarked as having "little prospect" of passage during that year's session, with Patten stating:

"But I think the bill will have a good effect, in that it will concentrate attention of the legislature and the people on this matter, and perhaps it will be a start toward getting something done eventually."

  In 1962 Patten won his second senate term and in 1964 won a third term. During the 1965-67 session he co-chaired the Committee on Conservation, and with fellow senator Hobart Atkins proposed a bill that would "create a board of regents of higher education which would ''develop a master plan for public higher education in the state.''' Additional legislation backed by Patten included a bill to repeal the sales tax on utilities, and in 1965 pulled political double duty when he was elected as a delegate to the state constitutional convention held in Knoxville. This convention discussed term lengths, vacancies, elections, and legislative district reapportionment, and during the proceedings, Patten proposed a constitutional amendment that "would give state clarification of the U.S. Supreme Court's ''one man-one vote reapportionment formula.'''

From the Nashville Tennesseean, May 30, 1965.

  Patten's final senate term concluded in 1967 and in March 1970 he was awarded the Sears  Foundation trophy for Conservationist of the Year for Tennessee. After decades of prominence in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, Z. Cartter Patten Jr. died aged 79 on February 6, 1982. He was survived by his wife and four children and was interred at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga.

From the Nashville Tennessean, February 7, 1982.

Ingersoll Osea Remine (1891-1947)

From the Knoxville Sentinel, November 19, 1922.

  Another in a long list of strange name political figures who were without faces to place with their names, the above picture of Ingersoll Osea Remine was found recently via the online archive of the Knoxville Sentinel. This author having located Remine's name way back in 2009, it took eleven years for a picture of him to finally come to light! A railway agent in Loudon County for two decades, Remine was elected to two terms in the Tennessee state senate in the early 1920s, representing the 63rd and 65th district. The son of Calvin Keizel and Laura (Painter) Remine, Ingersoll Osea "I.O." Remine was born on August 6, 1891, in Chuckey, Tennessee.

  A student in schools local to Greene County, Remine later attended the county's Wesleyan Academy and in August 1912 married Pearl Fisher (1892-1954). The couple were wed until Remine's death in 1947 and had four children, including Marion, Dan, and Neil. In April 1906 Remine took employment with the Southern Railroad as a telegraph operator and railway agent, and around 1916 resettled in Loudon, Tennessee. He resided there for the remainder of his life, and during the First World War was active in the war effort. He served as county chairman of the Red Cross Roll Call, and was a speaker with the Four Minute Men, visiting locations throughout the county touting war drives. Remine also chaired the Loudon County United War Workers Campaign. 

   I.O. Remine first entered politics at age 20, serving as secretary of the Greene County Republican executive committee in 1911-12. Following removal to Loudon County, he chaired the county Republican executive committee and was active in fraternal groups, being a member of the Junior Order of United Mechanics, president of the Epworth League, master of the First Veil Royal Arch Masons, and master of the Tennessee Lodge No. 204 of Free and Accepted Masons. 

  In 1922 Remine announced his entrance into the race for state senator from Tennessee's 6th district. Lauded by the Knoxville Journal and Tribune for "his advocacy of political righteousness", Remine was opposed in the Republican primary by incumbent senator John C. Houk. Through June and July Remine took to the stump via automobile to tout his campaign and took aim at Houk's Senate service. Making note of Houk's "disloyalty" to then-Governor Alfred Taylor by his failure to support the administration's policies, Remine also noted Houk's lack of support for the "back tax" and "tax assessment" bill. In August 1922 Remine defeated Houk, with incomplete returns noting a vote margin of a few hundred votes. As Remine's victory was "equivalent" to winning the general election, he faced little to no opposition that November.

From the Knoxville Journal and Tribune, August 4, 1922.

  Following his election in November Remine was remarked as one of the youngest senators to have ever served in state government, and at age 31 was the youngest man in the senate during the 1923-25 term. In January 1923 he was named chairman of the committee on Horticulture, and was a member of the committees on Education; Finance; Game, Fish, and Forestry; Labor; Military Affairs; Railroads; Sanitation; and Ways and Means. Remine was defeated for reelection in November 1924 by Democrat Roy C. Wallace but rebounded politically in November 1926 when he defeated Wallace to win a second term.

  The 1927-29 session saw Remine propose legislation that would "incorporate Loudon and a bill to enable Monroe County to issue bonds to build a bridge over the Little Tennessee river." In April 1927 he delivered the keynote address at the 2nd Congressional district Republican convention, and in May of the following year was elected chairman of the 2nd district Republican convention held in Knoxville. 

  After leaving office Remine continued residence in Loudon, where he and his wife were active in the Methodist Episcopal church. On September 24, 1947, the 56-year-old ex-senator died unexpectedly in Knoxville, shortly after leaving his doctor's office. His obituary notes that he had been receiving treatment for a heart ailment prior to his death, and he was survived by his wife and three children. Following her death in 1954, Pearl Remine was interred alongside her husband at the Steekee Cemetery in Loudon.

From the Johnson City Press, September 25, 1947.

Lonsdale Porter McFarland Sr. (1871-1930)

From the 1907 composite photo of the Tennessee house of representatives.

   A distinguished name in Wilson County, Tennessee during the first half of the 20th century, Lonsdale Porter "Lon" MacFarland Sr was a substantial landholder and stock raiser in his region and was active in Democratic political circles. He served two terms in the state house of representatives, one term in the state senate, and in the year of his death was a candidate for his old senate seat. The son of Dr. James (1818-1903) and Eulalie Cowan McFarland, Lonsdale Porter MacFarland Sr. was born in Tennessee on February 27, 1871. A veteran of the California gold rush, James P. MacFarland practiced medicine in California for a brief period and was a close friend and partner of druggist John Gately Downey (1827-1894), who was later elected to three terms as California governor. During his California residency, MacFarland was elected to two terms in the state assembly, serving from 1852-54. This office is incorrectly listed as the state senate in volume 8 of the 1913 "History of Tennessee and Tennesseans".

  "Lon" MacFarland's early education was obtained in schools local to Wilson County and also studied at the University of Tennessee and the University of Virginia. Having studied law at the latter school, MacFarland continued schooling at Cumberland University in Tennessee and in 1894 graduated with his degree. He later practiced law in Texas and in the 1890s made a sojourn to the Alaska Klondike, where he tried his hand at gold mining.

  After returning to Tennessee MacFarland established himself near Martha, where he purchased and improved a large farm. He was acknowledged as "one of the largest landowners in that section of the state", and gained further repute for his live stock interests. He married in February 1901 to Alabama native Elizabeth Crowe (1881-1965). The couple would have five children, Lynn Childress (died 1914), James Crowe (1904-1966), Lonsdale Porter Jr. (1911-1994), Frank Hays (1913-1927), and Alfred Towson (1917-2006). Of these children, Lonsdale MacFarland Jr. followed his father into law and attained the rank of Colonel following his service in WWII. He later was elected as president of the Tennessee Bar Association and was a civic leader in Maury County.

  With his name widely known amongst the Wilson County citizenry, MacFarland entered politics in 1900 when he announced his candidacy for the state house of representatives. Though unsuccessful in his run, MacFarland made several speaking engagements in his district, and in 1906 announced his second run for the legislature. He was elected that November and at the start of the 1907-09 session was named to the committees on Banks, Elections, Municipal Affairs, and Public Grounds and Buildings. He would also chair the committee on Penitentiaries.

  In November 1912 MacFarland won a second term in the legislature and during the 1913-15 term sat on four new committees, those being Constitutional Conventions and Amendments; Insurance; Jails and Workhouses; and chaired the committee on Waterways and Drainage. This term saw MacFarland's name be mentioned as a candidate for U.S. Senator from Tennessee, as the state legislature was then responsible for electing a senator. This special election occurring due to the death of Robert L. Taylor, MacFarland was one of several men proposed for that body. He was narrowly defeated by educator William R. Webb, who served until March 1913.

  A few months following his senate loss MacFarland made headlines of a different sort when he exchanged heated words with another odd-name legislator, Green Miller, who had recently resigned as a representative. Following an exchange in the lobby of the capital, MacFarland denounced Adams as "having betrayed his confidence, and betrayed the democratic party", with the Nashville Tennesseean reporting that MacFarland's voice could be heard throughout the lobby.

From the Nashville Tennesseean, May 18, 1913.

  Lon MacFarland returned to government service in November 1918 with his election to the Tennessee state senate from the 13th district. He served one term (1919-21) and was a member of the committees on Claims; Manufacture and Mining; New Counties and County Lines; Pensions; Privileges and Elections; Public Roads and Internal Improvements; Railroads; Redistricting; and Sanitation.

  After leaving office Lon MacFarland was a candidate for Democratic state committeeman in the 1928 primary and in 1930 entered into the race to reclaim his old senate seat. While still a candidate, MacFarland died unexpectedly at his home while reading on July 15, 1930, aged 59. He was survived by his wife and three sons and was interred at the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville. 

From the Nashville Tennesseean, July 17, 1930.

Volta Francis Goddard (1891-1975)

                                                  Portrait from the Tennessee legislative composite of 1965-66.

  Three-term Tennessee state assemblyman Volta Francis Goddard was for over forty years at the forefront of athletic and political matters in his home county of Blount. A school superintendent in Alcoa for over three decades, Goddard had previously been a rural school teacher and gained wide repute for his decades-long involvement in state athletics. A past president of the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association, Goddard would serve over twenty years on that organization's board of governors. Born on February 15, 1891, in Blount County, Volta Francis "V.F." Goddard was the son of Nathaniel and Dorcas (Morton) Goddard.

  Bestowed the curious first name Volta, the reasons behind Nathaniel and Dorcas Goddard giving this name to their son are unknown, and the name remains unique, being the only such instance of it this author has found. A student at Maryville College in Tennessee, Goddard graduated in 1913 and continued schooling at the University of Michigan from 1925-26. He received his master's degree from that institution and did post-graduate work at the University of Chicago. 

  Goddard's career in education began shortly after his graduation from Maryville in 1913. Chosen as principal of schools in Chassell, Michigan, he was later elected as city superintendent of schools and continued in that post until at least 1916. In July 1914 he married Elizabeth Irene Funk, about whom little is known. Remarked as a member  "of one of Michigan's prominent families", she and Goddard separated sometime prior to 1921, as he remarried in June of that year to Ruth Lassfolk (1886-1974). The couple was wed for fifty-three years and had at least two daughters, Ruth Goddard Proffitt (1917-1993) and Barbara J. Goddard (born ca. 1927).

  In the early 1920s, Goddard is recorded as a school superintendent in South Dakota, and sometime later removed back to Alcoa, Tennessee. In 1924 he began a thirty-three-year stint as Alcoa city school superintendent, and that long tenure saw Goddard elected as secretary of the County and City Superintendents of East Tennessee for the 1927-28 year. Additionally, Goddard was long active in Tennessee school athletics, being a member of the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association. In 1935 he was elected to that organization's board of governors, where he served until 1957. He served as TSSAA secretary for East Tennessee beginning in the late 1930s, and by 1942 had become chairman of the TSSAA East Tennessee Board of Control. Eight years later he was named chairman of the TSSAA, succeeding Chattanooga High School principal S.E. Nelson.

From the Knoxville News Sentinel, May 27, 1948.

   Volta Goddard's time as chairman extended from 1950-1957 when he retired, and in 1964 had the Alcoa High School football field named in his honor. In April 1956 Goddard announced that he'd be retiring as Alcoa school superintendent at the end of the year, and within three years of his retirement entered into a new phase of his life--political service. In 1960 he entered into the race for the Republican nomination for the Tennessee state assembly and in August won the primary. In the general election, Goddard defeated Democrat Maggie Love by a vote of 11,072 to 6,547, and took his seat in January 1961.  Nearly seventy years old at the start of the 1961-63 session, Goddard was named to three committees, Education, Highways and Safety, and Local Government.

  Reelected in 1962, Goddard again served on the Highways and Safety and Local Government committees and in 1964 won a third term. During the 1965-67 session, Goddard co-chaired the committee on Agriculture and was named to two new committees, those being Labor, and Welfare and Employment Security. Goddard's final term also saw him introduce legislation that would "allow Tennesseeans 65 years of age and older to fish, trap or hunt without buying a license."

   Following the conclusion of his term Goddard continued residence in Blount County, and in August 1974 suffered the death of his wife of fifty-three years, Laura. He survived her by nearly one year, dying on August 8, 1975, aged 84. Both he and his wife were interred at the Grandview Cemetery in Maryville, Blount County.

From the 1963-65 Tennessee legislative composite photo.

Lawyer Sylvester Terry (1824-1912)

From the Proceedings of the Chautauqua Co. Board of Supervisors, 1910-13.

   Featured on this site's Facebook page on October 27th, its Chautauqua County, New York native Lawyer Sylvester Terry. It's always exciting to discover a new odd name political figure from my home county, and Terry fits the bill perfectly. "Vet" Terry, as he was familiarly known, has a misnomer for a first name; he wasn't a lawyer and never practiced law! Terry served three terms as township supervisor of Clymer, NY, and also for French Creek for one term. Township supervisor being an office similar to village president or mayor, Terry later served as one of three county superintendents of the poor, and in the twilight of his life resided in Washington, D.C. 

  One of nine children born to Silas and Polly (Powers) Terry, Lawyer Sylvester Terry was born in French Creek, New York on November 9, 1824. An early county resident, Silas Terry (1800-1883) was a native of Vermont and was distinguished in his own right, representing Chautauqua County in the state assembly in 1849. One should also note that political service continued in the family with Walter Loomis Sessions, the husband of Terry's younger sister Mary Ravilla (1826-1899). Sessions served terms in the New York state assembly and senate, and for three terms represented Chautauqua County in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

  Little is known of "Vet" Terry's formative years, and in 1849 he married Laura Moses (1829-1864). Following her death, he remarried to Nellie Forsythe Durand (1837-1917), with who he had two children, Loy S. and Grace. A farmer in Clymer, Terry was a founding organizer of the Clymer Baptist Church and first entered local politics in 1860 with his election as Clymer town supervisor. He served during the 1861 session of the Chautauqua County Board of Supervisors, and in 1863 was elected as supervisor for the neighboring town of French Creek, where he sat from 1864-65.

  In the election of 1878, Terry was reelected as Clymer town supervisor, serving consecutive terms from 1879-1882. The 1881-82 board session saw Terry named to the committees on Erroneous Assessments, the Grand Jury List, Printer's Accounts, and the Poor House and Farm, and in November 1889 was elected as Chautauqua County Superintendent of the Poor. One of three superintendents, Terry served a term of three years and in 1891 resettled in Westfield. Following his resettlement he was elected as town commissioner of excise, serving until his resignation in April 1894.

  In 1903 Lawyer Terry left Chautauqua County, removing to Washington, D.C. to reside with his son Loy and daughter Grace, then "holding responsible positions" in the Interior department's pensions bureau. Terry resided in the District of Columbia until his death on May 17, 1912, at age 87. He was returned to Clymer for burial at the Clymer Cemetery, where his widow Nancy was also interred following her death in 1917. In October I was able to visit Terry's gravesite at that cemetery, and here are some photos from the trip!