Capt. James M. Nesbitt, clerk of the Chancery Court of Houston County, was born Oct. 8, 1837, in Dickson County, Tenn., being the youngest of a family of five children of Thomas and Dorcas (McAdoo) Nesbitt, natives of South Carolina and North Carolina, respectively. The parents lived and died in Dickson County. The father was a blacksmith and farmer, and an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He was in the war of 1812. He died in 1867. The mother was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and died in 1853. Our subject was reared on a farm and secured a common school education. In 1865 he enlisted in Company D, Forty-Ninth Tennessee Volunteers, Confederate States Army, as third sergeant, from which he was afterward promoted to captain. He was in several severe battles and was wounded in the right arm by a gun shot. He was twice a prisoner of war and was in prison at the time of the surrender. Coming from the war he engaged in farming at Yellow Creek which he followed till 1873, when he began merchandising in Houston County and continued for five years. He then sold out, came to Erin and engaged in the furniture and undertaking business, which he now continues successfully. In 1882 he was elected justice of the peace and still holds that office. He was appointed to his present trust by Judge Seay April 25, 1885, and has filled the office efficiently. In politics Mr. Nesbitt is a Democrat. He is one of the well respected citizens of Houston County.

Transcribed by Susan Knight Gore

Source: Goodspeed, Weston A, and John Wooldridge. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Montgomery, Robertson, Humphreys, Stewart, Dickson, Cheatham and Houston Counties. Nashville: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1886.