Judge Donald Parish Speaks to Huntingdon Historical Society

HUNTINGDON (November 20) — On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Donald Parish (retd.) served as the featured storyteller for the Huntingdon Historical Society. Judge Parish’s talk entitled “Three Lawyers Who Practiced in Carroll County That You Have Never Heard Of” focused on three attorneys who cut their teeth in Carroll County; Howell Edmunds Jackson (1859–1920, Milton Brown (1804-1883) and John E. McCall (1859–1920).

Howell Edmunds Jackson earned his law degree from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. He aligned himself with the Confederacy during the Civil War and was later charged with treason after the war. He was later granted a pardon.

In 1880, he was elected a state representative. He was selected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as one of the state’s Senators on the 30th ballot. In 1886, he was appointed by President Grover Cleveland as the Judge of the Sixth Circuit United States Circuit Court.

Then in 1893, President Benjamin Harrison nominated him to serve as an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. He served until he died in 1895.

Milton Brown came to the area in his late teens. He went on to study law and was admitted to the in Paris and then moved to Jackson. In 1832, Brown was appointed to represent John Murrell, a notorious gangster of the time. The trial made national headlines as Brown conceded Murrell’s guilt on the charge of theft but was able to get him acquitted of murder by questioning the integrity of the prosecution’s key witness.

Brown went on to serve two terms in Congress, succeeding John Wesley Crockett. He invested heavily in the railroad industry and made a healthy return on his investment, becoming one of the wealthiest men in Tennessee.

He served as president of the Mississippi Central & Tennessee Railroad Co. from 1854 to 1856, and as president of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Co. from 1856 to 1871. Brown was one of the founders of Southwestern University, which became Union University and Lambuth College. He was also a major benefactor to Vanderbilt University.

John E. McCall was raised in the Clarksburg area. He went on to graduate from the University of Tennessee and returned to Carroll County to practice law with the Hawkins family. In 1882, he was named editor of the Tennessee Republican, a Carroll County-based newspaper once owned by Tri-County Publishing, the parent company of the McKenzie Banner.

McCall went on to earn a Congressional seat in 1895 but was not reelected. He also ran twice, unsuccessfully for governor. His dedication to the Republican party played in his favor because, in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated him for Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

The descendants of John E. McCall have had an impact on Carroll County. His daughter, Eddy Lee married into the Priest family. Her son was Marshall Priest who started the first Ford dealership in Huntingdon. Then there was Marshall Priest, Jr. who followed his father’s footsteps and was the father of Tim Priest of Volunteer football fame.

The Huntingdon Historical Society meets regularly at the Town of Huntingdon’s City Hall.