Joseph Warren

In the 12th Census of the U.S., the Warren family lived in the 18th Ward, on 12th Street, in Nashville.

Per Josephine Warren Layman (granddaughter): "My grandfather...was handsome, tall (6' estimate), gray haired and highly intelligent..." Per Elsie: " No less an authority than Judge Grafton Green, for many years the chief justice of our supreme court, said of Joseph Warren (the first) 'He's the smartest man who ever lived in this town.' His wife to hwom he said it came straight to me and repeated it knowing how gragified I'd be."

Per Jo Layman: "My experience was that he was easily approchable, teased gently and considered table manners important for his grandchildren. He was kind to animals I am sure as he told me and some cousins to releas the lightening bugs we had bottled. He was generaous financially to his children and gave some of them homes when they settled in Nashville. He gave each of his children (ten in all) stock in the paint manufacturing business he established in Nashville. His profession was building engineer, the same as his father, Jesse Thomas Warren. Joseph built some of the University of the South at Sewanee. Jesse built the Catholic Hospital at Nashville and a cathedral in New Orleans. The Samuel D. Morgan and Company, now the J.S. Reeves Building, was designed by (jesse) Warren and Moore, and is an outstanding example of the early Italianate commercial architecture in Nashville. Moreover, it gives evidence of being the earliest building in the city to incorporate cast iron elements. The plain facade is enlivened by the large Tuscan windows with their elaborate frames and the massive modillion cornice which crowns the whole. Neither of my Warren grandparents were church goers. Sometimes Grandfather went to church. He donated chimes to the Tulip Street Methodist Church. But I don't recall that grandmother ever did. I never heard him or his sons use profane language. In addition to his engineering, Joseph Warren was knowledgable about hardwood. Nashville was in his day an important supplier of hardwood for the world. For ..years he left his engineering to manage the E&N Lumber Company. It is told that he could walk through a forest and estimate accuragely the feet of lumber that could be harvested. He was also involved in the building of the old arcade in Nashville which runs the length of a block, a forerunner (of) our today's malls. Urged by his older sons, Joseph set up retail and manufacturing businesses in paint manufacturing and art glass window construction. Some of his (seven) sons were employed in these businesses and Warrent Paints were sold throughout the South. Some of the gransons also were employees. The paint and art glass retail businesses were closed during the '40's but the apint factory stayed on until the '60's and was sold to the U.S. Gypsum Company for unpublized (sic) millions. ... Joseph Warren built a yellow brick house with an embracing porch on Eighth Avenue South. Later he built a Victorian style house in East Nashville at Twelfth and Russell Streets, using the finest of materials from his businesses and the hardwood produced in Tennessee. ... A characteristic of the family has been the importance placed on the girls and women. Joseph three daughters went to private preparatory schools and two of them graduated from Vanderbilt University. ... ... Joseph's middle name "Moore" came from that of Jesse's associate in the building business."