(original source unidentified)
John R. Annis is one of the popular and well-to-do citizens of Bledsoe County. He is a man of much energy and ambition and in the various lines of business in which he has been engaged he has invariably met with at least fair success, and has become well and widely known and made many friends. He was born in Kingston, Roane County, TN, August 8, 1850, the son of Robert R. and Martha (Love) Annis.
It is not known whether Robert R. Annis was born in Scotland or in Virginia. He removed with his mother to White County, TN, in the year 1810, or when he was fifteen years of age. His mother died soon after, and Robert, as soon as he became old enough, secured a position as stage driver, and followed that occupation for forty years, working on different lines. when he married he was living in Kingston but at the time of his death, which was in the year 1865, he was making his home in White County. His father was a Scotchman by birth, and his mother was Irish. He had one sister, who emigrated to Missouri before the war. His wife who was a native of Hawkins County, TN, died when quite a young woman. They were the parents of a family of six sons and two daughters, of whom we have the following record: William F., who was a soldier in the Northern army, in Kilpatrick’s command of Walford’s cavalry, and is now living in Henry County, KY.; John R., the subject of this sketch; Fannie E., who is in San Francisco, CA; Daniel C.; Henry, who was a union soldier in Blackburn’s regiment, and was killed after the war; Elizabeth died at the age of two years; George died in childhood; and Sam was a printer at Louisville, KY at the time of his death.
John R. Annis spent the greater part of his boyhood with his father on the mail route, and learned to read from the placards along the route. After arriving at manhood he, also, was a stage driver for several years. He spent four years on the route from Kingston to Sparta, over the Cumberland mountains. He then made a trip to Indiana, Arkansas and Texas and returned to eastern Tennessee and located in Washington. He next made his home for a time in Kingston, and from that place moved to Sparta, but in 1877 or 1878 he located in Pikeville. About the year 1885 he opened a blacksmith shop in the latter place, and has since operated that business. In connection with it, however, he has had several mail-route contracts, one of which is the one from Lafayette, GA, to Chattanooga, TN, and he now has the contract from Pikeville to Cross, S. C. and one from Crossville to Rockwood. He has also had charge of the Bledsoe County poor farm fro four years. In all of his various lines of work Mr. Annis has been very industrious, progressive in his ideas, and ready to take advantage of every turn of the tide to improve his circumstances. Politically he is a Democrat.
April 12, 1885, Mr Annis was united in marriage with Miss Laura White, daughter of William White, and granddaughter of Daniel White, and the family circle has been completed by the presence of a family of four children, upon whom they have seen fit to bestow the names of Robert R., Alfred H., Martha and Ethel.
John Annis is listed on the 1880 census of Bledsoe County prior to his marriage as:
Sarah Thompson 40 widow William 15 son Jerry 13 son John Annis 28 boarder mail carrier William Jones 15 boarder mail carrier