CHARLES L. CANNON was born February 14, 1813, in Shelbyville, Bedford Co., Tenn., and is now the oldest living person born in that town. His father, Clement CANNON, was a native of North Carolina, born in the later part of the last century. He was of English descent and immigrated to Tennessee with his parents, locating in Williamson County, where he was reared and became a surveyor of lands. He afterward purchased a large tract of land in Bedford County, and in 1806 he donated 100 acres of this to the county where Shelbyville now stands for a county seat.
He married Miss Susan LOCK, a native of Virginia and a resident of Rutherford County. To this union were born six children. The father was a soldier in the war of 1812 and died January 19, 1860. Our subject was educated at Shelbyville and upon reaching his majority began the business of farming, which he has always followed. December, 1842, Miss Mary A. HOOSER, a native of this county and a daughter of William and Rebecca (Coots) HOOSER, became his wife. To this union the following children were born: Susan R. (deceased), Maria L. (deceased), William H., Thomas C. (deceased), Lettie C. (now Mrs. Phillip WILHOITE), John H. (deceased), Mary R. (now Mrs. William H. TILFERD), Charles L. (deceased), Macon B. and Charles B. Our subject owns a farm on 550 acres about five miles east of Shelbyville, where he now resides. He is a Democrat in politics and he and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Mr. CANNON is a nephew of Gov. CANNON and also a nephew of Gen. Robert CANNON.
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.