J. C. CLAXTON’s birth occurred April 12, 1830, in Tennessee. He is a son of James and Temperance (Ratler) CLAXTON, born in 1802 and 1812, and died about 1866 and 1877, respectively. Our subject was the sixth of thirteen children. He assisted his father until twenty-one years of age, and up to the present time has followed farming.
Annie E. JONES, who was born in Bedford County, Tenn., September 16, 1836, became his wife August 16, 1854. Their union has resulted in the birth of nine children: Temperance Mahala, Amanda Tennessee, Philander Priestly, Elizabeth Allen (who died in 1863), James Jonas, Minerva Jane, Melvina Jones, Ophelia Adaline and Alice Cassander. Mr. CLAXTON is an enterprising farmer, and a man who wields much influence in the community in which he resides. Although his early education was somewhat limited, he has always taken considerable interest in the education of the rising generation. He has given all his children liberal educations, and his eldest son is completing his education in Europe – Leipzig College, Germany. Mr. CLAXTON is a Republican in politics, and up to the date of the late war was an old-line Whig.
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.