John Easter Dromgoole (1805 - 1897)

Born 28 Dec 1805 in Brunswick, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 21 Nov 1897 at age 91 in Graves, Kentucky, United States

Biography

When John Easter Dromgoole was born on December 28, 1805, in Brunswick, Virginia, his father, Thomas, was 28 and his mother, Fanny, was 26. He married Lucy K. Blanch on December 12, 1828, in Brunswick, Virginia. He then married Rebecca Blanch and they had eight children together.He was Mayor of Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the Civil War. John Easter Dromgoole died on November 21, 1897, in Mayfield, Kentucky, at the impressive age of 91, and was buried in Dresden, Tennessee.

Obituary from Find A Grave - JOHN E. DROMGOOLE, Prominent Citizen of Murfreesboro Dies Suddenly in Kentucky Murfreesboro, Nov. 22 - (Special) - Last evening while at the Baptist Church Mrs. Richard Beard received a telegram from Mayfield, Ky., stating that her father, Hon. John E. Dromgoole, had died suddenly that day at 1 o'clock. For several years past he had spent his winters with Rev. Wellborn Mooney, at Dresden, Tenn., but the past winter at Mayfield, Ky., but he always claimed Murfreesboro as his home.

He was born in Brunswick County, Va., Dec. 28, 1805, and if he had lived till the 28th of next December he would have reached the ripe old age of 92. He was a nephew and protege of the Hon. George C. Dromgoole, who in the early part of this century was a distinguished member of Congress from the Old Dominion. In the year of 1826 he came to Tennessee from Virginia, crossing the mountains that divide the two States, making the whole journey on horseback. His friends frequently heard him tell of his entrance into the small village of Murfreesboro by way of Main street. After a short visit to Murfreesboro he returned to Virginia, where he married, and in 1831 he again set his face toward the West and in that year made his permanent home in Rutherford County.

In the ante-bellum days during the struggles between the Whig and Democratic parties, he was an ardent Whig and was considered one of the leaders of that political persuasion in the county. Although an original Union man when the civil war in 1861 became a fact he, without hesitation sided with the South and was active and aggressive in his sympathies with the Southern soldiers. He was Mayor of this city when it fell into the hands of the Federal forces in 1862.

In 1870 he was elected to represent the county in the convention that framed the Constitution under which we now live ^[1], and although he made few speeches in that body was an active and earnest worker. Probably no man ever lived in this county who was identified with its history more prominently or for a greater length of time. He practiced law at this bar, was a member for a number of years of the County Court, was a man of wide reading and broad information, and his friends in the county were ... legion. He was a charter member of the first Masonic lodge organized in Murfreesboro, a devout member of the Methodist Church, South, and as a Christian gentleman his life was flawless. He was gifted with considerable literary ability and often contributed important articles of a political nature to the State press. He left a number of children, among whom are Miss Will Allen Dromgoole, Mrs. Richard Beard and Mrs. Wellborn Mooney. His remains will be interred in the cemetery at Dresden, Tenn., beside those of his son, which were placed there something over a year ago.

Slave

Matilda Dromgoole Dromgoole-93- “my father bought her when a little child in old Virginia, and that he bought the child in order that she should not be parted from the mother, whom he had also brought. He took her home before him on his saddle. And in the family to which he took her was her home until they took her to that home the same nephew of mine had bought for her in beautiful Greenwood, the burying-ground of Nashville’s colored people.” Matilda Dromgoole Obituary - Mammy for the Faircloth Family. The Daily News-Journal Murfreesboro, Tennessee 12 Nov 1929, Tue • Page 3 ^[2]

He passed away in 1897. ^[3]

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Dromgoole, John Easter was born on December 28, 1805 in Brunswick County, Virginia, to Thomas Coke and Mary Hall Dromgoole. He first came to Murfreesboro in 1826, staying there briefly before returning home. He married Lucy Blanch, daughter of Colonel Ezekiel Alfred and Mildred Cook Blanch of Brunswick County, on December 12, 1828 before coming back to Murfreesboro permanently in 1831. His wife died in 1836 and he took her sister, Rebecca Mildred Blanch, as his second wife on August 12, 1839. He and his first wife were the parents of John E., George C., and Susan Frances Dromgoole Mooney. The children by his second wife were Helen E. Dromgoole Evans, Maria Louise Dromgoole Beard, Sally L., Lauretta, Will Allen, and Isabella Dromgoole Kendall. He and his wives were members of the Murfreesboro Methodist Church. The subject of this sketch owned a successful farm near Barfield during the 1840s and 1850s before moving to Murfreesboro, where he worked as a bookkeeper. He was elected mayor of Murfreesboro in 1862, having previously served the town as alderman and treasurer in 1860 and 1861. Union troops took over the town in March 1862, overseeing the affairs of the town. Union authorities forced Dromgoole out and installed James Monroe Tompkins as mayor in May of that year. Mayor Dromgoole would never serve the town in public office again but did represent Rutherford County at the Tennessee Constitutional Convention in 1870. During his later years, he spent much of his time in Dresden, Tennessee living with his daughter, Susan Mooney. He died at Mayfield, Kentucky on November 21, 1897 and is buried in Sunset Cemetery in Dresden, Tennessee.^[4]

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Sources

1. ↑ https://capitol.tn.gov/House/Archives/36GA/36composite.html
2. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/108684814/matilda-dromgoole
3. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 September 2020), memorial page for John Easter Dromgoole Sr. (28 Dec 1805–21 Nov 1897), Find A Grave: Memorial #36713256, citing Sunset Cemetery, Dresden, Weakley County, Tennessee, USA ; Maintained by Melissa Clayton Key (contributor 46868985).
4. ↑ http://rutherfordtnhistory.org/murfreesboro-mayors-26-30/

• Tennessee, U.S., Marriage Records, 1780-2002. Name: John E Dromgoole; male; marriage date: 15 Aug 1839; marriage place: Rutherford, Tennessee; spouse: Rebecca Blanch.

• http://www.nwtntoday.com/2012/05/08/all-in-a-name-during-annual-cemetery-walk/

• North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000. Name: John E Dromgoole; male; birth date: 1804; first marriage date: 1839; death date: 1897; father: Thomas Dromgoole; mother: Fanny Hall; spouse: Rebecca Mildred Blanch; child: Marie L Dromgoole.

• Alabama, U.S., Surname Files Expanded, 1702-1981. Name: John Easter Dromgoole; age 91; birth date: 28 Dec 1805; birthplace: Brunswick County, Virginia; death date: 21 Nov 1897; spouse: Lucy K. Blanch.