MOSES WOODFIN, farmer, was born in Bedford County, Tenn., March 7, 1829, and of English-Irish lineage. His father, Samuel Woodfin, was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, in 1791, and about 1815 married Maria Barnhill, a native of South Carolina, born December 9, 1798, and to them were born fifteen children. The father died April 29, 1863, and the mother in the same county March 8, 1863.
Our subject received a good practical education and has followed farming as his chief occupation. He learned the trade of wheelwright which he followed in a regular way for over fifteen years. At the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the Confederate Army, Forty-fifth Tennessee Infantry, and participated in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. At Chickamauga he was wounded and at Missionary Ridge he was wounded again, captured, and taken to Rock Island, Ill., where he remained a prisoner until the end of the war.
September 11, 1856, he was married to Miss Rachel A. Clark, daughter of William Clark, and the fruits of this union were eight children — three sons and five daughters; the sons are William J., Samuel N. and James M. P.; the daughters: Mollie E., Emma L., Alice, Ida and Maggie L. Mr. Woodfin is a Democrat, a Mason, and be and wife and five children are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Mrs. Woodfin, our subject’s wife, was born in Rutherford County, Tenn., August 9, 1835. Her father was born in North Carolina, in 1807, and her mother in 1817. Her father died October 20, 1881, and was of Irish lineage.
Our subject’s grandfather, Nicholas Woodfin, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was distinguished for his gallantry and bravery on many occasions.
Our subject’s father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and participated in the battle of New Orleans.
Transcribed by Kathryn Hopkins
Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Reminescences [Sic], Observations, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1988.