In the common schools of the pioneer era in northern Tennessee
Judge Tarver succeeded in gaining a symmetrical literary education,
which was effectually amplified by self-discipline and constant devotion
to the best of literature. In 1849-51 he pursued his course in the Lebanon
Law School, a department of Cumberland University, and in this in-
stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1851, in which
year he received his degree of bachelor of laws and was admitted to
the bar of the state. He forthwith opened an office in Lebanon, and
though he initiated his professional career with capitalistic resources of
only ten dollars, he had the self-confidence, the ability and the ambition
that are invariably the concomitants of success, and he so<m built up a
substantial and profitable law business, in connection with which he
became known as a specially resourceful trial lawyer and as a counselor
whose opinions were based on thorough knowledge of law and precedent
and upon wise discrimination in determining the points of equity and
justice. It was these same qualities that later gave him much of distinc-
tion in his service on the bench. From 1852 to 1878 he was most pleasingly
associated in practice with the late Edward I. Golladay, and their rela-
tions were ever marked by mutual confidence and esteem and by the
closest personal friendship. They controlled a large and representa-
tive practice, as leaders at the bar of Wilson county, and their alliance
was severed only when Judge Tarver was called upon to serve on the
chancery bench.
