Cheatham-Hickman-Perry County TN Archives Biographies.....Pickard, Peter P. 1845 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com November 13, 2005, 9:57 pm

Author: Will T. Hale

   PETER P. PICKARD stands in the front rank of Tennessee's best citizenship and
is well known throughout the state through his different official services,
having served three terms, or from 1883 to 1889, as comptroller of this state
and having been supervisor of the census in the sixth congressional district of
Tennessee in 1900. He is also well known in the banking circles of Tennessee and
gave Ashland City its first bank, of which he has been cashier and active
manager since its organization in 1901. As the promoter of this and various
other enterprises that have had a directed and important bearing upon the
development and progress not only of his immediate community but also of the
state, and by his sterling citizenship in every other respect he well deserves
to be given recognition as one of the Tennesseeans who have been builders and
supporters of the commonwealth during the last half century.

   The Pickard family is of French descent and originated on American soil with
Peter Pickard, the grandfather of Peter P., who was a native of France and came
here at the time Lafayette and his French soldiers came to assist in winning
American independence. He settled in North Carolina, where he passed the
remainder of his days and where he reared his family. Green Pickard, his son,
came from his native state of North Carolina to Tennessee in 1825 and settled in
Hickman county in that year. By occupation he was a farmer but at the time of
his death in 1854 he was engaged in the meat business in Huntsville, Alabama. He
wedded Mary Chambliss, who was born in North Carolina in 1806, a daughter of
Jesse Chambliss, who was a native and a life-long resident of North Carolina. To
Green and Mary (Chambliss) Pickard were born thirteen children, of which family
Peter P. was tenth in order of birth and is one of three yet living. Both
parents were Primitive Baptists in religious faith and the father was a loyal
Democrat in political allegiance. The mother passed to eternal rest in 1876.

  Peter P. Pickard was born in Hickman county, Tennessee on October 1, 1845, and
was but fifteen years of age when the Civil war opened. Youth that he was, he
promptly enlisted in the Confederate army as a member of Frank Maney's battery
of artillery, with which he served until 1864, or until wounded while
sharpshooting at Rocky Race Ridge, near Dalton, Georgia. At the battle of Fort
Donelson during the earlier part of his service, however, he was among the
Confederates captured and was detained as a prisoner seven months. After his
discharge from the Atlanta hospital to which he had been taken when wounded he
went to Marion, Alabama, where he remained until the close of the war. In 1865
he came to Perry county, Tennessee, where two years later, or in 1867, he was
married to Julia Britt, whose father, William O. Britt, was a resident of Perry
county and one of the prominent men of Tennessee. He became wealthy as a peanut
dealer and shipper and at his death left a large estate. In 1883, as a Democrat,
Mr. Pickard was elected comptroller of Tennessee, to which important office he
was twice re-elected, serving from 1883 to 1889. He made a great record in this
official service, his work being marked by accuracy and exhibiting that zealous
and watchful care that resulted in a great saving for the state and that
permitted it to cancel many of its debts. He being a member of state funding
board took active part in funding the state's indebtedness. In 1900 he was made
supervisor of the census in the sixth congressional district of this state.
Following that service, he came to Ashland City in 1901 and organized the
Ashland City Bank & Trust Company, of which he has been cashier from that time
to the present and which was the first institution of its kind in Ashland City.
It has a capital of $25,000, a surplus of $25,000, with deposits averaging
$75,000. The bank has taken a very important place in the commercial life of
that section and has been a decided success from the time it opened its doors to
the present. As a public official Mr. Pickard's service was marked for
intelligence and efficiency and as a business man the same qualities together
with the most progressive spirit, have characterized his activities. He is at
present in line for high political preferment, as the following letter will
illustrate: 

Hon. William G. MeAdoo,
   Secretary of the Treasury,
     Washington, D. C. 

Dear Mr. Secretary:

   I take the liberty of writing this letter endorsing and urging the
appointment of Colonel P. P. Pickard of Tennessee, who will be an applicant for
the position of Register of the Treasury.

   Colonel Pickard represents the finest brand of citizenship and Democracy
within our state. From the standpoint of competency, intellectuality, character,
physical vigor and public esteem and confidence, he is in every way deserving of
the honor of this appointment.

   Colonel Pickard is a one-armed Confederate soldier who served with great
distinction in Maney's Battery, Cheatham's Division. His arm was lost at Rocky
Pace Ridge, near Dalton, Georgia, while he was acting as a sharpshooter, and in
the initial engagement resisting Sherman's march to the sea. He was a private
soldier in the Confederate army.

   From 1883 to 1889, during the two administrations of Gen. William B. Bate and
the first administration of Robert L. Taylor as governors of Tennessee, Colonel
Pickard held the office of state comptroller. In addition to this Colonel
Pickard was director of the federal census in this (the "Hermitage")
congressional district, in 1900.

   While the aid and efforts of Colonel Pickard in securing the election of
President Wilson were to my knowledge as disinterested as they could be, it is
but fair to him for me to say that during the recent presidential campaign, when
I acted at your suggestion as finance committeeman from Middle Tennessee,
Colonel Pickard gave liberally of his means, and was of more aid to me than
almost any other man in this division of the state.

   Colonel Pickard's friends have made up their minds to urge his appointment to
the position of Register of the Treasury, and he is not in a position to decline
to permit them to do so.

   Any recognition that the claim of Colonel Pickard can receive at the hands of
the President, or at your hands, will be absolutely deserved and a source of
great gratification to a vast number of our best citizens, irrespective of party
affiliations; and his appointment to this position will be satisfactory and
pleasing to a great majority of Democrats in Tennessee.

                            Yours very truly.
                                       K. T. McConnico.

   Fraternally Mr. Pickard is affiliated with the Knights of Honor, and both he
and Mrs. Pickard are valued members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
Six children have been born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Pickard and are as
follows: Willie, who married J. H. Sladen and resides at Waverly, Tennessee;
Mary Elizabeth, who became the wife of C. H. Harris and resides at Paducah,
Kentucky; Obed, a resident of Ashland City, Tennessee; Nixon, whose home is at
Cumberland City, Tennessee, and who is cashier of the Cumberland City Bank;
Edward, a resident of Nashville, and a telegraph operator there; and Taval,
paying teller in the Cumberland Valley National Bank at Nashville.



Additional Comments:
From:

A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in
commerce, industry and modern activities
by Will T. Hale
Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913


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