Governor of
Tennessee
1821-1826;
1829-1834
WILLIAM CARROLL, one of the early governors of Tennessee,
was born near Pittsburgh, Pa., March 3, 1788.
Opportunities to acquire an education in his youthful
days were somewhat limited, and at the age of twenty-two
years, with a meager education and a small capital, he
went to Nashville, where he opened a nail store, the
first in Tennessee. The undertaking proved a
success, and in a comparatively short time he was on the
high road to prosperity. Young Carroll had a
decided inclination toward a military career, and
therefore became a member of the state militia, of which
Andrew Jackson, afterward president of the United States,
was commander-in-chief.
In 1812 Carroll became captain of
the Nashville Uniform Volunteers, and shortly afterward
General Jackson appointed him brigadier-inspector and a
little later major of militia. When Jackson was
made a general in the regular army, in 1814, Carroll
succeeded him as major-general of the militia.
While serving as major he got into a difficulty with
Jesse Benton, and the result was a duel, in which General
Jackson acted as Major Carroll's second. Benton was
wounded, and the affair led to another duel, with Thomas
H. Benton. This second duel resulted in a coolness
between Carroll and Jackson, who had been such warm
friends. But when Carroll distinguished himself by
his bravery in the Creek war, and his gallant conduct in
the battle of New Orleans, the old amicable relations
were renewed, for it was not in "Old Hickory's"
nature to hold malice against a brave and honorable man
because of some personal matter.
After the war of 1812 was over,
General Carroll became the owner of the first steamboat
ever registered at Nashville. This boat was named
the Andrew Jackson, a fitting tribute to his old friend
and comrade in arms. In 1821 he was elected
governor of Tennessee, and was re-elected in 1823 and
again in 1825. Having held the office for three
terms, he was ineligible for the candidacy in 1827, but
two years later he was again elected governor, and was
again twice re-elected, making six terms in all that he
held the office. In spite of the constitutional
provisions, he allowed himself to be nominated for a
fourth term, in 1835, but the people would not endorse
such a violation of the organic law, and he was defeated
by Newton Cannon.
During his administration the
state made rapid strides forward. Important changes
were made in the judiciary; a court of chancery was
established; the militia was reorganized on a firmer
basis; brutal punishments for petty crimes and
misdemeanors were abolished, and a system of state
internal improvements was inaugurated. It was
during his administration that the second constitutional
convention was called.
Governor Carroll died March 22,
1844. Carroll county, which bears his name, and the
inscription on his monument, tell the story of his life
and character:
"As a
gentleman he was modest, intelligent, accomplished; as an
officer he was energetic, gallant, daring; and as a
statesman he was wise and just."
Article above
found in NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE, VOL. II, Judge John
Allison, Editor, Atlanta, GA, Southern Historical
Association, 1905. Portrait found in GOVERNORS OF
TENNESSEE, edited by Charles W. Crawford, Memphis State
University Press, Memphis, TN, 1979.
William Carroll is buried in City
Cemetery, Nashville, TN. His tombstone is inscripted thusly:
"General
William Carroll, Commander of General Andrew Jackson's
right wing through Creek War and at Battle of New
Orleans. Born in Pennsylvania, March 3, 1788; died
in Nashville, March 20, 1855. Governor of Tennessee
for 12 years; Chairman of Democratic Presidential
Convention, 1844; longest termed Governor of
Tennessee" Monument erected by the State.
Source : TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS
AND MANUSCRIPTS compiled by Jeannette Tillotsons Acklen,
Cullom and Ghertner Co., Nashville, TN Publishers, 1933.
Brief genealogical
information:
"William Carroll was born in
1788 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Thomas and Mary
Montgomery Carroll; he was the eldest of that union which
was to produce seven surviving children.
Accounts differ as to the origin
of Thomas Carroll, William's father. According to
one account, the elder Carroll emigrated to the colonies
from Ireland shortly before the Revolution. It was said
that he had been a British soldier but had joined the
Colonial Army and fought first at Bunker Hill, then with
the Delaware brigades through the rest of the war.
When advised to change his name by friends who feared the
consequences if Carroll was captured by the British, he
reportedly declared, "No, I'll keep me own
name. They'll be welcome to hang what's left of me
when they get me."
A genealogical history prepared
for the family differs from this account, tracing further
and more illustriously back to a Daniel Carroll, father
of Thomas and a member of the outstandingly patriotic
Carroll family of Maryland. Daniel Carroll was a
member of the Continental Congress, signer of the
Articles of Confederation, and one of the two Catholic
signers of the Constitution. He was a cousin of
John Carroll, who led in the establishment of the
Catholic Church in the States, and Charles Carroll
"of Carrollton," signer of the Declaration of
Independence. According to family memoirs, Governor
William Carroll in 1832 took his 11-year-old son Charles
to visit his namesake, the famous Charles Carroll of
Carrollton, only to arrive two weeks after the elderly
patriot had died.
Whether or not William Carroll was
himself a second or a third generation patriot, it is
generally agreed that his father, Thomas, of Irish
descent and revolutionary devotion, moved with his wife,
Mary, the daughter of his captain, from Maryland to a
settlement near Pittsburgh around 1783 or 1784. On
the banks of the Monongahela, he set up a nail
foundry. Soon he entered the employment of another
hardy immigrant, Albert Gallatin, and later became his
partner in a hardware business. It may have been a
tribute to Gallatin that Thomas Carroll named his first
son William for William Tell, the hero of Gallatin's
native Switzerland. Gallatin soon literally left
Thomas Carroll to mind the store when he entered his long
career of public service to the new nation. In 1810
Gallatin was Madison's Secretary of the Treasury.
He proposed using the Treasury surplus for a broad
program of improved transportation, including the rivers
of the frontier. This plan would surely have added
to the commercial prospects of Nashville, where the
Pittsburgh to Nashville river trade was already valuable
as one of the main outlets between East and West --a fact
which perhaps influenced Thomas Carroll's eldest son's
decision to move South.
"...in September of 1813, he
married Cecilia Bradford in a ceremony performed by her
father, a civil official. Of Cecilia herself almost
nothing is recorded in the histories of either her
husband's career or his family. It is known,
however, that she was born in 1787 on her father's farm
near what is now Hendersonville, Tennessee. Her
mother's family were Scottish immigrants to Virginia, and
Cecelia is said to have been a devout Presbyterian.
Her maternal grandfather, Josias Paynem, had once served
in the Virginia House of Burgesses before moving to
Tennessee to take possession of a land grant after the
Revolution. Her mother. Elisabeth Chichester
Payne."
Above article from:
GOVERNORS OF
TENNESSEE, edited by Charles W. Crawford, Memphis State
University Press, Memphis, TN, 1979.
See article on:
William
Henry Carroll, son of Governor Carroll
Note: I am not related to Governor
Carroll; this article posted as information only.
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