Dr. William J. CANNON, one of the pioneer practicing physicians of Fayette County, and one of its most influential and enterprising citizens, was born August 7, 1827, in Raleigh, N.C., and is of a family of three sons and three daughters, born to Robert and Ann T. (Hill) CANNON, who were natives of Pitt and Franklin Counties, N.C. Our subject and two sisters alone surviving.  The parents moved to Raleigh, N.C., soon after their marriage in Franklin County, and the father was a most successful merchant there until his death in 1883.  The mother afterward married Col. Samuel B. SPROUELL; to this union one daughter was born, who died.  The mother died in 1844.  In 1942 Dr. CANNON entered Chapel Hill College, in North Carolina, and remained there until after his mother’s death, then moved to Fayette County, Tenn., and in 1847 began the study of medicine in Somerville.  In 1849 he entered the Medical University of Pennsylvania, and attended three fall courses of lectures, then commenced the practice of medicine at Jacksonport, Jackson Co., Ark., where he remained until 1884, when he married Catherine WIRT of Fayette County, and soon after located in Fayette County, at his present residence, which consists of 1,800 acres of fine land nine miles north of the county seat.

Dr. CANNON has splendidly improved the place, which is under a fine state of cultivation.  He has surrounded his family with the numerous comforts that wealth affords and a cultivated taste suggests, having been very successful professionally and financially.  He is extensively known and highly esteemed in Fayette and adjoining counties.  By his marriage he had two sons and four daughters; only two daughters are living.  Politically Dr. CANNON is a Democrat, he is also a member of the I.O.O.F. and with his family belongs to the Episcopal Church.

Source:  Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, 1887.