Dudley S. Laws, M.D., of Clarksburg, was born in Carroll County, Tenn., in 1829, and is the second of six children, three of whom are living. The father, Hiram Laws, was of English ancestry, born in Orange County, N.C., November 17, 1803. His father, George Laws, is supposed to be a son of one of three brothers, John, George and James, who emigrated from England about 1620, and settled in Maryland, where they figured quite prominently among the business men of that State. Hiram was reared by a mother’s tender care, his father dying while he was quite small. He acquired sufficient education to enable him to enter the teacher’s profession, which he followed for a number of years. About 1825 he married Jincey Ann Sims, and immediately started for Maury County, Tenn., where he remained one year. He then came to Carroll County and settled in the Twelfth District, and in 1834 removed to Alabama, but in 1836 returned to Carroll County, where he passed the remainder of his days. He died in 1879. Mrs. Laws was also a native of North Carolina, born May 2, 1807, and died in 1878.
Our subject was reared under the parental roof, and received his education in the country schools and in Huntingdon, but acquired the most of his knowledge and ability through his own application. He possesses an intellect of extraordinary brilliancy, and soon became master of all the mathematical branches, and had a good knowledge of the languages. He afterward spent twelve years teaching, and was one of the most successful and popular educators of this portion of the State. In 1861 he commenced the study of physic, and two years later entered Rush Medical College, and at the close of the Rebellion entered as a partner with his former preceptor, and began the practice of his chosen profession. In 1871 he entered the medical department of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University, and graduated in 1873. He then returned to Clarksburg and continued his practice with well-deserved success. He was for eight years school commissioner of his district, which position he declined to hold longer. He is at present one of the trustees of Clarksburg Male and Female Academy. He is a Republican in politics, a Mason and the owner of 700 acres of land.
Transcribed by David Donahue
Source: History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Carroll, Henry and Benton Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1978.