Joseph Brown Heiskell 1823-1913

Joseph Brown Heiskell ((November 5, 1823 – March 7, 1913) was the son of of Frederick Steidinger Heiskell and Eliza. Joseph was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He served in the Tennessee State Senate during the 32nd General Assembly from 1857-1859, representing Hancock, Hawkins, and Jefferson countries as a member of the Whig Party. He graduated from East Tennessee College in 1840; studied law and was admitted to the bar; and began to practice at Madisonville, Monroe County. He was married twice. First to Sarah McKinney (no issue) [daughter of John Augustine and Eliza (Ayer) McKinney], and then to Mary Lucy Watkins on 21 May 1846 at Rogersville, Hawkins County. They had the following children.

Eliza married Major Caesar Weatherford, who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, in Memphis on December 19, 1870. He practiced law in the firm Heiskell, Weatherford & Heiskell. Their son, Joseph Heiskell Weatherford, born 11 April 1874, Memphis; died 24 May 1952, was the City Engineer of Memphis (1907- ). He patented an electric fan.
Mary McKinney
Frederick Hugh Heiskell
John McKinney
Charles J. Netherland
Alice (Mrs. Horace A. Whaling)

Joseph Brown Heiskell moved to Rogersville in 1847 where he practiced law. Following the state's ordinance of secession and the outbreak of the Civil War, he represented Tennessee in the First Confederate Congress and the Second Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1864. After being captured by Union soldiers in 1864, Heiskell was incarcerated. He remained in prison until the end of the war.
The War of the Rebellion : a compilation of the official records of he Union and Confederate Armies
by Robert N Scott; United States. War Dept. Series II. Vol. VII (1899)

Following his release, he established a practice in Memphis, Tennessee. He was Tennessee's attorney general from 1870 to 1878. In 1870 he represented Shelby County at the Constitutional Convention of Tennessee. He was a Trustee of the University of Tennessee, and in 1876 gave the published Address to the alumni of East Tennessee University: the relation and duty of the citizen to the state. Heiskell was the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of World's Fair Managers of Tennessee in 1892. He was a prohibitionist. Joseph Brown Heiskell died in Memphis on March 7, 1913. Interment was in the city's Elmwood Cemetery.

Joseph Brown Heiskell's signature

A letter from Frederick S. Heiskell to Joseph Brown Heiskell, dated 15 June 1850, responds to his son's request for a supply list for overland travel to California. The list occupies a full folio sheet, headed "The following may be considered about an average bill of expenses for an outfit for three persons, bound for California." In all, 47 items are listed, for a total of $680.87. Among the items are: 8 lodge skins of flour, 110 lbs. of sugar, a sack of salt, 1 bottle of cayenne pepper, 1 keg log of brandy, 15 lbs. of Rio coffee, 1 sack of dried apples, 1 coil of grass rope, 33 pounds of rosin soap, 2 lbs. of raw ginger, 5 lbs. of bacon, 1 box of star candles, 1 wagon (at $85), 1 wagon cover, a wall tent and fly, 1 dozen tin plates and a coffee boiler, 2 camp kettles, 2 tin pans, an assortment of spoons, forks and frying pans, 3 hunting baskets, 3 mining picks, 2 shovels, 1 spade, 3 pick handles, 2 axes and handles, 1 handsaw, files, chisels, a drawing knife, 2 augers, 3 belts with scabbards, 3 scabbards for pistols, 3 canteens, and 4 yokes for Oxen (at $250, the most expensive item). After his subtotal, Heiskell lists a pony at $50 and a mule at $80. The knowlegeable response to this enquiry may have been based on information received from Hugh Brown Heiskell and Tyler Davis Heiskell, who made the journey the year before.

JOSEPH B. HEISKELL, 1859.
Born in Knox county, 1823. Son of Frederick S. Heiskell, supra. Graduated from East Tennessee University, 1840. Lawyer. Senator from Hawkins, Hancock and Jefferson counties, 1857-1859. Appointed a Trustee of East Tennessee University, 1859; subsequently resigned. Candidate for Congress from First District against T. A. R. Nelson, 1861. Member from First District of First and Second permanent Confederate Congresses. Delegate from Shelby county to Constitutional Contention of 1870. Attorney General for the State of Tennessee, 1870-1878. Author of one volume of "Digest of the Reported Decisions of the State of Tennessee," 1868, and of various pamphlets and articles on legal and public questions. Alumni Orator, East Tennessee University, 1876. Memphis. Source: University of Tennessee Record: presidents and trustees. No. 5 University of Tennessee Press: Knoxville, 1898:243

Source: The papers of Andrew Johnson: 1858-1860 by Andrew Johnson, LeRoy P. Graf, Ralph W. Haskins, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1972. See letter from J. B. Heiskell to Andrew Johnson.

Source: Confederates of Elmwood by John W. Cothern, 2001, p. 139.