Transcribed from Goodspeed’s History of  Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketches of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, etc., etc. (Chicago and Nashville:  The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887), pp. 962-987.  See footnote below for on-line access.

V. A. CLEMMER, editor and proprietor of the Cleveland Banner News, was born June 9, 1856, in Polk County. His father was a native of North Carolina, and was brought by his parents when about two years of age to Polk County, where he spent his life as a farmer. By his first marriage there was one son and two daughters. His second wife was Elizabeth HIGGINS, a native of South Carolina, who came to Polk County when a child. To this union five sons and two daughters were born. The fourth child, our subject, was raised on the farm, receiving but limited educational advantages. In 1883, in partnership with a friend, also a young farmer, he established the Polk County News. Neither of them had ever written an article nor set a line. With determination to succeed they went to work, and in a short time were able to perform any part of the service. Ere long our subject became sole proprietor, soon afterward purchasing the Cleveland Banner, and consolidated the papers. His success as a journalist is highly creditable, for he began comparatively in the dark. He is a warm Democrat, and universally popular man. In 1876 he married Miss Emma RUSSELL, of Polk County, who died six years later.

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This biography was transcribed by Sherry Pollard. We thank her for transcribing all the Goodspeed’s biographical sketches.

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