Dr. A. JOBE was born near Elizabethton, Carter Co., Tenn., October 9, 1817, the son of Joshua and Ruth (Tipton) JOBE. The former was born in Washington County (before the State of Tennessee was formed) September 15,1785. He was the son of David JOBE who immigrated to this new country, about the year 1777, from Shenandoah County, Va. He owned and resided on the farm where Johnson City now stands, and died there, about the year 1799.
Our subject’s father was a farmer, and was once sheriff of Carter County. In the war of 1812, he volunteered and marched with Gen. Jackson’s Army to the Horse Shoe, Talledega, and other battle fields, and then on to Mobile, Ala. About 1821 he moved from Carter to Blount County, and after living there about ten years (The Governor permitting settlers to move into the Cherokee Nation), he moved in about ten miles of where Dalton now stands. While residing here our subject, fifteen years old, attended the councils of the Indians for two or three years, and was present at the concluding of the treaty between the General Government, and the head men of the Nation. The father died at Ringgold, Ga, May 8, 1868. The mother was the daughter of Thomas TIPTON (son of Col. John TIPTON, who helped achieve American Independence, at the battle of King’s Mountain, and Indian battles He also fought the memorable Franklin battle, against Gov. Sevier), was born in Carter County, August 27, 1791, and died at Ringgold, Ga., May 22, 1864.
In June, 1836, there being trouble with the Indians, especially the Creeks, the Government called out troops, and our subject being then nearly nineteen, volunteered in the United States Army, to protect white settlers, and gather up and remove the destitute bands of Indians, west of the Mississippi. On completing his term of service and receiving an honorable discharge, he came to Jonesboro, and entered school, where he remained until February, 1839, when he commenced the mercantile business, with his brother, under the firm name of A. & D. Jobe, at Ringgold, Ga. In 1841 he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Samuel B. CUNNINGHAM, of Jonesboro, Tenn. In 1848 he commenced practice, at Burusyille, N. C. In 1844 he married Sophronia, only daughter of James H. POTEET, born in Yancey County, N.C., May 8, 1826, and in 1845 moved to Elizabethton, Tenn., where he practiced medicine and surgery up to and during the war.
In 1848-49 he attended Transylvania University, at Lexington, Ky., and graduated from the medical department. In February, 1866, he received the appointment of special agent of the postoffice department, with headquarters at Raleigh, N. C., and served in that capacity three years and a half. While in this office, the Secretary of the Interior, learning that the Doctor had a knowledge of Indian character, procured a leave of absence from the postoffice department, an appointed him special agent of Indian affairs, and sent him to the Chippewa Nation, in the northern part of Minnesota. This was a dangerous mission. The Indians had recently murdered their principal Chief, and were ready to go on “the war path.” By traveling about 800 miles in the Nation, and holding councils with them at their towns, he was enabled to appease their wrath, and settle their misunderstandings. Our subject and his wife are Methodists. Five of their eleven children are deceased. E. D., the only living son, married Eva TAYLOR, sister to Gov. TAYLOR; Emma is Mrs. J. B. MILLER; Mollie is Mrs. Dr. HUNTER; Hattie is the wife of Nat. W. TAYLOR, brother of Gov. TAYLOR; the single daughters are Ruth and Sallie.
Transcribed by Kris L. Martin
Source: Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee. Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887.