I would like very much to include in these
Pen Pictures a history of all the young men with whom I went to school
at the old Martin Academy, tracing their lives through the intervening
years, and see what kind of a workman Capt. Martin proved to be.
But I cannot do this to my own satisfaction, and I feel that it would not
do justice to the dead of them, nor prove satisfactory to the living, who
might read these lines. I will, therefore, only undertake to say
a few words about them. They were a very fine set of boys.
No trouble was ever given by any of them to the master, nor the trustees,
and peace and good fellowship reigned between themselves. Of the
number, five made lawyers, J. D. Williams, Perry Nix, J.
T. Richey, J. S. Clayton and the writer of these papers.
Possibly others may have gone into the legal profession, but I only know
of these. Three became physicians, G. C. Bessonet and
Ed
and Will Wren. Frank Richey moved to Arkansas in the
fall of 1856, and settled at Camden, and there remained until some time
after the war; and when the time came, he enlisted in the Confederate service,
and was a gallant soldier, losing his right arm in battle, and after the
close of the war, settled down again at his profession, was elected to
the office of land commissioner of his adopted state, and died only a few
years ago, honored and respected by all. As to Perry Nix,
I only know that he went to the Lone Star State in about 1859, and settled
there as a practicing lawyer. I know nothing of his war record, but
knowing Perry as I did, I do not think I would miss it much if I were to
assume it was equal to that of any. I have simply heard through others
a few times since the war that he was still in Texas. John D.
Williams and I were a little more closely associated than any of the
others. In 1856 he removed to Arkansas, and there remained about
a year as a practicing lawyer, when he returned to the old home, and then
entered Irving College in Tennessee, and remained there till he graduated,
which I think was three years. By that time the whole South was a
camp, and he entered the service of his country in Capt. Martin's company,
and I think as its first lieutenant, and was promoted to captain, and finally
to lieutenant colonel of the regiment, and no braver or more gallant soldier
or officer entered the service. He was finally captured at Atlanta
on the 22nd of July, 1864, and remained a prisoner till the close of the
war. In October, 1865, he entered into partnership with me at Fulton,
and remained with me till September, 1866, when we dissolved in order that
I might receive my brother, J. S. Clayton, into business, and soon
thereafter Col. Williams moved to Tupelo, and settled the place now owned
and occupied by W. A. Dozier. He continued in the practice
of law up to the time of his death, which occurred something over twenty
years ago. He was a hard worker, careful in the preparation of his
cases for trial, and a good advocate. He was a candidate for the
district attorney at the time of his death, and I know was very hopeful
of success, for I had a talk with him about his prospects shortly before
his death. He doubtless contracted the disease from which he died
from exposure incurred in presenting his claims to the office during circuit
court at Okolona. My brother, J. S. Clayton, was admitted
to the bar in Fulton in October, 1866, just before the county of Lee was
organized. He entered the service of the Confederacy in an infantry
regiment, but I do not remember the number, and was from it transferred
at his own request, to the 12th Miss. cavalry, Col. Inge's regiment, and
served through the war. He entered into partnership with me in the
law as soon as he was licensed, he then residing in Verona and I in Fulton.
He soon thereafter removed to Tupelo, and built and settled the place where
Prof.
Francis now lives, and on March the 7th, 1871, I also moved from Fulton
to Tupelo, and settled the place now owned and occupied by
B. F. Clark.
In February, 1879, my brother left the state and settled in Cleburne, Texas,
where he now resides. He has been happily married twice, first, to
Miss Ann Murphy, of old Richmond, and secondly, to Mrs. Lizzie
Williams, widow of Col. J. D. Williams, and who was also originally
- that is when Col. Williams married her - from near the same place where
he found his first wife. He was a safe and reliable lawyer, but after
moving to Texas he quit the practice of law and has since followed merchandising.
Drs. Bessonett and
Will
Wren are both dead. Dr. Bessonett lived in Guntown for
many years, for a time practicing his profession, and part of the time
in the drug business, and made a success of both. He was genial and
companionable, having few if any enemies. Dr. Will Wren was
killed by J. A. Monaghan and whom he killed in the same unfortunate
difficulty. Dr. Wren was very successful as a physician.
Dr.
Ed Wren is still living, practicing his profession to the satisfaction
of his patients and friends in Monroe county, Miss. Both were gallant
Confederate soldiers. W. C. Bessonett was a merchant, and
then elected Chancery Clerk of Lee county, which office he filled creditably
for eight years. He now lives with one of his daughters
in one of the north-western states. There were two of the Fisher
boys, Platt Bull Fisher, but the christian name of the other has
escaped me. I have learned that one or both of these boys was killed
in the war. There were two of the Stovall boys who were nearing manhood,
J.
P. Stovall and Dallas Stovall. Dallas has been
a merchant for years at Saltillo. They both made gallant Confederate
soldiers. J. P. Stovall might have been a lawyer or
doctor either, if he had so chosen, but he chose the quiet life of the
farmer, after all the most independent life a man can lead. The mental
strain is less, the freedom more, and the home life more satisfactory.
He has the pleasure of looking out upon his growing crops and lowing herds
and cackling fowls, and being under no one's command, except that of his
own wife. My understanding is that all these other young men whom
I have named made good soldiers in the cause of the South. I know that
Billie
Bessonett received a severe wound in the ankle, which has given him
much pain and trouble all these years. Whig Richie was a boy
about sixteen when we attended the Martin school, gentle and kind, not
inclined to study, but so timed in his conduct as to keep on the good side
of the teacher, and never gave any offense to anyone. But it was
the general opinion that Whig would never make a success in life, yet I
have heard that he went into merchandising, made fine money, and was and
is respected by all who know him. As for myself, I will only say,
I may speak occasionally of what I have done and suffered, on the theory
that "he that bloweth not his own horn, it shall not be blown," to use
the classic language of Col. Russell O. Beene, of auld lang syne.
Some merchants only
last for a season, and many only for a little longer time. But in
old Richmond in 1855, there was a firm of merchants doing business then
under the name of Raymond and Trice, composed of Alfred H. Raymond
and Robert L. Trice, and they continued their business there until
the Mobile and Ohio Rail Road was built, and then moved themselves to Verona,
where they were connected in business in one way or another till the death
of Mr. Raymond, and now a son of each is engaged together in business in
the town of Tupelo, under the firm name of Trice Raymond Hardware Co.
I dealt with Raymond and Trice from 1855, more or less, for many years
and I must say I never dealt with more square and accommodating gentlemen
than they; and then when you owed them and could not pay, all they asked
of you was good faith and an honest effort to pay, and they would indulge
you as long as you could ask. They collected their debts without
suit, and you always thought, in dealing with them, you were in the house
of your friends. When I went to Richmond, I was not quite nineteen,
a poor boy without means, and even having no money with which to pay board,
clothing and books, and I must say the merchants and those with whom I
boarded treated me superbly, and Raymond and Trice were among them, for
they all sold me on credit, and Col. W. M. Pound and J. B. White
with whom I boarded, never asked me for a dollar; and in the fall of 1856,
after eating their grub and wearing clothes for fifteen months, I went
on an unexpected visit with my uncle to Jefferson county, Alabama, and
finding a good school awaiting me there, I came not again till the fall
of 1857, and yet not one of them all ever wrote me they wished their money.
Those were the good old times of long ago. Who would not joyfully
pay such men, and remember them too with gratitude all these years.
Who can beat the record?
Old Richmond scored
it with me. I never pass her deserted site, but I remember the kindness
of hers to me in the long ago.