John D. Baxter, register of Lauderdale County, is the son of David and Cynthia
(Dixon) Baxter. The father was a native of North Carolina, and, when a young
man, came to Middle Tennessee, where he married Miss Dixon and by her had two
sons and a daughter; they settled in Middle Tennessee, where the mother died
in 1831, a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. The following year he
married Frances Elder, by whom he had six children; he was not a member of any
church; she belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South; he was a farmer,
a quiet, upright man, in politics as Democrat; he died in 1857, about sixty-
seven years old. John D. Baxter, our subject, inherits Irish blood through his
father; he was born September 14, 1823, in Rutherford County; received a
common school education, and remained on the farm until he was twenty-one
years old; then served a three years’ apprenticeship learning the carpenter’s
trade, which he followed for seventeen years. In 1848, Mr. Baxter married Ann
A. Lackey, who was born May 26, 1829, in Rutherford County; two of the six
children born to them are living now. In 1861 they moved to Lauderdale County,
which has since been their home, the entire family belongs to the Presbyterian
Church. In 1865 Mr. Baxter was appointed by Gov. Brownlow to fill the office
of register of Lauderdale County, and in 1866 he was elected by the people to
fill the office, and has been so popular and efficient as an officer that he
has been re-elected every four years since then and is still holding it for
the sixth term. For twelve years he was postmaster at Ripley, Tenn.
Politically he is a Democrat. In 1871, Mrs. Baxter died, and he has never
remarried. He has been a resident of Lauderdale County for twenty-five years,
and is a worthy citizen.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN