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Known Phi Gamma Delta Initiates at Maryville College

    • Napoleon Bonaparte Goforth (Maryville 1854), born of Hugh and Mary Goforth in the Boyds Creek community in Seiver County, Tennessee on May 20, 1828. Listed as a Junior in the 1854 College catalogue. His biography appears in the Baptist Church’s Eastanalle Association Minutes. It notes that he graduated with honors from Maryville in 1854 after four years of study. From 1859 to 1862 and again from 1870 to 1882 he served as president of Mossy Creek Baptist College, later Carson College, in Tennessee. It is known today as Carson-Newman College. He also founded and led the Riceville Literary and Classical Institute. According to the USGenWeb Project, Riceville Cemetery on County Road 80 has the burial place of N.B. Goforth, who died in 1907.  
    • John H. Lovelace (Maryville 1857), from Troup County, Georgia and West Point, Georgia. Minister later living in LaGrange, Georgia. Listed as a Sophomore in the 1854 College catalogue. The Fraternity’s 1856 catalogue indicates he served as chapter treasurer. Reportedly died in 1895 in Washington, Tennessee.
    • William McCampbell (Maryville 1855), from Jefferson County, Tennessee. Listed as a Junior in the 1854 College catalogue. The Fraternity’s 1895 "Unfinished Catalogue" indicates him as deceased, and states he served in the Confederate forces but gives no rank or unit. Fraternity membership records state he died at Dandridge, Tennessee. Biographical information at the University of North Carolina indicates he was an attorney in Rogersville and later Dandridge. He married Susan Jones Heiskell (1834-1917) in 1858. They had two children, Fred and Annie. At some point they moved to Franklin, Tennessee.  He was captain of Company C, 39th Tennessee Infantry (W. M. Bradford's), as was Brother J. D. Thomas. www.tngenweb.org
    • Rev. William Hardin Vernor (Maryville 1854), from Lewisburg, TN. Presbyterian minister (D.D.). Listed as a Senior in the 1854 College catalogue, one of only two in his college class. The Fraternity’s 1856 catalogue indicates that he served as chapter secretary. Son of Ezekiel Enloe Vernor and Jane Leeper McCleary. Married Ellen Wilson White Hannum August 2, 1854 in Blount County Tennessee; had one son, Henry Enloe Vernor. The Fraternity’s "Unfinished Catalogue" of 1895 gives the following summary: "S.W.T.S, '54-'55; President, Masonic Female College at Lumpkin, Ga, '58-'59; Principal, Masonic Female College, Lewisburg, Tenn., several years; Principal, Odd Fellows Female Institute 18 months; Evangelist, Presbytery of North Alabama since January 1st, '70. Presbyterian Minister." The 1895 catalogue gives his residence as Columbia, Texas. Died of pneumonia on December 24, 1900 in Little Rock, Arkansas.  In 1882 Baylor University, Independence, Texas, conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on W.H. Vernor, then a minister living in Little Rock, Arkansas.  See Murray, Baylor at Independence, p. 289.
    • Alfred Caldwell (Maryville 1853): According to Moore and Foster’s Tennessee, The Volunteer State Vol. II (S.J. Clarke, Nashville 1923, p. 77), "He graduated at Maryville College, having taken the Junior and Senior class in one year." The Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, Volume 1 (Nashville, 1975, p. 109) gives the following information: "House, 33rd General Assembly, 1859-61; representing McMinn County . . . . Born in Jefferson County July 5, 1829; son of John and Margaret (Shadan) Caldwell. Graduated from Maryville College . . . ; graduated in law, 1854, from Cumberland University, Lebanon . . . Taught school in early life; began practice of law, c. 1854, at Athens, McMinn County . . . later lived and practiced law at Knoxville, Knox County; named a trustee of East Tennessee University, Knoxville, 1877 [renamed University of Tennessee in 1879]; trustee of Tennessee Deaf and Dumb School. Retired, 1882, to his farm at Strawberry Plains, Jefferson County. Presidential elector, 1860, on Constitutional-Union ticket of John Bell and Edward Everett; unsuccessful candidate for Confederate Congress, 1861; unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Congress, 1872, and for governor at Democratic convention, 1878. In Confederate army although he had been opposed to secession; enlisted at Athens August 15, 1863, as private in Company H, 5th East Tennessee Volunteers which later became 43rd Tennessee Infantry; captured at Bristol, December 14, 1864; sent as prisoner of war first to Nashville, Davidson County; to Louisville, Kentucky, and thence to Camp Chase, Ohio, January 15, 1865; one of detachment of paroled and exchanged prisoners of war at Camp Lee near Richmond, Virginia, February 28, 1865. Member Presbyterian Church. Died at Strawberry Plains November 6, 1886; place of burial not indicated."
    • Franklin Newman Gary (Maryville 1852): Fraternity membership records credit him as "Founder of original Zeta Chapter" but state little else. This claim may be true, since he seems to be the first graduate of the known members.  He was identified in Fraternity records only as "F.N. Gorry" or, in the 1856, 1862, and 1870 catalogues, "F. N. Gary." The 1925 Fraternity catalogue states that he practiced law and died in Riceville, McMinn County Tennessee in 1880. Correct information comes to us from his great-great-great-great-niece, Sheila Douglass. She references Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century, page 394: "GARY, FRANKLIN NEWMAN, soldier, lawyer, was born Nov. 26, 1828, in [Newberry County] South Carolina. In 1852 he graduated from Maryville College, Tennessee. He became district attorney of Tyler, Texas, and was one of the best known lawyers in that state. During the civil war he served as captain in the twenty-third Texas infantry, C. S. A.; and died in 1886. His son, Hanson Gary, is a successful lawyer of Tyler, Texas." She further says, "Also in the city of Tyler, Smith County, Texas there is an elementary school named after Franklin N. Gary. He died on January 30, 1886 and is buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Tyler Smith County, Texas."
    • John Dallas Thomas (Maryville 185_): We do not know Brother Thomas's graduation year, due to insufficient records at the College. The 1856 Fraternity catalogue indicates he served as chapter president. The 1898 and 1925 catalogues give conflicting and erroneous infomation; moreover, he is sometimes erroneously given as Legate, or installing officer, of the University of Alabama chapter in 1855.  The following facts are from his obituary in The News (Cartersville, Georgia) of March 20, 1901, and his tombstone. Born June 17, 1825 in Dandridge, Tennessee. Practiced law there until the Civil War, and according to the 1860-1861 Tennessee Gazetteer & Business Directory, was master and clerk of the Jefferson County Chancery Court.   Was captain of Company C, 39th Tennessee Infantry, as was Brother McCampbell.  "After the war, he went into business and met with marked success with Fain & Parrott, of Atlanta, until 1868, when he came to Bartow county, where he has since resided.  Soon after making his home he went into the iron business, operating the upper Stamp Creek furnace, owning a half interest in the property.  He has been in merchandise in Cartersville twice, retiring only a few months ago. He was married twice, his first wife being Miss Mary W., daughter of the late Dr. John W. Lewis, one son, Mr. Dallas Thomas, being the result of the union.  His second wife was Miss Uliah Attaway, daughter of the late Mr. S. W. Attaway, who survives him."  Died March 17, 1901; buried Riverview Cemetery, Canton, Georgia.

Many thanks to Debbie Long of Maryville College's Lamar Memorial Library for her assistance in looking up information on these brothers at the College.


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