Baseball Team, ca. 1905. Cobb and Nichols School, Dresden TN

The American College and Private School Directory, vol. 8, 1914, listed the Cobb and Nichols School of Dresden, TN as a non-sectarian school.  Charles H. Cobb (husband of Marion Moran) and J.W. Nichols were the principals.

This photo of the baseball team dates to about 1905.  I don't know the names of any of the players, perhaps someone will recognize a relative, but the two men in suits are J.Walter Nichols (left) and Charles H. Cobb (right).

Charles H. Cobb was the son of Thomas D Cobb and Elizabeth Adeline Johnston.  He was born June 27, 1876, in Tennessee.  He lived most of his life in Union City with some time spent in Dresden. In 1900 he was teaching school and living at home with his father and a sister, Birdie.  Cobb and Nichols attended Vanderbilt University together. About 1904 they formed the Cobb and Nichols School in Dresden.

Dresden Enterprise, July 29 1904
Miss Pearl B. Matthews of Trenton has been elected to Conduct the primary dept. of Cobb and Nichols school here in Dresden.

Cobb married Marion Agnes Moran, youngest daughter of J.W. Moran and Sophia Gunn, October 3 1905 at the Methodist Church in Dresden.

Dresden Enterprise, June 1 1906
The Dresden Dramatic Company had receipts amounting to $67 at Greenfield last Friday.  The money will be applied to payment of a new piano at the Cobb and Nichols School building.  They performed at Huntingdon Monday to a full house also.

Dresden Enterprise, June 8, 1906
Miss Pearl Mathews, primary teacher at Cobb and Nichols, gave her students a picnic which was hugely enjoyed by the little fellows.

The Hickman Courier, Aug 3 1906
The Cobb and Nichols School of Dresden, Tenn.
Every citizen of Dresden is justly proud of having in this community an institution so ably managed, doing a class of work so superior, possessing an unexcelled faculty, as the Cobb and Nichols Training School, Chas. H. Cobb and J. Walter Nichols, principals.  Both these young men are graduates of Vanderbilt university, where they were specially prepared for training school work, and that is just what their school here is--a training school in the fullest and most complete sense of the term.  This has been clearly demonstrated by the work of this school during the past two years and today we are rejoiced to say to the public that the outlook for a successful opening this fall is most encouraging.
The pupils that have gone out from the Cobb and Nichols school are its best advertisement, if any it need other than its high-class, thorough work.  The boys and girls who come to Dresden to attend school are taken care of by the faculty and are admitted into the best homes of our town; they are made to feel welcome and at home, as it were, and the faculty sees to it that they do not loaf around the streets neither night nor during the day.--Dresden Enterprise.

The Hickman Courier, Aug 10 1906
The students of the Cobb & Nichols School are required to stay in their rooms at night to study, nor are they allowed to loiter on the streets during day.
The Cobb & Nichols School is a training school, pure and simple, no catchpenny methods, no (ab)normal courses.

In 1907 Charles and Marion Cobb had a child, daughter Carolyn Elizabeth Cobb born April 27 1907.

From Volume 8, Vanderbilt University Quarterly:
'04--Charles H. Cobb, B.A., who has been for three years with J.W. Nichols, of the same class, in the Cobb and Nichols School at Dresden, Tenn., has entered upon the practice of law in Union City, where he has become junior partner with Judge Swiggart in the firm of Swiggart and Cobb.

Cobb continues practicing law but by 1930 is listed as the proprietor of a rain coat factory.  His wife Marion committed suicide in 1934.   In 1936, Cobb married Ottis Leone Luton. Their son, Charles H Cobb Jr, was born in 1937.   Charles Sr died in 1951.

Lillian Haynes Dobson and Walter Kenneth Hyde

This image comes from the Ward Seminary
1913 Yearbook.  It was supposed to represent
Lillian when she was born (1896),
When she was a school girl (1913), and her
life as a leader of society in 1930.  Sadly
that did not come true.

Lillian Haynes DOBSON was the daughter of Matthew Hughes DOBSON and Roberta A. ALLEN of Nashville Tennessee. She was also the sister of Matthew Hughes DOBSON who married Sophia Eleanor EZZELL, the daughter of Fannie MORAN and James EZZELL.  Lillian was born August 14, 1895.  She attended Ward Seminary which became the Harpeth Hall School.  She was the President of the Senior Class in 1912, just one of the many honors she received at school.

William Kenneth HYDE was born in Illinois on June 18, 1893.  His parents were Walter H. HYDE and Ellen Hyde.  He attended Vanderbilt University and is listed as being in the graduating class of 1918.  Nashville City Directories indicate he was a Mechanical Engineer.

William Hyde and Lillian Dobson were married in March, 1916.  The young couple had such promise but it wasn't meant to be.  William and Lillian contracted pneumonia in the fall of 1918.   Lillian was pregnant at the time.  William passed away on October 7, 1918.  The following day their infant son was was delivered, stillborn.  Soon after his delivery, Lillian too slipped the bonds of her mortal coil.










The family were interred together on October 10, 1918.  The headstone inscription is very poignant:

Lillian Dobson Hyde Died Oct. 8, 1918, Age 23.

Walter Kenneth Hyde Died Oct. 7, 1918, Age 26.

And Infant Son.

Laid to rest together October 10, 1918.

How many hopes lie buried here.

1901 Vanderbilt University, Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity

Charles Henry Cobb was born June 27, 1876 in Union City Tennessee.  His parents were Thomas D. Cobb and Elizabeth Johnston.  Cobb attended Vanderbilt University and was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, Beta Pi Chapter, 1901. He was an attorney and businessman in Union City. Cobb married Marion Agnes Moran in 1905.  He and Marion had one child, Carolyn Elizabeth Cobb.  She was born in 1907.  

Marion committed suicide in 1934 by jumping from a bridge.  She was buried in Eastview Cemetery.  Not long after Marion's death, Cobb married Ottis Leone Luton, she was 22 years his junior.  They had no children together.  Cobb died in 1951 and was buried in the Cobb Plot at Eastview Cemetery with his first wife, Marion.  Ottis passed away in 1986.  She joined Marion and Charles in the Cobb family plot.

Below is a picture of the Brothers of the Beta Pi Chapter, Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity of Vanderbilt University, 1901.  We found the picture in a steamer trunk on a recent trip to the Moran family home.  I believe the F.W. Motlow pictured is Felix Motlow, one of the brothers of Lem Motlow of Jack Daniels fame.

Left to right Top row: S.A. Johnson, T.E. Kennedy, F. B. Wilson, W.D. Weatherford
Second row: W.W. Jarrell, W. E. Wellburn, C.D. Zdanowicz, F.W. Motlow, O.V. Calhoun
Third row: J.R. Dawson, B.T. Nolen, J.R. Snyder, Thos. Steele Jr., J.E. Pierson, A.W. McCord, A.B. Camper
Fourth row: R.W. Billington, J.K.McFarland, John Paschall, C.H. Cobb, D.F. Douglass

Closeup of Charles H. Cobb,

husband of Marion Moran

Barr None

We don't know if the Barr's were just very good friends of the Moran's or if they have a family connection to us.  What we do know is that the Barr's were important to the Moran's because we have several pictures of them starting with a photo of the Barr children, Bessie and Hugh Jr., along with Marion Moran taken about 1886.  

We also can discern from the census records that the Barr's had a deep and abiding affection for each other because with very few exceptions, this family of four lived together throughout their lives and were interred beside each other.  One other interesting note, I can't verify whether the name is Henry Hugh or Hugh Henry. Both father and son were called Hugh.  On Hugh Sr.'s death certificate his name is listed as Henry Hugh Barr.  On Hugh Jr.'s death certificate his first name is listed as Hugh, there is a -- where the middle name would be and of course his last name is Barr.

Here is a picture of Henry Hugh Barr Sr.  His father Finley M. Barr, came from North Carolina and his mother, Arrilla Nix, was born in South Carolina. Henry was born in Tennessee.  He had an older sister named Louise Barr.  I don't know the exact order of his life but I do know he attended law school because there are entries in the Dresden Enterprise indicating that he was a local attorney. In addition, he is listed on the Board of Directors for the newly formed Dresden Bank.  Sometime in the mid-late 1870's Hugh was living in New York and that's where I suspect he met Leonora Shannon.  They married in 1878 per the census records. They came back to Dresden and in the 1880 census are listed with a four month old baby girl named Mary.  I believe that daughter did not live very long.

Henry Hugh Barr Sr.
Dec. 16, 1849-
May 4, 1936

Leonora Shannon was born in New York in 1850.  Her father, Robert Shannon, was born in Ireland and her mother, Esther Brown, was born in New York.

Leonora (Nora) Shannon Barr
Sept 20, 1850 -
April 27, 1914

Their next child was another girl and they named her Bessie I. Barr.  She was born abt 1881/82 in New York according to the census records.  So either the Barr's were living in New York again or they were perhaps on an extended visit.  By 1900, the Barr's were living in Nashville.  Bessie attended Ward Seminary, which merged with Belmont College in 1913, in Nashville Tennessee.   In 1900, she was a senior and her class picture is in The Iris, the annual yearbook for Ward Seminary.  A sample of her writing, A Story of the Pink Silk, is in the yearbook too.  She was also the Associate Business Manager on the Iris Editorial Staff and is pictured with the other staff members.  While we don't personally have any school pictures of Bessie we do have one of her when she was 14 years old and she played Lady Genvra in "The Mistletoe Bough" at the Vendome Theatre, Nashville, February 1896.  Bessie never married.

Bessie Barr
1896, The Mistletoe Bough
Feb. 1896
front side

Backside of the Bessie Barr Image
Notice the image of the little boy that bled onto the back.

I haven't identified a picture of Hugh Barr Jr. yet.  Hugh was born in 1883.  He became a professional just like his father did except Hugh Jr. chose medicine.  He earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, class of 1907.  According to volume 11, 1911 of the Vanderbilt Quarterly, Hugh had been practicing in Dresden but in 1911 he moved his practice to Nashville, TN.   Hugh never married.

Throughout the census records the family of four lived together either in Dresden or Nashville TN.  Leonora was the first to pass away.  She died in 1914 from atherosclerosis. Hugh Sr. died in 1936 from bronchiectasis. Hugh Jr died in 1952 from a myocardial infarction   Bessie died in 1967.  All of the Barr's are interred in Sunset Cemetery in Dresden, Tennessee.