Wilson L. BURNETT, an active farmer of Fayette County, Tenn., was born in Iredell County, N.C., September 27, 1832, and is a son of Jeremiah and Mary F. (Ellis) BURNETT.  The father was a native of Spartanburg County, S.C., and the mother of Iredell County, N.C., both of Scotch-Irish descent.  The father was born September 18, 1807, and is now a resident of Fayette County.  The mother was born January 20, 1810; they were married in 1831 in North Carolina, and moved to Tennessee in 1849, settling nine mile south of Somerville.  The father was a successful farmer, and with his wife a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.  Our subject is the oldest of ten children. He was quite young when he moved to Fayette County with his parents, and has since then made it his home.  In 1857 his father gave him the farm where he now lives, and he has since added to it, owning now over 800 acres of good land in Fayette County and 960 acres in Pontotoc County, Miss.

December 22, 1852, he married Miss Ellen J. TOMLINSON, born in Iredell County, N.C. in 1843.  Fourteen children were born to this marriage – seven sons and seven daughters – one son and four daughters are dead.  Mr. BURNETT has always been a true Democrat, and with his wife and five children belongs to the Methodist Church and freely responds to all calls for money for the church or for charity.  In August, 1862, he entered the Confederate Army; was first in Outlaw’s battalion, but soon joined Gen. FORREST’s forces in the Fourteenth Tennessee Regiment of Calvary, the colonel being Col. Jack NEELY.  Mr. BURNETT remained until the battle of Franklin, Tenn., and was in many battles.  In 1864, after an absence of over two  years, he was paroled at Memphis and took the oath of allegiance, then returned home and resumed farming.  He is a good neighbor, an upright man, liked and trusted by all.

Source:  Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, 1887.