WALTER W. SUMMERS was born January 5, 1819, in Fleming County, Ky. His father, Lewis Summers, was a native of Culpepper County, Va.; about 1796, he immigrated to Kentucky, where he married Miss Mary Armstrong, a native also of Virginia. He was of English descent, and she of Scotch-Irish. To this union were born fourteen children, our subject being the eleventh. The mother died in 1859, and the father died in 1865.
Our subject was educated in the common schools of his native county, and remained with his parents on the farm until he reached his majority. He then followed merchandising for about a year and a half, and then devoted his attention to trading in stock, which he followed about thirty years. In 1847 he married Miss Mary Gore, a native of Nelson County, Ky., and to this union three children — Lewis (deceased), Henry and Thomas — were born.
The mother of these children died in 1858, and in 1861 our subject married Miss Hettie Armstrong, a native of Bedford County, Tenn., and to this union two children have been born, both of whom are dead.
In 1877 our subject took for his third wife Miss Kincannon, a native of Rutherford County, Tenn., and to them were born two children: Otie P. R. and Wattie R. M., both living. At the breaking out of the late war, Mr. Summers left Louisville and ran a large distillery at Chattanooga until it fell into the hands of the Federal authorities. After the war he returned to Louisville, and in 1867 purchased and moved upon the farm where he now lives, which consists of 320 acres. In 1876, Centennial year, he exhibited the largest steer and largest mule perhaps ever reared, and a three-legged cow. Mr. Summers is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, and is independent in politics.
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.