____________________________________________________
This site honors the life of Micah S. Combs and his service to mankind. These photographs and this historical information are part of an ongoing educational research project on well-known funeral establishments from America's past. Persons who can provide additional historical information on the Combs family and/or can submit additional photographs are invited to email to the researcher, professor Jim Moshinskie, PhD, at [email protected]. Thank you.
____________________________________________________
From 1873 - 1935, Micah Sterling Combs Jr. was identified with the M. S. Combs & Company undertaking business of Nashville and was also the longtime pastor of the Bellevue Christian Church there.
He is a descendant of one of the oldest and most honored families of Nashville and was born in that city on the 23d of May, 1856.
On the paternal side he is of English descent, members of the Combs family having come to Virginia in the early colonial days. Some of his ancestors made guns for use of the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.
His grandfather, James Woody Combs, was one of the most prominent attorneys of his day. He lived at Pulaski, Tennessee, and was widely known throughout the state. Aaron V. Brown and Neill S. Brown read law in his office and they later became governors of the state. His son was M. S. Combs, Sr., the father of Micah S. Jr., and a native of Giles county, Tennessee. His parents located in Giles county in the early part of the nineteenth century.
Micah S. Combs, Sr. established the M.S. Combs & Co. undertaking business at Nashville in 1872 and was actively associated with it until his demise in 1914. In July, 1853, at Nashville, he celebrated his marriage to Miss Georgiana Jackson, who was born in that city in 1832. Six generations of her family have lived in Nashville, the first members locating there in 1804. The grandmother of Mrs. Combs was a Clay and a first cousin of Henry Clay. The Jacksons are also of English descent.
To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Micah S. Combs, Sr. eleven children were born, four sons and seven daughters, Micah S. Combs Jr., being the second in order of birth.
In the acquirement of his academic education Micah S. Combs Jr. attended private schools of Nashville, later entered the Hughes-Minns Academy, the Montgomery Bell Academy, Crockers School, and subsequently became a student at Manchester College, Manchester. There he received a three-year literary college course, and after leaving that institution entered his father's undertaking business in 1873. In 1910 he became the sole owner and manager of the company when his father retired. (His father died in 1914).
The M. S. Combs & Company undertaking establishment was the oldest of its kind in Nashville. It built the first chapel, etc., in the city in 1890 and M.S. Combs Jr. received the first embalmer's license ever issued in the state of Tennessee.
M. S. Combs Jr. also pastored the Bellevue Christian church for over 30 years and was been an elder in the Seventeenth Street Christian church also. He was considered a man of high intellectual attainments and was the author of a book of poems which was published under the title of Poems in 1919, by the McQuiddey Printing Company of Nashville.
On the 21st of November, 1878, at Nashville, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Combs and Miss Maggie E. Averitt (1860 - June 13, 1947), a daughter of Peter Averitt of Hartsville. They were parents of six children:
(1) George, who died at the age of twenty-nine years;
(2) Joe C. (Clay), who married Miss Bertha Owens of Atlanta, Georgia, and lived in Nashville, where he also became associated with his father in the undertaking business after a stint in the entertainment business;
(3) Leila, the wife of O. L. Quillan of Nashville;
(4) Mallie, the wife of Paul E. Shaklett of Chattanooga;
(5) Elizabeth, the wife of Lackam E. Crouch, a prominent attorney of Nashville; and
(6) Marguerite Harrison.
Mr. and Mrs. Combs had twelve grandchildren living and two deceased. They are as follows: George Combs, Mrs. Joe Soule of Nashville,Margaret Agnes Shaklett, Joe Shaklett of Chattanooga,O. L. Quillan, Jr., Laurie and Earl Quillan, Dorothy, Margaret and Mary Elizabeth Crouch,
Francis Guy Harrison and C. B. Harrison
Mr. Combs gave his political allegiance to the democratic party and the principles for which it stands. Fraternally he was a Scottish Rite Mason and held membership in Phoenix Lodge, No. 131, F. & A. M., of Nashville; Trinity Consistory, No. 2; Al Menah Temple of the Mystic Shrine; and he is chaplain of the blue lodge at Nashville. Mr. Combs likewise held membership in Osceola Tribe, No. 41, of Red Men at Nashville. For years he was an active member of the Kiwanis Club and along strictly business lines he was identified with the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association. [Source: Tennessee State 1769-1923, Nashville, 1923, II, 320-321, Sp.319]
In 1923, M. S. Combs Jr. moved his family and business into the large two-story residence at 201 25th Ave. N. where it remains in operation today (2010). It still has many of its original features, including elaborate marble parlor mantels. The outside looks remarkably the same, down to a stained-glass window on the West End side. An attic dormer in the front is gone, but the stable building with its wooden doors remains in the rear. [Source: Ron Sanders, Nashville. The Nashville Tennessean, June 2004)
Micah S. Combs, Jr. died April 1, 1935 in Nashville, and his son, Joe Clay Combs continued the family business until he died in 1951. He obituary appeared on the front page of the Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935:
Micah S. Combs Dies at Age of 78
Widely Known Religious and Business Leader Succumbs -- Rites Tomorrow
Micah S. Combs, 78, prominent in religious, fraternal, and civic affairs in Nashville for many years, and head of the undertaking firm of M.S. Combs & Company which was established in 1872 by his father, died at his residence 201 21st Street North last night after an illness of several weeks.
Funeral services will be conducted Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at Vine Street Christian Church with Dr. Roger Nooe in charge. Burial will be in Mt. Olivet Cemetery with Phoenix Lodge No. 131, F&AM, in charge of graveside services.
Honorary pallbearers will be funeral directors of Davidson County, elders and deacons of the Vine Street and Bellevue Christian Churches, officers of the Scottish Rite bodies of Nashville and Edgefield Chapter R.A.M., Lee Bissinger, Nathan Cohn, Carter Goodrich, S.C. Guthrie, and Fred Bradford.
Active pallbearers will be Dr. Paul DeWitt, L. Duncan Combs, Dr. Cary T. Mitchell, Capt. L. P. Randolph, Cheatam Randolph, Thurmond Moss, J. Eugene Brew, Arch E. McClanahan, Joel Chandler and Tom Baugh.
Mr. Combs was born in Nashville, the son of Micah S. Combs Sr. and Georgiana Jackson Combs. He attended the old Hughes-Mims Academy in East Nashville, Montgomery Bell Academy and Crocker's School. Later he attend Manchester College.
He had been identified with the undertaking business here since 1872 when his father established the firm of M.S. Combs & Co. The company was located on Fourth Avenue near the present entrance to the Arcade, later moving to the old Colonade Building and in 1891 the firm moved into the first building ever erected in Nashville for an undertaking parlor at 314 Fifth Avenue North. The firm has been located at its present site near Centennial Park since 1923.
Mr. Combs helped in the orgnization of the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association and was largely responsible for the establishment of a school of embalming here.
He was pastor of Bellvue Christian Church for 37 years and had held membership in Vine Street Christian Church since he was 11 years old. He was also prominent in Masonry, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Al Menah Temple of the Shrine, Phoenix Lodge No. 131 F&AM, Edgefield Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and Rock City Chapter O.E.S. He had served these bodies as chaplain, and last year served as grand chaplain of the Grand Council R.A.M. He was also past grand prelate of the Knights Templar.
He was for several years an active members of the Kiwanis CLub and had served in many capacities.
Mr. Combs has also written a number of poems and in collaboration with the late John Trotwood Moore issued a book of poems in 1919.
He married Miss Maggie E. Averitt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Averitt of Hartsville in 1878. She survives him with the following children: Joe C. Combs, Mrs. Larkin E. Crouch and Mrs. Roy L. Gardner of Nashville; Mrs. Paul E. Shacklett of Chattanooga, and Mrs. R.C. Harwell of Columbia, S.C.; a sister, Mrs. D. F.Allen of El Paso, Texas; 12 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. -- The Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935, front page column 6, continued on page 2, col. 4
_________________________________________________________
After Mr. Combs died, the firm was successfully operated by his son, Joe C. Combs. When Joe Combs died in 1951, his estate sold the funeral home in 1952 to Gilbert Marshall (who had been in the funeral business in Nashville since 1934) and Thomas J. Donnelly. The name became Marshall-Donnelly & Combs Funeral Home, and it remains today (2010) at the 201 25th Ave. N. location. In 2010, it became associated with the SCI Dignity international group.
This site honors the life of Micah S. Combs and his service to mankind. These photographs and this historical information are part of an ongoing educational research project on well-known funeral establishments from America's past. Persons who can provide additional historical information on the Combs family and/or can submit additional photographs are invited to email to the researcher, professor Jim Moshinskie, PhD, at [email protected]. Thank you.
____________________________________________________
From 1873 - 1935, Micah Sterling Combs Jr. was identified with the M. S. Combs & Company undertaking business of Nashville and was also the longtime pastor of the Bellevue Christian Church there.
He is a descendant of one of the oldest and most honored families of Nashville and was born in that city on the 23d of May, 1856.
On the paternal side he is of English descent, members of the Combs family having come to Virginia in the early colonial days. Some of his ancestors made guns for use of the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.
His grandfather, James Woody Combs, was one of the most prominent attorneys of his day. He lived at Pulaski, Tennessee, and was widely known throughout the state. Aaron V. Brown and Neill S. Brown read law in his office and they later became governors of the state. His son was M. S. Combs, Sr., the father of Micah S. Jr., and a native of Giles county, Tennessee. His parents located in Giles county in the early part of the nineteenth century.
Micah S. Combs, Sr. established the M.S. Combs & Co. undertaking business at Nashville in 1872 and was actively associated with it until his demise in 1914. In July, 1853, at Nashville, he celebrated his marriage to Miss Georgiana Jackson, who was born in that city in 1832. Six generations of her family have lived in Nashville, the first members locating there in 1804. The grandmother of Mrs. Combs was a Clay and a first cousin of Henry Clay. The Jacksons are also of English descent.
To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Micah S. Combs, Sr. eleven children were born, four sons and seven daughters, Micah S. Combs Jr., being the second in order of birth.
In the acquirement of his academic education Micah S. Combs Jr. attended private schools of Nashville, later entered the Hughes-Minns Academy, the Montgomery Bell Academy, Crockers School, and subsequently became a student at Manchester College, Manchester. There he received a three-year literary college course, and after leaving that institution entered his father's undertaking business in 1873. In 1910 he became the sole owner and manager of the company when his father retired. (His father died in 1914).
The M. S. Combs & Company undertaking establishment was the oldest of its kind in Nashville. It built the first chapel, etc., in the city in 1890 and M.S. Combs Jr. received the first embalmer's license ever issued in the state of Tennessee.
M. S. Combs Jr. also pastored the Bellevue Christian church for over 30 years and was been an elder in the Seventeenth Street Christian church also. He was considered a man of high intellectual attainments and was the author of a book of poems which was published under the title of Poems in 1919, by the McQuiddey Printing Company of Nashville.
On the 21st of November, 1878, at Nashville, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Combs and Miss Maggie E. Averitt (1860 - June 13, 1947), a daughter of Peter Averitt of Hartsville. They were parents of six children:
(1) George, who died at the age of twenty-nine years;
(2) Joe C. (Clay), who married Miss Bertha Owens of Atlanta, Georgia, and lived in Nashville, where he also became associated with his father in the undertaking business after a stint in the entertainment business;
(3) Leila, the wife of O. L. Quillan of Nashville;
(4) Mallie, the wife of Paul E. Shaklett of Chattanooga;
(5) Elizabeth, the wife of Lackam E. Crouch, a prominent attorney of Nashville; and
(6) Marguerite Harrison.
Mr. and Mrs. Combs had twelve grandchildren living and two deceased. They are as follows: George Combs, Mrs. Joe Soule of Nashville,Margaret Agnes Shaklett, Joe Shaklett of Chattanooga,O. L. Quillan, Jr., Laurie and Earl Quillan, Dorothy, Margaret and Mary Elizabeth Crouch,
Francis Guy Harrison and C. B. Harrison
Mr. Combs gave his political allegiance to the democratic party and the principles for which it stands. Fraternally he was a Scottish Rite Mason and held membership in Phoenix Lodge, No. 131, F. & A. M., of Nashville; Trinity Consistory, No. 2; Al Menah Temple of the Mystic Shrine; and he is chaplain of the blue lodge at Nashville. Mr. Combs likewise held membership in Osceola Tribe, No. 41, of Red Men at Nashville. For years he was an active member of the Kiwanis Club and along strictly business lines he was identified with the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association. [Source: Tennessee State 1769-1923, Nashville, 1923, II, 320-321, Sp.319]
In 1923, M. S. Combs Jr. moved his family and business into the large two-story residence at 201 25th Ave. N. where it remains in operation today (2010). It still has many of its original features, including elaborate marble parlor mantels. The outside looks remarkably the same, down to a stained-glass window on the West End side. An attic dormer in the front is gone, but the stable building with its wooden doors remains in the rear. [Source: Ron Sanders, Nashville. The Nashville Tennessean, June 2004)
Micah S. Combs, Jr. died April 1, 1935 in Nashville, and his son, Joe Clay Combs continued the family business until he died in 1951. He obituary appeared on the front page of the Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935:
Micah S. Combs Dies at Age of 78
Widely Known Religious and Business Leader Succumbs -- Rites Tomorrow
Micah S. Combs, 78, prominent in religious, fraternal, and civic affairs in Nashville for many years, and head of the undertaking firm of M.S. Combs & Company which was established in 1872 by his father, died at his residence 201 21st Street North last night after an illness of several weeks.
Funeral services will be conducted Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at Vine Street Christian Church with Dr. Roger Nooe in charge. Burial will be in Mt. Olivet Cemetery with Phoenix Lodge No. 131, F&AM, in charge of graveside services.
Honorary pallbearers will be funeral directors of Davidson County, elders and deacons of the Vine Street and Bellevue Christian Churches, officers of the Scottish Rite bodies of Nashville and Edgefield Chapter R.A.M., Lee Bissinger, Nathan Cohn, Carter Goodrich, S.C. Guthrie, and Fred Bradford.
Active pallbearers will be Dr. Paul DeWitt, L. Duncan Combs, Dr. Cary T. Mitchell, Capt. L. P. Randolph, Cheatam Randolph, Thurmond Moss, J. Eugene Brew, Arch E. McClanahan, Joel Chandler and Tom Baugh.
Mr. Combs was born in Nashville, the son of Micah S. Combs Sr. and Georgiana Jackson Combs. He attended the old Hughes-Mims Academy in East Nashville, Montgomery Bell Academy and Crocker's School. Later he attend Manchester College.
He had been identified with the undertaking business here since 1872 when his father established the firm of M.S. Combs & Co. The company was located on Fourth Avenue near the present entrance to the Arcade, later moving to the old Colonade Building and in 1891 the firm moved into the first building ever erected in Nashville for an undertaking parlor at 314 Fifth Avenue North. The firm has been located at its present site near Centennial Park since 1923.
Mr. Combs helped in the orgnization of the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association and was largely responsible for the establishment of a school of embalming here.
He was pastor of Bellvue Christian Church for 37 years and had held membership in Vine Street Christian Church since he was 11 years old. He was also prominent in Masonry, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Al Menah Temple of the Shrine, Phoenix Lodge No. 131 F&AM, Edgefield Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and Rock City Chapter O.E.S. He had served these bodies as chaplain, and last year served as grand chaplain of the Grand Council R.A.M. He was also past grand prelate of the Knights Templar.
He was for several years an active members of the Kiwanis CLub and had served in many capacities.
Mr. Combs has also written a number of poems and in collaboration with the late John Trotwood Moore issued a book of poems in 1919.
He married Miss Maggie E. Averitt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Averitt of Hartsville in 1878. She survives him with the following children: Joe C. Combs, Mrs. Larkin E. Crouch and Mrs. Roy L. Gardner of Nashville; Mrs. Paul E. Shacklett of Chattanooga, and Mrs. R.C. Harwell of Columbia, S.C.; a sister, Mrs. D. F.Allen of El Paso, Texas; 12 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. -- The Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935, front page column 6, continued on page 2, col. 4
_________________________________________________________
After Mr. Combs died, the firm was successfully operated by his son, Joe C. Combs. When Joe Combs died in 1951, his estate sold the funeral home in 1952 to Gilbert Marshall (who had been in the funeral business in Nashville since 1934) and Thomas J. Donnelly. The name became Marshall-Donnelly & Combs Funeral Home, and it remains today (2010) at the 201 25th Ave. N. location. In 2010, it became associated with the SCI Dignity international group.
____________________________________________________
This site honors the life of Micah S. Combs and his service to mankind. These photographs and this historical information are part of an ongoing educational research project on well-known funeral establishments from America's past. Persons who can provide additional historical information on the Combs family and/or can submit additional photographs are invited to email to the researcher, professor Jim Moshinskie, PhD, at [email protected]. Thank you.
____________________________________________________
From 1873 - 1935, Micah Sterling Combs Jr. was identified with the M. S. Combs & Company undertaking business of Nashville and was also the longtime pastor of the Bellevue Christian Church there.
He is a descendant of one of the oldest and most honored families of Nashville and was born in that city on the 23d of May, 1856.
On the paternal side he is of English descent, members of the Combs family having come to Virginia in the early colonial days. Some of his ancestors made guns for use of the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.
His grandfather, James Woody Combs, was one of the most prominent attorneys of his day. He lived at Pulaski, Tennessee, and was widely known throughout the state. Aaron V. Brown and Neill S. Brown read law in his office and they later became governors of the state. His son was M. S. Combs, Sr., the father of Micah S. Jr., and a native of Giles county, Tennessee. His parents located in Giles county in the early part of the nineteenth century.
Micah S. Combs, Sr. established the M.S. Combs & Co. undertaking business at Nashville in 1872 and was actively associated with it until his demise in 1914. In July, 1853, at Nashville, he celebrated his marriage to Miss Georgiana Jackson, who was born in that city in 1832. Six generations of her family have lived in Nashville, the first members locating there in 1804. The grandmother of Mrs. Combs was a Clay and a first cousin of Henry Clay. The Jacksons are also of English descent.
To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Micah S. Combs, Sr. eleven children were born, four sons and seven daughters, Micah S. Combs Jr., being the second in order of birth.
In the acquirement of his academic education Micah S. Combs Jr. attended private schools of Nashville, later entered the Hughes-Minns Academy, the Montgomery Bell Academy, Crockers School, and subsequently became a student at Manchester College, Manchester. There he received a three-year literary college course, and after leaving that institution entered his father's undertaking business in 1873. In 1910 he became the sole owner and manager of the company when his father retired. (His father died in 1914).
The M. S. Combs & Company undertaking establishment was the oldest of its kind in Nashville. It built the first chapel, etc., in the city in 1890 and M.S. Combs Jr. received the first embalmer's license ever issued in the state of Tennessee.
M. S. Combs Jr. also pastored the Bellevue Christian church for over 30 years and was been an elder in the Seventeenth Street Christian church also. He was considered a man of high intellectual attainments and was the author of a book of poems which was published under the title of Poems in 1919, by the McQuiddey Printing Company of Nashville.
On the 21st of November, 1878, at Nashville, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Combs and Miss Maggie E. Averitt (1860 - June 13, 1947), a daughter of Peter Averitt of Hartsville. They were parents of six children:
(1) George, who died at the age of twenty-nine years;
(2) Joe C. (Clay), who married Miss Bertha Owens of Atlanta, Georgia, and lived in Nashville, where he also became associated with his father in the undertaking business after a stint in the entertainment business;
(3) Leila, the wife of O. L. Quillan of Nashville;
(4) Mallie, the wife of Paul E. Shaklett of Chattanooga;
(5) Elizabeth, the wife of Lackam E. Crouch, a prominent attorney of Nashville; and
(6) Marguerite Harrison.
Mr. and Mrs. Combs had twelve grandchildren living and two deceased. They are as follows: George Combs, Mrs. Joe Soule of Nashville,Margaret Agnes Shaklett, Joe Shaklett of Chattanooga,O. L. Quillan, Jr., Laurie and Earl Quillan, Dorothy, Margaret and Mary Elizabeth Crouch,
Francis Guy Harrison and C. B. Harrison
Mr. Combs gave his political allegiance to the democratic party and the principles for which it stands. Fraternally he was a Scottish Rite Mason and held membership in Phoenix Lodge, No. 131, F. & A. M., of Nashville; Trinity Consistory, No. 2; Al Menah Temple of the Mystic Shrine; and he is chaplain of the blue lodge at Nashville. Mr. Combs likewise held membership in Osceola Tribe, No. 41, of Red Men at Nashville. For years he was an active member of the Kiwanis Club and along strictly business lines he was identified with the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association. [Source: Tennessee State 1769-1923, Nashville, 1923, II, 320-321, Sp.319]
In 1923, M. S. Combs Jr. moved his family and business into the large two-story residence at 201 25th Ave. N. where it remains in operation today (2010). It still has many of its original features, including elaborate marble parlor mantels. The outside looks remarkably the same, down to a stained-glass window on the West End side. An attic dormer in the front is gone, but the stable building with its wooden doors remains in the rear. [Source: Ron Sanders, Nashville. The Nashville Tennessean, June 2004)
Micah S. Combs, Jr. died April 1, 1935 in Nashville, and his son, Joe Clay Combs continued the family business until he died in 1951. He obituary appeared on the front page of the Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935:
Micah S. Combs Dies at Age of 78
Widely Known Religious and Business Leader Succumbs -- Rites Tomorrow
Micah S. Combs, 78, prominent in religious, fraternal, and civic affairs in Nashville for many years, and head of the undertaking firm of M.S. Combs & Company which was established in 1872 by his father, died at his residence 201 21st Street North last night after an illness of several weeks.
Funeral services will be conducted Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at Vine Street Christian Church with Dr. Roger Nooe in charge. Burial will be in Mt. Olivet Cemetery with Phoenix Lodge No. 131, F&AM, in charge of graveside services.
Honorary pallbearers will be funeral directors of Davidson County, elders and deacons of the Vine Street and Bellevue Christian Churches, officers of the Scottish Rite bodies of Nashville and Edgefield Chapter R.A.M., Lee Bissinger, Nathan Cohn, Carter Goodrich, S.C. Guthrie, and Fred Bradford.
Active pallbearers will be Dr. Paul DeWitt, L. Duncan Combs, Dr. Cary T. Mitchell, Capt. L. P. Randolph, Cheatam Randolph, Thurmond Moss, J. Eugene Brew, Arch E. McClanahan, Joel Chandler and Tom Baugh.
Mr. Combs was born in Nashville, the son of Micah S. Combs Sr. and Georgiana Jackson Combs. He attended the old Hughes-Mims Academy in East Nashville, Montgomery Bell Academy and Crocker's School. Later he attend Manchester College.
He had been identified with the undertaking business here since 1872 when his father established the firm of M.S. Combs & Co. The company was located on Fourth Avenue near the present entrance to the Arcade, later moving to the old Colonade Building and in 1891 the firm moved into the first building ever erected in Nashville for an undertaking parlor at 314 Fifth Avenue North. The firm has been located at its present site near Centennial Park since 1923.
Mr. Combs helped in the orgnization of the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association and was largely responsible for the establishment of a school of embalming here.
He was pastor of Bellvue Christian Church for 37 years and had held membership in Vine Street Christian Church since he was 11 years old. He was also prominent in Masonry, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Al Menah Temple of the Shrine, Phoenix Lodge No. 131 F&AM, Edgefield Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and Rock City Chapter O.E.S. He had served these bodies as chaplain, and last year served as grand chaplain of the Grand Council R.A.M. He was also past grand prelate of the Knights Templar.
He was for several years an active members of the Kiwanis CLub and had served in many capacities.
Mr. Combs has also written a number of poems and in collaboration with the late John Trotwood Moore issued a book of poems in 1919.
He married Miss Maggie E. Averitt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Averitt of Hartsville in 1878. She survives him with the following children: Joe C. Combs, Mrs. Larkin E. Crouch and Mrs. Roy L. Gardner of Nashville; Mrs. Paul E. Shacklett of Chattanooga, and Mrs. R.C. Harwell of Columbia, S.C.; a sister, Mrs. D. F.Allen of El Paso, Texas; 12 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. -- The Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935, front page column 6, continued on page 2, col. 4
_________________________________________________________
After Mr. Combs died, the firm was successfully operated by his son, Joe C. Combs. When Joe Combs died in 1951, his estate sold the funeral home in 1952 to Gilbert Marshall (who had been in the funeral business in Nashville since 1934) and Thomas J. Donnelly. The name became Marshall-Donnelly & Combs Funeral Home, and it remains today (2010) at the 201 25th Ave. N. location. In 2010, it became associated with the SCI Dignity international group.
This site honors the life of Micah S. Combs and his service to mankind. These photographs and this historical information are part of an ongoing educational research project on well-known funeral establishments from America's past. Persons who can provide additional historical information on the Combs family and/or can submit additional photographs are invited to email to the researcher, professor Jim Moshinskie, PhD, at [email protected]. Thank you.
____________________________________________________
From 1873 - 1935, Micah Sterling Combs Jr. was identified with the M. S. Combs & Company undertaking business of Nashville and was also the longtime pastor of the Bellevue Christian Church there.
He is a descendant of one of the oldest and most honored families of Nashville and was born in that city on the 23d of May, 1856.
On the paternal side he is of English descent, members of the Combs family having come to Virginia in the early colonial days. Some of his ancestors made guns for use of the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.
His grandfather, James Woody Combs, was one of the most prominent attorneys of his day. He lived at Pulaski, Tennessee, and was widely known throughout the state. Aaron V. Brown and Neill S. Brown read law in his office and they later became governors of the state. His son was M. S. Combs, Sr., the father of Micah S. Jr., and a native of Giles county, Tennessee. His parents located in Giles county in the early part of the nineteenth century.
Micah S. Combs, Sr. established the M.S. Combs & Co. undertaking business at Nashville in 1872 and was actively associated with it until his demise in 1914. In July, 1853, at Nashville, he celebrated his marriage to Miss Georgiana Jackson, who was born in that city in 1832. Six generations of her family have lived in Nashville, the first members locating there in 1804. The grandmother of Mrs. Combs was a Clay and a first cousin of Henry Clay. The Jacksons are also of English descent.
To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Micah S. Combs, Sr. eleven children were born, four sons and seven daughters, Micah S. Combs Jr., being the second in order of birth.
In the acquirement of his academic education Micah S. Combs Jr. attended private schools of Nashville, later entered the Hughes-Minns Academy, the Montgomery Bell Academy, Crockers School, and subsequently became a student at Manchester College, Manchester. There he received a three-year literary college course, and after leaving that institution entered his father's undertaking business in 1873. In 1910 he became the sole owner and manager of the company when his father retired. (His father died in 1914).
The M. S. Combs & Company undertaking establishment was the oldest of its kind in Nashville. It built the first chapel, etc., in the city in 1890 and M.S. Combs Jr. received the first embalmer's license ever issued in the state of Tennessee.
M. S. Combs Jr. also pastored the Bellevue Christian church for over 30 years and was been an elder in the Seventeenth Street Christian church also. He was considered a man of high intellectual attainments and was the author of a book of poems which was published under the title of Poems in 1919, by the McQuiddey Printing Company of Nashville.
On the 21st of November, 1878, at Nashville, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Combs and Miss Maggie E. Averitt (1860 - June 13, 1947), a daughter of Peter Averitt of Hartsville. They were parents of six children:
(1) George, who died at the age of twenty-nine years;
(2) Joe C. (Clay), who married Miss Bertha Owens of Atlanta, Georgia, and lived in Nashville, where he also became associated with his father in the undertaking business after a stint in the entertainment business;
(3) Leila, the wife of O. L. Quillan of Nashville;
(4) Mallie, the wife of Paul E. Shaklett of Chattanooga;
(5) Elizabeth, the wife of Lackam E. Crouch, a prominent attorney of Nashville; and
(6) Marguerite Harrison.
Mr. and Mrs. Combs had twelve grandchildren living and two deceased. They are as follows: George Combs, Mrs. Joe Soule of Nashville,Margaret Agnes Shaklett, Joe Shaklett of Chattanooga,O. L. Quillan, Jr., Laurie and Earl Quillan, Dorothy, Margaret and Mary Elizabeth Crouch,
Francis Guy Harrison and C. B. Harrison
Mr. Combs gave his political allegiance to the democratic party and the principles for which it stands. Fraternally he was a Scottish Rite Mason and held membership in Phoenix Lodge, No. 131, F. & A. M., of Nashville; Trinity Consistory, No. 2; Al Menah Temple of the Mystic Shrine; and he is chaplain of the blue lodge at Nashville. Mr. Combs likewise held membership in Osceola Tribe, No. 41, of Red Men at Nashville. For years he was an active member of the Kiwanis Club and along strictly business lines he was identified with the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association. [Source: Tennessee State 1769-1923, Nashville, 1923, II, 320-321, Sp.319]
In 1923, M. S. Combs Jr. moved his family and business into the large two-story residence at 201 25th Ave. N. where it remains in operation today (2010). It still has many of its original features, including elaborate marble parlor mantels. The outside looks remarkably the same, down to a stained-glass window on the West End side. An attic dormer in the front is gone, but the stable building with its wooden doors remains in the rear. [Source: Ron Sanders, Nashville. The Nashville Tennessean, June 2004)
Micah S. Combs, Jr. died April 1, 1935 in Nashville, and his son, Joe Clay Combs continued the family business until he died in 1951. He obituary appeared on the front page of the Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935:
Micah S. Combs Dies at Age of 78
Widely Known Religious and Business Leader Succumbs -- Rites Tomorrow
Micah S. Combs, 78, prominent in religious, fraternal, and civic affairs in Nashville for many years, and head of the undertaking firm of M.S. Combs & Company which was established in 1872 by his father, died at his residence 201 21st Street North last night after an illness of several weeks.
Funeral services will be conducted Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at Vine Street Christian Church with Dr. Roger Nooe in charge. Burial will be in Mt. Olivet Cemetery with Phoenix Lodge No. 131, F&AM, in charge of graveside services.
Honorary pallbearers will be funeral directors of Davidson County, elders and deacons of the Vine Street and Bellevue Christian Churches, officers of the Scottish Rite bodies of Nashville and Edgefield Chapter R.A.M., Lee Bissinger, Nathan Cohn, Carter Goodrich, S.C. Guthrie, and Fred Bradford.
Active pallbearers will be Dr. Paul DeWitt, L. Duncan Combs, Dr. Cary T. Mitchell, Capt. L. P. Randolph, Cheatam Randolph, Thurmond Moss, J. Eugene Brew, Arch E. McClanahan, Joel Chandler and Tom Baugh.
Mr. Combs was born in Nashville, the son of Micah S. Combs Sr. and Georgiana Jackson Combs. He attended the old Hughes-Mims Academy in East Nashville, Montgomery Bell Academy and Crocker's School. Later he attend Manchester College.
He had been identified with the undertaking business here since 1872 when his father established the firm of M.S. Combs & Co. The company was located on Fourth Avenue near the present entrance to the Arcade, later moving to the old Colonade Building and in 1891 the firm moved into the first building ever erected in Nashville for an undertaking parlor at 314 Fifth Avenue North. The firm has been located at its present site near Centennial Park since 1923.
Mr. Combs helped in the orgnization of the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association and was largely responsible for the establishment of a school of embalming here.
He was pastor of Bellvue Christian Church for 37 years and had held membership in Vine Street Christian Church since he was 11 years old. He was also prominent in Masonry, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Al Menah Temple of the Shrine, Phoenix Lodge No. 131 F&AM, Edgefield Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and Rock City Chapter O.E.S. He had served these bodies as chaplain, and last year served as grand chaplain of the Grand Council R.A.M. He was also past grand prelate of the Knights Templar.
He was for several years an active members of the Kiwanis CLub and had served in many capacities.
Mr. Combs has also written a number of poems and in collaboration with the late John Trotwood Moore issued a book of poems in 1919.
He married Miss Maggie E. Averitt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Averitt of Hartsville in 1878. She survives him with the following children: Joe C. Combs, Mrs. Larkin E. Crouch and Mrs. Roy L. Gardner of Nashville; Mrs. Paul E. Shacklett of Chattanooga, and Mrs. R.C. Harwell of Columbia, S.C.; a sister, Mrs. D. F.Allen of El Paso, Texas; 12 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. -- The Nashville Banner, April 2, 1935, front page column 6, continued on page 2, col. 4
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After Mr. Combs died, the firm was successfully operated by his son, Joe C. Combs. When Joe Combs died in 1951, his estate sold the funeral home in 1952 to Gilbert Marshall (who had been in the funeral business in Nashville since 1934) and Thomas J. Donnelly. The name became Marshall-Donnelly & Combs Funeral Home, and it remains today (2010) at the 201 25th Ave. N. location. In 2010, it became associated with the SCI Dignity international group.
