James S. Maclin, a prominent farmer of Lauderdale County, is a son of Maj. R.
F. and Frances (Read) Maclin. The father was a native of Virginia, born in
1813, and the mother of North Carolina, born in 1824. They were among the
early settlers of Haywood County. Mr. Maclin, Sr., was one of the founders
and first merchants of Brownsville, being one of the two firms that survived
the panic of 1837. Only two of the six children born to them lived to be
grown, and in 1863 the mother died and two years later Mr. Maclin married
Emily Maclin, daughter of Capt. William Maclin, of Haywood County, and by this
marriage had six children. In 1866 they moved to Tipton County, where they
still live. They are members of the Presbyterian Church. Politically he was
an old line Whig, but is now a Democrat. Most of Maj. Maclin’s life has been
spent in mercantile pursuits, but of late years he has been farming. He is of
Scotch-Irish descent on both sides. James S. Maclin, our subject, was born in
Brownsville, Tenn., June 26, 1842. He received a common school education, and
in 1861 volunteered in Company M, of the Seventh Cavalry (Confederate Army);
was a brave soldier for three years and served without being captured or
wounded. In 1864 he married Helen Read, born July 15, 1847, in Haywood
County, and they have had ten children — six sons and four daughters. After
the war Mr. Maclin turned his attention to farming. In 1866 he moved to
Lauderdale County, and settled in his present home, being the place originally
settled by Col. Jett at an early day. Both himself and wife are
Presbyterians, and in politics he is a Democrat. He has been quite successful
as a farmer, owning 387 acres of good land, and besides this has a half
interest in a cotton-gin, under the firm name of Maclin & West. Mr. Maclin
has resided in Lauderdale County for twenty years, and stands high as a
citizen and a man of integrity.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN