J. A. Dodson, clerk of the Circuit Court of Dickson County, was born in Halifax County, Va., August 11, 1827. He was the third of a family of seven children born to the marriage of William and Catharine (Davis) Dodson, both natives of Virginia. The father was a tanner, and in 1828 came to Davidson County, Tenn., and settled near the Hermitage. The family removed to Maury County the next year and lived there one year; then they moved to Hickman County. In December, 1833, they came to Dickson County, where they remained till they died. The father was a soldier in the war of 1812. He died in 1883 and the mother in 1865. The subject was reared mainly in Charlotte, securing a fair education and teaching school. At the age of twenty-one he was mercantile clerk for one year; then he opened a store and sold goods at Charlotte for three years. For eight years he vended merchandise at Raworth’s Landing, on the Cumberland River. He then enlisted in Company D, Forty-ninth Tennessee Volunteers, and served till the surrender. Coming from the war he resumed farming, which he continued till 1870, when he was elected to the office which he has held continuously ever since. He was married, in 1849, to Mary A. E. Laird, who died May 3, 1879. March 27, 1884, he chose and wedded Eliza C. Hopkins, and this union has blessed them with one daughter­ Sarah C. Both he and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He has always been a Democrat, and is recognized as one of the prominent and public spirited citizens of Dickson County.