Robert S. Irvin, a merchant and also the postmaster at Curve, Tenn., was born
in Appomattox County, Va., April 25, 1842. His father, John Irvin, was born in
Virginia, in 1809, and came to Tennessee in 1848, settling in Williamson
County; in 1850, he moved to Warren County, and in 1854 to Haywood County,
where he remained until 1874, the moved to Texas, locating in Victoria County,
and died at Stockdale, Tex., March, 1879. Our subject’s mother’s maiden name
was Mary A. Steele; she was born in Appomattox Co., Va., and died in 1845.
Robert S. Irvin was raised and educated on a farm, and continued farming until
1878, and since that time has been in the mercantile business. He enlisted in
the Confederate Army, belonging to the Seventh Tennessee Infantry, under Col.
Jackson, of Jackson, Tenn., and was at the battles of Belmont, Mo.,
Harrisburg, Miss., Corinth, Miss., and Franklin, Tenn., and after serving
through the entire war, was surrendered with Forrest’s troups, at Gainesville,
Ala. Mr. Irvin was married December 2, 1868, at Murfreesboro, Tenn., to
Elizabeth Lackey, daughter of William Lackey, a prominent farmer. She was
born in Rutherford County, April 12, 1842, and with her husband belongs to the
Methodist Episcopal Church South. Mr. Irvin is a member of the firm of
Anderson & Irvin, grocery and hardware dealers. He is also the postmaster at
Curve, Tenn., six and a half miles north of Ripley. In politics he is
Democrat, and was the first one to open a store, at Curve, after the railroad
was built, and by his capacity for business and strict integrity, has won the
confidence and esteem of his community, and is a kind and liberal man.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN