Furmon C. Sanders, sheriff of Carroll County, Tenn., was born in Anson County, N. C., August 6, 1837, son of James and Martha W. Sanders. His parents were born in North Carolina, the former in 1812 and the latter about 1814. The family came to Carroll County about 1841, and here the father died in 1854 and the mother in 1883. Our subject is the second of seven children and was raised on a farm. He received a limited education and in 1862 enlisted in Company D, Seventh Cavalry, United States Army, for twelve months. He was taken prisoner at Trenton, Tenn., December 20, 1862, and was paroled and came home. Since the war he has farmed; he is a Republican in politics but was formerly a Whig.
In 1876 he was elected justice of the peace of the Fourteenth Civil District, and was re-elected in 1882. In 1884 he was elected sheriff of Carroll County, and was re-elected in 1886. In 1859 he married Elizabeth McCauley and five children have blessed their union: James B., Ollie P., Elias C., Lavisa V. and Furmon A. Mrs. Sanders died in 1879, and in 1881 Mr. Sanders married Mrs. Susan Weake, formerly a Miss Garrett, born in Benton County in 1856. They have three children: Nancy O., Lutie L. and an infant yet unnamed. Mr. Sanders is a Mason and a member of the I. O. O .F. and K. of H. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church and his wife of the Primitive Baptist Church.
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.