William Henry DeWitt
Hon.
William Henry DeWitt, whose name and fame are alike familiar to all residents of
Hamilton County and to a large portion of the State, and whose portrait adorns
this work, is a native Tennessean, born in Smith County October 24, 1827. His
father, Rev. Samuel DeWitt, was born in South Carolina in 1792, and was an
officer in the war of 1812 under Gen. Jackson. His mother was a McWhirter, and
both branches of the family were of old Revolutionary war stock. The early years
of the subject of this sketch were passed upon the farm, his few hours spared
from work being employed in the laudable effort of trying to secure an
education. So limited were his advantages that he had to master the lower
branches of mathematics and the first books of Latin without the aid of an
instructor. For ten months be attended Berea Academy, near Chapel Hill, Tenn.,
under the tuition of Rev. John M. Branes, one of the old time educators of the
State. After attaining manhood he resided at Gainsboro for two years as an
instructor in the Montpelier academy. The succeeding two years he passed in
Jackson County as teacher, and from 1850 to 1856, he lived at La Fayette where
he taught school one year and practiced law five years, having acquired the
latter profession entirely by his own exertions. For about one year be practiced
his chosen profession at Lebanon, and from 1858 to 1875, continued the same at
Carthage, in his native county, where he achieved much success. Both before and
since the war some of the most able men of Tennessee have been made lawyers
under his instructions, and for which he never asked compensation. In 1855-56 he
was the representative to the Lower House of the State Legislature from the
counties of Smith, Macon and Sumner, a position for which he declined the
re-nomination. In 1861 he was an opponent of the constitutional convention of
the State which was defeated, and the same year was elected to a seat in the
Confederate Congress. Gov. Brown, in 1862, appointed him special chancellor of
the Fifth Chancery Division of Tennessee pending an election contest. In
politics he was a Whig, faithful and ardent, but when the war came on he
espoused the cause of the Confederacy and has since affiliated with the
Democratic party. At Nashville, in 1876, he was chairman on resolutions in the
State convention which sent delegates to the National convention at St. Louis,
which nominated Gov. Tilden for the presidency, and in 1878 was a member of the
State Judicial Convention. May 30,
1847, Miss Emilia, daughter of Thomas Price, became his wife, and to their union
five children have been born, two dying in infancy and only one now living. His
second marriage occurred May 30, l867, to Miss Elizabeth Wilson, a direct
descendant of Daniel Boone, and two children are the fruit of their marriage.
Mr. DeWitt is a Mason, an Oddfellow and a Methodist. He is justly regarded as
one of the ablest lawyers of the State, and is possessed of the highest sense of
honor and justice. His friends are legion, his enemies few, if any.