John Pomfret Long

    Capt. John Pomfret Long, of Chattanooga, was born at Knoxville, Tenn., November 25, 1807. His father was William Long, a native of Mecklenburg County, N. C., born February 19, 1775, settled at Knoxville in 1797, married Miss Jane Bennett in 1805, resided at Knoxville until 1813, when he removed to Washington, Rhea Co., Tenn., and staid there until November, 1836, when he removed to Chattanooga, where he died November 1, 1844. He was a house carpenter by trade. In the latter part of his life he was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He was plain William Long but was so uniformly upright that it came to be a saying "as honest as Billy Long." He was one of the first settlers of Chattanooga, and assisted in organizing the Presbyterian Church there in 1840. Capt. Long's grandfather, John Long, was born in County Antrim, Ireland, settled in Mecklenburg County, N. C., participated in the Revolutionary war, married Miss Elizabeth Shields, of Mecklenburg County, and was drowned in 1799, while returning in the night from a Masonic lodge meeting. He came alone to America, leaving only a maiden sister in Ireland. 

    During the Revolution, in Charlotte, N. C., some Tories were captured, from whom information was obtained that an attack was to be made on "Post Ninety-six," one hundred miles distant from Charlotte. The Whigs posted two couriers on horseback, taking different routes, to notify the garrison at "Post Ninety-six." John Long proposed to carry the information on foot, started at sunrise, and at sundown delivered his dispatches at Ninety-six, and put the garrison on their guard-a remarkable record showing the patriotism of the man, the spirit of those times, and the pluck that is in the blood of the Longs. Capt. Long's mother, Miss Jane Bennett, was the daughter of Maj. Peter Bennett, a native of Virginia, who married Miss Elizabeth Pomfret, daughter of John Pomfret, of King William County, Va. Maj. Bennett was in the Revolutionary war, at the close of which he served as sheriff in Granville County, N. C. He died in 1822 in Knox County, Tenn., where he had settled in 1802, as a farmer. Capt. Long's maternal great-grandfather, John Pomfret, came from England, settled in King William County, Va., married a Miss Hunt, and died in Granville County, N. C., in 1802, at the age of eighty-four. Capt. Long's mother was born in Granville County, N. C., January 26, 1781, and moved with her father to Knox County, Tenn., in 1802. She was a Presbyterian. She died at Chattanooga, December 10, 1859, leaving three children: (1) Mary Long, now the widow of John A. Hooke, an attorney at law, who died at Chattanooga in 1865. She has five children, James, William, Robert, Jane and Elizabeth. (2) James Shields Long, a physician: married Jane Caldwell of Monroe County, Ga.; died in 1866, leaving two children, Mary and Virginia. (3) John Pomfret Long, subject of this sketch. The latter grew up at Washington, Rhea Co., Tenn.; finished his schooling at Knoxville when fourteen years old; engaged next in a tannery for three years; next clerked three years for Col. Thomas McCallie, a merchant at Washington, then opened a store on his own account at that place, and from there moved to Ross' Landing (now Chattanooga), reaching there April 18, 1836. Here he opened a general store, which he continued, with varying success, until 1860. He was then elected city recorder of Chattanooga, and filled the position three years, until the city was evacuated by the Confederates. Prior to the evacuation, in 1862, he was appointed provost-marshal of Chattanooga by Gen. McCown, and served in that capacity several months. A few days after the battle of Chickamauga his house was torn down and his effects destroyed. He having gone South in the meantime, leaving his family in Chattanooga, they subsequently rejoined him at Griffin, Ga., where they remained until the close of the war. Capt. Long then returned to find himself without home or property, and a family to support. He began business as a real estate agent, and fortune favored him, for he soon was very successful. 

    In 1868 he applied to Judges Trewhitt and Adams, at Chattanooga, for a law license, which was granted. His practice has been principally in the chancery court, where his knowledge of the land and titles in Chattanooga has been of great value to him. Notwithstanding his losses by war and going security, he has accumulated a nice property, mostly in real estate. When he first came to Ross' Landing - then a mere ferry and steamboat landing in an Indian country - he found no post office and no postroads. He made application to the postoffice department for a postoffice, which was granted, and he was appointed postmaster, without compensation. The name of the postoffice was changed to Chattanooga in 1838. Capt. Long held the postmastership until 1844, when he had to give way for one of the friends of President James K. Polk. In 1832 he cast his first vote for Gen. Jackson, his next was for Hugh L. White, and thence forward he voted the Whig ticket from Harrison to Bell, since which time he has been a Democrat. He attended the Whig State convention at Murfreesboro in 1841, when Jones was nominated for governor against Polk. In February, 1861, he voted against secession, but when President Lincoln ordered out troops, he voted for secession. He was always a States' rights man, as was his father before him. He has, however, never been so warm a partisan as to vote the party ticket unless he liked the men; always considered it a duty to vote, but equally a duty to scratch objectionable names from the ticket. In 1845 he was elected to take his father's place as an elder in the Presbyterian Church, which he had joined in 1843. He was a commissioner of the town of Chattanooga when the land was subject to entry, and the occupants were entitled to preference of entry. The three commissioners, Aaron M. Rawlings, George W. Williams and Capt. Long, entered the quarter­section, sold the lots, and made titles to the purchasers April 20, 1839, which was the day on which the town of Chattanooga had its birth. 

    Capt. Long's staying power is illustrated by the fact that he has never yet seen the Mississippi River, and of the large cities only a few. Capt. Long was married to Miss Eliza Smith November 6, 1834, at Smith's Cross Roads (now Dayton), Rhea Co., Tenn. Mrs. Long was born January 25, 1813, at Washington, Rhea Co., Tenn. Her father was William Smith, a native of Massachusetts, who came to Knox County in 1808; was a school teacher, and had for one of his pupils Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, the historian, who said of him. "He was one of the best common school teachers I ever saw." Mrs. Long's mother was Elizabeth Cozby, daughter of Dr. James Cozby, a man noted in the early history of East Tennessee as a physician and an Indian fighter. (See Ramsey's History of East Tennessee.) Mrs. Long's brother, Dr. Milo Smith, was an able physician, and for several terms mayor of Chattanooga, where he died in 1868. Mrs. Long was educated at Knoxville; made a profession of religion and joined the church in 1843, the same day her husband made profession and joined. She has been an invalid the greater part of her married life, but is beloved for her sweetness of temper. She is fond of the company of young folks; has an unconquerable will power that has carried her through all her troubles; is notably cheerful and pleasant, and, for one of her age, remarkably active, especially when "upon hospitable cares intent." 

    To this union there were eleven children - all born in Chattanooga. Five of these died in infancy and childhood. The others are: (1) William Pomfret Long, died nineteen years old. (2) Elizabeth Jane Long, died sixteen years old. (3) James Cozby Long, born December 2, 1844; educated in the Naval Academy at Annapolis; resigned and joined the Confederate Navy in 1861, attaching himself to the fleet along the coast of North Carolina. He was in the fight at Roanoke Island, the second in command of the "Curlew," Capt. Hunter. He was then transferred to the "Merrimac," as midshipman, and was in the famous naval fights at Hampton Roads, and remained with his ship until she was burnt. He was then transferred to Drury's Bluff, and finally to Plymouth, N. C., and was on board the iron-clad" Plymouth," when she was blown up by the United States Navy. He next served under Capt. Moffit on a blockade runner. After the war he went into civil engineering, and had charge of the Government works at Mussel Shoals for a while. He is now a manufacturer of iron paint at Birmingham, Ala. He married, at Elyton, Ala., November 20, 1872, Miss Frances Walker, and has four children: William Walker, John Pomfret, James Cozby and Mary. (4) John Pomfret Long, Jr., born March 4, 1847; joined Col. Walker's Nineteenth Tennessee Regiment in May, 1864, at Dalton, Ga.; participated in all the fights from there to Atlanta, and on July 22, 1864, was disabled by a shell taking his foot off; died March 1, 1880, unmarried. (5) Milo Smith Long, born May 10, 1850; graduated in medicine at Nashville, and is now in Dakota. (6) Marcus Bearden Long, born January 27, 1854; now a civil engi­neer, and was for a while engaged as engineer in Mexico on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad; unmarried. 

    One of the aims of Capt. Long's life has been to give his children something to start upon and to help them attain a standing in society, and he believes that every man ought to have a home and a family, and next, that he has duties to per­form as a citizen. He has desired wealth, and has been sometimes up and sometimes down, but has always made it a rule to pay his debts. With one exception he has always made a profit on whatever he has sold. He never swore an oath in his life, and was brought up to regard the Sabbath. He has never been dissipated, though not always strictly temperate. He is a self-assertive man, and of quick temper. Being the oldest citizen of Chattanooga, he is often resorted to as an oracle on matters pertaining to the history of persons, families and property in that now important city. He has been a public-spirited man all along, and is uniformly spoken of as the best representative man of the city where he located when it was simply a river landing, and surrounded by the Cherokees. It was very appropriate that in 1881 he was selected to write the historical sketch of Chattanooga, on the occasion of represen­tatives of the North and the South meeting at that city to shake hands over the bloody chasm. His article printed in the Chattanooga Times in September, 1881, is full of valuable history - local, personal and general.
Goodspeed's "History of East Tennessee" 1887