Bedford-Davidson County TN Archives Biographies.....Landis, A. L. 1823 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 26, 2005, 3:05 pm Author: Will T. Hale MAJOR A. L. LANDIS, who lent his native state of Tennessee distinguished services as a Confederate soldier and as a state senator and was also a forceful business man, was a native of Bedford county, Tennessee, born in 1823 to John and Mary (Lowe) Landis. He was reared on the farm and at the age of nineteen began teaching school. After continuing in that profession five years he entered upon a business career by becoming a merchant at Shelbyville, Tennessee, where he subsequently also engaged in the pork packing business several years as a member of the firm of Barrett & Landis. He was also the proprietor of the Sylvan Cotton Mills and owned and managed a farm. At the opening the war between the states in 1861 he espoused the cause of the South and entered its service as a member of the Seventeenth Tennessee Regiment of the Confederate Army. For some time he was a quartermaster with the rank of major and concluded his service, one of distinction, with the latter rank. With his regiment he participated in. many of the hardest fought engagements of the war, including the battles of Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and numerous other of the middle Tennessee and Atlanta campaigns. During the last three years of the war he was in charge of and responsible for the eastern division of the quartermasters department of the Confederacy and was credited with most effective service under most trying conditions, and when to secure provisions and supplies was an almost impossible task. On his return to civil life Major Landis resumed his business activity and also became prominently identified with the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Company. About 1850 Major Landis, Col. A. S. Colyar, Mr. Mike Bervus, and other public spirited citizens living between Nashville and Chattanooga, secured subscriptions and furnished money which made possible the construction of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railway, due largely to the active interest of the first two, and he greatly aided in the building and extension of its lines before and after the war. He was one of the directors of that company from its inception and served as general manager of the northwestern division of the road. In 1886 he removed to Nashville, where he established the Landis Banking Company and was thereafter engaged in the banking business until his death on June 5, 1896. Major Landis was also interested in establishing the ante-bellum state banking system in Tennessee, being a director of the Branch Bank at Shelbyville. In polities he was a stanch Democrat, and in 1880 he was elected state senator from the district composed of Bedford and Rutherford counties. He wedded Nancy Carter, who was a. daughter of William and Keziah (Tannehill) Carter and who was a descendant of the old and highly respected Carter connection of Virginia. Major and Mrs. Landis were the parents of eleven children, one of whom is Abb Lowe Landis, who is given individual mention in this work. 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 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/bedford/bios/landis212nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/tnfiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb