Edward Ward Carmack

Edward Ward Carmack. B. November 5, 1858 – D. November 9, 1908. Carmack was born in Sumner County, Tennessee. Just a few years after his birth, his father died, leaving his mother to care for the small family. She found employment at the fledgling Webb School in Culleoka and brought her young family to Maury County. It was there at Webb School that young Edward Ward Carmack's formal education began., Eventually Carmack studied law and was admitted to the bar. He practiced law in Columbia and also served as editor of the Columbia Herald. Politics and journalism would dominate the rest of his life. From Columbia, Carmack moved to Nashville and later Memphis where he became editor of the Commercial Appeal. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1896. In 1901 he was elected as one of Tennessee's two U.S. Senators., While in the Senate, Carmack became a proponent of the Temperance Movement, a move that cost him his Senate seat in 1906. Undaunted by the loss, Carmack returned to Tennessee where he announced his candidacy for governor as a Democrat. The Democratic Primary was brutal. The political battle between incumbent Governor Malcolm Patterson and Carmack was tooth and nail. Patterson was portrayed as the candidate supported by the liquor interest. Carmack was the righteous warrior of the Prohibitionists. Patterson eventually won the primary and handily defeated his Republican challenger during the General Election. Carmack went back to journalism., As editor of the Nashville American, Carmack attacked his political enemies in an incessant barrage of editorials. He targeted one man especially – Duncan Cooper, a man that had once been a friend and supporter. Cooper sent word to Carmack to stop his attacks. Carmack ignored him. Eventually, this battle of words became deadly when Carmack and Cooper (and Cooper's son Robin) came face-to-face on the streets of Nashville. The men pulled their pistols and began firing. As the smoke cleared, Robin Cooper was wounded and Edward Ward Carmack laid dead on Seventh Avenue., On November 11th, following a funeral at Columbia's First Methodist Church, Carmack was interred here with a Masonic burial service. Carmack's name is also included on the impressive marker to the right of Frances Dunnington, his father-in-law.