E.M. WHITWORTH, a farmer of Coffee County, was born August 3, 1840, in Bedford County. His father, Benjamin F., was born in Marshall County January 8, 1814, and died October 12, 1876. In the fourth generation back were three brothers who were among the famous Jamestown, Va., settlers, and the next generation came to Tennessee. His mother, Minerva L. (Morton) WHITWORTH, was born in 1820, in Tennessee, daughter of Jacob and Annie (Fisher) MORTON; the former was in the war of 1812 under Gen. JACKSON. Reared on his father’s farm until of age he then began his present successful career as a farmer. From 1862 until the surrender he was a Confederate soldier.
He married Hattie JOHNSON, of Rutherford County, February 1, 1860. Six children–four living–were born to them. His wife died November 8, 1874. June 25, 1876, he married Virginia THOMPSON, daughter of George THOMPSON, of English blood and a descendant of Pocahontas, through his grandparents, Burwell and Nancy (Wafford) THOMPSON. A Democrat in political faith, he has been elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for twenty-five years, a member of the Masonic order, and served as superintendent of public instruction for two terms.
Goodspeed Pub. Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of the Counties of White, Warren, Coffee, DeKalb, and Cannon, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, Etc., Etc. Nashville: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1887.