Capt. William H. BERNARD, farmer, was born in Claiborne County, December 5, 1836, the son of Robert and Milly (Carpenter) BARNARD, the former born about 1815, and deceased in 1844, and the latter deceased about 1852. With the exception of a short time in Grainger County they always lived in this county. He was a Democrat.
Our subject, the eldest of four children, and the only one living, was educated at Rutledge and Sneedville, and after teaching in Hancock County, began dealing in stock. In 1861 he joined Company B., Thirty-Seventh Tennessee Infantry, and resigned a year later on account of ill health. In 1862 he was made captain of Company B, Thirty-Seventh Tennessee Regiment, Confederate States Army, of which he had been second lieutenant. In the winter of 1864 he re-enlisted, and June 24, 1864, was captured and imprisoned at Camp Douglas, Ill. ten months, at Point Lookout, Md., two months, and released June 23, 1865, after one year’s imprisonment. He resumed farming after his return. October 6, 1878, he married Martha A.E. BARNARD, who was born December 20, 1858, and died May 18, 1880. Their only daughter, Virginia M., was born September 23, 1879. He owns the homestead, and is a Democrat and a Prohibitionist. He and his wife are Methodists.
Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee. Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887.