Capt. Champ C. Conner, a farmer and lumber dealer, of Lauderdale County, is a
son of Champ C., and Ann E. (Slaughter) Conner, both natives of Virginia, the
father born in 1811, and the mother in 1819. They married and lived in their
native State until 1836, when they moved to Lauderdale County, then to Haywood
County, and then to Hernando, Miss. Two sons and four daughters were born to
them. The father was an earnest and able minister, commencing when still a boy
to labor in the Master’s cause, and for over fifty years was actively engaged
as minister in the Missionary Baptist Church, being a man of rare pulpit
oratory and of fine ability, his attainments being the result of his own
efforts and application. For many years he was president of the Mississippi
Female College, at Hernando, Miss., at the same time continuing his
ministerial work, and preaching often three sermons a day. After the college
burned, he gave all of his time to his church work, and, after zealously
working in this cause, died at the age of sixty-four, and in 1883 his faithful
wife died. Capt. Conner, our subject, is of Irish, English and Welsh descent,
and the only surviving son; he was born April 21, 1841, in Lauderdale County;
was educated at Madison College, at Brownsville, and the University of
Mississippi. In 1861 he volunteered in a company of college boys, known as the
University Grays, and after the first battle of Manassas he was transferred to
the Army of the West, raised Company K, Fourteenth Tennessee Cavalry, and was
appointed captain, serving in that capacity until the close of the war. During
four years’ faithful service, he was twice wounded — first at Lafayette, Ga.,
and at Athens, Ala., his horse was shot from under him, and he was severely
wounded at Sulphur Tressle, Tenn. Capt. Conner has, since the war, engaged in
farming and merchandising, and in 1870 married Tillie Stephenson, and they
have had four children: Hammett S., Champ C., Phillip S. and Hallie E. Capt.
Conner is a Missionary Baptist; Mrs. Conner a Presbyterian. In politics he is
an ardent Democrat. As a business man he has been very successful. For thirty-
five years he has been a resident of Lauderdale County. He is a man of fine
social standing and business qualifications.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN