E. M. Canon, citizen and farmer of the Twenty-first District, was born in Rutherford County, Tenn., June 1, 1826, and is one of eight children, five of whom are living, born to John and Elizabeth (Dickson) Canon. The father was born in 1791, in North Carolina, and came to Tennessee when eleven years of age, located in Rutherford County, was married, and in 1832 went to Henry County, and five years later came to Carroll County; he followed agricultural pursuits, and died January 5, 1865. The mother was born in North Carolina in 1794, and died September 1, 1874.
Our subject received a good practical education in the country schools, and in the year 1849 wedded Elizabeth Hamilton, a native of Carroll County, born in 1823, and the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Hamilton. The father of Mrs. Canon was born near Nashville, Tenn., about the year 1787, in the blockhouse, which was a protection against the Indians at that early day. He came to Carroll County about 1822, and died at the advanced age of ninety years, three months and eighteen days. The mother was born in North Carolina about two years after the birth of her husband; she died when about sixty years of age.
To our subject and wife were born five children: R. F., a merchant at Atwood; T. W., a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, and a resident of McKenzie; Emma E. (deceased), J. M. (deceased), and A. H., a farmer, residing with his father. In 1856 Mr. Canon located where he is now residing, on an excellent farm of 184 acres. He has been a life-long Republican in politics, and he and wife and entire family are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which he has been an elder for nearly thirty years.
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.